Flowers

Flowers, flowers, flowers...there were flowers every where and the house smelled wonderful.
The Garden Club that I belong to has a few funeral homes that call us when they have left over flowers.  I went to one yesterday and filled my trunk and back seat with many arrangements.  I brought them into my kitchen and then, because my back had gone out, I just left them.
This morning my back was better, not perfect but I can stand up straight, so started in on the flowers.  I start by taking all the roses out and they go into a glass vase.  Then I pull the longer stemmed carnations, sorting by color, then the mums, baby's breath, freesia, snapdragons, etc.  After the flowers have been pulled I remove almost all of the greens from the arrangements and toss it.  I save whatever I can of the oasis, some of the small baskets and oasis get made into smaller arrangements, some of the flowers are arranged in glass vases.  Our club collects vases at garage sales and flea markets and we have cards that were printed to show that the flowers are from the Livonia Garden Club.
After the work of making arrangements I have to decide where they are going.  This time I loaded the car with eight arrangements.  Three others went to elderly neighbors.  I also got a live plant arrangement that I will keep.  My first stop was to my local Verizon store where I do business, I gave the small red and white glass bowl to a nice young man that was just amazed.  Next I stopped at Petco where my dog has her hair done.  The lady behind the desk at the neighborhood elementary school squealed with delight and the lady at Sir Speedy Printing was very happy.  I just love the look on peoples faces when you are giving them something for nothing!  The donut shop where I order donuts and muffins for work was my next stop, they were in heavy production of Paczki for tomorrows Fat Tuesday and were thrilled with the large white and purple arrangement.  Then I was off to a meeting at our local historical village so the last arrangement of pink and white went to them.

Besides getting to make all these people happy I end up with free baskets, containers and oasis that I can use when (if) spring and summer come for the flowers in my gardens.  I was especially pleased to see the large purple container, I am quite sure I can find a use for that in the "studio".  I also picked up two arrangements that were on easels.  One of the easels is wood and the other is green metal with a hook.  These easels make great displays for things at our Christmas craft sale.  I think I may use a few around the garden this year with the bags of impatiens in them.

 then my silly took this "selfie" of me, I hate pictures of myself but thought I would share this one anyway.

I hope your day was equally as fun, I would love to hear about it.