Orange and Green and Gold

This arrangement was a fairly large arrangement which I designed for the Nittany Lion Inn.  It is done with two oasis balls covered with chrysanthemums and gerbera daisies.  The green mums are on the larger of the two balls.  The white in the balls is done with the use of corsage pins.  The gerbera daisies are wrapped in flat wire, which I ordered especially for this project.  It adds interest, and increases the support for the daisies in order to prevent them from flopping.  The third and smallest ball is made of wrapped flat wire.

I am pretty happy with this arrangement.  Were I to do it again, I would order more chrysanthemums, but overall, this has been one of my favorite arrangements.  It was fairly simple to create, although the flat wire was new to me.

Flowers for Tyson

I'm really happy with this one.  This was made with leftover flowers from the cooler.  I used bells of Ireland, yellow snapdragons, orange gerberas, and yellow mums.  My greenery is salal, and the filler flower is baby's breath.  I used colored green oasis in my container to add a little extra interest.  I like how cheerful this arrangement turned out to be.  It was fun to make and I'm pleased with it.

Flower Show 2011

I took this picture at the Philadelphia flower show at the beginning of my Spring Break.  The theme this year was Paris.  The show was spectacular.  The style was very formal and eclectic.  There were flowers everywhere and it was a nice relief from the damp cold of winter.

A rose for autumn

This is a fairly simple all around arrangement.  It is orange roses, bakers fern, and eucalyptus.  It is certainly a lot more spread out than many of my arrangements, but I like it.  It is airy and quite pretty, although it was difficult for me to convince myself to keep it that spread out.  I like to put the flowers quite a bit closer together if I have any choice in the matter.  However, I do like the way it turned out, even if it is quite different from what I normally do.

Spring is coming

The weather has been changing over the last two weeks or so.  We had several very warm days, which were very nice, and all of the snow melted, although it's back again now.  I love the smell of the thaw, of dirt warming and softening.  To me, the thaw smells like life is beginning anew.  Everything is fresh and new in the spring.  The buds on the trees are beginning to swell.

Today I walked past the Tilias which line the way to my building and saw that their branches are taking on a definite reddish hue of new growth and life.  Their branches were dripping with water from the rain today, and all of it is giving me hope that Spring is coming.

Earlier this week as I walked past one of the campus buildings, a flash of yellow caught my eye.  The Hamamelis outside of the building were beginning to bloom, despite being covered in snow.  There is life, despite the still-frozen ground and the melting snow on the ground.  In a few short weeks, things will be starting to become green again.

Sorry!

Sorry for the lengthy hiatus.  I have been very busy with schoolwork and other activities which required my time, and so this blog had fallen somewhat by the wayside.  I am back now, however, and have my schedule a bit more under control.

Callas

This arrangement was done several weeks ago.  I ordered a single bunch of callas with the intention of doing something much like this.  This was my first time working with callas, and I quickly discovered that they have very flexible stems.  I am very happy with this arrangement and how it came it out.  Overall, it is one of my favorites thus far.  I like the amount of motion in the arrangement, and that there is plenty to look at throughout.

Fall Arrangement

This one isn't 100% perfect, and I certainly see things I would do differently if I were to do it again, but I am fond of it.  It is a little too layered for my taste, and the ferns come out too far.  If I were to do it over, I would add the English ivy after I put the flowers in so that it would be more visible.  I really like the color combinations, which go well with the candle.

This is one I would like to redo

I like this arrangement.  Sort of.  What I actually like is the idea behind it.  However, when I ordered the flowers for it, I wasn't planning to do an arrangement that would be this large.  However, when I set to work on it, it turned out to be this massive, heavy thing that I hadn't planned for.  I like the roses and the orange gladiolus, but looking at this arrangement, it is fairly obvious it should have been a lot fuller than it was.  I should have ordered more roses and more alstromeria, because this is too sparse.  The mountain mint was added as last minute filler.

I would like to redo it.  I would like to order enough flowers and do this over because it deserves to be done well.  It was also an arrangement I was fond of.  It was in a style which I liked quite a lot.  Hopefully sometime this semester, I'll get a chance to give it another shot.

On Gardening

This picture was taken at the Arnold Arboretum, where I worked this summer.  It was a wonderful summer, and the Arnold is a fantastic place.  It was taken on my last day there, and I miss it, and the people I worked with there quite a bit.  Everyone was amazing, and the Arnold is a beautiful arboretum in the middle of a beautiful city.  I wish I was still there, especially now as the semester gets into gear and my classes start picking up.

