Floralore designs

02/15/2024

I figured I should make it official. I decided a while ago that I wanted to close Floralore. Between responsibilities with Luna, difficulties with lucrativity, space constraints and the wear and tear on my body and long hours of working farmer’s market, it was the right decision. I think if I end up going back into the work force again when Luna gets older I’d want to work grocery floral again because I actually got the most job satisfaction from working those jobs :) I loved that I could make something and look at it but also that I could build a display and it could stay up overnight and I didn’t have to worry about wind/temperature fluctuations.

Here is a favorite photo from my Floralore days for the algorithm :)

Sorry for cross posting!

10/05/2022

So earlier in the season I left you all quite suddenly without saying why! I just wanted to let you know that it is because I am pregnant and expecting a little girl on New Year's Eve!! I just got the cutest photo with one of my cats the other day and wanted to share it with you all! Hope you are all doing well!!

05/01/2022

Hi hi everybody. I just wanted to let everybody know I'll be closing Floralore temporarily for the foreseeable future for personal reasons. I'm healthy and everybody in my family is fine, but I won't be taking Mother's Day orders and I won't be at the farmer's markets this summer, though I do still plan to make the bouquets for Mongan's dance recital in June. I hope you are all doing well and you all take a chance to enjoy the showy blooms of spring outside in the next couple of weeks as I plan to!

Here is a photo of the most recent bouquet I made as an attention grabber.

02/09/2022

Hi there friends, I wanted to let you all know that I won't be able to deliver Valentine's Day flowers this year as I hurt my back fairly badly a week ago and it is still not really much better even after medication. Wishing you all a beautiful rest of your week and a wonderful VDay!!

Here is a photo of our cuties from when they were oh so tiny as well!!

12/17/2021

I am offering Christmas Arrangements this year from my brand new website!! You can choose between December 23rd and Christmas Eve delivery.

Get your orders in early to be sure that the style you like best will be available for you! After I buy flowers at the wholesaler, the selections will become much more limited based on what I have in stock here.

All of the arrangements available online will be a bit different than pictured as they will all include beautiful Christmas greens, and the asymmetrical arrangement shown with lilies will not include lilies (as a consideration for the safety of our three adorable cats). I'm excited to share photos of everything with you all as the arrangements come together this year!

Wishing you all a most wonderful weekend and week leading up to Christmas this year!

You can place your orders online at www.floraloredesigns.com for local deliveries within approximately 30 miles of Tinley Park.

Floralore is a local Tinley Park florist committed to excellent customer service and making the world a better place. Floralore is owned and operated by an indigenous woman.

12/13/2021

New shiny website alert!!!

Hi there friends!! If you had tried to visit my website anytime in the last three days or so I apologize that it was down as I was porting over from Squarespace to Shopify. I now have my site at a point of completion where I feel like I can share it with you all!! I am so so excited for this new site! I don't have any of the things for the fresh flowers activated yet, but at some point soon I'll get that all going too. I found an app that while a bit pricy will let me do all of the things I've been dreaming about with my website, like having separate categories of items that are only available for delivery or to be shipped, and blackout dates and built in preparation times and delivery windows!!! I spent the past two days or so with a lot of different support folks over chat and I have to say that Shopify has some really incredible customer service. Even when I was messaging them at 1 am on a Saturday night, they had a cheery smart person on the other side ready to help me figure out what cnames and a records are and all sorts of things to do with domains and dns configurations! It was a wild ride, but I hereby unveil my new shiny website!! If you decide you want to order some lavender goodies from me as well, I think there should still be ample time for everything to arrive to you safe and sound before Christmas is officially here as long as you order in the next few days or so 🙂

Wishing you all a wonderful week, much happiness and nerdy enjoyment of whatever makes you tick!!

Here is a still from my new website! www.floraloredesigns.com

Please let me know if you notice anything not working like you expect, too!! I tried to comb through it, but there could be things I've missed!

11/30/2021

Hello there!! I've got lots of dried lavender goodies that I've made available on my website. Lavender is wonderful for promoting relaxation and sleep and many of the crafted items are great for taking on the go for instant stress relief and therefore make great small meaningful gifts for the holidays. You can choose from jewelry and keychains to small bottles you can keep in a purse as well as sachets and dried lavender bunches. At least 10% of Floralore's profits before I pay myself go directly to local charities which have recently included Southwest Suburban Crisis Center and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

I'll leave my website in the comments in case you feel inclined to stop by :)

11/27/2021

It's small business Saturday today 🙂 no pressure (hopefully!), but if you do feel like you would like some of the lavender goodies I've got available on my website, they are on sale today and some are starting to run out. Sending love to you all ❤

Pictured are the ornament earrings that I think could be quite fun for Christmas if that is something you celebrate.

