The Garden Rose

As you may have gathered from previous posts, I am a writer, and enjoy playing a number of characters in an online chat. One of my characters there, who's been with me since 2007 (maybe late 2006?), gone through a broken bond, a retcon,  and most recently a kidnapping which left her pregnant--which plot is likely to be the subject of another post, is a florist. Thus, I have researched many flowers, Victorian flower language, and how to be a florist. While I've always liked flowers and been fairly good with them (it runs in the family), I've found that maybe I could actually be one, and I've since been enjoying working with them, as you've likely seen here. 

Unfortunately, I never liked roses much. If you don't like what florists generally use, which is most likely a hybrid tea rose, it's likely you don't either. However, there is truly a rose for everyone: there are thousands of other species of roses, all of which are different. And these are just the garden roses, which your local florist can order for you, or which you can order online from sites like Fabulous Florals or Fifty Flowers.

Many of the garden roses available, both old and new, are quite beautiful, and the day I saw these Gallica roses, I knew they were coming home with me. The pink vase I found several weeks before, and it's just perfect for pink roses. With them are seeded eucalyptus, pink hypericum berries, and white Montecasino asters. Here, I experimented with which flowers to put in first, and it worked best with the roses first, which then held the eucalyptus in place, as it's very heavy and fell right over, even in foam. In a second arrangement below, I was able to play with the shape of the eucalyptus, making a very round form from the top. Here, I used red stones to hold the stems in place, with a single rose in the middle.

             

So, that's all I have for this one. I'm not sure what's up next: writing, cooking, or the next set of flowers. If anyone's reading, please comment and tell me what you'd prefer!

A Spring Pitcher

DH and I celebrated our anniversary earlier (number eight) on in November, so I of course took the opportunity to run loose in Produce Junction and blow $20 on flowers. I ended up with white and purple mini calas, yellow fresia, pink roses, white cream lisianthus, green button mums, and varigated carnations. The colors kept making me think of spring. I made 1 arrangment for home, and one for the welcome center, and I'll be comparing them below.

Pitcher 1.

Pitcher 2.



When I first arranged pitcher 1, it was instead in a vase, although now I forget which one it was. However, I got to a point where no more flowers would fit, and I had too many left over, so out came the pitcher (a lovely gift from DMIL several years ago). It fit perfectly, and the arrangement looked really nice. I must admit, that one does look better. The second pitcher, generously donated by my mother, as there are no others in my cabinet yet, was done the next day, at church. Of course I forgot to put in all the larger stems first, as was discovered in doing the first one, but it still looks lovely, oesn't it? The first one is larger, so I think that's why the flowers have a better shape, or may I just cut less at the same height for the second one. I clearly placed theroses much lower, and then tucked many things around the bottom edge.



Pitcher 2.

Pitcher 1.

 

So I couldn't get these two pictures to match more than they are, I hope they're big enough. Anyway, you can definitely tell the structure is based on different flowers in each one--the roses, and the fresia. But they're both pleasing, I think. Same flowers, very different look as far as color and visibility.  The lisianthus buds are much more fisible in the second one, and the paler colors are kind of nice against the deep purple on the calas. Which one do you like better? Feel free to comment!


Up next: The Garden Rose

National Novel Writing Month: Thirty Days and Nights of Literary Abandon

NaNoWriMo: What is it?

As some of you may know, November is National Novel Writing Month, sponsored by the Office of Letters and Light. It happens every year, and I've been participating since 2007. Millions of people participate each year, with one goal in mind: get to 50,000 words by midnight on November 30. While this goal it rather simple, it's also rather deceptive. Writing that many words in 30 days is a feat. Novel writing month, after all, is all about quantity, not quality. It's a race to get the first draft down on the page, whether it's the novel you've always wanted to write, or found out about it on November 1 and thought "hey, why not?"

