Category: Entertainment

The only way that spending a little time with a bunch of friends, learning new skills, and creating your very own Holiday Flower Tree® could get any better would be if it benefited a good cause. And that’s exactly what happened when my sister-in-law, Kathy, opened her home and invited a few of her neighborhood girlfriends in to join in the fun.

Each guest made a contribution to Smile Farms at IGHL, an organization that is near and dear to my heart. 1800-Flowers.com graciously stepped up and donated all the materials needed for this workshop, which allowed us to make a nice holiday donation to Smile Farms on behalf of this group of friends.These are the typical ingredients used to make a classic holiday flower tree.

In my opinion, presentation is everything. Make the work area feel like Santa’s workshop with a holiday cloth and use various baskets and wooden boxes to display the ingredients that will be used in making and decorating the trees. I also made a few different trees in advance to provide inspiration and stimulate ideas.

The beauty of learning the basic techniques of making a Holiday Flower Tree is that the possibilities are endless!

For example, this is the classic style that was created during the workshop.

And by putting the same tree into three different containers you create three different looks – modern, farmhouse, and rustic!

Everyone was thrilled with their finished product and I must say they had every right to be. They all looked incredible. The red truck is from a Harry & David holiday gift basket that is filled with the most delicious assortment of sweets. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to put a little tree in the back!

Ready to make your own Holiday Flower Tree?  My next post will take you step-by-step through the process.  In the meantime, here are a few more ideas for making tabletop tree arrangements that are as unique as you are!

Enjoy our guide to hosting your very own Flower design whether it’s as a class, workshop or an event. The DIY floral design workshop is great fun for everyone and your guests take their flower design creations back home! 

I recently had the opportunity to go out into the “field” so to speak, and share a few of my favorite things – flowers and fun – with great friends, old and new!

The first event was of a corporate nature.  My sister Peggy, asked if I would do a floral centerpiece workshop at her annual Customer Appreciation Night.  She likes to have a little something extra and interactive for this event and the “Centerpiece Bar” worked out even better than we expected.

The venue was local Jersey shore restaurant Brandl and its warm ambiance set the perfect vibe for an evening of small bites, cocktails, and creativity.  Flowers are a natural way of making people feel good anyway so it wasn’t long before guests were rolling up their sleeves and opening themselves up to the possibilities!

If you are going to host a floral design DIY party, I suggest prepping and pre-greening containers. That’s the messy work anyway so best to get it out of the way and let’s your guests get right to the good part!

K.I.S.S – Keep it simple silly. The floral selection is seasonal, and in the fall, that means lots of chrysanthemums.  Be sure to had in lots of different textural options as well with the fillers and novelty foliage.

This type of event is all about enjoying the experience so keep it simple with a guide to follow but allow everyone to pick their own varieties and colors.

My role as the floral instructor was to guide, inspire, and ultimately make everyone comfortable enough to trust their instincts and have fun while creating their very own autumn floral centerpiece.

The evening quickly became a flurry of activity with co-workers and clients getting to know each other a little better, sharing laughs and new experiences.

And as if the evening’s festivities weren’t enough everyone got to take home their beautiful creations to enjoy all week long or perhaps to give it to someone they love!

If you’re looking for a great way to connect with clients or say thank you to your valued employees I highly recommend talking to your local florist about partnering with you on an event like this!  Hosting it at a restaurant in town is another way of supporting local business and keeping them top of mind in the community!

Another “win-win” idea is to host a DIY party that raises money for a good cause.  Or what I like to call a DIY FUNdraiser!  My next post highlights a Holiday Flower Tree DIY FUNdraiser with lots of ideas for making your own miniature holiday tree!

If you feel, like I do, that no party is complete without a game or two, here’s a fun idea for your next wine – themed party: a Rosé party game!

Save the corks from the wine you drink, or ask friends and family to save theirs for you to collect. Fill a pretty bowl or any clear container with the corks and have your guests guess how many corks are in the container. Remember to count them as you put them in the bowl.

