I have been all over the place today.
Lantern City
Wisteria Lane
Tuscany
The Jungle
Here are some pictures of different displays I designed and/or engineered in the store today.
8 Petal day
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Tuesday March 15th - Design Daisy
I have been all over the place today.
Lantern City
Wisteria Lane
Tuscany
The Jungle
Here are some pictures of different displays I designed and/or engineered in the store today.
8 Petal day
Monday March 14th - Dizzy Daisy
Are you one of those who holds your breath as you run past the Yankee Candle store in the mall in hopes of escaping the overwhelming odor?
I am.
But today, there was no evading the stentch... I priced perfumes and diffusers and candles ($82 candles) all day today. I smell like a big sack of potpourri, or like an exploded perfumerie.
6 Petal Day
I am.
But today, there was no evading the stentch... I priced perfumes and diffusers and candles ($82 candles) all day today. I smell like a big sack of potpourri, or like an exploded perfumerie.
6 Petal Day
Friday March 11th - Design Daisy
Another friday has rolled around, thus I am dressed in professional business attire and I am clicking around the storefront in 3 inch heels. Today I helped our stager, Barbara do some showroom set up, she has such an amazing eye for home decor placement.
Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock. ~Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers: A Discourse of Flowers
8 Petal Day
Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock. ~Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers: A Discourse of Flowers
8 Petal Day
Thursday March 10th - Driving Daisy
Rudy and I drove out to the middle of no where today, otherwise known as Thatcher Park in Altamont. We have a client who has a beautiful house situated at the highest peak of Thatcher, therefore this leads to some of the best views in Albany County. It made for a beautiful drive. We Installed some new spring arrangements at the house and hen returned to Experience, where upon Ron, Julius and I left for Saratoga Hall of Springs to change out winter and install spring. It becomes quite interesting when one is installing arrangements that are 12 feet high, in an alcove that is 6 feet above the floor, when one is only 5'2"... the pictures explain it all....
9 Petal Day
9 Petal Day
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| out with the old |
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| ron, growing dogwood trees |
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| in with the new |
Wednesday March 9th - Design Daisy
Steph and I tag teamed a whole slew of apple topiaries today!
I am reading a very good book right now...
Please check out "Flower Confidential" by Amy Stewart if you have any interest in Floriculture or the history of the floral industry, great read thus far and I am more than half way through.
6 Petal Day
I am reading a very good book right now...
Please check out "Flower Confidential" by Amy Stewart if you have any interest in Floriculture or the history of the floral industry, great read thus far and I am more than half way through.
6 Petal Day
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| apple batter up! |
Tuesday March 8th - Design Daisy
I chopped off the heads of several hydrangea and converted them into pretty and puffy door wreaths.
If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets
If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets
Saturday February 26th - Dialog Daisy
NEW YORK IN BLOOM!
talk talk talk, all day.
Monique and I had our spiels down pat by 10 AM and sounded like broken records until 4 PM. We were plugging for the store, our services and the spring open house.
We took time to look through all the displays and exhibits throughout the day and even checked out the jewelry and bead expo upstairs.
9 Petal Day
talk talk talk, all day.
Monique and I had our spiels down pat by 10 AM and sounded like broken records until 4 PM. We were plugging for the store, our services and the spring open house.
We took time to look through all the displays and exhibits throughout the day and even checked out the jewelry and bead expo upstairs.
9 Petal Day
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| view from 4th floor of the state museum |
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| view to the south |
Friday February 25th - Desk Daisy
Today is Dane's Birthday, Dane is David's grandson, and he is now 10 - the big double digits. He has come to spend the day with us at the store because it is winter vacation at school and his parents couldn't take the day off of work. So he has become mine and Steph's official box crusher as we defile stack after stack of cardboard boxes to get to their floral contents. Stomp Stomp Stomp! Suzy brought in a cake for lunch, with dark blue frosting that turned everyone's teeth the color of smurfs. Then it was up to the front counter for me, blue teeth and all!
7 Petal Day
7 Petal Day
Thursday February 24th - Design Daisy (with a migraine)
No day is left uneventful...
Where: NYS Museum in Albany
Who: Me, Bill, Ron, Rudy, Mary and Steph
Why: Set up for NY in Bloom
What: 12 foot table setting for a dinner party
Disaster: Glass and water EVERYWHERE
There were over 25 Carnation arrangements and 150 pieces of glass wear on this flimsy 12' table, and over 50 gallons of water in the vases and various containers, as well as over 200 votive and tealight candles.
