Sending Smiles ~

Well at our little flower shop here in Princeton NJ anything is possible, including letting you be a floral designer. Have you heard about our new DIY (Do It Yourself) Design Bench? You pick the flowers, we provide you with the place to work, the containers, the greenery and foliage, the tools and even a bit of instruction if you  would like. Why you ask? Because folks like creating their own designs for themselves or even to give as gifts. What's better than giving a gift you made yourself, right?  We just give you an easy way to do it. Not only do is put you in the thick of it, you get to watch the action of our floral product room as it happens around you. Why not get creative and join us for a little DIY Action! Available at our Princeton New Jersey flower shop only located in the Princeton Forrestal Village just behind the Westin hotel. If you have never visited our lovely floral shop, this might just be the excuse you need to stop in! 

A bit tongue in cheek but truly, if you want to get on the wrong side of your local florist; these will do it! Are your flowers fresh? Believe it or not, most retail florists get fresh flowers into their shops (like we do) at least 4 to 5 days a week. Yes, our flowers are fresh. Do you sell flowers? We get this all the time. Our signage says we are a florist, we have the word Flower in our company name and folks still walk past our 9'X12' refrigerator and past many buckets of fresh flowers and ask this question. That's like asking a restaurant if they sell food. The answer is YES! That's what we do!   Can you make me a pretty arrangement? No, we specialize in ugly arrangements!! Just kidding but we think all flowers are pretty, a better description of what you might want the flowers to look like is better than asking this question. What is ugly to you might be stunning to another person; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Being a bit clear about your expectat...

We think we have the most creative designers and we think you'll agree. Enter our contest to pick a new arrangement for our website. Just for voting you'll be entered to win free flowers. Voting is super easy. Just leave a comment with an arrangement number on this blog post of visit either of our facebook pages at www.facebook.com/localflorist or www.facebook.com/sendingsmiles to vote! 

Over the last few weeks, we've been getting in a lot of luscious and aromatic Mountain Mint.  As I was putting together some wildflower inspired pieces for a shower this past week I got to wondering about this flowering plants possible medicinal uses aside from its obvious aesthetic uses. Love the look of Mountain Mint and smells amazing too; such a fun design element!  Mountain-mint is edible and medicinal, raw or cooked the flower buds and leaves are edible and have a hot, spicy, mint-like flavor that makes a great spice or seasoning for meat. The fresh or dried leaves are brewed into a refreshing mint-like medicinal herb tea that is alternative (for that run down feeling), analgesic, antiseptic, diaphragmatic, and tonic. The medicinal tea is used in alternative medicine in the treatment of menstrual disorders, indigestion, mouth sores and gum disease, colic, coughs, colds, chills and fevers.     A strong decoction is medicinal if poured over festeri...

It's amazing what you can do with 12 carnations and a little bit of creativity. Our Floral Designer Rocio loves making puppy arrangements so here she shares her tips with you! Here's what you will need ~ 12 full size carnations, floral glue, floral tape, a floral container, 1/3 of a block of floral foam and some assorted greenery.  First take your wet floral foam and tape it securely into your floral container.  Slowly start adding the 12 carnations starting with the top to form the head, the ears, the face and the 2 front legs.   Keep going, adding carnations but only using 12 total!  Now he has his 2 front legs, sitting over the edge of the container.  Using the floral glue, add the eyes and the nose. Be creative here. We use eyes and noses for the floral industry but you can use felt, screws or even a pip cleaner to form these facial features.   Next, start filling in with assorted greenery and mosses. This will become his little b...

This design might not be for everyone but our designers spent some time being creative and having fun. Bird of paradise, tulips, lucky bamboo and horse tail combine to make for one fun and funky floral design! What do you think? Would you want someone to send this to you?

