Our family is gearing up for Al's Birthday this weekend. Al was a family friend who was very dear to our hearts and we suddenly lost him last year. This year, although Al cannot be with us physically, here in spirit we are hosting a formal outdoor dinner party! It will be a party to remember as I will doing a very grand floral table spread. I have always wanted an excuse to do one (and of course what a great way to convince my husband to spend all that money on flowers!). I haven't exactly figured out what the design scheme will be, however AL loved roses and lilies. These 2 flowers will be incorporated somehow. The party will be held this Saturday and I will post the awesome pictures shortly after. Wish me luck!
I believe it's important to teach our children about the natural world in which we live. Going back to our roots, I like to show my children about rain harvesting, composting, planting flowers/vegetable gardens and making floral bouquets. Our tulip garden is in full bloom and looks like candy from a candy store. The colours tulips bring into everyday life fills our lips with smiles and our hearts with delight. Hayden (my son) planted our tulip bulbs last fall using all organic matter and its wonderful to watch him pick bouquets for our flower cart permanently parked outside our front yard. Passer-byers pick a bunch and put money into Hayden's bucket. It's a joy for us not only to learn about the earth's splenders, but to take pleasure in knowing our home grown flowers are also bringing delight to all the Happy Valley locals. It's so important to come together as a community, sharing candy coloured flowers is such a lovely thought. I always think about my clientele and imagine the "receiver" of the bouquet, imagine their smile; brings joy into my life.
And then back to the real world as I watch Hayden take his plastic sword to my ranunculus' (oh my ranunculus', such a beautiful addition to my flower garden, my pride and joy), snip, slash....... I guess we can all guess what he had done to my ranunculus'..... 3 year olds!
I am blogging today about my journey into this flower business. It sort of landed right into my lap when life seemed a bit difficult and random, wondering what our next step was going to be. The economy crashed and having a husband running his own contracting business, things got a bit dicy! 2009 was a year of heartaches and miracles. We lost a very close family friend and employee, things just haven't been the same since, my husband's company had gotten to the point of 8 full time employees, but this slowly dwindled shortly after the crash. We moved into a sweet little country style home which was more in rent, not good in a time of wondering when the next big job was going to be!, but we fell in love with it and its been a place of love and new door openings! My second child was born last year, little Alivia, our little miracle. An eye opener, she told us life was going to get better! It has been hard to see my husband work 7 days a week and hard for my children, especially my son, Hayden, who just turned 3, a pure Daddy's boy!
I hadn't worked full time since my son was born, a few part time interior design jobs once in a while, but I was ready to jump back into the working field. Interior Design wasn't the place to be, no one was hiring, most had been closing their doors, so I turned back to my love of flowers and let them do the talking to me! I began supplying floral bouquets to farmer's markets, dug up the back yard to grow my very own organic cut flower garden, contacted a graphic designer to launch my custom floral site, researched, put on a Cancer Floral Show, expanded my basis, did some local networking and I continue to work hard to launch my little baby business into a furry!
It ain't easy, trying to raise 2 little rug rats, keep the house clean and run a small business, but with the right determination and the right skills (a little patience and a lot of hard work!), anything is possible! So here I am, first year in business and I must say, it has been going great. I have had great responses from people around Victoria and even floral designers from the States. People, and florists who have worked in the industry for 22 years have been floored by my designs and it gives me great pleasure and gives my strength to keep going, even if my children are being crazy today! OR the day just doesn't seem long enough to get everything done! I hope all of you will follow me on my journey, I will be blogging about all aspects of starting a business in a poor economy, young mother, and I hope this inspires you to jump into whatever it is in your life that makes sense, makes you happy!