Happy Sunday Everyone!
One of the things keeping me sane during this time of sheltering in place and self isolation is to take lots of walks.
I feel so lucky to live in North Vancouver and have access to beautiful trails and nature just steps away from my house – I don’t take this for granted for one second! Spring in Vancouver is so lovely…lots of early daffodils and tulips, and then of course the cherry blossom trees. Our weather has been so perfect these past few weeks, we have been taking daily family walks in our local trails and around the neighborhood.
I was watching Joanna Gaines foraging for flowers in her beautiful garden the other day on her instagram stories , and I thought “why don’t I give that a try?”. I don’t have a garden that I can trim flowers from, but my friend and neighbor has tons of flowering shrubs along her property line and she agreed to let me help myself to whatever I wanted (Thanks Jody!) So I enlisted the help of my tall husband and we went over a snipped a ton of stems…
I brought my treasures home, and got to work. In no time at all I had 6 gorgeous flower arrangements, and I didn’t spend a single penny!
I loved the results so much that I thought I would share them with you today. I can’t wait to show you how I used these free flower arrangements to decorate my home.
1. grab something to arrange your flowers in
I collected a bunch of different vases and vessels from around the house so I would have lots of options to work with.
I looked for different shapes, sizes and heights so I would have lots of options. If you don’t have any vases or containers on hand, a mason jar looks cute, or just use a glass…whatever you have on hand!
2. fill your vessels up with cold water
As I started playing around with my stems, I realized it would be easier to fill all the vases up with water before I made any floral arrangements.
3. lay your foraged flowers out on a work surface
I used my kitchen counter, but an outdoor table, dining table, or even the floor would work. Organize your clippings into groups…I had clippings from 3 or 4 different bushes.
4. start creating your arrangements
I am a complete novice when it comes to floral arranging…I can’t offer a lot of guidance with this part. I didn’t overthink this part at all, I just started sticking things into vases and playing around with different combinations.
I stripped the stems of leaves so that I could fit them into the vases, but I left leaves at the top for some greenery. This was such a fun and simple project and I am thrilled with the results!
From this:
to this:
Displaying my Foraged Flower Arrangements
Can you believe it? All of these beautiful floral arrangements, and they didn’t cost a thing. I think these are so colorful and pretty and I had fun using them to brighten up my home.
Living Room
The recyled glass demi john vessels went back on my Fireplace mantle in my living Room. Here is what my mantle looked like before…
And here’s how it looks now…
I just love the tiny pink flowers and the tall green stems…they really bring the feeling of Spring inside, don’t you think?
The smaller glass vase (an IKEA staple) went on top of a stack of my favorite books on my coffee table.
Dining Room
I used the largest and tallest arrangement as a centerpiece on my dining room table.
Again, these stems with the small pink flowers are just such a pretty pop of color!
Kitchen
I placed the remaining flower arrangements in my kitchen on the counter. I grouped the larger arrangement with the grocery store tulips I bought yesterday and tucked my favorite Anthro candle into the vignette.
The last little arrangement went into a simple mason jar, and I haven’t figured out where I want to put that just yet.
Well there you have the results from my adventures in foraging…I had so much fun creating these arrangements and then displaying them around my home.
There is something about flowers that I find so beautiful and inspiring, and they are my favorite things to photograph. This bloom fell off one of the branches, and I spent about 20 minutes playing with it and taking photos.
This project was just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing, and again, it was totally free!
I would love to hear what you think of my arrangements. If you have any ideas what the plants/flowers are that I took the clippings from, please comment below.
If you want to see more pretty pictures of flower photography, check out this post I wrote about visiting a dahlia farm back in the Fall!
Thanks so much for reading!
For daily tips and inspiration follow me over on instagram @littlenestdesign.
xo, Kerri