Ring in 2016 with a Color-Themed New Year’s Eve Party

Anyone who is anyone is doing something big on New Year’s Eve, right? Take matters into your own hands this year and host a party for family and friends. Whether you’re uncoupled or a family of 10, you can throw an enviable party with these fun ideas:

Pink & Gold Girls-Only New Year’s Eve Party

If you and the girls are all flying solo this New Year’s, it’s an occasion to not only celebrate the new year, but your singlehood. Make it a glammed-out glittering pink and gold celebration to ring in the new year full of sparkle and shine. Indulge in gold glitter-topped strawberry-frosted cupcakes and cheers to raspberry-infused pink champagne. Paint your party in pink and gold and shower your evening in shimmer.

Decorations: Drape your walls in strands of gold glitter garland or hang “Happy New Year” from corner to corner in your party space. Streaming clusters of shimmering stars from a ceiling corner to the floor also dazzles.

Desserts: Decadent cupcakes topped with blush-colored frosting and heart-shaped toppers will make a sweet statement. But it’s New Year’s Eve, so why not splurge with rose and gold-dusted champagne macarons and bronzed cake pops too?

Champagne: It’s a boozy affair, and bottles of bubbly are a must. Accessorize the drinks with tinsel pom poms or sparkling sequin ball stirrers. For even more pizzazz, sweeten the rims of the flutes with twinkling flecks of soft gold rim sugar. After cupcakes and champagne, the party’s officially begun. Call a cab and show off your party dress and paint the town gold.

Black & White New Year’s Eve Dinner  Party

Rather than just throw a basic dinner party, color it black and white. Invite guests to wear black or white and then throw a stylish black-and-white bash. (Plus, this soiree will be the perfect excuse to play hostess in a sequined LBD with a tulle tutu.) Here’s how to celebrate the new year in sleek style.

Table Setting: Your table setting will be the aesthetic focal point of your dinner party — don’t be afraid to go over-the-top with table decor and accents. Start with a chevron black-and-white table runner and a Simplicity Luxury Calla Lily Bouquet centerpiece for a touch of fresh elegance. Add silver embellishments like mercury tealights and mini party disco balls.

Sweets: Black and white cookies and Oreos are practically requested guests of honor at your party. But the traditional sweet cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookie won’t suffice for your elaborate affair. Treat guests with a sweet tooth to Chocolate-Dipped Oreo Cookies and other colorfully themed desserts like chocolate cupcakes with whipped buttercream frosting. Get FREE Chocolate with purchase of Select Bouquets with FTD coupon code at Coupon4share.com. Buy Now! 

Fare: To really get into the spirit of your color scheme, cook up a menu of black-and-white cuisine like white chicken chili and black bean salad. Other ideas for delicious black-and-white food include white pizza, white lasagna and pan-blackened steak.

Rainbow Confetti New Year’s Eve Kids Party

If you’ve got a little brood at home, throw a confetti-themed New Year’s party fun for the whole family (seriously). An at-home family party may not sound as exciting as the wild days pre-parenthood, but it can still be a special and memorable time with these fun ideas.

Confetti: Kids love confetti. And New Year’s Eve is the one time of year kids are allowed to make a huge mess with tiny pieces of paper. Celebrate this tradition with confetti wall decor, a confetti sprinkle cake, confetti-filled balloons, ice cream with sprinkles, Chocolate Dipped Rainbow Oreo Cookies and DIY confetti party hats.

Awards: While waiting for the ball to drop, keep the kids busy with a 2015 awards ceremony. Together as a family, come up with highlights of the past year and reflect on happy memories. Categories can include “Best Movie,” “Best Song,” “Funniest Moment” or “Favorite Trip.”

Resolutions: Help your kids make New Year’s resolutions individually and for the family. Maybe your son would like to try soccer or your daughter wants to take dance. Perhaps this is the year to go on a family vacation to a national park and camp out under the stars. Resolutions can even be as simple as eating together as a family three times a week or playing outdoors at least once during the weekend.

