Sending Smiles ~

Who's ready for Spring? Monday night our store hosted a hands on workshop showing how to create your very own bulb garden for the home. Lead Designer Alanna lead the class showing the students how to break apply stones for drainage, break the bulbs into multiple smaller plants and finally how to decorate the garden with moss and tiny little creatures such as butterflies and birds!  What topic would you like to see us cover in our next class? 

I love our signs around the shop and as this one says, Plants are the Ultimate Organic Gift. Right now now we are selling more plants than ever before and with all the cool options, it's not really a surprise. Not only do they make a great gift but folks love having them in the own home and office. Terrariums and Air- Terrariums have become so popular that we are dedicating space the store to glass containers along with specialty stones, moss and more.  With our wide selection of mini tropical plants, succulents and air plants, you can come into the shop, pick out your plants , container and other elements to go home and create your own living garden .  check out these new little cut Echeveria's in a bag. Aren't they adorable. They even come with instruction on how to root them and turn them into a thriving plant. At only $14.99, they make a wonderful little gift for a friend, teacher or relative. 

We haven't had too many floral design classes on Sundays but yesterday's class was a big success. Creating Succulent Plant Gardens was the topic and as you can see we had some very talented students!  Of course, we can't let our students design on an empty stomach so we provided some light snacks and wine. We feel the wine always helps the students and relax and let their inner floral designer shine through. Well, that might be stretching it but we stand by our wine and food choices!  Cynthia and her friend Silvana each pose with their masterpieces! Each student would choose an upgraded glass container like these above or below for an additional cost.   Or they could use these awesome moss and wicker baskets, which were included in the class fee.   Each student was provided with soil, different styles of moss and river stones in 3 different colors to choose from. I think they all did a great job, don't you?  Lori is very proud of what she cre...

It's not a secret ~ If you want your fresh flowers to last longer, changing the water helps. Watch as Designer Norman shows how and explains why it's important. Remember, if you wouldn't want to drink out of the water your fresh flowers are in, then neither do they! Valentine's Day is around the corner, don't forget to place your order early! With 2 flower shop locations to help you delivering 7 days a week! Call today at 609.520.2005 for our Princeton NJ shop or 215.493.1400 for our Yardley, PA store or you can shop online 24/7 at  www.sendingsmiles.com

Well, actually, it's both! We began creating terrarium floral centerpieces for tomorrows wedding and although most have been created with flowers, they also include some plant material like this one. Three purple roses, mosses and ivy plants combine to make an elegant floral display, don't you think?  What I really love is how each table will going to be a completely different "container" and so no 2 will look the same. Our color palate is purples and blues and so we are using blue roses and orchids with accents of river stones, fresh mosses, glass gems and even terrarium sand. The bride and grooms also provided us with some fun little characters such as faeries and tiny terrarium animals such as frogs, turtles and even birds. I can't wait to see these all set up at the Lambertville Inn tomorrow night and I'll be sure to post photos!

Plant Potting Event – Sunday,  August 4 th No reservation required between 10 – 2pm = $15 per person ~ share on twitter Announcing our Plant Potting Event! We can teach plant tips and tricks. Bring in your own plants and containers or buy what you need from our extensive inventory. Join us at our location at Princeton Forrestal Village.  There will also be a list of items for purchase for all styles of houseplants & gardens to help our you customize your own living gardens.  That list will include baskets, butterflies / birds, stones, bows & curly willow, as well as plants for purchase. Houseplants: ·          Re-pot ·          Clean foliage / leaf shine / moss ·          Add new soil Dish gardens: ·          Split up into individual plastic pots or add new plants · ...

I love when bride's do a bit of DIY. Yes, you heard it right, I love when my bride's do a little themselves. Especially like what this past weekend's bride Crystal did. She let us handle the fresh flower part, while she and her maids set up some floating and votive candles on their own. I especially loved the little boards they found to anchor the centerpieces and the table numbers.  Aren't they super cute? She was able to personalize her wedding while not having to worry about processing fresh flowers and worrying about the weather (it hit 95 degrees that day).  She left that up to us to worry about and at a very modest cost, I might add. Again, vintage ~ country is very in these days and these adorable tablescapes were perfect for this tent wedding at Chauncey Conference Center here in Princeton. Would you consider doing a bit of DIY while your florist handles the floral aspect of your centerpieces? 