And the perfect prize for the winner? A bottle of wine of course!

Beach Inspired Decor for a Summer Soiree

Keep your floral varieties classic, such as roses and orchids, and use just one variety per arrangement and mass it out for maximum impact.

To design in a large shell simply place a piece of saturated floral foam in the opening of the shell, cut the floral stems short and insert into the floral foam until the entire opening is filled with flowers.

Coastal Table Placecards That Are as Easy as a Summer Breeze

Do the same thing with other containers such as the white ceramic pedestal bowl filled with bronze dendrobium orchids. Buy full stems of orchids and cut each flower off of the main stem and insert into the wet foam that you have placed in the container. If the container isn’t waterproof simply add a plastic liner first before placing the foam and making the arrangement.

Sand dollars make the perfect place cards. Tucking a single cymbidium under the sand dollar brings it altogether for a customized look that’s sure to impress!

You can make your “Ladies Celebrating Ladies” gatherings even more meaningful by adding an element of giving back. There are so many ways to do this, in big ways or small. It’s all up to you. If you are gathering with a group of friends monthly, set a dollar amount that each person will contribute per month and vote on an organization to donate to at the end of a year. In honor of the creator of Galentine’s Day, you could contribute to or get involved with Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls or another organization that is committed to supporting girls’ and women’s causes.

Or you and your friends could organize a larger special event. Each planning meeting is another excuse to get together with the girls! I recently helped organize a Paint & Wine event that raised money for Smile Farms, an organization that is near and dear to my family and me.

A larger scale event requires more work and attention to detail, but it is worth it. Here are some tips and ideas from this event if you are thinking of giving something like this a try.

Before hiring professional instructors, see if there are people within your circle who have the necessary skills and would be willing to volunteer their time or offer a deep discount off their regular fee.

Chandra and Carly, both employees of 1-800 Flowers.com, volunteered their time and knowledge. Chandra is a certified wine instructor and Carly is a recent graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a degree in Fine Arts. A Smile Farms board member donated the wine, and all the painting supplies were purchased at a special discount from Social Artworking. This company’s site makes it very easy to plan a painting party!

All the beautiful sunflowers and other American grown flowers were donated by two farms in California: Sun Valley and Dos Gringos. The organizing committee got together the day before the event to make all the beautiful flower arrangements. Remember, a successful event requires attention to detail. As soon as the attendees arrived, they immediately knew that they were in for a special day and that their generosity was greatly appreciated.

Details included fun prizes and goody bags to take home!

The following shots should give you a good idea of how much fun a bunch of women can have while spending an afternoon together drinking wine, painting beautiful pictures, and helping a good cause! Ladies Celebrating Ladies and Giving Back!

Check Out the Rest of Julie’s Galentine’s Day Posts:

• How to Throw a Galentine’s Day Party
• Food for a Galentine’s Party
• The Perfect Galentine Cocktail
• Galentine’s Day Crafts & Decor

I’m a doer, a creator, a lover of learning!  So, I think having an activity planned for your Galentine’s party is a must.  You can have someone come and teach a class or you can set up an online class.  You can also take it as serious as you want or just have fun with it.

One of my passions is hand lettering, so I planned chalk lettering activities, as well as a bounce lettering online tutorial.

Chalk Lettering

I incorporated chalk lettering into my party décor, which provided lots of inspiration for my guests!  And, once again, I turned to Leslie Knope’s own words for inspiration!!  I used an oversized glass canister with chalkboard label to display this fresh and fabulous arrangement of sunflowers, free spirit roses, asters, and tulips.

I set up a small space so that my friends could give it a try. My copy of Valerie McKeehan’s “The Complete Book of Chalk Lettering” provided guidance. You can check out her website www.lilyandval.com for more inspiration and fun Galantine ideas!  Supplies were laid out: chalk, sharpener and black craft paper (instead of chalkboards). Having so many sheets allowed for lots of trial and error and boundless creativity!

