Posy Party/ Color inspo: Isleños

Our first Posy Party was a family party. It was so important to me to give the wonderful women in my family the opportunity to do something different on a Saturday afternoon. Most of them never arranged flowers like this. So with the cold front rolling in, we hunkered down and designed lots and lots of fall bouquets. It was a fantastic experience shared by 3 and 4 generations...

Anyone in Southeast Louisiana will tell you that we don't need a reason to have a party. Family is always a reason enough to celebrate. Our culture is founded on hospitality and all that it entails- food, comfort, and fun. We ate, sampled wines, laughed, helped each other pick the perfect posies... it was awesome!

Everybody had the best time; it was a great way to spend the afternoon. The bouquets we made included: cool lavender roses, apricot stock, orange spray roses, white majolica spray roses, wheat, willow eucalyptus, ligustrum berries, fuzzel altstroemeria, Queen Anne's lace, and Neapolitan lace.

^ I took this the night before during setup...got a little excited when I saw how pretty the colors and textures looked all together!

So we made bouquets. We remembered all of the ladies who were there in spirit. We used my great grandmother's cake tin, my great-great grandmother's serving ware, and one of my great-aunts brought the bouquet she made to my grandmother's grave. Her recent passing has been hard, and I truly think this party was healing for most of us...

This color combo was amazing, and happened quite by chance when the chocolate lace I ordered did not arrive.

Instead, we subbed the deep red fuzzel alstroemeria. A completely different color and tone, but it really worked.

I love that color. This entry title comes from my Canary Island ancestors, known as Isleños. I think about my heritage the most in the fall, because that's the time of all of our fall festivals in Southern Louisiana. (except the Isleños, actually, whose festival is generally in the Spring)

Anyway, The Canary Islands were settled by the Moroccan Berbers on behalf of the Spanish. Many Louisiana families have Canary Islander Heritage.

One major trade item for the islanders was a deep red fabric dye commonly known now as Carmine. This cochineal dye was made from insect inhabitants of the islands, and the color produced the deepest shades of red, just like this fuzzel alstromeria.

Such a great color!

So thankful to have had this fun and meaningful day!

**photocred: Cameron Payne Photography