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!