An Unruly Choir!

While I was visiting my Dad, I wanted to do something with flowers for him. He has wonderful "Birds of Paradise" blooming in his yard and a variety of berries or blossoms on his palm trees - so my plan was to create something contemporary and whimsical.
Well the only vase Dad had which was tall enough was a beautiful cut glass piece but it was an oval shape which soon became my nemesis!

Collecting the "birds" was not a problem but gathering the berries from the palm trees was -to say the least - ridiculous! I never knew that the palm fronds had short spiky thorns that were really sharp and trying to stay on the ladder and saw through the stem was not an easy task! My sister, Cathy, was great at encouraging and steadying the ladder and keeping me laughing.

We nicknamed the flowers, "The unruly choir" because they really didn't work well in the shape of vase I had and continued to move around no matter how many leaves I tried to stuff in.....

So in this picture I really do think they are laughing at me and singing their own version of "I'll do it my way!"

Giving Thanks

This past week has been a very busy one for me. To begin, just before I embarked on a little trip to see my Dad and two of my sisters in sunny and warm San Diego - I was offered a part time job in a flower and gift shop in Newberg. It has been delightful and scary at the same time. I love arranging the flowers and having so many options to choose from but also scary when I think that I am using someone else's money to make an arrangement and it needs to say "professional and beautiful" at the same time.

I am learning a lot quickly on managing flowers - keeping them fresh and marketable, having bouquets and arrangements ready for customers to walk and pick or helping people choose something - for their table or as a gift.

Yet even though my feet and legs are definitely tired - I am so thankful for the opportunity and for the blessings I have received from the women that I get to work with - they are both fun and encouraging.

Thanksgiving was bittersweet - waking and feeling very lost without Al, yet I enjoyed my day together with Michelle, my niece, Paige and Ryan (who was working until 6:30). Another college friend joined us for dinner, too. Not having dinner until later, gave me plenty of time to prepare and still help with the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle! God continues to show me blessings in little ways - for which I am truly thankful.

Amy, Forrest and Ephraim joined us for part of the weekend which was of course - Wonderful! Ephraim is so much fun - playing soccer and baseball in the living room - how many 19 month olds do you know that understands running the bases and kicking!
Time with him are treasured memories.

Sunday was Alvis' birthday and God blessed us with a gorgeous sunny afternoon. We visited the cemetery and shared memories and watched Ephraim run in the grass. It was wonderful to be together and just think of Al and the role he played in each of our lives. I am grateful to my children for allowing me to spend time with them and their Dad.

I know your day was glorious, Sunshine. I miss you and dream of the time we will be together again.

Practicing

Yesterday I was blessed to receive a request for an interview at one of Newberg's flower shops. It will be tomorrow morning- I am already a little nervous- but also excited for the opportunity. So I headed to the store and purchased a couple bunches of flowers to practice, practice, practice! I made a small corsage - nothing too fancy - I wanted to practice wiring and taping flowers. I also made one larger bouquet - to be viewed from the front and a small bud vase design. The pictures aren't the best but I think the flowers turned out ok. I will have to do a design for Erma tomorrow so I needed to put in some time ..... thinking about the vase, style and shape. I would like to do one more hand tied bouquet before tomorrow! I do love playing with flowers and actually I like the bud vase design - I tied the flowers together with some bear grass, letting the ends act as a ribbon. Ok................ well we'll just wait and see!

Collections

Sometimes it is all about the container. I have always loved pitchers. I am not sure why but I love the fact that they can exude a warm country feeling or elegance to a table setting. Collecting started with a wedding gift from my college roommate - a beautiful cut crystal pitcher that was so elegant to me - something I would have liked to display in our "married student housing" bungalow but it was really much too regal and we had absolutely no place to put it. Thus, it stayed in a box with a lot of other pretties until we had a home of our own. While living in Germany, we travelled to many wonderful towns and cities and I collected a few more - a favorite blue pottery piece from Southern France and of course another crystal piece from Germany near the Polish border. Al enjoyed gathering beer steins so we have a few of those on shelves also.



Part of my fascination with pitchers is that they are not required to hold a beverage - although I use them almost daily for that but because I can envision them clustered together on a shelf or most often filled with flowers - either with a whimsical display of dancing daisies or overflowing with tulips bending in all directions. They are uniquely beautiful in their design and as with many flower arrangements - will help set the mood of an arrangement.


