Last week, I was feeling like I needed little pick-me-up. For me, a set of fresh flowers can often to the trick. Flowers are visually pleasing to look at and often offer an instant boost in emotional health. Plants in the home not only can boost your mood, but also your concentration.

I went to a local grocery store to pick out a bouquet. While there, I noticed a beautiful large bouquet for $19.99, but smaller mix and match bouquets 3 for $15! I decided to mix and match to create my own arrangement at home, which would be enough for two different vases.

I grabbed 6 bunches which came to $30 before tax. I picked out hydrangeas in blue and white, two different types of daisies (please correct me if I’m wrong), and chrysanthemum.

You’ll first need to grab all of your materials. A glass vase, (for this arrangement I used a glass serving bowl from Target ), scissors (I don’t have any floral shears), and scotch tape. After you gather your materials, grab your clean vase or serving bowl, and add room temperature water to your vessel, filling it about half way. Then, add the flower food that should have come with your purchased flowers. If you buy more than one bundle, I only recommend adding one pack of flower food at this time.

Now it is time to tape-off your bowl or vase using your scotch tape. Sectioning your vase with tape makes it much easier to arrange and manipulate your flowers to your desired look. The tape allows for several flowers to be bunched together and stay in place. Take a piece of tape and place it vertically in the middle of the bowl. Then, take another piece and do the same thing, horizontally. After that, create a grid pattern by evenly spacing pieces of tape to the left and right of your middle piece of tape, and then again horizontally, like I did, below.

Now you are ready to prep and cut your flowers. Firstly, take your flowers out of the bag or package from the grocer, and separate each bunch. Cut your flowers to your desired length, measuring how tall you'd like them to stand in your arrangement. When you are ready to cut, do so at an angle. Doing so, allows for a greater surface area of the stem to allow for more water intake. Additionally, after your stems are cut, remove any leaves or foliage that would fall below the water line. This can create bacteria build up in the water, preventing your flowers from staying fresh, longer.

Now that your flowers are cut and prepped, you can start arranging. I first arranged the green chrysanthemum on the outer edges of the bowl (almost creating a square). I then began filling in the daisies next to the chrysanthemums, before adding the large hydrangeas in the middle.

Once you place your large flowers in the center of the bowl, you can then continue to fill in your smaller flowers in any left over empty spaces. This is the time to also rearrange anything you don’t like, adjusting heights, or removing any flower that seems out of place. For the freshest flowers, recut the stems and add more flower food every several days, or depending on the state of the flowers. Change the water regularly, and remove any leaves that may have fallen. My biggest tip is to just have fun. I am no florist, so I just arranged the flowers in a way that was appealing to me, and I loved the way it turned out! Tell me how you think this DIY arrangement turned out. Also, let me know some of your favorite floral combinations for me to try next time!