How To Make a Flower Wreath In 6 Easy Steps

It is summer time and one of the best ways to enjoy it is with flowers!

This week, here is how to make a simple, DIY flower wreath for your home or for a gift.

1. Gather Supplies

You will need:

Clean counter or table space to work

Hot glue gun

Hot glue

Flowers (these are fabric flowers.  You can use real flowers but the steps and materials are a little different if you want it to last)

1 wreath (this one was bought pre-made out of woven branches)

Ribbon or trim (this is beige colored synthetic raffia)

Ensure all the materials are to hand and plug in your hot glue so that it is ready when you need it.

2. Prepare Your Flowers

For this wreath, pull the flower tops off the plastic stems so that you have all your pieces in a pile ready to go!

3. Work Out Your Design

While sometimes once you get going you decide to go in a different direction, it is good to at least work out the basic of what you would like to do before you glue things down!  Try different patterns and arrangements to see the best way to have your flowers once you are ready to glue!

4. Glue On Your Flowers

Put a little bit of hot glue on the end of the flower piece and tuck it into the wreath.  Then move on to the next piece and glue that one down.  

You might need to glue a little into the wreath, or glue down a petal or leaf to get it to stay exactly how you would like.  

5. Secure The Flowers With Extra Glue

Make sure the glue has dried enough to hold the flowers, and carefully turn your wreath over to secure the pieces with extra glue from the back.

6. Finish Off Your Wreath 

Once you are all set with your flowers, you can add on a bow or other ornamental piece.  Here I used a raffia bow and wove the end pieces around the branches, and secured it with hot glue.

Enjoy!

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Bridget is the proud Owner of Flower Designs by Bridget, bringing European Certification and 20 years experience to Pinellas County, Florida, where she lives with her husband (Air Force, Ret.) and two children.  When she is not in her shop, you will find her enjoying a cup of Roiboos tea with her family and several cats and dogs (including one named Daisy).  While the holiday greens and decorations of December are her favorite, she looks forward to bringing you sunshine and smiles through flowers all year round!

5 Reasons to Keep Fresh Flowers in Your Home & Office

flowers by Bridget

The holidays, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Birthdays - we all know that those time periods mean fresh flowers all around!

But did you know that there are actually health benefits to be had for keeping fresh flowers in your home?  This has even been the subject of research done by Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D. of Harvard and another study earlier done by Rutgers University.

1. Fresh Flowers Brighten Morning Moods

People who see fresh flowers in the morning tend to be in a better mood during the day.  All the more reason to plant that flower garden or keep some fresh flowers in your kitchen!  The kitchen is where families tend to be in the morning, but you can also have fresh flowers by your bed, or in your bathroom.  

2. Flowers are helpful as we age

Flowers have been shown to improve social interaction and memory in adults over 55 years of age.  So much so that in a study done on more than 100 seniors, 72% scored higher on memory tests.  While it might not be a holiday, sending Grandma and Grandpa fresh flowers helps more than just general disposition!

3. Flowers can help smooth interoffice relations

Another study concluded that having personal touches such as fresh flowers in your cubicle at work can contribute to a healthy work environment.  If you needed another reason, go ahead and get yourself that bouquet of flowers for your desk! 

4. Flowers chase away the blues

The Home Ecology of Flowers Study at Harvard found that people just simply felt less negative when being around flowers for extended periods of time.  People who live with flowers have less episodes of depression over-all as compared to people who do not.  All the more reason to keep a fresh cut bouquet on your dresser! 

5. Ordering fresh flowers means you can have all the benefits delivered to your door

If time is not something you have an abundance of, ordering from a local florist means you can have quality, artisan fresh designs brought right to you, fresh weekly if you so chose!  You will be supporting local business, and knowing that you are getting quality flowers that will last and help keep you happy and motivated during your busy week!

With that, send someone you love some fresh flowers to brighten their day!  You can even send them a blooming dish garden for long lasting flowers!

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Bridget is the proud Owner of Flower Designs by Bridget, bringing European Certification and 20 years experience to Pinellas County, Florida, where she lives with her husband (Air Force, Ret.) and two children.  When she is not in her shop, you will find her enjoying a cup of Roiboos tea with her family and several cats and dogs (including one named Daisy).  While the holiday greens and decorations of December are her favorite, she looks forward to bringing you sunshine and smiles through flowers all year round!

5 Pieces of Advice to Aspiring Small Business Owners

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There are a lot of small businesses out there, and there is a lot of advice that can help you out.  Here are 5 tips for every small business to help you along your way!

