The Quadruple *P*

We had an adorable young lady come into the shop today. Her name is Meredith, she is five years old (but VERY close to turning six!), and she was on a mission. Tomorrow her class is doing *Show and Tell*, and the teacher assigned them a theme. Whatever they brought to show, needed to be GREEN and begin with the letter P. So little Miss Meredith decided that she wanted to show a plant. I showed her the different varieties, and we chatted about how to take care of various plants. She wanted something that will be pretty easy to take care of, since she will be keeping the plant in her bedroom. And her dad won't be any help, as he has never had a plant in his life. LOL

She decided pretty quickly that one particular plant was the best of the bunch. I asked her what her favorite color was, and without missing a beat she declared PINK! So I popped the plant in a small pink pot for her, and her dad pointed out that that was perfect, as it was a potted plant in a pink pot....so not only did we get one P, we got FOUR! I think she deserves some serious extra credit for that. Do they give extra credit in kindergarten?!?! They should!

Here is the cutie pie posing with her new plant. Take a peek at her socks....they totally made my day!!!

I'm for REAL!!

When I meet with brides to discuss their wedding flowers, I usually try to straighten up my office and clean myself up a smidge. By cleaning myself up, I mean digging the dirt out from underneath my fingernails, picking the greenery out of my hair, and wiping off any flower gunk that has gotten smeared on the side of my face. Playing with flowers all day is just NOT conducive to pristine cleanliness.

I met with a bride a few weeks ago after a particularly busy day, and was not able to tidy up as much as I would have liked. In the middle of our meeting, she commented on my fingernails. *I like that your nails are dirty. It makes you more authentic. Just like my dad always said, *Never trust a mechanic with clean hands.**

So, from now on, I shall stop spending so much time cleaning my nails (unless I plan to be eating something sans utensils!), and if people say anything about them, I'll just proudly inform them that I am AUTHENTIC. :o)

You Are What You Eat

Wow. Somebody hasn't blogged in a really long time. Sorry to all of my loyal blog fans...Mom and Dad!! LOL

Conversation in the shop yesterday between S (me) and DDD (dear delivery driver)....
DDD - You are such a nerd.
S - No I'm not!
DDD - Are so.
S - Takes one to know one!
DDD - You're still a nerd.
S - No I'm not. I'm a floral wizard!
DDD - Wizards are nerds.
S - Well, I don't think so. And I'm still a floral wizard.
DDD - Says who???
S - Beverly.
DDD - Who is Beverly?
S - One of my really good customers.
DDD - See, you really are a nerd. Even your customers think so!
S - (throws an unopened box of Nerds (because she wouldn't want to risk wasting any that might fall out of an open box!!) at DDD and rolls her eyes)
S - (continues munching on the tiny, tangy crunchy goodness that she was enjoying before she was so rudely interrupted)
I guess if NERD is the worst thing that someone can call me....I shall happily embrace that description...and if *I* call myself Nerd, then perhaps DDD will stop. I mean, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! :o)

Arizona is McLovin'!!

Arizona loves to eat. Among his favorites...hot dogs, Cheetos, Sonic French Toast Sticks...the list goes on and on. Now before you think that I am a bad mother for feeding him all this people food (*upright* people food that is...because he is a person too! LOL)I promise that I only give him tiny little nibbles from time to time. This is NOT his daily diet!! His usual chow is Blue Buffalo, chicken and brown rice. (BTW, I love this brand, his coat got soooooooo soft after we switched to it!) Anywho...Karen has started a habit of McDonald's coffee and an Egg McMuffin for breakfast, and Mr. Zoney-Bones LOVES LOVES LOVES getting nibbles of the ham. If you don't believe me, then please watch the video for a fantastic demonstration of his adoration for pork. I always tell him that he likes to eat so much, he's going to grow a curly tail one of these days!