But really, this is about something I love to do.  I love to garden.  I love to spend hours out in the sun doing all kinds of things, be it weeding, or pruning, or removing invasive species.  I love the work, and the end result.  I love the feel of soil between my fingertips.  I love the color green in all its myriad shades.  And there are so many shades of green.

My summers interning at various gardens have taught me that, taught me how wonderful it feels to have spent a full day working in a garden.  I am consistently amazed that I have found this thing which I love so much, and which I find so rewarding.  I never imagined that this is what I would love the most about plants when I first started to study horticulture, but I love to work in a garden, surrounded by beautiful plants and working with wonderful people.

It is hard work.  It is intense and demanding, and I love the sheer physicality of it.  I am so happy to say that I love what I do, and I would not have it any other way.

Flowers in a Fishbowl

This arrangement was done without a flower order, so it was some what we had in the cooler, and some what I found in the greenhouse.  Mostly what I found in the greenhouse, honestly.  It is one of my favorite recent arrangements, simply because it is unique and interesting.

I used a fishbowl that I'd been eying for some time and looking for something to do with it.  The yellow orchid I picked from the greenhouse, which is also where the delicate green ferns came from.  The green mums came from our cooler.  Everything is fixed into place through use of a frog which I attached to the bottom of the bowl.  I used the clear marbles to hide the frog and add some flair to the arrangement.

Overall, this is definitely a favorite.

A knitting post

This is an in-progress scarf I'm working on.  It is my first cabling project, and I like it very much.  I love that the yarn is variegated, but doesn't stripe, which I think would have looked very strange for this project.  The pattern is the Irish Hiking Scarf, which I found on Ravelry.  I started this pattern to practice cabling, which a friend had recently taught me.

When I asked him to teach me, he laughed, and said that cabling was ridiculously easy.  And he was right.  Cabling was very easy to learn, and I love the look it gives.

The yarn I'm using for this scarf is a Malabrigo 100% merino wool.  I've discovered a fondness for wool with this project.  It is super soft and warm, and I can't wait until I'm finished with this scarf.

Vase Arrangement

This flower arrangement was done for a campus event last spring.  It is one of several such arrangements, and was fairly simple to design.  It is a basic vase arrangement containing alstromeria, gerberas, iris, ferns for greenery, white carnations, and limonium.  There are blue and clear stones in the base of the vase for our school colors, and ribbon tied around it.

Overall, I'm pleased with it, but it is a very simple arrangement and it was easy to put together.  The colors work nicely with each other.  It is nothing out of the ordinary, it is still pretty.

Fingerless Mitts!

These are one of my earliest knitting projects.  I completed them at the end of the summer.  At my internship this summer, I met an awesome friend who helped me improve my knitting, and she helped me with this pattern.  They were a really easy pattern to work with, and I enjoyed it very much.  It was a simple project, but I learned how to work from a pattern, as well as some other important things.

While this project has some imperfections and I am not 100% thrilled with them, I'm still very pleased, because at the time I thought I would be confined to scarves for the rest of my life.  And I was vastly bored with knitting only scarves.  These were a relatively quick knit, especially the second one, since I knew what I was doing by that time. :)

Another early arrangement

This flower arrangement is composed of leftover flowers we had in the cooler.  It is an L-shaped arrangement with a yellow snapdragon making up the long part of the L.  While I was pleased with it when I first created it back in the winter of 2010, I feel that I could do significantly better now.  I've become much more comfortable with my skills, and I know better what I'm doing.  I feel that this is a pretty arrangement, but is nothing special, although I like the combination of pink and yellow flowers.

One of the first

This flower arrangement was one of the earliest I created.  It was my first attempt at a Hogarth Curve, and overall I am very pleased with it.  I used white lilies, purple lisianthus, eucalpyptus, and liatris for it.  The liatris and eucalyptus form the shape of the curve, and some of the eucalyptus were added to the central part of the arrangement to help create continuity.  The lilies and purple lisianthus were used for the central part of the arrangement as well.

This arrangement was somewhat difficult for me, as it was one of the earliest arrangements I created, and it was somewhat complex.  It required a solid plan before I attempted it.  I am very happy with the end result, however.

The Beginning

I am starting this blog to have a place to display the floral arrangements I create, as well as my knitting projects.  I am currently a student of horticulture, although I will be graduating in May.  My primary area of specialty is in public horticulture, but I am also focusing on flower arranging.  This is going to be separate space for my crafty and horticulturally related endeavors.

I am a beginner knitter, and will be updating with pictures of my projects as I complete them, as well as discussion as I go along.  This blog will mostly be for discussion of knitting and flower arranging.