7 Fun activities with flowers

It's summer! Summer means swimming, playing outside until the streetlights come on, and roasting marshmallows over a campfire. Especially for children, summer is a time of freedom and exploration. Summer is also a great time for some family bonding. 

If you are looking for fun things to do with your children, here is a list of fun activities that you can do together:

1.) Grow a flower- Using a Dixie cup, and some soil, plant a seed or two in the soil. Poke several holes in the bottom so that water can drain. Water a little each day and see how long it takes for the flower to sprout.

2.) Visit a flower shop- Take a field trip to your local flower shop to look at all the flowers and plants that they have. Ask the florists and staff about care tips for flowers at home. Buy some loose flowers like daisies, carnations, alstromeria to take with you!

3.) Make an arrangement- After your trip to the flower shop you and your children can make arrangements! You will be surprised to see what neat arrangement children come up with.

4.) Botanical Gardens trip- Take another field trip to the Toledo Botanical Gardens. Explore all the different types of garden areas and see how they use different plants and flowers in each one.

5.) Coffee Filter Flowers- This fun art project is lots of fun but probably best done outside. Using markers, color lightly on the coffee filters. Then lightly moisten the filters which will cause the colors to run together! As you let them dry in the sun, take green construction paper to make a stem and some leaves. then glue the two halves together. Voila! You can put the flowers on the refrigerator, back door or on their walls.

6.) Magic Flowers- This takes a little time. Take bud vases or clear glasses filled with water. put in a few drops of food coloring of choice, then, putting a fresh cut at the bottom at an angle, stick a white carnation or daisy chrysanthemum in the vase. Kids will be amazed to see the flower change color as it drinks water.

7.) Art Museum trip- For centuries artists like Claude Monet and Georgia O'Keeffe have been inspired by nature and flowers. Take a visit to the Toledo Museum of Art and meander through the galleries. Look at the works of world class artists and discuss how they perceive nature. Then at home children can create their own artworks based on nature and flowers.

I hope that this gives you some fun ideas for summer activities. I have at one point or another done all of these activities and I had a lot of fun. If you try any of them, let me know how your experience went down in the comments. (And as always, you can look at my inspiration board for this blog.)

The Earth Laughs in Flowers

One of my favorite quotes for the Flower Shop to use for newsletters, Facebook, emails, etc., is

"[The] earth laughs in flowers."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

This quote says everything that I feel about my job. Flowers are fun, festive, and spunky. Most of the people that I have delivered flowers to have been excited to get an arrangement. They look joyful and pleased that someone has thought of them.

I agree with Mr.Emerson. If flowers were to be any sort of expression of the earth, they would be laughter. Pure, exuberant, throw-your-head-back, wildly musical laughter. Flowers are great that way. They are care free and spirited.

White and purple Calla lilies. 

My favorite color hydrangea: White!

Mixed arrangement: a semi paved.

Well we are currently in the process of rearranging the store. It's time to give the store a face-lift now that it is June. I will hopefully have some pictures of all the awesome tweaks and lifts that we are doing in the store. As always, you can take a look at the Pinterest board that goes along with this post by clicking here.

If you could only have one flower in an arrangement what would it be?

A wish for you

Happy New Year!

I can't believe how quickly the holiday season has come and gone. It felt like one minute it was  Christmas day and then the next minute it was New Years Eve. And now we are several days into the New Year. Where did all that time go? What happens to it?

Does anyone else feel let down after the holidays? We have two weeks of shopping, family, parties, and a million billion other exciting things. And then... poof! It is all over and we have to shift back to real life. After the magic and mystery that surrounds the Christmas season, real life feels just so... real. We head back to work, back to school, back to the grind. Turn off the carols, tear down the tree, eat the last cookie and then move on. It just doesn't seem fair that it ends so suddenly.

But this is the start of a brand new year. This year anything can happen. It has yet to be defined. It is still brimful with amazing possibility. And that is pretty exciting. It's like one last present from the universe.

I have some wishes and hopes this year for you...
I hope you live each day to the fullest.
I hope you more than survive, I hope that you thrive.
I hope you see something so beautiful that it makes you heart-wrenchingly happy.I hope that you do something that you love whether it is a job that you adore or a hobby that you are passionate about.
I hope you take advice from children. Their perception of the world lacks all the complications that adults see.
I hope you accomplish all the projects and and goals that you set for yourself.
I hope you make new friends or reacquaint yourself with old ones.
But all these hopes and dreams can be summed up in one final wish.
I hope you are happy.

Happy New Year!
Jennie
David Swesey Florist.