Budget Blooms: May Madness: a house log

As most of you know, every month we like to enjoy one inexpensive- and sometimes free- bouquet to keep things feeling fresh around here (the idea in fact stemmed from a especially sweet Christmas present from the hubs a while back). But this month we got lucky. Nope, not with a free backyard bouquet, but with the photo shoot that we mentioned this morning… which involved a cooler full of flowers provided by the prop stylist, many of which were not even touched when the cameras were being packed away.

And what did that ever-remarkable prop stylist do? She offered all the floral outcasts to us as she left. Did I mention said prop stylist happens to be my best friend who in fact worked with us on our last photo shoot with Do It Yourself magazine as well? Anyway, we tried to send the bouquets home with her and she said she would simply throw them away if we did not keep them because she had a long hot drive home and they’d be a bit worse for wear. Convincing argument. So we kept them. And our house has never felt more fresh and spring-like. Here is what we ended up with.

We inherited a few errant cream colored carnations…

… that we stuck in three low-cost-o Ikea vases on the windowsill with a bit of greenery to beef them up.

And you may have noticed that bottle with three roses in the first shot of the kitchen. Well, we were also left with these beauties, so a glass milk bottle that we had laying around became quite a charming (and kitchen appropriate) vase.

Are not the scarlet pointers so fairly with the creamy yellow coloring on the rest of each bud? We are not typically rose people, but we have both stopped to admire these folks for the last week on a daily basis.

The half bathroom also inherited a pleasant little cluster of cream carnations. And this time the vase was in fact one of our new drinking glasses from World Market.

We enjoy how the green glass and the green stems work so well to offset the pure white and cream blooms. And we are confident that these folks will last clear through May and well into June. Of all the flowers that we have brought home over the past year+ of this whole monthly floral arrangement adventure, carnations never fail to last the longest and charm us to no end the whole time.

But now for the piece de resistance. Check out these luscious tulips with vivid varied coloring in my new green vase from Crate & Barrel (it was in fact a sweet birthday gift from my sister-in-law, does she know me and my enjoy of green glass or what?). These folks are certainly our go-to bouquet of the month- the whole house feels more vibrant and alive with them happily sitting on the dining room table.

So yeah, we are feeling fairly spoiled by all the bouquets. Heck we nearly feel guilty for having such an abundance. Have you folks ever found yourself with a plethora of petals throughout your home? Perhaps from an overly keen backyard rose bush, a secret admirer, or a flower sale at Trader Joe’s? Do tell. And while we are on the subject of a bounty of bouquets, what do you prefer when it comes to bringing the outdoors in? Do you like all-the-same-flower arrangements? Clear glass vases only? Low packed-tight bouquets? Wild meadow-like bunches? Brightly colored blossoms? Spill the bloom beans.

Wanna see our first grocery store bouquet from last January? Itching to check out February, March, April, May, June, July, August, and September too? How about this year’s January, February, March, and April bouquets? Simply follow the links for some fairly sweet low-cost-o (and even free) bouquets.