Sending Smiles ~

Rutger's University:  Emotional Health With today's high-tech and fast-paced lifestyle taking its daily toll on our lives, experts advise exercise and other personal lifestyle changes to relieve stress. According to recent behavioral research conducted at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, nature provides us with a simple way to improve emotional health - flowers. The presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction and affects social behavior in a positive manner far beyond what is normally believed. "What's most exciting about this study is that it challenges established scientific beliefs about how people can manage their day-to-day moods in a healthy and natural way," said Jeannette Haviland-Jones, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Rutgers and lead researcher on the study. Research Findings A team of researchers explored the link between flowers and life satisfaction in a 10-month study of participants'

Employee Picks ~ we thought it would be fun to share our employees favorite designs for the holiday so kicking off with Sales Associate Heena's pick called Love Story . Heena has been working at Monday Morning Flowers for 16 years! If she's working, first on the phone to assist our call in customers or to process their orders placed on our website. Love Story features red roses, pink lilies, pretty berries and a cut succulent plant arranged in a keepsake wooden box with the word "Love" surrounded by a delicate wreath of flowers. Would you be happy if this showed up at your office this Valentine's Day? To order this design or see our other offerings, visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com 

One year ago we introduced our new "3 for $20" bunch program into the shop. 7 days a week you can come in to choose the prettiest fresh flowers ~ one bunch for $10 or three bunches for $20. Mixing and matching is super easy and we have almost as much fun seeing what the customer put together as they do!  Once the customer decides on their flower choices, one of our designers hand ties the bouquet together, wraps in pretty paper and adds a delicate ribbon bow.  Sunflowers, orange carnations and white daisies. Don't you love the combo?  White daisy, green hydrangea and pink alstroemeria. 

I can't believe that it's been over 2 months since my trip to California to visit flower farms and I have not yet blogged about it. Forgive me blog readers as I have sinned!! Oh my gosh, what a trip is was and in a perfect world I would tell you about each and every farm, but as I do not live in a perfect world, a world with extra time on my hands soI'm going to give you a quick snap shot of our trip. First off, I need to thank my wholesaler Delaware Valley Wholesale who completely paid for this amazing trip. Well, I guess I technically won the trip but either way, I'm grateful to Tim, John and everyone at Delaware Valley Wholesale. Kevin and I traveled with some wonderful folks from DV and other Floral shops! Here we are at the beginning of our trip and no, there are no flowers but what a wonderful way to start the trip with a visit to the Pacific ocean. Yup, that's me front and center with my amazing hubby behind me.  Now it would take just too long to show

Did you know that when someone orders from our shop we send them a survey? One of the questions we ask is "other than our shop where do you buy flowers" and the number one answer we hear is "From the Supermarket". Now we know we can't compete on convenience because most folks hit the supermarket several times per month but we can compete on freshness, price and selection. Announcing our "Buy the Bunch" program. Here's how it works. Stop in our shop to see our amazing selection of flowers by the bunch. Choose 1 fresh flower bunch for $10 or choose 3 for only $20. These bunches are not only super fresh but also a very good flower deal  with a savings as high as 50% off our "by the stem" prices.  For example this week we have by the bunch.... Roses Spray Roses Bells of Ireland Alstroemeria Ranunculus Carnations Daisies Thistle Veronica Bupleurum Jumbo Asters Gladiolus Dianthus Tulips Dendrobium Orchids and more!

Another month of fun Instagram photos. Thought I'd share the behind the scenes from December!  Here a photographer posts a photo of a bridal bouquet we created in November and we share it on our feed!  Our Princeton store decorated for the holiday season!  Kevin and Alanna build a balloon archway for a non-profit awards breakfast in Woodbridge. This is a new frame for us and it really turned out great. It's 12 feet tall!!  A winter wedding of teals and white, snowflakes and birch branches at Old York Country Club in Bordentown, NJ.  A 3 foot tall boxwood tree decorated with real peacock feathers  for the Princeton Residence Inn. Even the ribbon had the peacock feather design!  We held 3 design classes during the month of December including this wreath making class. The students really did a great job.  Design Alanna went out to a club meeting for a demonstration and then then attendees bought what she made.  Lots of holiday themed floral desig