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Atelier Ashley Flowers

Wedding Florist in Alexandria,VA. Luxurious bouquets, whimsical centerpieces & all things fresh! Have Flowers, will travel.

26/06/2025

Pretty flowers.

I take resentment when people tell me I should mind my business and stick to flowers.

Just because flowers have been my first real passion, doesn’t mean I don’t have the ability to explore another genre with equal fervor.

My business has been successful only in part due to my aesthetic skills, it is mostly due to lost of research on business, sales and psychology or even more importantly to the excellent people I have been lucky enough to work with.

The greatest privilege in life is to be who you are. (-Jung)

I will never stop becoming, and that means floristry is just one (important) part of me.

So for the well meaning, well intentioned advice, I have heard you and decline the invitation of limitation.

When I look at the world, I think (barring actual physical ability)

If another human can do it, there is no reason why I can’t.

A perspective worth consideration.

21/06/2025

Last weekend I attended the Army 250 Birthday parade.

My main motivation for attending was to see and experience the spectacle first hand and to support the US Army.

I had also pitched an article to

I have lost all faith and all trust in the media.

There is no side that tells the “truth.”

For my troubles I have been called
offensive names,
had my loyalties questioned
and lost more than 300 followers.

I am human
the barbs sting,
the hypocrisy is maddening,
And the idiocy is baffling.

I support the constitution and its amendments,
Especially the right to Free Speech.

People tell me that protests are effective,
I say,
Fine,
But after you have protested,
who is going to lead?

Who is going to lead a country as divided as it was in 1861.

Lincoln, where you at?

IMO Protest with only concepts of a plan
Is a poor use of time.

11 million of you would disagree.

I also believe the things that I posted in the past,
that we are currently living under an
Authoritarian Dictatorship Democracy,
and I am acting accordingly.

I suggest if you want any mobility in the future,
you might consider this perspective.

In recent conversation with a friend,
I somewhat stupidly asked,

“What do you have to lose?”

the reply,

“My life.”

We both felt the weight of the candor.

In a Social Media driven world, we no longer take the time to speak in private honesty.

It is polarization for profit and a main factor in why Democrats lost the “white woman” demographic.

The silent trumpettes.

As a tween I watched the dystopian cartoon Aeon Flux. It scared me, because I knew that that future could very much become a reality.

A world where every single move was tracked and retina scans were standard practice.

Today, we are not so far away from putting this into practice.

I would also like to offer, that if we do not have

Purple People,

Purple People willing to walk the line in between Red and Blue

We will have no compromise,

We will have no authentic communication.

And daily American Life will get much worse.

So I shout into the
firestorm of the void
And I pray that
Somehow we can escape
GroupThink
And make
Tomorrow will be better than today.

16/06/2025

Happy Father’s Day Dad!

I think I’m finally starting to understand all the things you have been trying to teach me all these years.

15/06/2025

Flag Day 2025
Army 250 Birthday

Look through my lenses but decide for yourself.

I tried not to edit for aesthetic giving you as much information raw information about the day as possible.

I forgot to add a protestor sign, it there were several walking around.

Just remember, no army, no country.

13/06/2025

DC June 12, 2025

I drove downtown to drop off a luggage.

I will be staying in DC Friday and Saturday because I want to see everything with my own eyes everything that is going on or not going on.

Thursday evening was a perfect evening.

Perfect temperature.
Perfect breeze.
Perfect golden hour.

But nobody was out.

The parkway was empty, no traffic which never happens at that time on a Thursday.

There was very little car congestion on 23 or 18th st, I got into town faster than I do 80% of the time.

As if everyone is holding their breath before a treacherous storm hits.

The birds aren’t singing.

At 8pm a lot more roads are starting to narrow and close.

I was not lucky enough to see any tanks or vehicles just lots of basic black fencing.

Fencing on everything.

Tasteful but still fencing.

I imagine they can be used as crowd control.

The photos are not aesthetically or otherwise interesting.

I’d say they capture the full thud of nervous trepidation well.

