Goegeous Flower Gardens

Last week was H's birthday ... so we had a relaxed school day in the morning, then headed off to a great state park that is right on the ocean. We brought our bikes and went for a great bike ride, then walked around the gorgeous flower gardens for quite awhile. The flowers were amazing and the gardens are all around this large old house where they often have weddings. The whole setting was just beautiful.


Here she is ... Hard to believe how fast the time has flown by! One we call "brain flower" at work!
Some form of daisy ... I think!
Sunflower
Dahlia
Straw Flower
Snapdragon

Wedding Flowers

Last weekend I got to help arrange the flowers for a wedding at work. I loved the simple blue and white theme with lots of hydrangeas and callas. Everything looked just gorgeous! These are just a couple photos of what we did. The centerpieces were the blue hydrangea, we sprayed glue on them and sprinkled them with glitter - they looked SO pretty!

Fresh from my garden

I admit it. I'm not much of a gardener. I rarely make the time to tend to the flowers that I plant and many times things die out before the summer is over. So this summer I planted some bulbs thinking they would be easy to grow. They were.

I planted gladiolis and dahlias. Here is a vase of the prettiest blooms I got. The picture doesn't do them justice ... the colors were so beautiful and vibrant!

My Special Mom

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. It's always been so fun to have our birthdays so close. (Hers yesterday, mine today.) My mom is one of my best friends and such a special person. She has a wonderful heart and has always been such a great example to me. I remember a couple of years ago when I taught Sunday school we did this little activity where we wrote down the best thing about our Mom. I wrote: The best thing about my Mom is that she loves God. I know there are so many other wonderful things about her, but I believe most of what makes her wonderful, and the person she is, is because she loves God, and seeks to follow Him.

The girls and I went over to her house for dinner and dessert last night. I wanted to bring Mom flowers but while I was at work on Monday got an even better idea ... we have these flower cakes that we make completely out of fresh flowers. They are so pretty they look good enough to eat - which of course you can't do because they are flowers!

Here are some pictures from last night:
J with her chocolate face helping blow out the candles!

Me and My Mom, we have a very special bond and a wonderful friendship. I'm so thankful for her!
Yes we look a little ragged, the girls and I were in the pool all day and didn't really spruce up before pictures!
Grandma's girls ...

I LOVE YOU MOM!!!

Busy but fun.

Last week I worked a lot of hours. Sometimes it's hard because I have to balance work with my family life. Thankfully most of the days/times that I worked the girls were able to be home with Bob, or with my MIL, or with my friend and her kids. It makes me feel better about working when I know the girls are in good hands, and are having a great time too.

I have a fun job. Busy, but fun. We were super busy last week preparing for Mother's day and did hundreds of flower arrangements. I love that it's a rewarding job because you know that some special Mom will be thrilled when the flowers arrive at her door.

Here are just a few of the arrangements I did. The first one is a fun Margarita one.

Don't forget!

Sunday is Mother's Day! Don't forget to do something special for your Moms! =)

A busy week

Valentines week proved to be one of my busiest weeks since leaving the full time work force 6 & 1/2 years ago. When you work at a flower shop, Valentines is your biggest time of year. I ended up doing about 40 hours in 4 days, and that was continuous working on my feet, rarely getting a moment to sit. But it was fun and fast paced and I learned so much and actually got pretty good at making really beautiful arrangements in a very short amount of time.

We were busy all week, but on Thursday alone we made 164 arrangements ... and that's pretty good for such a small flower shop with only 3 people doing the flowers and 2 people handling the phone and walk-ins. My kids were shuffled all around with Daddy and my MIL stepping in to help most of the time. I truly appreciated them helping so much so the kids had a good week too, even with Mommy gone so many hours.

I didn't have much time to take pictures, but did manage to snap a few, so here they are:
The cooler was FILLED with tons of finished arrangements:
LOTS of people order a dozen red roses ...
We had roses in a lot of beautiful colors ...
A basket arrangement that I made:
"Jewel of my heart" arrangement ... the vase was a beautiful purple color ...

Thankful Thursday

So I'm going to steal some ideas I've seen out there in bloggy world ... one of which is Thankful Thursdays ... because don't we all need to find reasons to be thankful more in our lives?

Today I am thankful for my job. I work part time at a flower shop that my friend owns. Last year I went to floral training school to learn some tricks of the trade and recently have had more chances to try them out and put together some really fun arrangements.

My job is fun, it allows me a little time to myself out of the house, it generates a little extra change for the family, and most of all it allows me to use my creative mind. I was talking to my co-worker and my boss today and saying that I love being a Mommy and a homeschool Mom ... but if it weren't for those things, I would love to be doing my job full time. I kind of wish I had discovered this fun and creative career way back when before I had kids and was working full time.

But for now, my choice in life is to be with my family (almost) full time and to just do this job part time. And it works really well right now .... of course, if you talk to me next week while we are in the midst of the Valentine's Day rush I may say otherwise!!

Anyway, on Thankful Thursday I wanted to say thank you Lord for my job. Thank you for wonderful bosses who understand my obligation to my family, thank you for great co-workers and a short commute. Thank you that it's fun and exciting and I truly enjoy it.

And here is an arrangement I did just the other day ...
And a closer look ...