When I mentioned making your own bouquets, corsages, and floral arrangements for weddings and special events, Lynn of Celebrate Green, shares with us the lovely story of how she made the bouquet for her son and daughter-in-law’s wedding.  Such a lovely memory!

Image: sxc.hu

This post [Flowers for Weddings and Special Times] brought back memories. When our younger son got married, his wife was so busy she had no time to prepare for the wedding, so Chip took over. When we arrived, he had a two-page spread from a Martha Stewart wedding magazine ready for me. It outlined how to make a bouquet. He’d bought all the necessities except the flowers which we bought together. In general Chip has about as much interest in this stuff as he does in jumping out of a plane, which is to say, none. But he was determined to make everything beautiful for Sam and despite the fact that I had never done a bouquet before, it came out beautifully. Looked like it had cost a fortune! Thanks for the reminder.

Have you created floral arrangements for special times?  Share the memories with us.

Martha Stewart will be awarded the ASPCA Presidential Service Award on April 23 at a black-tie gala in the Plaza Hotel in New York City. She’s being honored for her dedication to promoting compassion toward animals and her celebration of the human-animal bond.

In a recent news release from ASPCA, Martha Stewart said, “My life has been greatly enriched by the many pets I have cared for over the years. I am deeply committed to the values the ASPCA embraces, and am honored to be receiving this award.”

Did you realize Martha Stewart has such a soft spot for animals? She launched Martha Stewart Pets earlier this year, and her French bulldogs are a big part of that!

Image: Bauer Griffin

I am no Martha Stewart, but I like to entertain. I also am not much of a cook, but I love to spend hours in the kitchen working on a meal. For the most part, none of our dinner parties have been disasters. This weekend may have been our first exception.

To be honest, it wasn’t a total disaster. I just violated some common sense rules of hosting. Like, stay within your comfort zone. We hosted a couple we only barely knew. They had invited us to dinner at their house in December and it took us three months to return the favor. We had a lovely time then. But because of holidays and illnesses, we just couldn’t synch our schedules until last weekend. The problem with hosting people you only barely know is that if disaster happens – like the food getting burned or the kitchen catching fire – you can’t really laugh it off because these new folks don’t know you well enough to understand that doing something stupid is just your nature. And so, they may end up talking about “the disastrous night at the Journeys” for years to come. Thus, it sometimes is best to plan dinners out until you know your guests are comfortable with any dinner disasters that may arise. 

I began cooking early in the afternoon – browning diced pancetta and ground chuck, veal and pork (it needed to cook 45 minutes in order to form a crust) and then toasting and grinding my own juniper berries for Frank Stitt’s Bolognese, as published in his new book Bottega Favorita. I had made the dish before and it is fabulous. What I didn’t realize is that one of our guests grew up in an Italian household. I discovered this tidbit when he announced that there are only a few Italian restaurants where he will actually go eat because he grew up eating good Italian food. I should have remembered this from December, but I didn’t. His last name is SMITH, for crissake. So I violated another rule of entertaining – don’t prepare foods your guests are experts in eating. If you’re not from the South, don’t make Southern food for a Southerner; if you’re not from Italy, don’t make Italian food for an Italian.

Another rule I effectively violated was – don’t do something stupid. Like, say, dump the food you are about to serve your guests on the floor. I’m not sure if it was that there was almost no lip on those fabulous Z Gallerie dishes I got last year or the olive oil on the pasta, but the minute I picked up a plate in each hand, one teetered toward the hardwoods and its contents went splat on the floor. As I stood in amazement the second plate mysteriously wobbled and followed suit. I was left holding two plates with about three noodles left on each. Hearing my gasp, my husband ran into the kitchen and, like any dear husband, shot these photos.

Based on the wine glasses, you’d suspect I was blitzed. But I honestly wasn’t, and certainly not early in the evening when the dinner dumpage occurred. On a positive note, we served what was left of the pasta and talked until late into the night as their toddler slept in the bedroom and Truman quietly watched Sponge Bob in the other room until he, too, gently drifted off to sleep on the couch. I suppose we’ll see if the Smiths actually talk to us again. Until then, I’m going to stick to ordering pizza for our dinner guests.

(photo of Martha Stewart, Flickr, Art Comments)

JWJourney

As a woman who does not have children, I find that I often find myself observing the antics of teenage girls and their relationships with their parents.

One of my favorite teenage stories is the one in which my neighbor’s daughter blurts out to her friends: “If my mother were Martha Stewart, I’d know how to cook.”

I really felt like running over there and saying:

“Wait, you mean to tell me you know how to text your girlfriends or get a video blog uploaded, but you don’t know how to look up one of Martha’s recipes and cook a meal??”

I know that you parents out there will tell me that’s how 15-year-old girls act and speak…and that I should shut it.

But it’s all fascinating to me…until today, when I happened by this girl, hanging — out in a vacant park, with some boy I’d never seen before.

At first it all looked very innocent: they were playing basketball…but then, and I’m guessing they did not see me, (kind of hard with an 80lb Lab at the end of my wrist.)…

…the two of them skipped into the woods behind the park and began to smooch.

I’m not sure what shocked me…the fact that I’ve known her since she was 6 and now suddenly she is 15?

That she chose such a seamy location for her secret tryst? That it was secret at all? Or that I’m sure her parents would not approve.

