Journey to Thanksgiving #3

Something I have always wanted to do is take a Floral Design Course.  The first year we were married, I looked into it but it seemed too expensive.  Other years, I looked into it, but the kids were too little, or their schedules would conflict with the hours of the course.
This fall was the culmination of the dream.  I was waiting for the brochure to come in and it didn't.  The week after school started, I looked online to see if the course was being offered.  It was.  The start date was that same day.  I scrambled around and called my husband. He knew I'd wanted to take this course for a long time and right away said "Well, you'd better register for it".
This was a sacrifice on his part, because the course ran on Saturdays, which would mean no pancake breakfasts for a while.  However he was willing to take one for the team and I ran off to register and begin the course.

Right away, I knew I was going to love it.  I began learning about form, and function and flower categories.  Every night I went, I had a sense of anticipation.  Some nights I found it hard to sleep when I got home, because I could hardly wait until the next class.

One of the most fun things was going to get my tools.  I keep them in a pretty little bag, along with sticky notes and pens and highlighter so I can learn the theory along with the practical.



I have had several 'light-bulb' moments - like realizing that in all the years when I tried to figure out how to put together flowers, I had only considered one element of floral design -when there are so many more - not just shape, but dominance, and colour, and light and line and, balance and, and, and......

One of the side benefits of the course has been the chance to give flowers to people I love.  This was in a bid to avoid having my house look like a funeral parlour.  It was so fun to call up my neighbour and ask if she could use some flowers - or pass some along to another friend to give to a friend of hers who was going through a hard time.

I even went to my own garden and pulled flowers for a little arrangement for a family meal.  It looked ok - and I was so pleased that I had been able to remember some of the techniques.

What I didn't realize was how extensive the whole course was.  It is one of six parts.  If I finish them all, I will 'graduate' with a Floral Design Certificate.  Since I don't have to rush through this course, I am planning to take the next section sometime next year.

I have learned about some basic shapes of design - like this one which is called the "Hogarth Curve" or "Crescent".  [Sidebar:  The flowers on the right are called "celosia".  They look cool, but it felt like  toe jam trying to get them to form a line.  EWWWWWWW!]

Other shapes are the vertical, and the horizontal.   I was most proud that I figured out how to do the "Hand tied".

This is where you arrange the flowers in your hand, with all the stems in the same direction.  The first time I did this, I failed miserably and my teacher had to rescue my arrangement.  On Saturday I figured it out and even though it wasn't perfectly arranged the fact that the arrangement stood up on the desk without falling over made me really happy. [this was the litmus test of the hand tied arrangement]


On the last day before our exam, we finally got to the bud vase arrangement.  I think it is






my favourite.  It only takes a couple of flowers but its simplicity is so pleasing to my soul.  The teacher showed us a special treatment of the cordyline leave and how to take fancy wire and decorate the vase itself.



I feel truly blessed to have been able to take the first part of the course.  I am going to put it on my bucket list to finish the certificate.  I don't have to rush at all, which is a lovely place to be.  For now, I am going to work on using my new-found skills to bring floral therapy into my life and the life of others around me.