yesterday...

my mother had asked me if I wanted to help her put together a gift basket for her co-worker's birthday. I had agreed hoping she at least knew something that I could work with to decorate it. she did not. she didn't know much about her, other than she likes pretty much the same things that my mother does. with nothing to go off of, I figured "okay, since her birthday's in april, I could do something spring-related."

for my short bit of experience, and the couple of times I've done a spring-related project, these are among the easiest, but still fun to do. the not-so-fun part came when my mother told me that her birthday was today, and she had only told me at around 10 AM while we went to the store to pick everything out. 

the flowers were simple enough once we got back; I, however, wanted to try something weird and different. instead of a simple idea of gluing the flowers to the sides of the basket I thought "...what if I stuck the stems through the weaves of the basket?" it's unique, and it may not be the best idea, but I had a vision for it. I also had a vision for the color arrangement, where the ranunculus have the pinkish-yellow tint to them, I wanted to split the colors down one side; the flowers in the back are pink turning a darker red, and the ones in the front are white to yellow.

while we were there though, I had helped my mother realize that the specific type of wine that her co-worker likes is actually a brand, and she's been getting two different types of wine each time without really realizing it. I had also learned that day just what the difference between chardonnay and sauvignon blanc are. I'd considered trying wine out at some point, but I've yet to get around to it. I still have a bottle of rum to finish anyway...

my mother had picked out most of the gifts inside of the basket, including some chocolates, beauty items, including a very strong scented candle (her words, not mine), and a fan to sit at the very back. she also had tried for 5 solid minutes to stuff everything into the basket without either making the chocolates taste weird, or without making it look stupid. 

the picture below is the finished product. it was not only fun, but they loved it!