What's up at Cynthia's Floral Design, Jewelry & Gifts

Driver Dailies (11/19/2009)

Welcome to Driver Dailies, where we talk about the adventures of our delivery driver!  We should have started this blog some time ago as there have been some hair-raising stories and many funny stories to tell! 

Let's start with Thursday November 19, 2009.  Cynthia was filling in for her normal delivery driver, who had the day off, and of course the deliveries ranged far and wide.  Okay, let's get the one on the mountain done before dark...so off we go!

I knew from the address it was going to be waaaaay out there.  After 30 minutes of driving winding roads, constantly rising in elevation, my GPS is telling me I've arrived at the address.  Okay, so where is it?  I see every number on the mailboxes but the one I'm looking for.  After driving back and forth twice in the vicinity, I finally spotted an opening in a huge 1/2-mile-long hedge that was barely wider than my delivery van and lo and behold in teeny white lettering on an even teenier sign, I spotted the number.  Okay this is it.  I felt like Alice in Wonderland going through that opening in the hedge.

What's on the other side?  Acres and acres of overgrown tree farm with a long narrow dirt road, wet with mud, going straight through it as far as I could see.  Hoo boy.  I began the drive through the abandoned, eerie tree farm and 1/2 mile later the muddy road started to go downhill and around a corner, then it became a one-lane road carved out of the side of the mountain with nothing but a homemade stone retaining wall on one side of the road, complete with sheer drop off to the road below, and the moutainside hugging my van on the right side of the road....then the switchbacks started....one, two, three of them, each one steeper downhill than the other. 

I've now traversed a steep downhill muddy road into the bottom of a canyon and there's a fork in the one-lane road WITH NO SIGNS!  Eeny, meeny miny mo...I'll take the left one.  ...oh great, I just noticed I have no cell service now that I'm in neverland... 

Ah, finally there's the house...a beautiful sprawling country estate....and no one appears to be home.  It's dark, empty.  I get out of the van.  The quiet is deafening.  The forest is soggy, quiet, I'm all alone.  I approach the house with my beautiful bouquet of flowers to deliver to the homeowner.  Yes, this is the right house, I see the number under the doorbell.  For sure no one is home. I ring the bell anyway....30 seconds or so goes by...seemed like an eternity.  I look around, a little bit nervous.  I decide to leave the flowers in a safe place under a table on the porch, out of the rain.  I then turn tail and begin to slog through the mud to my van and wonder if I'll be able to get out of here now. 

I begin the drive up the muddy switchbacks.  My van is whining, RPMs rising.  Oh please Lord, no....my wheels start spinning in the mud.  C'mon girl, you can do it.  All of a sudden the tires catch and the van lurches forward a bit.  I drop it into low and grind up the muddy switchbacks slowly.  When I finally came around that last corner and crested the top of the hill, I breathed a sigh of relief.  Thank you Lord.

Do we have a "won't go there again list?"  Yup!  Is this address on it?  Yessiree Bob.  Thanks for coming along on the adventure....join us again for Driver Dailies!

Mother's Day 2009

Thanks to all our customers, both new and returning, who helped make our first Mother's Day and great success!! 

Take Your Daughter To Work Day at Cynthia's

Cynthia's had the pleasure of hosting two young ladies for 2009 Take Your Daughter To Work Day!

Our lead designer, Davi, brought in daughter Truda and her friend Jade.  Both are in 5th grade and looked forward to their day in the flower shop.  Ready to hear about their adventures?

Their day started out with Davi teaching them how to put together European garden baskets.

The girls each chose a "critter" to add to their garden.  Truda chose a blue butterfly and Jade picked a ladybug.  They turned out great! 

Great job ladies!

Once Cynthia finished a white tribute piece, the girls helped with delivery.  Truda and Jade loaded up the van and Davi and Truda went out on delivery. 

  

In the meantime Jade and Cynthia opened the shop for the day. Jade brought out the flower display stand and started filling it with tulips for the neighborhood shoppers.

Time for some floral arranging!  Davi and the girls picked out some blossoms and the girls set to work on their creations.  Good job girls!!

Murphy's Law & Friday the 13th

First of all, a big THANK YOU to all our loyal customers, new customers and referrals who have supported us through our first six months in business.  We wouldn't be here without you!  This little shop is a dream come true and I'm grateful to all of you for supporting small business and shopping local! 

