So you’ve gone green – or you’ve at least heard about it – but have you gone local?  With new words popping up in our vocabulary like “locavore” there’s clearly a mounting a trend towards supporting local businesses, especially farmers and artisans.  While the great recession may have tipped the scales in favor of big box, low-price retailers there’s still a place for your local business and the movement is poised to regain steam in years ahead.

FromYouFlowers.com operates using a network of 30,000+ local florists to fulfill your order.  Each time you shop with us – whether you’re sending to Portland, ME or Portland, OR – you’re supporting a local florist.  Not only that but you’re choosing an environmentally friendly option and sending the very best handcrafted arrangement.

A Couple Other Ways to Go Local

Farmer’s Market –  Perhaps the best place to find the locavore in its natural habitat, the farmer’s market is a celebration of all things local.  If you’re looking for fresh vegetables, quality organic meat or one-of-a-kind handcrafted items, chances are your local farmer’s market has you covered.  It’s also worth noting that small farms are a dying breed across America and this is a great way to support one.  Pictured below is our favorite, the Ashlawn Farm Market in Lyme, CT – the centerpiece of which is the locally-roasted Farm Coffee.  Check out LocalHarvest.org to find a market close to you!

Drink Local – Put down that fancy, overrated import and support your local brewery.  With roughly 1,500 breweries in the US we’ve come a long way but still have a ways to go if we want to reach the pre-prohibition high of 4,100.  Almost every town in America had a local brewery back then but legislation coupled with mass production brought an end to that tradition.  Today craft brewers struggle to compete with the massive (and mostly foreign) industrial light lager companies but you can support yours by simply enjoying a pint!

All InBloom readers Save 15% with the code TWT – our discount for @fromyouflowers

Hanukkah begins at sundown on Friday 12/11 this year. The eight-night celebration goes through December 19th and is marked by customs including the nightly lighting of the menorah, playing Dreidel and the eating of traditional fried foods.

If you are hosting a Hanukkah celebration and/or feast this year then you are likely organizing your menu and making final arrangements for Friday.

Hanukkah menus

One delicious tradition of the Hanukkah holiday is the food. Foods including latkes, fried donuts and brisket are popular choices.

Kids’ crafts

A fun way to keep kids entertained during Hanukkah celebrations is to have craft projects on hand. Printing out Hanukkah coloring pages from online templates is an easy and fun activity and is suitable for all ages.

Dreidel crafts

Playing Dreidel is a tried-and-true Hanukkah tradition. Find Dreidel craft projects online, gather necessary materials and you’ll keep the kids busy for a while.

Hanukkah decorations

An inspired idea is to decorate your home with a combination of store-bought and home-made Hanukkah decorations. Use the kids’ craft projects to decorate your home–if you’re feeling crafty then try your hand at making this cool candlelit branch decoration or this home-made Menorah.

Also, Hanukkah plates, garlands, napkins and signs are available at most party stores.

Hanukkah flowers

Hanukkah flowers are one of the prettiest–and easiest–ways to perk up your home for a get-together. Find Hanukkah flower centerpieces with candles, pretty Hanukkah bouquets in shades of blue and white,  and festive blooming plants like this blue iris stack to decorate your home with.

Happy Hanukkah!

With your Thanksgiving guest arriving next week, why not dress up your front door to welcome them in for the get-together? We’ve got some easy ideas on how to create a welcoming path for your guests!

Wreaths

Hanging a pretty wreath on your front door is a great way to create a welcoming beacon to your home. You can always buy one, but it doesn’t take much longer just to make one!  Head on over to your local crafts store for inspiration, ideas and supplies.

A simple and inexpensive twig or grapevine leaf can be the form of your wreath.

Using the grapevine wreath as your basis, you can get really creative with the project. You can use faux–or real–fruits and leaves of the season on your wreath by merely hot gluing them onto the wreath in a pretty pattern. Oranges, cranberries, and holly are all good to use. Or, glue pieces of dried corn husks and wheat to the wreath.