One second all is well and the table is completed and looks beautiful.
The next, 20 pieces of glass are broken, and at least 25 gallons of water are streaming over the floor and throughout the Metropolitan exhibit....
MIGRAINE
So we start over again.
C'est la vie
5 Petal Day
Where: NYS Museum in Albany
Who: Me, Bill, Ron, Rudy, Mary and Steph
Why: Set up for NY in Bloom
What: 12 foot table setting for a dinner party
Disaster: Glass and water EVERYWHERE
There were over 25 Carnation arrangements and 150 pieces of glass wear on this flimsy 12' table, and over 50 gallons of water in the vases and various containers, as well as over 200 votive and tealight candles.
One second all is well and the table is completed and looks beautiful.
The next, 20 pieces of glass are broken, and at least 25 gallons of water are streaming over the floor and throughout the Metropolitan exhibit....
MIGRAINE
So we start over again.
C'est la vie
5 Petal Day
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| before |
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| almost done |
Wednesday February 23rd - Design Daisy
Orbs! Here an orb, there an orb, everywhere an orb!
Carnations orbs are one of the table top decor styles we do best, and it is a very hot trend in the industry right now. Carnations are an all season, affordable and easy flower to work with that come in many many mnay colors. These red orbs are for a mock dinner party table setting which will be our display at the New York in Bloom floral show at the NYS Museum in Albany this weekend.
Finally some fresh flowers! but hold the applause... What are the top two things that run through your mind when you think about buying a bouquet of flowers for dining room table?
Probably
1. They are so pretty!
2. They smell so good!
The second is what concerns me... many commercially grown flowers do not have a scent anymore. It is out of habit that a person picks up a bouquet or a single stem of flowers and shoves their nose deep within and takes a large inhale... bu there's no sweet smell. This is the result of genetically modified floral crops. I am not pro or anti this industry practice. But it is a tradeoff , you either get a flower that lasts for a couple days and fils your dwelling with a wonderfully intoxicating smell or you can have a flower that lasts two weeks with no scent.
What would you rather have?
8 Petal Day
Carnations orbs are one of the table top decor styles we do best, and it is a very hot trend in the industry right now. Carnations are an all season, affordable and easy flower to work with that come in many many mnay colors. These red orbs are for a mock dinner party table setting which will be our display at the New York in Bloom floral show at the NYS Museum in Albany this weekend.
Finally some fresh flowers! but hold the applause... What are the top two things that run through your mind when you think about buying a bouquet of flowers for dining room table?
Probably
1. They are so pretty!
2. They smell so good!
The second is what concerns me... many commercially grown flowers do not have a scent anymore. It is out of habit that a person picks up a bouquet or a single stem of flowers and shoves their nose deep within and takes a large inhale... bu there's no sweet smell. This is the result of genetically modified floral crops. I am not pro or anti this industry practice. But it is a tradeoff , you either get a flower that lasts for a couple days and fils your dwelling with a wonderfully intoxicating smell or you can have a flower that lasts two weeks with no scent.
What would you rather have?
8 Petal Day
Tuesday February 22nd - Desk Daisy
Short and sweet...
Organized the kit filing system
Organized the catalog and wholesale magazine shelves
Organized pallets of product that came in this morning
Organized tags in recieving
Hmmmmm, there seems to be a theme here...
Got so much organization done today so....
9 Petal Day
Organized the kit filing system
Organized the catalog and wholesale magazine shelves
Organized pallets of product that came in this morning
Organized tags in recieving
Hmmmmm, there seems to be a theme here...
Got so much organization done today so....
9 Petal Day
Monday February 21st - Design Daisy
There's nothing quite like working with faux botanicals... You can take a "geranium plant" and rip it from its fasteners in its shipping box, throw it to the ground and do the Cotton Eye Joe on it, then stab it into a pot of styrofoam, bend and yank it in every direction and then throw a 1000 degrees of heat on it... and have it look like a very real, very happy potted geranium in the end.
Helpful hint: a heat gun is not to be used as a blow drier, you don't know FRIED hair until a heat gun passes by your noggin... I never knew "Beautician" was part of the Floral Designer's requirements.
8 petal day
Helpful hint: a heat gun is not to be used as a blow drier, you don't know FRIED hair until a heat gun passes by your noggin... I never knew "Beautician" was part of the Floral Designer's requirements.
