Hydrangea’s are a beautiful flower……….

……..I wish I could grow big, full beautiful bushes but, here in South Texas, this is as good as it gets!!

If I get one bloom, I’ll feel like the hydrangea Gods have blessed me! So instead, I have to settle for faux.

  I had a project in mind with an old doctor’s bag I picked up at an estate sale…….

It’s old, dusty, dirty and definitely worn…………………

it’s perfect!!!

Now, back to my project!!  I visioned cream-colored dried hydrangea flowers spilling out the bag, but as I mentioned, no can do!

So, I bought faux……

But they were too white.

My solution??????

Coffee!!!!

I poured some into a large soup bowl…..

…….and dipped my hydrangea into the coffee coating the petals really well.

Here, you can see one stem half dipped!!!

I would just let the individual stems set in the coffee for a few minutes!!

And let them dry out on a paper towel!

You can tell the difference between the dipped and not dipped!!

I let them dry and then re-dipped them again.  I did this about 3 times per stem.

What I love the most is how the coffee settled in the tips of the pedals making them a little darker and giving them that “aged” look I was wanting!!

I put some crumpled up grocery bags in the bottom of the bag and placed the flowers on top so they wouldn’t fall down into the bag.

I added a silver candlestick, a piece of french linen and an old book I picked up at the same estate sale!

I created this little vignette!  You know how I love vignettes!

Can I just say that I’m so excited for fall?!!!  I think this will make a great fall/Halloween vignette!  That little black book I picked up at the estate sale, that’s in the bag, is of Edgar Allen Poe’s poems including “The Raven”!

Fabulous!!!!

So, if you don’t live where you can easily access dried hydrangea, give this technique a try!

Until next time…….