How to Keep Flowers Fresh Longer

Just like getting rid of the hiccups, it seems everyone has a theory about how to keep flowers fresh longer. We took the five most popular theories and put them to the test — seven days in a controlled environment, under observation. It was like the hunger games, except with flowers.

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The Setup

We started with five vases of the same FTD arrangement. In each vase, we put 1 FTD flower food packet along with 2 cups of lukewarm water. Then each vase received one of the tests: vodka, Sprite, apple cider vinegar & sugar, aspirin or the fridge.

Wondering the thought process on these crazy theories? There is some science behind them.

• Vodka —  Vodka, or any alcohol, may have a preserving effect halting ethylene production which is the gas that makes flowers wilt.

• Sprite — Sprite makes the water more acidic, which means it can travel up the stem of the flower more quickly. Also, the sugar serves as food for the flower.

• Apple cider vinegar & sugar — Vinegar acts as an antibacterial agent while the sugar serves as flower food.

• Refrigerator — Cold temperature slows aging of the flower.

• Aspirin — Aspirin may lower the pH of the water.

We changed out the water (and replenished the same ingredients into each vase) on day 3.
Here’s what happened:

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

And the Losers Are…

It turns out, flowers react a lot like people.

Case in point: The vase with Sprite did fine on days 1 and 2 but started to fade on day 3 and was a slimy mess by day 5. The vase with the vodka also did fine on days 1 and 2 but looked droopy and had grayish stems by day 4. Compare the Sprite vase to a six-year-old with a sugar high; the vodka, to a college frat boy on a bender — and suddenly flower behavior makes a lot of sense.

Scientifically, sugar acts as a carb to feed the flower, but it encourages bacterial growth. Also rooted in science, alcohol does stop the production of ethylene, but flowers, like humans, can only handle a very low percentage of alcohol.

Aspirin — Despite many a study to see if aspirin works on flowers, no concrete conclusions have been made. This might be because mediocre results rarely stand out. We didn’t find the aspirin to have any preserving effects, though it did not kill the flowers faster, either.

Runner Up Is…

Apple Cider Vinegar & Sugar —  Flowers need sugar as food. Sugar is a substantial ingredient in flower food packets. The problem is, sugar accelerates bacterial growth. And you get those gunky, slimy leaves around day 4 to prove it. The solution is to add an acid. Enter vinegar, the bacteria-fighting agent to combat any damage the sugar creates.

It’s the perfect pair, and the combo held its own in our survival-of-the-fittest trial.

The Winner Is…

Every night before hitting the hay, we put this vase of flowers in the fridge. They were typically in there for about eight hours. When we woke up, we took the flowers out and displayed them with the others on the dining room table. It seems such a simple solution, but it kept our flowers fresh well through day 7. It makes sense that florists keep their flowers inside a large refrigerator.

Though anchored in science, many of the theories only have an inkling of truth to them. Your best bet to keep your flowers alive longer is using the flower food packet that comes with your arrangement and placing them in the fridge overnight.

Source: ftd.com

Ten Unique Ways to Incorporate Floral Into Your Holiday Décor

By Max Wilker, Better Homes and Gardens®

At Better Homes and Gardens, we love decorating for the holidays and there’s nothing better than adding fresh flowers to the mix. Here are 10 creative floral projects to dress up your home this holiday season. From trendy and bold to traditional and sweet, we’ve got ideas for you! Buy Flowers for Under $35 at FTD. Get this FTD promo code at Coupon4share.com

Window Wreath

Fresh holiday wreaths can be creatively used in many spaces around the house from the front door to greet guests to being the focal point above your fireplace. Check out our festive idea to hang a wreath in a window! Also looks great in the guest bedroom.

Mantel Multiples

Don’t just put one pretty Christmas floral arrangement on your mantel, use multiples on the mantel for floral abundance! Combine greenery with a bold bouquet and ornaments for a creative display.

Mini Woodland Setting with Roses and Hydrangea

Take cues from nature for a one-of-a-kind arrangement featuring red roses, white hydrangea, hypericum berries and pine branches. Be creative with your container by wrapping it with textured bark from fallen trees and accenting the base with various colors of moss.