And look at clumsy me at the very end...too busy filming to notice a tall bucket of flowers right behind my feet!!! Well, that's what they make mops for. :o)

Challenges

As a Supreme Master of Awesomeness and Excellence Floral Designer (SMAEFD), I have been presented with a good number of difficult design tasks over the years. A few that come to mind, in no particular order, are adding sugar cubes to a corsage (Sweet 16), making a giant funeral piece shaped like a musical note, flowers for a Hummer, making baby socks into rosebuds, and incorporating Coors Light cans into an arrangement. The other day, I had a request that nearly pushed me to the edge. They wanted an arrangement in MU colors (gasp!!). That is a tough pill to take for any Jayhawk that bleeds red and blue. But I swallowed my KU pride...and I did it for the customer. Not to say it wasn't hard...but I pushed through and was able to accomplish this great task set before me with minimal twitching. :o)

Behold...the gold and black Mizzou Kitty-Cat masterpiece....



And...just to balance things out...here's a picture of some gorgeous red and blue arrangements I made a few weeks ago for a KU graduation. Ahhhh...now that is a thing of beauty.... :o)

Spoiled? Or Just Well Cared For????

Okay, so by now we all know that Arizona is a pretty special dog. And special dogs require special care....right??? I have no qualms about admitting to the fact that I spoil my dog. I spoil him rotten. But he deserves it. :o)

Breakfast at the flower shop from time to time consists of sweet tea for Jana, decaf coffee for me, and a yogurt parfait for each of us.



As we sit in the office and consume our fuel for the day, Zona sits on the floor in the middle of it all, alternating his sad little puppy eyes back and forth between us, pleading for anybody to share some of our special food with him. He's mastered that look extraordinarily well. Once we have polished off our parfaits, we each let him lick our cup clean.



The problem is, his tongue won't *quite* reach the very bottom, leaving valuable yogurt....just sitting there. So...being the doting puppy mom that I am, I whip out my scissors, trim a few inches off the top of the cup so that his tongue can easily reach every last tasty bit.



At least I'm making sure that nothing goes to waste!!! :o)

Scooby Who?!?!

Scooby Doo....you are about to be replaced by the cutest dog in the universe! Arizona and I recently had a photo session, and now that we have started his official *portfolio*, the casting calls are sure to start flooding in. Our good friend Jennie VanHook, VanHook Photography took these great pics. We heart her!

Nacho Baby

Lunch today was carry-out from the new Cheddar's by Oak Park Mall. We heard the food critics discussing said restaurant on NPR, so decided to give them a whirl. Jana got the Baked Spasagna, which is a hybrid dish of spaghetti and lasagna, while Arizona and I chose the chicken nachos. Which were very, very, very filling. Even splitting them between the two of us. After my eating task was completed, I could barely waddle out to the front room to do my job....so I stopped for a little rest on Zona's bed. And where does he decide to park his head? Right on top of my nacho baby. I guess that's what I get for hogging the dog bed. :o)

EGG-celent!

We have a giant walk-in cooler here for our flowers. But from time to time, things OTHER than flowers get stashed in it. The standard items include Fresca, soy sauce, coffee creamer, hot dogs (for Arizona!) and occasionally some 90 Shilling. A while back, one of our past brides Sara was out running errands in our neck of the woods. Ms. Sara went to the grocery store and got some eggs, but then forgot she had a few other places to go. So...being the resourceful gal that she is, she remembered her favorite flower shop has a great big refrigerator, and she should just drop by for a visit and have us tuck her eggs in our fridge for a few hours. We were more than happy to help her out. But we decided that plain eggs are just sooooooooooo boring. So we took it upon ourselves to decorate them for her. The best part was each of these eggs had a little egg butt. We didn't take a picture of that though....this is a G-rated blog. Behold our artistry!

Cheese!

I'm photographically challenged. I've been this way my entire life. I am simply not able to take a picture without acting in a goofy manner. This affliction goes back to 1980...when my dear old dad was trying to take a nice picture of me with my new baby sister. I thought it would be funny to open my big mouth and show the world my tonsils.

I got a long lecture about being a good girl...which I promptly discarded from my memory. Thirty years later, I'm still experiencing symptoms of this disorder. Last summer I was delivering a wedding, and the photographer asked me to stand up at the front of the church, and assist her in adjusting the lighting. I was pleased to help.


Last week I did flowers for an event at The Nelson-Atkins Museum. I was asked to pose by my creation. I happily obliged.


Is there a cure for this sickness? If there was....would I take it? I'm thinking no.....where's the fun in being normal??? :o)

First Time for Everything

We did a wedding on October 31st for a lovely couple, Sam and Roukoz. Sam is from Jordan, where one of the wedding traditions is to place a garland of fresh flowers on the bride and grooms vehicle. This vehicle happened to be a GIGANTIC Hummer Limousine.



I have been doing flowers for 15 years now, and have never once been asked to put flowers on a car. Needless to say, I was a *smidge* panicked about the whole thing. Those of you who know me personally, you know that MY *smidge* is often much more than a normal persons *smidge*. ;o) I had nightmares every night for a week before the wedding about the flowers not attaching to the limo, the whole thing falling off right in the middle of pictures, even the roses sprouting little evil monsters that ate the limo driver (okay, not really, but I had to put something in there to make it seem a little more nightmarish!) However, everything went off without a hitch, and I attached the whole thing in a matter of minutes. Here I am, passed out in relief that I was able to complete the enormous task set before me.

Happy Spooky Day!

Halloween is tomorrow and we are really getting into the spirit today! We've been discussing Jana's costume for a party tomorrow (she's going to be a roller derby girl!) The name of her team is The *Crazy Daizies* and she is *Rose Blood*. I'm not going, but I need a roller derby girl name just for kicks...and we are leaning towards *Tigrrrrrrrrr Lily*. Anybody that comes up with a really cool roller derby name is more than welcome to join our team!

Arizona is wearing his costume today...he's a pumpkin wearing a pumpkin. :o)

If you were following our blog last year, you saw the arrangement that we made for Johnny Martin's mama. This super handsome world famous cameraman is such a sweetie pie and always orders flowers for his mom on her birthday, which happens to be Halloween.

Have a safe Spooky Day and we hope you get more treats than you do tricks!!! :o)

Bring Your Cabbage Patch Kid to Work Day

Yesterdays work day conversation included, but was not limited to; circus tunes summoning some crazy clown from *IT* into the shop, how much we love Arizona, whether or not Jana was going to talk about her gap tooth when meeting David Sedaris last night, my upcoming trip to Colorado, cake decorating and Cabbage Patch Kids. Jana and I are both children of the 80's, and therefore we each have one of these hard-headed little dolls. Jana's doll is Bernice (the nearly bald one), and mine is Nadia (the one with a whole mess of hair and freckles...just like me!). So, we both went home last night, found our dolls and brought them to work today. Nice little bit of nostalgia for a rainy day. :o)

Meet Our Newest Employee

This is Arizona....our new Greeter at Joyce's Flowers!
He's the sweetest doggie we've ever met! He's a 10 year old Border Collie mix, that had been living with a couple that can no longer care for him due to health reasons. We just got him yesterday, and he's been settling in just fine! He loves any kind of attention he can get, eats treats up like they are going out of style, and has been following us around like a little shadow. We would love for all of our customers to stop by and say hello to the little guy...he's right here waiting for you!! :o)

Adventures in Flower Deliveries

Jana. To know her is to love her. To know her is to find constant humor in the odd things that she does, especially during flower deliveries. Like the time she chased down a run-away dog in a cemetary to take him home to his worried owners. Or the time I got a call from security at an office building where Jana had unknowingly dumped half the contents of her purse while on a delivery, leaving a random trail behind her. Today, Jana's flip flop broke. The first time, it broke while she was still in the shop. So she fired up the glue gun and fixed that bad boy. Or so she thought. While in the middle of a long delivery run, she discovered that apparently hot glue does not in fact hold flip flops together. So she did the rest of her deliveries, limping down long hallways and sidewalks, climbing stairs, one foot draging behind the other...looking quite similar to Igor. From Frankenstein. Seriously. We are not exagerating one bit here folks.

