Odds and Ends

 A license plate I saw recently:        WSHUWRME

My answer:    not really.....lol

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In our area of NC, we are at twelve straight days  (maybe more) with temperatures above 90*. "This is August weather, Mother Nature, and we don't appreciate being this hot this early in the year, especially when we haven't had rain in at least 10 days. "

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I'm working this weekend, so I might not get around to see all of you. 

Question:  Do you trust your computer if it tells you that you have a virus? I clicked on a favorite web-site (Jeff Kay's) a few minutes ago and got a page that said I had five viruses and  that I should click something on that page in order to get rid of them. I have read that sometimes tracking sites will mimic computer security in order to get you to click on something that doesn't remove anything - but ads a virus to your hard-drive. How can you tell when they are legitimate?   (This one purported to be Windows Defender)

Odds and Ends

The weather forecast predicted tornadoes for our area again today (Thursday), and the skies looked as though it might come true, but despite wind and torrential rains, the violent storms veered to our right and went easterly. Thank Heaven for that (with apologies to those in the path of today's storms.) When I went to work this morning, I drove through one of the areas hardest hit on April 16th. It still looks like a war zone, although progress has been made. I cannot imagine what it looks like in Tuscaloosa right now, since I know that seeing it on television bears little resemblance to the devastation seen in real life. My prayers go out for them. 

The Earth is angry. Whatever it is that we are doing to upset her should be stopped, and quickly. Gaia is rebelling at our misdeeds and bad thoughts. As the old advertisement goes....."It's not nice to fool Mother Nature."

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Are you watching American Idol?  Who is your favorite?  They are all good this season, so it is hard for me to pick one winner. I got excited tonight when I saw (on Facebook) that the tour dates for the summer had been set - and discovered they are coming to Raleigh!! Now I just have to find out the cost of the tickets.....lol.  I guess Scotty fans will fill the arena, and I am one of them. He's not extremely well-rounded as a singer; it seems everything he sings takes on a country flair, but he's so good and so cute it doesn't matter. Country is my least favorite music, but I'll make an exception for Scotty and for Carrie Underwood.

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 I worked for a new (to me) flower shop last week. I was there when I found out my cat had to be put down. Imagine getting that phone call in the midst of people you only met the day before; crying as if your heart would break, and trying to make decisions about burial/cremation/ashes saved or not. It was horrendous - although none of them could have been any nicer to me. I opted for letting the vet take care of the cremation and dispose of the ashes; our land is composed of clay and rock, and I can't even dig in it for flowers, let alone a grave. I didn't ask the vet what all of that would cost, but I should have.

when I went in on Monday to pay the bill, I got a big surprise. It was much higher than I thought it would be. So, on top of being so sad about losing my cat, I had to pay through the nose for the privilege. I will know what to do the next time an animal of mine gets ill. I'll do the burial myself, somehow. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel as though I've been taken advantage of - and I don't like it. Have you had bad experiences along these lines? What did you do?

It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one. Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen.

Jerome K. Jerome, humorist and playwright (1859-1927)

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I've been idling since January 1st, but that's about to stop. On Thursday I will start the first of five days straight with a flower shop for Valentine's Day. As always, I have a love/hate relationship with flower shops near Valentine's Day. I love being around fresh flowers and smelling the wonderful aromas, but I don't always appreciate the rush-rush-rush pace of those days and the impatience that customers sometimes exhibit during those important days. Each one always thinks that their order is the most important one in the country and no one else matters - no matter whose order was received first. Designers realize how important your order is to you and to the person who will receive it, but we can't materialize it out of thin air - particularly if the flowers you want haven't arrived from the wholesaler or grower yet. I hope that you will try to have patience with your florist and especially the delivery persons - who often go through all seven levels of Hell while attempting to find your special loved one.

As to the quote above...."there is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do...." is very true! You might enjoy doing nothing for a week or two if you are normally a very busy person, but when you have had no raison d'etre

for more than a month, it begins to wear on you. That's my experience and I've been stir-crazy since being sick for almost two weeks. Stressful or not, I am looking forward to getting back to work at long last.

Working at the State Capitol.....

was interesting. One might think it would be a quiet place, seeing as how the only official whose office remains there is our Governor.  But it was a hot-bed of activity and the acoustics (or lack thereof) with all that  granite and high ceilings made for a noisy workplace. 