I probably will not say anything…but it did cross my mind. Is that wrong?

All I know is what would happen to me if my parents had found out.

Have you ever started the day, took a look around the house or office and said, “I’m in total Martha mode, I can do it.”

So here was the project that I wanted to tackle…simple really. I had a vase of white roses on the table that looked like they were on their way out…but maybe had a day or so left in them.

A Ha! Martha moment! I will remove the long stemmed roses from the vase, trim them and place them in the base of my white English teapot. Had the potential to appear in a Town and Country photo spread.

Here’s what actually happened: First of all, I didn’t have the right pruning tool, so I used a pair of kitchen scissors. don’t.

I brought the vase of flowers over to the sink…began to cut the stems, many of the petals immediately floated down into the sink like white tissues…a few of the stems fell into the drain, I didn’t cut the stems short enough, so had to cut more, then the rest of the petals fell off, then I noticed the teapot was filthy, started to wash it, then I just stopped, threw the, now emaciated flowers away, left the teapot in the sink and took a nap.

I don’t know how she does it. Yes I do, for pity’s sake, shes Martha!

Image: condenasteart.com

Everytime I think to myself that I just can’t take Martha Stewart anymore, she comes up with a neat idea. Check out her recipes for Halloween “Creepcakes”:

As with ALL of Martha’s projects, you have to be really organized AND live near great craft and baking supply stores:

RESOURCES
Black sanding sugar (#601344), $1.99 for 4 oz., from Sweet Celebrations, 800-328-6722 or www.sweetc.com. Candies from Dylan’s Candy Bar, 646-735-0078 or www.dylanscandybar.com.

DECORATING TECHNIQUES
To decorate, use marshmallows and candy-coated chocolates for whites of eyes; jelly beans or gumdrops for peepers with an eerie glow. For pupils, paint on melted chocolate (microwave 1/2 cup chocolate chips for 1 minute). Or use candies whole: candy-coated chocolates will stick to marshmallows sliced to expose their stickiness; for our aliens’ eyes, we pushed chocolate chips, tip down, into marshmallows, then made a hole in the other side with a toothpick and inserted a licorice lace. Cut gummy tape for an eyelid. Sandwiched between halved gumdrops, marshmallows form a toothy grin; snip irregular pieces for fangs. Bend licorice or gummy rings into grimaces, or cut taffy tape for a tongue or tentacles.

Try these toppings:

• marshmallows
• licorice and jelly bean
• gummy ring
• taffy tape
• gumdrops and marshmallows
• marshmallows with licorice and mini
• chocolate chips
• jelly beans with melted chocolate
• marshmallows and candy-coated chocolates or melted chocolate
• marshmallows with candy-coated chocolate or gummy
• tape and licorice drop
• licorice with gumdrops or marshmallows

This looks like it could be really fun to do with your kids.

Seriously, whether you admire her or choose to make fun of her…there are times when one of Martha’s ideas truly “is a good thing.”

Recently, during my profoundly relaxing (or brain-cell-numbing) vacation, I caught some of Martha’s “Premier Week”! (I say that with all of the enthusiasm that peeling potatoes gives me.)

Doesn’t she sometimes look and sound like a 4th grade teacher from “back in the day” as Rachael Ray likes to say? (More on Rachael’s “Premier Week!” in a minute.)

Anyway, I love Hydrangeas — in fact, outside my office window is a gorgeous bush that has grown into a healthy specimen over the years; so I was happy to see her doing a segment on my favorite plant.

I didn’t care so much about the crafty part of the show…I could just imagine the utter frustration that I would experience, if I EVER tried to make the dried Hydrangea wreath that she was demonstrating.

Here’s what kept me from putting a shovel in my eye while watching Martha that day…did you know that if you cut a branch from your Hydrangea plant, you can force new growth from that stem and create a whole new bush??

All you have to do is put it in some special soil and presto…new growth! I am so totally doing this.

As for Rachael…best of luck to you on your new show…but lordy, lord girl — who are you yelling at? And please, please…you are a 30-something year old woman…(late 30s, by-the-way) stop saying Awesome!

Do you know the old “how many so & so’s does it take to screw in a light bulb” joke?

Well, in my case it takes a guy named Mark and his team of workers from myhandyman.com. Yard needs cleaning, it’s landscape guy. Faucet leaks, it’s plumber guy. Curtains hung, it window treatment guy…painting guy, electrical guy, lamp-post guy, power wash guy, deck-stain guy, gutter guy…and on and on and ON.

“Just call the guy” is a phrase uttered more frequently in our home than “dinner’s ready.”

Notice none of these examples end with “husband guy”? He’s in almost the same shape as I am…we don’t know how to fix anything ourselves.

When you’ve spent much of your adult life obsessively cultivating a career, a small business, and a fabulous professional persona — what time is left to learn–not only how to fix an electrical socket, but more importantly, how to do it without burning the house down?

If you watch enough Martha, or Oprah’s Nate, you start to feel guilty about not knowing how to do this stuff. So, I’ve decided to attack some small house projects and see how I do as a handy-person. I’m hoping to share my DIY experiences with you here…maybe there are some profound connections between fixing up your home and fixing up your career.

Off I go to order my “Ready Strip” kit, which promises to strip 7 layers of paint off any wood surface. I will let you know how my dining room window molding comes out.

So, does this mean I don’t need a scraper?