sounds like a busy day! did you have a good day?

Yeah, it was fun. :). Not a large wedding really, only 70 people, which didn't feel large at the time. I'm drying some flowers from the bouquets and tables with other things to put together a scrapbook for my sister. I know she wants one but doesn't really have the inclination to do it herself. I'm also the one that does the majority of the crafting projects around here (with our sister-in-law of course) so I took the job.

thats very nice of you. my sister dried her bouquet but i don't think she has it any more a scrap book would have been nice

Hi Feythfull, Quiet :3

I'm glad to see you back Quiet, I've missed you but it sounds like once all the prep work was out of the way attending the wedding wasn't so bad.

I thought about it, but the bouquet was rosebuds and greenery with very short stems so I don't think it would have dried well. I have the orchids from the tables hanging by the door and the rosebuds, (white and pale green) pinned upside down to my cork board. The ribbons I plan on using to decorate the spine of the book.

Yeah Serra, the wedding wasn't that bad. It was mostly people I of course, since the groom is from Israel and so he didn't have a lot of family attend, but more came than we expected. They groom's family came to the rehearsal too where we made introductions so we all were at least familiar with each other before the wedding ceremony.

the short roses could have been pressed

They were rosebuds though, and I'm not very familiar with flower pressing. I just hang them or squish them and hope for the best.

it's like squishing only with a hell of a lot more pressure, you use boards and a press or clamp to drain out moisture

Hello Serra hello choco

I suppose I could try that. Don't have clamps handy but really heavy stuff could work. I hung all the the ones that looked passable to hopefully get at least one good one. I know hanging for a very long time worked well in the past, as long as the rosebud is tight to begin with so the petals don't just fall off. I'm hoping the orchids will hang nicely. They are pretty tough. My sister-in-law had an orchid that she didn't realize was real so she never watered it or anything. It lived for ages, maybe because it rains a lot here so the area is naturally moist.

hi sweetie

orchids are waxy, they don't dry well at all, the generally rot if anything, i used to dry flowers and i could never get them to take than my mom told me that, it is a shame too

i was wondering if orchids would dry well

good rule of thumb, if the petals are paper thin they should dry like paper, not always true exactly but very close to it in most cases

i see thats a useful tip

though waxy things(things with a waxy film or feel to them) are an exception regardless of thickness, they tend to rot in a lot of climates, but they keep a hella long time^^

you know alot about drying flowers

I started pressing flowers with pansies, which all dried really well. I used to use plates and the microwave to be quick about it. Not so much anymore. Hydrangea petals work well too. I made a painting with some petals and leaves arranged in it. I suspected that the orchid wouldn't press well because of how fleshy they were so I'm trying to hang them, and have one pressing (though that I'm not sure is actually an orchid) to see if it works. If it doesn't work, oh well. It won't stop me from trying.

trying can't hurt

Not usually, no. And not in this case anyway, though I suppose there might be an issue if I were to eat any of the flowers if they happen to rot.

Hi everyone! ^^

By the way, drying flowers sounds interesting to do. Though I do not know much about it, expect the fact its drying the flowers xD So, what do you usually do with the flowers after you dry them?

I've only tried drying roses before, but I love dried flowers. they're so pretty! I'm taking a floral design class in the fall, so I'll have an opportunity to learn more about flowers. :3

i forget what it was but my step father had this chemical stuff that helps to dry flowers out nicely

I do stuff with them when it strikes me. I put some pressed jump-ups (miniature pansy things) in my diary and made a painting with my pressed hydrangea petals (pink colour). The one's I'm pressing and drying now are destined for a scrap book.

I was talking to my mom about it, she used to press flowers as a kid. When she was a teenager she decided to try pressing some cacti she had. She parked the car on them for a year and a half then put them in books for storage. When she went to get them later, she found they were growing roots. She put them into pots again and they gradually puffed themselves back out again and grew in more cacti. Very resiliant plants, those.

I'm attempting to press two of the orchid flowers to see if it works. I have flowers and greenery sitting in magazines under stacks of dishes or a large stack of books and more magazines. They haven't moved in a while so I imagine they can stay where they are for some time yet. Contemplating rose petals now, in case the others don't work.

lol thats so amazing! she had them under a car for a year and then in a boo and it grew back thats really amazing!

holy cow. I didn't know cacti could take all that and still live. O.O

Well, it did take some time for them to puff out again and they were a little pale from not having seen the sun in a while but they were growing roots in the books. The only thing she's seen kill a cactus was when one flew out the back of the truck when they were moving to Fort St. John in the wintertime and it was probably around -40 C. Not sure what that would be in F but I think it's the same since the two scales match at around there.

my step father killed some cacti by not watering them for a long time and i tried to bring them back but not hard enough i guess!

Might depend on the kind of cactus I suppose. Ours have been sorely neglected for a few years now, and I tossed a few to get the load down (to my mom's and some friends' dismay) and the others are trucking along so far, looking a little worse for wear but still hanging in there.

i guess cacti have to be like that if it doesn't rain for a few years they have to be able to come back!

That's usually the idea. Apparently a lot of them do get really scraggly looking at the bottom but in the deserts it's covered by sand so it's harder to see. They grow from the top so the new stuff it was people usually see. I still prefer flowers though. Fell on my mom's barrel cactus when I was younger. Not too fond of them after that.

i like flowers better as well

yeah. flowers are pretty. even though they die, I'd rather have them in my house/bouquets/whatever than cacti. just imagine a wedding bouquet with cacti in it! that would be pretty funny to see.

More funny to throw. ;)

lol yes a bouquet with cacti in it would be more fun to throw

definitely wouldn't want to be the one to catch the thing. x.x

no one would want to catch it

Feyth is so shiny. *O*

Where is the eye make-up coming from? I see that around along with what appear to be black lidded or half closed eyes.

I believe that it's from Lunae's companion.