Last week Thursday was awesome. A line item on a dream list turned into an afternoon of delight.

Stacey already dished on all the fun, and we were interviewed by our local paper, and we got to bring flowers and cookies home. A win win win.

(Thanks to Stacey Says for the above photo.)

Sharon was our mentor for the day and she was so fun to hang out with and learn from. She has such a passion for flowers and the floral industry not to mention an amazing teaching talent.

After chatting for a bit about the details that go in to taking orders and making arrangements we were set loose in the store to pick and choose flowers, vases, greens … whatever we wanted, to try our hand at arranging.

I am currently obsessed with Ranuncula’s. Obsessed would be putting it lightly.

For my first pass I chose a funky vase and went for the “hand picked” look of an arrangement. I learned I’m more of an “over flow, all around” type of girl. I like the organic look of a bunch of flowers.

While Stacey is more of a “one sided” more chic, posed, dimentional, statement type of girl.

Type A and not Type A. We’re pretty good together

I thought I picked enough flowers and was abiding by the rule of three when I kept being told to add more, just a little more, but take it down. Tame it. There’s not many rules to arranging flowers and it’s almost always up to personal taste – I kept getting stuck on what kind of flower to use. Tulip, Gerber Daisy, Rose … I’m not a huge fan of the conventional-everyone-uses-them flowers. I like the soft spoken, whimsical, fiercely fragile stems and the wild greens. So my first pass at arranging was fun but didn’t feel right.

My second pass?

Felt right. I liked the colors better, the use of greens, the use of pussy willows (height in a bouquet, we learned, is “perceived value”) – it was just more Me.

Stacey’s second arrangement turned out absolutely stunning – and after we got back from making a delivery, it was fun to see someone walk out of Pat’s with her arrangement.

Here Stacey is doing her delivery, cherry on the top, folks.

We had a great day and finished it off with celebratory ciders at New Holland, scheming up the next idea, of course.

Thank you Pat, Tessa, and Sharon for such a fun (and magical) day. We’ll be coming back for more.

You can see more photos on my Flickr page or Stacey’s and as always … check out the Life List.

What should I cross off next?