A Year in Flowers at FrenchGardenHouse

Happy New Year dear flower loving friends! I hope that you had a lovely holiday season filled with joy, love and laughter. The new year is ahead of us, filled with gorgeous blank days, weeks and months, and I hope we fill them with beauty, grateful moments and of course flowers!

Welcome to Monday Morning Blooms! The first Monday Morning Blooms is dedicated to a look back at the months of floral inspiration from the year past - it's one of my favorite posts to write! Each seasonally inspired post features centerpieces, posies and other floral arrangements with the colors and textures of flowers in bloom during that certain month.

I'll be sharing the links to my friends Mary and Pam at the end of this post, I know you will enjoy their look back at each month's floral therapy.

Almost every week I get a sweet note or email from readers saying how they were inspired to try their hand at creating their own floral bouquets at home. I love hearing your stories of how you felt so proud of a centerpiece you created for a special party, or a small little bouquet you brought to a sick neighbor or friend. The most gratifying are the notes or texts I get from readers who want to let me know how much joy flowers bring them, and that our Monday Morning Blooms have given them the courage to design their own floral creations.

My goal in writing the FGH blog has always been to encourage you to add more beauty to your world with our antiques, and also by adding flowers to the mix. It's exciting to hear that the blog has helped so many of you do just that!

FEBRUARY: A FRENCH VALENTINE'S CELEBRATION

I was so excited to share my table for a French Valentine’s Celebration with you in February! It includes beautiful flowers, a romantic setting, good food and everything you can get in Paris except the French waiter and ok…no Eiffel tower either. But it's charming, and heart warming.

Whether you are envisioning a cozy tête-à-tête or a family celebration of Valentine’s Day love, a pretty table setting with a touch of romance is especially fetching for this holiday. Various shades of cream, pink and red add plenty of romantic atmosphere – this is a table setting that will work for a friend’s Valentine’s Day lunch, or dinner! If you have more guests, you just set up a bigger table.

MARCH: FOR THE LOVE OF GREEN

For March we all featured green, and I shared my For the Love of Green table setting in anticipation of Saint Patrick’s Day! It’s easy to create a flower arrangement with fresh greens, and set a festive table using greens for lunch or dinner with just a twinkle of gold.

Besides falling completely in love with the Green Lemonade Roses {they remind me of cabbages!} I was also quite enamored with the Queen Anne’s Lace cousin Ammi Visnaga Green Mist. It’s supposed to be a little more sturdy than its royal cousin Queen Anne’s Lace. Each bloom is topped by dense, chartreuse domes that bloom into to creamy white flower heads. The billowing, feathery foliage is something I adore, it adds so much texture and airiness to arrangements.

The place setting includes beautiful green linen ruffled placemats and green embroidered linen napkins. Both available in our linen section.

APRIL: CHARMING EASTER OR SPRING TABLE

Sharing Easter or any other Spring meal with your family and friends is always more special around a table you have set with love. I set this charming Easter table for our friends and family to gather around. This setting works so beautifully for any Spring event, whether you host a breakfast, brunch, luncheon, tea or dinner! The soft colors make it a show stopper every time.

This stunning floral tablecloth has all the spring colors and flowers we adore on it! Pink tulips, yellow daffodils, large pink wild roses, little marguerites. Isn't it gorgeous? The color is a soft buttery creamy yellow, and the design has a vintage feeling.

The final spring touch is a beautiful jeweled bee napkin ring!

MAY: THINGS I LEARNED FROM MY MOM

For May, I invited all of you to join me in our back garden at FrenchGardenHouse as we celebrate Moms. I set a table in honor of my own Mom, she loved nothing more than to come over every Sunday to visit us and the garden. In May our back garden is just beginning to bloom with roses, hydrangeas, and all sorts of beautiful flowers. Let's sit at the garden table, drink some French champagne, or sweet iced tea, while I tell what my Mom taught me over the years.

I set the little table in the garden with a cheerful tablecloth, arranged champagne in an antique footbath, and matched the colors of the flowers to the napkins and tablecloth flowers and colors, using blue hydrangeas, white ranunculus, and cuttings of the bright green flowers from our hopseeds in the garden.

JUNE: FRENCH LAVENDER COCKTAILS ON THE POTTING BENCH

Since June is the beginning of summer and outdoor entertaining, I set up our little black potting bench in the back garden for cocktails and appetizers before a summer BBQ.

I filled my antique watering can with pink peonies and a new kind of wax flower that I've never seen before but isn't it so pretty? It has bigger clusters of the little pink flowers. Along with individual charcuterie cups made in antique French seedling pots, I shared tips on making large flower filled ice cubes and the recipe for the lavender cocktails.

JULY: SUMMER PATRIOTIC TABLE SETTING

In July, my favorite tabletop look to add a little elegance to your patriotic celebration. A slightly more elevated take on entertaining al fresco on the patio, this Summer Patriotic Table Setting works for 4th of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and all summer long.

Summer is the absolute best time to entertain! Celebrating the outdoors, at a time of year when life moves a little bit slower, the perfect season to linger in our gardens with our family, dearest friends and/or new ‘friends to be’. Here at FrenchGardenHouse, it stretches our house to twice as big, and I jump at every chance to enjoy our outdoor space – because the garden is at its best.

