Mothers Day - Hooray!

Hope all my lovely Mother followers are being spoiled rotten today.  I'll be going to my Mum's any time now with my bunch of paper tulips.  Mum does love flowers but will not throw them out until they  are utterly and completely gone - which means there are always vases of most unpleasant dead things around the house!

So I decided to give her (and my sisters) something that won't die for a long time.  I expect they will get dusty and faded one day but that won't be for a while yet.  I used some gorgeous Italian crepe paper which is easy to cut and then mould into shape.  There are full instructions and a free template on Lia Griffiths' fabulous blog here.

I love the way real tulips start stiffly upright but once in their vase start to let themselves go - if you know what I mean! Mine are stiff and a bit unnatural at the moment but the wire stem means they can be bent into a more informal shape once in their vase. One of my most favourite scenes in a most favourite film is the conversation between Miss Eleanor Lavish (Judy Dench) and Miss Charlotte Bartlette (Maggie Smith) sitting in a wild flower meadow eating pears:

Charlotte: I find the cornflower the most delightful of flowers.
Eleanor: I prefer something bolder - the reckless rose, the tempestuous tulip.

Don't you think that perfectly describes the tulip's character?

Well wonder of wonders (and with a lot of hinting!) my son brought me a bunch of tempestuous pink tulips last night.  They started letting themselves go within half an hour of putting them in water!  Apparently the stem carries on growing once picked.  However I saw a tip somewhere - if you stick a pin through the stem just under the head they will stand up again.  I tried it once before and it works - my tulips are upright again.