The Daffodil Project

Sometimes I feel like I am riding a fast train to crazytown and last week was definitely on that track! I have figured out that I really do have the same amount of time in a day as everyone else in the world, I just have other problems! First, I rarely say "no" when asked to take on a project and I can easily get myself in over my head. Second, I OVER THINK things like crazy, nothing is "good enough" and projects end up taking twice as long as they should. I know all this and still...

So, the project was the Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet. I was determined to make this as fancy as a paper plate and plastic silverware event could get! Why? I am not sure, except that this is a big deal for the boys as they get awarded their next rank and we had a great speaker and we had attendance of almost 200! We were going to have balloon centerpieces but the church where the banquet was being held doesn't allow helium balloons in the hall. (They must have had a painful balloon incident in their past...we didn't ask for details) So, I decided we should have fresh flower centerpieces, I decided I would do this myself, and I decided on daffodils since they are springy and gold in color, I sealed my own fate.

I had no trouble locating the daffodils, the flower department at Wegmans had six cases on order and promised to set aside 40 bunches for me. I picked them up and the stress immediately started...they were not daffodils with cute, yellow, perky heads, they were stems with hard, green, completely closed up buds! That was Thursday and the banquet was on Sunday afternoon. Panic! All I could think was how terrible they would look if they didn't open in time. The floral lady assured me that once they were out of the cooler and at room temperature they would open pretty quick. But what was "pretty quick"? She also suggested putting them in warm water instead of cool. So, there I was with 400 (yes, 40 bunches of 10) daffodils in buckets all in my upstairs bathroom (so the cats wouldn't eat them! Aggg!) Lulu and I kept checking on them to see if there was any progress...Thursday night...no change...more warm water...Friday morning....the buds look yellowish but still not open...more warm water...Friday evening...about half were starting to open! I started to relax a little. Actually, I started to worry that they were opening too fast and that they would be falling apart by Sunday!

In the meantime, the least expensive "vase" I could find was a quart size mason jar. I found boxes of 12 jars for $7.88 at Wal-Mart. They were off brand so they were a smooth glass jar without any raised pattern like the Ball mason jars. I decorated them with a thick, royal blue ribbon and a thinner, yellow ribbon with white polka dots.

By the time Lulu and I did up the bouquets in mason jars with baby's breath the daffodils were looking pretty good. We made 20 jars and then had to leave those in the bathroom overnight so they would be safe from curious, flower seeking felines!

The banquet was a success, I couldn't go, it was my weekend to work, but The Mayor said everything looked nice and went smoothly. Each daffodil bouquet went home with the person at the table whose birthday was closest to the birthday of the guest speaker. So hopefully my 400 "babies" went to nice homes and are being enjoyed. (unless they fell apart the next day because of too much warm water!)