This weekend I chose one of my daughter's pitchers - a milky white round bellied type - and filled it with a gathered arrangement again from the yard. Who knew that I would still be able to play with flowers from outside my door in October? I have learned that the graceful blossoms outside my bedroom door are Japanese Anemone (so of course I bought a few more plants to scatter near our new retaining wall). Along with the anemone, I included a few hydrangeas, dahlias and tendrils of jasmine. It looks very similar to the flowers I did a few weeks ago - but is much more relaxed - a gathered bouquet.

I should be outside taking care of a new crop of weeds but it is fall and shouldn't they be hibernating now? Instead of being annoyed with weeds completely this time, I find myself enjoying the dried varieties and think they will look nice in a "fall" arrangement. Who would have thought with all my complaining about weeds that I would now consider them a blessing!

Remembering

Thursday, October 1, marked two years that my Sunshine left this world to join our heavenly Father. I still wake up and reach for his pillow - dreaming that somehow I could be wrong and he will come home today. But he is home. I wonder how could these days have all passed. I wonder how it is that I am still here - isn't it time for us all to go home?

Every day - several times a day - I still wish my life was different and that I was sharing and planning dreams with Al - yet with each day I am trying to cling more to God and to His promise that He has dreams for me still. I wonder if I am missing what they are because I long for the moments that Al and I would think and talk about our plans for the future. Listening for God's voice to direct me yet still wondering how this could be.

There certainly have been blessings this year - my family and of course the joy of little grandchildren, and meeting new friends with hearts full of compassion and understanding and old friends that continue to pray and check on me. I am blessed to have all of these people in my life.

Our family, missing Colleen, spent the day together - holding on to memories of things we knew Al would have enjoyed. We went to the beach together and God blessed us with a beautifully warm sun filled day - we attempted to fly a kite, played frisbee, chased Ephraim away from the water and had a great lunch at Mo's. Later at home, we took a brief ride on the river - Ryan and Emily braving the cold water to wakeboard followed by a simple meal of tacos - one of Al's favorites. I felt that Al would have been happy knowing his family was out doing things together as he would have loved to do. I felt we should be celebrating Al's life with us and holding tight to our memories of him and making some new memories, too.

Alvis left me with his incredible example to follow. He treated everyone with respect and dignity and thoughtful consideration. He had a contagious laugh and enthusiasm for learning new things. As I tread softly through my life now, I hold these attributes close to my heart remembering Al and to live as Christ would have me live.

Over again...

The calendar says it is fall and today the sun is brilliant but there is definitely a change coming - it is no longer the soft warm breezes of summer but the brisk winds of the northeast that are threatening to call an end (hopefully temporarily) to summer's warm days. The cooler evenings are bringing changes to my garden as well. The hydrangeas bright blues are now subdued greens and lavenders and many leaves are dressing themselves in golds and reds.

My last arrangement had a few hydrangea blossoms and as they dry so wonderfully on their own - I saved them to use again - adding some of my favorite roses from the yard. They are a soft delicate white with very tender pink undertones. I love how the delicateness of each flower compliments the other.

Some may call this recycling but I am choosing to call it re-using.:)

More than a blessing...

What could be better than playing trucks with your grandson? Well maybe having Elisa and Sadie here, too. Now that would be terrific.

Sunflowers and Herbs!

I have this crazy part of our gardens that is full of miniature sunflowers that dance atop 10' spires! I really did try to keep them tied up this year but they have still found a way to flop over and fill the pathway! I love them anyway. They remind of a daisy in their delicate petals (daisies are a favorite of mine) but they are so tall. I found a few black eyed susans to fill in and give some more interest.

I also have a wonderful herb garden outside of the kitchen - so I cut some of the sage, rosemary and thyme to use for greens - plus it smells heavenly - I often wonder how wonderful flowers must smell in heaven - I bet even daisies will smell sweet!

Needless to say, this arrangement is in my kitchen. I tied the stems together before placing it in the vase. I love how it looks just like a handful of gathered flowers - right from the garden!

From the Garden!

I really wanted to try and do a large arrangement with all kinds of flowers - the problem lies with having blooms that are tall enough and sturdy enough and still from my garden (the most inexpensive kind!) to create such an arrangement. I spent some time wandering through the paths of my garden and decided that a shorter but full arrangement would be a better choice. I chose pinks, purples and whites and added some great greenery and "feathery" branches - I love these tall slender branches that are adorned with a tender variegated leaf and now are bursting with delicate little flowers. I collected an assortment of blossoms and started cleaning the stems and soaking them in water.

