Wedding Bells

You might say I have been around flower shops on and off for most of my life.  When I was a little girl my grandmother worked at a flower shop.  I loved going to visit her at work and today the smells of a flower shop can conjure up those memories.  When I was in high school I worked after school at a flower shop,  in college I took two floral design classes and my mom bought a flower shop during this time.  After I was married and had two small children I worked for her for several years.

Bridesmaid's bouquet 

Although I have not been around a flower shop in over 20 years, I occasionally make arrangements for events at church, rehearsal dinners, and various other things.  On Sunday, October 10, 2010, the son and daughter of two very dear friends, Connie and Pam, got married.  I was honored when the bride asked me to make the flowers for the wedding.  

Fresh flowers on the cake

Brooke, the bride, and her mother Connie, were able to order the flowers from the floral department of our local grocery store.  They brought the flowers by on Saturday morning for me to get started.  Brooke had chosen green hydrangeas, green cushion pom pom mums, orange gerbera daisies, white mums, orange and white alstroemeria, orange and white miniature carnations, and white cremons.  I have to admit I was a little nervous!

Flowers ready to be made into beautiful things

A mutual friend of mine and Connie's, Patti, came by to "assist" me.  Patti was  great help, she wired all the flowers that needed wiring and went to Hobby Lobby for last minute supplies.  She also was my sounding board and chauffeur.  I did everything I could on Saturday, saving the brides bouquet, mother's bouquets, and the grooms boutonniere for Sunday morning because they all had hydrangeas in them.  

Jani, Brooke, & Patti

On Sunday morning Patti came by and we took all the flowers that were ready to the wedding site.  There was a large arrangement that I had to hold while Patti drove about 15 minutes to the location of the wedding.  

Large arrangement for reception

When we got to Heartwood Hall to deliver the flowers I discovered there were some smaller containers like the large one I had made the arrangement in.  I brought part of them home with me to use the remaining flowers in for the reception.  In the meantime I still had the wedding flowers to finish up.

  

About 1pm Connie called wanting to know where the bride's bouquet was!!  Yikes, I had forgotten it needed to be there early with the other flowers I was doing for the wedding.  Luckily I had just finished with them and was able to send them with my son, Skiler, to Heartwood Hall.  Patti and I neither one had thought about the flowers needing to be there early for pictures!  Thank goodness Skiler was here to save the day!

Skiler

On to the reception flowers I took on at the last minute!  I put Patti to work taping the tops of the containers and putting greenery in them.  I soon realized that I would only have enough time and flowers for two arrangements if I was going to make it to the wedding!  

Arrangement for reception

Patti and I arrived at Heartwood Hall and with her help, we were able to get everything set up for the reception with time to spare.  

Aisle markers

The bride and groom were radiant and it turned out to be a beautiful day for an outside wedding.  Denise, the owner of Hartwood Hall, was calm, cool, and collected, not to mention a wonderful host. I had a great time working with Brooke.  Here's wishing Josh and Brooke a blessed life.


Jani

Brooke & Josh

Seize The Moment

A few weeks ago a group of ladies went to the beach for our fourth annual beach trip.  We go every year on the Tuesday after Labor Day and come home on the following Saturday.  It is a great time of relaxing on the beach, reading, shopping, eating, and fellowship.  This year there were 12 of us who went, where as last year we had 16 go, which was our largest group so far.  Oh, forgot to mention "Kim on a Stick" was with us as well!

The highlight of our afternoon was to sneak into the "lazy river" at the Phoenix West next door to our condo!  We justified this by telling ourselves that two summers ago when they were building the Phoenix West we got woken up every morning about 6 am by the construction noises.  They also have a water slide and last year one of our ladies bravely went down head first only to entertain everyone with a swimsuit malfunction!  I'm not sure if she went down the slide this year or not.  

As we were floating on the tubes enjoying our "girl time" I was watching parents play with their children.  I thought how I wish I had seized the moment when my children were little.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I swam with them, but most of the time it was on my terms;  "don't get my hair wet, don't splash".  How I wish I had just had fun playing and swimming when they wanted to spend time with me.  They grow up too quickly!  What is 30 minutes of drying and fixing a thick mop of hair compared to spending precious moments with my children?  If only foresight was 20/20 we would have it made!


Until next time, Go Pokes!
Jani

Why Do I Procrastinate?

I wish I was a jump in and do it now kind of person, but sadly I'm not!  I can know for weeks that I need to complete a project but still end up waiting until the last minute.


Sunday afternoon I helped host a bridal shower and I was responsible for the cupcakes. Midweek I thought about making the cupcakes and freezing them until Saturday when I would ice them.  Well, Friday night came and I still had not baked the cupcakes.  Saturday morning I told myself I would just go to the bakery and buy them.  I really didn't want to make cupcakes anyway.  At 5 Saturday afternoon I realized it was too late to go get cupcakes.  So about 7:30 I went to the grocery store and bought the ingredients to bake.


By the time I got home and got started working on the cupcakes it was 8:30!  "Why do I procrastinate?" I asked myself.  If my husband had been home he would have asked me if I just found out I was supposed to bake cupcakes.  He does that.


To make matters worse I decided to make three flavors of cupcakes!  I found a recipe that made a large amount of batter so I mixed it up and divided it into three batches.  I left one batch vanilla, made one batch into chocolate, and the last batch was strawberry.  I had never done this but I figured if it didn't work I had a cake mix in the pantry and I could start over and make them all the same.  


While the vanilla cupcakes were baking I melted the chocolate chips and mixed them in with the batter.  Everything was going pretty well.  Then came the strawberry batter.  I got a little over zealous when flavoring them and got the batter a little runny.  I told myself it would be okay.  Let's just say the strawberry cupcakes went in the trash.  They never rose while they were baking and they were very strawberry!  Next time I decide to make strawberry cupcakes I think I will just use my strawberry cake recipe.


I am so happy that "all the rage" for icing cupcakes is to pipe the icing on with a pastry bag!  This is so easy and quick.  I never could spread icing on a cake or cupcake without it looking awful. I finished up about midnight and was hoping my concoction was edible!


I didn't tell any of my friends who came to the shower I made the cupcakes.  I wanted to see their honest reaction.  I figured if they were bad people would leave them on their plates. To my surprise they were a hit!  I never change up a cake recipe, I follow it to the letter.  So as you can imagine I was not sure what the end results would be.


Next time I am going to plan ahead.  I'm going to buy my groceries the week before.  Then I'm going to test out the recipe on my family.  Who am I kidding?  I've been operating like this for most of my life.  Let's face it I work best under pressure!


Until next time, Go Pokes!
Jani

Why The Mason Jar?

When I was trying to think of a name for my blog I thought of The Mason Jar because of it's many uses.  Think about it, not only can you use a Mason jar for it's intended use of canning, but at our house we have used them for many other things.  Including a vase, a drinking glass, a place to store loose change, a candy dish, and the list goes on and on.  I knew I would not be writing about one subject, but many.  So in a sense, my blog is like a Mason jar, a storage place/container for an endless collection of numerous thoughts and topics. 


In closing let me say "Go Pokes".  If your not sure what that means read the section "about me" at the bottom right.


Jani