Oh This? I Just Threw it Together

With everyone running out to the grocery store this weekend to fight over cranberries and figure out where they keep the mincemeat, I thought I would try to ease the pressure of hosting Thanksgiving. Here's my trick for whipping together a custom centerpiece using items from the grocery store. This one truly took 15 minutes and looks like I had to order it weeks in advance.

1. Pick out a nice pumpkin or gourd. Keep in mind the size of your table and the color of your plates and napkins. You don't want anything too tall or it will block conversation. I chose a nice green and white round one with a lovely low shape.

2. Head to the floral department and check out their assortment of ordinary prepackaged flower bouquets. Here is an example of where the whole is definitely not better than the sum of the parts. You want to find a bouquet or two that have some interesting flowers mixed in between the carnations and baby's breath and have some duplicates within the bunch instead of the one of everything method. I found two - a bunch of Jade roses which are creme with hints of green and a mixed bouquet that has some of the same colors - green, white and some orange.You'll also need some tape, a knife, a spoon, and a plastic cup.

4. Slice the top off of your pumpkin. Don't cut it in the jack-o-lantern method, but further down, just above half way so you create a bowl. Then scoop out the inside and flatten out the bottom a little.

5. Set the plastic cup inside the pumpkin, trimming the top down if necessary with some scissors so it's flush with the top of the pumpkin. Run the tape across the top of the pumpkin to make a grid. This will hold the cup and your flowers in place.

6. Take your bouquets apart and separate your bounty. Group together the stems by type: the filler greens, those things that have similar colors, those things that have only singles and decide which ones you're going to use. I'm going with all of the green and white choices (okay, not all, those dyed green little mums I'm just throwing out.) and the nice greens. All of the other pieces won't go to waste, but will find their way into little bud vases in the bathrooms or guest bedside table.

7. Starting with the greens, cut them down and place them around the gourd, spacing them out and having them sit relatively flat to create a nice base. Then take the flowers that you've chosen and place them in one by one. As a basic rule, I like to make my overall arrangement about twice as tall as the base - so cut the stems appropriately. Keep turning the pumpkin and adding more flowers until you've created a nice full arrangement. Put in the larger blooms first and then fill in the space with the smaller flowers. Take the top of the pumpkin and lean it up to the base for a casual little - "oh, this, I just threw it together" look.