Creative Challenge 5 Results

I kicked off the year by sharing some goals and dreams for 2015. One of the most important of these was to get back in touch with my artistic roots, which I quickly decided would be much more fun to do with friends. And so began the Creative Challenge— a way for creatives from around the world, to come together online and tackle one artistic project per month.

Challenge #5: Gardening
I knew going into this, that the gardening challenge would be the most difficult for me. I have a really bad track record when it comes to keeping plants alive. The photo directly below is the reason I decided to do something a little bit different for this challenge. On the right is a mint plant that I purchased and planted in late April. It only took 6 weeks for me to completely kill it. It’s replacement (God bless it) is on the left. Let’s hope this one can make it through the summer!

In addition to being a horrible gardener, I’ve also lacked skill in floral arrangement. Even when I purchase a ready-made bouquet I manage to make it look like it was put together by a four year old. My challenge for this session was this: to put together floral three bouquets, from scratch.

I always admire the flowers that are right at the entrance of my local Trader Joe’s, so I figured that would be a good place for me to shop. They have a vast selection of varieties and colors, which made it hard for me to even know where to start!

My first bouquet was very simple. I purchased one package of white flowers along with a bunch of pretty purple filler. I apologize that I can’t remember the name of either one, but I can tell you that this bouquet lasted a really long time— almost 2 full weeks before it was completely wilted.

For my second bouquet, I decided on something tulip based. If I’m being honest, tulips have never been my favorite, but maybe that’s because I’ve never actually paid attention when they’ve opened up. What I learned was that when they do open, they end up looking like a completely different flower. Maybe all this time, I’ve actually liked tulips in bloom and didn’t even realize it.

This bouquet was mixed with white filler (same as the purple used in bouquet #1, just a different color). When the tulips opened, about a day after I brought them home, I thought they looked a lot like poppies. The red color of the blooms were so vibrant and I thoroughly enjoyed having them sit on my desk for a few days. This leads me to my only complaint with this bouquet— it was completely dead after only 2 or 3 days.

The timing of my last floral arrangement coincided with my birthday, so I decided to pull out all the stops and do a little splurging. For this bouquet I chose one package of pretty pink roses, along with the same white filler from bouquet #2. I had been eyeing the snapdragons at Trader Joe’s for the last few weeks, but I was having a hard time justifying the price tag. The cost of these pretties was more than a pre-packaged bouquet of mixed flowers, but I thought they would look really elegant mixed in with the roses, so I went for it. I know, I’m such a floral rebel.

Of the three, this was my favorite of my bouquets, and it made an excellent birthday gift to myself. Almost a week later, they are still looking alive and fresh which is just the icing on the cake.

I’m happy to report that I feel a bit more skilled in the floral arranging department and, crazy as this may sound, my new mint plant is still thriving and looking strong after a few weeks. Maybe I’ve turned a new corner!

The Creative Challenge Community members, who joined me in this challenge, beyond wowed me with their gardens, flowers, planters and decor. We were even graced with the talents of my mom, (gardener extraordinaire) for this challenge! Check out all of the gorgeousness:

Some of the bloggers in the group even wrote their own posts:

Adventures Worth Noting // Beauteeful Living //  Lauren Kim Blog //  Lovilee // Small Stuff Counts

Does this group have talent, or what?

The sixth challenge (calligraphy) is already underway! If you’d like to join in on this challenge, or any of the other challenges planned for the year, we would LOVE to have you on board. Until next month…#gocreatives