Sending Smiles ~

Ok, it's a "had to share" moment. I love, love, love this bouquet that we have created for our bride Katie who is getting tomorrow! All white mini callas accented between with simple, cool white feathers. How sophisticated and striking with a slightly "Art Deco" feel. I'm truly loving it! I can imagine the guests faces when they see her enter the gardens at Prospect House on the campus of Princeton University. As she passes, they will be dazzled with a view her feathered headpiece. To be clear this is not for the our bride Katie getting married on Sunday! I'm giggling as I write this because I can picture Katie number 2's face drop if she reads this and thinks "where is my bouquet of creams and pinks of roses and orchids"! Ah, I love the summer wedding season.....

Wow, it's almost August and the tropical flowers are in demand. Orchids, Ginger, Bird of Paradise and even these huge Heliconia flowers are in the shop this week. Yup, that's me in this funny self portrait trying to show you how big this flower is. It's only fitting when the weather gets hot that we think about palm trees and island florals, right? Heliconia, how cool are they? Heliconia is named after Mount Helicon, the seat of the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts and sciences in Greek mythology. Heliconia, also popularly known as lobster-claw, wild plantain or false bird-of-paradise, is a beautiful flower with multi-color bracts and varied flower structure.They have bracts are so large and colorful that they almost hide the flowers altogether. This keeps the flower's sweet nectar from other birds so that only specialized birds can get to it. Heliconia grow from 3 to 30 feet! Next time you are looking for a single bloom or two for a special vase, why not consi...

It's amazing how often we use wheat grass at the shop both in party work and just daily floral arranging. What a fun, happy and fresh product. Imagine my surprise when I did a bit of on-line research to learn more about it and found out that it's been cultivated for over 5,000 years and has been prized for it's nutritional properites. I had no idea! At the shop we often use wheat grass as place card table decor, like in this picture. For this event, wine corks were used to hold the escort cards and also helped convey the wine theme from the moment guests arrive! We usually take it right out of it's growing tray and put right on the table. Seeing the roots and mini seeds at the base are part of it's charm! It's also fun to use in glass vases lined with moss with a flower or two added and you have a quick, inexpensive centerpiece. If you are looking for something fun and natural to decorate your next party, think wheat grass!!

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 ...

Anyone that has read my blogs knows that I'm pretty passionate about flowers, not just because it's my business but because they hold so many sentimental attachments for me. It's as much about the fragrance and the feelings they evoke as it is the actual flower and form they take. As a child I received flowers, a tiny nosegay held together with ribbons and bows, fresh from the florist on my birthday each year. To this day, when I smell carnations, I get a warm feeling inside because it reminds me of my childhood. My own bridal bouquet was created with lots and lots of mini white stephanotis flowers. For those of you without "smellavision" they smell like sweet minty jasmine and even now when we use them, they remind me of my wedding day 25 years ago. The bouquet pictured here was created for our bride Shannon. Garden roses, peony and ranuculus in shades of creams, pinks and reds - so pretty. As you can see from this photo, Shannon loved her bridal flowers enoug...

Once I get a bee in my bonnet (ok, I totally dated myself with that one) I'm hard to stop! I wanted our website to be easier for our mobile customers to use and by golly (there I go again) I've done it! It can't be said that we here at Monday Morning Flowers are not forward thinking and progressive. We just launched our mobile website and the buzz so far is that customers are really liking it. The neat (does that qualify as an "old" word) thing is that it actually works off our main website and will recognize if you are on a mobile unit. It automatically switches to an easier version to use which helps speed along your browsing and buying. Gee whiz, (sorry, I could not resist) you really can teach an old dog new tricks. Check out our new mobile site and let us know what you think. Now, my day would have been complete if I could have figured out how to include "upsy daisy" in this blog. Well, a girl can't always be forward thinking and clever at t...

I had to share this photo of my adorable niece Mary Ann who received this big bouquet of balloons this week for her 1st birthday. How cute is she!? Balloon bouquets are one of the product lines we offer. It's not until you become a delivery person responsible for ringing the door bell that you can appreciate how much fun they are to receive. Add a stuffed animal or a box of chocolates and we guarantee you'll be a hero!! To see more of our balloon selection visit our website at www.sendingsmiles.com