For some perspective, 50,000 words is about 1,666 words a day. 1,666 words is about 2.5 pages per day. We're talking solid pages here--single spaced, with little white space. It takes me about an hour to an hour and a half each day to finish. For you college students, that's a 5 page paper, every day. If you miss more than one day, it is extremely hard to catch up unless you have hours to sit there and write.

Why You Should Try it

So, why do it? First, let's think about this. Do you know what it's like to write that much in one month? To spend that much time writing? You may not be a writer; do you know what writing is like, or what is involved? Many people think they may want to write, and what better opportunity to really find out? The big draw, and the thing you will connect to others who've done is, is the shared experience.

The race to get your word count done in before the train pulls into your station, or that one chapter you just couldn't finish. Maybe you've single handedly boosted the hit counter on wikipedia looking things up (writing involves a lot of research!). Or sometimes it's just the idea that millions of people around the world are also spending a month sitting at their computer, doing exactly what you're doing. Many people organize area write-ins to write together, so you can share the experience with others as much as you like.

The second best reason to write? Writing 50,000 words in one month is a pretty inspiring challenge to a lot of people, not just writers. As someone who won in 2010 and 2011, winning feels pretty darn awesome. There are goodies for winning, though most of them are online (such as the banner to the right). Being able to say you accomplished something so time-crunched and mentally exhausting is quite satisfying.

I need a third reason. Why? Because I was taught in middle school that when you write a paper, you have three main points, and three supporting facts for each. It's hard to break away from that kind of thing, isn't it? So, reason three: it takes discipline. Yes, I know most people will be turned off reading that. But you know what? Like many things in life, writing takes discipline. You have to apply your self to complete this goal.

How I Win

While there are always those people who bang out the required word count in a number of days or maybe two weeks, many people finish by writing X amount of words per day. Many plan out the story, make an outline, and you may also want to set up chapters before hand. Some of us start thinking about novel writing month over the summer. Some people, like me, even plan several stories to work on--I had 5 this year, all based around my Lupa canon. If you're stuck on one thing, you can jump to another.

Each day, I start by calculating that day's word count, regardless of whether I finished the previous day's or not. Most often, I do my writing on the train, which I take every day to work, so if I finish the day's count before the ride's over, I calculate the next day's count and keep going. It is always better to get a bit ahead if you can, but not too much. It's easier to burn out that way. But normally, having enough material, and doing the required word count per day will have you to 50,000 words at the end of the month.

Finally, I am a writer. I write nearly every work day, and sometimes on weekends, as well. Writing 2.5 solid pages isn't what I normally do, but the fact that I already do something every day is definitely helpful, as there's already something there to build on.

What Happened This Year

While I started out okay this year, November is always a very, very busy time at work, and we have also been busy with church and other things. I didn't have as much time every day to write, and by Thanksgiving I was already several days behind. Since I was the chef this year, I just didn't have time over the holiday, and that was it. I haven't touched it since probably November 21.

It's not the first year I've had to stop or give up for some reason; it happened in my first year or two, as well. One year I ended up getting sick, and that significantly set me back. So, no winner goodies for me this year. But I did get some good draft material for the continuation of Miara's* book (3rd year for NaNo for this one), two fairy tales rewritten for Lupa canon, some more copy for Zaira's* childhood, and a little  surprise piece for Eiry and Guyver*. So, not too bad on that count.

*Please note that most of these links are for non-canon versions of these characters, but will give you background on who they are.


Finally, feel free to check out my NaNoWriMo page here: http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/firefly_1824.

Pomanders

So, I know it's been several weeks since I promised the pomanders, but this have been busy, both life and work. First it was our anniversary (how could I possibly pass up the excuse to do some flowers--and cooking), then Thanksgiving, and so on. But, here are the pomanders, which were actually done the same day as the romantic country arrangements. It's a rather long one--the longest so far, I think?--but that makes up for the long time between posts, right?

Antique silver pomander ball ca. 1640.

