My friend (and maid of honor) Katie is taking a floral design class, and a couple of weeks ago I accompanied her to the San Francisco Flower Mart. She was making centerpieces for Easter with her family and I was hosting a pasta night and needed something to spruce up my tiny apartment and vegetarian menu.

Peonies at $25 a bunch, yikes!

I ended up with mixed ranunculus and white sweet peas, enough for two arrangements. They lasted for a whole week.

Perfection.

I love having fresh flowers in the house. Growing up, my mother the gardener (quilter, teacher, pastry chef, farmer, the list goes on) had fresh flowers in every room. I don't think I appreciated it enough when I was young, but now that I live in the city and I see how hard inexpensive fresh flowers are to come by, I realize that it is one of the things I loved most about growing up in the country. I swoon every time I walk by a cherry tree in bloom, or a yard bursting with growth. I think all the concrete makes me crave it. Fortunately, Jeff likes to garden, and I envision a lot of flowers in our future.