I mentioned in my first “Five Things” post that I got a rare opportunity to work with some extra special flowers last week. One of my favorite things to do in my spare time is peep photos of arrangements from larger markets, like L.A. and NYC. They have an incredible variety of blooms at their disposal, and big budgets to work with. In our small[ish] town, we don’t have many chances to say, “to hell with the budget!” and ship in luxury flowers for a special event.

So when one of our VIP clients, L, contacted me a couple of weeks ago about her vision for a baby shower that included pink peonies and green cymbidium orchids, I was chomping at the bit. Unfortunately, peony season is over for us, but David Austin garden roses were the next best thing. We used three varieties of the large high-petal stunners, and shipped in a case of cymbidium orchids from Holland to our back door. I was in heaven.

L’s colors were pink, green and ecru, and she wanted to add a little pop to the vase with fresh limes {you can find lots of citrusy inspiration on Pinterest}.

Since these arrangements were so elaborate, we used some special design tools to create them without visible stems (the flowers were designed in a separate container entirely). But you can pull this off at home without our sneaky tricks of the trade.

Martha explains it much better than I ever could in this how-to; just replace the candy with sliced limes and add your favorite flowers! {This set of clear nesting cylinders from IKEA would work like a charm.}