I'll post a link to my website in the comments.

11/26/2021

Jewelry and dried bunches and purse lavender oh my!! All of these wonderfully fragrant and truly relaxing goodies are on sale on my website in anticipation of Small Business Saturday! Want to get some holiday shopping done without crossing any picket lines? Come on by!!

Lavender purse vials make a really wonderful small gift or stocking stuffer for anyone in your life who may struggle with stress and anxiety (like me and probably everyone on our planet, right?!) one of the best things for anxiety attacks that I’ve had success with is grounding, where you focus on the tangible things around you in your environment. Things you can see, smell, hear, feel and sometimes taste. By carrying lavender with you you have a better chance yet of tapping into the calm granted but techniques such as grounding and deep breathing since lavender has such strong relaxation properties.

I hope you all had a good chance to be with your families or loved ones for Thanksgiving.

I’ll post a link to my website in the comments in case you’d like to stop by.

Photos show a teardrop lavender necklace, a bunch of Hidecote lavender, and a bunch of lavender purse vials set up like bowling pins!

11/24/2021

CW: Small Business Saturday, trying to get pregnant, self worth, thoughts on Thanksgiving and capitalism

Hi hi everybody!! I've got most of my lavender goodies on sale in early anticipation of Small Business Saturday. I'll be visiting family for Thanksgiving, so if you place your order while I'm away I'll get everything posted very shortly after I get back! You know that saying about a small business owner jumping for joy when they get an order. It really is like that! I'd absolutely love to send you some lavender treats whether they are for you or for your friends/family it would mean so much to me!! I've really been struggling lately with feeling like I'm in this crazy sort of limbo as we try to get pregnant and not wanting to necessarily work a "real" job or to dive too deep into Floralore because I worry that I'll just have to stop or quit if/when I get pregnant again, but it's really been taking a toll of my feelings of self worth in the interim. So while we are not struggling financially, I have been struggling emotionally in this in-between time (and in the context of capitalism).

Lately, (as a Mohegan) Thanksgiving has felt kind of strange to me. On the one hand my family and I still celebrate it and eat all sorts of yummy foods and it is a great time to get together. On the other hand a lot of the historical justification for the holiday feels icky. This feel good story about how white people and native people came together and the native people fed the white people so that they would survive happily. It's all a bit, well. First not accurate, but also just feels like a colonialist whitewashing of so much genocide.
All of that being said, I also still celebrate Thanksgiving and want to wish you all a wonderful, reflective and affirming time with your families and loved ones.

Perhaps, this can also be a good place to talk about struggles with self worth in the context of capitalism. I feel like we get told this story that we are only worthy if we are producing things/ideas that make money. When I actually think about my friends and family though, your worth for me is definitely not derived from your ability to procure wealth. It most certainly is in how they show up with sincerity and kindness and in how much fun we have together enjoying shared activities and good conversation. It feels so easy to divorce that idea of self worth = ability to create wealth when it is about someone not myself. Perhaps you struggle with this too? Maybe it is just me? I'm not sure.

Thanks for coming with me on this somewhat all over the place exploration of Thanksgiving, capitalism and self worth.

Photo of star shaped lavender necklace with jute cord, one of many lavender goodies available on my website, which is linked in comments.

11/18/2021

I love how the large lavender magnets turned out!! I love the natural look and feel of the wood slabs against the deep purple of the lavender, the shape of the bouquet and the slim gathering point with the little twine bow which pulls it all together! These can obviously be displayed on magnetic fridges, but you might be surprised at how many other magnetic surfaces you have in your home that you could put these up on. We have magnetic lamp poles, sometimes mirrors and even edges of walls are magnetic too! Could give you a good excuse to do some experimenting around the house 🙂

I almost forgot to mention! These smell amazing as well!!

If you want one for yourself or a friend head over to www.floraloredesigns.com and I'll send it out right quick with lots of love!!

11/15/2021

Hi there everybody!! I know it’s ben a long time since you’ve heard from me! I wanted to let you all know that I’m doing well and am ready to start up a little bit again. This month I’m offering lavender goodies that you can have shipped to yourself or to friends and family within the continental us. Next month I’m planning to try offering fresh flower arrangements weekly through my website that can be delivered locally.

