a little bit of this...a little bit of that: INSPIRATION

inspiration can come from from just about anything... I am inspired daily by my surroundings, my drive to work, listening to the radio, reading my daily dose of blog posts which i religiously follow... the latest inspiration came from a somewhat interesting source.

last weekend my parents were having a dinner party so i decided to go over to their house to help my Mom out with the cooking and planning. this is one of my most favorite things to do; these are the times i cherish most with my Mom. after finishing up with the cooking i decided i would make a flower arrangement for the centerpiece of the table. per usual, i wandered out into my Dad's glorious rose garden to cut some beauties. as i walked through the patio though i noticed the cushions on the patio furniture and BAM!, i was inspired! those yellow and green stripped cushions provided just the right amount of creativity to venture back through the house and into the front yard to the lemon tree. A beautiful, organic arrangement of lemons and limes did the trick!

I started by cutting some branches...ones with multiple lemons, all different shapes, sizes, and variations of color. i thoroughly washed them because that damn tree is infested with spiders!...so much so that my Mom makes my Dad go out and pick her lemons for her. (i never knew what a wimp my Mom was with spiders until recently)

i chose a white vase with a large opening so the vibrant colors pop against it and placed a frog in the bottom to keep the branches from falling out.

i began to arrange the branches and let them fall where they wanted. some branches tore, others broke, but i went with it, i didn't force anything... it added to the organic, whimsical look i was going for.

i couldn't let those broken lemons go to waste so I decided i would use the ones that broke off by inserting a skewer into them and filling in the holes.

once i had finished my mom and i decided it needed a little something else...

and that something else were those gorgeous nectarines they received in the mail that day from the Harry and David fairy. insert three of those lovelies and it was perfection! (well, to me it was...)

and here is the arrangement sitting in front of its creator, the INSPIRATION that started it all...my Mom took this photo and it makes me want to jump in and enjoy the day.