Gourd Decor

This last week has been a beehive of events and activities, severely marred by a flu bug that will not go away.  Shoo flu, shoo!  I have things to do!
Until I get back in the swing of things, wanted to share this little arrangement from a autumnal charity event. There were some beautiful, traditional style centerpiece arrangements on the tables, but we wanted add a special touch to the cocktail and accent tables.

Problem: no budget. Solution: grocery store gourds! These are so simple, easy, cheap, and elegant, fast, FUN, and to think you can get all the materials in the produce section!

No tutorial needed on these. Just drill 3-5 holes in the top of the gourd and insert the blossoms of your choice (drills are faster if you are making a bunch of these, but hammer and nail work fine too). Gourds and veggies like baby pumpkins, squash, apples, pear and eggplants work just great as the base, paired with hardy flowers like status, mums, roses, and dahlias. More delicate flowers like lilies and peonies will also work, but they fade faster. The flowers will extract water from the inside of the fruit/vegetable, slowly but surely, certainly long enough to keep them alive and kicking 12 hours or more. I took an eggplant home and it lasted for 3 days! If you don’t want to bother with flowers, you could grab supplies from the side of the road –what about a few stalks of feathery wheat with some pussywillow twigs, or a magnolia leaf? Or what about adding a guinea fowl feather, or a cluster of acorns? The possibilities are endless!

These were used as cocktail table accents, but can you imagine ten of these lined up down the middle of a long table? Or used at each place setting around a harvest or thanksgiving style spread?

It’s the simple things, y’all 🙂