Imagine me jumping up and down when I say this- I got to make another bouquet this week for my Flower Arranging 101 class! It really is the highlight of my life at the moment. It's so fun buying flowers each week for the course, practicing a skill I so desperately want to master, and at the end of the week I have a beautiful arrangement. This week's assignment was to create an English garden-inspired bouquet.

The flower selection at Whole Foods was surprisingly springy this past weekend so I just went with it. I chose white tulips, purple clover, hydrangea, and pretty ivory tipped greenery to use- filling out the selection with a few weeds snipped from the empty lot down the street. The result (I hope) feels fresh-picked and organic. - b.

I’ve always been a bit of a teacher’s pet and actually enjoy homework. I get a thrill submitting projects for review and anxiously await the feedback. I get especially excited when I’m proud of my work. My first flower homework assignment was no exception.

For our first assignment in Flower Arranging 101 we were shown how to create a hand-tied bouquet- characterized by its spiraled stem base that stands on it’s own, and a 360 design that looks good from every angle.

I really enjoyed the challenge of creating the spiral in the hand-tied bouquet and ended up redoing the project twice. It was important to me to get it right and I now feel like I could easily pick up a bunch of flowers and create a hundred of these standing beauties. This style of bouquet is popular for weddings, and for gifting because the receiver simply has to fill a vase and plop the flowers inside.

For my hand-tied bouquet I decided to choose flowers in warm autumnal hues with greenery that had a blueish tint to compliment them. I used golden mums, red protea (a tropical flower), a yellow and brown autumn berry mix, and eucalyptus leaves and berries for the filler. The results felt lush and organic, and I puffed my chest out in pride. - b.

I decided to give myself a little birthday gift this year- my very first flower arranging class! Though I thought my first class would be surrounded by old women in a church basement (or something) I'm happy to report that after a lot of research I landed on a much better option. I'm taking an online floral design course taught by the talented floral designer and prop stylist Chlesea Fuss.

The course is four weeks long and each week covers a different flower arranging technique. I've already worked my way through week one and I'm addicted. Sorry, but you can definitely count on my sharing every last homework assignment with you here. 

I've been dying for more floral education and it feels really good to be doing something like this for myself. -b.