  With summer officially here, and the awareness for more eco-friendly products on the rise... I thought it might be a good idea to write this weeks blog on natural insect repellents that are easy to make and environmentally conscience.    Natural insect repellent for skin Get rid of those chemical and synthetic based insect repellents that I'm sure are chock full of parabens. Things you need: An essential oil (eucalyptus, lemon eucalyptus, or rose geranium) A carrier oil (olive, vegetable, or sunflower) or alcohol How to prepare: Mix one part of essential oil with fifteen parts of carrier oil or alcohol. The natural insect repellent for the skin is ready. I prefer using carrier oils instead of the alcohol because the alcohol tends to make my skin dry. Olive oil is always a good choice if your skin tends to be sensitive to alcohol.  Please note: test a small patch of your skin to make sure you do not have an allergic reaction before spraying full parts...

Another Fun Blog Post by Designer Nicole ~ Enjoy and send us photos of your Trees!  If you're anything like me, seeing the circle of life play out in gardening is absolutely astonishing.  Follow these easy steps and please let us know if you have results! Step one: Obtain a pineapple with firm green leaves (not yellow or brown).  Make sure it's not over ripe by tugging gently on the leaves.  If they pop off, your fruit is too ripe for this project.  Make sure there are no scale insects ( these look like small gray spots at the base of the leaves). Step two: Cut off the crown and strip some of the lower leaves so that some of the stem is exposed.  Trim any fruit flesh without cutting the stem.  The flesh could later rot your plant. Step three: Turn the crown upside down and let it dry out for about a week so that the cut end and the leaf scars harden. Step four: Float the crown in a glass of water until the roots grow out.  Be sure to change the...

When I talk to people about their floral designs , whether they are for a wedding or just a floral gift, they often say ~ "I don't need those exact flowers, you can change the flowers to lower the cost". Here it is in a nutshell folks, changing the flowers, changes the look. Changing the flowers changes the texture and often changing the flowers changes the ability to make an arrangement in a certain color theme.  If you could create a very artsy, unique looking arrangement by using common flowers instead of expensive rare ones, everyone would do it, right? Take the bouquet in the picture below. This bouquet is created with quite a few different flowers such as scabiosa pods, mini calla lilies, spray roses, tea roses, hypericum berries and seeded eucalyptus. If you wanted to make a lower cost version of this bouquet, you probably could change out some of the callas with carnations but the calla lily has a very unusual shape and nothing else, with a lower cost, real...

We love holidays here at the shop, not only because they can be a very busy time for us (which means business is good) but we love what our flowers "bring" to these special days. Even as florists we love having and sharing our floral designs with family over the holidays. Take my niece Mary Ann who absolutely adored this "bunny" floral arrangement. Not only did she carry it around but she was seen petting the "bunny" many times in the course of the Easter celebration. How gratifying it was for me to provide her with this first floral experience.  The holiday dinner table wouldn't be complete without a floral centerpiece and gauging by how many Easter centerpieces we sold this year, our customers felt that same way. Who says kids don't appreciate flowers? My nephew carefully staged this display which include not only the floral centerpiece but also his Transformer and his Enterprise model. :)    If you didn't have flowers on your din...

Once again we had a great time at the store in our Create Your Own Bulb Garden Class. First timers and veteran students both came together for a fun night out .  First timers Christine and Patty were raring to go and looking forward to a little time together!   Alanna did a great job once again teaching the ladies all her tips and tricks.  Each student had everything they need to make their glass bulb garden. If' you'd like to make a garden like this at home all you need is: 12" X 4" round cylinder glass vase 1 bag of river stones 3 cups of potting soil fresh or preserved moss faux butterflies or birds 8" green garden stakes 1 ~ 4" daffodil plant 1 ~ 4" crocus 1 ~ 4" tulip plant 1 ~ 4" mini iris plant 1 ~ 4" hyacinth plant    colored sand (optional)  Martha smiles in the back ground, looks like she is having fun!    Debby and Lynn across the way work hard on their creations.    Wow, I se...

Spring has finally arrived. Goodness, we never thought it would come but with it comes so many fun events for us to create centerpieces for. Don't you love these cube centerpieces of blue hydrangea, dahlias, berries and bells of Ireland? They just scream Spring to me!  These were for a baby shower.  Wow, cube arrangements still remain popular and these pretty in pink centerpieces include pink roses, gerbera daisies and lilies. They smell good too! These were for an Anniversary party.    Who says floral centerpieces have to be huge and expensive? These colorful little bubble bowls will look amazing on the tables and would be perfect in any setting for any kind of party .   These sweet centerpieces have hydrangeas, roses, bells with carnations and those bright colors are sure to light up the room.  Want to see more of our event floral centerpiece design? Check out our website at www.mondaymorningballoons.com  and don't forget, floral...

