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I’m a big fan of all the wonderful details of a well thrown party. But, there is also something special about an impromptu dinner party with friends. No stressing over whether the house is perfect. No hours of preparation.
Tonight I enjoyed just that. At 3 PM we texted a few friends an invitation. At 6 PM everyone showed up with items for the grill and bottles of wine. I threw a tablecloth over my card table on the patio and we had a lovely dinner alfresco.
It’s important to not forget how great the small and not planned-to-a-tee parties can be as well as the more elaborate parties.

I love the sun in Portland. It might be the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen when the sun is shining.
Today we went walking about in SE Portland. We enjoyed the weather by going to a local coffee shop, hitting the park, and some outdoor shopping! We bought X a running stroller today (so much better than the stroller we had). We also went to a garage sale and an estate sale. It was my first estate sale and I’m pretty sure I’m addicted. I spent $5 at the estate sale and came out with 7 yards of great fabrics and 5 beautiful vintage sheets. So excited about all the future projects! We spent $10 at the garage sale and I came out with a craft supply set-up like no other. Oh, and a set of prisma color pencils! Good day. Now, resting a bit before a dinner with friends out on the patio.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I love real, fresh flowers at events.
 I think they just really give an event a little something extra. 
Sometimes I go the super market route and buy a pre-made bouquet and throw it in a vase as nicely as possible. If I am feeling flush (which, is usually about never) I’ll go to a florist and buy a pre-made centerpiece. I appreciate a good florist’s work more than the average person…
but, this blog is called “A Well Crafted Party” for a reason.
 I love crafting up inexpensive solutions to party decor—that includes floral decor.
When thinking about Spring decor for the Portland Blogger’s Meet-Up I really wanted to have some beautiful flowers filling the room. I spent a large portion of time working out the costs of the amount of flower’s I’d need for the event. For even the simplest arrangements I was looking at quite a bit of money AND limits on the type and amount of flowers I could find at the market. 
Floral Arrangement at my sister’s wedding image via West Impressions Photography
So, enter in the wonderful sponsorship with FiftyFlowers.com. I contacted FiftyFlowers because I’d used there services for my sister’s wedding and fell in love with the quality of the flowers, the wholesale flower prices, and the excellent customer service we received.
FiftyFlowers.com provided the Portland Blogger’s with the beautiful yellow and purple carnations shown above. During the ordering process I had a question about the flowers and was surprised to find out that the site had on-line chat support. My question was answered in exactly 1 minute of waiting. Then, soon after putting in my order I received a phone call from FiftyFlowers.com explaining where my flowers were shipping from, making sure my order was correct, and explaining the best way to take care of my flowers. Oh, and did I mention, there was free shipping? 
The flowers arrived on Thursday.

Not even thirty minutes after the flowers were delivered did I receive a call from FiftyFlowers asking me how the flowers looked and to tell me how to take the best care of the flowers. I snipped the ends of the flowers and placed them in a large bucket of water. 
The day of the event (two days after receiving the flowers) I got all the tools together to create my centerpieces. These are very simple arrangements that can be adjusted for your needs.
Tools:
—1 Vase
—Flowers 
(I went with all the same kind of flower, but you could also do this with a mixture of blooms)
—Water
—Good Shears
Optional: You could use floral foam or floral tape to stabilize your arrangements. I opted to use many blooms crossing their stems to stabilize the arrangements. 
They stayed together traveling to and from the event!
Step 1: Fill vase with water.
Step 2:  Cut stems to just above the top of the vase. Arrange in a circle, crossing the stems. 
Step 3: After the perimeter is set cut a few more stems just a bit longer than the previous stems and begin filling in the holes of the arrangement.
Step 4: Stand back and admire! The great thing about carnations is they can be a great arrangement on their own, or they make a beautiful filler flower. This same arrangement could be brought to the next level with the addition of some beautiful roses.
All together they are pretty eye-catching, don’t you think? 

Want to win some flowers? 
FiftyFlowers.com has a monthly contest on their facebook page where you can win $500 worth of flowers! A new winner is picked EVERY MONTH!
Full Disclosure: The Portland Bloggers were gifted flowers from the above company to help support the Portland Bloggers. The sponsor was given signage at the event.  Personally, I have a journalism background and don’t believe in exchanges of promises of positive reviews for products. I will not do that on either of my blogs nor suggest that other bloggers do that. I contacted this company personally because I believe in their product and have experienced great service with them. I hope you enjoyed this DIY floral arrangement post and think about FiftyFlowers.com next time you are looking for flowers for your events because I had great service from them!