Thanksgiving 2013

Two posts in one day? I know. But I just had to publish this one. :)
Being married, my husband and I share the holidays with our two families. Thanksgiving of 2012, we were with his family. Thanksgiving of 2013, we were with my family. 

I did the flower arrangements for Thanksgiving dinner; but something different happened, my Aunt and I did them together! 

Tinah Pinegar my beautiful, wonderful, amazing, fun, and thoughtful Aunt! She and I worked together to create the beautiful center pieces for our delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I have to say she is an amazing florist! She creates the most beautiful arrangements! I love working with her, I learn so much and am inspired.

In my family, the day before Thanksgiving the women in the family gather at Moni's (my Grandmother) home and we make homemade pies for Thanksgiving. We also prepare the dinner table, including the floral center pieces. Pie Day is probably more fun than Thanksgiving.

Look at all the delicious pies we made and the finished floral arrangements - beautiful site. :)

This is just a fun picture I took on Pie Day, with my sister and our two teenage cousins! I love them all so much!They make the holidays so fun!

This is the arrangement I did. I had a square container. Now, the shape and size of the arrangement depends on the shape and size of the container; and the occasion. These arrangements were created to be used as center pieces on our Thanksgiving tables, so we had to keep the flowers small enough so you could talk to the person across the table, yet big enough to make it proportionate to its container. 

Another thing to keep in mind is, when an arrangement is a center piece at a dining table, the arrangement needs to look good on all sides; because it will be seen on all sides.

 I'm not sure if I have said this before, if I have sorry; but my love for flowers first started from my Moni. She has a garden full of flowers and she loves to arrange them. When I was a young teen she let me help her with the Thanksgiving day center pieces. I was always amazed at her eye for it. She made sure not only did the flowers have to look beautiful, but the flowers had to match the table. Each year, even if Moni doesn't create the arrangement that year, the tables still have her touch.

Because of the size of my family, there were three tables for Thanksgiving dinner. I did the center piece on one "grown-up" table and the kid table, Tinah did the other arrangement for the second "grown-up" table. If you can't see the difference in our arrangements Tinah's arrangement was at the table with the red candles and mine was at the table with the green.

Even though we used the same flowers and greens Tinah's and my arrangements are very different. The flowers we used were: red roses, yellow daises, sunflowers, yellow/orange Peruvian lilies, different greens, sticks, and ornamental grass.

In an arrangement, you want to feel all the spaces. Make sure where ever you look on your arrangement something is there to fill it. To fill in our spaces and to add more textures to our arrangements, Tinah and I got some pruners and went to Moni's garden and got some extra greens to put in. We got great lines from the different plants and different shades of green that accented the bright colors of the flowers. 

This is the kid table :)

Another fun thing that happened with these arrangements was the ornamental grass. When we made the arrangements on Pie Day the grass looked like ornamental grass, but the next day the grass opened into these fuzzy seed like puffs. It was so funny! It just added more texture and pizzazz to the arrangements.

I thought these were fun pictures. My baby brother, McKay loves photography and likes fiddling around with it. So some of the pictures in this post he took and others I took. Thanks McKay for the fun pictures! The second one is a delicious punch my family makes each year for Thanksgiving and Christmas :) yum!

I bet you could have guessed by now, but I LOVE MY FAMILY! In Nov. 2013 I did a 30 day challenge, posting a picture each day of something I am grateful for. (the first picture in this post was my Day 28) My family, was at the top of my list (after my sweet husband). My family is so special to me. I'm thankful they allow me to use my talents for our family gatherings. I'm grateful for their praise of my arrangements, it means a lot to me :) I don't know where I would be in my life without my family.

My cute girly cousins!

This is Tyler and I being silly :p

I have so much in my life to be thankful for. I have so many blessings.

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving, for the reminder and the celebration of our blessings. I am thankful for flowers and the beauty they bring into this sometimes dark and dreary world. They are pieces of heaven here on earth, to help make this a beautiful place and they serve as a reminder that there is something far more beautiful beyond this life.

I am so thankful for my sweet and wonderful husband - Tyler. He is the world to me and my greatest blessing! I'm so blessed to have him by my side as my husband!

I love you Sweetheart!