I’d love it if you would stop by and check out my lavender if you feel so inclined and hope you are all doing well as we head into winter and the holiday season.

https://www.floraloredesigns.com/lavender

buy lavender from floralore and have it shipped to you or your loved ones!!

09/10/2021

cn: miscarriage

I have some sad news to share with you all. I wasn't sure whether I should actually share it or not since it seems taboo in our society to talk about miscarriages, but I feel like it isn't really fair that women and families are expected to just bottle everything up and pretend that nothing happened. Don't share your pregnancy until you are out of the woods, if you do miscarry, just keep it a secret. I'm not the best with secrets.

When I closed shop this time around it was because I was pregnant and so excited for the little one that we had been trying for for months. I had had this feeling like I wouldn't be able to get pregnant and was honestly shocked to find out that I actually did. Even those first few weeks I was already feeling so tired and nauseous and I was worried I'd lose our little one if I overexerted myself, so I went into hibernation. Everything was going great it seemed. At our nine week appointment we got to see our little one and even heard their super strong heartbeat. Then two weeks later I was just supposed to be going in for bloodwork, but my doctor knew how terrified I am of needles so she asked if we wanted to see our baby. Of course I shouted, "Yes!!". But when she started the ultrasound, I noticed that that flicker that we had seen in weeks prior wasn't visible and when she turned on the sound, there was radio silence. You know, that eerie sonogram underwater silence. It wasn't until she had looked for a long time that she told us that she hadn't been able to locate our little one's heartbeat and started telling us what that might likely mean.

After a second ultrasound confirmed what we feared, we opted for a surgery to remove the little one in a more controlled way. But since our doctor wanted to do it on Monday this week which was a holiday we had to go in through the emergency room instead of just having a scheduled surgery. This turned what could have been a 1-2 hour ordeal into a full 8 hour day. All in all it went about as well as it could have with the exception of my almost completely passing out a few minutes after they got the IV placed. Tim was with me basically the whole day (which didn't seem guaranteed at times) and all but one of the nurses/doctors who we interacted with were super kind, gentle and understanding.

I feel like this whole process so far has been punctuated by some really strong waves of sadness/grief and then long periods of emotionlessness. We have luckily also had lots of opportunities in the past week to be with Tim's family, so it feels a lot less lonely than it would have otherwise I'm sure.

I don't know what I'll do in the future, even the near future really. Whether we will try again soon, or if I'll throw myself back into Floralore or try to get a job working for someone else for a while. I guess I don't really have to make those decisions right now. I just wanted to me a bit more honest about how I'm doing. I realized our little one stopped growing right around my birthday. That really hurts...

I miss you all and thank you for sitting with me in this time of sadness.

Here is an utterly adorable photo of Tip from a couple of weeks ago to help temper some of the sadness with a dose feline contentment

07/23/2021

Dear beloved customers and friends, due to personal reasons I will be closing temporarily as of the end of next week. You can find me at Oak Lawn and Evergreen Park Farmer's Markets on Wednesday and Thursday July 28th and 29th. After that it may be a while before I return. Thank you all so much for your support and for helping me feel so connected to community!

I'll let you all know when I'm back and ready to take orders again/will be back at the markets. Wishing you all health, happiness and safety!

Here is a photo of Kokoro for photo tax!

07/09/2021

Hello my dearest customers and friends, I am going to take the week off next week from deliveries and markets (so I won't be at Oak Lawn or Evergreen Park market on July 14 or 15). I will still be at the Mother McAuley Farmer's Market in Mount Greenwood tomorrow, Saturday from 9-2pm though if you want to come see me! I just really need a moment to relax and reset so that I can show up for you all as authentically and as kindly as I want to.

I wish you all a beautiful relaxing week and for you to all feel so loved. Sending you all kindness and hugs. Thank you for your understanding!

06/26/2021

Mother McAuley Market with no wind and no rain! We’re inside the cafeteria today until 2:00 pm 🙂 stop on by and see me and grab some awesome plants or flowers today!

06/23/2021

So much planty goodness!!

Swing by the Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park or Mother McAuley (Mt Greenwood) market this week if you see something you like!

If there is something you are sure you want just let me know and I’ll hold it for you this week 🙂

06/23/2021

Colors of the week!