Food & Garden

Eco friendly Friendsgiving ideas with DIY fall flowers

updated on May 30, 2023 by Angela Hamilton

Do you celebrate Friendsgiving? Charity (who took these pretty photos!) and I like to team up on Friendsgiving and invite our circle of friends (mostly best friends from our college days) to gather round. And by team up I mean she gets all the credit. I bring whatever DIY fall flowers I’m experimenting with at the time, and try not to light them on fire between the candles. She’s an amazing hostess and cook and baker and stylist and can make any space the most welcoming. ANYWAY.

We shared these eco friendly Friendsgiving ideas (a mouthful, I know) last year right before our rebrand to eco club, so they didn’t get circulated very well, which is a shame because, well, they’re just so pretty and EASY to pull off.

Charity and I, along with many of our friends and just lots of people in their 20s in general, have moved about a zillion times since college. This year’s Friendsgiving was at a completely different house! So this is a great way to remember a cute little corner with all the light.

About flowers. Wide, low floral arrangements require assistance to stay in place, unlike a lot of taller vases. The foam-free floral movement has really taken off even since this last post (which was my first and only time using foam). This is great news since floral foam, while easy and convenient, is not biodegradable or reusable, which is a real bummer considering the beautiful natural stems we stick in ’em. Check out this, then this, post from a florist in Chicago for a little more info and how to get this look in a more environmentally conscious way.

Most of what we added to this scene was secondhand, but two brand new elements were a jute table runner and accompanying placemats from eco club member Will + Atlas. Jute is one of the most sustainable materials for homewares, and it’s incredible durable. The intricate patterns in these gave the tough material a more delicate feel and I use them for pretty much all my entertaining, not to mention as photo backdrops, whenever possible!

The dahlias came from Pike Place Market, leaves from the backyard, and dried plants and strawflowers were also purchased at the market in one big dried flower bouquet that I’ve reused like 1000 times. I am not kidding. They come in giant sets for $20-$30 and yes my friend, dried flowers are SO VERY reusable. I have used some of these very same pieces in every single season since getting them. All from one single purchase. I used them for this year’s Friendsgiving, too. And then? I took ’em out of the vases and put ’em back in my stash for safekeeping. (Are you starting to sense how my apartment looks yet?)

I shared this + more sustainable flower tips here with a springtime bouquet.

Another member, Ten Thousand Villages, provided the marble serving board and knife. They have a few different options now too. Another piece that we’ve used again & again. And of course, would be perfect for a veggie spread too, or fruit + chocolate, like we did last summer.

We first used all this thrifted glassware for Charity’s wedding and have since used them in oh, about 100 shoots. I swear, they will live on forever, whether in our homes or someone else’s. We also thrifted the candlestick holders and vases. Our friend and talented calligrapher Rachel Johnson designed + made these paper goods with little eucalyptus sprigs.

Another favorite Friendsgiving idea: If you serve chocolate, try Seattle-based jcoco, which has unconventional, culinary inspired flavors. They’re a woman-owned company that gives back with every purchase, and is committed to ethically sourced ingredients and sustainable practices. You can learn more here.

One last note. If your area provides a compost service. DO IT. The City of Seattle collects compost and I could go on for hours about how grateful I am for this service. But some cities have this available and are just awful at promoting it. We have neighboring areas with such services that many people don’t even realize is an option. Be sure to check what’s available in your area!

So! This is our blueprint for a successful Friendsgiving. Eco friendly and secondhand wares and decor, supporting companies we love, making things by hand… Oh, and going around the candle-lit table to gush over how thankful we all are for each other. No matter what your Thanksgiving looks like, you’ve gotta do that last one. It’s good stuff.

This backyard picnic is proof that eco-friendly entertaining can be pretty too

updated on May 30, 2023 by Angela Hamilton

We’ve been sharing sneaks on Insta all summer, but I’m pretty darn excited to announce that our eco-friendly entertaining guide is HERE! I know it’s a little late in the season, but I wanted to compile all the photos of our summer backyard party into a guide that proves just how easy and affordable it can be to throw a beautiful gathering with the environment in mind. Scroll through the photos below for picnic ideas to effortlessly elevate your next backyard shindig!

Can a sustainable party be pretty, too?

If you search Google or Pinterest for oh, about five seconds, for an eco friendly party, you will not be surprised. It’s pretty much all along the same style, including lots of outdated trends at this point. (Say you don’t have an extensive mason jar collection, for example.) In this case, I can totally see why a hostess would cringe at the thought of throwing a party with an “eco” spin.

