Avoid adding to the glut of office chocolate and candy hearts this Valentine’s Day by bringing a bit of of the outside in. You don’t need to be head-over-heels in love with someone to add some sweetness and color to their day, and these bite-sized arrangements are guaranteed brighten up any cubicle.

We recycled a heart-shaped box to use as our tray (spray-painted white) and mini tins as our candy cups (we found ours in the baking section of Bed, Bath and Beyond and spray-painted them gold). Once your paint has dried, arrange the cups in your box the way that candy would sit in a candy box. Add a small amount of water to each cup, enough to keep your stems wet but not so much that they’ll spill over on the drive to work. Choose a few scoops of your favorite flowers to artfully distribute to the tiny cups. The nice thing about this project is that you can use smaller flowers that are sometimes too small and delicate to work into large arrangements. Cut short stems and sort them into the cups. We used narcissus, quince blossoms, and ranunculus but any small flowers will do fine. Add the lid and secure with a ribbon. Be careful transporting them and be sure to keep the box level (that’s why we kept the water low).

Pass out the mini-arrangements or let your coworkers choose their favorite ones. The arrangements may only last a few days, but that’s a few days more than a box of candy would last and with so fewer calories. Don’t forget to save one for your desk, too!

CLICK HERE for more lovely images after the jump!

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Whether planning a luxurious gala or putting together an intimate surprise dinner party, it’s usually those special people around us that make the impossible possible. Taking the plunge and opening our own business this past year required not only a serious commitment from us, but we find that we rely on our family and friends on a weekly, if not daily, basis. We’ve been lucky to have the unending support of an amazing extended network at every turn. Right now we feel especially grateful to our support system as we are working (about twenty-five hours a day) to get our new shop open in San Francisco!

Our situation is not unique: all the small business owners we’ve spoken with lately, many for this column, all cite their friends and extended family as being an important part of their ability to make things work day-to-day. Lucky for us we have lots of talented people close by who have not only given us unending moral and real support, but who also have nurtured our skills and talents.

Like so many of us, Alethea’s knitting skills were inherited from the ladies in her life. One of her favorite childhood memories is of visiting her grandmother in Australia and being slightly amazed that two little plastic sticks and some colored yarn could make such fantastic things. Her grandmother’s hands moved lightning fast, delicately holding the needles as the yarn passed through her fingers. For Alethea’s 10th birthday she got the treat of picking out a pattern for a sweater that her mum and grandmother would knit together (a really hip one- gray wool background with 3 large turquoise blue diamonds across the front). Years later when she broke her ankle and was stuck in bed for six months, Alethea decided it was finally time to become a knitter too. Her mum came over with some metal needles and a large ball of practice yarn and she began to learn.

Thanks to the teachings of her mum Kay and Aunt Libby, Alethea’s knits have become a part of Studio Choo arrangements. The ladies got together on a recent afternoon to sip tea, swap skeins and make cozy knitted sleeves for some simple vases. Little wooly sleeves would do us all a bit of good through January and February as the storms kick up and the sun is scarce. Here’s a pattern for those wintery months when even the flowers need a Snuggie. These sleeves require elementary knitting skills are perfect for adding some texture and warmth to winter arrangements.

CLICK HERE for the stitch pattern (and more pictures!) after the jump!

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The return of one of our favorites to local farms here in California makes the cool and rainy month of January (and we’ve had some rain this week!) a bit brighter. When ranunculus come back into season their size and color variations can’t be beat. Sometimes there are flowers within one family that have such a wide range of personalities that they can play a variety of venues. The ranunculus is that flower for us. They can be as dense, intense and petal-packed as a garden rose, or as light and airy as tissue-weight poppies. Their arching buds and frilly leaves make amazing additions to any arrangement.
The ranunculus is from the same family as the buttercup and a relative of the anemone, but has a more complex petal pattern and comes in a wider variety of colors. They are a tuberous-rooted plant and the most common variety used as a cut flower is the Ranunculus Asiaticus, or Persian Buttercup. The name comes from the Latin “rana”, meaning “frog” (after the moist environments where many members of the Ranunculaceae family typically grow). We raided our image archives for some of our favorite ranunculus arrangements and to show you the wide variety of colors these beauties come in.