Simple and Sweet Bouquets

This Christmas flower arrangement is simple and sweet. Fill your favorite large glass with cut roses and pieces of pine. For an extra merry touch, include cranberries in the bottom of the glass. This is perfect for your guest bathroom sink or line 5 of them down your dining table as a centerpiece.

Orchids for Upscale Holiday

Who doesn’t love orchids? The wide range of colors and varieties makes them perfect for any holiday flower arrangement. Orchids are easy to care for and can bloom for as long as four months. Fill an oversized container or vase with your favorite color of orchid and a variety of small, shimmery ornaments to create a Christmas floral décor project. Watering once a week will keep your festive orchid fresh for the whole holiday season

Mix it Up

Nothing beats the fragrance of fresh roses. For the holidays, start by placing your favorite variety in a pretty, festive container or urn. Fill in with bits of boxwood and evergreen. Now for a creative Christmas flower arrangement idea, add crisp fruit, such as small pears or apples.

Poinsettia Tower

A holiday favorite, a poinsettia is a great addition to Christmas decor. Step away from the traditional potted poinsettia and create an arrangement with tiny vases. Mix and match varieties and create a centerpiece using cake stands. Cut poinsettias can last in fresh water for up to two weeks so a poinsettia tower can easily last from the family Christmas Eve gathering to your New Year’s Eve party.

Serve Up Some Roses

For a coffee table arrangement, cut short stems of roses, herbs, and greens. Place single stems in mini vases and arrange around a large pillar candle. Surround with ornaments and other greenery to bring in the traditional colors of Christmas. Corral it all on your favorite serving tray. Use an unscented candle so the fragrance of the roses is the star.

Mini Tree Time

To get the most use from your indoor holiday decorating accents, choose materials and ideas that can transition from day to night or from quiet family evenings to larger festive gatherings. These mini trees, wrapped in plain craft paper adorned with a single felt star, work just as well on their own as they do when adding holiday cheer to a nighttime dessert party. Footed ceramic platters hold bite-size appetizers and sweets that can change with the occasion.

Color Change Up

Look beyond the usual colors of Christmas and flaunt the frilly, two-toned petals of the parrot tulips. Play off their chartreuse stripes by adding ferns to the bouquet and snippets of spruce at the base in a metallic serving tray. Carry-on the color theme by filling clear containers with blue, green, and metallic––new and old––ornaments.

20 Low-Maintenance Plants & Flowers

There are so many great things about having plants around the house. They smell wonderful, they clean the air, and they often provide a much needed burst of color. But sometimes plants just feel like too much responsibility. You have to remember to water them and make sure that they have enough light and nutrients. These things alone can scare people away from keeping plants in their homes, but if you pick the right plants, there’s nothing to fear!

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We’ve put together a list of twenty of the easiest plants and flowers to take care of. Many can go for a week or two without water. Some can survive in low light. Others remove toxins from the air and can even help heal sunburns. Even if you’re a self-proclaimed brown thumb, you’ll be able to keep these plants alive and well. The hardest part may even be choosing which plant you want to bring home first.

After you’ve decided what plant is right for you, you have to choose how to display it. If you’re into small succulents, you can create a terrarium in a fun glass container. All you need is your favorite succulents and some gravel or stones, activated charcoal, moss, and soil. Air plants are also great for home decor. Since they don’t live in soil, you can place them virtually anywhere in your home as long as you remember to water them once a week. If you’re into flowering plants, bright red kalanchoe is a great way to add a pop of color to your home. And if you prefer neutral colors, soft white peace lilies will do the trick. Regardless of what you choose, these low maintenance plants are sure to give you newfound confidence in your gardening skills! Soon you may even be bringing home a few more to add to your collection.

Shop Small – FTD Supports Our Local Florists

FTD is an Official Supporter of Small Business Saturday, taking place on November 28th, 2015. This is a day dedicated to strengthening every community by supporting the small businesses that provide delightful goods and services as well as jobs to strengthen local economies.

We’d like to say thank you to all of our FTD Florists … we wouldn’t be FTD without you.

