Everything’s coming up roses

Last night’s floral arrangement class was awesome! It was so great to see all Meg’s friends (who have over the years become my friends) and just hang out – eat, drink wine, chit chat… The instructor Jody was really nice and explained the whole process clearly. She was extremely helpful throughout the process.

First Jody explained the different methods you could use when arranging flowers.

1. Using a ‘frog’ – which is basically a pin cushion for the flowers – you stick the flowers on this ‘frog’ and they stay in place.
2. With using marbles, stones, etc. – you can stick the flowers right in them and arrange them accordingly.
3. Grid of greens (this is what we used) – you crisscross the greens so that they are low in the vase and you have a grid you can now use to stick your other flowers in.
4. Grid on vase – you place tape on and across your vase so that the grid is created and you can place your flowers within the grid this way. For example…

Grid on vase

After we created our grid using the greens we had, we started placing our flowers in the vase. The flowers we used were -

5 stems of leather leaf greens (in order to create the grid as a base)

2 stems of tree-fern

3 Gerbera Daisies

2 Roses

2 stems of mini carnations

3 Snap dragons

3 Poms

3 stems of stock

2 stems Alstroemeria

We had a ton of space on the tables so we grabbed all our supplies and got to work. Here are a few pictures of my creation. I wasn’t the best floral arranger ever but it came out pretty and it was fun to learn something new!

Gerbera Daisies come with netting on them to protect them

Jody's bouquet before we started our own

Lots of greens

Grid of greens

Adding my flowers in

Lookin good ladies!Getting there...

Ta Da!

Sarah, Meg and Ang

All the ladies!

My flowers in my room

My flowers again

Sarah's awesome earrings!

Yum – this was a delicious dessert

Lisa and Chris - representing Next Level Entertainment!

{Sidenote – Chris is a great DJ and he owns Next Level Entertainment. on Saturday, June 19th Chris is featured in a ‘battle of the DJs’ at Club 290 Main in Malden, so check it out! Email reservations@nextlevelboston.com for guest list/discounted cover.}

Some tips from Jody -

• Bake your pine cones (for decorating) for a few minutes at 250 degrees – it will get rid of the bugs and it will also bring a beautiful smell to the house.
• Aim to only put the stems in the water, not the leaves. The less in the water, the less bacteria, the longer your flowers will stay alive.
• Remove the outside petals on roses – these are the ‘guard’ petals protecting the flower. Also, carefully (with scissors) remove the thorns.
• Color is usually not a determinate in how much flowers cost (except for flowers like Hydrangea, etc.) I thought that was interesting!

Like I said, the class was great and I’m so happy Lisa organized it. Lisa and Chris are one of the cutest married couples ever. Such amazing hosts! Thanks guys

After the class finished and I was ready to head home, I got on 95 and then 93 and they were both horrendous. Traffic is lame! Luckily the radio gods were on my side so I belted out a ton of tunes. Felt as though I should have been handed a Grammy upon exiting my car. No such luck.

Tonight I went to the Channel Cafe on Summer Street (Fort Point area.) It was a really cool little place! The gallery attached was awesome and the food was amazing (I had the pulled pork sandwich.) There was even a cute little dog walking around, I loved it! Very relaxing, friendly, welcoming atmosphere. Highly recommend this joint.

Goodnight!