Making "Roses" for Rose Sunday

Yesterday afternoon - after all the hawk drama died down - I sat down with Earlybird to prepare some "roses" for "Rose" Sunday.

You see, we're hosting a spring lunch this weekend to celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Lent. This is known as Laetare, or Rose Sunday - the day when we take a little break to rejoice, and the church is adorned in pink, instead of purple. I had planned to buy tea roses for the table (and to give to the ladies attending) but on a last minute whim, decided to do something a bit different. We've had such success with tinting carnations before, I thought it would be fun for EB to watch our plain little flowers turn a joyful pink just in time for Sunday.

So the other day we bought a bunch of white carnations at the market. (This might work with white roses instead of carnations, but I've never tried tinting roses before.) Because this experiment works faster if the stems are cut short, I used several short glass votives for "vases." And because I wanted the color change to be a surprise, I covered the votives with a bit of scrapbooking paper.

Now, for EB this was pretty much all about scissors practice (a fine motor skill we are constantly working on). He loves to cut paper, but this was his first time cutting stems AND his first time cutting with one hand for any length of time! At first I held the stem for him, but soon he was cutting them all on his own. In fact, he got so absorbed in his work he settled down on the floor and just went at it. 

And while he cut, I arranged. :)

I placed the blooms in the cups, added water and a drop or two of red food coloring. Then I placed them up and out of the way in a window till Sunday ...

The photos above were all taken yesterday afternoon, but here is a peek at our flowers today - and as you can see they are already "blushing" a bit!

I'll be eager to see if Earlybird realizes what made the flowers turn color. Though I didn't mention I was adding dye to the water, we've done this experiment before - so I bet he looks into the vase to check the color of the water!

I'm repeating myself, but this would be a nice Easter (or Mother's Day) craft to do with the kids. They could make little bouquets of multi-colored pastel flowers for moms, nanas, aunties, cousins, etc. Start a week ahead or so, and once the flowers are tinted, bunch a few together, and add a ribbon and safety pin to make a nice corsage. Or fashion a little cone from a doily or pretty paper to hold your flowers for a very charming presentation!

Well, as night closes in here, we're watching the rain (and the snow) start to fall. March is on its way out but there's nothing at all lamblike about our weather right now. In fact, a Nor'easter is blowing in overnight - mostly rain for us (phew) but high winds and flooding are never fun. Oh well, tomorrow the calendar will say "April" and that's good news to me! 

So we'll forge ahead with our Spring plans, come what may, snow or no. Next week EB and I start our April themes and first up is "eggs and nests." We have a few projects to do, some recipes to try and plenty of neat books to read ... more on all that very soon. :)

Have a good night, everyone!