So ready for a peek into the back room during Valentine's week?

Saturday February 14, 2009:  It's our first Valentine's Day, the shop looks gorgeous all decked out with pinks and reds for the holiday.  Hydrangea plants, begonias, orchids, kalanchoe and roses everywhere; chocolates, gifts, jewelry--so beautiful!  We're ready to rock -n- roll! 

Okay, so I'm not a believer in the perils of Friday the 13th....but....if you've been following my blog you know that we've had a run of crazy incidences at the shop over the past few months that could be called bad luck, Murphy's Law, testing my metal, whatever. 

Murphy's Law kick in the butt number 1:  The cooler situation at the shop is suitable for our everyday order load but not sufficient to hold all the flowers we had processed in for the holiday, so I ordered an evaporative cooler for our back room (swamp cooler to those of us who remember when they were called that).  It arrived in plenty of time for us to get it set up and tested before our flowers arrived but, alas, it was defective.  Okay, call the company, get return authorization, have a new one sent out. 

In the meantime the day is approaching fast for our 2000 stems of flowers to hit the shop when our second cooler shows up and guess what?  Even more defective than the first one!  (Made in China...enough said)  Anyway, I had to literally call all over town to track down one to rent, got it set up the day all our flowers came in and....and....and....did the ice-filled unit cool the back room sufficiently?  No, of course not!  Why would it?  That would mean something was going my way!!  LOL!!!  Okay, so you're asking why not put in a small air conditioner?  Thought about it--nowhere to vent it.  So now we have about half of our flowers at room temperature blowing open two days before Valentine's Day.  Sigh.....

Murphy's Law kick in the pants Number 2:  That was Thursday, then comes Friday the 13th, the day before Valentine's Day.  Now normally I don't even give Friday the 13th another thought and this year was no exception--I was too busy trying to pull together the shop's first V-Day. 

Late in the afternoon it was discovered that customers had been trying to call my shop all day and had been connecting with a land development business nearby with a phone number not even close to the same digits as ours.  One of our corporate clients tried 7 times to get through to us and every time ended up connected to the same wrong number--finally got through to us on try number eight.  What the?  We still don't know how many customers we lost because of this problem, nor has the phone company figured out what the problem was or still is.  The development company told us they'd received "a lot" of calls for us but didn't have caller ID and didn't ask what numbers the people were calling from (why would they?) so we couldn't really even track down the area of town where a relay might be bad. 

Okay, so the phone company had been made aware that their screwed up relays were making my life miserable, ticking off my customers and adversely affecting (to put it mildly) my business on the biggest day of the year and they better get it fixed yesterday.  Now, moving on....

Saturday morning:  So the phone problem aside (really it was out of my control at this point, time to get over it) on with the Valentine orders.  My awesome designer Davi was kicking out orders to beat the band (she runs circles around me at the design table!) and hectic as it was, things were going smoothly.  Deliveries were going out on time thanks to Super-Ken, Brian and my best friend Sylv, customers were making a lot of last-minute purchases of chocolates and gifts, and I looked up and guess what?  It was snowing!  I just had to laugh.  Remember when I joked during the 2-week Christmas snowstorm that it would be my luck it would snow again on Valentine's Day?  I think someone upstairs has a sense of humor.  It only snowed big fluffy non-sticking flakes for about a half an hour, just enough to make me smile and shake my head. 

What a silly week it was.  In the end, we dealt with all the orders we could handle with our small crew and, when all was said and done our customers were happy....well, with the exception of one, but don't EVEN get me started on him--some people you just can't make happy no matter how far you bend over backwards to please them.

Once again though I remind myself how lucky I am to have a beautiful shop in a quaint setting with the support of a wonderful family, great friends and loyal customers.  I wouldn't trade any of this for the world and know how blessed I am to even have a small business still open in this day and age.  God bless and take care...oh and keep smiling!!  It makes people wonder what you're up to. 

Here comes the snow

Yes it's snowing again!  I think I jinxed myself when I joked during our Christmas snowstorm that with my luck it would snow during the next busy time, Valentine's Day....and look what it's doing!  Oh my!!  Ah, the bright side is that it's not supposed to stick and will be gone long before the 14th.  It's a beautiful sight but not a welcome one!  Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Cynthia

Here's the lovely view from inside the shop.

