Hands-on Tulip Bouquet

While we wait for our primed and painted open shelves to dry (ahhh, tomorrow is H-Day, aka: haaaanging day!) we realized that we have been waaaaay overdue for a budget blooms post. Remember when we used to do them every month? Yeah, we fell off. Oops. And a few of you have in fact requested them, which is simply what the doctor ordered since book chaos + kitchen chaos = a hankering for a sliver of beauty in a fully trashed house like ours. Seriously, it looks crazier than it did the day we moved in. Bed in the living room? Check. Painting and repainting a five foot swatch of wall in the playroom distinct colors every few days? Check. Photography equipment filling up our dining room? Check. But six bucks at the grocery store later, and I had me these beauties – and a small slice of gorgeousness in this crazy house full of people, projects, and other miscellaneous craziness.

I enjoy this vase from Crate & Barrel (a gift from John’s older sister for my birthday a few years back) and it looks especially good with floppy flowers sort of splayed out around the wiggly perimeter.

And I enjoy the two-tone tulip action going on. The prettiest color combinations are consistently found in nature, huh? Buttery yellow + poppy reddish pink + fresh green = yes please.

I like how they are leaning out like they are growing towards the sun in our natural-light-less kitchen. Oh the irony. These folks have in fact been alive a few days now, so I guess they only need water but not too much sun (since they have yet to fall to pieces). Whew.

Oh and simply for lively, I played around with them in another vase. Well, I guess it is not truly a vase (it is a seeded glass hurricane meant for a candle that I grabbed at HomeGoods a few years back). Simply as fairly, huh? Oh and I got us a kitchen radio on clearance from Joss and Main about a month ago (and we at last plugged it in after staring at it on the counter for a while). Let me tell you, it is novel. We have in fact never had a radio in the kitchen but since we log so much hangout time at the peninsula these days (doing journal stuff/book stuff/projects/eating) we thought it would be pleasant. And it is. Especially with fairly tulips next to it.

The hilarity of this photo is that if I were allowed to share behind-the-scenes book pics, the next photo would be what you see if you swing the camera about six inches to the right. A shot of our monstrous dining table that sits simply beyond this half-wall and is fully full of lamps/ceramic things/paint cans/fabric/baskets/bottles/books/frames/etc. Seriously, you cannot even see the tabletop anymore. So when I say there is a sliver of beauty in our fully trashed house, I truly do mean it. And the juxtaposition is hysterically funny to us. So simply know that the over-sharer in me is dying to slather chaos pics all over this end of this post to balance the sweet charming “moments” in the kitchen. Oh well, when the book is out we are allowed to share it all, so we are counting down the months.

Anyway, back to the kitchen and our little budget blooms. I now firmly believe that every kitchen is made better by three things: flowers, a radio, and a white ceramic tea kettle (of course). Closely followed by a giant ceramic rooster. And a wall full of penny tile does not hurt either. Have you folks been buying flowers or other greenery lately? Have you played around with a few distinct vases simply for lively? Do you have a kitchen radio? Do you even listen to the radio anymore? Oh and what are three things that you think makes any kitchen better?

Psst- Check out a whole mess of Budget Bloom posts from over the last few years here.