Our hardworking member florists are a diverse group. You’ll find them in big, bustling cities and in small towns everywhere. Yet, they all have one thing in common—they care deeply about the lives and the stories of the people in their local communities.

When words simply are not enough, we turn to these folks to help us express our most heartfelt emotions. There are few other jobs out there that exist simply to bring joy into people’s lives quite like this. We take pride in that.

When you choose FTD, you know our hardworking members are always willing to go that extra mile for you. They’re up at the crack of dawn, selecting farm-fresh flowers at local markets, then spend hours meticulously handcrafting each artisan-designed FTD bouquet to make sure it will achieve its goal—delight its happy recipient when it’s hand-delivered.

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We, at FTD, are dedicated to providing our florists with products, tools and inspiration to help them connect with their communities and better serve them.

For them, each day at work may simply mean “another day, another dahlia.” But that dahlia is about to bring someone joy and make a memory that will last a lifetime. We think that’s a good reason to pay your local FTD Florist a visit this Small Business Saturday just to say “thanks!”

How to Preserve and Repurpose Flowers

Fresh flowers hold special memories. They remind you of the time you spent choosing your wedding flowers to create that perfect centerpiece. They take you back to prom when pinning on a boutonniere seemed like the most daunting task. They signify favorite holidays, exotic travel destinations, and people close to your heart. Because flowers are so sentimental, you always wish you could do something to make them last a little bit longer. Well, you can! Pressing and drying flowers is a great way to preserve them. If you’re not sure how, here’s a quick reminder on how to press and dry flowers.

Press Flowers With Books

The most basic way to press flowers is by using books. First, arrange your flowers on a white piece of paper, making sure that they don’t touch. Flowers that touch will stick together after pressing. Then, cover your flowers with another white sheet of paper and place them in a book. Stack more books on top for added weight, and wait two to four weeks for the flowers to press. 

Press Flowers in the Microwave

If you want to speed up the pressing process, you can also press flowers in the microwave. To do this, cut out two pieces of cardboard. Place three paper towels on the first piece of cardboard and arrange your flowers. Cover the flowers with three more paper towels and the remaining piece of cardboard and rubber band the entire thing together. Microwave for one to two minutes and then let cool for fifteen minutes. Repeat this process until the flowers are pressed and dry.

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Press Flowers with an Iron

You can also press flowers in about five minutes by using an iron. Place flowers in parchment paper, and place this parchment paper between two paper towels. Then, make sure your iron is free of water and set it to medium heat. Press flowers with iron for ten to fifteen seconds and then let up. Do this continually for about three minutes.

For more information on this process, check out this post on how to press flowers.

Air Dry Flowers

If you want to dry flowers instead of pressing them, air drying is the most common method. You should start drying your flowers right after they begin to open. Clean the stems of leaves and then rubber band flowers of the same species together. Each bundle should have about ten flowers. Hang them upside down for two to four weeks, and then they’re ready to use! To better preserve them, you can lightly mist them with hairspray.

Dry Flowers in the Microwave

Like with pressing, you can speed up the drying process by using a microwave. For this, you need a desiccant like silica gel or cat litter to absorb moisture. Add some of your desiccant to a microwave-safe bowl, then put your flowers in and add more desiccant until they are covered. Heat in microwave for two minutes and check. If the flowers are not dry, heat in one minute intervals until they are completely dry.

After you’ve preserved flowers, what do you do with them? We’ve put together a visual to show you the variety of ways that pressed and dried flowers can be used to freshen up your beauty routine and decorate your home. Whether you want to maintain the shape of the flowers to create a lasting piece of art or bring out their scent in bath bombs or potpourri, the possibilities are endless. Plus, most of these suggestions are fast, easy, and perfect if your friends are the type that appreciate thoughtful homemade gifts.

Now that you know all of the things that you can do with flowers, maybe you’re next time you’ll get a mixed bouquetwith blooms that are good for pressing and drying. Remember, flat flowers like violets, pansies, and geraniums can be pressed best, while more robust flowers like roses are best dried.

