A watermelon centerpiece? Sure, why not! We get all a gape about stuffing pumpkins full of flowers (yes, I know, I love it too), so why not fill up their summer cousins with blooms galore and use them as gorgeous surprises on our cookout tables, at showers, pool parties or Memorial Day and Labor Day get-togethers? A watermelon is always the perfect answer to your summer hospitality needs!
Every get-together needs a little something-something. You know, just a little happy that marks the occasion and makes it special. And everybody knows that those little happies come in all shapes and sizes; they don’t have to be hard, and they certainly don’t have to cost an arm and a leg . But one thing is always true about every happy, no matter what it is- the small things make all the difference. And that truth really came home to roost this week when I was making this watermelon centerpiece for you!
Do you know what this arrangement looks like without the small things added?
It looks like that. Awkward. Unbalanced. Not all that attractive. And definitely not full. Without little sprigs of greenery and some little blooms to fill the holes, it just doesn’t work.
But isn’t that just like life? It’s the little things that fill life out and make it what it’s supposed to be. It’s the little things that make life possible. It’s the little things that fill the gaps and make life count.
My daughter has recently come back home to live after one year away at college. It didn’t pan out. It wasn’t a fit. So she’s back at home taking another run at this growing up thing from different direction. Which is a good lesson in and of itself because the longer I live, the more I realize that backing up and taking a second run at something is the real stuff that everyday life is made of. Regardless, it has hit her hard; she’s not feeling all that successful, and she’s searching.
This week she made the offhand comment, “I’ll just do this little job over here. It seems to be what I’m good at anyway. You know, just helping.”
Now, that is an A-one pity party, for sure. I can spot those a mile away from anywhere. But it did hit this mama in the gut just the same. Of course, that’s not the only thing that she’s good at. “Oh dear one, don’t despise the little things for they are important too.”
Let me tell you about my daughter’s little things, her ‘just helping.’ Every day since we’ve made this crazy move into a 96 year old cottage that needs the rehab skills of a full-on construction crew but instead just has me and my husband, she has washed, dried, and folded all our clothes. She’s done dishes. She’s swept floors. She’s cleaned bathrooms. She’s pitched in and stepped up wherever she’s seen a need. She’s filled in gaps.
And they’ve been a life saver, all of her little things… All those seemingly unappreciated, overlooked and definitely unglamorous things that have to be done so that the world will continue to go ’round.
Sound familiar? I know I recognize that place. We all find ourselves there time to time. Doing those “things” in life that seem little and unimportant while we long to be doing something more, something bigger, something grander. Or maybe we’re just longing for someone else to notice.
Don’t think for a minute that I didn’t stop right then and there to let her know just how important all of her little things have been to us. Because it’s only when we begin to see the little things for what they are… the main things, the essential things, the things on which everything else depends… that we can really appreciate what’s beautiful about life.
“Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much…” Like 16:10
What You’ll Need To Make A Watermelon Centerpiece
- medium watermelon
- Sharpie pen or marker
- knife & scissors
- 2 glass jars
- flowers of your choice
- greenery
- water
1. Place your jars on the top center of your watermelon. Use a marker to trace around your glass jars.
2. Use a knife to cut a rectangle around where you have traced the place for your jars. Use a spoon to scoop out enough melon so that your jars can sit down in the watermelon with only their neck showing. You want the jars to sit low in the melon so that the flowers will cover up the rectangle and no one will see it.
3. Fill the jars and the scooped out space in the watermelon with water. Place your largest, showiest flowers in the jars and the rectangle of the melon first.
4. Fill in between your large flowers with the next to the largest blooms. Remember to keep like colors together and trim the stems to get the height you want while still keeping all the flowers low and close to the opening.
Fill in any large gaps and spaces with your smallest blooms. I usually save my accent color for these blooms. Working in groups of threes, plug all the big holes, look to even or balance out the shape and make sure that the jars and rectangle cut in the melon is concealed. Lastly, use sprigs of greenery to fill the small gaps and to bridge that space between your blooms and the watermelon. It’s the greenery that’s really going to fill out and make our arrangement look special, so don’t afraid to use long and short pieces.
A watermelon centerpiece is one of those special get-together surprises when filled with seasonal blooms, but it is the little things- those little blooms and those last touches of greenery- that fill in all the gaps, balance out the shape and just add that extra something that truly make this party “happy” the showstopper that it is!
***Pin this Watermelon Centerpiece How-To for your next get-together!***
Author’s Note: And don’t worry about our Cinderella. She’s been to the ball and then some.
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