Remember those science experiments you did in school when you put celery in colored water to explain how plants use the process of osmosis? When I lived in Oregon, there was this plant called Queen Anne's Lace (it grows here too, but not nearly in the quantities it did there) growing everywhere along the sides of the road. Being from the desert, I'd never heard until one of the interns I was living with showed me, how those tiny white flowers would turn colors if you put them in colored water just like the veins of the celery. I was completely fascinated with this (I know -- it takes very little to amuse me) and spent the summer picking Queen Anne's Lace whenever I saw it and keeping it all around our house in little jars of multi-colored water. I pity the person suffering from hayfever who has to be my roommate.

I just came across these photos I took sometime last year when I had to teach a lesson at church about how the things we surround ourselves with have an effect on us. I had this brainstorm to use white carnations in colored water to illustrate that fact. I gave each girl one of these carnations to remind them that if we hang around in uplifting places doing uplifting things, our surroundings can show on our countenances just like the beautiful colors coming through on these petals. And if we don't... you end up looking like me.