1. Have a Business Plan

This can be very simple, or very detailed.  But it must make sure to take into account your projected expenses in materials and overhead (office space rent, utilities, pay roll for employees and yourself, and basic legal fees/permits you need to have, etc).  It is very important to set up the pricing on your services in such a way so that your business is making enough money to pay the bills, pay your staff (and yourself!), keep up inventory and have some extra to invest back into the business so it can grow!

2. Run at a Profit

While a lot of businesses start out at a loss, this is not the way you want to run your business forever.  As part of your plan, make sure to work out what you will need to do to be running in the black.  Set small goals for yourself to get up to that point so you don't get overwhelmed along the way.  Remember to celebrate the small victories and keep revising your plan as needed to get to where you are operating at a profit!

3. Set Realistic Goals

It is very easy to look at all the tasks at hand and feel like there is no way to get them all done.  Be sure to list out things you need to do on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis, and spread them out so you aren't thinking about them all every single day!  Focus on what you need to get done that day and do those things, then focus on the next set of tasks when it is time to do those.

4. Keep Track of Your Finances

While paperwork and filing can seem like the worst chore, it is so very important to keep all your records in order.  Maybe your business plan needs to include a very part-time assistant to help keep track of your paperwork.  Or your task lists need to include an hour or more each week to keep filing up to date.  But staying on top of things like this during the year means that at times like tax season or when you need to do any kind of business review, you have all the information you need documented and ready to go.

5. Remember Your Dream

Sometimes the mundane every day details of running a business can seem extremely mundane.  And sometimes the effort to go through all the little details can seem to be too much.  Or the glamour can fade once the hard work becomes clear.  Remember the dream you had that started you on this path and focus on that!  There isn't a worthy goal in the world that can be achieved without having to try at least a little.  Remember what got you going in the beginning and use that to get you out of bed each day and through all the less exciting tasks that will eventually get you to the successful business you have dreamed of!

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Bridget is the proud Owner of Flower Designs by Bridget, bringing European Certification and 20 years experience to Pinellas County, Florida, where she lives with her husband (Air Force, Ret.) and two children.  When she is not in her shop, you will find her enjoying a cup of Roiboos tea with her family and several cats and dogs (including one named Daisy).  While the holiday greens and decorations of December are her favorite, she looks forward to bringing you sunshine and smiles through flowers all year round!

Why Every Small Business Should Have a Little Helper

Six months ago I opened my own flower shop here in Clearwater, FL.  Flowers have always had a huge part of my life, but what has been important to me now is also passing that on to my daughter.  She has been wonderful, helping a little bit around the shop on busy days like Mother's Day and for a few hours here and there after school.

I love getting to spend the extra time with her, though in addition to that, it enables me to pass on the art that I have learned, and the knowledge and experience of working in a business that all young adults should encounter and learn first-hand while growing up.  While I want her to learn and study the field she wants to become a professional in, it is good to learn lots of trades, and there are the basics to running a small business that are pretty much the same shop to shop.

There is something important about going to school or otherwise studying for a trade or a craft.  But there is a lot that goes into maintaining inventory, dealing with customers and using creativity in a professional way, just to mention some things, and the best way to really get an understanding of all of that is to be there and do it hands-on.

I think this is especially important for girls who are growing up in a world that is just now starting to crack glass ceilings and challenge wage inequality and beginning to really disregard gender role designated career paths.  There are so many opportunities out there for young women, and being educated and experienced puts them a step ahead and shows them that they have options.  Being able to give that to my daughter is extremely important. 

But it is also important for all young people who will be growing up and eventually running the small businesses and corporations of the world.  As has been said, it is important to teach your children well, but it is important to teach all children well.  

So while I love having my daughter with me in my shop helping out, and more importantly, learning, I wanted to take this week's blog to reflect on that.

Do you have a Little Helper?  Or are you where you are today because you were able to help out and learn when you were younger?  Let me know in the comments below!  I'm interested in hearing your story.

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Bridget is the proud Owner of Flower Designs by Bridget, bringing European Certification and 20 years experience to Pinellas County, Florida, where she lives with her husband (Air Force, Ret.) and two children.  When she is not in her shop, you will find her enjoying a cup of Roiboos tea with her family and several cats and dogs (including one named Daisy).  While the holiday greens and decorations of December are her favorite, she looks forward to bringing you sunshine and smiles through flowers all year round!