New beginnings

Well I'm officially embarrassed that it took me over THREE months to post again but life has been extra crazy because my husband and I found out...WE'RE PREGNANT!!!

 We were both extremely surprised and honestly a bit freaked out.  We had just gotten off the pill and were trying natural family planning, ha well that didn't work how we thought.  I had been upping my mileage and running a lot so thought my body was just telling me to slow down, well in fact it was saying hey you're pregnant FYI!!!!

  We have always wanted to start a family, but were planning on doing it after Matt was done with his residency and we weren't in NY anymore and closer to family.  Oh well, as the saying goes Men plan and God laughs.  Now we are over the moon, a bit over 4 months pregnant and in a couple of weeks get to find out if baby B is a boy or girl.  It's a crazy amazing time in our lives and feel so blessed by it.

New Designs!!!

This summer has brought lots of changes once again.  We moved across New York to Rochester, have had new experiences here, Matt started his E.D. residency and I've started and quit a job only to find another job that also gives me freedom to do designs when I want.  I love designing and here are a couple I've done for people and events in their lives.

In the eye of the beholder

Well I did it, I got a job as a floral designer in a shop....and then I quit it!!!!  Life sure throws you some curve balls and this was definitely one for me.  I got this job at a local greenhouse that had a floral shop within it.  The environment seemed perfect and started out okay with all the positive feelings of orienting to a new job.  Then the trial period of the job began and I was still enjoying it.  I was getting to design tons of different pieces and help customers which I love.  Compliments were given and I thought so far so good.

Then it was day two, three, four, and so on and well it wasn't the job that I pictured anymore.  I was being berated, told to turn orders away or just flat out lie to customers, and asked to do designs that were nothing like the customer had ordered which made me very uncomfortable to associate my name with.  I hate not doing work that a customer wants or substituting to the extent that a design looks nothing like what is wanted.  When I brought this up I was ignored and pretty much told to do it this way.  I wasn't being listened to or given any sense of direction of what the floral shops mission was.  I came home crying or mad every day and it hadn't even been a week yet.  We were still in the trial period of the job and they had already offered me a job to stay on, but I didn't feel like this was the right fit for me anymore.  I asked for a meeting with the manager and had one, it just made it even more clear to me that this job was not for me if I wanted to fill fulfilled by what I was doing as a designer.  So I thanked them for the opportunity and quit.

Sometimes you have to decide if something is really worth it and in this case being a designer in a negative environment was not for me.  I love designing and being in a floral shop setting with people who are just as passionate about the job as well as working with customers to make them their dream designs.  In this case I just wasn't willing to sacrifice my beliefs in how to be a great floral designer for the sake of making an extra dollar.  I've worked in great floral shops and now have had a negative shop experience which I have already learned a lot from.  I still am doing independent designs and orders, but will be on the lookout for a job in a new, better floral shop.

Wanted: Floral Design Job in Rochester

Wow, I've done terrible lately with my blog.  It's been a chaotic couple of months so I'm going to blame that and also myself for not making this more of a priority.  Well Matt and I are all moved from Long Island to Rochester, NY and so far so good.  Matt loves his job and I'm searching for the perfect job for myself.  While I got to do many independent projects last year, I'm kind of ready to get back into the floral shop environment.  i love working with others who have the same passion as me and new designs daily.  I used to work in an awesome floral shop where the lead designers took time to really teach me basics and then more techniques to enhance my work.  I miss those ladies and having flowers at my fingertips everyday.  

Time to process lots of flowers at the shop.

In my floral classes I loved that we did sales every week and holiday events such as Thanksgiving.  It's easy to take pride in your work when you see how excited people get when the pick up their order.

One of my table designs for Thanksgiving with mums, statice, solidago, leatherleaf, and asiatic lillies.

Cascading bridal bouquet with a traditional feel.  One of the best parts about being in floral classes was being right by the garden and greenhouse where we could just walk in and use flowers or greenery of different textures.

Spring is in the Air

 As I've mentioned before Matt and I are moving to Rochester, NY so we've been pretty busy trying to find an apartment, organizing, and all that jazz.  At the same time we know that our time in Long Island and living close to NYC is coming to an end so we are trying to really enjoy the area.

 Recently spring started to hit our area and it was also the same week as the Macy spring flower show. At the flagship store in NYC they decorate the entire first floor with floral designs that are themed. This year it was different styles of art and lots of garden like flowers and lots of orchids were included.

Outside of the store just like during Christmastime the windows are decorated for the season.  The flowers used in the windows were so bright and made me so ready for warmer weather and green!

Love being so close to the city that never sleeps, but ready to see whats in store for us.

New York bound...again!

Sorry its been a while I posted, it's been a hectic busy couple of weeks.  The biggest new development is that my husband Mat accepted an emergency department pharmacy residency in Rochester, New York.

