Friday, May 29, 2009

5/29/2009

I worked alone most of the day. Gaye wanted the day off so she got it. She did get a new dog yesterday so I think that might have been part of the reason. :) I did all the day file and the incoming orders. It was pretty fun just taking care of the stuff myself.
I got to finish cleaning the shelves that I had started yesterday and I dusted the front of the shop with Pledge! You gotta love it!
I got off for the afternoon because I needed it. I just wish that I didn't have to work tomorrow. But I do have Monday off. :) Which is super nice!
Another Be Happy mug...I'm getting good at these.

I did this dozen red roses with baby's breath in under 10 minutes. The guy was waiting so I did it as fast as I could. I just didn't think it would be that fast. I surprised myself.

Corsage and boutonniere for a 50th Anniversary party for the happy couple. :)

Thursday, May 28, 2009

5/27/2009





5/28/2009

While working at a floral shop you see really cute things like "Happy one month anniversary!" and people having babies! Those things just make you smile. Other times you see really sad things like people grieving over lost loved ones. Today we had a sad thing. This girl came in and said her parents were getting a divorce because her mom was having an affair with a guy in utah. Both her mom and the lover boy were leaving their spouses, kids and grandkids. They have only known each other for 3 weeks. The girl came in to get an arrangement for her dad to give to her mom as a "come back to me" bouquet. It was WAY sad!

I also saw a "Happy seven month anniversary" from a guy to his fiance. Cute.
We all worked on cleaning today at the shop. Bruce and Cathen worked in the garage/shed and cleaned it out and organized it. I started scrubbing the shelves and organizing vases. I really want to mop the floor sometime but I would have to do it way after closing time.
I worked alone and handled it pretty well, especially during our busy time from 4-5:30.
Jaime came in today and got hired so now I get to train her and have a buddy to work with. Not like I don't like my co-workers now, it will just be fun to have Jaime too!
Some of the things I did:
Tender Thoughts TeacupI got lilacs and peonies from the Kuhns and got to put them in a vase!! LOVE THEM!




Wednesday, May 27, 2009

This is the first dozen roses I have done since the one I did in Flower Center. I think it turned out well. I like the shape, not necessarily the colors and filler. These next two are part of a 10 set series of $25 each. Madison Middle School was having a retirement party and wanted to give all the ladies that were retiring a $25 arrangment. I tried really hard to make them all different and then they complained when they were different. I don't get people sometimes.

This is my first asian design that I've done for the shop. I really liked it. I'm starting to like orange and purple together more and more.
These two were for mothers who just had babies.

I am known as the wrap queen at the shop. I enjoy doing them because they are easy, fast and cute so I usually do all the wrap orders. Here are a few of my favorites.
A $70 arrangment I did for an anniversary gift.
More Be Happy mugs...They also usually give me the Teleflora orders because I do them the closest to what Teleflora says.

Balloon Bouquets

The cutest baby balloon ever!!! :) This is also a baby boy balloon. We usually use candy bars as weights.

The biggest single balloon bouquet I've done for a high school boy's birthday. Imagine how embarassed he was when he got this huge thing from his mom!! haha :D It has 18 balloons!
The famous Astro Blast balloon bouquet. It takes like 45 minutes to do!!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Memorial Day work

This was another great initiation into the Rexburg Floral shop. Mother's Day was hectic and so was Memorial Day. We had about 130 containers to do for grave sites. The most we had for one order was 11. A few others had about 6-8. I only did a few containers. Mostly I did day file and other orders. Bruce said that the first year that he worked with his dad at the shop for Memorial Day, they had 730 containers to do. We aren't open on Sunday's or on Memorial Day so he said that they had to work 24/6 that week. They just didn't go home. Sad! These first three were all for one order that I did.
Sweet Reminders This one was for a Celebration of Life get together in honor of a lady that died a few months ago. They said she was a gardener and loved it so I made it look gardeny. :)

I got so much better at tying bows. I do it both Bro. Romney's way and Bruce's way and Kristin Wheelwright's way.