If you’re not the crafty type, don’t worry, there are other ways that you can repurpose bouquets, like donating them! From Flower Angels USA to Random Acts of Flowers, there are programs all across the country that facilitate flower donations to brighten hospital rooms and cheer up patients, and many will even come and pick them up from your doorstep.

How-to’s for Repurposing Flowers:

Flower Garland: http://bit.ly/floral-garland

Linen Spray: http://bit.ly/lavender-spray

Bath Bombs: http://bit.ly/bath-bomb

Flower Crown: http://bit.ly/floral-crowns

Floral Manicure: http://bit.ly/floral-manicure

Gift Wrap: http://bit.ly/flower-wrap

Pressed Flower Candle: http://bit.ly/flower-candle

Flower Coasters: http://bit.ly/flower-coasters

Framed Flowers: http://bit.ly/framed-florals

Potpourri: http://bit.ly/diy-potpourri

Floral Soap: http://bit.ly/lavender-soap

Drying Rack: http://bit.ly/flower-rack

Sources: ftd.com/blog/

10 Ways to Reuse Your Vases This Fall

Your boyfriend sent a bouquet to the office for your anniversary, you bought flowers specifically for your sunshiny kitchen windowsill, or you had a centerpiece delivered for a dinner party.

After about a week, you’ve enjoyed the blooms but they’re past their prime. Toss the flowers but don’t toss the vase. Here are 10 ways to reuse, revamp and revise those containers.

1.   Desk Organizer

Your desk is cluttered with scissors, pens, pencils and paintbrushes. Clean it up by putting everything into the vase. Even if it’s littered with paper clips and thumbtacks, the contained chaos will also act as desk decor.  

2. Kitchen Utensil Holder

Use a wide-mouth vase as a way to store your kitchen utensils. From spatulas to wooden spoons, whisks and ladles, your kitchen organization is getting a makeover. And your utensils will be easy to grab when you’re cooking.

3. Terrarium

Turn your vase into a terrarium. Fill the container about a third of the way with sand. Choose succulents from your local nursery or garden store. Succulents need very little water to survive, so they make great plants for those who don’t have a green thumb. Check out the Stephmodo blog for inspiration.

4. Coin Catcher

Coins just make your purse heavier to carry around. Create a home base for these loose coins and use the vase as a modern day piggy bank. If you have a lot of pennies, use the vaseful as a copper-colored decoration. It works great with an old-world look or muted color scheme. Check out this antique-feeling piece.

5. Collection Display

Marbles? Billiard balls? Seashells? Wine corks? Whatever your collect, put it in a vase. The vase acts as both a container and a pretty way to display, making your collection into a work of art.

6. Luminaries

Create luminaries with a vase and a tea light. Play with designs like lace, or wrap the jar with yarn and paint. These will give the vase a fresh face lift and you’ll want to debut them on your brick fireplace or front step.

7. Lanterns

Create a hanging lantern arrangement. To make a lantern, put an inch or two of sand at the bottom of the vases. Then, set the base of a candle into the sand. If the vase is larger, you might consider a cluster of three candles. Use wire or string wrapped around the bottleneck to hang it. Cluster different shapes and sizes together, and pair the lanterns with hanging wildflower bunches for a stunning display perfect for an outdoor wedding, party or dinner

8. Bookend

Load up the vase with pretty stones or marbles and use your new creation as a bookend. It’ll stand out on the bookshelf and hold your books upright in place. It’ll also add height to your current book arrangement. Shop this flowers at FTD.com. FTD offers 10% OFF Sitewide with FTD coupon code. Automatically Applied!!!

9. Picture Frame

Mount a photo to colorful paper and place it inside the cylinder of a vase, hugging the inner edges against the back, with the photo facing the inside. The bend of the glass will give an interesting — almost fish-eye lens — perspective to the photograph and makes for a conversation piece among your family photo frames.

10. Vase 2.0

Go to town with Washi tape, available in different widths and patterns. Decorate vases for a holiday, or just to display on the living room shelf.

Think before you put away that vase. With so many ways to repurpose and reuse, we know you’ll find a project that fits your space best.