The progress of an Amaryllis flower blooming

A few weeks ago, I got assigned a very important task, babysit some amaryllis flowers until they were fully bloomed and ready for a photoshoot! It was so much fun to observe the evolution, each stem usually has four blooms, and gradually they all started to pop one by one.
The amaryllis is definately a flower that I love, I like how juicy and big it gets once in bloom, but be carefull, these are very delicate flowers to play with! It was important for me not to touch them too much, and mostly to cut the stem shorter as the flowers started to open, creating weight on the fragile thick but hollow stem which could simply break in front of my eyes if it decided to.
Nothing beat having to transport these flowers from my house to our workshop … ouff … I made it with the amaryllis in one piece! I couldn’t wait to finally poke the flower inside the arrangements and call in truce, at that point the amaryllis is safe and you don’t need to worry about it anymore. What a journey with my friends the amaryllis, just like babies, they kept me busy for a couple days!

How to make a sexy bouquet

A lot of things inspire us, here is a funny one; a sexy light pink and offwhite bras! Why not? Let us show you how to create this bouquet!

What you’ll need:

• 10 light pink double stocks
• 2 white hydrangeas
• wide offwhite satin ribbon
• narrow light pink satin ribbon
• small white feathers.

How to make it:

1. Bunch the pink double stock together.
2. Add the white hydrangeas around your bunch of pink double stock.
3. Tie the stems right under the the base of the hydrangea and cut the stems to about 6’’ long.
4. Start covering the stems with an offwhite satin ribbon working from the bottom of the stems all the way to the top.
5. When you get to the top, make a knot and a big bow, add another layer with a small light pink satin ribbon, crisscrossing it to create a corset look.
6. Stick white feathers randomly into the hydrangeas.

Here you go, you just got yourself one sexy bouquet!

Gen doing a Flower Ball !

There is nothing more beautiful than a ball of fresh flowers! Now this isn’t a project for a very small budget, but we still thought we would share it with you since it is something fairely easy which can be done with so many different varieties of flowers.

What you’ll need:

1. A ball of floral foam.
2. A bunch of your favorite flowers (quantities depend on the size of the ball).
3. Patience!

How to start:

1. Make sure your ball of floral foam is well soaked with water.
2. Cut all your flower heads to the same length (leave about 2 inches of stem).
3. Start inserting the flowers in the floral foam, making sure to place these ones very close to each other.
4. Be gentle, you wouldn’t want the floral foam to fall apart …

So easy! In this case we used pink carnations, which works very well for this project, as carnations are not expensive, and the texture is this flower works well to give a beautiful final results. Though, I would suggest to let your imagination run wild!

Decorating a Rectangular Table

Design is all about balance!

When trying to dress a rectangular diner table on a budget, always keep in mind that you are better off having more smaller arrangements and accessories than only a couple big more expensive pieces. Yes some may say less is more, however in this case we are trying to dress a festive table from one end to the other. Use floating flowers in small vases, you can even use those same vases to float a colorful candle (depending on your color scheme), alternate these arrangements to create a dynamic and modern dinner table.

Go crazy with colors and shapes with all your table settings, don’t be shy, you’ll have so much fun doing it!

Leaves could be a great idea to hide stems in a vase!

Here is a trick to make any bouquet of flowers look more modern.

To jazz up any plain clear vase, buy an extra exotic leaf when you go to your local florist, there are so many varieties and even colors to choose from, going from dark to light green and even from burgandy to fushia, use one wich will match your choice of flowers.

Before placing your bouquet in the vase, roll up the leaf and place it inside this one, it will naturally make its way around the inside of your vase, then simply put your flowers in! If you are having trouble inserting your bouquet without breaking the leaf because the stems of your hand-tied bouquet are going from narrow (where it is tied) to quite wide at the bottom (where they naturally fall), try to take a piece of rope (or anything you find around the house) and tie the bottom of your stems as well, problem solved! If you are using loose flowers, you for sure won’t have this issue, simply drop them in.

Enjoy your brand new vase!

Three Arrangements for One Vase

The are as many possibilities as there are vases and flowers to create cool arrangements!

Here, we took a decorative vase with a long and narrow opening and played with yellow Pincushion and Eremurus flowers as well as dark green Anthurium leaves to create 3 different looks. We simply dropped the flower steams in the vase always keeping in mind to keep each variety of flowers at a different level and in a 3D motion, we don’t want an arrangement that is flat, we want movement !

Next time you go to your florist, try buying loose flowers as opposed to hand-tied ones and experiment yourself, try using vases which have a non-standard shape, be creative and you won’t be disappointed.

One flower in different containers from my cupboards!

No need for big bouquets of flowers that will cost you a fortune when you’re entertaining at home. You love having flowers around the house everyday? You can avoid spending the big bucks!

Cute looks can be created with a couple of flower heads which you can float in any container you’ll find in your cupboards! Glasses of all kinds, tea cups, bowls, appetizer dishes, etc … all you need is a little creativity!

Don’t be scared to play around with shapes and colors, an oversized flower in a small container looks great and a fushia flower in an orange container will sure pop!

You’ll be surprised at the results you can achieve with such small arrangements. Give it a try, and let me know what you came up with.

You can upload pictures from your creations on our facebook fan page www.facebook.com/oxidesign

When buying fresh flowers, all of us had this thought: They are beautiful, but… ephemerals! Here are a few tricks to make them live longer, so you could enjoy them more:

1. The sooner you put your flowers in water, the longer they will last … No shopping for hour ladies after you’ve picked up a bouquet, straight home you go !
2. The stems should be cut on an angle, preferably with cutters, which will create a wider exposed area and allow the flowers to take in the maximum amount of water.
3. Flowers are a labour of love, take the time to change the water in your vase at least every second day, this prevents the creation of bacteria in the water, therefore making your beautiful flowers last longer !

I love having fresh flowers at home! Do you?