We are beyond thrilled and still pretty shocked he got his first pick.  It's a great program and he will learn a lot to make him an even better hospital pharmacist.

I'm excited to move to a new area and explore the Finger Lakes region, Canada, go to Niagra Falls, and honestly just be a in a place with a slower pace.  Long Island has been good to us, but we don't think we could live here long term.  Here's to new adventures in Rochester! 

Expect more posts within the next week!  

Feeling the Beginnings of Spring!

The snows beginning to melt, the suns out longer, the temperature is higher, and the potholes are out in force.  I'd say that spring is slowly beginning here on Long Island, New York.  I welcome it with open arms and am so ready to see green again, go for runs outside, wear short sleeve shirts, and just have that energy a new season brings.  I'm also looking forward to going to the city during this time, especially to Macy's for their spring floral show.  It will be so inspiring to see the creative designs of some of the top floral designers.  

I can't help not looking at beautiful floral designs online (especially wedding and event designs) and be inspired.  The details, shapes, color, and textures of them all get me geared up to design some of my own.  Here's a couple I've found and loved.  Welcome spring and all that you bring!

Love the soft pink and blush tones in the juliet roses, hydrangeas, dahlias, and  ranunculus in the above design.

My sister Samantha would love all the purples in this bouquet

This wedding centerpiece just screams spring to me with it's fun elements.

It's a Pharmacist Wives Life for Me!

My husband Matt is a pharmacist and a good one at that.  He's always excited to tell me about medicines, criticize the commercials we see on the t.v., talk about articles he read, projects he's working on, and let me know about medicine reactions I don't remember asking about.  He goes in early and stays late to make sure patients and their meds are kept care of and while at times it drives me crazy when he's late getting out of work I know he cant help it.  I hardly can keep up with the daily pharmacy stories, but think I'm doing better over these past years and know there's plenty more to come.

He studied at our Alma Mater The University of Kansas, Rock Chalk!!!  We love being from Kansas and hope to one day end up back there to plant our roots finally.  Right now though the task at hand is getting him as much training in the hospital setting as possible, specifically Emergency Department and the role of a pharmacist in it.  Matt has such a passion for working in this environment and hopes to one day bring this type of focus back to the Midwest where it's a bit lacking.  This is why we packed up our little Blue Ford Focus last summer and trekked it over to Long Island, New York so he could do a residency.  New York was never part of the plan but when Plan A doesn't work you find a Plan B, and that was exactly what happened.

We've transitioned to being New Yorkers quick I'd say.  We love our delis, beaches, diners, LIRR, and can yell with the best of them when we're driving!  We're over all this snow we have and the shitty roads though.  It's hard to be so far away from friends and family who we would see all the time and transition to pretty much relying on one another for daily support.  At the same time we've experienced a lot and have truly enjoyed the year.      

As mentioned before Matt is almost done with his residency and now is trying to get a second year position in another residency specifically in an Emergency Department setting. He had three interviews, did his best, ranked the in this crazy hard to understand national pharmacy lottery and now we wait.  We wait to find out if we move to Salt Lake City, Utah or stay in New York and move to either Brookyln (that's considered NYC people) or Rochester (up by Niagra Falls/ Canada border) or get none of these three options and end up driving back to the Midwest.  The next two weeks are going to be a killer waiting to find out!

It's a Pharmacist Wives Life for Me!

What the heck is a Camellia?!

Nerding out on flowers over here and had to share one of my recent adventures about learning about a new flower today.  On a random Saturday a couple of weeks ago my husband told me we were going somewhere he thought I'd like.   In all honesty my husband is not very secretive so I was immediately excited and curious as to what we were doing.

We drove West towards the upper North Shore and ended up in a forest.   Smack in the middle of this forest was an amazing arboretum called Planting Fields in Oyster Bay that's one of the longest standing estates on Long Island.  While it was freezing and too snow covered to walk around I could tell it would be a beautiful place to go in the summer time.  Since it was winter though we ended up in one of the greenhouses, and not just any greenhouse.  It was specifically for Camellias!

What the heck is a Camellia?!  I had no idea but quickly learned they are large flowering plants that are found in Eastern and Southern Asia.  There are also about 100-250 different types of species and this greenhouse had many of them.

The varieties are so unique and the flowers look so different.  Some looked like dahlias, carnations, tropical flowers, carnations, gardenias.  They come is all shades of reds and pinks, white, and many two toned ones.  Needless to say I was in heaven.  I love flowers and plants and learning new things about them.

Winter Blues!

I am so over winter, it was so festive in December especially being able to enjoy Christmas time in NYC and at the beginning of January it was pretty with a dusting of snow.  After two pretty big blizzards, an ice storm, falling on ice, bitter winds, and negative windchill weather though I'm so ready for winter to get the hell out of Dodge and for spring to come.