Using a variety of red, white and blue antique plates mixed with red enameled plates and our favorite linen napkins, I added a small flag to each place setting for the holiday. Flowers are very simple white hydrangeas in an antique French candy jar, with a few flags.

For the perfect summer meal, make my friend Lisa's Famous Brown Derby Restaurant Cobb Salad - find the recipe in the post!

AUGUST: FRENCH COUNTRY APPLE ORCHARD ARRANGEMENT

I am always excited to welcome my favorite season! You too? A huge fan of embracing all things fall, the flavors of your favorite drinks and food, the scent of a crisp autumn breeze and the beautiful changing color palette of nature. This French Country Apple Orchard Arrangement is easy and a beautiful way to welcome fall!

This easy arrangement brings the orchard right into your home and it couldn’t be easier to make. With apple picking season in full swing and fall just days away, it’s the perfect time to celebrate the season with a beautiful French Country Apple Orchard Arrangement. Apples are so good for this “in-between” season, it’s still technically summer but I’m pretty sure that we’re all longing for fall.

This arrangement doesn't even have flowers! The apples take the place of big costly flowers so you can get away with far fewer blooms to create a show stopping arrangement. The rest are fillers, I filled the antique French pot with hypericum berries in both green and red, seeded eucalyptus, and cuttings from our variegated Weigela bushes in the back garden.

The table is set with an antique French linen sheet, red transferware plates and bowls, and simple French glasses. Each plate has a delicious apple on the linen napkin, with a sprig of rosemary from our garden.

SEPTEMBER: HOW TO ARRANGE SUNFLOWERS WITH STYLE

Sunflowers are the symbol of happiness, adoration, loyalty, and longevity. They bring in the sun! Lighten up chez vous with happiness, hope and smiling flower faces - sunflowers always bring the cheer. To help you make the most of these happy beauties, I shared some sunflower arranging tips - How to Arrange Sunflowers with Style - so that you can bring some of summer's favorite flowers home to brighten your days.

We had the honor of hosting our eldest little person's {she's going to high school but I will probably think of her as my little people even when she's an adult!!} Middle School family graduation party. She graduated in June, but this is when all the family could gather here at FrenchGardenHouse so we had the party in late August. Sunny sunflowers seemed the perfect celebratory flowers for her, she has a very sunny and happy nature. Simply arranged with white alstroemerias, seeded eucalyptus, wild chamomille and those darling yellow Craspedias {Drumstick Flower} the sunflowers brought the cheer!

OCTOBER: HOW TO MAKE A PUMPKIN FLOWER ARRANGEMENT

When the air turns crisp, bright bold hues tint the leaves, and the sky just looks bluer somehow, you know Autumn is here! Delight in the gorgeous colors of autumn with this beautiful pumpkin overflowing with the season’s brightest blooms. Not only will it add a festive fall touch to your table, it’s so easy to do! How To Make a Pumpkin Flower Arrangement DIY tips make this fun floral arrangement easy. I love how the flowers are 'sandwiched' in between the bottom and top half of the pumpkin.

I set our table in the kitchen for a casual dinner with friends using the pumpkin. Our round chambray linen placemats always add a nice textural element, and the linen IVY printed napkins from Europe are new, and were happily married to the antique French ironstone with black leaf design.

NOVEMBER: THANKSGIVING TABLE INSPIRATION

Thanksgiving is the time to design a warm and cozy atmosphere for your family and friends. I got my table setting started by choosing this gorgeous Linen Runner in a warm Cognac color. Napkins to match make for a beautiful autumn colored first layer.

Once I spied these big pomegranates, I knew I wanted to make the flower centerpiece in colors that echoed their color palette. These ruffled garden roses are amazing, aren’t they? Some seeded eucalyptus and pink red proteas complete the looks, and I tucked in two little white mini pumpkins. Usually I put these on a skewer, but because the base of this arrangement with the protea and seeded eucalyptus was pretty sturdy I could just place them in there and they stayed!

This was the perfect set up on our island to host some friends for appetizers, drinks and dessert.

DECEMBER: CHRISTMAS MEMORIES FLORAL ARRANGEMENT

Christmas arrangements are the backbone of my Christmas decorating. I love styling little holiday moments around the house, mostly with fresh flowers and greens, and small antique decorative accents. You can turn a few of your last garden flowers into a festive holiday arrangement to use in your holiday home. Use what you have to make a beautiful Christmas Memories Floral Arrangement in minutes.

For this sweet little bundle of floral joy, I gathered some white French Lace roses, white alstroemeria, seeded eucalyptus, evergreens, and a few cranberry ranunculus from Trader Joe’s. A small Christmas arrangement like this can go anywhere, in your entrance hall, in your guest bathroom, on a little side table. The beauty of a small arrangement like this is that once these flowers fade, you can just pop in new flowers {after you change the water} and the greens will most likely last throughout the December month. I hope this December post inspired you to make your own sweet little flower arrangements!

Thank you so much for joining me this past year for every Monday Morning Blooms! I know it is a favorite of many of you, and I truly cherish getting together with Mary and Pam and all of you to share our love of flowers and beauty.

I wish you a brilliant and blessed New Year ahead! May God bless each one of your days, and may you spread your individual talents and light in your family, and your community. I look forward to sharing every blog post with all of you in this new year.

PLEASE VISIT MARY AND PAM BY CLICKING ON THEIR LINKS BELOW: