Thursday
Feb252010
Spray roses…pffffft.
In honor of my week of Brooklyn posts, I tried to make this latest installment of my One-Bouquet-a-Week Challenge completely BK-inspired. I got the idea of using roses from a little girl at the bus stop on Sunday while on my way to brunch at Perch in the lovely Brooklyn nabe of Park Slope. The girl and her mom couldn't stop discussing the giant poster plastered on the side of the stop showing Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" (the girl kept saying he looked like a "crazy, crazy man"; I kept thinking he just looked like Elijah Wood).
The whole short conversation with that Brooklyn shortie made me think of one of my favorite parts of the "Alice" story: when the Queen of Hearts orders her cards to paint the roses in her garden red because she hates the white ones. I've always loved that image--big, blooming flowers surrounded by lots of full greenery, dripping in red. So after brunch, I set out to hit my neighborhood grocer to pick up pink spray roses (no red or white available; I felt like pink was a good compromise) and a bunch of green leafy somethings. The results are above (I even placed them in a new Brooklyn-IKEA-purchased vase, so there's that).
And they're lovely and full and pretty and they smell good, but here's the kicker: the spray roses wilted big time after about one day. Such a bummer. Would have been nice if they had decided to stick around for a little while longer. Because you know what happens when the roses make me mad:
Off
with
their
heads
!
in 
Brooklyn, Home Decor, One-Bouquet-a-Week Challenge, Photos | tagged Brooklyn Week | Email Article | Share Article | Permalink | 8 Comments
Brooklyn, Home Decor, One-Bouquet-a-Week Challenge, Photos | tagged Brooklyn Week | Email Article | Share Article | Permalink | 8 Comments
Reader Comments (8)
love the story behind your bouquet inspiration, Alice in Wonderland was one of my favorite movies growing up.
I'm surprised that you were actually able to buy rose with a scent, they usually smell like nothing which is such a bummer.
Gracias! Well, they smelled decent for one whole day, at least...not sure if it was something I did, or if I just purchased bum roses!
Your grandfather would be so proud of you!
Queen of Hearts was always my fave....when I was a kid our little beach town, Breezy Point (which should be part of BKLYN!), has a Mardi Gras parade which is a full-on costume party. We did Alice in Wonderland one year, I was the Queen of Hearts (natch!), and the skirt of my costume was a papered and painted upside down laundry basket with a hole cut out of the bottom. Needless to say, it was inspired and stunning.....
I'm crazy about Alice in Wonderland! My favourite part would have to be the Mad-Hatter tea party. All this hubub building up to the movie is shaking me up! I'm going to have to buy me some flowers soon, I'm so inspired by your bouquet a week challenge.
I love this post - and how you wrapped it up right at the end. Great writing Amy!
One thing to take note of, when it comes to flower arranging: when leaves get stuck into the actual water (leaves of the roses, leaves belonging to the greenery) they decay, causing bacteria in the water to actually smother the flowers. The the flowers die quicker. Next time, take a moment to strip off any leaves that may fall under the water line, I bet your flowers will last a smidge longer, and you won't be sending them to the guillotine quite so quickly!
xxABCD
P.S. Thanks for adding ABCD to your blogroll!
Amy! You're awesome...I thought I had removed most of the leaves, but when I threw them out, I realized I hadn't. Thanks so much--will be more diligent next go 'round! xo
Hee hee hee!!!! Although, not sure I'm gonna see the movie because the trailer creeped me out! Never could finish the book, either, ha! :)