flower csa

By now, I am sure that you have most likely heard of a CSA, which stands for community sponsored agriculture. Typically they are for farms and you can pay to get a variety of veggies over the season. But did you know they have them for flowers too? Yes, it's true. The one I signed up for is at Love 'n Fresh Flowers, which is a flower farm in Philadelphia.


I signed up for the bucket share, which you see below. You can also choose to get an arrangement already made, but by now you should know how much I love to arrange flowers.

The first arrangement I made was in this awesome pottery bowl. And, ahem, it's for sale in the brand*eye shop! As instructed by me before, you want to start with making a base for the flowers. I used the filler that was included to give a foundation for the flowers to sit in. Then I added the blue flowers and yellow flowers. I wish I knew the names of them for you, but unfortunately I do not.

And this vase set is also for sale in the brand*eye home shop!

a walk around the garden

Here are some snippets of our yard.

The chairs above are a couple years old from home goods. One was black and one was orange, and now they are a matching set, thanks to some spray paint.

I can't wait for the climbing flowers to take off.

let's celebrate!

Celebrations are one of the most wonderful experiences of life. You can celebrate anything, babies, marriage, graduation, a new job, a birthday, an anniversary, or insert-your-own-celebration-here! I think it's really important to be able to throw together a celebratory party at any time, under any situation. It's almost easier (actually definitely easier) to invest a minimum amount of time in planning and executing it. You just have to think outside of the box and take advantage of what's already there and available.

In the age of pinterest, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the millions of ideas that you find all around you. I speak from experience of getting caught in the black hole of infinite ideas and trying to plan an event. You could go crazy with the amount of food ideas, decoration ideas, invite ideas, game ideas, etc... But you know what? Most likely people are just going to remember the event and not pick apart the minuscule details. Sometimes you just gotta set a date, invite a few friends, and order a goddamn pizza!

We did a teeny bit more for this party, but actually not much. We picked a date (which was actually was the hardest part), then ordered food (Indian), bought desert (Termini, of course, the best dessert in probably the whole universe) and set the scene. It helps that I have a collection of candles and planters. But all I actually bought for the party decorations was a banner and letter kits from Target and plants from my local grocer. But these ingredients for our "BABY" party can be used and re-used for any number of parties.

Here's the breakdown:

Decorations: Usually I would DIY the banner, but I was seriously running out of time and found these in the dollar (or $3) bins in the front of Target. I took the banners and letters, spelled baby, sewed them on with some  yard I had laying around and then strung it all with the same yarn. Voila. Then I centered a bunch of candles on the table with some plants that I picked up at the grocery store. I decided on pansies, but a close second was house plants. The plants served two purposes, to decorate the table, and to be the favors so that everyone could take one home.


Food: Order it! DIY is also awesome and my number one choice, but if time is of the essence, just order it. If it's between spending hours in the kitchen that you do no have, or just ordering your favorite foods from your favorite joint; order it. No one will judge you. And if they do, screw them and their ideals.




Then it's time to sit back and enjoy the company of hanging out with friends, because that's what it's really all about.

valentine's flowers

Perhaps someone gave you a beautiful bouquet of flowers and you're not quite sure what to do with them. Or maybe you have learned the importance of having fresh flowers around to admire and brighten your day, so you bought them for yourself. 

These flowers were bought from the grocery store. Starting at the left we have carnations (which I think are highly underrated), tulips and some greenery. Since it was the day before Valentine's day, the flowers were at least 50% more than they usually are. 

Start by picking out some vases or any type of container that would work as a vase. I started with the following: a milk glass pedestal vase, a marble wine cooler, a milk glass cup and a milk glass vase. Unless you have a very large vase, the amount of flowers in a large bouquet (or 3 small ones as shown above) usually look best as smaller arrangements.

Start by placing the foundation of the arrangement. This is best accomplished by using the sturdiest plants first, i.e. some type of filler. Think outside of the box if needed and (if it's not the middle of winter) raid your garden. In the past I've used hosta leaves, evergreen branches, ferns, and a number of unknown plants from my yard.

Eyeball the level of the plant and where it will best align in the base, as shown above. Make sure to tear off any greenery or leaves that fall below the water line. If they are in the water it will make the water turn gross faster.

After the base is set, follow the same procedure to place the flowers. Eyeball which part of the stem to cut by placing the stem in front or beside the vase and seeing where it would work best in the arrangement.

