Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Organic Elegance

I was meeting with a florist a couple weeks back with a colleague to go over the look of an event. The “look” the florist came up with was what she called “organic elegance.” I loved it when I heard it – so now everywhere I go I see items that fit in this category.

While I have some other ideas in mind, this fun, silly inspiration came from a Raleys radio ad for “colorflower.” The ad claimed they have cauliflower in purple, orange, green and of course white. So I fell for it. This challenge – make something fun with “colorflower.”

I went to Raleys. I REALLY wanted the purple but the only color they had was orange and white.
Note – the colored cauliflower are much smaller than the usual white.
Since I had no idea what I was going to do I purchased two of the orange (2 for $4). If I had known then what I know now, I would have bought a couple orange, a couple white and gone to another Raleys just to peek if they had the purple and green.


So what I did… I looked around the house for items I already had.
Vases
Rocks
Tealight holders
Tealights

Then I kind of put them all together. And Waa Laa…








For the future what I would have done differently:
Purchased more “colorflower” (number of them and color). I love the look of mismatched vases for centerpieces. I would have added one or three more (must have an odd number).
Checked the “colorflower” out more closely. You will see in some of the photos that the leaves are a little wilted.

End Note – First, the “colorflower” used were not organic vegetables, they were covered in pesticides I am sure. Second, I do not think these arrangements are elegant, I think they are fun. Finally, I do think this is a different idea if you are having a spring or summer event. I had a lot of fun playing with the vegetable. I thought the rocks went well with the “theme” and now wish I was having a little dinner party soon to do a real centerpiece setting.

Now… I need some recipes suggestions for orange cauliflower.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

What the what...

Yes, I have been MIA for the last two months. The reason: my regular, full time job has been keeping me very busy. Between the last two weekends in January through the first two weekends in February you could have found me in Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco and Anaheim. While fun, it is nice to be home on the weekends.

So back to the events stuff. The key, in my opinion for a successful event is being organized and being creative.

During the holidays I was talking to the hubs about my home office space. It wasn’t conducive to good work, great organization or creative thoughts. So, I am happy to announce that I have finished redoing my home office!



Corkboard (you can do this one – corkboard $5 at Michaels and frame found for a $1)

Chalk Wall - yes, you can do this too - $2.50 chalk paint at walk, $1 for chalk, $1 for frame




Don’t forget, when working so much, take a break and relax. Not only have we redone my office, we have also made our patio a bit more relaxing by adding a spa! We also hung some privacy drapes. While I hope to add more color on the patio soon, I still love how comfortable our backyard feels.



So, I am back (at least for awhile – I will be hitting the road again soon to San Diego, Fresno, Reno, Los Angeles and somewhere I am super excited about).

Look for creativity to start pouring now that the home office is officially organized.