Garden Club Flower Show Results: Surprising!

A Blue Ribbon, Wow!

I didn't think I had wrestled my plant material into blue ribbon form so today's ribbon was a wonderful surprise!

I submitted my “small” floral design this morning at 8 a.m.; small-standard flower show judging began at 9 a.m.; and results were publicly available at 1 p.m., when the garden club’s Annual Holiday Tea and Flower Show began. When I dropped my design off I saw one other “small” designer, my friend Kathleen, but not her design as it was neatly tucked away to protect it from the cold. Neither Cynthia nor Nina, two other friends and fellow competitors, had arrived yet. The four of us were competing in the “small” category. Typically, Kathleen and I compete against each other as we are on the same “level,” while Cynthia and Nina are one level of experience and expertise higher. All three designer friends are very talented and all four of us bring a different design esthetic to the table. I was really looking forward to seeing how each woman interpreted the theme in her design!

Imagine my surprise when I heard I had taken a blue ribbon today! I was delighted. . .and amazed, considering my talented friends. Take a look at their designs and you’ll definitely see what I mean:

Today was my lucky day!

My design, which I showed you yesterday.

A gorgeous "creative" design; I aspire to start doing creative designs; it's a big leap (for me) from the "traditional" style designs I do.

Kathleen's wreath! I'm in love with it!

Nina's design is so evocative of the season. Boxwood rocks!

Flower Show Competition Tomorrow

“Small Design” Is My Category

Waaay back in October, while I was sunning myself in Bonita Springs, FL, I received an email from my garden club offering me an opportunity to prepare and show a design in a small standard flower show in December. Relaxed and calm, I smiled to myself and thought what a great idea it would be for me to enter. I immediately emailed the consultant in charge of design and asked her to sign me up.

Fast forward to this week .You should have seen the look on my face when my calendar peeped me a reminder that the flower show – and my arrangement – is on Wednesday, this Wednesday. Suffice to say, I gathered my design supplies this afternoon after I got out of work: down to ShopRite to purchase fresh, inexpensive “small” flowers, then over to Jerry’s to purchased some mat board in a color that would complement the flowers I purchased and the container I chose from my home stockpile. That was the time consuming, but easy part. The time consuming, but hard part was coming right up!

I dropped my daughter Tory off at work and knew I had three full hours to plot and execute a design, cut and piece together the background and underlay, and fill out the required paperwork before I had to pick her up from work. Easy peasy, right? Uh. Not really. I’ve been too busy this fall to enter a design in my club’s monthly competitions; therefore, I’m rusty, really rusty. The last design I did for judging was waaay back in April. Gulp.

On a whim I gathered freeze dried carpet roses, euonymus berries, sedum flower stalks, astilbe stalks and lavender from my yard. Why? I really don’t know since I already had fresh flowers conditioning in water. And it was cold as heck outside when I was snipping away at dead stuff. Anyway, for whatever reason, I created a design using only the freeze-dried plant material from my yard. Here’s the design.

Freeze-dried floral design. Is that a category?

Kinda creepy isn’t it? My friend Adelle can gather bits of stuff from her yard and make a blue ribbon arrangement. Me? Not so much, at least not in the dead of winter. After I got the goth design thing out of my system I went to work on my “Have Yourself a Merrry Little Christmas” design. Here it is.

Here's the design I'll submit for judging, although I'd love to submit my goth one!

It isn’t the best work I’ve done, but I’m not going to be too hard on myself (Carole, do I hear you gasping?). After all, it’s my first design of the club season, and second of all, I took a look at what I submitted last year as a small design and this one is a heck of a lot better! Even if it’s not a blue ribbon, it’s still progress and growth from where I was last year at this time. I’m proud of that!

P.S. I’ve been driving around in my Audi today. I feel like a new woman! I LOVE my car and I’m so happy it’s back in the driveway, and my life!

 

Second Mondays

Floral Design Days!

I photo test my designs at home to look for design flaws.

Today is the second Monday of the month, one of my favorite days since September-May it means my Garden Club has its monthly meeting. We hear interesting speakers and can submit floral and/or horticulture designs that are critiqued/judged by nationally certified judges. I submit mostly floral designs.

This month I entered in my category – I am an “Intermediate” level designer. As such, I had to submit for judging “A Small Design, not to exceed 8” in height, width or depth, staged on a 9” x 9” white cube placed on a table on stage 42” from floor. Top of cube may be covered by exhibitor.” Whew. Got that?

I think it’s fun to figure out a color scheme, gather the individual flowers, condition them, and create an arrangement that adheres to the design information, or “rules” for that particular month. I like to throw in an extra “rule” that I spend only a modest amount on my flowers and use containers I already have around the house. I try to accent the creative over the costly.

It was my lucky day today as I earned a blue ribbon (actually a sticker at our club’s monthly meetings). I was so excited when I heard my name announced at the beginning of the program meeting. You may remember from an earlier post (January 27^th “Fair Warning – Designing Woman”) that I am partial to blue ribbons.

A blue ribbon today!

Today my friend photographer (among her many other titles) Fran Liscio was our guest speaker; she gave an informative and lively talk about photographing flowers, gardens, and all things horticultural. Fran has an eye for the unusual and she creates uniquely beautiful compositions on her scanner. Take a look at her web site — http://www.punksandroses.com/ — and you’ll see what I mean. Fran and I have been advancing together through the ranks since we were “Provisionals.” Knowing Fran and her creative flare and love of all things small and whimsical I knew she would present a terrific “Small” design today and I was right. Take a look!

A yellow ribbon winner!

A year ago, I kid you not, I also signed up to provide the floral centerpiece for today’s tea table . I had a great time since the rule for the tabletop design is that there aren’t any rules. I created a teapot design that had me smiling the whole time I was creating it. And, guess what? The tea table is an old fashioned delight of crustless finger sandwiches, deviled eggs, other savories as well as homemade cookies and other sweets. Yum!

My teapot design surrounded by savories and sweets.