Flowers for Brunch

Day 42

Welcome back!

Okay, that’s more for me. I’ve been away for a little, but I had to regroup. I was feeling creatively stunted and emotionally hijacked, I couldn’t post. I didn’t want to post anything that I wasn’t happy about, so I needed a hot minute to find myself.

Today, I want to talk about creating joy.

Now, this doesn’t mean creating happiness. It’s a little different. I can understand that when you feel low, it’s hard to feel happy. I mean finding or doing one little thing that can either domino into happy events, or something that makes you feel a little bit more accomplished.

By this point in my life, I’ve found that I own several self-help books. Well, self-help and how-to. Please refer to my post about books a few weeks back ;). And one thing I have to admit to myself is that I have a love-hate relationship with my self-help and how-to books. It’s a mess of emotions between “I love that I’m reading this, it’s making me feel like I can accomplish anything” and “I hate those books, I can’t read them because they make me feel insignificant and lazy.” But one thing I commonly forget is that everything takes small steps.

After a week (or two or three) of feeling sad, down, and all together worthless, I decided to open up one of those books. Cordially Invited, by Zoe Sugg is by far one of my favorite books to flip through. It’s broken up into seasons, and each section talks about certain things that you can do or parties you can host. I’m ready to let go of winter, so I looked through the spring section, and I came across floral arrangements. I decided, “Why the hell not?” and went straight to the store to buy myself a few vases and some fresh flowers. Eventually, it led to my sister wanting to learn, and then it led to us wanting to create a lovely brunch with flowers to boot for my mother’s birthday.

It was truly remarkable how one little thing, like arranging flowers in my home, completely changed my mood and got me out of my slump. It wasn’t about trying to make myself happy. It was about doing something that sparks just a hint of joy. I love flowers. I love looking at flowers. So to have them in my home, knowing that I had brought them in and arranged them myself, made me feel so much better.

I figured I’d share something I’ve found joy in as of late. My personal how-to on flowers!

My first suggestion is to buy the vase. Your vase will determine what kind of shape and what type of flowers you’ll be buying. once you’ve decided on your vase, go buy the flowers. I find it’s always nice (and cheaper) to purchase flowers that are actually in season. Like this time of year (March), I think irises are in season. We obviously didn’t go for the irises, but for something fairly similar but bright.

Once you’ve picked your flowers, buy greens and complimentary flowers. I say it’s always a good rule of thumb to add nice greenery. It makes the whole bouquet seem less stilted.

 

The next step is to measure and cut the flowers. I think a good way to measure the flowers is having the stem twice as long as the vase. When you cut the stems, cut them on an angle, they absorb water better on an angle.

 

Once I cut a few flowers, I always stick them in the vase as a point of reference, and cut more stem if I have to. Remember: you can always cut more, you can’t uncut.

Once they’re all the length you want, you can start constructing the bouquet. Grab a flower, and keep adding to your hand, rotating every time you add a new stem.

Eventually, you’ll have a beautiful bouquet in your hand. Before putting them in the vase, be sure to sprinkle a little flower food in and let it dissolve in slightly warm water. I’ve learned that flowers live a little longer when you put them in sightly warm water.

I also like to add a touch of twine to the vase. It not only hides the water line, it adds a little personal touch to the whole ensemble.

The flowers really added a beautiful touch to our brunch table for our mother’s birthday.

If anything, find something small for yourself. Find something that will make you feel just a touch more accomplished. Find something that may create joy, and do it. You won’t be sorry.

 

Mary Jane xx