If you missed our floral design event in February, don’t worry!   We are having a second class in our Yardley PA location on April 11 th , from 6:00-8:00PM.   Join us for wine and snacks while you learn the basic principles of floral design.   With a great turnout for our Princeton floral design class, we are excited to host this event is Yardley also.   At our Princeton floral design event, all participants began the night with unarranged flowers...   Enjoy a night out, meet other locals, and learn how to create a beautiful floral arrangement.   Our designers will go over everything from balance and proportion to focal point and accent. And after a night with one of our designers, arrangements turned out beautifully! You can sign up for Yardley’s floral design event on our website or call the shop at 215-493-1400.   We have a quaint shop in Yardley so this is sure to be a relaxed, fun night out – but space is limited, so d...

This weeks " Principles of Floral Design " class was a huge success. 12 ladies joined us to learn about floral design and to made their own creations to bring home with them. Led by our Design Manager Holly and Assisted by Designer/Customer Care Coordinator Alanna, the ladies learned about Balance, Depth, Rhythm and Harmony. The class was a blend of Newbies to our classes and veterans who have been to 2 or more of our In Store Events . Doesn't it look like the ladies had fun?  Holly explains depth to the students.    Attendees had fun taking photos of their arrangements.    Attendees like Debbie and Lynn had fun taking pictures of themselves.    The students had fun looking at each others designs.    Attendee Laureen was taking pictures each step of the way to send to her husband.    Floral Design and Wine, what could be better? This class was only $55 and included food. Interesting in our future classes? B...

Hey, look what I learned at our Scarf Tying Class last month. Yup, I was one of those girls who only knew how to take a scarf and wrap it around my neck a few times. Ann Kosco, long time friend and customer here at MMF did a great job showing me and over 25 ladies (as they ate and drank wine, of course) the many ways to use a scarf to fancy up your look. And in case you did not know it, scarves are a fashion trend for all seasons.  Because our Scarf Tying class was such a success at our Princeton store, we are now planning one at our Yardley, PA store on March 14th. For only $20 per person you get wine, cheese and even your own scarf to take home. Once again, MMF friend Ann will teach us all the tricks we need to go from boring to fab when dressing with scarves. The event runs from 6 - 7:30 pm so it's a fun, after work event so invite your friends for a girls night out. Remember, scarves are not just for winter and Ann will show us many different unique ties for summer too...

Here at the shop we are in love with Baby's Breath and lucky for us, our wedding couples are loving it too. What was once considered old is new again and rightly so with all the new varieties available all year long. In this short video I talk about how this lovely "accent" flower can be used in many different types of wedding floral designs, especially for weddings.

It's hard to believe that we are half way through January so that puts us less than 3 weeks to Valentine's Day . Now don't start cringing and getting all stressed out. Let's face it, we have a nice selection of lovely floral gifts on our website right now and if you order prior to February 1st, you pay our regular price on roses instead of the holiday pricing. Here's a tip for you, order early and save money. One less thing for you to do later. Here are some Valentine's Day Gift Ordering Tips for You! Valentine's Day is on a Thursday this year which leads us to believe it's going to be a busy one for us florists. I'm not sure if I want to cry or laugh about that! The truth is that there are more people that want to send flowers than florists that can deliver them. Oh and heaven forbid you order from those companies that ship flowers in a box. Do you really want your sweetie to get their Valentine's Day roses from the FedEX man? I don...

Well, probably not much but that is not stopping us from combining them into one fun filled class in February. Join us on February 20th from 6:00 - 8:30 pm to enjoy both flowers and yummy cupcakes at our Princeton Forrestal Village location.  Join us for a fabulous in-store event featuring photos and sweets. Photographer Deirdre Ryan will be here to teach you how to take clear close-ups and great pictures in general. We will be hosting this event with Cheryl Ojeda - creator of Sweetly Spirited Cupcakes. Taste test her incredible (Alcohol infused) cupcake creations while you learn hot perfect your picture taking skills. Of course, light snacks and beverages will also be served. This event is only $25, so call 609-520-2005 to reserve your spot today.  You can also sign up for this Class  by going to our website . We'd love for you to join us! 

We are so happy to announce that we have now added to our website a category including all our Upcoming Classes and Demonstrations. Not only does it provide you with the information ~ date, time & cost of each class, you can now reserve your space and pay directly online.  Our next class is our Scarf tying class on January 16th from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. Wine, snacks and a scarf of your own are included in the $20 price.  On January 22 ~ Wedding Planner Jasmine Cianflone from This Moments Events will be discussing "Diy? Oh no you don't! 5 things you should NEVER DIY". At this discussion , enjoy light snacks and champagne while you have all you questions answered. Only $15 per person, so this is a great event to bring a friend or a bridesmaid to!     Be sure to check back to this new Category often to learn about all our hands on Floral Design Classes, Ladies Events and more!