A really unique, beautiful and functional idea is to create a birdseed wreath. You’ll only need a few materials, and it’s actually a quick and easy project.

Swags

An even easier way to dress up your door is to make a quick swag to hang on your front door. Items you might consider using include dried wheat and cornhusks. You can even add in some dried or faux sunflowers. Simple tie a pretty and festive ribbon around the bunch, tie to the door and Voila! You’re all done! What could be easier?

Cornucopias

You can make a simple cornucopia to hang on your front door by using a natural sap bucket, wicker cornucopia basket or cone shaped tin can. Use dried flowers, faux fruits, pinecones and grasses in your cornucopia.

Other Ways to Welcome Guests In

-Decorate your front steps with gourds and potted Autumn plants like Chrysanthemum
-Get your kids to help make simple pumpkin cutouts or turkey crafts to decorate windows with
-Use kids crafts like these garden turkeys in flower beds
-Fill wicker baskets with faux lowers, fruits and cornhusks, tie with a pretty bow and leave on your front steps or porch
-Make a scarecrow with old clothes, a pillow, a hat and straw
-Set out bales of hay with gourds on top and beside them

We hope we’ve provided you with some fun, festive, affordable ways to welcome your Thanksgiving guest in. Happy crafting!

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, if you are hosting a family get-together this year you might be starting to get your menu together.

While gathering recipes for the turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and Grandma’s apple pie, one important thing may be escaping your attention: the table.

If you don’t usually set the table with much other than silverware and napkins, you may want to read on for some cool ideas to try this year to make your table beautiful, festive and welcoming.

Also, stop back by for more decoration ideas and crafts–including mantel decorations and wreaths!

Thanksgiving Centerpieces

Although it’s easy to stick a storebought cardboard turkey in the middle of the table, why not spend just as much time and effort on featuring a more welcoming–and beautiful–Thanksgiving centerpiece on your table this year.

Thanksgiving centerpieces come in a wide variety of options. Thanksgiving flower centerpieces are a beautiful choice. Look for centerpieces featuring a variety of Autumn colors–like orange and yellow. Seasonal flowers like mums are common in these centerpieces. Many of these arrangements are displayed in festive vases or containers, like faux pumpkins, adding to the overall seasonal feel of the flowers.

You can also find Thanksgiving cornucopia centerpieces. These offer an even more festive feel to add to the table.

When choosing your centerpiece, keep in mind the size of your dining room table, the amount of dishes you are serving and the number of guests. This will help you pick the best size centerpiece for your get-together. If you are hosting a larger get-together, you most likely will want to feature more than one centerpiece.

Name Cards

Name cards make a practical–and elegant–addition to your holiday table. They make your guests feel special and add a festive touch to the table. Use festive fall colors–like yellows, oranges and browns–to construct these cards. Have fun making them, and possibly enlist the rest of the family to participate in this craft.

Name cards can be as simple as cutting shapes out of colored paper with the guest’s names on it, or a little more elaborate with designs, popout shapes and glitter. Use cardstock instead of flimsy construction paper to make the cards more durable.

Look for clip art, templates and stencils to use in this project. You can add a little sparkle to your cards with glitter.

Another cool place card idea is to use in-season fruit–like pears or apples–with a cute tag specifying the guest’s name as the card. Embellish the tag with glitter and a pretty font, and tie them to the fruit-stem with ribbon or more natural looking twine.

Thanksgiving Napkins

Instead of the usual white cloth napkins, consider using more seasonal linens. This can be as simple as finding napkins in colors such as beige and tan–or festive prints–or, you can make Thanksgiving napkins yourself by embellishing plain napkins with shapes such as leaves. Find a pattern or template, or draw free-hand, and use fabric paint to fashion leaf shapes on the napkins. You can use these linens year after year!

Use festive napkin rings or simply use natural raffia as napkin rings.

