Daffodils

I feel like yesterday's post about the simple joy of discovering new foods goes along quite nicely with the bouquet I created for this week's One-Bouquet-a-Week Challenge. I bought several bunches of unopened daffodils so I could watch them bloom for a few days, and they did not disappoint. In fact, they started flowering within hours of getting them home, and kept me well entertained for three or four days with the new bursts of yellow-gold that would appear almost like magic at the top of their slim stems.

Watching this bouquet was pure delight--a perfect companion to the hint of spring that seems to be teasing New Yorkers right now. We can feel it coming. It's lifting our moods. And you can tell that we're all eagerly anticipating the blooms and warmer weather that will come along with the new season.

And I, for one, just can't wait to be surrounded by flowers inside and outside my home.

Can you say “ranunculus”?

I cannot. I couldn't even spell it again after today if I tried. I can, however, try to learn how to arrange them. That's why they're this week's installment of my One-Bouquet-a-Week Challenge.

Rifling through the shelves above my refrigerator recently, I can upon this old milk bottle I have from a creamery in High Point, NC (score!). All week, I was determined to find the perfect flowers to go in it, and I think I did it with this bunch of ranunculus (R-A-N-U-N-C-U-L-U-S. Ranunculus). I love its delicate purple-ly pink detail and its slender stems. I also love the raised lettering on the bottle; I tried to capture it with my camera, but I definitely didn't do it justice.

Also in this batch, I just HAD to include a stunning orchid (we all think it's an orchid, but after hitting the flower stand this week, I am not so sure. Do you guys know?) that my always-generous co-worker Cynthia gave me this week (thank you, friend!). It's one of those flowers that stops people who walk by my office and makes them ask what it is and where she bought it (in Rockefeller Center, methinks).

It's a week full of flowers! Is there anything better?

Tulips vs. Mums

Last week I decided to start my own One-Bouquet-a-Week Challenge to teach myself how to start creating better flower bouquets. And you should know I'm no quitter: here are some pics of this week's concoctions.

The first is a mix of tulips and some random pink, weed-ish flower that I got at Trader Joe's. I originally bought some yellow button mums to go with the tulips; however, this IS a learning exercise, and those tulips quickly taught me that they were just not digging those mums. (Or at least not until I get better at this.)

The second bouquet is my first use of a cute little bud vase I got for Christmas. And can I just say--bud vases! Where have you been all my life? I am loving having this small, sweet bouquet by my bed (there's one in the bathroom, too, filled with the uncooperative button mums). It's such a perfect way to wake up a room.

Two weeks and counting! Best challenge ever. Just sayin'.