Then there are entertainers on a budget (hi!) who want to throw a pretty party too. There are tons of single use products marketed to these very people, with pretty patterned paper plates (that’s a mouthful) and even those “handy” plastic wine glasses that “look like the real thing” (don’t get me started). Being in the wants-to-create-something-beautiful-on-a-budget camp myself, I don’t believe I should have to resort to single use to host a creatively styled gathering. Even if it’s as simple as a backyard picnic. So, those are just a few thoughts we kept in mind while putting this together. We really did want to speak to people like us, who love Pinterest and Instagram and all the pretty parties they inspire, but wanted to be conscious of both our budget and our impact.

Planning Your Picnic or Backyard Party

The first thing we did when planning our party was decide the vibe. We knew we wanted it to be casual and in a backyard, so the picnic idea was just so much easier than finding enough furniture.

We let the seasonal colors of our region dictate our color palette. Colorful textiles, vibrant fruits and veggies, and our favorite vintage accessories made up the scene. Keeping it simple doesn’t have to mean forgoing color. Being inspired by nature and the decor we already had challenged us to get more creative!

Picnic Planning Tips

Brainstorm a few words to describe your party. Choose a style, color palette, size, formality, and location.
Create a secret Pinterest board to gather and share inspiration with collaborators.
Start a Google doc to log specifics, like what you have and what you’ll need, and track the design process.
Plan your guest list early so you can estimate food & supplies and reduce waste leftover.

Picnic Food Ideas

Knowing we had a backyard party vibe helped us narrow down food options. I’ve been all over the Mediterranean diet lately, and I liked that a mezze board could be vegetarian friendly (vegan if you take out the feta/tzatziki) and require minimal cleanup. It’s also full of refreshing flavors for a warm day. The picnic snacks on our mezze board were various olives, grilled pita and peppers, raw carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers, and marinated artichokes along with some feta cheese, tzatziki, and hummus.

We used the same concept for our fruit platter – fresh, easy fruits that were no fuss to prepare. We always add a little jcoco chocolate to our fruit platters, which is a local Seattle brand and ethical chocolate company that fights hunger with every purchase.

Let your food influence the theme of your party. If it’s an outdoor brunch picnic you’re after, go with fresh breads and pastries alongside your fruit. And of course fruit juices or mimosas. Or if it’s a more fancy picnic you’re after, level up with luxury linens and lots of flowers, and be sure to take any pre-packaged food out of their original containers and use your own. Summer textiles like napkins, table clothes, and pillows aren’t just for the table–spread them across the grass (use a sheet underneath if you’re worried about stains) for that luxury picnic feel.

Budget Friendly and Low Waste Picnic Ideas

Use what you have. We thrifted a few pieces to make sure we had enough baskets and bowls, but for the most part, went with what we already had, which helped us define our color palette and style too.
Using reusable cloth napkins we already own made everything look cohesive (paper towels = not cute) and they’re easy to wash.
Be intentional about single use. Avoid plastic, and look for those that use recycled materials. If you have compost in your area, make sure the tableware and utensils you use are compliant.
Have a waste disposal plan beforehand. If you have recycle or compost, guests will only use it if they know it’s there!
Skip the party store. Combine forces with friends to bring decor and serveware from our your own collections, then source the rest from thrift shops.

Beautify food + drinks with citrus slices, edible flowers, herbs, or other garnishes. If you’re not sure which drink to offer, find the garnish first, and let it inspire your drink! We had lots of citrus, which is how we landed on a batch rose spritzer. You probably know by now that we use edible flowers on just about everything. Instant pretty!

DIY picnic flowers

I created a few farmers market floral arrangements using the techniques shared here, opting for a wildflower look that’s very much trendy and in season right now. To achieve the look sustainably, purchase flowers at the market from farmers in your region rather than cut flowers from the grocery store. Whenever you make arrangements at home, you can preserve your favorite stems for use at parties like this. Add dried or dried or foraged stems to create unique arrangements. We’ve reused some of ours on multiple occasions, which is easy to do during spring and summer when you have a lot of events, as long as you take care of your flowers. Not all flowers need the same things to stay healthy and bloom big. Research unfamiliar flowers so you can treat them best! And don’t forget to replace the water.

Planning a backyard party of your own this summer? Find more picnic ideas (including a yummy cocktail recipe) in this post!

