How to Keep Store-Bought Flowers Alive

Hey guys!

The other day I posted a photo of my Costco flower bouquet that I bought almost two weeks ago on my Instagram and I had a few people ask me how I keep my store-bought flowers alive and healthy for 12-16 days. I'm no pro, but I can share what I do know! Hopefully it helps you, too, because there is just something so refreshing about having fresh flowers in the home! I will tell you that I owe almost all of my knowledge to my friend Laura - she is the one that gave me almost all of these pointers!

So, without further ado, here is how to keep your store-bought flowers fresh. 

1. Choose a vase/mason jar/container for your flowers. Fill it up with approx. 1- 1.5 inches of room-temperature water.

2. Add about 1/4 of the packet of flower food that came with your flowers to the water and swirl it around until it dissolves. DO NOT dump the entire packet of flower food into the water! That's a total waste. The ratio for the plant food is actually one packet to one liter of water, so a little bit goes a long way!

3. Take a sharp pair of scissors and trim about 1/4 inch from the bottom of your flowers. Make sure you trim at a diagonal. 

4. Arrange your flowers and enjoy! 

Things to note: 
You will notice that the flowers drink up the water fairly quickly. You should be doing the above 4 steps every 3-4 days, or as you notice the water is almost gone.

If you notice the water is getting low and forget to change it, it's okay! Your flowers will start to droop, but they can usually  be saved! Just do the above steps as soon as possible.

Every flower has a different "life-span." I've noticed that peonies and roses are exceptionally difficult to keep alive past 8-10 days. This method doesn't guarantee that every flower will stay alive for 2-3 weeks, but it does make your flowers last longer than they would otherwise.

Learning to Hand Letter

So... I've been pretty MIA, and honestly, I'm okay with that. It will happen occasionally - I'll have dry spells, and then I'll have weeks where I post almost daily. Anyway, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you have probably noticed that I am learning hand lettering. I am seriously addicted - it is so much fun!

So. I'm obviously a beginner (just started learning last week, hello!), but here are the resources that I have used and that I like.

1. Hand Lettering 101 This book is a great resource for the super beginner (like myself). It is very basic. Like super basic. It touches on faux calligraphy and teaches you a basic, lower case alphabet. It also has some projects and shows you options for a fun sans serif printed alphabet. Yes, I know it is sold out - order it anyway and it will ship as soon as it's available.

2. Tombow Brush Pens Writing with brush pens has a bit of a learning curve, but these were recommended by some pros, and the more I use them, the more I love them.

3. Creative Lettering and Beyond This book is so much more intensive than Hand Lettering 101, and I recommend it as a second book. This book talks about chalk lettering, calligraphy, faux calligraphy, and watercolor, and it shows multiple alphabets, flourishes, embellishments, and gives fun DIY project ideas. I am loving it!

4. Watercolors and brushes If you just want to hand letter, you don't really need watercolors and brushes, but I love the painted look, so I went ahead and got these. If you do watercolor, keep in mind that you'll probably want some good watercolor paper. I've been using cardstock on some of my practice sheets, and the watercolors smudge.

5. A good eraser I block and draft my pieces in pencil, and then trace over with pen or paint for the final project. Once the project is dry, I erase the pencil marks.

I'm sure as I learn more, I will have more recommendations, but this is what I've used so far as a beginner!

Hey, Look! It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a DIY Project??

Yo, yo, yo homie g fries! 

It's a lovely Monday here in good ole Nebraska, and it JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE MY DUE DATE!!! No baby yet, but I don't feel like blogging, either. So while I'm off nesting, running marathons, and gettin' jiggy with it to get this baby out (TMI? sorry), I'd like you to get your crafty side on and check out this DIY (ummm talk about an awesome baby shower gift if you know anyone who is preggers... which you probably do, because there's something in the water).

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Hey there lovely friends of Alyx!! I am thrilled to be BABY sitting her space today while she's off welcoming her new BABY girl into the world! :) I know she said posts minus the BABY might be a good idea, but that's what's been going on in my world lately too, so I hope it's cool that I share a baby related craft with you today! ;) Real quick, my name is Kassi and I blog over at Truly Lovely. Hope you'll pop by sometime and say hello! Now onto the craftiness....

Ever since we announced that we are expecting and the gender of our little one, we've been receiving some of the cutest baby clothes from our friends as gifts. I'll be honest... there for awhile I had them all stuck in a box and stored in our bedroom. Then we got a changing table for baby's room so I moved the box in onto the changing table... That's the way things have stayed for months. Every time we get something new it just got added to the pile. Being that I'm now about 30 weeks into this pregnancy I decided it might be a good time to get baby's closet set up and organized. I have a friend that just had a baby boy a few months ago and she said she had trouble keeping track of what she had in what sizes... My solution was to google baby closet dividers. Sure you can buy them at Wal-Mart for a few bucks, but they lack personality... So... I made my own!

The materials needed for this craft include:

• Wooden door hangers
• Your choice of craft paper (I used some pretty rose scrapbook paper I found at Wal-Mart.)
• Mod Podge
• Brush
• Small paint brush and paint to match your scrapbook paper
• Baby clothes hangers

Step 1: Trace your wooden door hanger onto a sheet of the craft paper. Lesson learned here... those wooden hangers are not all cut exactly the same... Each one needs to be traced or you can end up with paper that doesn't fit your door hanger. Then just cut out your tracings with scissors.

Step 2: I painted the sides that wouldn't be covered with paper just to add a fun pop of color. You don't have to do this step... you can definitely leave it as just the wood grain. Another lesson learned here... Two paint bottles make a great drying 'rack'.

Step 3: Next decoupage the papers onto your wooden door hangers using a brush and Mod Podge.

Step 4: I designed sizes on my Silhouette SD software. NB for New Born, 0-3 for zero to three months and so on up to 18-24 months. I cut them out on white vinyl to make stickers for each divider. If you don't have a cutting tool you could just as easily cut out sizes and Mod Podge those on as well, or purchase number stickers from the craft store to use instead.

Step 5: Hang your new baby closet dividers in baby's closet then fill closet with adorable baby clothes organized by size!!! So at this point it looks like I need to stock up on NB to 3-6 months clothes... But 3-6 is looking pretty nice! ;)

Thanks so much for hanging out with me today while Alyx is away welcoming HER new baby girl! If you have any questions about this craft or just wanna chat I'd love to be friends! ;) You can find me here:

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