We would be less than truthful if we said that the last 2 years or so have not been a hard time for our company. The recession took it's toll and with other flower shops closing around us, we are grateful to not only be surviving but thriving. This week we brought together almost our whole team (driver Joe and sales associate Kristine we unable to attend) for a business celebration event! We had a great time and thank you to Salt Creek Grille here in the Princeton Forretal Village for doing a fantastic hosting our meeting!  It's always fun getting a group shot as we are rarely in the same place at the same time! Mom and Dad Vinicombe even made an appearance (Arlene works in our office part time assisting Kevin) and they even brought the grandkids - our niece and nephew Mary Ann and Markie!    Shop Coordinator Sheryl, Driver Jeff, Sales Associate Melissa and holiday driver Kyle pose for me!  Driver Allan, who has been with our company for ...

Ah, the fragrance and beauty of stock. Never heard of the flower? Such a strange name for a gorgeous bloom, right?  I must confess, that not everyone "gets" this flower and those not familiar with it's ruffled flowers often complain thinking that there is not the way it should look, but alas it is! That being said, it's still one of my favorite flowers of all time (next to roses, of course) not only because of those crinkled flowers all in a row but also because of their amazing fragrance.  Their long graceful line comes in so handy when creating floral designs and the colors of white, cream, lavenders into rich purples and Burgundy's also make for pretty arrangements mixed with other flowers or used just by themselves. Most of the stock we sell here in the shop is grown right in the U. S. of A, in California to be exact. I love that it's homegrown, right out in gorgeous fields. Can you imagine what it must ...

Susan's Bouquet , originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers . Yesterday I had a potential bride call me and ask why bride's let the stems show on their hand tied bridal bouquets. I have to say, I did not know how to answer at first. I understood what she meant, she wondered why they choose not to have them covered by ribbon but I think this bouquet really tells the story of why you might want to let the stems show. How pretty these delicate stems of mini callas are! To cover them completely in ribbon would take away part of the beauty and simplicity of the flowers. As I'm fond of saying - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and to each their own. Personally, I love when the stems show. What do you think?

Having fun with flowers! That's what our flower design classes are all about. Shop Coordinator Sheryl loves going out to different organizations and teaching floral design to children and adults alike and it's truly is gratifying to see how peoples moods changes once they get their hands on those pretty blooms. The photo at left was from a recent class held at the Lawrenceville Community Center and judging by the pictures everyone really had fun! "It's amazing to see how being around flowers has the power to make people happy" says Sheryl. "It just proves to me how powerful our product is". That's why as often as we can, we like to go into the community with our flowers and teach people how to arrange them. We love making people feel that flowers are worth having in their life. We especially love doing Brownie and Girl Scout troops because teach them to love flowers while they are young, and they are flower lovers for life. Flowers are very power...

I guess most people would think that all the flowers for a wedding come in on Friday and get delivered on Saturday. There could be nothing further from the truth. Luckily for us, flowers take time to hydrate and open but also the process of designing is a much longer and labor intense one than most people would realize. The flowers above have just arrived for our bride Erin, who gets married this Saturday. Stock, delphinium, roses, hypericum berries and hydrangea will all be masterfully arranged into her bouquets and centerpieces! A team effort is definitely necessary and most weddings take about 2 or 3 days to create from start to finish! With three or four weddings each weekend, it's necessary to plan our time efficiently! Designer Rocio is doing the next step to the centerpieces which is adding the lovely assortment of greens such as seeded euc, geranium, ruscus and mint. These centerpieces are already gorgeous before even on single flower gets added! Working in assembly line ...

As I sit here at my desk at just before 6 pm, waiting for my husband and driver to return from setting up a large floral event at the Hyatt in Princeton, I'm reading an online article from the Society of American Florist in their E-Brief. I love these e-mails that arrive every Wednesday with bits of new of the floral industry. The article I just read prompted me to think about what, if anything, sets a local florist apart from the local Supermarket. Aside from the fact that we usually offer delivery, which most markets don't, along with a wider range of "arranged" flower selections, we sometimes sell the exact same flower. People may ask why the flowers from the florist cost more than the Supermarket, and the truth is that it's about buying power, gross margins and acceptable spoilage. A local florist will buy far less than a Supermarket, thereby paying a higher price. They don't have the volume to make up for low margins. The Supermarket can also afford to ...