Friday, May 15, 2009

5/15/2009 PAYDAY!!!

so today was payday and i got a raise, before my first pay check! it feels so nice! it feels good to have a nice check in my hand! i can't wait to deposit it and pay tithing for the first time in a long time.
i did a lot of balloons today. one bouquet had 17 latex balloons and 1 mylar. another had 4 latex, 1 mylar, another had 1 mylar...anyway...you get the point.
there was a little girls' dance recital tonight and we had a lot of wraps to do for parents to give to the children. it was cute and sweet to think that the little girls would get a flower or two.
funny story: so i took an order for a plant to be sent to a funeral. i got the lady's phone number and she had an account with us and it came up under her husband's name. p.s. she was older. i asked her who the service was for and she said "kathleen gold" at eckersells in rigby. i finished her order and got what she wanted on the card. all the names were like nicknames or something. gaye says that for funerals we always call and ask the funeral home when the service actually is. gaye called eckersells and asked when "kathleen gold"'s funeral was. and they didn't have anyone under that name. gaye called another funeral home and they didn't have her either. so gaye calls the lady back and says, "i just called eckersells and they don't have a kathleen gold. is there another place it might be at?" the lady was like "WHAT!?" gaye says, "eckersells doesn't have kathleen's body. we don't know where it is!" the lady goes, "I'M KATHLEEN GOLD!! I'M NOT DEAD!" kinda hysterically. gaye: "i'm glad you're not. i'm so sorry. i'm going to kill the girl that took your order though!" gaye got the real name and it was virgil rutledge. she didn't even say that name at all during our conversation! anyway...it was funny and embarassing and just crazy! haha
another embarassing thing happened at work today. i was blowing up all those balloons and one of them popped. and if you know me, i get scared so easily and i make a big scene by screaming and shaking my hands. and that's just what i did when it popped! i screamed and shook my hands back and forth fast in front of my face! hahah gaye thought i was a weirdo!
anyway...today was a good day.

Highlights from the week of May 11th

i learned how to make an astro blast balloon bouquet. it takes like 30-45 minutes to make.

i was delivering to madison jr. high, and i had never been there before so i didn't know where to park. i was going the wrong way in the parking lot. i find a place that i could get a ticket in if i wasn't fast. i go up the steps that looks like the way to the main office. and...the doors were locked. this was at like 10:30 in the morning. so school was in session. i was so confused. i grabbed them and started shaking them back and forth like a crazy person. if someone would've seen me, they probably would've thought i was a child killer or molester or something trying to break into the school. yikes. then a car pulled up and they were dropping off their kid after a dentist's appt. or something. so i just follow him because i knew he would have to check in at the front office which is where i needed to go. i follow him and find my way in. but it was just funny.

i was vacuuming the front of the shop and i hit a piller thing that had a ceramic pot on it and it fell over and broke and so did the pillar and the vacuum which was still running. gaye comes over and looks and just laughs and walks away. she thought the pot was ugly anyway. haha kinda embarassing.

when i can't hear the customers or understand what they are saying i say, "huh?" and gaye makes fun of me.

everyone at the shop has tv and they are addicted to it and talk about american idol, oprah and other shows. so i go online and look at highlights or articles about what happened in that episode so i can understand their conversations. i looked up who was kicked off american idol and now we are down to the top 2. i think they are both amazing. i want kris to win, but i think adam will. anyway...

gaye asked marianne where we get the paper mache containers and i could tell them it was western pulp. thank you advanced design journal!! :)

i made two happy birthday arrangments that look like cakes or presents. that was really fun. i really like trying to imitate the teleflora pictures. we should've practiced that more in flower center. actually making the arrangements not, just looking at them. also, practicing bows more would've helped since i have to make a bow for almost every arrangment. jared and michelle had their baby and i got to make a baby boy arrangment for them. it was so cute! it was all white with some blue in a light blue container. :D
that's all for now.