Ranuncs from the farmer’s market are perfect (and inexpensive) for creating easy displays around your home. A bright row of jewel toned clusters makes a beautiful centerpiece substitute- create bouquets in your hand by lining up the blossoms, cut short, and place in your favorite small cups. For a more gardeny feel leave them long and leafy and showcase individual stems in a collection of clear glass bottles.

We love that these flowers can be just as at home on the kitchen table with a few sprigs of green as they are with some more unusual pairings, such as succulents or citrus fruits. A cluster of pristine white ranunculus could easily be mistaken for garden roses upon first glance, and the multitude of petals, sometimes 25 rows deep, adds amazing depth to a bouquet. As an added bonus they usually last for a couple of weeks, and like us they get better as they age.

CLICK HERE for more lovely ranunculus images and arrangements after the jump!

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In honor of the new year we’ve decided to redouble our efforts to use locally grown flowers and produce in as many as arrangements as possible. This week was the perfect week to get started again: a little bit of rain and a little bit of warm sun meant that the fields have been pushing up new blooms all over our favorite local flower farms. Thanks to Northern California’s mild seasons and fertile soil, we’re blessed with amazing fruits and flowers throughout the year.

During the wintertime California’s citrus fruits reach their peak meaning that we have a huge assortment of bright and tasty oranges, tangerines, and clementines to add some zest to our arrangements and our plates. While shopping the market we came across an oft overlooked member of the citrus family, the kumquat, and decided to make these little guys one of the featured players in this week’s post. Alongside some farm fresh ranunculus and rosemary from our backyard, we’ve put together a few ideas that are both fanciful and fragrant.

Rosemary and citrus seem to go hand in hand. Rosemary’s pine scent compliments the clean and fresh sparkle of the citrus’ bouquet. Winding and weaving a few long switches of rosemary together makes a perfectly sweet-smelling nest to protect a few choice kumquat “eggs” on the dining table. Similarly, rosemary and kumquats are the perfect pair when added to bouquets and boutonnieres of citrus-colored ranunculus, leaving marvelously subtle smells in their wake.

Of course, there were so many lovely members of the citrus family calling out to us at the farmer’s market, we couldn’t leave anyone behind. We gathered a good armload to make some of Alethea’s Four Fruits Marmalade. The recipe is after the jump below!

CLICK HERE for the rest of studio choo’s post and the full recipe for their four fruits marmalade!

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The shopping’s done, the table is set, now it’s time to finally devote some time to you this holiday season. Remember you? It’s easy to lose yourself between driving, parking, shopping, wrapping, mailing, traveling, cooking, and all the other ridiculous expectations we heap upon ourselves this time of year. We decided to do something to make ourselves look and feel fabulous this week, and we’re planning on doing it again next week for a New Year’s Eve showstopper, too. Our hair fascinators are a little bit of wearable wildness that will add instant awe to your holiday ensemble.

With a few pieces from the garden (or the grocery store) and a stopover in the hair goods aisle, you can quickly whip up a fascinator of your own. We’re giving you four looks for a variety of possible holiday events and range from easy to complicated.

The Peacock and the Headband are the easiest to master. Both make the most of all the leftover holiday bits you may have lying around. A peacock feather and some poinsettia leaves was all it took to make the Peacock: wrap the pieces together with floral tape for a simple behind-the-ear look for any holiday event. Use a bobby pin to keep in place.

CLICK HERE for the full hair fascinator how-tos after the jump!

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Walking through the neighborhood after a storm we can’t stop ourselves from picking up little pieces that have shaken loose from the trees above: shapely twigs, tiny pine cones and seed pods, and even the occasional stem of greenery broken free from an otherwise healthy tree. We are also in the habit of setting leftover flowers on our shelf for drying “experiments”, so we often have a random assortment of unique stems floating around the studio. We thought a festive wreath would be a great way to clean house and assemble our small collection of leftovers; and the bits and bits wreath was formed.

