A Dozen Real Roses That Last

Lately I have been focusing on flowers as an inexpensive bright spot for the home, because they are easily obtainable.

 In the last post I featured the humble PRIMROSE which is now displayed in colorful rows outside the grocery stores and Walmarts.  

The highest price was $1.38 per pot, at Walmart and the lowest was 4/$5.00 (about $1.10 ) at BiMart, but have a look around your area and you will see that even up to $2.00 to $3.00 each, it is a very economical plant and you can group them together in a basket for a fuller look:

This plastic container is $1.00 from Dollar Tree and holds 3 primrose pots. The baskets come in a variety of colors, and I have my eye on a purple one to fill with purple pansies. I have this lovely filigree cut-out style basket on a table in my front window and it looks great from outside.

If you already have a container at home, your cost will be minimal. 

There are usually about 12 blossoms on a plant, and some of them have rose-like petals. They can be kept indoors and then added to the flower beds outside and they reappear year after year unless the gophers get them.

 I use them when I need a bouquet for each table, and have bought them each month for the church dinner tables when we have our potlucks. Each month after the meal, we ask people to take one home, and they are happy to do so. 

I mentioned last time we talked, about the metallic floral ribbon and the pots for the Dollar Tree, as you see, above. In the last post,  I used the yellow metallic ribbon with hot glue, and the yellow primroses. Today I am using the pink metallic florist ribbon, above.  I used hot glue but tacky (a thick, sticky white liquid craft glue works as well.

You can also go through your scrapbook and card-making supplies for those little jeweled stickers.

Those of you with true florist tendencies could add some pretty florist picks amd butterflies, etc. to make the bouquet fuller and fill the empty spots.

You have probably seen the lovely bouquets or bridal bouquets with stems wrapped in silk or other material at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. On sale you can sometimes get them for $4.00 each, but if you are trying to keep the costs down, use an old silk floral stem you might already have.

This stem has six roses on it, and I'm going to wrap it with wired ribbon or wired burlap, also from Dollar Tree.  Since it only takes a small amount, the added cost is minimal, or, you could use a strip of cloth or some lace from your sewing scraps. Look in your gift-wrap supply and find tissue paper and ribbon. This kind of bouquet looks gorgeous in tissue gift wrap or colored cellophane gift wrap.

I got the rose bunch from the Dollar Tree, so my "tussle-mussie " hand-held bouquet with the small amount of wired ribbon was about $1.10.

Bend the wired stem upward ,

...and beginning at the top, wrap the stem in the ribbon, firmly wrapping the ends where they won't be seen.

This looks good on the old worn wood shelf:

You can also slip in a few sprigs of artificial baby's breath, allysum, or hydrangea:

There comes a point where you have to decide if, due to time and additional dollars spent, you would be just better off to buy the prepared bouquet (if you need it), but here is a way to do it at home if you need a quick bright spot somewhere.

That brings me to a memory: In the late 1950's and early 1960's there were flower sellers who sold cloth flowers made from felt, bits of silk and velvet, going from home to home. It was just at the end of an era, and then we saw them no more. 

Mr. S. came through the house a moment ago to see what I was doing, and remarked how romantic the flowers were. He was preparing a lesson on marriage. He said, "I'm going to remind the men to be romantic and hold hands with their wives, even as they grow older, and be an example to the younger men. Particularly in my case, we need to hold hands when we are out walking in Walmart, so I won't fall down."

Note the hair style of the 1800's painting at the top of this post. It is so nice to see this is one of the current styles, and I have no idea how people figured out the technique, since so many hairstyles were just handed from person to person and never sketched out or written down. 

Moderns do a pretty good job of reviving these feminine hair styles, and have elaborated on them beautifully , as you see on Pinterest and on the Royal ladies. I myself have never managed it but it is delightful to see hair returning to real hair "dressing" instead of chemical sculpting!