My foyer has never looked so pretty. After losing my small hedge of peonies to a flood (broken soaker hose) last year, I am starting over (sniff) and have bought 3 peony plants and planted them on the other side of the house, just to be safe.
The established plants had 2 buds each and I am reaping the rewards the week. Fringed with lilacs, they look gorgeous in my pink glass vase. How did I have such a perfect pink vase? Simple, last Summer I painted the outside of an empty glass jar (from either spaghetti sauce or canned peaches, I can't tell) with craft paint. Once it is dry, it looks like old-fashioned pink glass and I love it.
I am happiest when I can cut flowers and arrange a bouquet for the house. Have you started bringing flowers indoors yet?
Since I have had my own "imaginary magazine" for a while now (the very real issue covers are on my DELIGHT totes), I started thinking about what my jam labels would look like if I had a jam company. (I know, crazy, right?)
You see, for years I have been taking the labels off of jam jars so that I could paint the jars with cute designs. It made me want to put a label on.
I decided that an ANA label would have a gorgeous photo (from my book cover), my Passed As Super Cute logo and lots of pink and orange. The "flavor" is Pineapple Sage.
What do you think?
A customer bought a bunch of my painted jam jars and then one jar like this labelled "Delight." She said she had to have one because, "It's so you!"
Her statement surprised me, and then I realized that when you have a blog, people really can surmise what is "me." How cool.
It was a gorgeous day for an art show and I am so happy with how everything went.I want to say thank you to everyone who came by to say "Hi" - what a day!This picture is from the entrance to my booth. I wanted to greet people with flowers! I put a collection of my hand-painted and "ANA" Private label jam jars vases for sale. So pretty!
I think most people want to be generous - they just don't always recognize what it is that they have to "give."
Right now, what I really have to give is flowers. The more I talk to people, the more I realize they rarely make themselves casual flower arrangements. But what a difference flowers can make on your mood! A subtle "power of suggestion" item that says life is good.
So I am making and giving small bouquets every chance I get. I think the secret to the success of these flower arrangements are my vases. Flowers need a vase and I've devised a way to make affordable vases that my friends want to keep and reuse.
I save jam jars all year and then in an afternoon, paint them all with polka dots. I use glass paint, my brush is a cotton swab for the perfect dot and once the paint is dry I follow the directions on the bottle and bake the vases in the oven to make the dots permanent. Super easy and so cute!
Tonight I am invited to a small dinner party and in addition to salad, I am also bringing flowers! I'll be cutting a fresh bouquet this afternoon of yellow roses. All it takes is a few roses, a painted jar and an orchid clip.
What can you be generous with? Your time? Your tomatoes? A simple gesture of generosity can mean the world to someone.