Spring's probably my favorite season because everything is new and we start to see green again and have longer days and get to be outside and go for a run and...well you get the picture.  It's also when some beautiful flowers begin to bloom in yards and add color to the day.  Being on Long Island this past summer was great because I got to experience garden flowers I've never seen in the Midwest such as hybrids of hydrangeas of crazy shapes and colors.  At the same time though it made me miss my native Sunflower and it's boldness.

Seeing into the Future

I wish I could see into the future and know what life has in store for me.  I think as humans this is when the idea of patience is a virtue is the hardest to practice.

My husband Matt and I have been on quite a journey over the past couple of years pursuing his dream of being a hospital pharmacist.  Over the course of our almost eight year relationship/ four year marriage we've lived in Lawrence, Kansas while he finished up college then Kansas City with family and now we are all the way East on Long Island, New York because he is in his pharmacy residency program at a hospital here.

If you would've told us five years ago we'd be living in New York we'd laughed in your face.  Now this is our reality and over the next month we will once again be patiently waiting to see what next year has in store for us.  My husband Matt is smart and kind and very passionate at what he does.  It is because of these things he has decided to try to pursue a residency in emergency pharmacy.  He has had two out of three interviews and they are all in places I once again can't believe we might end up such as Salt Lake City, upstate NY by the Canada border, and Brooklyn which is considered NYC!!! At the same time we also know he might not get a residency next year and will have to prepare for a move back to the Midwest and setting up some roots.

  

I think we're still shocked from the cross country move we did this past summer away from everything and everyone we know and love to a place that's been full of ups and downs for us both. We are ready to get to the next step whether it be another move or a move back to the Midwest.  

Patience is such a hard thing for us to practice right now because we want to know what's going on in our lives and plan for it, but at the same time we know their is a plan for us and that it will all work out.  It's just so hard to give this control to a higher being at times and practice patience when we know we need to go thru all the steps in order to succeed.  At the same time new obstacles both good and bad will arise and we need to slow down and enjoy this time in our lives.  This is our big adventure (for now) as we say because years from now we will realize all these sacrifices, hard work, and yes patience will have paid off and served as an amazing life experience. 

So for the next month I will try my best to practice patience.

Valentines Day

Valentines Day is just a couple of days away so don't forget to get flowers for your special someone.  Flowers send a message of love and that you're thinking of them.  Here's some flower bouquet designs that I've done.  They all have different elements within them to create a unique style.

 The above bouquet has red roses, hypericum, lily grass, white poms, boxwood, and snapdragons.  It's based on a classic design based on complimentary colors of red and green with white mixed in.

The above design is fun, flirty, and has pops of bright colors.  It includes hot pink roses, green hypericum, pittosporum, victorian hydrangeas, football mums, cushion mums, and a fun decorative heart.  Lots of different textures that compliment one another.

This is a design with lillies, red roses, white carnations, heather (the purple bursts of color), and leather leaf.  It's a bold, big design that makes a big statement with such powerful flowers.

Love designing and enjoy every minute of it!

Shower me in Flowers

I love creating floral designs for any type of event whether it be a wedding, holiday, or just because.  One event I love to create for are baby and wedding showers.  It's a great way to welcome guests to the party and set the tone for them with certain colors and style.  This is also a great idea if you have games at a shower and would like to make the centerpieces prizes or gifts for your guests.  My friend Drea had me do a couple of these such designs for her in the past and one of my favorite was for her nieces wedding shower.  The look was a mix of classic Victorian withe subtle pops of blue.  The flowers included hydrangeas, babies breath, ranunclus, alstromeria, and roses.

 

The Story of the Lotus Flower

The Lotus is a beautiful flower that truly makes a statement of awe.  The beginnings of this flower are not as beautiful as many images we have in our minds.  It begins to sprout underwater usually in lakes and ponds and is surrounded by fish, insects, mud, and muck.  Despite these conditions and obstacles it maintains its strength and perseverance.  The stem slowly grows up through this to expose its pod to the sunny surface.  Then it opens each petal to finally let the inside of it experience the world in a pure bright nature and bask in all it's beautiful glory within the world.  The lotus flower might look fragile but it is secured under the surface of water which helps to keep its strength.

This flower is the perfect embodiment to me of overcoming the dark and muck of obstacles in ones life to reach the beauty, strength, and happiness one needs in their day to day life.  We all face challenges in many stages of our lives and it is up to us whether we stay below in the dark or rise above the surface to bloom.

Lotus Floral Design is the embodiment of the story of the lotus flower.  While I'm still in the early stages of growing my business and meet obstacles daily, I'm confident and committed to my goals as a floral designer and know I will reach them  As a designer, being able to work with flowers and creating customers visions that exceed their expectation makes me feel successful.  I'm ready to continue on this journey and see what life has in store for me.