Miss America 2009

Once again this year I had the honor of providing custom made hand-crafted jewelry for Miss Oregon, Danijela Krstic, and Miss Washington, Janet Harding, for their appearance in the Miss America 2009 competition in Las Vegas, Nevada.  I'm so proud to be a part of this amazing organization.  The Miss America organization is the largest provider of academic scholarships to young women in the world, awarding over $45 million in 2008 to 12,000 young women across the country who competed in local and state pageants.  Wow!  To learn more about Miss America, check out their website http://www.missamerica.org. 

In the months leading up to Miss America I meet with each young lady, view their wardrobe for the competition, take lots of detail photographs of each garment and begin the design process for the jewelry to match each gown, swimsuit, etc.  Crystals were still flying as I arrived in Vegas just hours before the first night of preliminary competition, personally delivering the last pieces.  Text messages and phone calls were zinging across cyberspace as I was trying to hook up with the ladies to deliver the remaining pieces that had needed some "tweeking" at the last minute. 

Both Danijela and Janet, along with their directors Dana and Peggy, respectively, have been a joy to work with!   

In the following picture Miss Oregon, Danijela Krstic, poses with Dana & Steve Phillips, directors for the Miss Oregon Scholarship Pageant.  Danijela is wearing custom made silver chandeliers with black Swarovski crystal.

 

Below:  Miss Washington, Janet Harding, with Cynthia after the last night of competition.  Janet is wearing custom made sterling silver chain and Swarovski crystal drop earrings.

 

The entire week was so much fun, not only atteding all 4 nights of competition but also running around Vegas, seeing the sights.  Check back for more on that....

Oh no! Not another snow event!!

Sunday, Februday 8, 2009.  I joked during the Christmas 2008 snowstorm that with my luck we'd get hit with another snowstorm on our next busy holiday, Valentine's Day....and guess what?  Snow is in the forecast this week!  Aaaargh!!!  Luckily we're just supposed to get a dusting and it will melt right away.  Whew!!!  There'll be no more joking around about snow!

Welcome 2009 !!

Hard to believe another year has gone by so fast!  It's been 5 months since the shop opened and I'm happy to report word is getting out and the business continues to grow even in our slow economy. 

We look forward to the coming year and want you, our customers, to remember our commitment to giving you excellent customer service, the freshest flowers and the most unique gift selection from local artists and artisans. 

Stick with us and watch us continue to grow!

Christmas 2008 Snowstorm

Posted by Cynthia:  December started out pretty normally for the shop, with Christmas shoppers bustling about purchasing gifts and ordering flowers, but by mid December the snow started falling...and falling...and falling and by December 23 the floral orders were piling up almost as high as the snow.  Our community had not seen this much snow since 1968...1-1/2 to 3 feet, depending on elevation and which hill you live on. 

Being a brand-new flower shop I wasn't sure what the first holiday would bring to the shop as far as orders but soon found out folks were discovering us on the internet and by word of mouth.  Orders were coming in from as far away as England.  Now, with a foot of snow outside our door and much of our delivery area in a "state of emergency," what to do about getting these special Christmas flower orders out the door....

Have no fear, Ken is here!  Our delivery van, not being 4-wheel drive, was "grounded" for the storm  so Ken and his trusty Titan saved the day.  While my designer, Davi, worked feverishly in the shop filling orders, Ken worked tirelessly to get the deliveries out to homes in our community located in the heart of some very steep terrain. 

Deliveries went nonstop from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Christmas Eve.  Luckily some of the snow had melted off and  Ken got all his deliveries out by 5 p.m., then my husband Doug and I took over until 10 p.m.  Many of the deliveries that evening were from sons and daughters sending their love through flowers to their parents residing in assisted living and retirement communities, and it was so heartwarming to be a part of their special delivery.  

