Little Green Apples

My Mom is visiting, and it has been such a joy to have her here. Just knowing when I wake up we will have tea together is truly wonderful. She called on a Monday and arrived on Saturday, we are already into her second week. We have been talking a lot and time slips away. If you are fortunate enough to have your Mom with you or to have a Mother-Daughter bond with someone you know and love, you know that the joy that is “the love of a Mother and Daughter” is hard to capture in words. Okay, so..Why use the blog post title, “Little Green Apples?” Ahh here comes the fun…..

After a discussion and a bit of reminiscing, we concluded that Mom and I haven’t done anything crafty together for about 35 years! What…grab the glue gun! Let’s make a little magic. We decided to make autumn decor, my lovely Mom decided on a centerpiece and I went all in for a welcome fall floral arrangement.

Since we hadn’t “planned” a DIY tutorial I am lacking in photos, but I think you will find it all quite easy to follow along. I drug everything fall and floral out and, in the interest of full disclosure, we did go to our local craft shop and pick up a few things. I found a cute Welcome Fall container. I had recently purchased a woven bathroom basket (unused and still had a tag, (could be a new uses for old things candidate) so my Mom used it as the vessel for her centerpiece.

We combined the few things we purchased with the rest of the goodies I gathered and laid them out on the table. Why yes, that is an Easter tablecloth we are using (you don’t miss a thing do you, wink). We sorted through them and each decided on colors, styles, etc. Mother ( Mum, Mom) spotted the bag of little green apples among all of the goodies and asked if I planned to use them. I shook my head no and continued to watch her make magic happen. I remember when I was young waiting for the man pushing the apple cart on the street when I was young. We would take a few coins to pay for a newspaper cone filled with tart little green apples, lick, add salt, bite!

Meanwhile, while watching my Mom I created a burgundy arrangement and added a flameless candle to the center. A simple tip for sturdiness is to put a few lines of hot glue onto the bottoms of your floral foam then place it into the vessel. Instead of pouring hot glue into the bottom of the vessel and then trying to maneuver the foam into place. I continued to watch as my Moms creation took shape. When she went for the green apples I stopped to watch her as she attached little green apples to leftover grapevine scraps from my autumn mantle floral decor. If you missed the Peacocks and Pumpkins post, you can find it HERE. I am so glad I saved them!

Make a Pick-Place your fruit leaf or another element on the pick about a quarter of the way down from the top. Use floral wire (or if you have purchased picks with the wire already attached) and simply wrap the wire around until your fruit, etc. is sturdy. Wrap the wire with a strip of floral tape ( if desired). Mom didn’t use wood floral picks instead she used the leftover grapevine. she wrapped the apples onto the grapevines instead of picks using floral wire and the same method as using a wooden pick.
She added the little green apple picks and a few more flowers and leaves to her arrangement.

I had already made some cute pinecone picks for my arrangement and I tucked mine in among the flowers, gold pumpkins and flameless candle. If you are using a flameless candle in your arrangement, make sure you leave enough space to take the candle in and out to illuminate.

In a nutshell, that’s such a funny term, isn’t it?
What You Need
Flowers
Fruit ( little green apples)
Floral foam
Picks
Floral wire
Floral wrap
Wire Snips
Scissors
Hot glue gun and glue
Attractive oblong vessel
Imagination
Dry Spanish moss (optional)*
Wire edge ribbon (optional)*

To make my Mum’s arrangement-
1. Start by measuring your flowers for the best height to fit your vessel.
She is using a classic triangle flower arrangement design, tall at the top.
2. Cut floral foam or any foam you have available and hot glue it to the inside bottom of the vessel.
3. Remove tags, and leaves etc., and cut your flower stem to fit your measurement. and lay out your design.
4. Add your tallest flowers first then continue to move down and out with your flowers to create a triangle appearance tall at the top and fuller at the bottom and extending slightly until you meet the inside edge of the vessel.
5. Fill gaps with leaves, fern, or other flowers.
6. Create fruit, leaf or other elements using picks (wire wrapped and then covered with floral tape as described above)
7. Finish by adding fruit (little green apples) picks or other seasonal elements.
Take a bow and enjoy your ta daa moment.

*You can add dry moss (from your local florist or craft shop) to cover any visible floral foam if needed. *Consider wrapping a pretty ribbon bow around the vessel using some wire edge ribbon. The ribbon would have been a little too much on Mom’s, so she decided not to use ribbon.
I have her lovely arrangement on our table. I put mine in the tv room.

When was the last time you were crafty, do you have a little green apples story?

I look forward to seeing you all back here on Thursday sharing your amazing blogs at the TFT blog link party.