All work, no play.....no way!

I started off my Labor Day weekend, laboring!

First: by roasting a mixture of Sun Gold tomatoes and the red Early Girls, from the garden, with some olive oil and springs of rosemary.  Having that on pasta tonight!

Bought a couple pounds of green beans at a local farm stand so, I prepared and froze few bags.  I'll get some more next week, it is just so easy to do them in small batches, at least, for me it seems easier.

Since "all work and no play, would make Jan, at the very least, a bored girl".....I played with flowers.

I know silk flowers are very popular, and with good reason, most of them a quite realistic and they could last for a generation, or two....they are so durable.

But, dried flowers still have a place in my heart.  I just wanted to talk about how easy it is to dry flowers you may already have growing in your yard, or a friend's or neighbor's yard.  Here are some examples..........

  These are onion seed heads!

Now if you are a really good girl and harvest all of your onions when you are suppose to, you have never seen these before, but if you are like me.........!  These were left over from last year!

I cut them off, hung them upside down to dry.  Upside down drying, allows them to hold their nice round shape and allows some of the million little black seeds, that these globes hold, to fall on the ground or floor.  Shake out the rest of the seeds (or most of them) and spray with clear varnish. 

The stems will be brittle and if they break, like mine, cut them in half and slide the small end of the stem into the larger end....voila'..a new sturdy stem.  A note here: cut the stems on all of the flowers much longer than you think you will need.  You can always make them shorter, much harder to make them longer...but you knew that!

Next, I cut the faded flowers from my Liatris.  Let them sit for a few days to dry a bit.  Then pulled off all of the dried leaves and sprayed them with varnish. 

 

Same day, I picked a few of the round thistle-like heads from my Ecinops (Globe Thistle).  Same process.....let dry for a few days, then I could remove the actual dried little flower petals, removed the leaves and spray varnish.

End Result!

A free bouquet!  I did add some feathery "blooms" from a tall Karl Forester grass, I have growing in my yard.  You could, also, add wheat, or other grain or grass heads.  Then, at the last minute, I added two hydrangea mop heads.  The hydrangea will slowly dry in the vase and I thought they added weight to the bottom of the arrangement and the added color really livened up the dark pink liatris. I am not a great flower arranger, I'm a "throw them in a vase and see where they land" kind of an arranger.  I can see in the photos that I need some of the grass spikes in the center, I'll change it, I promise!

Any way, there you go......start looking around and you will be surprised by the number and types of flowers that will dry well.  It's fun, easy and cheap, cheap, cheap!

The only sad thing is....dried flowers and Labor Day pretty much shout the end of summer and I am NOT ready for summer to end!  I do plan on playing some more this weekend with a family bar-b-que and a hike. 

Hope yours has been a wonderful and fun holiday weekend.

Please join me as I visit and link to the following blog parties:

Blue Monday

Metamorphasis Monday

Tabletop Tuesday

Bloomin Tuesday

Rednesday

Outdoor Wednesday

Tuesday Garden Party