Saturday, May 1, 2010

Origami Lilies for May Day


Happy May Day!  These origami lilies are just something I whipped up last night to celebrate spring.  I used this tutorial here, and loved the result. I didn't have any origami (washi) paper lying around, so I used astro-bright bond paper (cut to size), and it worked perfectly.


My first attempt was at making these GORGEOUS Kawasaki roses (can you believe those are made out of paper), but the tutorial was way beyond my folding skills, so I gave up that effort and resorted to the beginner-level lilies.  Roses or lilies - doesn't matter.  They make me happy just the same. 


This beautiful little bouquet arrived yesterday from one of my college roommates.  What a nice surprise in time for May Day.  Thanks, Emily! Any attempt at paper roses made by me could never top the beauty of these yellow roses made by nature anyway.

And finally, in sticking with the flower theme for May Day, here's a collection of photos of Dale Chihuly's stunning "Fiori di Como" at the Bellagio in Las Vegas*.


My husband is in Vegas this weekend at a bachelor party for a college friend.  The guys are presumably NOT whiling away the day staring at these gorgeous flowers, but I love to visit this amazing sculpture whenever I'm in Vegas.  I makes me think of a whimsical undersea garden that you would find in a Dr. Seuss book.  I've always said, that if I had all of the money in the world, I'd put a Chihuly sculpture in my home (and then hire armed guards to keep the kiddos from climbing on it!)

With all of these flowers, I'm reminded of my husband's dear grandmother (or G-G) as she was affectionately know by her great-grandchildren. May 1st is her birthday, and she would have been 97 years old today.  Her greatest love in life (besides her family) was flowers. How fitting that May Day was her birthday! She even took my husband to a flower arranging class when he was 9 or 10 years old.  Every Mother's Day, my husband wakes the kids up early and takes them out into the yard to gather up spring's first wildflowers.  I awake to my three boys arranging them in a TINY vase (wildflowers are still pretty sparse in early May at our altitude.) I'm so thankful for the part that this amazing woman had in making my husband the caring man that he is today.  Happy Birthday, Florence!  Enjoy the flowers.


* The lower left Chihuly sculpture is actually at the Indianapolis Children's Museum, but I had to include it anyway.

2 comments:

  1. What? The instructions for the kawasaki rose were easy......if your a rocket scientist that is !!!! Thanks for sharing, Kat

    ReplyDelete
  2. No kidding. Mountain fold the bottom layer only? Huh? I've done origami before, and I hold a bachelor's degree, so I am not stupid. But... um, what?!?

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails