Oh, when it's your wedding day.

I've spent all day up to my elbows in wedding work and I'm so excited to show you soon how one of them is turning out. For one, its flowers we don't normally get to play with (which is fun) but also the color combo is just knockout. I'm not lead designer on that one (thank goodness) but I'm getting a ton of experience out of mimicking my bosses designs. She's a pretty incredible designer, so I'm really enjoying this opportunity to stretch my floral muscles a bit. This wedding provides challenges for both of us, which becomes amusing long after the shop is closed and we've been staring at our respective pieces for hours to get them just right.

Also, for an entirely different wedding, I had the opportunity this morning to make the bridal bouquet and I'm pleased with how it came out. I don't have much experience with handhelds simply because we don't do them as often. And considering I had spent the two hours before fighting with the smaller bridesmaids, I was surprised at how pleased the main piece turned out.

For those interested, work is apparently still being done on Carrie: an "exploratory workshop" is in motion, to lead to an Off-Broadway revival. Whoohoo!

Also, the Tonys are to be announced May 3rd. I would probably be more excited about this, but sadly I don't think I know of a single show that would be up for anything this year.

Easter weekend.

Last night I tried to write a post about how awesome I thought it was that the drought was finally broken over Easter weekend. But the words weren't coming out right and I eventually gave up. Nonetheless, I still think that's pretty cool. Listening to the rolling thunder and pounding rain during Sunday morning services wrapped it all up together for me. A shadow, a mirror, a reminder of the resurrection in a sense. New life. New growth. Things that were once dying, or struggling along, salvaged. A double blessing: the celebration of life, the celebration for rain. Jubilation for both falling hand in hand. And in the back of my mind the whisper:
I feel the thunder in the sky, I see the sky about to rain, and I hear the prairies calling out Your Name...

I had a beautiful Easter playing with my kids. The Kime's & McBrides came down Saturday and Sunday and I soaked up some lovely family time. Unfortunately, the storm cut the time short, but I still had a chance to spend time with all of them. They enjoyed their Easter baskets. It was really nice.

The next two weeks at work are potentially heavy. This week is Administrative Professionals week, but that's been slow these past few years so I'm not expecting much there. The local prom is this weekend. Two weddings this weekend, one major and one minor. The following week is Mother's Day week. Caskets are beginning to stack.
I'm actually pumped about the weddings. One of them is going to be quite different from anything we've done before, with lots of fun tropicals and unusual touches. Also, its a setup, which we haven't had in awhile. I may not be a part of that particular team, but I should be flying out there anyway to take pics. It'll be a nice change of pace. Any pretty pics, I'll be sure to share.

Did you know the baby elephant was born at the Zoo? (Thanks Travis!) I'm so excited! (Go to the link, you can vote for her name.) They won't be on display for awhile, but once they are I'm so ready to finally see their new home and see the new calf. In the meantime, there's a live elephant cam, but I haven't been able to catch them on that yet either. I love elephants!

When the storms roll in.

Storm season has finally arrived in the state. Its true that we need the rain (and still do) but I've genuinely missed hearing the claps of thunder that are common throughout our spring season. I love storm season. But I also have a healthy respect for it and I know it does no good to be foolish. Things always seem to happen the one time you don't plan for them.

Last night the Plumbs & Pucketts were having their Easter gathering. I was already planning on running a few errands before heading their way, so I was in town longer than I would have originally been. As an unexpected storm began to blow its way in, Regina & I dashed to gather all the leaves she'd raked before the rain destroyed all her hard work and I hurried to the house to grab my Easter dessert.

When I ran into the house I asked grandma if there were any chances of tornadoes.
Sure, she said, we're under a watch.
Hm.

I know Tornado Watch does not equal There Is A Tornado, but the air felt different and I was skeptical.

Then I think you should come with me to the Plumbs.
Oh honey, I'll be fine, I'll just get in the closet.
....

No coercing would get her to come with me, and knowing she would never let me stay, I formed a backup plan. I knew the Nickerson family was coming into town for dinner and there would be some extra helping hands nearby.