Thanksgiving Tablecloths

For Thanksgiving, you might want to use a more seasonal tablecloth than Grandma’s white lace tablecloth.

You can find ready made Thanksgiving tablecloths–or, you can make your own. Just use a plain tablecloth and draw or stencil shapes like leaves straight on the tablecloth using fabric markers or paint. You can create a simple look by doing this around the edge of the tablecloth, or you can mimic the look of falling leaves by making a random pattern of leaves on the tablecloth.

Thanksgiving Table Decorations

In addition to centerpieces and place cards, consider making your own small decorations to scatter on the table. This can be a family craft which is fun for kids.

Find a website with tabletop paper craft ideas, or get the kids to help you create simple bowl decorations with fruit, pinecones and gourds.

Use your imagination and have fun making these decorations.

Thanksgiving Placemats

For Thanksgiving placemats, you can buy placemats in festive colors or prints, or you can make your own.

Use craft paint and leaf stencils to embellish plain napkins, or use fall leaves sandwiched in between clear contact paper. You can get creative here.

Thanksgiving Candles

Another great idea is to integrate Thanksgiving-themed candles on your dining room table.

One option is to go ahead and choose a Thanksgiving flower centerpiece with candles.

You can also find candles with leaf designs already on them, or you can use plain candles in festive candle-holders.Here is a cool candle-holder craft using corn-husks.

Kids’ Tables

At the kids’ tables, you can really have fun getting the kids involved making decorations.

Let your kids get creative and make decorations like centerpieces, placemats, and place cards. Do some research on the web to find projects, or just let your kids use their own imaginations. Have them gather leaves, pinecones and acorns from the yard. Set out craft supplies like pipe cleaners, crayons, construction paper, ribbon, stamps, feathers, glue and crayons, and let them have fun creating decorations. Let them know that there are no rules–just have fun with it.

We hope we have given you some inspiration for beautifying your holiday table. Have fun creating festive touches to use year after year on your Thanksgiving table! Be sure to stop back by over the next few days and week to get more great Thanksgiving decoration ideas!

When it comes to hanging on to the beauty of fresh flowers, you have several options. You can dry or press your flowers; both of these methods yield gorgeous results. Another way to preserve your flowers is to wax them. Wax flowers are beautiful and lend themselves to all sorts of crafts, decorations and projects. It is actually an easy process–read on for details!

What You’ll Need:
Double boiler
Fresh Flowers
Scissors
Spoon
Toothpick
Tweezers
Tray lined with parchment paper
Paraffin wax
Thermometer
Floral foam
Rubber bands
Small cup (optional)
Display dome (optional)
Candle pillar (optional)

1. Use fresh flowers that are completely opened. Flowers with firm petals are best—delicate petals disintegrate. Good choices include roses and lilies.

2. Melt a pound of paraffin wax in a double boiler. Keep in Mind: Never melt paraffin directly over a flame!

3. Temperature is key here. Heat wax to 130 to 150 degrees. Maintain the ideal temperature throughout process with a thermometer. Wax will not coat flowers effectively at a low temperature and a higher temperature will scorch them.

4. Cut all flower stems to at least 2 to 3 inches.

5. Take your fresh flowers, holding each flower by the stem end and dip the flower head completely into wax. When waxing them, you will want to use a slight angle instead of straight on, and be sure not to touch the sides of the double boiler. Immediately lift out, allowing excess wax to drip into pot. If you’re waxing a flower with many petals you might want to spoon wax into flower middle to fully cover. When waxing small blooms you can insert a toothpick into the center and dip into wax, or use tweezers.

6. Cool the flowers by placing each blossom’s stem in floral foam or on its side on a parchment-paper-lined tray. It will cool and harden completely in 5 minutes. Be sure to handle the flowers carefully!

7. Now it’s time to finish the process by waxing the stems. When the blooms have hardened, wax their stems by holding the bloom this time and dipping the stem in wax.

