Same Old Shannon : Hobby Discussion Day 5: Flower Arrangement

I'm going to make this quick. I have two pies in the oven, and when they are done baking I'm going to take a brief nap.

I like to arrange flowers. I'm not sure how this hobby came about. I think it was because I realized that I actually liked to cut and manipulate grocery store bouquets. In contrast, one time I brought my friend a bouquet and she just took it out of the plastic and threw it in a vase. The look of it bugged me. So I decided I must have strong feelings when it came to the aesthetics of flowers.

Now, when I lived in L.A., there was a wholesale flower market where any old person off the street could go and get discount flowers. Here in Chicago, the flower markets are only open to professionals, so regular people are forced to buy flowers at the grocery store or Costco. Not only are these flowers more expensive, they are also usually arranged for you. And you can't easily buy fillers or greenery.

Let me say that I do have an in at one flower market that is about half an hour away. This is because I attended a one-day seminar at a flower design school, and that school has a special deal with that particular market, wherein students can shop there. I have never tried it, though, mostly due to the distance, but also due to my fear that my flower school connections won't work and I won't get past the flower market bouncers.

So, I do what I can with grocery store and Costco flowers. I do enjoy arranging flowers tremendously, and, just to toot my own horn a little, the lady at the flower school said I had a very good sense of balance when it comes to arrangements. (Let me tell you what I suck at, though: cutting flowers with a floral knife. I actually had to get a bandaid while I was at flower school. And since the pumpkin-carving incident I'm kind of off knives, so I just cut with the inferior scissors.)

Here are a few pictures of my creations.

This first picture is from a random day in the winter that was so blah that I needed to add some color to it. I guess I liked the bright sunniness of lemons, so I made this lemon cake and some yellow arrangements to go with it. I liked how I used lemons in the vase (aka pitcher) for the big arrangement.