I know this sounds extreme, but if the weather gets bad, please make sure my grandma gets to safety.

This is the beautiful thing about my friends and loved ones in the area: I have so many people I could call for backup in situations like this and they would be more than gracious. I have no doubt she would be completely protected with any of them.

I was driving towards the interstate ramp when the sirens suddenly went off. I could tell we were in no immediate threat, but the priority was still to get back home. As I was doubling back and trying to call someone, anyone, who would have an eye on the weather all the signals were jammed and I could get through to no one.

So as I rounded the corner to my street there in my driveway was my pastor getting out of his car. He had already arrived to take my grandma to safety, just in case. My knight in his now drenched blue long sleeved shirt.

It wasn't that I was surprised to him - I had already tried to call him and let him know I was on my way. But the sheer kindness of it all still warmed my soul. This is a great example of the beautiful friends & family I'm fortunate enough to have. These are the kinds of things they do. They're amazing.

The storms passed and I was able to make it out for Easter fun. I've really missed my kids (I love those sweet faces) and I was so happy for the chance to see everyone. But currently the reminder of how much love I'm surrounded by is even sweeter. Thanks, guys, for being awesome. And to Gary for being my superhero.

When one thing leads to another.

I was over at Brad's today when he learned I had never seen Patrick Stewart sing the alphabet. And he immediately found it for me, because it is indeed a must see.

I love this.



And then I said, have you see George Takei as Spiderman?



And then he said, wow, that's weird and what is this video about George Takei as Darth Vadar?

But that one ended up being lame.

But that reminded me and I said Have you seen the girl at the Disneyland Star Wars Show that Holly found?

And he said no, so we watched this one:


And it was pretty awesome.

All the bells & whistles.

It's a little intimidating to post after you haven't for several days. I feel like you're expecting something.

I have this car.

And beforehand, I had a different car. It was a Toyota, it was originally my mom's, and its alarm went off constantly. And randomly. I remember sitting at Sonic one time and suddenly it just started blaring. It wasn't long after we had bought it and mom sat there frantically pushing buttons and trying to search the manual for how to turn it off. (And also for why it was going off in the first place.) Mom said it was possessed and dubbed it 'Lucy' for Lucifer.

So now you know why my last car was Lucy.

My friends have stories. It would go off in their driveways. Late at night. For no reason. I have stories. Cats would jump on it. Youth at VBS would throw things at her tires it to make it go off.

This would go on to continue until its unfortunate fate while searching for turtles. (I know you always dreamed a grander death, Lucy. I'm sorry.)

After it was finalized as being totaled and I was officially car shopping I thought Wow. I can have a car where it will never go off randomly again.

....

Now this is still partially true. My car alarm does not (yet) go off randomly. No, now it goes off because I tell it to. Which is all the time.

See, the Toyota went off whenever it wanted. But the alarm feature on the keychain was indented. Therefore you had to actually intend to push it and I never had to. But on Nissan the alarm feature is even with the other buttons - right underneath lock, unlock and trunk in a neat little row. And even if I never intend to push, I do all.the.time.

Sit on keys wrong in pocket? Alarm. Set keys down too hard on counter? Alarm. Hand slips while unlocking car? Alarm. Press against pocket while shutting the door? BLAMBLAMBLAM.

And it has an amazing range. It doesn't matter if I'm back in my bedroom. Alarm.

So this actually means my car alarm goes off more now than it ever did in the Toyota.

Which is saying something, my friends. Which is saying something.

I'm so glad you have a one track mind, like me.

I know I've been missing for a few days, but honestly all I can think of to post about is work. At this point, I can only imagine you're pretty tired of that.

My iTunes situation has been partially (hopefully) solved. The newest version of iTunes is now downloaded onto my computer and loading, which it certainly wasn't before. In the process though I had to remove everything, including my music files.

This is okay though because I have everything backed up and it (hopefully) merely means re-ripping the cd's. I haven't reworked my music collection since college, so this is a good opportunity to clean, sort and refresh. As long as everything will sync back up right, I have no problem with this.

