How to Recycle Your Flower Bouquets

If you've been following along with the story, kids, you may have noticed that I love flowers. And I mean, Love. With a capital L. I think they are absolutely beautiful, with their colors and tiny details, and they brighten any space they are in. I try to always have some sort of flower in my home to bring in the outdoors and brighten my home, even if it's a wildflower I picked on a walk or flowers from the store. I also love picking up unique or cute vase options and using them throughout the house.

This last Saturday was my birthday and I received one of the most amazing bouquets of flowers I've ever gotten. It was filled with lots of different types of flowers that smelled great, looked great, and worked so well together!! (Plus walking into the hotel room with flowers waiting on me was an amazingly sweet surprise :) ).

Here's the original bouquet in all its flowery glory!

I loved this bouquet and wanted to be able to keep it going as long as I could. Once certain flowers started wilting a bit and the bouquet was losing a little bit of its original luster I started to piece together mini bouquets from it to continue the enjoyment throughout my apartment. The best thing about a big bouquet like this is you can get LOTS of little bouquets!

A couple things to consider:
 1) When re-arranging the flowers, re-cut the bottom of the stem on the diagonal to allow for more water uptake and renewed freshness.
 2) Think about which flowers work together - consider color, type, heights, etc.
 3) Think about which vase will make the flowers look best.

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Here are four simple pink carnations with some of the Fern Plumosa in a small glass cup/vase on my kitchen sink. A simple arrangement but pretty all the same.

 



 

 

 

I have this very cool oriental vase that I thought would look nice with a heavier arrangement and some deeper colors. These deep pink astroemerias, Fern plumosa, and greenery look great in this vase. I love the droopiness of the astroemerias in this vase as well. Not all arrangements have to be tight, some look nice a little more flowing or loose.

 

 

 

I put these amazing Stargazer Lilies with the daisies because their purplish/pinks worked well together. I had two lilies in the bouquet and the daisies do a nice job filling the small glass vase.

 

 

 

I kept the two roses together in a simple arrangement with some of the dainty Fern plumosa.

I put all the bright yellow daisies in with the two big red Gerber daisies in my awesome white, Ikea pitcher vase.  This arrangement is so happy and brightens up my kitchen table so nicely!

 





There was a bunch of this beautiful bog rosemary in the original bouquet that I kept together in a taller glass vase in my kitchen window. I love how stalky and long this is and how well it bunches at the top. 

These are just some examples of how to pair flowers together, how to use their heights and weights, colors and types to re-create some beautiful arrangements out of the bouquets you get or buy to make their beauty last even longer in your home!!!

Making a Handmade Birthday Card: How-To

I love making my own cards for special occasions! I am not against buying a card, and nowadays there are some amazing cards out there. But there is nothing like getting a card from someone that they made and really put the time and thought into. As it is, I love working with paper and think you can create some amazing things with it, so a reason to create a cute card for a cute girl is perfect!!

My cousin's little girl, Cedar, (who I made my first growth chart for - seen here), turns 5 this year and I really wanted to make a cute, interactive birthday card for her. She is so smart and aware, she loves the outdoors, exploring, flowers, and animals. So I made her a card with growing flowers to celebrate her continual growth!

Here's a step-by-step how-to on making a handmade birthday card!!

(I'm sorry about the iPhone pictures - I am working hard at getting a better camera!!)

 

  Step One: I always create a drawing first and then a mock-up of how it's going to work before I start cutting up my good paper!! So here's the first one I threw together to look at placement and figure out the "mechanics" of making the flowers grow.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Two: Here I've started with the good paper. I find a sturdier piece of paper and fold it in half, depending on what size of the card that I want to make.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Three: I start cutting out my details (grasses above, flowers below). I decided to make some bunches of some of the flowers to fill in my "garden". For their stems, I first glued two pieces of the same green paper together to make it nice and sturdy. Then I cut them out long enough to leave room for their "growth". The horizontal piece is what they will all be glued on and will be attached to the pull so they will all "grow" together. I measured out how long the flowers will be, glued them and cut them to length.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Four: Now that I have my flowers attached and the sun cut out (sun not pictured yet!) I can get a feel for how long things are and how much space they will need to "grow", which will give me a feel for how to put together the "mechanics" of the pull.

 

For the pull, I took four pieces of sturdy paper and glued them all together, then cut them out into one long strip. I want it to be nice and sturdy to be able to handle being pulled on often. I also made sure to keep it the color of the background of the card (sky colored in this case) so that if it shows behind any of the details it will blend in more. The top part is another paper used to bolster the inner layers of the pull and will be glued behind the sun and not seen.

