Fruity Floral Arrangement

I LOVE to have fresh fruit or flowers as a centerpiece on my kitchen table. However, I don't like to spend a lot of money on them. Yesterday I was a little bit under the weather with a sore throat and needed to see a the doctor quickly, so I went to the Kroger clinic. While in the waiting room I was flipping through magazines (in between handing out juice boxes and fruit snacks to my VERY restless children...) and saw this idea for an inexpensive centerpiece using real fruit and fresh flowers! I decided I would try to put it together since I was in Kroger and could grab everything I needed while I waited for my prescription to be filled.

The magazine suggested using spider mums (which are the large green blooms that you see) and limes. I happened to find a managers special bouquet marked down to just $2.99 that had the mums as well as some other random flowers! I used the carnations as well. This arrangement could be made with a variety of inexpensive flowers, so just look to see what you can find on sale. The bag of limes was just $2.99 and I used a bowl that I already had. The magazine suggested a shallow, clear glass bowl. This would be better because you could see more of the limes, but I wanted to spend as little as possible. To make the arrangement simply follow these steps: Fill the bottom of the bowl with water. Stack the limes pyramid style. (This proved to be a bit more difficult than I imagined since the limes were various shapes and sizes. Use toothpicks if you need more stability!) Cut the stems just long enough to reach the water in the bowl and place them between the limes as shown. And now you have a really fun and attractive centerpiece for only $6! I can't wait to try this with different fruits and flowers. Love how it looks on my table.