Happy 2017!

A look back on 2016

Just a few days into the New Year, and it is hard to believe that it has been over a year since the very first post here at Perennial Petals, when we opened the doors to Flower Design by Bridget here in Clearwater, FL!

So very much has happened in the last year, it is hard to imagine it all!  Over 1,800 amazing people have been following my shop on Twitter and Facebook, as the year has flown by!  

I met some wonderful people, and got to design some beautiful flowers for Baby Showers and got featured in Style Me Pretty for this beautiful Military Wedding I had the honor of designing the flowers for, along with all the special flowers I got to design all year long!  

My shop was featured as one of the cover stories for Creative Business Maven Magazine, and my daughter and I got to be cover girls! 

While every year has mountains and valleys, it is sometimes nice to look back and be happy about so many wonderful things that happened in just one year's time!

Here is to the future! Wishing you all a bright and happy New Year!

<3
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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!

DIY Flower Design

While it is always nice to have a professionally done arrangement of flowers, sometimes it is fun to do it yourself!

Follow these five tips for fantastic flowers made by you:

1. Pick your colors 

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When picking colors for a centerpiece, follow these tips.  It is really nice to pick complementary colors within the design, with a few pops of an accent color.

2. Pick your flowers

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You can always get plain flowers from a florist by the stem, or at your local grocery store.  

Find ones that fit within the color spectrum you selected in Step 1.

3. Find the flower's "face"

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Each flower has a direction it grew in, usually where the sun was the most during it's growth.  That is the "face" of the flower.

If your design is going to face a specific direction, you want to make sure the faces of the flowers are facing in the direction of your design.  If this is a circle, you would ensure they all face outward.  If this is a piece that will go against a wall or perhaps sit on the corner of a desk, you want to make sure the flowers all face towards the person that will be looking at them.

4. Spread out the colors  

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Make sure the colors you select are spread out throughout the design, with carefully clustered similar flowers that still spread out the colors throughout the arrangement.  You want to make sure it doesn't look polka-dotted, and yet at the same time, there is a nice variety of flowers throughout your piece.

Give your design one final look-over, filling in any holes as needed with leaves or additional blooms.

5. Finishing touches  

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For a final touch, add a small bow or piece of ribbon around the bottom of your design, either in a complementary color, or as an accent piece. 

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, or want to share any additional tips for DIY floral design!

<3

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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!

The Language of Flowers

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While flowers are beautiful just as themselves, they actually have a long history of being used in messages sent where words were either forbidden or impossible.  Where lovers or friends wished to send secret messages to each other, they could send a single blossom or a full collection of blooms to convey feelings.  And not always nice ones!  

We tend to associate flowers with feelings of liking or affection, but did you know that once upon a time you could send someone a bouquet that said you had nothing but disdain for them, or that you suspected them of capriciousness?  Add in one other flower and you could accuse them of frigidity and heartlessness!  While one flower meant the love of a woman or mother, another meant the passion of a lover - not to be confused with each other!
Today we tend to select flowers based on their coloring or style or even just availability.  But the history of the flowers have created trends that stay even today.  White Calla Lilies have been a popular choice for wedding bouquets for years because they are so simple and classically elegant, but they also once symbolized magnificence, beauty, purity and innocence.  

And though chrysanthemums are more simple, a bouquet of red and white chrysanthemums says love, truth and loyalty and make them a fantastic choice for a Valentine's Day bouquet on a budget, even though the historical meaning of the blossoms is no longer well known.

Want to send an empowering arrangement to a friend?  Send a mixture of white and heather lavender.  The lavender shows admiration, solitude and beauty and the white stands for protection and indicates that wishes will come true.  Plus they are such a beautiful and simple flower, they make for a sweet touch to any room on any day.

Going to visit someone in their new home or looking for an extra add on to a wedding gift?  Bring them potted or cut Anthuriums.  They symbolize hospitality and are also used to indicate happiness and abundance, a nice wish for anyone starting a new life.  For an even extra special touch, ask your florist to add a little note with your wishes for them.

While thankfully now we can just enjoy the beauty and color and style of flowers, no matter what their message used to be, and we can create the perfect arrangement for the people we love!  But it is still fun to know the original meaning these blooms have!

<3

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Bridget is the proud Owner of Flower Design 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!