February 8, 2010
Maybe I’m crazy in love….it’s to be expected! It’s Valentines week, I’m a florist and I am in love!
I loved this Super bowl commercial by Google. There were quite a few good ones..but none touched me as much as this one. Enjoy spending time with the one you love! Congratulations to the Saints! Great football game.
February 1, 2010
So I’m not sure if you can see the orchid, but we had fun playing on a site that creates your own personal avatar, so we took a real picture of one of our dancing lady orchids and turned it into an avatar from Pandora. You can see the orchid across the nose and around his eyes if you look closely.( It’s the yellow/brown shape over the nose and above the eyes) .
For those who have seen the movie, you know where Pandora is, and what an avatar is. For those that haven’t seen the movie, I suggest going and seeing it. The computer photography is beautiful! I thought this orchid avatar was quite appropriate for the lush ecological paradise that they showed on the planet Pandora. A pretty fun movie, especially if you love plants like I do. I spent more time enjoying the visual feast of the forest than I did listening to the actual story. I did get a little tired of the war scene, kind of went on a little to long for my taste and I’m not a fan of 3D, but this type of 3D didn’t bother me and it was done quite well. I actually think it added quite a bit to the movie effect.
I also read about the linguist that created the Nav’i language for the film. He says he talks to himself in the Pandora language, & it’s pretty boring talking only to himself and he hopes the language will catch on with people here on earth. You can read the article below. Pretty interesting and entertaining to think about. Made me laugh
Then there is the story about the botanist that helped create the plants on Pandora, which would have been a fascinating and fun job! You can also read the story below:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/02/science/la-sci-avatar-q-and-a2-2010jan02
January 23, 2010
The Royal Horticulture Society has a world famous flower show in Chelsea. It is know for quality horticulture and it is an amazing display of imaginative and inspirational ideas. Full of color and creative designs. I’ve never been able to attend, but it is on my to do list. This years show is May 25-26 in Chelsea. You can read about it at the link below. If you are planning a trip to the UK, it would be worth making time for a visit. http://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/chelsea/index.asp
Here are a few examples off the creative design work you can see. I’m a big fan of the Kentucky Derby, and I always love the big hats, so I was really inspired by these floral creations. One of the hat designs even inspired the Queen, you can see it and read the story, there is a link at the bottom of this page. http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/chelsea_flower_show/article6327396.ece
January 19, 2010
So what is an Inspiration Board?
Well, it’s anything you want it to be, but technically it’s a creative photo collage that inspires you. It can help keep you focused and organized with your wedding or other creative projects. They can be done by themes or by color palette. I prefer color palette and I like to do flower inpiration boards to help my brides with the visualization process of flower choices. When you are making decisions it really helps to have a visual reminder of all your thoughts right in front of you. It can be created on a bulletin board, or foam core board, or you can make it on the computer in Picasa or Photoshop. Include color swatches, photos of dresses, tuxes, cake, jewelry, hair styles, flowers and decor ideas, even notes you’ve jotted down. It really helps to have it displayed all in one place, and you can change it all around as you finalize your plans. Not only is it fun, but it helps you stay focused and organized. There are many places to find inspiration boards if you need ideas or don’t want to make your own.
Here is a great site with tons of inspiration boards to browse while planning your wedding.
http://www.magnetstreet.com/store/page/market/517/mloc/inspiration-boards.html
Here’s a gal who loves to make inspiration boards, email her and she might even offer to make it for you. Check a few examples of her past work here. http://theblissfulbride.blogspot.com/2009/03/inspiration-board-free-for-all.html
Lot’s of inspiration here as well:
http://myecochicwedding.com/category/inspiration-boards/
Enjoy planning your wedding!
January 4, 2010
The wedding shows have begun and the season is winding up! I’m looking forward to the fun and creative planning with all the new brides. For the first time ever, I’ve decided to charge a fee to give a out written estimates. I’m trying to cut out all the work I put into them, only to have people use them for price shopping. The bottom line is that brides are on a budget, and I have to pay my bills…so this year I am trying something new. I’ll give out a ballpark estimate, but nothing in writing until you’ve decided to book with us. The Consultation fee will be applied as part of your deposit if you book the wedding with us. I think this will save me from the long additional hours I put in each evening typing up estimates and basically planning brides weddings for free. Hopefully this will cut down on the 3 hours a night I spend doing wedding estimates. I’ve decide that I want to spend my time doing what I love, which is flowers and design! I’ve also added a wedding planning guide to the website at http://www.brittanyflowers.com/weddingplanning.asp with estimated costs for wedding items. Hopefully this will help you estimate your costs.
