Orange Flowered Weekend

This weekend I decided to try out a sweet-looking paper poppy DIY I found on this amazingly crafty lady's blog. She has it all written up with photos, so I won't do a step-by-step here, but I will show you the final product!

I am in LOVE! Of course mine don't look nearly as good as hers, but I couldn't be happier with the results. Juxtaposed with the teal vase (IKEA) and eucalyptus, they really pop. Every morning when I sit up in bed, these are the first things I see, and they instantly brighten my day!

I liked them so much, I had to incorporate them into my new blog banner, as you can see. I only changed a couple things from her tutorial: first, I used five petals instead of four. My petals turned out quite a bit smaller than hers and I realize now that it's because I used the party streamer version of crepe paper rather than a flat sheet *facepalm*. Second, I sandwiched orange crepe paper in between two gold rather than straight up orange (the two on the left are gold-orange-gold while the one on the right is just gold). These were pretty simple to make, though they do require a certain level of skill and dexterity. They were also super cheap: $13 for all the supplies, which will make quite a few more flowers. I think I will get some proper crepe paper and try these again...maybe in time for a mother's day bouquet?

Keeping with the theme of the post, I discovered these on my balcony on Saturday.

My Nasturtium finally decided to flower! I've been passing by hundreds (literally) of these flowers on my daily walks...it felt kinda like this:

NOT my garden

I was wondering why mine hadn't shown any colors yet. I blamed it on my recent re-potting and propagating, which had probably caused some stress to the plants, but I underestimated these robust little guys! Boyfriend probably thought I was a little nuts, because as soon as I discovered them, I got really excited, dragged him out to show him, then got my camera and started taking pictures from every angle. I guess I'm just stoked about the fact that a plant is actually thriving under my care rather than...well, not. Since this weekend, another flower has bloomed and I see a few more buds getting ready to as well. Take that, black thumb!