003: Spring Is Almost Here

For this week's therapy, I wanted to make something very spring like.  Maybe using tulips or daffodils or hyacinths.  I imagined it to look like a birds' nest.   I purchased 8 red tulips (w/ one extra - more on this later) this morning.   My plan was to cover a floral foam with blossoms and leaves.  I was going to bend the leaves to make them puffy, and place the flowers to look like they are coming out between the leaves.  Then place it on the center of circular Pyrex plate and wrap the center piece with shredded magazine pages to add a "nest" effect.  I ended up not using the foam but used a simple clear vase instead, and still managed to do what I wanted to do by using the leaves.  I  placed the largest four leaves bended and made sort of like a clover shape around the outer edge, which is the "nest" part, then added 9 tulip blossoms in the middle like "eggs".   It wasn't quite as I planned, although, I am very satisfied with the outcome.  In a strange way, this might have been more "nest-like" than plan A.  They also smell so good!!

So, here's what happened.  This morning I was so excited to do WFT and was thinking a lot about what kind of flower I would get this week.  It was very nasty in the morning though, I almost didn't want to go out and get flowers.  But luckily (:P) my son seemed that he wanted to take a nap around the time he usually eats breakfast/lunch but couldn't quite fall asleep.  So I figured that it would be nice to have him fall asleep sooner rather than later, and I know just the trick for that... a baby carrier.  He falls asleep very quickly whenever I put him in it.  I haven't done it for quite a while since he's gotten pretty heavy.  But I put him in it and voila!  He was sleeping even before I got to the brand new flower shop down the street from us, which just opened last week.  I will talk more about this store exclusively in tomorrow's WFT Extra:)  Anyways, it worked out perfectly because I knew there were stairs leading to the front door of the shop and there's no way that I can lift our stroller up the steps.

I went in, and the flower case (is it called refrigerator?) was sort of tucked in the back.  I immediately fell in love with the white tulips in it.  They looked so pure and innocent and perfect for the first spring arrangement.  Unfortunately, they were somebody's who ordered specifically and weren't unavailable.  I was also drawn to these gorgeous golden color roses, but I wanted to make this arrangement to be a seasonal one, so instead, I got 8 red tulips.  The person who helped me was generous to give me an extra stem and I got 9 tulips for this week's therapy!  They were only $1 each.

I was also especially excited  about today's therapy because I finally went to a craft store to buy floral foam yesterday.  Well, it turned out that the one I got was a desert foam, not oasis... and I got 5 pc pack:(  I saw all the desert foam at the store and there was darker color foam next to it, so I just grabbed one assuming it was oasis and didn't really read what the label said.  To make things worse, when I came home from the flower shop, I was too excited and didn't double check the label and opened it.  I started soaking one in the water and I soon realized that it's not absorbing water at all.  I thought something was wrong, then I FINALLY checked the label and there it was.  It said "DESERT FOAM FOR FLOWER CRAFT".  Oh, no...  I had this grand idea of making it more like an "arrangement" piece by using foam, however I needed to come up with plan B.  Today, I learned a important lesson, though.  "Always check the label."