Cleaning & Crafting

I spent the better part of my day cleaning the house. With five dogs, if you don't keep up with cleaning, the hair can start to overwhelm you. I probably vacuum every other day and sweep the kitchen every day, sometimes twice! Oh well, I guess that's the trade-off for loving my animals.

After my work was done, (In times like this, I remember hearing my mother say, "Work before play...")I started making the table arrangements for our church's Valentine dinner. They turned out great and can't wait to see how they look on the tables. I'll take pictures and post them. If you would like instructions on how to make your own Valentine arrangement, I've listed step-by-step instructions at the end of this post.

I will not have any posts tomorrow because I won't have time. But, I'll catch you up on Saturday.

Valentine Flower Arrangement
courtesy Renee Schaaf, CT Farm

Materials:
1 4" clay flower pot
1 4" foam ball, green (like oasis) (One ball can make two arrangements)
15-25 silk flowers of your choice (number will vary depending on the size of the flowers)
1 glass votive
1 tealight candle
Hot glue gun
Wire cutters
Paint
Spoon
Bread knife

1) Spray paint or brush paint your clay pot and let dry. (Figure 1)
2) Cut your foam ball in half. A bread knife works well for this. (Figure 2)
3) Take one half of the foam ball and lay it on the table. Using your glass votive as a guide, try to center the votive on the top center of the foam ball. Once you've found center, push the votive down in the foam to give you a guide for a circle. (Figure 3 & 4)
4) Take a spoon and dig out a hole on your foam using the guide from the votive. Dig down about 1/2 an inch, making sure the bottom of the hole is flat. Your glass votive will sit in this hole when done. (Figure 5)
5) Once your clay pots are dry, take your foam piece and sit it in the pot and then put a little bit of hot glue on the foam and pot, enough to hold the foam in the pot. Two globs opposite each other should be enough. (Figure 6)
6) Place a small bit of glue on the bottom of the glass votive and place the votive in the hole in the foam. (Figure 7)
7) Begin placing flowers in the foam. Use your wire cutters to cut off the flower leaving 3/4 to 1 inch of stem. Make sure you add plenty of flowers and pack them in well. You don't want any foam showing. (Figure 8 & 9)
8) Place a tealight candle in the votive. (Figure 10)
9) Now you have a festive Valentine Flower Arrangement! (Figure 11)

Figure 1

Figure 2


Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11