my fave way to arrange flowers. cheap, inexpensive, recycled arrangement.

The weather in toronto last week was strangely warm.  

All of the snow melted, and it felt like spring was here.  

It's still the first week of January, and we have new snow now, but mentally i have moved on.  

So i treated myself to a $4 bouquet of white chrysanthemums. (mums for short)

 I rummaged around my apartment for all of the glass containers I could find.  They include a wine carafe, pop bottle, homemade pickle jar, spice jars and vintage vases & perfume bottles.

 After filling all the jars with water, I began by placing flowers into the smaller jars first.  I wasn't sure if I would use all of the vases, so I started with my favourites. 

 After making sure all the vases had flowers, I set them on the table - beginning with the largest ones, then fanning out with the smaller ones.

 Play with the arrangement of vases until you are pleased with it. 

 And voila! your table looks pretty and ready for spring.

Random tips:

Mums like to be broken with a tear, rather than slicing the bottom like you would a rose.

If your florist doesn't give you any "flower food" you can add a little sugar to the water in the vase.

Remove any leaves that would be below the surface of the water - they will rot very quickly.

Bunch flowers together with an elastic near the bottom - they will spread more evenly.

Variations:

Different sizes of tin cans

Wrapping coloured ribbon on the vases

Mixing different types of flowers would be really pretty

Add food colouring to the water - the jars will have more colour, and eventually the white flowers will drink the coloured water and change the flower heads.  Beautiful and fun for kids to learn about plants.

Have fun!