Forever Flowers in the House

Sometime back I wrote about my aunt and her talent and love of gardening. That, however wasn't her only talent. She was also very crafty in many other ways. She loved to draw, embroider, made quilts, refinished furniture, sewed and made all manner of artsy crafty stuff. When I got married and you were still allowed to throw rice at the newlyweds to send them on their way she made this:

What is this you ask? It is a rosebud made out of satin, inside this rosebud was a little pouch made of tulle which was filled with rice and meticulously folded and tucked into the rosebud, she made hundreds of them (well, maybe 100, I had a small wedding) and filled several baskets with them and placed them throughout our house where we held our reception. When Frank and I were making our exit, she handed everyone a rose, once it was thrust forward the pouch would open and out came the rice. It was such a hit that she was asked to do it for a myriad of weddings afterwards. Since she was such an avid gardener and loved flowers so much, a lot of her projects involved flowers which she would dry in any way she could think of. Here is what she did as a remembrance with our wedding invitation,

which hangs on my bedroom wall. When Jane announced that the FITH party was on for this Monday I thought; Hmmm, I'd like to attend but I have no flowers in the house. With all the storms, snow, sleet, ice, rain, wind and plummeting temperatures there is absolutely nothing out there, the stores have slim pickings and my yearly Christmas poinsettia turned into a spindly nothing very quickly. But then I remembered, I have my aunt's and my mother's books!

in which I will always find flowers, so there are always flowers in this house.