Create Your Own Flower Food at Home

Flower food packets provide both sugar that the roses can use and an anti-bacterial agent but you can make your own (cheap) version at home.

Stuff you will need
1 litre distilled or rainwater water

1 tbs. sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar

How to do it
1. Dissolve 1 tbs. of sugar in a litre of slightly warm water (which helps it dissolve).
2. Add 1 tsp. of either lemon juice or vinegar to the water and mix well.

Key to Long Lasting Roses

I got these lovely shabby pink roses at the market this morning (closing half price special of $3.25).

While I often find there isn't much fragrance in the roses you buy in the shops but these have that evocative rose garden smell.

I follow a few easy steps to make my roses last as long as possible.

Step One - Start with a clean vase and clean water
Step Two - Change the water every 3 days
Step Three - Recut 1 inch from stems each time you change the water
Step Four - Add flower food each time you change the water
Step Five - Keep the roses in a cool place

Other Tips
- Ideally clean the vase with anti-bacterial soap or bleach
- Use the cleanest possible water you have available (distilled or rain water is the best)
- Remove any leaves that will be under the water

Why Clean and Change
Roses have tiny tubes to suck up the water and they will plug. This is why the vase and
water should be sterile to start with and the roses should be recut each time to reopen the tubes.

A little flower shop display in Pau, France

There's just something about fresh cut colorful roses.

I stumbled across this display outside a colorful little flower shop in Pau, France last May. The adorable miniature boxes of roses looked amazing set alot plain wooden crates and tables. The rose petals scattered on the pavement were also charming.

Some Shabby Chic Features in My Bedroom

My bedside table decor. I used a delicate vintage milk jug (thrift shop find) for my (fake) roses (ebay $12), a vintage style Tiffany lamp (Target $39.95) and a picture frame that you can find in nearly any Shabby Chic decorating shop for under $10.

Another gorgeous little vase (thrift shop $1) and more of the ebay flowers.

My shabby cane chair (Ikea $29 ) and white wicker basket (Target $12).

I used one of the Hydrangea pattern Simply Shabby Chic Shower Curtains but made it into a lining for the dirty clothes basket. The only thing with the Ikea chair is that it has nice detailing on the back rest and normal 45" inch pillows overwhelm the chair. So I am searching for a smaller style cushion to work with it, I am thinking a round one.