8. You have endless options when it comes to displaying these waxed flowers. You can showcase them on their own, make cards with them, display them in a centerpiece, use them when wrapping a gift, arrange around a candle…the sky is the limit! One way you can showcase them is to display them in a simple, small cup and put them under a glass display dome or bell jar. Just snip your flowers to a few different lengths and secure with a rubber band. Fill the small cup with floral foam and—using care—arrange the flowers in the cup. You can add decorations like ornaments if you wish.

Enjoy, and stop back by for more tips about how to showcase the beauty of flowers!

The leaves are changing and that familiar Autumn chill is in the air. Gone are the sunny, balmy days of summer, as well as the bright sunflowers and daisies, green grass and our summer garden harvest.

But just because the grass in your yard may be turning brown and your garden which was once thriving a few months ago might resemble a wasteland doesn’t mean you cannot get a few more months of color in your yard, add some fun fall touches to your front porch, as well as prepare for next Spring.

Planting Fall Color

Once all the bright summer color has vanished, it may seem as if your porch and yard are gloomy and boring. They don’t have to be! Plenty of flowers can flourish in a pot or bed in the Autumn. Chrysanthemums, Asters and Pansies are a few flowers that can grow heartily throughout Fall. Try big pots of beautiful chrysanthemums on both sides of your door to welcome guests.

For a fun weekend project, try container gardening with Fall perennials. Use seasonal perennials that will survive well in your area and plant lovely combination arrangements in large pots. You can get really creative but usually the large pot is filled with a taller perennial or decorative grass in the center, some ‘filler’ plants or flowers in the middle, and some ‘spiller’ plants as the final, last layer; these will spill over the pot in a nice fashion. Here is a great step-by-step video on the process. Cheerful pots and beds of pansies will add color to your yard as well.

Cleaning up the Garden

Once you’ve enjoyed your summer harvest, it’s time to start preparing your garden for Fall and Winter, as well as start your planting and/or sowing for fall vegetables. Check out these guidelines:

• Replace all spent annuals
• Prepare soil for autumn planting
• Plant spring bulbs
• Rake and remove all fallen leaves
• Cut back the spent perennials / biennials
• Remove annuals damaged by frost
• Harvest all herb stems and roots
• Fertilize remaining plants as needed
• Sow seeds for succession planting
• Plant peonies, poppies and irises
• Add winter mulch, if needed
• Prepare bulbs for forcing and chill
• Divide and transplant perennials and ground covers
• Apply dormant fertilizer to trees, shrubs, ground covers and vines
• Plant and mulch hardy annuals for winter
• Plant bare-root trees, shrubs, ground covers and vines
• Transplant roses
• Plant bare-root roses
• In southern zones, stop watering to induce dormancy

You can also start planting your bulbs for Spring, such as bright yellow daffodils, gorgeous and vibrant tulips and many more types of bulbs to make a beautiful show once Spring arrives.

Decorate for Fall

In addition to adding mums and container gardens throughout your yard, there are several other things you can do to decorate and beautify for Fall.

• Make an easy Autumn wreath for your front door
• Decorate your front porch and stairs with gourds and pumpkins
• Make a scarecrow
• Pick beautiful fall leaves and flowers, preserve them in glycerin for three days (two parts hot water to one part glycerin), then display in a beautiful cast iron pot or wicker basket on your front porch
• Fill an old children’s wagon with hay, pumpkins, gourds and leaves to display
• Tie dried cornhusks from your front or back door
• Fill window boxes with mums and pumpkins

As you can see, there are so many ways to brighten up your yard and porch this Autumn. Do you have a great Autumn decorating idea we’ve missed? Please share it in our comments section!

One of the most fun ways to collect items to use in your Fall decorations is to take a long drive in the country to enjoy the beautiful Fall foliage, collecting items and produce from local farm stands and markets along the way.

Stop back by later this week for ideas about how to bring the beauty of Fall indoors!