We started decorating there on Friday morning, and the place was over-run by NC State Troopers. Their new commander was being sworn in that afternoon. Most troopers look terrific in their uniforms on a daily basis, but if you have never seen a bevy of them in dress uniforms - you are in for a treat when it happens. They were a handsome bunch; even the ones who might never be called good-looking were cutting fine figures yesterday, plus I was surprised at how many were women. I ought to have taken a photo!

I gave three tutorials on how to tie bows, and began to wish that they had gathered at the same time so I didn't have to repeat myself. They all said I made it look so easy and I replied...."All it takes is practice and years of experience." We had only been working a short time when we began to receive compliments from staff and visitors alike - and it is certainly gratifying to know that your efforts are appreciated.

Quite a few tourists come into the capitol. In the rotunda there is a statue of George Washington, done by Antonio Canova, in the Roman style. I'll not be the first to admit that seeing George in a toga is  somewhat disconcerting. (I'll post the photo soon.) But I had to laugh when a woman walked up and said..."I wonder if George 'sat' for that one." A nearby plaque explains it all...but it was funny at the time.

We had assumed that working there on Saturday would be less hectic and certainly less noisy - but were we ever wrong?!  As we approached the building, we saw a bunch of men in some sort of uniform awaiting entrance. They had on Scottish hats; plaid with feathers on the side, and the plaid scarf or banner that is worn over one shoulder, but no kilts. Eventually we ascertained that they were in the Masonic Order - a branch of Scottish Rite - called The Knights of St. Andrew. All of them cut a fine figure in their uniforms as well. They were there for a ceremony involving installation of new officers (I think), and about 300 people showed up. The din was ear-splitting. (I should have turned off my hearing aids....LOL.)  The presence of a lot of people in the areas where we are working, and in rooms where we need to place arrangements, wreaths, etc. can slow us down quite a bit. I made two arrangements for a mantel that never got placed due to all the commotion both days.It would be preferable to work there when no public events are scheduled - but I suppose that would be difficult - since there seems to be something held there daily.

In addition to all those people, some group was giving a large fund-raising ball on the Capitol grounds Saturday night, in giant tents that had been set up in advance. The tent people, tables and chairs, food staff and items for silent auction were arriving minute by minute and it seems that most of them had to parade by my chair. They didn't bother me, but the constant opening of doors made for a cold place to work - and when my hands are cold - trying to make bows is hard!

I forgot my cold hands when a group of people came in speaking a language with which I was not familiar, but I knew it  had to be of Slavic or Eastern European origin.  There were about a dozen of them and they snapped photos of the statuary and of each other and finally, one of the gentlemen came to stand before me and watch the bow-making process. I asked him where he was from, and he said, in very halting English...."Eye yam doc-tor, from far a-way; living in town called Kiev." I said only "welcome to North Carolina" since I couldn't be certain I heard him right. But then I asked him how long he would be here and he couldn't answer; either because he didn't understand me or he didn't know how to say it. Another man approached and told me they were a delegation of medical personnel and social workers who were in NC to learn about drug addiction and our methods of working with it/preventing it. It was fascinating to hear their language spoken (other than on TV) and when they asked me if I knew any Russian, I answered "NYET!", which made them laugh. I don't know if they realized it or not, but many of us learned that word when Kruschev said it over and over, many years ago.

And so we (Mel Day's Dogwood Tree Floral Design crew)  ended our season of holiday decorating, which began on November 23rd. We are all exhausted but very pleased to know that we have brought holiday cheer to many locations and people already, and knowing that will continue at least through December 26th.

I will post more photos in the next few days. I thank all of you who have already commented on previous photos and for those will do so again. I am incredibly lucky to have the small talent that makes it possible for me to do this work, which is such a joy in my life and without which I would be bereft. I am incredibly lucky to have an employer (Mel)  who is so talented,  so kind, so funny, so good-natured and wonder of all wonders - he tolerates me! We have a wonderful crew of people who work with us on special events and holiday decor (some of whom are Mel's relatives) and once the season is completely finished (when we take down all the decor) I will not see most of them again for months, and I will miss them terribly. I sound like such a sop, but I am tearing up as I write. Over the past nine years, they have become my family too. I do know how very lucky I am; I thank God for it every day and I am grateful.

More Carved Pumpkins!

See yesterday's post for an explanation of the man who carved these.

I'm thinking the bolts in his neck are making him queasy!

Bite your tongue!!

