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!