Coffee Goodness

Verrrrrrrrrrrrrry dreary day here at the flower shop. Good excuse for coffee. We really don't NEED a reason for coffee...but we always feel obligated to come up with one. Some days it's because neither one of us slept well the night before, some days it's because it's sunny outside, some days it's because we have a lot to talk about and coffee keeps our throats moist so that we can talk even more. Some days it's because we are upset about what happened on *The Bachelor* the night before, and need coffee to console us. A lot of the time, Jana got a speeding ticket on the way to work, some of the time Sarah did, some days it's a full moon, some days it's a half moon, other days there is no moon.....and some days it's just plain icky outside. Behold the grande-half-caff-non-fat-caramel-no-whip-latte and the grande-non-fat-no-whip-extra-shot-mocha. Pure delight. Yum.

For Sarah and Sinbad

Hi all! Jana here. I have a favor to ask of you today. Please read.

This weekend Sarah had to put down her beloved cat Sinbad. Her heart is broken right now, as any of you animal lovers can imagine. Sinbad lived to the ripe old age of nineteen and loved his Sarah to the moon and back. She is not at work today, and I think she could really use some kind words to lift her spirits when she comes back tomorrow. This is where you come in.

Will you please leave a comment to this post to uplift Sarah? She gives so much of herself for this little flower shop and I think we all could be a great support right now. It doesn't have to be long and deep, and you don't even have to know her. Just something to let her know that she's appreciated.

Here is the only picture of Sinbad I could find. He's all wrapped up in a blankie to take his medicine. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this!

Bed of Roses

A couple of months ago, we had two weddings on the same day, and both used gobs and gobs of rose petals. We tore apart nearly 250 pink roses! We made a huge pile in the middle of the shop....and then it was so tempting and pretty, we both had to roll around in the pile for a while, and of course take pictures! Bet your job doesn't have these kinds of perks! LOL!

Mouse Madness!

Here is a post that Miss Jana made on her blog a few weeks ago, regarding an amusing incident with a four legged furry creature. Be sure to watch the video at the bottom, and have your sound turned up to get the full effect!

Our crazy flower shop. There is always something interesting going on. For instance, the other day we were terrorized by this berserk mouse. He was running around in circles in the office, which meant we couldn't go in there to get work done. We erected a series of flower box barricades through the hallway to protect ourselves while we designed in the front and waited for him to take the bait on the mouse trap that we slid into the office with a broomstick and then ran away screaming. We wrapped packing tape sticky side up around a broom handle to grab orders that printed out from the computer without actually having to enter the room.

Sarah was the funniest part of the whole incident. She was afraid to look into the office because she was afraid the mouse may have gotten into some flower food that acts as a steroid that we use to keep bupleurum firm, and had turned into the Mouse King from The Nutcracker.


Luckily we have Ron, the hurly-burly biker guy who cuts hair across the street, to come and rescue us in sticky situations. He chased down the mouse and put him outside. An hour later one of our wholesalers came by with a delivery and announced that there was a mouse running circles in our parking lot.

It's actually a little sad. The little guy obviously got into something that was bad news, and I feel bad, really really bad, for laughing at him. I hope that he found a warm and quiet place to die peacefully and that he's not still out there running circles into the sunset.

Behold our centrifugally gifted rodent, and Sarah's escalating hysteria in the background.

Flowers for the Golf Tournament!

Joyce's Flowers always supports the Kelsey Smith Foundation and the Golf Tournament that they have every year. (See post below for more info!) Each year we make centerpieces for the tables. We always try to keep in mind Kelsey's favorite color (blue!) and here is what we came up with this year.

We had them all lined up on one of the tables, and Kelsey's dad and sister came over to check them out. One of them laughed and said *What would we have done if we would have had THAT MANY Kelsey's!?!?!?* and the other said *We would've been in BIG trouble.....*

Free Golf Winner!