11/06/2025

.dc

I’m going to try switching most of my political content to my other account .dc

Current events are too prescient to ignore, but in the context of
flora design and
pop culture commentary,
I think all this military talk comes off as
unhinged.

To be clear, I am always rooting for America.

I was raised to believe this is the greatest country in the World, and I still believe that.

We are a country of individuals of immense creativity, ingenuity, and capability.

We are also often lazy, selfish, and violent.

I pitched an article (that may of may not get published) on covering the parade.

The editor said ok.

So I have been
researching parades
and I have been
researching the Army
and I have been
paying close attention to all the
social media
and details leading up to the
June 14th event.

If my article posts, I will share it with you.

My current lens, is that for
250 Army Birthday,
the priority goal is
military recruitment.

I hope they succeed.

It’s a wild time to push for enlistment,
but if we do enter into a “boots on the ground” or even “cyber” w*r,
America is going to need people.

If it so happens that we run out of people,
there will be a draft.

Anything that can happen once,
can most certainly happen again.

Moms, that means our kids.

I am not talking about today,

but within the next 3 to 12 years
I think we can count on a WWIII.

China and America in particular are in a rare minerals mining and space race.

The goal, to gather enough resources to emerge as the dominant superpower, and secure the future and survival of their citizens.

Subject like mining, and rare earth minerals, and military strategy are not mainstream interests, and the majority of Americans pay no attention to the
infrastructure and materials
that makes daily life go.

Without them we lose our phones, we lose our servers, we lose our drones, we lose our quotidian existence.

But,
No one wants to see
How the sausage gets made.

So, I’m going to try to stop with the doom and gloom over here,
and move it to my private account dc

07/06/2025

Happy Birthday to me

’Twas the eve of my birthday,
and all through the house
All the creatures
Were stirring
Including the mouse.

What a difference a year makes.

My Last year birthday year
(June 8, 2023 to June 8, 2024)
was perhaps
one of the very
worst years
of my
entire life.

I measure time not by January 1,
but by my own Gemini sun.

I will spare you the details,
But will tell you
I cried actual tears every single day
For about 6 months

I cried so much
I wondered how I could
Possibly find the time
or tears
To cry that much.

But time heals,
Or at least
time passes
And
time
dulls the pain.

Every birthday year I choose
A word.

I choose a word
That matches the
Focus and zeitgeist of
My present.

The most recent have been
Family - 40
Friends - 41
Belonging - 42

Each year I focus my attention on the word
And check it against my daily activities.

In a way the word chooses me.

For example, in my mind I wanted this year’s word to be
Love.

Love of all kinds,

But turns out I’m not
In that space just yet.

So the word for my
43rd trip around the sun is

Containment.

I have a tendency to be
Impulsive

I have a tendency to
Overstep boundaries

I have a tendency to
Fight other peoples battles

I have a tendency to
Overthink and a tendency to just
Always be doing too much.

There have been many times where
My lack of inhibition or intimidation
Have been a great assets,

But just as many times
where it
has been
My greatest
weakness.

So this Birthday year, my word is
Containment.

Just like with last year’s word “belonging”
I will ask myself this question
before
Completing an action,

“Is this contained?”

Am I overstepping?
Am I over giving?
Am I over sharing?
Am I out of proportion?

Is my effort matched?
Is my effort appreciated?
Is my effort reciprocated?

Is my love warranted?
Is my love wanted?
Is my love returned?

As always,
I’ll let you know how it goes.

Last year choosing the word belonging
Transformed my life.

This year maybe
Containment
Will do the same.

A happy Gemini season to all
And to all a good night!

04/06/2025

Life lately.
No real complaints.

Schools almost out for summer!

01/06/2025

Pride

I’m having a hard time getting excited for Pride month.

It’s because I’m scared.

It’s because I don’t want to make myself a target.

It’s because I am worried about violent clashes.

I believe we are living in times where anything is possible.

It is possible to be accidentally rounded up and deported.

It is possible to loose your job with zero notice.

It is possible to loose your daily life with zero notice.

It is possible to be persecuted because of your skin, gender, or religion.

It is possible to be afraid to use your voice.

It is possible to stand witness to the great atrocities that humankind inflicts upon each other.

