It's been awhile....

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long since I've posted items on my Flowers by J blog! Let me fill you in on some things that have happened since the end of April. The first and most important thing that has happened is that my husband and I found out we are expecting our first baby!! My due date is December 27th. In addition to my big Mother's Day kickoff event, Joel and I also announced to our parents our baby news that weekend. Joel and I also have been very busy with a house addition project since the end of April. We added on a master bedroom, master bathroom and an office/laundry room to the back of our house. This project just recently was completed so it has taken up most of our free time over the past four months. On top of my business orders and the house addition project, I was very sick for about the first four months of my pregnancy. I was constantly nauseous and did not have very much energy but I am almost 25 weeks and the second trimester has been much nicer to me. I am feeling much better and feel like I can focus a little more on my business now that our house addition is completed. We still have quite a few things left to do in preparation for the baby but we are very excited for this next phase of our lives.

A few of the items I've completed over the past 4 months.....

Matching boutonnieres and wristlet corsages for a First Communion.

A fresh arrangement I did for my cousin Barbara for her college graduation.

A silk hanging basket that was going out to the cemetary for Memorial Day.

A fresh arrangement for a local funeral service.

I completed 21 of these centerpieces for an Ag Banquet for Security Savings Bank in Monmouth.

A fresh arrangment I did for a funeral. The center statue is the "Sisters" piece from Isabel Bloom.

My first wedding flower order!

Adam and Jonelle Schmalshof were married July 24, 2010. It was a pleasure for me to arrange their wedding flowers and decorate their cake. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding and reception held out in the country in a pasture on Adam's family farm.

Mr. & Mrs.

Adam and Jonelle with the bridesmaid's.

Jonelle with Adam and his groomsmen.

Adam with the bridesmaid's.

The Best Man's boutonniere and one of the bridesmaid's bouquets next to one of their programs - which were fans since it was an outside wedding. Very cool idea!

Full view of the decorated wedding cake.

The fresh arrangement of daisies for the cake topper.

The sheet cake decorated with daisies. It also tasted delicious!

Mother's Day Kickoff Event

My first event to introduce my new business venture to the community was a Mother's Day weekend kickoff event. I put together a wide variety of fresh arrangements, mixed annual planters, hanging baskets, corsages and handmade gift cards. I invited people to browse these items in an open house setting I held in my garage the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. I was so pleased with the turn out and the number of people who stopped by to purchase items or who pre-ordered items for delivery. Special thanks to my Mom, Liz and Amanda for helping me out on the morning of the event and to Joel for being my delivery guy.

Hand made gift cards - I love digital photography so I took a bunch of pictures, printed them out and placed them on card stock for people to purchase for gift cards.

Silk hanging baskets and pin on rose corsages.

Fresh arrangements ready for the customers to buy for Mom or Grandma!

Mixed annual planters and the beautiful hanging baskets ready to be purchased!

Orders ready to be delivered by my hubby or picked up by customers.

My wonderful Mom made homemade cinnamon rolls and coffee for the customers! I probably helped myself to one too many rolls but they were so yummy!

My workspace

I thought I would share some pictures of my workspace. Because our garage is the most logical place for me to design, this gave us a good excuse the clean out this area and paint the walls which we have wanted to do since we moved in three years ago. Our parents came over one night and we had a painting party! We also moved the large shelving unit we had in the garage out to our shed in the backyard. In addition to the work bench, I also have a shelf where I store all of my vases and containers. I am very excited to finally have a designated work place!

One more wedding book

Love the peonies!!

Another wedding book

This book had a lot of great ceremony and reception ideas in addition to gorgeous bridal bouquets. It shows real pictures of real weddings - sometimes the greatest inspiration for other couples.

Isn't this little flower girl precious!! I love the curls!






This daisy bucket is adorable! You could hang these on the pews at the church and then use them as centerpieces at the reception - double duty!

I love the lime green dresses combined with the hot pink tulips!