 

I figured out where the highest point the flowers will "grow" to and made a mark. This is where I made my horizontal slice just big enough for the pull to fit through. (The pull will not go through in this direction but this is just me making sure it fits and isn't too tight or too loose in the slot.)

 

I then measured out the lowest area the sun will go (which will put the flowers all the way down), and made a mark and sliced my slot in there.

 

 

 

 

 

Step Five: I put my pull through the two slices (leaving the edges out on the front of the card so I can glue the details to it). I glued the sun to the top of the pull and reinforced it from behind. Then pushing the sun all the way to its lowest position, I glued the flowers to the pull (cut off any excess on the bottom of the pull that extends past the bottom of the card). This makes it so that when the sun is at its lowest position the flowers are, too, and when the sun rises, the flowers "grow".  

 

 

 

 

 

 Step Six: The pull is still showing through on the back side of the card, which I want to be able to cover up without obstructing the movement of the pull. So I chose a cute, matching paper and glued it to the edges of the back of the card (that way it covers the pull but still allows for its movement).

 

 

Here's the back now. (Sorry for the poor photo quality again!)

 

 

 

 

 

Step Seven: I glued the grasses onto the bottom of the inside of the card to cover the flower stems. I glued them all the way at the bottom and taped just a tiny bit for reinforcement. The flowers go all the way to the bottom so I knew they would bump into the grasses a bit, which is ok, but I wanted to strengthen the grass's placement.

 

 

Here's the inside of the card with the sun risen and the flowers all grown up! The grasses are perfectly placed to cover up the flower base!!

 

 

 

 

 

Step Eight: So now for the front of the card! I had this adorable polka dot paper, which reminds me of birthday balloons. I cute out a rectangular section and attached it to the front of the card.

 

 

Looks great! Love the mix of patterns!!

 

 



Step Nine: I was going to make or trace my own letters, but it is so much easier to print them off. I cut out the letters for her name and was going to cut out the letters for the Happy Birthday but I kind of liked the way it looked all connected still. Plus it was a little easier to read.



 

Here's the final product of the front of the card (with better photo quality!!!)!! I love it! Personal, colorful, fun, and bubbly! 



 

Final Step: Step Ten: Putting a personal touch on it!

 

Here's the inside of the card with my little note and instructions to "Make the sun rise to see the beautiful flowers grow", although I know she'll have figured it out before being told! Little smarty pants, she is!! 



I stamped my little bird on it - if you've ever bought anything from my Esty shop MyVintageBird, this is one of the birds I use on all my thank you notes, cards, and tags!! My little signature. :)

 

 

 

 

 

Finally (and I am SO proud of this little feature) a video of how awesome this card turned out. I know Cedar is going to love it and I hope it brightens her 5th birthday just a little more!!!

 

Any comments or questions on the making of this card? Just comment below!

 



Spring Dreamin'

For the last couple of weeks I have been completely over winter and ready for spring to come along! I'm typically excited for winter before Christmas and then once Christmas is over, I'm done with winter and the cold weather. Thank goodness I live in the south where spring comes relatively quickly! But even down here in Birmingham it's still cold and I'm getting cabin fever!!

I recently moved into a studio apartment and the only downside is not having an outdoor space. All of my homes until now have had porches or yards where I can keep plants, have gardens, etc. I LOVE flowers, plants, growing veggies, and I am going to struggle a little this year without a space of my own to do that.

So due to my love for plants and my desire to force spring along, I decided to start bringing the outside in to my place this weekend and visited my local nurseries (Hanna's Garden Shop particularly) to find some ways to do that!

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I had this beautiful gold bowl/planter that really could be used for many things. I really wanted to use it as a planter though because I thought the gold would look amazing with some green contrast.

 

 

 

Paperwhites (Narcissus papyraceus)

 

 

My first thought was to put paperwhites (Narcissus bulbs) in it because I love long green stalks and the white flowers. I thought it would look so clean and pretty in the gold container. Paperwhites are really more of a winter/Christmastime flower and wouldn't last as long as I'd want at this point. So I changed gears a bit.

 

 

Hyacinths

 

 

My other thought was planting some hyacinths in it because the green stalks with beautiful flowers would look great. Plus, hyacinths are some of my favorite flowers and they smell heavenly! Unfortunately, because I'm ahead of Mother Nature's schedule though, hyacinths have been harder to find.