You can mix and match different kinds of flowers into one arrangement, or stick with one flower type per vase.

I decided to keep it simple and made two tulip arrangements and two carnation arrangements.

Just as I was finishing shooting the above flowers, my lovely husband came home with the beautiful bouquet below. He wasn't as cheap as I and bought them from a proper flower shop.

Since this was a large, awesome collection of different types of flowers, I thought it would work best as one large arrangement. But there was enough to make one large and one tall.

For wide vases, use scotch tape to divide the area into sections, as shown below. You can divide the tape lengthwise to get two pieces per piece.

Start with the largest, sturdiest flowers as the  base. Then add the flowers to fill the spaces. Vary the heights somewhat, so give it depth.

And here are the finished arrangements. The vase on the right is one of my faves from my vintage collection.

Happy Valentine's Day!

your fall table-milk glass

Previously I posted some inspiration for decorating your Thanksgiving table - aka tablescape - using brass and leaves. Today I am providing you with some inspiration using milk glass.

I have paired some milk glass pieces from my collection, and from the brand*eye home shop to create a unique scene. This is definitely not the typical orange and eath tone thanksgiving table. It is inspired by the purple vintage glasses, which happened to pair perfectly with the cut coleus from my garden. I used the vintage milk glass vases and filled them with coleus. This arrangement would work with any cut flower or mixture of flowers. You can find a post on cutting your coleus here-extending the lives of coleus.



Ingredients:

• milk glass! here is a vintage footed hobnail lidded compote (that is a mouthful), and here is a set of vintage milk glass vases from the brand*eye home shop.
• vintage milk glass vase from the brand*eye shop here
• vintage purple glasses- just use that search term on etsy or ebay and you will find a bunch of awesomeness
• plates from crate and barrel: this is a similar set
• vintage silver ware
• vintage linen napkins

The milk glass candle holders are from my collection, but if you're interested, just contact me at brandeyehome ( at ) gmail (dot) com.

I didn't use any base for this arrangement, but this would look even better with the scattering of leaves down the center like the brass example.

Extending the Lives of Coleus

I always look forward to the beginning of Autumn and the crisp chill in the air. But the part of fall that I enjoy least is that most of the outdoor plants die for the season. What if I could tell you that this doesn't have to happen. (Writing that sounds like I am in an infomercial.) But it's true. There are a few plants that you can take clippings from and overwinter inside your home. This means that you will have to buy less next spring and having them inside your home will cheer you up all winter. WIN WIN!

 

planting climbers

This year I am forgetting about trying to grow vegetables and sticking to easy plants. We never get enough sun for vegetable plants and I am terrible at the upkeep. I picked up some climbers so I am envisioning this being an amazing paradise this summer. It already sort of is.

 

Lots and lots of coleus. It is my favorite plant.



 

 

I started some moonflower and morning glory from seed and am hoping that they last and thrive. We shall see.

 

 The plant to the right is a very cool looking climber called Cardinal Climber. I first saw this last summer in my neighbor hood. A house had this planted along with Hyacinth Bean and it looked stunning. I picked up some of that too.

 I love this planter. I picked it up at a craft show in NYC last year (Renegade perhaps?), but can't remember the seller. Anyone know?

What did you plant this spring?

spring

Spring decided to finally show up a few weeks ago. Every year just when you think you can't handle one more cold day, spring arrives and makes everything better.

Some plants that were planted last year are returning. I say some, because several of them didn't make it. But these certainly did. They are lungwort and have the prettiest flowers in the spring. I had no idea that they would look this amazing when they bloomed. They just look like spotted leaves most of the year.

Bring Your Garden Indoors

Fall is slowly turning into Winter this month and now is the time to snip off the last of your outside garden plants to enjoy indoors as long as possible. A couple of weekends ago I did a little fall pruning. Some of these cuttings will only last about a week, but others, such as the coleus can last all year until you re-plant it in the spring.

 

Start with a base of the larger pieces. Then fill in with the smaller items. I wanted to use this small galvanized container, but it was not water tight, so I filled it with a glass cup. 

This arrangement was made in a vintage turquoise vase that I picked up a few weeks ago at a PHS / flea market event at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. This is my new favorite vase, it is the best color!

This arrangement has been in our bedroom and makes me smile every morning.