Most florists and Christmas tree lots have fragrant boughs of pine and fir on hand for garlands and work perfectly to add some bulk to your creation. Hit up your garden, nursery, or even the grocery store to find some other affordably unique additions. For our wreath we ended up with some pine, fir, magnolia leaves, herbs, berries, twigs, and even worked some succulents and privet in to the mix. The rundown on how we made our wreath is after the jump below!

CLICK HERE for the full wreath how-to after the jump!

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This week we put on our warm sweaters and headed out to the Skyline Ranch Tree Farm to take part in a classic holiday tradition: choosing and cutting down our own Christmas tree. Although it may not seem to be the “green” thing to do, cutting your own Christmas tree actually turns out to be quite an ecological choice. We’re not talking about pulling over to the side of the road and taking your pick of nature’s bounty, but rather heading out to a Christmas tree farm where trees are a responsibly grown seasonal crop. Once the big day has passed and your tree has been undressed, it can be mulched or given to your city for recycling.

Cutting down a farm tree is part of the season’s harvest, and at Skyline it’s more like pruning than chopping. Skyline uses trees cultured from established stumps and the stump we chose our tree from had the marks of at least three other sizable trees taken in years past. By leaving some lower branches untouched the tree will continue to grow. They plant 700 to 1000 seedlings a year here, and we could already see next year’s crop growing strong.

CLICK HERE for the rest of studio choo’s tree farm post after the jump!

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As we kick the holiday season into high-gear we’re already thinking about the fun parties and celebrations we’ll be attending in the next month. Whatever the occasion, it’s always nice to show up on someone’s doorstep with a thoughtful gift in hand for the hospitable host or hostess. Forced bulbs are an inexpensive and creative way to give your host a lasting reminder of a successful party, and add a little bit of life (and fragrance) to the otherwise cold winter months. No need to mess around with dirt; just keep a few supplies on hand (bulbs, gravel, containers) and you’ll always have a gift just minutes away. You can start some in your own home to watch and enjoy until you send them off to their new owners!

Usually bulbs rest during the winter, but during their dormant months you can trick them into thinking it’s springtime, and with the right conditions you can have beautiful blooms in several weeks. We purchased some paperwhite bulbs from our local hardware store for about a dollar a piece. Most nurseries, garden shops or hardware stores with gardening sections will have a small selection of bulbs to choose from. The bulbs we chose already had some green shoots and were ready to be planted. Paperwhites will usually only bloom once when forced and watching the process up close is a true treat.

CLICK HERE for the full post (and more beautiful images) after the jump!

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With Thanksgiving and holiday decorating right around the corner we thought it would be fun to create a centerpiece made entirely from easy to find items from your local supermarket. A clustered arrangement like this can be just a few components, made in minutes, and is festive without being too fussy- and you could also class it up with one of your nicer vases. We celebrated this fine fall day with pre-Thanksgiving bites and brown ale!

Our local chain supermarket was our starting point where we spotted a pretty oatmeal can on a holiday endcap. We decided to carry the can’s neutral palette into our flowers as well. We wandered the produce and flower section choosing a variety of items in brown, green, white, and a touch of rusty red. After tossing around ideas using wheat, radishes, kalanchoes, and chestnuts we narrowed our final selection to mushrooms and seckel pears, eucalyptus, fall leaves, cream mini-carnations, white alstroemeria, and paperwhites.

CLICK HERE for the full arrangement how-to after the jump!

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This week we’ll continue with the theme of hanging containers and share a simple flower girl’s basket we created for an upcoming event. Birch bark tubes are a popular way to add a little rustic beauty to a DIY wedding reception, so we thought it would be fun to show you how to incorporate them into your ceremony flowers too. This ribbon-handle basket could be used to hold petals or fall leaves for the little gal to toss at an autumn ceremony or a sweet posy for her to hold as she walks down the aisle.

CLICK HERE for the full post after the jump!

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