Christmas Day we had just one more delivery left to make and it was waaaaay out in the country.  Cynthia and Doug set out about 2 in the afternoon amidst heavily falling snow to a beautiful country landscape to present a special delivery to a mom from her son.  He had requested her favorite flowers, Dutch iris, be included and she was so touched.  We love our jobs!...okay, so sometimes not so much.... Let's go back to the last delivery Christmas Eve (this is Cynthia speaking) Of course, this one was in the hills off Regner Road.  Ugh!  I had to pick my way across the top of thigh-high packed snow, sinking to my knees with each step, down a 100-yard long driveway then down a path to finally reach the front door of this country home.  Well, halfway down the driveway I discovered too late that I was walking on top of a small retaining wall and all of a sudden the bottom fell out from under me and I went head over heels and landed head-first upside down in the snow.  Being a rather large woman, you can imagine my predicament.  It's 9:30 at night, I'm in the middle of a snow covered driveway upside down, completely out of Doug's sight.  (Luckily the centerpiece had plopped down perfectly in the snow and was left undamaged.  My ego, however, was quite bruised) 

Anyway, feeling much like a beached whale and still nearly upside down, I rolled over on my back then discovered my bottom was sort of on top of the retaining wall and my head and shoulders were hanging over the side of it so I had to just flip over (inventing the new snowbound back flip) crawl up to the wall and roll onto the driveway.  Okay, that done, now how do I get back up to my feet? (which were so cozy inside ginormous boots, preventing any semblance of balance)  I had to pile up and pack snow to form a shelf so I had something to lean on to get up.  By then I was soaked from head to toe.  I composed myself, trying to bring back a shred of dignity, all the while wishing I was at home in my jammies, and continued my trek down the driveway....careful to avoid the evil retaining wall!  I hope those folks enjoy that arrangement!  LOL!!

Okay, so back to our last delivery the next afternoon, Christmas day.  I had to carry the centerpiece the whole way since the roads were so bumpy from ice and snow and Doug's truck has...well...not the smoothest ride.  Again, this one delivery made it all worth it.  She was so touched by our trek out into the country in the snow on Christmas Day and so thankful to her son for sending her favorite irises.  Yes, I do love this profession.

Ah, done at last!  After an exuberant high-5, we set out for home to our own Christmas dinner.

Special thanks to Davi, my awesome designer; Ken, my cousin and driver; and Doug, my wonderful husband, who helped make the first Christmas for Cynthia's Floral Design a very successful one!

Here we go!

Welcome to Cynthias Floral Design, Jewelry & Gifts!  It is our desire to keep you, our client, informed of what's up at Cynthia's.  Located in historic downtown Gresham, Oregon, Cynthia's is not your average flower shop!

As you enter Cynthia's, you're greeted with a warm welcome from our staff and a treat for your senses.  Decorated in warm, inviting colors and a comfortable circular layout, our little boutique offers a unique shopping experience! 

In addition to floral design offerings ranging from traditional to edgy, you can also choose from our artfully displayed single stem selections to create your own unique design.  Our staff will assist you in choosing colors and textures, then add greens and wrap it for you.  We offer free consultations for your wedding or event and consider it an honor to be a part of your special day.

We offer a full line of upscale gift items from Voluspa, Baudelaire, Urban Rituelle, Ashleigh Manor, Salamander Graphix, Noodle & Boo, just to name a few. 

Oh, but that's not all!  Cynthia's celebrates the work of regional artists and artisans.  Our unique gift line includes watercolor art from renowned artists Patricia Schmidt and Mike Hill; a full line of lavender bath & body from Lavender Haven; locally famous hand-thrown pottery by Vince & Sabrina; lovely soaps from Dirty Face Soap Company; handcrafted home decor items by Yvonne; photography by several local artists; and the list goes on!

But we're not done yet!  Cynthia's features handcrafted jewelry designs by 4 regional jewelry designers.  Caroline's Droplets (contemporary design), Annandale Jewelry (Gemstones, 14K and sterling), Jewelry by Ann (everyday earrings) and Cynthia's Jewelry Box (Swarovski crystal, pearls and gemstones).  Jewelry Design by Bella is coming soon! 

Cynthia's Jewelry Box (yes that's the shop owner) features bridal, pageant and special occasion jewelry.  Cynthia's clients include a long list of brides and attendants, some of whom chose from the existing line of jewelry, and some who chose to have their jewelry custom designed by Cynthia.  Cynthia designs all the competition jewelry for Miss Oregon and Miss Washington to be worn for the Miss America pageant each year, as well as creating custom pieces for six former Miss Americas.  Cynthia sponsors the annual Portland Rose Festival, creating custom designs for the entire Rose Festival Court and Queen.

Thanks for visiting our blog.  Check us out at www.CynthiasFloralDesign.com and www.CynthiasJewelryBox.net 

Check back soon!