Flower Power.

True confession, people.

I've always, but always, been a flowers kinda gal.

I don't know if your high school honored this tradition, but at mine, girls in their junior and senior year wore something on their sweaters during homecoming called a "mum."  Basically, a mum is a corsage on steroids.  It's a giant flower, affixed to a pin, adorned with ribbons and sometimes balloons, with petals quite possibly Bedazzled.  It hangs roughly two or three feet long, and to the outside world, wearing just one looks totally insane. 

I wore five.

At my hoity toity high school, smack dab in the middle of More Is More Country (aka San Antonio, Texas) mums were the height of sophistication.

Not only did my mom and dad buy me a mum each during homecoming, but my parents' friends got in on it, too.  I later learned that the "cool" way to display your mums was to wear, say, one -- two max -- and carry around your extra boxes of mums all day as your personal popularity albatross.  But instead, I took them all out of their boxes the moment I got them, affixed them to each of my shoulders, then my abdomen, and in all likelihood my groin.  That's how innocent I was about this mums business.  I thought if you were special enough to receive a mum, even if it came from your Mom, then by God you should wear that mum with PRIDE.

I was thinking about all this last Tuesday, when I went to a Food & Flowers Party at my friend Camille's house.  Camille is an event planner, writes an ah-mazing style/party blog, and is one of those people for whom party invitations aren't really an option.  When Camille invites you, you GO, because her parties are just that magical.

Speaking of magic, let's just take a moment to appreciate Camille's house, shall we?  This is where the party was held.

I know.  This is just the back patio.  Are you reading, Austin Monthly: Home?  Or House Beautiful?  I believe I've just found your next feature spread.

Before our flower class began, Any Style Catering prepared us a local, lavish lunch spread.  Every bite was luscious, in the way that seasonal food is -- no fussy dressings or dips required.  Just mouth-filling ripeness, and their pistachio raspberry cake in particular is giving me heart palpitations as I sit here and write this blog post.

After lunch, Ashley Bailey of The Byrd Collective showed us the ropes -- er, stems -- of floral design.  "I treat it more like painting," she said.  "Rather than having to use this kind of flower or that, I look at my design as pockets of color and texture."

As her example design came together, we were all a tad in awe.

Then, we tried our bouquet-designing hand.

Our gorgeous hostess, Camille.

Me!  Unfortunately I didn't have any mums to wear.  But I did have the next best thing, i.e. a bright pink dress covered in bright pink flowers. 

There's another person here lurking in the background of these photos, whom I so enjoyed meeting.  Her name is Melanie Grizzel of She-N-He Photography & Design, and she snapped her own set of pictures for this day.  Isn't her website (and logo) ridiculously adorable?

All in a day's work.

thank you so much for this fabulous day, camille!