Pomanders originate from medieval times, when higher class Europeans carried around posies or a pomander ball filled with oils and essences to ward of the every day bad smells at the time--everything that today goes into the sewer or garbage bags went into the streets and ditches at that time. Orange pomanders studded with cloves are still very popular around Christmas time. Today, floral pomanders or "kissing balls" are popular at weddings, and flower girls often carry them. A large variety of fake ones are also available online. They can also be made with fake flowers, and there are plenty of instructions online for that, as well.

Florists usually make fresh flower pomanders with floral foam, wire and/or ribbon, and some type of uniform flower that grows with one flower at the top of a stem, such as carnations, mums, daisies, or even roses. My A friend, D, wanted to do this with me, so we went shopping and I don't think I've ever bought so many flowers at once! That was pretty sweet. We used 4" foam spheres, wire, and ribbon to make ours, along with 4 colors of carnations and 2 dozen roses.

D's carnation pomander with baby's breath.

To attach the ribbon, we took stem wire, folded it in half, and stuck it all the way through the foam ball, twisting at the bottom. Each ball got two wires, and then we attached the ribbon to the top before putting the flowers in. Although the wire moved up through the foam significantly, we hung the yellow and purple pomander in the women's bathroom overnight and it stayed up all through the next day. However, next time I think I will try wrapping the ribbon around the sphere instead, as the flowers will cover it. 

My pomander--I love the purple and yellow together.

Once you have it ready to go, however, you simply cut the flowers off the stem, leaving about in inch, and insert them into the foam until it is covered. If you are using carnations, I think we used about 40 per sphere, but it was over a month ago now, and I don't remember exactly. With roses, however, I had large ones, and the 2 dozen I bought were not enough--I probably could have used 2 or three more. The other thing with the roses was that several of them turned brown around the edged very quickly. I'm not sure if it's due to quality, resting the ball on the table while I made it, or the fact that I manually opened all the roses so that they were very full.

Rose pomander centerpiece with pearl pins.

The rose pomander we made was much bigger, as the roses were rather large, and I found the ones in the bottom did not stay in well. Next time, I will try using the floral glue with the roses--the stuff I have is waterproof. I also picked up a box of corsage pins, and stuck one into the center of each rose. It was really pretty and turned out well. It also fit perfectly into the large glass bowl I have at home, so that's what it's in. I found out however, when I had tried to water the foam (it did get try on top), most of it went into the bottom of the bowl and rotted the flowers on the bottom. It would be fine for the day of an event, but not for several days. If you want a pomander-like center piece, there are half foam spheres for that, or you could get spheres and cut them in half.

Overall, the pomander experiment went quite well, and I really want to try the roses again some time. A lot of the women in the church really liked it, as well, and like me before seeing some of these on the internet when I first started researching florist things for Eiry (one of my characters at Suburban Senshi), many had no idea that you could do that with flowers. I've also discovered how to make pictures different sizes, move them around, etc., on the blog, so expect to see more fun with that!

Next time, I'll discuss designing colorful, spring-like flowers in pitchers!

A Romantic Country Garden

I didn't do flowers last week for the welcome center, so these are from the week before. Rustic/country garden was the theme, based around the red ranunculus. Deep purple snapdragons, pink lisianthus, and proteus are also used here. This is a large mason jar, with the rim on, which was left over from a project last Christmas. Arranged in the jar.

There were enough flowers left for a little arrangement, but it ended up being a hand tie, since there weren't enough to stand up on their own. You'll notice the nice white background on these; since I've been taking the pictures mostly for composition and to see how I can improve, I haven't been picky with the background. So thanks to my Dad who saw some of the pictures and donated a tri-fold board for backgrounds ^_^.

Next up, flower pomanders!

Sedum and Sage

This is the arrangement for the new welcome center from this last Sunday (10/21). Watching the sedum go from light pink to this nice dark redish pink this year has been great, so I just had to use it in an arrangement. These are from my parents' gardens, as are the sage and caryopteris clandonensis, which we're not sure of the common name. They had purple flowers and are planted with the sedum, and they're really pretty together.


For the arranging, this is just an empty kitchen canister I had, and I attempted using water proof tape to grid the top, but that just turned out to be a mess, and I didn't need it anyway. And then I found a table cloth in similar colors to fold and put underneath. Since the sedum was already rather dry, I didn't want the material getting all over the new white surface on the counter. 

Now, to think of what to do this week...

Some Floral Offerings

The last two weeks, no one signed up for the altar flowers at church, so I did some up--I got to do flowers and practice, and use one of my talents in a more ministerial manner.

The first week, I did a one sided arrangement in a cool circular vase I found at Michael's. There's floral foam inside, surrounded by shell pieces in two colors. The flowers are delphinium and bells of Ireland in the back, orchids, and Fuji mums. There were several things left, and I was able to put flowers on everyone's desks, and one orchid fell off, so I put it in a glass with some shell and wire (which you can't really see in the photo, but this one's prettier).

Last week, I did a hand-tie in a very tall vase for the altar, with red stones in the bottom. The lovely yellow roses were nearly the only open ones I could find at Produce Junction, along with orange and red carnations, pink alestrumeria (Peruvian lily), and some nice deep greens and a red hypericum berry. The feathery grass and cornflower seed pods came from around the church. I was definitely going for a fall/harvest color palate and feel.

Our new welcome center was installed last week, and I had plenty of flowers, both from what I bought and the grounds, for a smaller arrangement. This is in the brown teapot my aunt got in Japan in the 50s, which the pink lilies were in a few weeks ago. This view is from the top. The purple is butterfly bush, I think the rest are fairly common.

Dinner and Dessert

Last week, I made stuffed peppers for the first time, as my parents had an abundance of peppers from their garden. I made it with rice, sausage, mushrooms, onions, and home made tomato sauce, which I made a few weeks ago. They turned out pretty week, and even DH liked it. He doesn't like bell peppers, but he'll eat them for sausage. The only mishap was slightly burning my finger while boiling the peppers

And then yesterday, I tried a Paula Deen strawberry cake for the church luncheon today, and it turned out very well. It has a cake mix base, but there is strawberry gelatin in the cake, and the icing is a cream cheese base. There is strawberry puree in both the cake and icing, and I've gotta say, every time I use that little food processor I love it more. It's just the right size, it's easy to do several batches, and super easy to clean. I didn't use nearly as much confectioner's sugar (icing sugar if you're in the UK) as it calls for, and the icing was rather liquidy, and sticky when it set, but it did look nice and smooth. There's a whole tomato sauce jar of it left over, though. It was well received, and tasted rather good, as well. It's probably one of the prettiest cakes I've ever made. The flower is a Fuji mum.

The next post will be flowers, which I also did this weekend. And I know I promised one from Chanticleer Gardens, but I haven't got half of the pictures on my laptop yet. But I'll work on it. In the meantime, look up snail vine and take a look at it.

Sweet & Savory Figs

I did get a chance to make a fig dish last week, using a recipe from a blog called Vanilla & Spice. (Even though I have a cart full of cook books, I still get most of my recipes from the internet...I know a lot of people do, but it still makes me feel guilty.)  It was modified based on what was in the house and what DH will eat--no apricots, different spices, some herbs, used scallions, and some dried tomatoes I wanted to get rid of. While the result was decent, it once again confirmed I'm not a fan of mixing sweet and savory in most cases. Did really like the couscous, though. Almost forgot to take a pic, and it's not nearly as good as the one on Vanilla & Spice, but here it is.

I've never cooked fresh figs before, they definitely have a mild flavor, and don't taste like fig newtons (which are awesome). Definitely would cook them again, but maybe for dessert or one of the fig and onions tart recipes I saw while looking for this one.

There are currently stuffed peppers in the oven, so expect to see a post about that later. Hopefully there are some stuffed pepper fans out there for that! 