I am scared that if I don’t fall in line, there will be repercussions.

My friends are also scared.

Others dismiss my concerns as Lunatic left propaganda.

I always say, “I want to be wrong.”

There is no clear direction in the Democratic Party.

There is no trust left in the Democratic Party.

There is no one to follow.

As much as I admire Bernie and AOC, it’s not them.

It’s not Kamala.

It got to be someone Spectacular.

It’s got to be someone so far in the middle, they are almost red.

So, I want to say

“Happy Pride”

I want to say,

“Love is love.”

I want to say

“Yaaaaassssssss Queen” and flap my fan.

But I can’t make myself pretend that it is all going to be ok.

I can’t make myself pretend that I am not scared.

So please be safe.

Please be smart.

Please be aware of your surroundings.

Happy Pride.

Images from Chromo Sapiens by

28/05/2025

Original Sin

I read Jake Tapper’s new book, “Original Sin” and I’ve been having feelings.

Anger, frustration, disappointment and dissolutionment being the top winners.

I want to blame the author,
I want to blame myself,
but
I think it’s fair to say
the blame
belongs
with Biden,
and the blame
belongs
with the
inner circle.

It’s as if they think we are all children, and they should be the ones to make our choices for us.

I watched the presidential debates, and I watched several of Biden’s appearances leading up to the 2024 election.

Every time he would come on stage I would quip that he has absolutely no idea where he is.

Pease don’t let him fall off the side.

From the moment Biden opened his mouth at the Primary debate, before he even uttered a syllable I knew it was very very bad.

His opponent knew it too.

Still I kept the faith, I kept hope.

There was no other alternative.

To me it was a choice of humanity over money, and I am going to side with humanity every time.

After reading Tapper’s book, I feel fully betrayed.

We were lied to, and worst of all we had our choice, our votes stolen from us.

Does it get much worse than that?

I have also read Kathleen Bhule’s book, “If We Break: A memoir of marriage, addiction, and healing and have found Hunter to be pretty disgusting all around. No better than anyone else’s Jr.

I think he did those things and his family covered it up.

The emperor has no clothes.

You can’t hate one president because he is corrupt when your side is just as equally corrupt.

I don’t do pointless things, and until the democrats regroup and come forward with someone spectacular, I’m out.

26/05/2025

Memorial Day

We remember, those that have the ultimate sacrifice are not forgotten.

20/05/2025

Turncoat

I am never not rooting for America.

I don’t like being wrong,
and never think that I am,
But,
Perhaps,
we have entered
into a
THIS AND THAT
situation.

I have been watching the White House and his people closely.

The images from the Middle East trip were awe inspiring and propaganda with enough vision to create cracks in my conviction.

Do I believe that we have entered a period of authoritarian rule?
Yes, I do.

Do I believe that some of the things this administration is doing is strengthening the country on a Global Scale?
Yes, I do.

Chaos as an all encompassing negotiation strategy.

brutality as a teaching tool.

We are watching our norms change right before our eyes.

The more that comes out about the final years of the Biden Administration, and how anybody let him or pushed him to run again, the more disillusioned I become.

The more angry and manipulated I feel.

The way I see it now, Americans are trading the ideal of Freedom and superior morality, for National Security.

My main feeling is that for many of us, our lives as Americans are relatively content.

We have enough time and resources to spend on considering equality.

We tune out to “Protect our mental health.”

If we felt we were at war, or if we were facing a life or death situation, would we care so much?

Lately I have spent the majority of my free time reading.

Reading as much about the world, and AI, and defense, and space, and quantum physics as I can understand.

It is not even a drop in the bucket.

Every time I delve into a particular area I am astounded by all that I do not know, and how large a sector of people are already working on vital but invisible projects.

We are peeling away environmental restrictions because we see a depletion in essential elements and are desperate to secure what we project we will need in the years to come.

The future is Space, and Space takes alot of Earth Energy.

The digging, blasting, mining, and fracking will destroy our natural world at an exponential rate, but what is the alternative?

I have some ideas, but they need a lot more research.

So, on the first day of Gemini season, authentic Gemini logic.

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