 

Alas, thanks to one of my awesome local nurseries, Hanna's Garden Shop, I found all these awesome plants and put them together in this pot for this amazing mini forest!!  I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out and it's already brightening up my kitchen!

 

The back left plant is a Fern Maidenhair. The back center is a Fern Lemon Button. The back right is a Fern Plumosa. The front center is Selaginella. And the green and white leafed one on the sides is Fittonia.

I'll keep you updated with all the other greenery and flowers I bring into my home :)

Pillow Party Part 2

I've been continuing with my pillows out of old clothing and used pillows. Part 1 (found here) has the beginning of my adventures into pillows. I've been finding old clothing with really cool fabrics but less than attractive fashion designs. Then I make pillows and fill them with the stuffing from old, torn, or otherwise unusable pillows to recreate new pillows for my Worldly Cottage!!

Here's the continuation of my Pillow Party! (sorry for the grainy pics!)

 

 

 

I made this navy blue pillow with the shirt from below. I added this beautiful trim with gold detailing as well. Now I know what you're thinking. Meghan, how did you not want to wear that beautiful navy shirt with shoulder pads??? As horrible as this shirt was before, the fabric was really nice and I knew it would make a great pillow.

 

Here's one of the corners in my studio apartment. The front pillow is another one I worked on made out of a long, denim skirt. The skirt was really nice (I got too excited and forgot to take a picture before cutting it up!!). I tried it on but it was a weird shape unfortunately. But the pattern was an amazing Southwestern design. So here is one of the pillows I made out of it.



Here's a close-up of the chair in the corner and the pillows.







This is the other pillow - a closer view of the Southwestern design. 

Here's my bed with all my pillows :) I love this stack of pillows and all the colors and patterns!!



More pillows!!!!!



 

Here's a close up of the pillows I made out of a dashiki. I used the fabric for other pillows. This one I utilized the gold embroidery that was on the front of the dashiki. It is an absolutely stunning fabric and I knew it had to be used for something. I could not bring myself to throw out the embroidery piece so I made this pillow, which I LOVE. 

 



 

 

Thanks for tuning in to another Pillow Party with Meghan....  ;)

Baked Apple Chips...Mmmmm

This weekend I made baked apple chips to eat with my granola and snack on during the day. I am a big snacker so I have got to find some healthier alternatives to snacking than what I usually find. They turned out so well and are delicious! Here's how it went!

 

 

 

 

You can core the apples before slicing them if you want but it really doesn't matter. Plus if you don't core them the center is a really cool star shape that looks neat when you bake it!

 

 

 

 

Slice the apples thinly for baking. I put them in a bath of water and lemon juice after slicing in order to prevent some browning. Then you pat them dry before putting them on the baking sheet.

 

 

 

 

Place them on a baking pan (parchment paper is a better option than tin foil because they don't stick as much to the parchment paper). The oven should be heated to WARM or around 200 degrees. The apples bake at a low temperature for a long time - it dehydrates them and slightly bakes them.

 

Sprinkle the slices with cinnamon if you want (tastes perfectly fine without anything, too). Bake for about 1 hour (2 hours if the slices are thicker). Remove the slices, flip over, and bake again for another 1-2 hours. Turn off the oven and let the chips stay in and fully cool. They will be crisp only once fully cooled.

 

Here's the finished product!! Delicious!! Perfect as a snack alone, with yogurt, cereals, and granolas!!

 

 

 

 

 Enjoy!!

 



Pillow Party!!

I've dubbed my interior style "Worldly Cottage" and have recently been working on achieving that feel in my new studio apartment. I found some old clothing that was either donated or I had been saving up to do something cool with it and turned them into pillows for an awesome pillow corner that fits perfectly with my Worldly Cottage feel :)

This was an old pillow I had that had ripped corners and was in bad shape - so I recycled the stuffing for my new pillows! 

I gave new life to an old button up shirt and the old ripped pillow and this is how it turned out!



 

I reused the gold buttons from the shirt.

 This mustard yellow shirt became a new pillow, too! I also had a dashiki that I made into a pillow and used a strip of it on the yellow pillow.

 

 

 

 

 

I found these cream, linen shorts that are not very attractive but are made from an attractive fabric!! Perfect for an upcycled pillow!!!

 

Once again, this cream, linen blazer (complete with shoulder pads), with an embroidered green, tropical plant pattern was not a very attractive fashion item anymore, but I knew would certainly make an attractive pillow that would fit perfectly into my Worldly Cottage!!

 

So snip, snip, sew, sew, and here we are!! 

 

 

 Stay tuned, folks! More to come.....!