for the love of peonies

i used to work in a beautiful little flower shop before going back to school and starting the rest of my life. unknown to many people, working as a floral designer can be incredibly stressful. it's a constant battle against time when working with delicate perishable product for weddings, events and holidays. for a while seeing flowers stressed me out, but i've slowly gotten over that and find that our little place looks more complete with a pop of green or natural color.
the unfortunate truth about flowers is that they don't last forever, so i wanted to get a larger vase that could stand on it's own between fresh bunches of joy. i found this vase at the thrift store (surprise, surprise) for $9.99. not a great thrift store price but i had limited options. it was great as it was...but we have enough dark colors in our place and i felt that white would contrast nicely...and would compliment many types of flowers. this was easy peasy. just a few coats of white paint. i only painted the top third of the inside because i wasn't sure how the paint would hold up against the water...no one's going to look in there anyway!
here's my bit about flowers...go as simple as possible. all flowers are loveable...but some lose their cool when they are mixed with others. just buy a 'bunch' or two and say 'no filler please'...and try to buy flowers that are in season - that way you get a better price and a better chance of buying local.

the before

 the after (check out the table too!)

  

let's also take a minute to love peonies