Days of Hearts and Flowers - Thurs. - Fri., February 13-14, 2020

February 13: "Welcome my pretties," was a phrase used by the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. It was not a friendly greeting. She was after the ruby slippers and nothing else really mattered.

Today, we did welcome the pretties -- flowers -- for our flower arranging class at Travelers World RV Resort. And these pretties mattered to us. Donna, our instructor, shopped at a flower market the day before and brought us fresh carnations, chrysanthemums, alstroemeria, baby's breath, and ferns. She also brought silk flowers. We had our choice as to which type of flowers to use in our creations. We brought our own vases.

Choices, choices.

"Shopping" for flowers.

We had our pick of colors.

Donna cutting wet foam for our vases.

Red stiletto heels were
used as vases.

Pipe cleaners, picks, wire, butterflies, stickers,
hearts; all were decorations we could use.

Once we had our wet or dry foam, our flowers, and other colorful paraphernalia, Donna instructed us on how to put everything together. First, you had to decide if the flowers were to be viewed from all sides or only from one side. Once you knew that, it was time to start filling the vase. We learned to start at the bottom with low greenery or short flowers and work our way inward and upward. The process was very relaxing and creative. Everyone was immersed in their work.

After about 45 minutes, we had lovely, flower-shop-quality bouquets. Check these out!

Kudos to Terry Vaupel for being here.
He learned how to make a bouquet for his
valentine. Where were the rest of the guys??

Red stiletto arrangement.

Close-ups.

Our class with their creations.

Doesn't this look like a flower shop?

This class was a winner! Almost everyone agreed to let their arrangements be used as centerpieces on tables at the Valentine Dinner/Dance on Valentine's Day. 

This morning, I also had the interior of my car detailed which took 1-1/2 hours. While they had my car, I walked over to Target to shop for our cruise on Monday. Then, this afternoon, I took my car to Pep Boys to have them clean the lenses on the Escape's headlights. (You know, maintenance-type stuff.)

Friday, February 14: This evening was Travelers World RV Resort's Valentine's Dinner and Dance. The volunteers sure put on a good event. We have some people who like to decorate and they had use of all those flowers above. The Rec Hall looked fabulous! Around 80 people came out for an evening of fun and romance.

Luann, our emcee

The baked potato bar -- servers on the left;
hungry people on the right

Self-serve salad bar.

For dinner, we had a salad bar and a baked potato buffet. The baked potato buffet had perfectly cooked baked potatoes, pulled pork, taco meat, chili, sauteed mushrooms and onions, steamed broccoli, melted cheese, grated cheese, sour cream, and butter. For dessert, we had individual cherry cheesecakes. 

After dinner, a few tables were taken down and some moved back to make room for dancing and romancing. Skip was our DJ and he played slow songs to snuggle up to.

BettyAnn Minthorn took photos of the couples and emailed them so everyone would have a memento from this evening. Thank you, BettyAnn!