Next - choosing a vase - why is this so difficult for me? I chose to use "oasis" this time - for the practice - and finally decided on an oblong crystal bowl. Al and I had picked it up at a "seconds" shop in Germany when we lived there.

After about an hour and a half and a few more trips to the garden - I finished it! Some of the flowers should have been picked a few days earlier so they would last longer in my bouquet but overall I think it turned out ok. Included were pink rose buds, dahlias, hydrangeas, white roses, a pink flower that I have no idea what it is, sedum and blue astilbe.

Directions

Following the road God has planned for me has taken a direction I never imagined - I thought somehow my life would continue on the path forever - at least until Al and I were very old and we would join each other in Heaven after we had spent many more years happily here on earth. But my plan was not God's plan.

These gladiolas remind me of that - the yellow ones so bright and standing upright - heading in the right direction. The glorious fuchsia colored one I found lying on the ground bending in three directions yet still determined to bloom. Is this what God wants from me? Even when I am down, I must continue with His plan for me with determination and "bloom where I am planted!"

I couldn't leave the fuchsia blossom outside - it couldn't stand up - so bringing it in to join the others and letting it bend in all directions makes me smile when I walk past it.

I am pretending that this is a very contemporary design making its own statement!

A Little More Practice

Summer is quickly drawing to a close - or at least the calendar says so. I know that the flowers will soon be giving way to frosty mornings so I am determined to keep practicing - these are lavender and ivory calla lilies and pale pink roses from the yard. I should have photographed them right away as the roses appear they may shatter at any moment. The calla lilies will last a very long time, though. Another blessing - my gardens so full of different flowers to play with.

True Blessings

This past week started out with a few challenges - trying to get the camper out of the garage to check out what was broken, trying to find someone who could repair it before the weekend and organizing part of the garage. I did manage to move the camper out and discover the problem but was unable to find a repair shop that could even look at it let alone repair it for another two weeks. That was a challenge yet I know that Amy, Forrest and Ephraim had a great time camping using their tent and Ephraim slept for 12 hours one night! Thus the blessing!

Onto organizing the garage - so once I had the trailer back in the garage and because I had previously moved "stuff" around, I decided to try and put some order to the shelves. Well things were going ok, until the shelf fell down on me and the two coolers (which have sat peacefully up there for over a year) collapsed and landed on me. I said (to myself) "Alright then, I will clean this up a little and head to Home Depot to buy a shelf that I know will not fall from the wall." The blessing was that I really did want to put up some more shelves in that spot so now I had the opportunity and the bruises on my arms are only slightly greenish blue now.

I still tried not to be upset - although I did wonder why these things happen when I am only trying to take care of our house and "stuff".

The last calamity of the day was moving a simple box of boots over to a corner in the garage but alas I bumped a small wooden collapsible table which then fell against my shin and made a nice carving on my leg down to my ankle. This time I did not hold it together and cried out why am I having such a day when I only want to take care of things. I was upset with Al because he was gone and not here to help me and upset with God because Al was with Him.

Now really if Al had the day to spend with Jesus over helping me in the garage --how could I really be mad at him? Somedays I feel that I can still hardly breathe yet those days I know that Jesus is somehow holding me up a little more.

Nothing really awful happened to me - I survived the crashing coolers and tables and was able to laugh a little about it the following day (after my pity party!) But the real blessing that afternoon was spending time with Ryan at the nursery and Home Depot and having my neighbor bring over the most gorgeous star gazing lilies from their farm. They truly are the biggest blossoms I have ever seen. They were so beautiful I didn't even want to try and rearrange them. Thank you Daisy.

Thank you, Jesus, for providing the moments in my life so I will stop and recognize your blessings.

Old Fashioned Lace

I have been thinking of doing something with these blossoms from my yard for several days. Both the allium and the Queen Anne's Lace remind me of an old fashioned garden. They both appear very delicate - yet the allium (a part of the garlic family!) is quite durable - I can play with the blossoms in my hand and they don't fall apart. I know the Lace is more delicate but I love the airy feeling it creates. I added the two lilies for a second focal point at the base of the arrangement. I set the flowers in my dining room and it looked more formal and then in my kitchen where it took on a more whimsical tone. I think I like it in the kitchen - the red vase on the dark green counters with the cherry wood in the background helped the arrangement standout.

