If you’re looking for Thanksgiving Centerpiece for your table or buffet, here’s an idea using your pumpkin as a vase for your table~
Start by soaking some Oasis or florist foam in water, a minimum of 30 minutes is best. Oasis foam is easy to penetrate with delicate stems and will hold the water that is needed to help keep your arrangement fresher for an extended period of time.
Cut your pumpkin lid off & remove seeds and scrape to make room for soaked foam. You don’t have to be super neat with the inside. I lined the pumpkin with a few plastic bags to keep any additional water from the oasis away from the bottom of the pumpkin to keep it a little drier & help it last longer. My foam is wedged in tightly, so I didn’t need to use floral tape to hold the foam in place.
Search for leaves, foliage, berries~ anything that has great color or form. I cut some Sweetgum leaves/branches as the base structure. I added apples on florist picks next (you could use sturdy twigs if you don’t have picks).
Add your next largest flower~ in this case, I found roses that were a great color at my Super Target, but normally I go to Trader Joe’s for great flower selection. I added mums next, then filled in with bits of leaves and shrubbery clippings for filler.
If you make your centerpiece a couple of days in advance, keep it out of direct sunlight and preferably some place cool like a garage or porch to slow down the evaporation process and keep your flowers looking fresh.
You can find my Thanksgiving table with centerpiece here.
Thank you for your visit, I’m joining:
Start with some Oasis or a floral foam product that you can soak in water to keep your flowers fresh. Secure the oasis to your container with floral tape so the weight of the flowers won’t pull the foam out of your container. This urn has a hole in the bottom, so I lined it with several plastic bags to keep the water in the oasis from dribbling out.
I started with (2) white bundles & (1) pink bundle of fresh flowers from Trader Joe’s. I’ve also bought great looking floral bundles from Super Target or my grocery store if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s near you. My greenery in my yard is still pretty cold-shocked and sad-looking now, but normally I could snip greenery from my shrubbery. This is Euonymus that was in my Trader Joe’s bundle that I started with as my “line” greenery.
Next I used my larger leaf greenery to help camouflage my tape & oasis.
Add your larger flowers next. There are a couple of video links/how-to’s at the end of this post that are very helpful.
To help make this arrangement, this urn is on a Lazy Susan, since it’s so heavy.
I like to use produce in my arrangements. I think it makes it more interesting, and you can always find apples at the grocery store. It also serves as a great “hole-filler”. Granny Smith are great to use since they are hard, and piercing them in the bottom with your pick won’t cause them to expire too quickly. With that rule in mind, pears are NOT great to use because they will get extremely soft very quickly. I meant to pick up some artichokes to use with this white and green arrangement, but left them off my grocery list, (oops) and I was loosing daylight to take these photos and didn’t have time to run back out. So, I used my organic pears as a substitute. . .not a great use for organic produce! I’m pulling them out and substituting artichokes after these pics are taken, and using these pears in our salad like I intended :-)
Hydrangea is my favorite flower. . .we just planted some Oakleaf Hydrangea in the yard this fall, so hopefully I’ll have some to clip this summer. I love how it fades from white to green to pink. . .
I had picked up a pink bundle of flowers at the same time. . .it had a lot of “filler” flowers in it, so I added the pink after I finished with the white. Personally, I think it’s hard to beat green & white as a color combination . .
All complete, with 3 bundles of flowers in about an hour, including clean up– if you don’t stop and take pictures :-) I’m rather messy, I should have taken a picture of the floor and the sink. When I do arrangements at Christmas time, I usually put a fitted sheet on the island, so it makes for easier clean up.
Here are some great video link floral how-to’s from MyHomeIdeas.Com. If you’re not already familiar with this site, you may want to visit it for great Design Tips, Idea Houses, Entertaining Ideas etc.
Be sure to stop by the Porch & Visit with Susan and see other inspiring metamorphoses!