In the meantime, I'm back listening to a lot of Rich Mullins and Train. Rich Mullins, simply because he is refreshing & uplifting to the soul and Train because they're last album Save Me, San Francisco represents everything summer, fun and warm. Therefore it makes me smile.

(Also of note, I apparently can never spell Francisco. Thank you spell check.)

"Let me hear a duck skydiving!"

Aflac is getting a new duck. Who knew? My favorite part:

"Traci Naman, 42, of Atlanta didn't wait for a prompt to let loose her quackery. "I figured he might have an evil twin," she said of the Aflac icon. "And I thought it was time for him to have a girlfriend too."

"Let's hear a conversation between those three," Beagle said. "You're the first person to present multiple ducks!"

----
The 'Aflac' Casting Call

"The six-figure voice-over job with benefits opened up after Aflac fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried for his fowl, er foul, Twitter comments regarding the Japan earthquake. The comedian later apologized."

Warm weather.

Oh my goodness. It was beautiful outside today. According to the 7-day forecase, we appear to have stabilized a bit in temperature for awhile and I'm oh so excited. This 80 degree weather is gorgeous.

Unfortunately, we are still in an extreme drought. I just finished watching the 10:00 news where there were two major wildfires going on in the north throughout the day, one of which is still burning. We're getting pretty desperate for rain, especially before the summer hits. Please pray for rain.

Nonetheless, today was productive. Grandma & I have started playing in the outdoors, which is nice. Our lawn mower is finally fixed from last summer. I have now sprayed sections of our backyard with weedkiller. We're mentally mapping out our flower garden.

I am determined to grow cosmos again this year.

One of last year's few surviving blooms...

Last year we used old seed, not to mention they were also flooded by all the spring rain we received and almost taken over by grass. So five blooms survived. This year I'm hoping they'll grow like crazy.

And I'm quite fond of the color our hydrangeas turned last year, due to all the coffee beans grandma fed them...

Last year's hydrangea....

Since hydrangeas change their color based on the soil their in, this year could go either way. They could remain that beautiful shade of purple, or return to their original tone of pink. Either way, they've been growing so well they're gorgeous either way.

Zeeba Zeeba Eata

How I spend my time at the shop.

How I spend my day at work varies. Are there tons of funerals? Is there preparation for a wedding? Are we terribly slow? Suddenly everyone wants white roses? Babies everywhere?!

So, for better or worse, here's a glimpse of a few personal designs and of how I've spent my (almost) five years at the shop... (A lot of the designs are "everyday" designs, meaning they're meant for someone's home.)

Two recent pieces...


This piece is a memorial ring, with an opening to set a picture frame or urn inside of... This is just from this past year.

For a wedding reception.... (notably, this was the wedding I spent eight hours painting hydrangeas for.)


One of my first larger-scale designs I was actually pleased with. Currently I still pull this design out when they're wanting something showy (and we've got the right flowers), except I've since improved it by pulling all those tall glads directly into the center.

OBU Winter Commencement...

Southern Winds Film Festival... (only second year at Graves, so I had a ton of help with this one.)

This is still my favorite easel, even though its from probably two years ago. Sadly, we don't usually carry those large callas.
Eh... the more I look at this one, the more things could be improved. It's probably from just starting my second year at the shop. I'm not as pleased with it now, but I like the colors. I should make another one of these and improve it.
I love sunflowers. They're so happy.

And anemones. (I was actually playing around with this one while the observers were in. I'm considering it an upscale bud vase.)

I'm still working on my bridal bouquets... Partially it's simply I don't work them that often, but it's also the trick of forming the nice, pretty circular shape while still creating dimension. Mrr. They're tricky.



Toss bouquet...

In general, I do a ton of cubes at work. They're probably my favorite everyday container to work in, especially since the customer can usually get more for their money this way (less space to fill, less flowers overall, but higher quality flowers can be used for the basic price.) So this style is pretty standard and my go-to arrangement.


Thanks for letting me share! :) Hope it wasn't too painful!

How often do you get to hold an owl?