I am so thankful for the abundance of flowers in my yard to fiddle with and especially to our Creator who designed so many wonderful patterns, colors and shapes of flowers for us all to enjoy.

Lilies, Lilies and More Lilies

Day lilies just make me smile. Their bright sunny colors and soft blended pinks are popping up all over my yard. Today I even have a few star gazing lilies opening up.

With the day lilies, I actually took a leaf from the calla lilies and lined the vase with it. Hopefully it won't let the water get too murky - I think it adds a neat touch to an ordinary vase. What do you think!

Summer's Simple Elegance

I can't think of another flower that is more elegant than a calla lily. Alfred and Bailey's wedding flowers abounded with calla lilies, hydrangeas and roses. They were all beautiful. Simple in their singular beauty yet we can see God's delicate hand as He created each blossom.

Today it is really warm out and I have had enough weed pulling for a few days and I really wanted to try and do something different with the lilies in my yard. Calla lilies are so striking whether alone or in a bouquet. In my arrangement I place three lilies in a narrow rectangular vase filled with glass beads. If I had had a "frog" it might have made it easier to get them to stand up! This is a more contemporary design for me - but I do really like it.

July in Jackson Hole

We have returned from Jackson Hole. Each day has been filled with memories. My kids - daughters, grandchildren and sons in law - really helped me pull things together so the yard would look beautiful for the rehearsal dinner. We did a lot of weeding, spread nearly 50 bags of bark, and even planted a few flower pots. I wish I had taken a picture of the gazebo, island and the lawn. I think it looked wonderful. (Thank you Forrest and the gang for spreading all that bark and fixing the waterfall!) Ryan once again made the yard look picture perfect with all the pruning and mowing.

Somehow in the midst of working we did manage to have a few moments for play, too. I loved being outside with the little ones playing on the swings and in the wagon - begging to go higher or faster. I loved being with my sisters all in one place - although our time always seems too short and hurried. I truly think a trip for ourselves is in order.

I know I didn't sit still very well in Jackson - to let myself be quiet allowed my heart and head race of how things should be - with Al in the midst of the craziness and taking care of all the little things. I am so thankful for my family who helped me complete all the tasks I had given myself so we would be ready for Alfred and Bailey's beautiful wedding. There was a huge part of me that was doing this for Alvis. I know that he would have been working like crazy had he been there and I wanted to make him happy. Kind of silly knowing that he is walking in God's most glorious gardens everyday - but hopefully we made his blue eyes sparkle.

Thank you all very much.

Jackson Hole Wedding!

It is so nice to be in Jackson with my daughters and beautiful granddaughters. The days are warm and sun filled and the sky is a bright blue with a few feathery clouds floating by. I have enjoyed being outside working in the yard and gardens to spruce them up before the rehearsal dinner. It is almost here Bailey and Alfred! I am so excited to see all of our family in one place again.

These are a sampling of some of the flowers I have done this past spring that are a bit more formal. The boutonniere is from Ryan's Spring formal and the bouquets were from my advanced class this spring. I am looking forward to lending a hand for Bailey and her bridesmaids.

Wedding Flowers

Spring Formal Flowers

Yellow, blue and white are some of my favorite colors - especially in flowers. Each of the colors seem to pop and say "smile!"

Sweet Emily

Emily gathered these bright ruffled poppies and wheat shafts from the side of the road on her way home from work. I love their cheery faces and how they brighten any table - indoors or out! Playing with flowers and learning to be creative with arrangements - arranging and rearranging until I am content with their display - is becoming very important to me.

Simple Beauty

I love being able to step out into my yard and find wonderful flowers to create bouquets with and bring inside. These roses are simply garden roses - not the long stemmed variety we find at the grocery store and market but oh so fragrant! I gathered them together with some leaves from what I believe is a type of bamboo plant to make a hand tied bouquet. I am excited to actually use the information I received in my classes.

New Beginnings

My life seems to be full of new beginnings. Loving flowers is not new - but stepping out to be creative with flowers and sharing it with others is new. I do hope that I will be able to reach out and meet new friends and shower their special events with beautiful flowers. Watch as I learn how to maneuver a blog (something new) and a business.