Bounce Lettering Class

I recently started taking online craft classes and particularly like the site Brit + Co, www.brit.co.  Once you order a class, you “own” it and can watch it whenever you want.  They give you a supply list, as well as a class guide with worksheets that you can download in advance.  When you are ready to bounce, just open your laptop, click play and start learning! I like the fact that you can stop the video whenever you want to focus on a technique or pause and come back to it when you can.

It’s totally up to you and your friends regarding how serious you want to get with this. You can send the class guide and supply list to everyone in advance and they can come prepared with their own supplies, or you can just print out a few worksheets and get a set or two of supplies that everyone can share.

I find that just practicing the lettering style with the brush pens is so relaxing and almost meditative.  You need to get into a groove and go with the flow so that your lettering is fluid and not shaky.

Take your new skill and use it to add Galentine quotes to a fun rag garland. Even the garland can be a quick DIY party activity!  As easy as it looks and is to do, a few tips and tricks are always appreciated.

How to Make Fabric Garland

Fabric garlands are easy to make and add a bit of fun, whimsy and personalization to any room or celebration.

You can use any fabric scraps that you have, or you can buy pre-cut and coordinated strips called Jelly Rolls at a local fabric/craft store or online. You will also need some type of ribbon, yarn or twine to attach the fabric strips to.

Fold a strip of fabric in half and place it under the yarn.

Pull the bottom of the fabric up and through the fold.

Hold the yarn with one hand and continue to pull the fabric through the loop.

Pull until the knot is secure but not too tight.

By looping the fabric on to the yarn in this way, your fabric will be easy to slide on the yarn and will fall nicely when hung.

Continue to add fabric strips until you have reached your desired length.

You can place your fabric strips as close to each other as you wish.

You can personalize it even further by alternating hearts with Galentine messages or do something similar for a birthday, graduation, retirement, etc.

If you want to decorate for your Galentine’s party with quotes from all of the fabulous Parks & Rec characters and aren’t that crafty yourself, just look online for free downloads.

I found this whole collection of invitations, decorations and games at a blog called Pizzazzerie!

Next up, some suggestions on how you can have fun, celebrate your lady friends and give back all at the same time!

Check Out the Rest of Julie’s Galentine’s Day Posts:

• How to Throw a Galentine’s Day Party
• Food for a Galentine’s Party
• The Perfect Galentine Cocktail
• Volunteering for Galentine’s Day

Do all those images of the Royal Family’s celebrations have you wishing you had a reason to wear a pretty straw hat and a flowing floral dress? Don’t sit around waiting for an invitation to Kensington Palace — throw a Victorian-style tea party of your own! You don’t need any reason other than getting a few girlfriends together to sip tea and eat cucumber sandwiches. But “tea party” is also a great theme for a shower, little girl’s birthday party, or pre-wedding luncheon.

During the spring and summer months, an outdoor porch is the perfect spot for your tea party. If you don’t have a protected porch and still want to entertain outside, just make sure that your table is protected from direct sun by an umbrella or open tent.

Elegant tea party decorations, from china to linens

For the perfect look in your décor, think pretty and girly, and mix and match any of the following items:

• Silver vessels in all shapes and sizes, especially pitchers
• Tea cups
• Fine linens
• Straw hats
• English china

Perfect place card idea: Tea bag labels

If you want to have assigned seating or personalized party favors, make your own “tea bag labels” with each guest’s name and attach it to a sweet bouquet nestled in a pretty tea cup.

Floral tea party centerpieces

Summer roses and ivy spilling from this bowl from the Royal Albert Old Country Roses Collection make the perfect centerpiece.

Choosing the right flowers for your summer tea party

For your flowers and centerpieces, think “English Garden,” and you can’t go wrong. (I suspect the only thing the English love as much as their tea is their gardens!) Roses, hydrangea, ivy, lavender, rubbeckia, geraniums…whatever you’re growing or your local florist is offering will work. Gather flowers that are full blown and lush with saturated color, cut them to the right length so they look like they are just spilling from the top of your containers, and then sit back, sip your tea, and enjoy!