Congratulations to Ms. Tricia for winning the free golf package! We hope that you have a blast! :o)

FREE GOLF!!!!!!!

We have been active in supporting the Kelsey Smith Foundation for the last few years here at Joyce's Flowers. Kelsey was friends with many of our customers, though unfortunately we never knew her personally. For those of you who don't know who Kelsey Smith is, please go to http://www.kelseysarmy.org/ for more information.
There is a golf tournament being held on July 20th at Falcon Ridge Golf Course here in Lenexa for the Kelsey Smith Foundation....and I've got two tickets!!! I've been told that golfing is NOT my forte...so instead of forcing a large group of people that I don't know to put up with my lack of golf etiquette/knowledge/skill, I am going to give these tickets away in a random drawing. No strings attached! Anyone can enter, just email me at joycesflowers@sbcglobal.net
Registration begins Monday the 20th at 6:30am, breakfast, lunch, adult libations and raffle tickets for some great prizes are all included. Oh...and a round of golf. :o) This package for two is valued at $300.
The winner will be notified on Thursday July 16th. Any questions...please ask!!!

We Heart Big Boogers!!!!!

We are pickers. We love to pick. We are the people that are actually happy to peel after a bad sunburn, so that we can pick the skin off in the largest chunks humanly possible. We love to pick hot glue globs off the counter tops. But most of all.....we love to pick the great big glue booger off the tops of our flower glue bottles. The tricky thing is, this glue takes a good couple of hours to set up into a really nice firm booger...thus leaving ample opportunity for booger snatching. The rule of thumb: your glue bottle, your glue booger, you get to pick it. But sometimes booger envy sets in. Just a few weeks ago Jana had to hide her booger at the end of the night, because she knew that if she left it out in all it's glory, I would not be able to resist it. And she hid it. She hid it really well. Darn her. If you don't believe us about how utterly delightful it is to pick one of these...you should stop by the shop sometime and we'll make one up for you.

Happy Anniversary Jean and Walt!!!

Last week, Jean and Walt celebrated their ******60th****** Wedding Anniversary!!!! Holy cow that's a long marriage!!! I should have asked them what their secret is when I was delivering the flowers. Their sweet son Paul sent them a giant basket to celebrate this great milestone. Jean used to work in a flower shop for years and years....so I wanted to make something like she has never seen before. Congratulations to you guys!!!!

Prom Flashback

Ah Prom...the dresses, the penguin suits, the awkward teenage boys trying to pin on their dates corsage, the girl's mom pinning on the boutonniere...driving your parents car, the dinner that costs more than an entire months wages from McDonald's, slow dancing in the school gym to the theme song from *Footloose*, and that kiss on the porch while your little sister is peeking out the window at you.
This month is...you guessed it...Prom time! We get to do corsages and boutonnieres for the high school kids every single weekend this month. We thought it might be entertaining to show OUR prom photos from back in the day.

Our Own Personal Easter Bunny!

Our good buddy Dale, who is the catering manager at Holiday Inn down the street, showed up at the shop today with a big ol' basket chock full of Easter goodies for us!!! Jana and I were just whining to each other that we were in desperate need of some chocolate...and in hops Dale, just in the nick of time. We heart you Pointy-Toes!!!

Throwing Up Flowers

One of our best customers, Michael, called today to order flowers for his wife. He said that he wanted "A big, gorgeous, colorful arrangement. Something that is just throwing up flowers." In 15 years, I've never had someone ask for puking flowers...but there is always a first for everything. :o)

Has Jana Been a Bad Employee?!?!

Or is she just demonstrating how she keeps the gremlins from gnawing off her hands while she sleeps???

Silly girl....gremlins don't gnaw...they take it all in one big gulp! :o)

Our New and Improved Flower Van!!!