Just to get you thinking about style and design, I thought I would post some photos from some of last years weddings. Thanks to Amber Roberts Photography, Erwin Wijanto Photography, Yvonne Wong Photography, Benny Photography, Steve Smith Photography, Humanature Photography, La Vie Photography & Red Fish Blue Fish. All wonderful photographers who have taken some amazing pictures for my brides. 
Happy Planning!
December 19, 2009
I wanted to take a few minutes away from the mad dash to Christmas and thank all of my loyal customers. Really without all of you, we wouldn’t be here. Dan & I spend every day all year long taking care of families and friends who need flowers in their lives. We are thankful for the blessing of those relationships.
I don’t know how we managed to get so lucky, but we are! Some of you might think you aren’t important because you only order flowers once a year, but it’s not true, we appreciate every order from every one of you. This year we have gained a lot of new customers, and I can’t tell you how important it is to us to maintain our business relationship and become your florist for life!
If you’ve dealt with us in the past, you know we are always available for you. If you are a new customer, here is a little story that show’s how much we value our customers..I remember one Christmas eve a few years ago, we decided to close early and go enjoy the Christmas festivities with our families. When we left we put our cell phone number on the answering machine, asking people to call if they had a flower emergency. We were only out of the store for about 10 minutes when a new customer called and said he had “a flower emergency”. We asked him what the emergency was, and his reply was, ” my wife is going to kill me if I don’t come home with flowers”. Of course, we went back to the store, ho ho ho, laughing all the way..and fixed him up with a beautiful bouquet. That’s how important you are to us!
Enjoy the holiday’s, hopefully you will be spending it with family and friends. We will be taking the week between Christmas and New Year off, but we will return ready to kick off the start to next years wedding season on January 4th.
Here is a little Christmas gift:
The highly anticipated poinsettia polar bears have been unveiled at The Palazzo in Las Vegas. The flower topiaries are made up of 8,000 ‘Polar Bear’ poinsettias, and the tallest stands 16 feet high. Very cool! Wish I could have been on that design event! The link below with show you the slide show of the floral event.
December 10, 2009
So I really have to be thankful and thank my lucky stars for Teleflora’s technology department! I’ve been a little busy this past week, having had to go back to the dark ages (as in what we did before computers)
My point of sale system had a meltdown this last week, and we have been living proof of just how it is possible to go back to pen and paper! Now I do have to admit that the first day was rather horrifying. Actually worse than you could even imagine! I think I’ve become lazy. I can type fast, but I found out this past week that I can’t write so fast and a paper system is really mind boggling. I can see why we gave it up! I’m surprised at how hard it was to have to hand write the orders and hand write the cards. I have to admit that it did get easier as the week went on, but I kept asking myself all week if I really liked going back to the old fashioned way of writing? It was a funny revelation because I am a bit old fashioned and I appreciate the past and all of the things it tends to offer. I love history, and I’m a bit of a genealogist, I love family traditions! So what’s up with my lack of being able to function without a computer…??? it made me feel just a little bit crazy. What has become of me?
As I thought about it and wondered why I am so lacking, I realized that my daughter has not ever been without a computer in her life because it’s her generation and she is good with computers. I thought I had accepted the fact that while computers are a different way of life for me, I’ve managed to do a pretty good job of learning the computer ropes. Although I can tell you that there is nothing like a massive extended computer malfunction to make you realize that you better not give up on your real talent, you know,the old fashioned talents like reading, writing and arithmetic. These are skills your are going to need now and in the future! Based upon my past week, you better keep those skills sharp since you do not know when the time is going to arise and you may have no choice but to rely on your old memory bank of skills dating back to the pre computer era 
( kind sound prehistoric doesn’t it?
Anyway, we are back online, database has been saved, and my poor tech guy can start breathing and stop sweating! Gotta love what those guys do for a living! HUGS & KISSES to them for saving me in my busiest month of the year, second to Valentines Day, which is the MOST stressful time of the year!
Time for me to take a break ( can I sleep in tomorrow) and take a breath of fresh air..and appreciate the talent that abounds! Nope, it’s December, and that’s not going to happen until December 25th! But oh boy am I thankful.
Also have to give a big HUG to all of my patient customers who are so used to my great service, who thought I may have lost my mind! Really it was just stress, it caused me to stop being able to function..thank you for your understanding and patience when I couldn’t remember your credit card number by heart..I love you all!
I’m so tired I may have to go back and rewrite this later when I’ve had a moment to recover from this weeks stress
November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
A Thanksgiving bounty! One of our centerpieces for the table.
Paradise found!
Another example of some or our not so traditional Thanksgiving flowers!
Enjoy the sunshine!
We like to spread a little sunshine around during the holidays, especially when we are in the middle of our long winter rainy season! You won’t find those dark brown mums in my store during the holidays, I think they are just too dreary! We need more sunshine here in the NW in the winter, although I did see my shadow today for a few minutes
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you get to spend it with your loved ones!