This is the Eurasian Eagle Owl, Ritual, at the Medieval Faire in Norman who was part of the Royal Gauntlet's Birds of Prey family. Regina & I stood in line for an hour and a half to pay $1 for the chance to hold him.




(Ha, he looks thrilled!)

The Royal Gauntlet is a bird rescue for sick or injured birds and works to release them back into the wild. Regina & I happened across their show while waiting for the boys to get their homemade root beer and ended up staying to watch the whole thing. There was a hawk that, after being mauled by a bobcat, had to have a six hour surgery with 295 stitches. Now she flies beautifully!

This particular owl apparently can puncture steel, therefore the glove used is made of Kevlar. Eurasian owl's also are known for bringing down large prey such as deer by hooking their intense talons on the back of their target, stripping the hide off of them, letting them bleed to death and then, well, feasting.

Ritual was sold to a zoo for $10,000, but after realizing how dangerous his breed was the zoo refused to take him. So the man was going to destroy the owl - now realizing the danger - but the Royal Gauntlet happened to hear about the birds plight and brought him in. After only six weeks of training he became a fully fledged member of their show.

He was incredibly beautiful and so soft! More than worth the long wait in line. Thanks to Regina for waiting it out with me and Brad for the pictures!

Just a change of scenery.

I know it looks different. Hopefully it's still okay.

Since we're now over 100 posts in I wanted to switch it up. Mostly because one of the main reasons I started a blog in the first place is that I looove all the different templates. I can browse through them for a very long time (and after tonight, I have quite a few for future possibilities.) I really didn't save this one with the intent of actually using it - but I was surprised how much I liked it when I tried it. So here we are!

Blog post from earlier tonight below!

When You're Being Watched.

So. Today our observers came. Apparently the whole thing was legit! Who knew, right? These representatives actually did come just to our shop out of the all the shops in the state to observe us! (My conspiracy theories still make more sense. Nonetheless, legit.) Apparently, the combination of our being 1) recommended by our representative 2) a shop over a century old and 3) large enough to have a ton of standing orders with them was enough.
That's actually pretty cool when I think about it.

So when I arrived back from lunch there were about ten of them and this frenzied energy had taken over the shop and it remained that way until they left. They were constantly firing questions running the gambit from what product of theirs came in, what it looked like, was it consistent, what could be fixed, how can work best with us, etc. etc. Thankfully, my bosses had them the bulk of the time, although eventually they wandered back to our desks and suddenly four of them were asking me questions and watching me design like a hawk.
But we weren't that busy today, so there was little for them to observe and they left early with a vacuum of energy in their wake. And I was socially weary.

Meanwhile, after this occurred, Fat Rick called. And Fat Rick is my bosses' buddy and loves to tease the girls at the shop and make us fall for pranks in fun and I'm gullible. So he calls and asks if his fifty dozen roses are ready for pick up. And after a short conversation, I just stuck him on hold.
"Is it Fat Rick?"
"I have no idea. I think so."
"You didn't ask?"
"No."
"You just put him on hold?"
"Yes."

And it was Rick. Haha, Rick. Haha. An hour later I went to wait on a man who just walked in, "Hi, I'm Rick and I'm here to pick up my roses."
And thinking it was Fat Rick I was this close to forming a less-than-amused response, or decide whether to just jump into him when I checked myself.
"What's your name again?"
He told me. It was not the same Rick. He was picking up a dozen roses. Which I had made myself, earlier in the day and No problem sir, be right back.
Rick. You're going to get me in trouble one of these days.

Now you may think it should be easy to determine the legit calls from the prank calls. But that's not true. Today alone I received a call from a lady asking if we could make a prune bouquet. And as I scrambled onto the internet, thinking this must be some term I was just unfamiliar with...
I'm sorry, I've actually never heard of that.
Oh, you know, a bouquet of prunes...
....
True story.
So no. Sometimes the strangest requests are actually the most serious. :)

I've actually had a request for some photos of work I've done at the shop... which means I lied and you're actually going to have to see some more flower photos soon. :)