I’m joining Susan (and company!) at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday. No great project from me this week, just a handy little gadget you may not know to help you with your own metamorphosis.
These are the greatest invention since sliced bread…have you seen them? We used them in our retail store, moving chests and sideboards, even large etageres and shelf units. My friend Annie stumbled on these on QVC about 8 years ago, before they became available at mass merchandisers. You can find them at Lowe’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart, and Amazon etc.
For carpets and rugs:
For hardwood floors and tile:
Especially handy when your hubby is grumbling about rearranging the sofa or dresser, you can do it all by yourself, without any back strain.
I have multiple sets, that come in handy when I decided to move my sectional sofa.
There is that dog bone Chloe has been looking for that the sliders unearthed!
Head over to the Porch for some inspiring transformations…
No personal metamorphosis from me this week. I thought I’d share this site that you may or may not be already aware of:
If you’re not already familiar with this site, I recommend you visit to see Design Tips, Idea Houses, Entertaining Ideas etc.
There are some amazing Before and After Outdoor Transformations HERE.
(I’m yearning for Spring, so I have been fantasizing about spending more time Outdoors.)
This Before and After had some appeal to me since we’re lake dwellers…
Lake Cabin Before
Lake Cabin After
The details about this transformation can be read about HERE. Certainly a job for professionals and not for the faint-of-heart!
This one of my favorite Before and Afters that has me yearning for weather for Outdoor Entertaining…
And After
This is one of my favorite Outdoor Party Ideas featured in Southern Living.
For more details of this Party Transformation go Here.
MyHomeIdeas.com has a Spring Cleaning Giveway that you can enter daily between now and April 30th! To enter click Here.
For more Inspirational Metamorphoses, head over to Between Naps on the Porch.
I’m joining Susan (and company!) at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday.
This is a photo that I uploaded at Photofiddle. I ran across it in a gift guide in the avalanche of holiday catalogs and magazines I received back in November. I was so happy with the results, I thought I’d share! The process was fun and quick–and if you don’t know about it, you might like to try it for yourself. (I don’t have any financial incentive for sharing this.)
This is a photo of Chloe and Gracie. After you register (for free), you upload your photo and start “fiddling”. You can upload as many as 100 photos and they offer 50 plus styles of “art”. You can choose from Oil Paint Style, Watercolor, Collage, Deep Sponge Painting, etc.
This is how my “art” turned out in Impasto Style. I was thrilled with the results. You can view your style and change your photo/art style as many times as you want and save it in your library.
Here is a close up of my canvas so you can see the texture of Impasto Style.
This is a close up of Chloe’s face. She is my “problem” child…I think medication would be beneficial … for one or both of us :-)
Here’s a tip…once you register with your email and upload half a dozen photos and save them “fiddled”, you will start to receive email coupon offers, so you can wait for those before placing your order.
I received my “art” within one week of ordering, shipped by FedEx.
Even if you never order, it’s fun to fiddle.
Head over to the Porch for more inspiring transformations…
I’m participating in my first Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.
This is where my ugly laundry room sink used to be, that was never used. Click here to see how ‘lovely’ it was…not.
This is the before– after removing the sink. The plumbing is staying, I’m just hoping to camouflage it a bit.
I found a stand and an old seed bin at the flea market and decided it would serve as a great planter. I could change it seasonally with pots of flowers and ivy.
Here it is, empty, except for spanish moss, waiting to be planted…
My laundry “room” is really just a pass-thru, from the garage to the kitchen…
I love the tattered, worn paper ‘Seeds’ label.
I added a ceramic bird and bird’s nest…
And for fun, my Portmeirion plate, that echos the daffodils.
A close up of an old trowel…
Some apples for additional color…
A pot of tulips, even though they won’t last very long…
At least now there is something cheery to look at besides dryer sheets…
It almost makes me believe that spring is right around the corner.
Who needs a laundry sink anyway? :-)
Stop by the Porch for more inspiration…