A goofy David Letterman!


I couldn't hold my head up long enough to post these last night. I left for work at 8:15 am yesterday and returned home at 8:15 last night, having driven 150 miles throughout the day.  I went to bed and fell asleep for eleven hours!! I can't remember ever sleeeping that long in one stretch. I sure needed it. But lest you think I'm complaining, let me assure you I am not. I enjoyed every minute of it.

I wanted to do a whole post with photos from our two days preparing for the Jim Valvano Golf Classic Gala Events, but Blogger isn't cooperating. I post a photo and place a caption with it, and the second photo I attempt to load  shows up in the preview, but not in compose, so I can't see it and place a caption with it. It's very frustrating!

On Friday, we ate our lunch at tables outside the Raleigh Convention Center, behind Sir Walter Raleigh.  I'd never seen this aspect of him before. Luckily there were no pigeons roosting on him, which surely would discourage any appetite, no matter how hungry you are! It was a gorgeous, sunny day. 

We went to work at 9:00 am and left at 4:00 pm. Of course Mel had been hard at work even before we arrived, packing up the flower arrangements we had made the previous day. By the time we left, my "cankles" were hurting and I couldn't wait to get home and prop up my feet. Dinner consisted of a bowl of oatmeal (but not the instant kind) and pumpernickle toast. Meeting back at the shop Saturday morning at 9:00, we went directly to the Convention Center, where we packed up the decor from the previous night and then re-set the tables for tonight's gala. There were seventy tables, each consisting of three vases of flowers, two with floating candles and three votive candles = 350 vases for those tables alone! We went back to the shop after lunch and made bud vases for the breakfast on Sunday morning; recycling the flowers from the Friday night event for use Sunday and again on Tuesday, for the Volunteer's Party.

I remain hopeful - even in the face of dreadful uncertainty - that I will be able to share the photos with you here soon!

Quote of Note + a Confession

Man can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet he's potentially more vicious than any other. He is the only one who can be persuaded to hate millions of his own kind whom he has never seen and to kill as many as he can lay his hands on in the name of his tribe or his God.

Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and author (1903-1998)

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I'm bone tired. I have worked nine out of the last ten days straight and it is finally getting to me. I have to admit that such constant labor is too much for my body. I used to work long, hard hours like this and after a night's sleep, I could get right back to work the next day and be like a new person. That's not happening as well as it used to. The problem is that I still want to do it. I want to be able to do the arrangements, the bows and wreaths and whatever else is asked of me and do an excellent job; one that will make me proud and my employers happy. I suppose I'm going to have to cut back on the hours next year, and it kills me to say that.
Anyone know where I can buy a dose of stamina?

Wedding ~ June 13, 2009

The first of two weddings (with Mel Day of Dogwood Tree Floral Design) was held in Pinehurst, about an hour south west of here. This reception site is really great for parties of any type. I had never seen it before. The plaque above explains the "barn" which may be rustic, but is the most elegant rusticity I've ever seen. The name of it is "Pinehurst Harness Ring Fair Barn". The ladies room would rival any you have seen in the better hotels.

The cocktail tables sat on the dance floor for the first part of the reception.

I loved seeing the patterns formed by the rafters, and the sun shining through them made the most interesting patterns on the floor.

A Raleigh company made this bar background and the photo below shows the matching bar table topper. It's a shadow box, and you can fill it with anything you want. After I took this photo, the glass top was replaced.

Below: some of the tables had tall arrangements, and some had short, square vases of hydrangea.

The canopy over the brick entry area was a nice respite from the hot sun. We decorated the poles with hydrangeas, ribbons, garland and wax flower.

This is the church altar centerpiece that Mel made.



The cake wasn't out yet, but I did like the tablecloth - so much texture.

It was hotter than Hades yesterday, but the barn, in spite of it, was very cool. They don't allow smoking (thankfully), but there is a terrace out back that is perfect for it.

Sleep eludes me. (When I first typed that, it said "Speel edules me.")

I'm so tired, but I cannot get to sleep. I worked 9 1/2 hours today; helping to deliver and set-up 2 weddings, one of which was an hour away. It was "blue blazes" hot today, and I was (as always) perpetually thirsty. I drank 2 small diet cokes, 1 bottle of water, 1 large caffeine-free diet coke and 3 (count 'em) 3 glasses of iced tea at lunch time. I made the remark that I would be lucky to go to sleep by 3am. Little did I know how very prophetic that statement would be. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut - no drinking of anything but water and no prophesies of the self-fulfilling type!

