Wake Up and Smell the Roses

Waking up and smelling the roses is exactly what I did Sunday morning!

It all began Saturday night when I brought this arrangement home from my nephew and new niece’s wedding! If you read my post yesterday about their spring barn wedding, you might remember this arrangement from the arbor by the pond. Well, this was just one of the arrangements from that arbor. My sister graciously offered it to me, and of course I accepted. I brought it home and it filled up my entire kitchen table.

A table covered in roses? Don’t mind if I do!

As tired as I was, I went right to work disassembling it, clipping each flower, and putting them in fresh water for the night. The flowers had been out in the Alabama heat all day and they still looked amazing, but I wanted to give them a little TLC.

I separated them into groups, and this is what I left on the table as I went off to bed….

I felt like I had my own little florist shop! How fun!

When I walked into the kitchen the next morning, the rose fragrance was a delightful welcome. Even the cat was intrigued. Do you see her?

These flowers were too gorgeous and too numerous to just have them sit and wither away all week. I planned to make arrangements Sunday afternoon, but my much-needed naptime won out and then that evening we had a special family dinner and movie since it was our almost son-in-law’s last night with us before he returned to Texas. But to my surprise, the flowers were still fabulous yesterday morning! So, I set to work assembling as many arrangements as I could get out of the flowers, and I had 7 full Mason jars to show for it.

I just kept thinking it was too bad I didn’t have a tea or garden party planned for yesterday. Wouldn’t these be so pretty as centerpieces? I can’t get over the size and fullness of the roses. Just stunning!

I don’t claim to be any skilled florist. In fact, I always get a little embarrassed when I share stuff like this because I know I’m a novice and don’t want to appear to be flaunting anything I don’t have. But I figure I’m just representing the everyday homemakers, not the professionals.

The kids and I headed to town midday for errands so I packed as many as would fit in this crate to take with us. I decided wherever we went, we’d just hand out flowers. It only took a couple of stops to empty the crate.

And if you’re wondering about this crate–isn’t it great! –my husband’s office received two of these at Christmas, both full of delicious goodies from Olive & Cocoa. Since nobody at the office was interested in them, I grabbed them and brought them home and have already found many uses for them (you’ll be seeing them in more upcoming posts). They even have wooden lids!

I just think thought the flowers looked so pretty in this crate, don’t you?

Hope you all have a very rosy day!