We got our delivery van all pimped out a few weeks ago with some super fun flowers to match our *Flower Power* license plate. We all love the new look...and we've been getting quite a few people paying a little more attention to us out on the road! Better start using those turn signals all the time!! LOL!

Our 15 Minutes of Fame

Last week, we got uber-lucky and had quite a bit of publicity for our little flower shop. We have never gotten to experience anything quite like that before, and it was a blast! After we got *most* of our giggles out of the way. :o)

Here we are on NBC Action News:

Wilting Away Flower Shop Profits

Here we are on KMBC 9 News:

Florists Ready For a Busy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day = Fresca Time!

Here at Joyce's Flowers we REALLY love Fresca. We love our coffee in the morning, but we love Fresca all day long. We don't keep it here that often, because we can easily go through a case in a day. But during a holiday week, we indulge as much as possible to keep our spirits high. Here is a picture of our cooler...with enough Fresca to get us through the middle of the week. Hopefully.

Matt + Holly = TLF

Cute story alert!!! One of our very good customers, Matt, who is deployed in Iraq right now with the Army Reserves, sends his fiance Holly flowers quite often. This is Matt: He always signs the cards *A million Swedish fish*. Sometimes we wonder about the sentiments that some people put on their cards, and being the nosy creatures that we are...sometimes we just ask. We NEED to know these things, so that we can put the utmost thought and care into our flower arrangements. ;o) Matt told me that his most favorite candy in the whole entire world is red Swedish fish...but he loves Holly a million times more...so he always tells her that he loves her a million Swedish fish. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
Thanks for serving in Iraq Matt! Hope you come home soon!!

Pre-Joyce's Flowers

My building is somewhere in the vicinity of 100 years old. I've heard a lot of different stories about what kinds of businesses have lived here...mostly I've heard about various barber shops and hair salons. I have always wanted to see pictures of the house from "back in the day"...being the curious creature that I am. Someone told me once that a woman had lived here in the 70's. My neighbor, who owns My Granny's Attic (a great little antique shop!) got a big box full of pictures the other day and found this one for me. It doesn't have a date, but I'm guessing somewhere in the 1950's or 60's. There are a few changes, but all in all, it looks pretty darn close to how it does today! Minus of course, all the pretty flowers. :o) If you can't read the sign, it says "Glenda and Johnny's Plastercraft Accessories". Don't really know what a plastercraft accessory is...but I think that the picture is really cool!

Welcome Stephanie Louise!!!

One of my very best customers, Blair, and his wife Ana had a beautiful baby girl last week. Blair, being the very sweet guy that he always is, wanted to fill Ana's hospital room with flowers. Literally......FILL. Like a forest. The hospital has some guidelines for just how much *stuff* can be in the room, so we weren't able to go as over the top as Blair had envisioned, but we were still able to make a mini-garden of flowers. I didn't take a picture of the hospital room...but I lined up all of the arrangements for a group photo before we left the shop.

As I was delivering all of these flowers, the nurses were all just going beserko over them...so later on that day, I brought all of those gals an arrangement, so that they would have something to enjoy as well...and not keep going into Ana's room to look at her flowers. :o)
I've been bugging Blair to get me a picture of the new little family...and he has failed...so I'm posting my own rendition of them.

By the way...Blair used to own an auto repair shop...he sold it to one of his employees, now it's called D&J's Automotive...and it's the best repair shop in town! They do all of the work on the flower van, I wouldn't trust anyone else! They are located in downtown Olathe, across from the courthouse. Phone 913-768-0553.
Ask for David...and tell him that Sarah sent you!

The Holiday *IT* Bouquet

Christmas is still a week and a half away, but our *IT* bouquet for this year has already been chosen. It's called the *Holiday Spice Bouquet*, and it has been uber-popular for us this year. We like doing it, because there is a handful of cinnamon sticks in it...and they smell sooooooo yummy. We get inundated with the smell of wintergreens this time of year, and not that that isn't nice, but it gets old. Shaking up our olfactory experience is a good thing. :o)

We tried to resist....but we were weak!!!

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