Sending Smiles ~

Do you know that Stock is the name of an amazing flower? If you have read my blogs in the past, you may have seen it mentioned a time or two.  We use it all the time in our daily designs as well as our event and wedding work. Today we had the pleasure of being shown around Ocean View Farms in Lompac, Ca.  by Dan Vordale, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Dan was kind of enough to take time out of his day to show us around the farms!  I wanted to share some photos of the stock fields. Because I'm on vacation (I'm told I should do something other than talk or write about flowers) I'll be sure to  write a  more complete blog of what Kevin and I saw and learned at this amazing California Flower Farm but for now, I'll show you the Stock Farms!! What an amazing sight to see, rows and rows of this fragrant flower blowing in the breeze! Dan told us that although white is the best seller, all shades of purple are next in demand.  Dan explains to Kevin how the s

Can you believe it's mid August and Baseball season ends in a month or so? Where did the summer go. We love creating flowers for the home games like this one. This photo was snapped by a friend and customer of Monday Morning Flowers and put on our Facebook page! How cute! Don't you just love the colors? We create three arrangement for each home game for placement in the ladies room - sorry guys, no flowers for you! The Thunder puts a sign up with our name and you'd probably be surprised how many people mention seeing these flowers.  If you have never been out the Thunder Ballpark you must take the time to catch game if you are in the area. A great place for family - good food and entertainment for folks of all ages. With a little luck The Thunder will make it into the playoffs and we'll be delivering a few extra of these butties!! 

 I loved these centerpieces we created  for this past weekends wedding for Kathleen and Scott. Their wedding reception was held at the Nassau Inn in downtown Princeton and this footed mahogany bowl is the perfect container for these soft, pastel blooms. The pop of rich brown looked amazing in their Palmer room with all the warm wood tones in the room.  A sweet mixture of peach Donna Roses, yellow craspedia balls, white daisies and pale pink mini gerbers arranged with elegant ruscus foliage and lime green buplurium fillers. The perfect height and width to fill up the center of the table without blocking the view across. These would also be pretty for an anniversary party, baby shower or a Sweet 16, don't you think? 

Couples like Rachel and Dion are the type of bride and groom that make what I do a real joy. Not only was it a delight to work with Rachel and her mother but I loved everything they chose! Take Rachel's bouquet for example: Orange roses, peach spray roses, cream ranunculus and dahlias, peach stock, mini calla lilies and touches of peach berries - oh the lovely colors and textures! She loved her bouquet and we could not have been happier!   Their wedding reception took place at the Princeton Marriott and had  vintage book theme. I loved the old card catalog that Rachel found at a Library. She used it for the escort cards - how cute!! Some touches of ivy, their engagement photo and an orange and peach floral arrangement made for a sweet display.  For their tables we created 3 different styles of centerpieces. This style had three different sizes of candle holders, each with an amber underwater light and a floating candle. Touches of petals and ivy trails and a books her

Last night we held our very first Terrarium making class and what a fun time we all had. About 12 folks got together for wine, cheese and a lesson in how to make their own terrariums. Led by shop staff Alanna and Sheryl, each person was able to choose their own plants, sand, gravel, moss and even butterflies and birds. I must say, there just might be some future floral designers among our students!  Everyone proudly displayed their works of living art at the end in a group shot and it was fun to see all their bright smiles. We'll be doing more classes in the fall - another Terrarium class on 9/12, a wreath making class on 10/3 and look for a Boxwood tree class in late November!  Thanks to the dynamic duo of Alanna and Sheryl for all their hard work for organizing, hosting and teaching the class. 6 out of 12 people at this class were happy enough with their experience to sign up for our Wreath making class and we can't wait to get started organizing that!  We were ev

I live and breath flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers - it's what I think about all the time. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, if there are flowers there, I notice them. So obviously, I've learned a thing or two and these are the Top 3 Things I've learned About Selling Flowers!  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Flowers are like food. Some people love Escargot and will pay any price for them while others think of them as no better than a slug found in their garden.  Flowers are the same way - some folks will see the rare and unusual as something worthy of a high price tag, while others just don't see that appeal. Take the arrangement above for example: The roses are pretty common and affordable but the Dutch  Asclepias , the star shaped orange flowers are  much more unusual and rare, thus costing more. If you like them, you might pay for them, if you don't, you won't. It's as simple as that.  Sending flowers only to say you are sor

Every now and then we get a customer call us who is throwing themselves are party and here's one that we just loved! After realizing that no one was giving her a retirement party, she decided to give herself one. A lover of all things pink, I'm pretty sure she got a kick out of these centerpieces we created for her. An assortment of flowers in shades of pink such as spray roses, gerbera daisies, hydrangeas, tea roses and mini calla lilies all arranged in these pretty silver containers, they looked amazing on the tables. The moral of the story is: don't wait for someone to throw you a party when you do something wonderful, throw yourself one and don't forget the flowers!