Farmers' Market Flowers

It was rainy and gloomy most of this afternoon, with passing crashing-cymbal-filled thunderstorms that pelted the ground with gumball-sized hailstones. It's been years since I've seen hail! Such a strange sight, and so weird to hear thousands of little dings and whacks at once as they bounce off of different surfaces and ricochet around.

So here's a photo of bright and sunny bouquets of zinnias, veronica, amaranth, black-eyed susans, and kale from the local farmers' markets to harken back to sunnier, hail-free days!

By the way, what do you go with - farmer's market, farmers market, or farmers' market? I go with the latter because there's always more than one farmer present, but I honestly have no idea which is right.

What do you think?

Peony "Ice Cream" Cone Vase Tutorial, Part II

While looking through wedding ceremony flower photos, I had an epiphany. The same ribbon-wrapped technique used to attach paper cones of flowers to chairs could be used to display ice cream cone vases full of peonies as diy'ed in this tutorial.


Choose ribbon in whatever width and color you like. (Although I wouldn't go wider than 4 - 5 mm, or you'll have trouble getting it to lay flat against the cone.)

Wrap it around the bottom, crossing it once behind and once more again in front. Then wrap it up towards the top so the two ends hit right across from each other. This will keep the cone balanced once it's filled with flowers. Add small pieces of tape to hold it in place.


Get your glue ready. You can use hot glue (be careful!), Elmer's, Tacky - whatever you like. Peel back the ribbon and put glue on the underside. Put the ribbon back where it was and press down so it stays.

For the areas where you can't unwrap it (like the crossed areas), simply put some glue over the spot and rub it into the ribbon. This will help it soak through and attach the fabric to the cone.


Let dry, then fill with a lovely peony! Hang from the back of a chair, a bench, or cabinet knob to display.

Peony cones also look great on doors and stair posts!