Floral Design Class: Take-Home Bouquet

In our Fundamentals class (which yes, I am taking after the Advanced class, but they were offered out of order!) we practiced cutting with our floral knives this week and got to create a take-home bouquet that we wrapped in tissue and cellophane.  I had a weird mix of flowers in my bouquet, but I don't know, I kind of like it.  The poor sunflower and hydrangea were nearing their end, but the combined colors of the dalia, larkspur, and spray roses had a cool effect.  I also got to use some bupleurum greens.  I really love the look of these and I will seek them out when I get brave and venture out to the San Francisco Flower Market.

And here's another view from my iPhone, which creates some awesome, warm light.

Operation Secret Pal

At my work we have a month long game of Secret Pal where all those participating pick a name out of a hat and get to leave little gifts for that person here and there.  It's Secret Santa, just without the whole Christmas part.  We had a summer theme so when I decided to make a small arrangement, I knew a big 'ole sunflower was in order.  So I went down to the local farmer's market and found some summery flowers.


I like the bright, metal bucket that I found at Michael's.  If I had the chance to do it over again, I would have chosen some heartier smaller flowers because the pink ones here (I don't even know what they are, any ideas?) had stems that were prone to snapping. But I love the purple statice and the overall summer, wildflower look about it.  My Secret Pal seemed to like it and she requested an arrangement of faux flowers to last all year long.


I also had enough left over to make my Mom something with another vase that I found at Michael's.  The two sunflowers in this look silly, but it's all I had left and I didn't want to waste them.  I'm sure my Mom appreciated them.