Wedding books

Hoping to get some orders for wedding flowers in the future, I ordered a few wedding flower view books to have on hand just in case a bride wasn't exactly sure what she would like for her wedding flowers. I ordered three books from Amazon and wanted to share some of these bouquet pictures because they are gorgeous! I felt very inspired after looking through these books so if anyone knows a bride who needs wedding flowers, send her my way!

Lessons learned & my first orders!

After publishing my first advertisements in the local newspaper, the town was officially aware of my new business adventure. The day after the ads went out, I received my first two orders for funeral sprays for a local service. I was slightly paniced when I first spoke with the customers because I did not have my account officially set up at the wholesaler I would be using to get my fresh flowers and supplies from. Once I got through to the right person at the wholesaler, I found out that they could not deliver product to my home. For some reason, I didn't even think about this issue when starting my new business. I've worked in the floral industry for 10 years and the wholesalers always delivered to the shops where I worked. Because I am starting my business from my home and don't have a store front, the told me they could not deliver product to me. I thought my dream was over! I spoke with one of my former bosses and she suggested asking them if I could pick up the products I needed. I called the wholesaler back and they would allow me to pick up what I needed to fill customer orders. Thank goodness! However, it makes sense that they wouldn't deliver fresh flowers to my home in the middle of the day. By the time I would get home from work and process the flowers, they might be dead! Once I faxed my final paperwork and I was approved to set up a new business account, I called and placed my first order with my wholesaler. I was so excited to pick up my first order of fresh flowers! Once I got them home, I let the flowers drink before putting together the funeral sprays. I also did not have my work space set up in the garage so I had to do all of that on this night too! Needless to say, my first night of completing orders was a long one! However, I was so excited to have orders that it didn't bother me to stay up late. My husband agreed to be my delivery boy and he took the sprays to the funeral home for me the next day.

My first advertisements were published in the Don's Market News - the local Alexis newspaper. I was very pleased with the way both ads turned out and hopefully this will generate some buiness for my kickoff event Mother's Day weekend. I've already had several people call to place other orders for fresh arrangments, corsages, funeral sprays and hanging baskets so I think the town is slowly learning about my business!

My business cards arrived!

I received my business cards in the mail this past week! I am very pleased with the way they turned out. Along with the box of business cards I also received a coupon to use on my next order so I went ahead and purchased two yard signs to put in my yard and at the 4-way stop at the corner. Just thought I would share what they look like!

Starting a Business

Wow! So far this process has been one of the most exciting, exhausting, nerve-wracking and fulfilling adventures I have ever been on! Owning a flower shop has been a dream of mine for close to 10 years but I have found myself getting caught up in the "business" side of it. When I started researching on how to start a floral business, I was quickly consumed with taxes, business permits, wholesale accounts, blah, blah, blah! :) I know the creative side of the business - types of flowers, how to design, proper care of fresh flowers and plants, etc. But I knew that if I was ever going to start and operate a successful business, I would need to know just as much about the business side of it. I took my time and made lots of lists and have gradually gotten to the point where I feel prepared to start this new adventure. I started this blog and set up my business Facebook page last night (April 12) and I already have received such a positive response from local friends and family! I get so excited when I get one more person to became a fan!! I thank you all for the encouraging words and for those of you who have already placed orders! I still have plenty of tasks to get crossed off my list so I better get back to work!

Following my Dream

I have decided to follow my dream and start up a floral design business from my home! My first college degree was in Horticulture and all throughout college and up until I got married, I worked in the floral industry in five different flower shops. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with flowers, learning the "tricks of the trade" from some great and talented designers and managers and especially loved the response from the customers when something I designed made a difference in someone's life. Flowers are present in many of life's most meaningful and memorable moments - weddings, funerals, birthdays, holidays, etc.

I work in Admissions at Carl Sandburg College. While I enjoy my job and find satisfaction in assisting students in their requests for higher education, I have a strong desire to use my hands to produce something beautiful. Having been away from the industry for three years, I miss flowers and miss the chance the create beautiful arrangements. As a side job, I am starting a small floral design business from my home. My hope is that people will seek me out to assist them in bringing beautiful flowers into their lives!