A Baddies Guide to Book stacks and Bouquets: 1
I’m starting a series called Bookstacks and Bouquets. I love flowers and want to practice my bouquet creative skills, and thought what better than to pair them with some of the incredible, stunning books I am lucky enough to receive regularly. So, this is “How I made my bouquet" and a book stack to go with it.
First bookstack up is the Drowning Empire Trilogy, by Andrea Stewart, with jaw-dropping editions from The Broken Binding paired with Baby’s Breath, Hydrangea, and Rununculas. Something to note, if you have cats, as I do, these flowers are toxic if ingested, especially the hydrangeas and Ranunculas. Please make sure they are kept well out of any kitties’ reach and make sure you are researching the flowers you bring into your home <3.
Before I show my process and talk about this series, let me show you a sneak peek of the final product.
Ok, where to start, book synopsis first or flower deep dive.. Let’s do the book synopsis first.
Drowning Empire Book Synopsis
So really, I can only talk about book 1, The Bone Shard Daughter, without giving away any spoilers. The series has five POVs, including the main character Lin, who is the daughter of (you may have guessed) the Emperor. He has power through what essentially feels like blood magic; bone shards taken from each citizen and they hold a bit of magic. This is a bit of an oppressive magic system, though if a person’s shard is used (it’s kind of like energy), then the person it belonged to dies.
Oh also, there is a group of people the Empire defeated centuries ago, and theres a rumour that they are back, AND there is a group of rebels trying to get rid of this despot of an Empire. Anyhow how does the FMC Lin play into all of this? Well she has an illness that has taken her memories. Her father, the Emperor, for some reason, decides to pit her and her foster brother (who also has lost his memories) against each other to compete for the privilege of gaining information on the bone shard magic (so, power). She steals keys to a library from her father, breaks in, and tries to take control of some major magical infrastructure.
I have not yet read this series, but I have had it on my TBR for quite a while now (I’ve been going through Robin Hobb’s books and Malazan as well) so perhaps I’ll be able to finally get to it in 2027?
On to Bouquet creation.
First, I went to my local supermarket and saw what they had on hand. My number one choice is always Trader Joe's; however, the closest one to me is an hour away, and OF COURSE the parking lot is always a nightmare (not quite as bad as the circle of hell that is a Buc-ee’s parking lot, but it is close).
Anyway, there were some really pretty options available:
Hydrangeas; they had blue, green, and pink
Ranunculus; so many colors
Lilys; all closed up, but I think white
Yellow Daisies
And a few more, but that's all I can remember. I wish they had more non-flower green pieces, but whatever. I absolutely love hydrangeas, and ranunculus are so pretty (peony queen forever though). So from my options, I felt most drawn to a pink, yellow, and red color palette. Red is my favorite color; you can probably tell at this point. I also added baby's breath as my base.
In order (above), Gold Ranunculus, Poppy Ranunculus, Baby Pink Hydrangea, Baby’s Breath.
They each deserved their little still moment, and below, they get their close-up.
In order (above), Gold Ranunculus, Poppy Ranunculus, Baby Pink Hydrangea, Baby’s Breath.
Starting off with the Baby’s Breath.
I took longer pieces and tried to create a “frame”: side and middle. I wanted the sides to be a bit extended as well since I anticipated having hydrangeas there and wanted some hanging pieces.
Next I built off of the initial “frame” to fill out my vase.
One thing to note: I knew my final piece would be going on a bookshelf with one side facing the wall. This is not a piece intended to be viewed from all sides, 360 degrees, but is intended to be viewed from the front.
So the “back” of my piece is basically flat.
Hydrangeas came next.
As the largest individual stems, I wanted to use them as a sort of anchor. While arranging, the baby’s breath did get adjusted a bit as well. It’s a living fixture, so going with the flow is important.
Lastly, I placed my Ranunculus. I picked a singular spot and then built off of their. I tend to like a wild approach. Not too uniform.
While this certainly isn’t professional-quality florist work, I had so much fun putting it together and coordinating with an amazing book stack. A few more photos below showing off the covers of these insane Broken Binding Editions of The Drowning Empire
I definitely did this for my own entertainment. I love Books. I love Flowers. I wanted to pair them together in an aesthetic way and practice my bouquet-making skills.
At the very least (besides my own entertainment and enjoyment), someone else might try to do something new today. Make your own bouquet!
What series should I do next? Any flowers you’d like to see?
