A little tutorial...

And now, in response to the over-whelming demand, I will give a little tutorial on how to build a casket saddle.  (Fine.  No one asked.  So what?)

First I go to the wholesaler and pick out the flowers and bring them home wrapped in brown paper.  Like this...

Then you go get the buckets that you used last week and were too lazy to wash out.

Cleaning out the buckets...ugh!  I hate it!  It is without question the worst part of doing flowers.  But it is a necessary evil to turn the above into the below.

Then you have to go back the the basement (again!) because you forgot the floral preservative and your clippers.  Yes, the preservative is necessary!  No, it doesn't matter that you'll be using the flowers the next day.  (Thank you for asking!)

Then you have to process the flowers.  This can be tremendously tedious depending on the type of flower.  On all of them you have to cut away the cellophane wrap and clip off the elastics.  On some you can then just clip the bottoms off quickly and shove - er, delicately place - the flowers in the buckets of water.  On others (roses, for example) you have to go through every single stem - One. By. One. - and strip the petals and thorns before putting them in.  On any kind of flower you can't have foilage below water level because they spoil the water.  Depending on how many flowers you are working through, this one facet of the project can take hours!  It is also horrible!!  Unfortunately, it is also necessary.

Then you're left with the packaging...

Then you have to go to the basement AGAIN because you forgot a bucket for the oasis.

Then you put the oasis in the saddle....

The bluriness of this next picture is NOT a reflection of a lack of importance of this step.  I forgot this step one time and I feel confident that I'll NEVER make the same mistake again!  You forget these two seemingly small strips of tape and you can kiss your saddle goodbye!!

Then you forget that you're supposed to be taking pictures as you go and finish the whole thing.

Voila!  Casket saddle for a female in white and shades of blue.

Stake Conference and a little finch

At least a month before Stake Conference the Stake Relief Society President asked me if I'd do the flowers for Stake Conference.  I told her I'd be happy to!

Then my musical number turned into a solo. 

And my heart stopped beating.

Then it started again.

I wondered what I should do about the flowers.  I thought about calling back and telling them to go to Plan B, but in the end I decided that having the flowers to do would be a good thing for my last-minute jitters. 

After Stake Conference is over they always take the flowers around to people in the Stake for them to enjoy.

Imagine my surprise Sunday afternoon when the Stake President and Second Counselor showed up at my door with the flowers.  They said they felt funny giving me back something I had made, so they made a little addition to it.

You see, our 2nd Counselors last name is Fitch.  Apparently a lot of people mistakenly pronounce it "Finch".  President Fitch was teasing the man conducting that if he (President Fitch) said "Finch" to him before he went up, that he would call him "President Finch" over the pulpit.  

President Fitch brought this little finch to the meeting and right before the man conducting went up, President Fitch tried to pass the little finch pictured above over to him.  He tried not to even look at it so he wouldn't make a mistake.

Boys will be boys, I guess.  

So they tucked the little finch into my flowers (isn't it cute to think of 2 men who don't have the first clue about flowers trying to fix-up an arrangement for someone?) and thanked me and my family for our contributions to this Stake Conference.  

I Love Lucy

Recently I was asked to do an arrangement for a little one-year-old angel named Lucy.  Her mother loves owls, so we decided an owl-themed arrangement would be appropriate.

There are several choices when it comes to easle arrangements.  In the end we went with a solid heart-shaped oasis.  After soaking the oasis is preservative water, I was here...

Then I started adding flowers and greenery.  The customer wanted bright pink and bright green.  I emphasized the pink by doing a sash of bright pink roses.

I added in more of the green roses and the white lilies.

The finishing touch was an owl and love note.  When the client came to pick it up I was lamenting to her that they didn't have a girl-colored owl.  She suggested adding a bow and had left-over ribbon from something else the family had done.  (Definitely one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?" moments!")  I had recommended the card message and she loved it. 

All in all I think it turned out cute and (as always) hoped it gave the family some comfort!