8 petal day
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| most important tools, wire cutters, floral knife, glue pot and heat gun |
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| start with a terra cotta pot stuffed with styrofoam and coated with sheet moss |
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| End with a fully grown and blooming geranium! |
Friday February 18th - Desk Daisy
Tis Friday - which means I am in the office all morning and then working the counter in the storefront all afternoon. Wanna know a little secret??? KITS ARE DONE!!! Which is actually no secret, beacuse as soon as I hit print on the last one this morning, the entire back of the store knew they were completed, for I let out an joyous whoop (and that's putting it modestly).
The store was quiet today and it is in quite a disarray. We tore down winter and Valentine's Day decor and are now rearranging, painting and reconstructiong the entire 8,000 sq. ft. retail showroom floor. Then we will decorate for spring and summer!
"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat." ~ Beverly Nichols
8 Petal Day
The store was quiet today and it is in quite a disarray. We tore down winter and Valentine's Day decor and are now rearranging, painting and reconstructiong the entire 8,000 sq. ft. retail showroom floor. Then we will decorate for spring and summer!
"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat." ~ Beverly Nichols
8 Petal Day
Thursday February 17th - Desk Daisy
More leasing kits! But good news, the pile is shrinking, considerably. Hopefully the end will be in sight soon.
On a less dismal note, I must introduce someone to you... His name is LEROY. And he is an amazing designer from Tennessee. He comes and stays with us for 3 weeks during the winter holidays and he is now with us for two weeks to get us geared up and stocked with beautiful spring and summer arrangements. He travels all over the world, designing and setting up retail show rooms. After his stint with us at Experience he off to China for a few months to teach floral designing. I look forward to seeing him back in October!
6 Petal Day
On a less dismal note, I must introduce someone to you... His name is LEROY. And he is an amazing designer from Tennessee. He comes and stays with us for 3 weeks during the winter holidays and he is now with us for two weeks to get us geared up and stocked with beautiful spring and summer arrangements. He travels all over the world, designing and setting up retail show rooms. After his stint with us at Experience he off to China for a few months to teach floral designing. I look forward to seeing him back in October!
6 Petal Day
Wednesday February 16th - Design Daisy
On the road again.... after a torturous hour long drive to work this morning, in my very bumpy Isuzu Rodeo Sport, down a very pot holy Union St., I got thrown in our large box truck and headed north to Saratoga, to Skidmore College. Our install and tear down team, me, Stephanie and Bill, Tore down Valentine's Day and installed Spring in the College bookstore. Then we drove south east to the Stockade Inn in Schenectady and installed some more spring arrangements. Despite the traffic issues on my way to work, I do love being out on the go with Bill and Stephanie and going to these offsite installs. We people watch while we work and jam out to Fly 92 while in the box truck...
So today was a 9 Petal Day.
So today was a 9 Petal Day.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Tuesday, Feb. 15th – Desk Daisy
Building and Breaking apart leasing kits is a lot like legos… only not nearly as colorful and sometimes not nearly as fun, but none the less, it has awakened the hardcore organizer in me (the down-right, certifiably insane, obsessively compulsive, Type A overachiever, perfectionist… yeah, that one). This is the type of job that is liable to give me gray hair, stomach ulcers and an abundance of wrinkle. With a company the size of Experience and with the way it spans so many services, it is easy to fall behind in the conundrum of nit picky, tedious computer work. Especially when the employees who head up the task always seem to change each year. Well folks, I’m here to stay (in this exact chair) until these leasing kits are picked through, revised and edited, organized and filed, and COMPLETED! And then I will hopefully still be haunting this place to make sure that all goes smoothly and all is properly enforced when the kits are pulled from the shelf and installed come the holiday season. Just call me “The Kit Queen”!
6 petal day
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| Where the magic happens... like my green wall? The other walls in the office are brown, pink, and purple, haha |
Monday, Feb. 14th – Desk Daisy
IT’S DOOMS DAY in the floral industry… and instead of being exhausted from 36 to 48 hours of straight Valentine’s Day Prep…. I am sitting pretty behind a desk working on the company’s holiday décor leasing accounts. Muwahaha! Experience is not a traditional retail florist… meaning we do not have fresh flowers stocked in our cooler and we do not participate in FTD, Pro Flowers, or Teleflora, or anything of the sort. You cannot walk in off Union St and purchase fresh flowers or call in for an order. We only do fresh flowers for events, parties and weddings. So no V Day rush here, thank goodness.
7 Petal day
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