Creating in Color.
Living through the dark and dreariness of winter in the PNW takes a bit of a toll on your mood. Okay a BIG toll! For me this also leads to this overwhelming desire to live and create with some pretty dark & organic, moody & muted colors – if you saw this dinner I styled back in January you know exactly what I mean. So when a winter trip to Palm Springs offered the opportunity to escape the cold and get inspired to create with color I went a little bananas (okay actually a little pineapple!) . . .
One of the goals and intentions for me in attending Meet Make Do was to create without hesitation. To gaze over a pile of craft & floral materials and within a few hours conceptualize, create, and execute a design with someone whom I had just met. I was fortunate enough that sweet Ashley of the amazing blog Sugar and Cloth was kind enough to partner up with me for this tabletop design. Within minutes of putting our heads together we were already cutting fabric and whipping out the hot glue guns. Ashley had the brilliant idea to create a geometric hanging floral arrangement, so I got to work on creating a fun and colorful table setting to ground her gorgeous work. I was flabbergasted by how quickly and how fun it can be to create on the fly! I typically tend to be one of those people who plans things out weeks (at least days!) in advance but for this project we literally created the entire thing and shot it within just a few hours time.
Earlier that morning I had gone on a solo walk around the neighborhood where we were staying, and was inspired by the beautiful and rich colors of the Bougainvillea that seemed to cascade over the walls in every yard. As I alluded to above, I haven’t been drawn towards bold colors recently, so I was excited to push myself to create with some cheery and bright elements. There was this fantastic mid-century looking mustard fabric that complemented my chosen floral palette just right, and which instantly became my makeshift napkins. I hand-stitched a simple knotted row of thread along the bottom of the napkins to play off the arrangements and that magenta color I had been inspired by that morning. I found some pretty linen from our craft closet which I cut and ironed into a quick table runner.
When I think of Palm Springs, I always think of gold and sequins…not sure why exactly, but something about the place just feels all hollywood and glamorous to me. Therein lies the inspiration for the sequined chargers. I can’t remember a time I’ve ever used sequins in one of my designs, but I wanted to go a bit out of my comfort zone and create something with them. Using a sparkly gold sequined fabric, I cut out circle shapes to create fabric chargers. The edges aren’t perfect, but hello people! – whipped those puppies up in just a few short minutes! I love how their texture ended up popping off the table. They paired perfectly with those pretty gold and copper vases.
I probably had the most fun creating the peppy floral arrangements even foraging a few buds from around the yard itself. The majority of the gorgeous flowers were so kindly provided by Flower Muse and kept me captivated for hours. Aren’t those roses & tulips insane?!?!
For tips on how to DIY your own geometric hanging floral pendants & some additional photos from the day, head over to Sugar & Cloth for a full tutorial!
As for that pineapple vase?? It’s easier than it looks I promise : 1. Find a cute (and tall) pineapple. 2. Remove the prickly stem by cutting a hole large enough in the top to hold the diameter of a tall drinking glass or vase. 3. Hallow out the pineapple by cutting out all of the yellow fruit inside making sure to leave enough of the hard pineapple core on the sides to keep it sturdy and strong. 4. Put aside the fruit bits and juices for later to make a smoothie! 5. Squeeze a glass or plastic cup or vase the size of the cut out portion of the pineapple into the center of the hallowed fruit, making sure the container does not peek over the rim of the top of the pineapple too much. 6. Add water to the cup or vase for the flowers to drink. 7. Drop a floral frog or some chicken wire into the bottom of the cup or vase to help secure your arrangement. 8. Assemble your floral arrangement paying special attention to the edges where you want to cover up any places where you might see the lip of the glass or vase peeking above the pineapple. 9. Place on tabletop and enjoy!
For a bunch of other fun tutorials, DIY’s and pictures that blossomed from Meet Make Bing check out these fun posts by some of the other gals who attended or the hashtag #meetmakebing :
- A fun pop-up balloon message DIY from Kelly over at Studio DIY
- The perfect prank for April Fool’s from Brittany over at The House that Lars Built
- Adorable DIY letter pillows from Chelsea over at Lovely Indeed
- A life size putting green from Lexy over at The Proper Pinwheel
- These pretty floral wreaths from Brittni over at Paper & Stitch
- images by Mary Costa Photography - pretty tableware provided by West Elm - post and event sponsored by Bing - all thoughts & opinions are my own.
