the art of the budget flower arrangement

I have a question. At what age is one too old to receive care packages?

Let’s hope it is not the mid-twenties.

My parents are the most awesome. I receive many an excellent care package since we are 3,000 miles apart. Let’s talk about the last one. It included the following:

-fancy matches
-a sewing kit
-homemade chocolate chip cookies
-lettuce seeds

I kid you not. I guess the idea was while waiting for my lettuce seeds to sprout, I could pass the time by eating cookies and mending socks by candlelight. Regardless of the contents, I can always count on a Trader Joe’s gift card which I know it is my parents’ way of feeding me dinner even when we are miles away. Somehow it always feels that way too.

One day my home will be filled with beautiful dahlias, hydrangeas and peonies. Until then I’m on the TJ’s flower budget, and so one must be crafty.

This is the cheapest flower bouquet I could find. It was $3.99. These are straight-up dude flowers. Directions: cut off rubber bands and stick in cup. Totally sweet if you are coming over for the first time. If you see this on his coffee table then he cares. Bonus points if he even has a coffee table. I’m going to get fancy because I am not a dude.

Gather your vases. You want anything mini since the flowers are small. Empty salt shakers are perfect. I found that vase on the right in a trash heap on the street. Diamond in the rough!

First lay out your flowers to see what you’ve got.

Trim off off the flowers from the stalks. Most of the stems will be about 4-6 inches.

Keep trimming until they are all cut. I organized everything by color. Why? It looks pretty.

Fill up your vases with water.

Begin flower arranging! I first take a flower from every color pile, and then continue stuffing flowers until the vases are filled. As you work, you will need to trim the ends so that they are even in the vase. You want to keep them as close as you can to the lip of vase.