Portrait Of A Lady

With Valentine's day fast approaching I wanted to focus on red roses, mostly trying to give them a new and younger vibe.

Long stem roses are a staple of this holiday, but let's be honest: they have been done and re-done so many times that they have somewhat become predictable and emblematic of the last-minute go-to gift. 

There is also the quality issue: it seems every year come January, roses get not only more expensive but their stems get weaker and weaker, their heads shrink, and let's not even discuss the freezer burns staining their petals...

This all taken into consideration, I know that some of you really do love red roses. So this is my compromise:

"Portrait Of A Lady" available Here: 

Portrait of a Lady

For a start, the vase itself is super cute and quite unique, not to mention it is a keepsake that  can be used over and over.

For this design I opted to skip the now overpriced Ecuadorian roses, realizing their bloom size would not be up to my usual standards anyhow... and decided to use African Roses! They are smaller in size, but they are so long-lasting, allowing me to use quite a few in this design (30+ roses). 

I wanted to keep the design sleek and chic, so I opted for a very minimal usage of greens - just enough to add a bit of contrast. Boxwood is both long-lasting and dainty, so it was the perfect choice!