{an orchid arrangement for the holiday season}

This holiday season is already looking scary busy between hosting our families here in Chicago for Thanksgiving, holiday parties, some travel, lots of work and flying home for Christmas.  While I love to put together fresh arrangements for our dining table (like this one), I decided to take a little work off my plate for the coming weeks by putting together an orchid arrangement that I hope to last well through Christmas morning!

I have always loved the look of 4 or 5 smaller orchids planted in a large footed vase (like this or this) and while we do have the perfect vessel to achieve this look from ZGallerie I have never wanted actually fill it with dirt since we do use it often for champagne bottles at parties.  Last week on a Home Goods trip, I came across this silver metal drink bucket for a mere $29 (similar one here) and knew it would be perfect for making my orchid arrangement vision into reality.

I picked up a few different smaller orchids from my local Trader Joe's (you can also find these at your local flower store or even Home Depot for around $6 to $9 each) and a bag of orchid potting mix.  You will also need to pick up a small pack of stones (or steal them from your neighbor's yard- I won't judge) to allow for drainage at the bottom of the bucket.  I also topped the arrangement with some bright green moss- this part is totally optional, but I do think it brightens the arrangement while also hiding the unattractive orchid roots and weird look of the potting mix!

Whenever I buy orchids for our home they last for at least a month and I am hoping this arrangement will go for even longer.  I love the luxe look of the silver bucket and clean white orchids alone, but if you wanted to make it feel more "holiday" appropriate you could add a simple holiday ribbon around the rim of the bucket tied in a festive bow.  How amazing would this arrangement be as a special gift for a hostess or your family this Thanksgiving?!?

{autumn color palette & tablescape}

To go along with the floral arrangement I posted about yesterday, I created this table-scape inspired by a deeper autumn color palette.  I started with a kraft paper runner (the same roll from our wedding is still going strong!) layered with another smaller wrapping paper printed with a modern black trellis design.  The table decor was simply the three floral arrangements which brought in the autumn color palette of oranges, oxbloods, and greens.

It is pretty rare that I don't use our gold chargers in place settings (I really need to invest in one more set of chargers, but I just love the gold ones so much that it's hard to break away).  I then layered each setting with a mix of our white dinner plates and black salad plates.  While my general policy is to buy everything in white so that it all works together no matter what, I found a set of these dark glossy black salad plates at a thrift store a while back and figured they wouldn't hurt to have around especially for Halloween!  I rounded everything out with gold flatware and a simple black/ white striped napkin plus a pop of color from the vintage green glass water cups.

And get the look for yourself (bonus points since almost all of these things are from Target!!):

kraft paper roll  |  gold candlesticks  |  floral arrangement DIY  |  gold votive set  |  graphic print napkins  |  gold prism charger  |  brass tray  |  green glass water tumbler  |  gold serving set  

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Target via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Target.

{fall inspired florals}

On a recent trip to Whole Foods, I could not help myself, but to pick up all these amazing dark fall florals.  Our local Whole Foods usually gets some pretty boring selections in the flower department so when I spotted these lotus pods, hypernicum berry and thistle (all on sale!) I just knew I had to put something together!  I threw in a bunch of deep pink spray roses to give it a little femininity and pop of color.

I know it's been all over pinterest, but the first person I saw make an arrangement in a hollowed out pumpkin was my mother when I was in grade school and I remember thinking at the time that it was just about the coolest thing I had ever seen.  I picked up three of these "pie" pumpkins also from Whole foods, hollowed them out and then popped a small glass vase in each one.  I am sure you could skip the vase part, but I was concerned the pumpkins would get super soggy within a day- these ones are still going strong about 4 days later.

Be sure to check back tomorrow to see the full tablescape that went along with these arrangements!

{budget florals: 4 arrangements for $25}

If I could fill every corner of my house with fresh floral arrangements every week, I most certainly would, but it would also cost a lot.  The good news is that both my local supermarket and nearby Whole Foods sell a variety of in season single blossom bunches.  I can usually find a good selection of 4 or 5 different flowers priced around $5 to $8 per bunch.  On a recent errand this past weekend, I picked up 4 bunches of flowers (listed below) and the total came out to only $25!  Since the spray roses and eucalyptus cover a lot of surface area in an arrangement, I was able to get 3 good sized floral pieces and one mini arrangement out of these 4 bunches to place all around our place!

 {two arrangements went into our entryway in white ceramic trophy shaped vases from Target}

 {one arrangement was placed on my desk in a vintage milk glass container}

 {the last little arrangement was placed in our guest bathroom in a small bud vase from CB2}

{succulent centerpiece: mixing real + faux}

One thing I miss the most about our previous place in LA is our succulent garden.  I opted not to bring along any of the succulents from those planters on our move to Chicago since we don't have outdoor space here and I didn't think they would survive the move/living indoors.  After being here for almost a year, I have noticed quite a few people who have had luck with succulents indoors so I thought I would try it out.  Rather than do a full succulent centerpiece, I decided to hedge my bets on the plants living more than a week by buying only a few real ones and mixing them in with some faux ones.  Succulents have such a waxy appearance anyway that faux succulents actually look really realistic. You can find a really good selection of faux succulents in the floral department of Michaels or right here.  The real ones were purchased at Home Depot and you can buy online right here.

{re-using one of the wood planters we used for our wedding centerpieces}

 {yes I wore gardening gloves even for this small project because I am deathly afraid of spiders.}

 {real vs. faux}

 {can you tell which ones are real?}