Let There Be Fruit!

One of the best parts of planning a wedding is that through all of the craziness and stress you randomly receive registry gifts. You get these gifts throughout the entire planning period and even after the wedding! It is like Hanukkah or your birthday. Since I live in a tiny apartment, most of the gifts that we received are still packed up neatly and at my parent's house waiting for us to claim them again. I'm going to have a party with my husband and reopen everything. I can't wait, we just need to buy a house, which is a whole other blog for a different day!
If you've been following my blog or if you know me - I'm slightly obsessed with flowers and flower arrangements. If you also know me and as I've yet to blog about, I'm constantly on a diet, thinking about a random diet, or starving myself because I like to eat too many sweets. To put it nicely, I've gained 7 pounds since my wedding, which was only 3 months ago...not good. And then, as if it were kismet, I received my French Wire 3-Tier Stand - a Pottery Barn piece that I coveted and wanted very badly from my registry. Getting gifts leading up to the wedding is great, but getting a registry gift 3 months after the wedding is, well, awesome.
To tie everything together, I love flower arrangements because they bring life and color in the house. I need to love fruit and vegetables because I'm always dieting. I'm obsessed with my new french wire stand because it combines both! In referencing the picture you will also see two more of my wedding gifts that I wanted to display before we moved. The tureen is handmade by a local artist from Pittsburgh, PA and was given to me by one of my mom's close friends as a bridal shower gift. The Fitz & Floyd pitcher was a bridal shower gift from my grandmother. I like how all three pieces tie together on my kitchen island. Check it out - living AND edible art.

Faux v. Real...Flowers

One of my favorite activities is to go to Field of Flowers and come home and create arrangements all over my apartment. Unfortunately, about six months ago I had to give up this past time due to the cost. I would spend between $20-$40 per week on the flowers (roses, hydrangeas, and peonies are my favorite) and when it came down to it that money could be better spent elsewhere. I was a little sad at first and I missed my Saturday morning hobby.
That was until I was at Michael's craft store and discovered that they had some of the most gorgeous fabric flowers! I'll admit that the cost up front for the better flowers was more than purchasing real ones, but they never die and often they are 40%-50% off each week. I started with some fall colored hydrangeas in creams and deeper blues and made an arrangement for my dining room/entry table. I filled the bottom of the cylinder with shined pebbles and even water - they look real!
However, my newest obsession is with the tall cylinder vases with a single white orchid inside...faux orchid of course. Using the pebbles and water technique that I used for the hydrangea arrangement and a white orchid from Pier 1 Imports I've made a beautiful and simple arrangement for the bathrooms.
In closing, aside from the beautiful aroma of the fresh flowers and the fact that they do not need dusted - I've fallen in love with my fake flowers...What do you think, faux or real? Which is better?