Carnation Parfait

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Today, I attended my first floral design class. We have a wonderful adult education center here in town that offers an array of classes ranging from GED completion to computer skills to creative skills. This beginning floral design class is the first of many that I will be attending in order to achieve my certificate in floral design.

To receive certification I will need to attend 60 classes (180 hours of instruction). I will leave each 3 hour class with a fresh flower arrangement in-hand. Part of the requirement for the certification is to photograph each floral arrangement we create and put the photographs in a binder that will be used for certification. And when that same binder is also a portfolio of our work to be used for getting florist jobs. That means there will be 60 pages of 60 arrangements in my portfolio. Pretty beefy portfolio to walk away with, isn't it?

At 3 hours of instruction a week, it will take a while to complete the certification process, but I am thrilled at the prospect of being able to acquire a valuable marketable skill while still doing all the other things that I do in my life. If for some reason I ever need to go back to working for someone else, the thought of going back to an office makes me queasy. Since I've been attracted to floral design since I was a young girl, this seems like a much better option to me. I told Hubby that this will be a good "fall back" skill in case I ever need it.

Another reason why I'm taking this class is to make it possible for me to broaden my photographic horizons and have more subject matter with which to create my photographic art. I can already tell after one class (and one adorable floral arrangement which I'm calling "Carnation Parfait") that I'm going to have a lot of fun with this.

And another bonus... every time I walk by the mantle, I get a whiff of the spicy aroma of carnations. Not a bad fringe benefit, I'd say.