Tulips For Me

Each year for V-Day my dad sends me a bouquet of beautiful tulips since they are my favorite flower.  I have such a great dad, right?!  Since I received this delivery at work today, I thought it would be fun to document my bouquet and also highlight additional floral arrangements that could be used to freshen up your home and lighten your mood.

Before I venture into alternate arrangement options, here are some additional shots of my bouquet (thanks a million, dad!):

A bouquet of flowers will look nice on any table, but what about looking modern?  Here are some centerpiece arrangements that I found that are beautiful, elegant, and modern.  Better yet, they are simple!  Each piece uses only flowers, a vase, and some "garnishment" that could easily be put together.

By now, we all know that I love tulips, so let's start with a fun tulip arrangement that is filled with energy!  This photo was found on Southern Living's website. I love the combination of tulips and sliced limes because the limes compliment the stems of the flower so well.  The other element that makes this arrangement so modern is the square vase.  A great place to find vases like this is Ross, but you can also find them at Target, Wal-Mart, TJ Maxx, etc.

I swear I'll move on from the tulips in just a bit, but for now let's all marvel at the beauty of this centerpiece.  This photo came from a Google search, and it didn't really link back to the original source so unfortunately I will not be able to give credit where credit is due.   I loved how simple, yet vibrant this arrangement is.  The leaves of the tulip add texture, dimension, and line as they extend as though their reaching out to touch you. 

This would be so simple to arrange and you could probably even create this piece out of silk flowers.  Stores like Michaels usually carry some silk tulips that give a realist appearance--especially in white.  But be careful with this.  There is nothing worse than a tacky silk flower arrangement, so be sure to purchase quality fakes!

I thought this arrangement would be adorable at a little girl's birthday party, or even at a baby shower. I apologize that the image is blurry.  I knew that resizing it would distort the image, but I just couldn't bring myself to pass it up! This picture was found at purpleweddingflowers.com and was actually designed as a centerpiece for a wedding (which I think would also be adorable). 

To me the Jelly Bellies make this piece feel like an Easter basket, so if you want to change up the them a bit you could use M&M's.  If you don't want to use candy, try some colored sand that you find at Michael's or Ikea.

For the final arrangment I wanted to show you that it doesn't take a lot of money, time, or creativity to put a centerpiece arrangement together.  This arrangement found at Country Living's website started out like this:

But ended up like this: 

Pretty cute, right?  All they did was separate each of the flowers by type and place them into color coordinated vases.  If you don't have the vases you could even save up some glass jars that hold your grocery items (jams, sodas, etc.) and put a can of spray paint to them.  This will save you the time and money it would take to find the perfect color at a store.  But if you don't want to make them and your color scheme is pretty neutral, you could try these, or these from West Elm.

Well, which of these centerpieces is your favorite?  Have you found any centerpiece ideas, or created any for your home that turned out really well?  Be sure to share!