I was going to post all the photos from the wedding, but they are not cooperating. Perhaps tomorrow they will. I have a rather confusing system for doing my photos. I download (or is it upload ?) them to the computer, and then I open Picasa, the photo program I prefer. Picasa automatically picks up the photos and then I can crop, lighten, etc. to my heart's content. But I don't like to post directly from Picasa, so I email the enhanced photos to myself, and then copy them to my hard drive again. I am having trouble doing that part tonight; I keep getting a message saying that they cannot find the file (which is total crap - but how do I tell the computer that?) I know it is crap because I have been doing my photos that way for at least 3 years now. Why it suddenly decided that I couldn't do it that way, I don't know, but I don't much like it.

When I got home last night at 7:20 pm, I was too exhausted to get on the computer (believe it or not). I ate the pizza that my sweet daughter bought for me and got into my recliner to relax. We watched a series of shows on Discovery about our planet, (fascinating stuff there about the composition of the core of the earth!) and I dozed a little during the 3 hours I was lying there. But only a little, and I wasn't really asleep - just barely above the threshold of consciousness. Near 11pm, I got up and got ready for bed (after doing email, etc.) and I read for 30 minutes and turned out the light. One hour later, I was still lying there trying to doze off - but no such luck. So I gave up and got on the computer again. It's 3:36 a.m. I'm gonna need a really good nap tomorrow!!

The First Rose(s) of Summer

These are the first blooms of what I hope will be a profusion this summer. Click to enlarge. They are so heavy that they weigh the branch down and I had to hold it up to get the photo.

Work was good; I went to Mel's in the morning for three hours and finished up the day at the other shop, where I did about 15 more corsages. Some of you asked about wrist corsages and when they became popular. I am not sure that I remember exactly when they came into popularity, but I began getting requests for them in wedding work back in the 80's. The main purpose is to avoid pinning a corsage on your dress, which could damage fabric. If someone is wearing a strapless dress, there's not much room to pin a corsage. Back in my high school days, if we wore strapless dresses, we pinned the corsages at our waistline. Nowadays, kids dance so close together that a corsage would get smashed on the first go-around.

What many people don't know is that there are now powerful magnets which can be incorporated into corsages, which eliminate the need for a pin and do not damage fabrics. They cost a little more than a regular corsage, but not as much as a wristlet. The only people who cannot use the magnets are those who have heart monitors or pacemakers installed. I often use the magnets for bride's mothers and grandmothers. But some florists think that using them is too time-consuming or adds too much to the cost for them. As a former mother of the groom I would have welcomed a magnet corsage, rather than the lace-backed concoction I received, on a wristlet. Many mothers are now opting for small nosegays or to carry one stem down the aisle, rather than to wear flowers. They may also pin a corsage on a fabric purse - and some opt to have no flowers at all. That is a perfectly good choice too.

Happy Valentine's Day to One and All!


A card.....


Some pretty roses.....



And cookies? What more could you want? (Yeah, I know.........chocolate!)

I hope your Valentine's Day is all you could ever hope for! and I hope mine can be spent in the hot tub at the health club and then in bed for a long nap. I deserve it! I worked 19 and 1/2 hours, but it feels like about 60. The place I usually work is quiet; the phone rings, but not incessantly and the noisiest things are the coolers, and they aren't on all the time. In the shop this week, the phones rang often enough to curl your toes and make your ears hum all night, plus customers pop in and out all day (the pesky things!). The guys from the barber shop next door must have not had much hair to cut, because one of them was in our workroom several times a day; contributing to the horrendous lack of space and standing in the path I needed to take no matter where I went. One of them was cute, had great hair and wore beautiful shirts - so I forgave him. He also bought a gorgeous vase of orchids for his sweetie, so he's a good guy.

The manager gave me a heart-shaped tin of Ghirardelli chocolates (yummm!) and a co-worker whom I had only known 4 days gave me a tube of lotion for my hands and an emery board. She could see that my hands really needed it, I'm sure! Few florists have great nails, unless they have fake ones.

It was hard work, but fun and I'm glad I had the opportunity. On Saturday, I may not even get out of bed, but if I do, I'm heading straight for the health club hot tub to soak my aching muscles. I hope your sweetie(s) show you how much you are loved on Valentine's Day!