The Start of Some Succulent Love

Weddings are a celebration of love and friendship, and although a small wedding favor gift-to-guests is common I don't usually think of weddings as potential sites for freestyle ingredients.  Maybe some of you have gone home with a lovely cut-flower centerpiece arrangement in the past?  Well, at the ceremony of two dear friends over this past labor day weekend I saw something new-to-me in terms of wedding floral design, a succulent themed flower scheme.  The bride had epiphytes (aka "air plants") in her hair, and all the bouquets were made out of small rosette-type succulents.

Bridal Hair Greenery!

When I was complimenting the bride on the absolute coolness of this idea, she told me to take one when I left.  So thanks to K&F for having part of their wedding transformed into a Cambridge Freestyle first!

Behold my awesomeness!

Ok, the sharp-eyed among you might note that there are a few non-succulents in the mix; e.g. calla lily, yellow orchid, ivy, some other leafy stems I can't identify, and mosses! Such beautiful mosses.  While I didn't want to deconstruct such striking centerpiece the plant-grower in me wanted to get those succulents out of the florist foam and into the dirt.  We'll get to those in the next posting....for now you'll just have to enjoy the vase arrangements that Creative Roommate put together with the pieces I couldn't replant.

A small vase to brighten up a desk.....

A lovely reminder of K & F to grace our kitchen table.

Here's to you K&F: wishing you life, love, and freestyle!

A Marble-lous Idea

Ah the Groupon, it can take you to unexpected places- like a tiny artist's studio in Somerville where in just a few hours flames and fingers can transform borosilicate glass tubes into whatever you can imagine (given the limits of being an absolute novice in the arts of glasscraft).  In our case, I imagined a pendant, and boyfriend imagined a marble.
Not just any marble, but this shiny specimen!

Worthy of admiration.

     Boyfriend realized that such an item required a place to be displayed, and commissioned me to create one.  Off I went, on an intra-apartment freestyle hunt, looking for suitable free things that would be just the right size....  Something would have to be deep enough so that the marble could sit inside, small enough to fit on a work desk, and sturdy enough that it could be decorated and still cushion the marble.

Solution: The red cap from a generic pain reliever bottle. 

Supplies: scissors, blue felt, glue, and a red plastic bottle top.

I took the cap from a non-childproof pill bottle and decided to cover it with some blue felt left over from another project.  The edges of the bottle top are wavy, probably to help people grip the cap.  I thought that  the wavy soft edges of the display against the crisp line of the marble would be a nice contrast.  Because of the odd shape I had to glue the felt down in stages, and hold it with string while drying since it didn't want to sit flat against the cap.  

Sort of like watching paint dry....

I tried to get the folds evenly spaced around the edges, and in that I did not quite succeed.  There are some lumpy bits.  It is homemade from found parts, I hope he likes it anyway.

Ready for the big debut

This unique marble is now snug as a bug on its felted throne. 

Happy freestyling!

Sail into the Land of Freegifting

Found: Black frame, small poster-size

Location: In front of the building next door (talk about an easy carry-home!)

Project Steps: 

1. Clean frame

2. Suggest to Creative Roommate that she should 'paint something nautical' as a graduation party gift for a mutual friend who just finished a graduate program and does lots of work on boats.

3. Wrap it up with some cool old National Geographic maps.

4. Bring to party, present!

Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main...

Note: We discussed the possible etiquette faux pas of gifting something that was partially composed of freestyle components, and we decided that it was acceptable in this case because of the following:
1. The painting was original, and made specifically for the recipient, thus outside of the social grey area of 'regifting.'
2. The recipient appreciates creativity, and being in an environmental-related program would likely be accepting of the 'reuse and repurpose' philosophy that is at the heart of freestyling.

Freestyle - paying it forward with plants

I like plants. They help with humidity, air quality, and they are good for you.  Exactly why and how plants are good for you is an evolving field of study, but some research is based on ideas such as the biophilia hypothesis (where humans are innately attracted to other living organisms and want to spend time with them).  For a quick, easy to read, run down on why you should get some potted plants, check out this article in Psychology Today on urban mindfulness.

Being a plant fan, I sometimes find myself with an over-abundance of sprouts, shoots, and such.  Along with picture frames I'm always looking for free planters and trays in anticipation of splitting my Sansevieria, giving the new spider plant 'babies' their own place, or sneaking another cutting from my boyfriend's jade plant.  Recently these supplies reached critical mass, we do live in an apartment with limited space and sunlight, so I decided it was time to set up some plantings and let others benefit from my accumulated abundance.  Call it freestyling with botanicals, spreading the plant-love, or just giving the gift of green.  

Check out the schematic below for information on where all the planters came from.

I should note that the spider plant (in upper left corner) is a descendant of a plant given to me from a friend years ago.  This plant is at least the 10th offshoot from the original, I keep giving them away so I've rather lost track.....  As part of some freestyle cycle of karma, that same friend will now be getting a jade plant after she moves into her new place!  Most of these plants have already found their way into new homes, ranging from high-tech offices to the common cubicle.  There they will patiently stand as reminders of the possibilities of freestyle while recycling your old exhalations into fresh air, for free!