*Photos by Charity

Sustainable Floral Design Tips for DIY Flowers

updated on April 14, 2025 by Angela Hamilton

My love of flowers goes back as far as I can remember. Professional floral arrangements. DIY flowers. Dried flowers. Pressed flowers. You name it. Once, my mom told me we’d be going to visit my grandma’s friend, who owned a house with a backyard full of lush gardens. I imagined fields of wildflowers, but found pristine landscaped gardens instead, like something that would line a cottage in England. Both inspire me now. I love the manicured front lawns of my Seattle neighborhood. I love the poppies emerging from the sidewalks. And when I lived in Los Angeles, I loved the bougainvillea along the freeways, the succulent gardens, the pepper trees.

Writing for the wedding industry didn’t curb my floral obsession, but inspired me to learn more about creating arrangements myself, so I could bring these blooms into my own little corner apartment. Working from home can be drab, and I don’t take for granted what the peonies blooming by my side as I write this have done for my mood. Beauty is important.

Flowers can be a frivolous thing, especially when thinking of the environment. Why not leave them be? I understand this argument, but as a crafter, and lover of beauty, there is something really fulfilling to me about creating something new with these small miracles in life. And luckily when it comes to DIY flowers, I’ve found, there are many ways to create more sustainable florals.

Sustainable Floral Tips for DIY Flowers

1. Don’t buy fresh cut flowers at the grocery store.

Purchase from your local market instead. Most blooms you’ll find at the store are imported. Thinking about the environmental effects of transporting them (and their need for constant refrigeration) from a top exporter like Colombia alone, is enough to make any eco-friendly DIYer uneasy. Then there’s the question of where they’re coming from, how they are grown (and with what chemicals), and how the growers are compensated (and treated). Perhaps we can dive deeper into this later, but just know that there are many reasons to go local when it comes to fresh flowers and plants.

In Seattle and many other places, that usually means only being able to craft your own DIY flowers during Spring, Summer, and Fall, with little to nothing growing locally in the winter. (This was not a problem when I lived in Los Angeles). I created these bouquets during early spring’s narcissus bloom, so all the daffodils and tulips here came from a market featuring flowers grown on farms in nearby towns.

2. Supplement with foraged and dried blooms.

In Tin Can Studios’ book Handpicked, Ingrid Carozzi mentions times she would gather greenery or flowers right outside or at the event venue, to round out her arrangements. Often weeds and overgrowth can contribute to more undone, wild-looking arrangements (just make sure you aren’t taking from a delicate habitat that needs them to thrive).

I love to add a few dried flowers from my personal collection in DIY arrangements. Some dried blooms are ones I’ve dried on my own (like these carnations), and others were purchased at a local farmer’s market. During the winter here in Seattle, a lot of farms depend on sales of dried rather than fresh flowers, so it’s easy to get, and they truly are “everlasting” as you’ll see mentioned on many a sign at Pike Place.

Tip: Preserve or purchase a big bunch of dried flowers, then carefully deconstruct the bouquet so you can pull from individual stems when you create a bouquet. For example, eucalyptus is hard to find here, so the time I was able to buy some at the market, I saved a few sprigs. They do get dipped in water since I pair them with fresh flowers, so I trim the stem when I’m ready to save it for a next time.

3. Arrange and rearrange.

Some flowers, such as my favorite local bloom of all, lilac, last only a few days in vases, where others (like ranunculus, can you believe it?!) can last up to a few weeks! Whenever I make big arrangements to enjoy at home, I rearrange them every two or three days, picking out anything that can’t be salvaged. Then I rearrange what I have, trim the stems, and replace the water.

I think I used this bunch of baby’s breath in three arrangements of DIY flowers before it stopped looking fresh! No need to throw them out when its initial arrangement went… there was plenty of life left.

4. Take care of your DIY flowers!

It’s important to get to know the kind of blooms in your DIY flowers, so be sure to ask about them when buying at the market. They are the experts! Most flowers live longer if you trim the stems and replace water regularly. Different types of flowers also like different temperates of water, so there’s a lot of details to consider. Learning about the flowers you love, rather than just heading to the grocery store and grabbing a bouquet that will wilt in a couple days, will get you so much closer to truly sustainable florals.

If you’re looking to learn more about sustainable and DIY flowers, I recommend the books Handpicked and Foraged Flora.

How do you keep your hobbies as sustainable as possible? Let us know if you try any of these sustainable floral tips for your DIY flowers!