A Year of Pretty - February 22, 2014

Today's Pretty Post is this cheerful flower arrangement with a fun idea for hiding the stems.

To make this arrangement you will need a couple things. You will need a glass water pitcher as shown, and a smaller cylinder (or even a tall, skinny drinking glass) to place inside the pitcher. You will need about two lemons cut into thin, round slices. And you will need your flowers. And water. Flowers like water. Maybe some floral keeper.

Place your cylinder / drinking glass in the center of the glass pitcher. Arrange the lemon slices around the pitcher, sticking them to the inside wall of the pitcher. Make sure they are close and snug together so that you can't see the cylinder behind the slices. If you need to add a couple clear marbles or decorator's stones to hold the lemons in place, you could carefully place those in between the lemon slices and the cylinder.

Move your glass pitcher to where you want to display it. Add your floral keeper to the water if you are going you use any. Add the water to only the cylinder / drinking glass. Add your bouquet of flowers into the water.

And done. Sit back and enjoy your lovely display or present to a friend or loved one. Perfect to cheer someone up on a cold February day.

You could switch up the fruit and use limes, oranges. I like to use lemons, but then add in some cranberries for colour. Or you could skip the fruit all together and use other fun things like gum balls, M&M's, smarties (though that would take a lot whole bunch of smarties). I've used wrapped Werther's toffees or colourful hard candies. Just be sure if you are using food items that they stay dry from the water in the center container.

I also find it easier if I wrap a couple elastic bands around the flowers before I plunk them in the water. This ensures that the flowers all stay in one place as well as makes it easier to remove them if I need to re-cut the stems or change the water or the fruit.

This arrangement makes a big impact and is fairly easy to do in a short amount of time. While I like greenery, I find hiding the stems makes the arrangement more interesting.

Enjoy your fresh flowers and have a wonderful day.