when my husband wants to buy me flowers, instead of purchasing them pre-arranged, he'll usually pick up a few bunches of whatever is looking pretty and bring them home for me to arrange myself, knowing that it's something that i enjoy. he did this last week, bringing home several bunches of lovely tulips in a variety of colors. because this is such a sweet gesture of love, and love is what this week is all about, i thought that it would be perfect to use said tulips for a valentine's day post.
tulips are abounding around here (i just used them here) lately at flower shops and grocery stores, and they're a nice (and less expensive) alternative to roses for valentine's day. i decided to use a method for arranging tulips that i learned at flower school new york this last summer. it involves arranging the flowers on a table or other surface. it can feel a little awkward at first if you're using a large quantity of blooms so this is a mini version - i used 21 tulips in total.
i used four different colors, but you could certainly use all one color.
i started by laying the tulips out in a row - seven of them in this case. many tulips naturally bend one way or the other, so i placed the ones bending to the right on the right, the ones to the left on the left and so forth. i made sure that the flowers were evenly laid out by measuring them with my hand.
i continued on, making a second row of flowers on top of the first.
i made one more row - so three rows of seven.
then i grabbed them all at once...
...and put a clear rubber band around the stems (the kind you use for your hair), about half way up.
after the rubber band was in place, i twisted the part of the stems that were above the band to the left, while twisting the lower half to the right. this creates a pretty spiral look to the stems that you can see through a glass vase. (note: you should be a little tender while doing this because the stems can snap if you're too rough). i trimmed the stems so that the flowers would sit just above the lip of the vase.
because i chose a short glass cube vase, i moved the rubber band up the stems a bit so that it was secure.
*an interesting little tidbit about tulips is that they keep growing after they're cut and placed in water. so they won't keep this compact look after a couple of days, but i think that a flower poking out here and there adds to their charm.
i added a little hand stamped card and tied it on with some twine to finish it off. i think that this would make a sweet little gift for a friend, a family member OR as a romantical type of thing ;-)
i hope that you'll find a way to spread the love this v-day, whether it's with flowers or some other gesture...because isn't that what it's really all about??
xo, c
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