Pretty in Pink

We were at my parents for lunch today (a small birthday celebration), and Mom asked me to cut some flowers for the table--specifically the sedum. So I went with the color scheme there, and although it's hard to tell in this picture, all the flowers are pink or white. These are all flowers from their gardens, hand tied in a small vase with silver and blue pebbles. My camera didn't take the greatest pictures, but the best shot is below: straight down on the floor. The colors turned our really nice with the lighting.

Straight down on the floor; the colors turned out really nice with the lighting. Not too concerned with roundness and uniformity in this one. With the various flowers I had it would have been difficult, and the asymmetry turned out rather nice for a casual arrangement.

The Second Life of Lilies

Lilies stand for purity and modesty, and although it's not so easy to see in this sized picture, most of these are just beautiful. Both the blue flowers and waxflowers from last week's arrangement died, so I rearranged the lilies, what have now all opened, in a simple Japanese teapot. It belonged to my Great Aunt Claire, who lived in Japan for several years in the 1950s. It's the right shade of brown for the light pink.

I arranged these free in the pot, no stones or foam. It was small enough that only about 4 or 5 stems made a nice support for the others. One side had a bit of a whole in it, but I didn't have any more flowers, which I suppose is fine for a quick second leg. Removing all those darn pollen pods was really messy, I still have stains on my hands.

As you may see from the opening of this blog, I have an interest in flower language, specifically Victorian flower language. However, I can't keep it in my head all the time, so I use a site called "In the Garden" which is resourced from actual Victorian era flower guides. It's one of the most comprehensive lists I've seen, and that's why I use it. Even if you're not interested in using it, it is an interesting concept. It's also something to consider if you want to wow your girlfriend or significant other with an extra special bouquet.

Well, that's all I have for now; we may be going to visit a garden today, so I may have more pictures soon! The rest of the lily pictures--it was really hard picking just one--are here.

The Mysterious Blue Flowers

We went to Produce Junction again this weekend (stay tuned for a fig dish later this week), so of course I had to get flowers. While their flowers aren't usually the best quality (they're often dirty or squashed--I don't think they're handled all that well by staff), they're very inexpensive and great for practicing my developing arranging skills.

The first thing I picked up were these tall spikes of blue flowers. Try as I might, I haven't been able to identify them on the internet. Perhaps later I'll be able to find them in one of the field guides. They have a lot of petals when opened, I counted about 15 on one, but you wouldn't know it when they're closed. Next were some lovely purple large asters of some sort, followed by coral waxflower and pink asters. But then I saw some lovely pink lillies. They're rather small, but I thought they would look better with the blue and waxflowers, so I put the asters back.

Due to the amount of time I had on Saturday, and the flower choice, I thought a vase arrangement would be better than going for the floral foam this time. This is a hand-tied arrangement, which allowed me to play with the depth of the bouquet a bit, and choose placement a little more than arranging right in the vase.

I usually take several pictures of each arrangement, from a lot of different angles. Because of the depth of this one, I took several straight on from the side, and then a series at an angle. I think the angled ones came out better--it's easier to see the flowers. The rest of the pictures, should you wish to see them, are here: http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/zairafirefly/my%20art/flowers/sept%2015/.

If you can identify the blue flowers, please let me know in the comment section.

New Curtains!

I wasn't really going to write about my personal life a whole lot, but the new curtains for the balcony doors arrived today. They look really nice after the old ones, and DH likes them, too. 

First Post!

Starting a blog is something I've thought of several times in the last few years, although I never really had the motivation to do so. I don't keep up on facebook or other such things, so this may be sparsley used, or even abandoned in the end. But it's good to try new things and see if maybe I do like it, after all. 

Having interests in many areas, I expect I'll be blogging about writing, food and cooking, flowers, books, art, knitting, etc. This may will turn into a writing blog rather quickly, especially as National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org) approaches in November. However, expect different sorts of things to appear here.

Finally, thanks to Rai and KK from Suburban Senshi for helping me with the title.