Introibo- with Flowers

In anticipation of Gaudete Sunday, I post a variety of arrangements I have made in the past incorporating various shades of rose.   Rose vestments come in a variety of colors from a pale apricot to a rich raspberry.  Here are a few examples: Solemnis maniple and chalice veil Slabbinck chasuble with apricot damask and red orphrey Solemnis chasuble in raspberry damask Sacra Domus Aurea stole, maniple and chalice veil   18th century chasuble from 'Shades of Rosacea' Toomey Avignon (Easter egg) pink chasuble with violet orphrey Solemnis gothic chasuble Is there a proper shade of rose for Gaudete and Laudete? From what I can tell, not exactly. Shawn Tribe writes an interesting post Shades of Rosacea:  On the Litrugucal Colour Rose, which you can find  here .  In it he recommends certain shades over others but gives no definitive answer to this question.  For altar flowers for Laetare and Gaudete, here are some samples of past arrangements. But above a...

Processional litter and altar flowers for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Ave Maria! White oriental lilies, alstromeria, carnations, wild heather, with magnolia, redwood, camelia and pittosporum greens.

"Who shall find a valiant woman?  far and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her. The heart of her husband trusteth in her, and he shall have no need of spoils. She will render him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She hath sought wool and flax, and hath wrought by the counsel of her hands. She is like the merchant's ship, she bringeth her bread from afar. And she hath risen in the night, and given a prey to her household, and victuals to her maidens. She hath considered a field, and bought it: with the fruit of her hands she hath planted a vineyard. She hath girded her loins with strength, and hath strengthened her arm. She hath tasted and seen that her traffic is good: her lamp shall not be put out in the night. She hath put out her hand to strong things, and her fingers have taken hold of the spindle. She hath opened her hand to the needy, and stretched out her hands to the poor."  Proverbs 31: 10-20 It has always been my intention to write a...

For the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (and two baptisms!) I made altar arrangements of white spider mums, mini poms, baby's breath and garden anenomes.  For greenery I used dusty miller, escalonia and hydrangea leaves.  

For the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost and the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, the parish where we formerly held the Traditional Latin Mass, asked me to do flowers for their 25th Anniversary Celebration.  This was an opportunity to do some TLM outreach.  Anyone who runs in traditional circles, understands the continual need to work to keep everything congenial in a small Catholic community.  I was honored to do flowers on this special day.  Fortunately, two very talented ladies volunteered to do the flowers at our regular TLM parish, so this freed me up to focus on St. Mary's Church.   Our local bulb farm, once again, generously donated lilies and tulips for the occassion. Before starting the arrangements I picked up a dozen white roses and found a field of Queen Anne's lace to forage.  The bulb farm donated some (gigantic!) pink lilies, white lilies and soft pink tulips. For greenery I cut fir, cedar, ivy, hydrangea, laurel and pittosporum. ...

This year for the Feast of the Assumption, the pastor of our little country parish asked if I would help create a processional litter for the statue of Our Lady.    He had the great idea of repurposing an old table!  It seemed Our Lady was smiling down on me that day when I walked into the thrift store and there it was for twenty dollars: a perfect square, three foot, solid oak table. A few months ago, my kind friend, mentor, and owner of Altarations Paraments in Oregon sent me a box loaded with remnants of liturgical fabric.  I added a white skirt around the bottom to hide the table legs and a carpenter attached brackets for the removable oak rods.  I was a bit nervous about creating the arrangements for the litter. They needed to be as light as possible and secured to the litter to withstand being jostled about in the procession.   I found four plastic oval platters at the dollar store, added a block of wet foam, taped it in place and created the arr...

Altar arrangements for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost: light blue hydrangeas, orange crocosmia, centranthus, with breath of heaven and privet greens from my garden.