1 April Flower Power: Part 1

Most of the time when you think of vows, you think marriage.  However, many people "vow" to do things... which I blurted out to the world, yes at my wedding, but also in my blog.  Anyone remember what I vowed never to do again?  I actually vowed to never go without having fresh flowers in my home, because of the oh so amazing feeling I got when I purchased a bouquet of tulips, that lasted around our dwelling for a couple of weeks, making things feel brighter and happier and fresher... Which was exactly what I needed after months and months of below zero frigid temps and short days with minimal sunlight...
 

I know I might sound like I am mimicking my absolute favorite home blog, Young House Love, who does a monthly Budget Bloom edition.  Hey, I say mockery is the biggest form of flattery right?  And maybe I am, it's never wrong to borrow ideas and inspiration elsewhere to implement in your own spaces... those are my personal feelings anyway!  

It truly is amazing what my most recent bouquet of flowers accomplished.  I spent $10 which was a little on the higher side, but the ten smackaroos will take me a long way this time, in fact, they already have!

The bouquet itself was filled with a multitude of spring mixed flowers.  And when I got home, I ran around the house digging up empty vases, jars and mugs to fill up, because this $10 bouquet was about to get spread about into many smaller groupings.

I started by placing a couple of stems into a little glass mug, that fit perfectly up in my kitchen window sill:

That way, while I am standing there doing dishes multiple times a day, I have some amazing eye and nose candy to keep me smiling past the syrup and kid slobber I am rinsing down the drain.

The next two groupings go to show that sometimes less really is more.  I borrowed two pretty stems from the larger bouquet and stuck them in a sweet little white bud vase atop a stack of books:

And again, only taking minimal simple stem favorites from the bouquet, and mixing it with a larger artificial floral piece, really gave some life to a console storage shelving unit:

The rest of the bouquet got split up into two bigger bunches, and placed back into my two large Kerr canning jars:

Which were constantly being moved between the kitchen counter, table and living room coffee table:

So as you can see, this bouquet totally rocked!  From it's amazing colors, fresh smells and ability to be split up and created into multiple arrangements, I was in flower heaven!

Ok, so now for the best part.  Two weeks later, I was able to give them all some new life.  They were still looking great, but I was changing the water frequently and it was getting to the point where all the stems needed some major snipping down, with the exception of the two arrangements I created using only minimal blooms, those ones were still going strong!

The first update was totally by accident.  I was clipping the flowers and dropped a yellow daisy into a nearby empty glass.  It stood up, staring me in my eyes and said, "Hi Jen, I was meant to live here from now on... please don't move me, this just feels too perfect!" 

I agreed.  So it became part of a grouping on our buffet table:

That was a perfect accident in my book!

Next was the mug on the window sill.  I actually just left all of the white flowers in the mug, and brought it down to sink level:

And then I took all the redish lily looking flowers {forgive me if I am way off on floral types, I am way far from being any kind of floral expert or guru}, and grouped them on the other side of the sink, in another cheapo plastic cup I happened to have sitting there, sort of like another accident:

I don't typically just have all these cups floating around, I happened to be multi-tasking and emptying the dishwasher simultaneously.  Thank goodness for that!

Next I removed all of the flowers from the Kerr canning jars.  I tossed away some of the ones that had no life remaining, and snipped the stems far down on those that did.  Into my fishbowl they went, floating perfectly in bliss:

I have to say, I was most animated about the fish bowl arrangement. It was just so pretty and picture perfect.  IHeart it very much.

Finally, I again snipped the stems of the last bouquet, much shorter and at a fresh angle, and placed them down on our playroom shelf:

And what was so totally awesome about the "vase" I placed them in, was that it actually was just a coffee mug I borrowed from the cupboard:

But who would have known?  

Are your eyes happy now?  I know that pictures are never as good as the real thing.  Your computer can't emit the amazing smells that are around my house, or show you how vivid the colors are and what they truly did to amp up our spaces. 

I do notice that I am far from being a pro about keeping my flowers looking fresh and amazing for longer than a couple of weeks at a time.  I have been changing water and clipping stems, and leaving it at that.  I did some online Googling though, and found the following comments regarding keeping flowers lasting fresh for longer:

"In place of the florist floral life extender packet, an aspirin, (not ibuprofin), works just a well. Aspirin seems to lengthen the life of the flowers. Just be sure to snip a bit off the ends of the flowers each day. The stems seal themselves, reducing the water flow to the flower."

"I use cheap vodka. I read this hint somewhere long ago (could have been online) and tried it; works wonders! It especially makes cut roses smell wonderful as they bloom."

"Add a little clorox, or 2 bayer aspirin, or just use 7-up instead of water!"

"I find that a pinch of sugar in the water seems to work quite well. The sugar will nourish the flowers just as long as the commercial preservatives work."

 

Wowzers!  So many crazy sounding ways to keep flowers alive!  However, because flowers can sometimes be a little bit of a splurge, getting them tipsy on vodka and curing them the following day with an aspirin or two, might be worth trying out?  Can anyone attest to any of those suggestions to help me out next time?  Any other great ways to keep those flowers blooming for eons vs. days?

How about displaying your beauties?  What creative items to you use from around the house to pop your stems into?  

P.S.  Stay tuned!  Later today I will divulge why I really think I got my $$ worth out of this bouquet... is the suspense getting to you yet?  It's good stuff!