Spring floral arrangements

Easter weekend (three whole days!) was a dizzy whirlwind of delicious activity and was over before I knew it. I was able to enjoy a fancy dinner with my brother at our local Knight Cap  with wine and great convo and brother/sister time, get together with my sister-in-law and some of my friends and spend much-needed quality time with my husband. 

Easter day was fantastic. After church, I prepared my green bean casserole to bring to my grandmother's for Easter dinner (I have officially become the one responsible for bringing this dish to all family holiday meals at grandma's), prepared all three of my nieces' Easter baskets (my house is now glitter-fied) and made floral arrangements for all the houses in my family.

Half of my family is dieting and the other half is complaining about their waistline and therefore thinking about dieting. So, I decided against Easter baskets (because even with non-food items, I wouldn't be able to resist throwing some sort of chocolate goodie in there) and opted instead for these springy  floral arrangements. Zero calorie content! 

All you need is:
1. Vases
2. Flowers
3. Lemons
4. Ribbon (and twine if you like)

I found these large vases on clearance from our local Meijer ($3.49 a piece!) and grabbed a ton of lemons and some bright, long-lasting flowers. (Note: I used more lemons than the amount pictured here.)

I cut the stems of all the flowers (I cut at a diagonal angle as this is supposed to be good for the flowers) to my desired height and took off all the leaves, etc. that were on the stem and which would be immersed in water. (This will help give your vase a cleaner look and you won't have soggy leave particles floating around in the vase.)

I just love the bright, vibrant spring colors in these flowers. Especially since it has been COLD in Michigan the last couple of days! *Brr*

Next I sliced the lemons, omitting the "butts" of the lemons.

 

Admittedly, this was my first time doing this type of an arrangement. I'm sure there are tutorials online, but I personally hate to stifle my creativity by doing something exactly like someone online if I can help it. Certain things like big DIY projects or involved recipes, sure, I'll follow step-by-step, but this is kind of an artsy, easy thing. :)


After slicing the lemons, I filled the vases up about halfway with water, stuck the flowers in the middle and began stuffing the lemons in the vase.

You should note that because I'm kind of artsy fartsy, I don't like things to always be "perfect". When you arrange the lemons, you can line them up perfectly if you wish (that might be your style!), but I opted to make them just slightly imperfect. (To me, intentionally making something slightly imperfect is perfection in of itself because it gives character.)

I'm really into this twine thing lately--especially when it's paired with something more sleek and sophisticated. So, I tied a beautiful green ribbon along with the twine around the vases to complete the look.

We stuck the vases on my Grandma's dinner table and they were a beautiful addition to our holiday meal.

And remember those butts you didn't use? Bag them up and use them for a sink freshener! Toss a handful of them into your garbage disposal, turn the faucet on and run your disposal for a few seconds, letting the lemons get crushed a bit. Your sink will smell wonderful!

My family loved the arrangements and my mom has thanked me every day since Easter for doing this and says her arrangement still looks brand new!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Cheers,
Samara