5/14/2009

yesterday was a good day. i did a little of everything. i delivered, made arrangments and cleaned and organized for memorial day. it seems like they are trusting me a little more each day and that feels nice. i've been left alone at the shop a couple of times and once for 2.5 hours all by myself.
so these ladies came in and they wanted to give their friend a nice gift. their friends had a still born a year ago and it would've been her 1st birthday so they wanted cute little things to put on her headstone for her birthday and they wanted it fast. they wanted one big one and two little ones. i was going to have bruce help me but he was bookkeeping and i decided to just do them and do them fast. the big one took me 10 minutes from when i started greening until i was done. the other two took 15-20 minutes each. after they were done, i added ribbon and stuff to make them cute and tie in to each other a little. they ended up so cute! i just loved them! it was sad to see them go when they came to pick them up. i remembered when bro. romney had said that doing funeral work or work for the dead was a very spiritual experience. he said that sometimes he prayed for the spirit to inspire him as to what they would enjoy and how it would best help the family. i said a little prayer and received help by being able to have them done within an hour. about 5 minutes after i finished they came in. and they were so happy and kept saying how cute and perfect they were. it made it all worth it. they were kinda picky and so i was worried they wouldn't like them but they were better than what they had asked for. on one of them they wanted a banner that read 'happy birthday' but i thought that would be weird and it would've costed them $10 more. i just used polka dot ribbon to make it look babyish and partyish. :) i wish i could upload those pictures but maybe i'll just have to post them on facebook since these pictures aren't working.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125803&id=193307924&l=6698bddca4
you can see the pictures here.
i organized all the paper mache for the gravesites for memorial day. it will be nuts next week.
i delivered 3 arrangments and it took me an hour because one of them was on the salem hwy and first of all, i didn't know where it was; second of all, it was in fremont county. then i had to come all the way back into rexburg and go to cougar court on trejo. and then back. anyway, i now know a lot more of the town! :D

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Boutonnieres

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Corsages

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The Mother of all Weeks!

so i got so busy during the week before mother's day that i didn't have time to post and i was so dog tired that i didn't want to. :) but it looks like all of my pictures are deleted and not uploading which is SUPER sad!
i'll make a smilebox of the corsages and boutonnieres i made for the 3 school dances we had that saturday before mother's day.
we had calls coming in almost constantly and people filing in especially on saturday, wondering if they could still get something sent. we closed, technically at 5:30 on saturday but i left at 6:30 and the sutherland's were there delivering until 8 pm. we usually close at 2 on normal weekends.
i got to meet jolene and ladon. they are two other ladies that help us during the busy times. they were nice and fun to be around. jolene just had back surgery so she couldn't bend down and twist. she answered phones and took orders for us and helped me make the dance flowers.
there isn't much else to say, but it was super busy and they say that Valentines Day is even worse! haha great...

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Prep for Mother's Day

for mother's day, we do the orders we need for the next day, the day before. so yesterday we did today's file of orders so we aren't totally swamped. then if people order last minute to go out today, we can do it while we try to complete the next day's orders. does that make since? anyway...i haven't done the day file yet. they are just having me do other things to keep everyone busy. we got in a lot of plants for the holiday and i had to bring them in and we got them watered and tagged with the correct pricing. then i took them out to our front and set them up around the shop. we got a lot in and i wasn't sure that they were all going to fit. I JUST REMEMBERED!! i set aside a little plant to take home. it's a dahlia that's pinkish purple! it's super cute! and i forgot about it. i'll pay for it and bring it home today.
other than those plants. i made corsages and boutonnieres the rest of the day. i forgot my camera too so i don't have pictures. but i'll take some today and post them when i get home. the bouts aren't as cute or impressive as the corsages but oh well. i guess they aren't really supposed to be! :)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Corsages and Processing



this is pretty much what i did on the 5th. we got a bunch of spray roses (these mini/baby roses) and a bunch of standard roses in for Mother's Day. we processed those and then i started working on corsages because we have 3 high school dances on saturday along with mother's day stuff. CRAZY! haha i think they are super cute. i'll have more pictures later.

What happened yesterday...

we got it so many flowers yesterday for mother's day its not even funny. pretty much all i did yesterday was process flowers. processing basically entails getting the flowers out of the fedex box and putting them on the table. then undoing the wrapping around each bunch. we fill up buckets full of water and hydrating solution. then we get to the hard part, cutting all the stems. we cut them between 1-2 inches from the bottom to make sure we get rid of the air pockets. and then take off all the leaves that would be underneath the water because the leaves mold really fast. we spray them with a special solution that reduces the transpiration out of the leaves and blooms; that way they last longer. each flower has its own processing technique but that is the general care and handling of flowers.
i made one arrangement of 3 roses to go out right before we closed. that's all the arranging i did today. and these are some new gerber daisies! i just love the color!!! :)
this is a nasty picture of what my nails looked like at the end of the day. SICK huh?! welcome to the glamourous life of a florist! haha