Arranging With Judie

22/09/2022

Today Jolon .church came for a short visit to forage for some country stuff in the garden and out back. She is so kind! She brought a tea towel that was hand painted by another Instagram friend . I think I might want to use it on a table it’s so pretty! What a fun way to spend an hour on my day off. The whole afternoon had a happy glow!
.church

06/09/2022

It would be lovely to think that it’s fairies, dancing above the field out back, but upon closer inspection, it’s dragonflies, patrolling and hunting and gobbling up bugs. This is an every evening occurrence this time of year. The dragonflies are a reassuring sign of balance of nature in my yard. 💚

20/06/2022

Happy summer and happy Pride Month, everybody! I just posted a new episode of Arranging With Judie, and let me tell you: you're going to 🏳️‍🌈LOVE🏳️‍🌈 it. Follow the link below and read on for background:

What was going to be an ordinary video shoot day turned into an adventure in improvisation when my son/cameraman/audio technician/editor/producer showed up with an armful of rainbow silk flowers and novelty ribbon that he'd picked up at Michael's on the way over.

He dropped them on the kitchen counter along with his recording equipment and said, "Mom, I need you to make me a Gay Pride wreath. And it needs to be GAY." (In our family, every month is Pride Month, but June gives us an excuse to be a little *extra* as we celebrate how far the LGBTQIA+ rights movement has come, and reflect on how much work is yet to be done.)

So, with the camera running, and with no pre-planning or pre-made wreath form, I set out to turn these silk flower bouquets and rainbow Monstera leaves into a festive, flamboyant, and structurally-sound wreath for Ian's door. We love the way it turned out, and I think you will, too!

https://youtu.be/SWROjdFBAiI

In this hilarious and delightful video, watch me make the world's most flamboyant rainbow wreath in honor of Pride Month. Follow along as I sort through this...

27/05/2022

Tonight’s sunset is absolutely glorious!!

18/05/2022

This is a momentous day!!!
Two Instagram celebrities walked in the front door at Hafner florist this morning!! Jolon, (flower.church), and JoAnne, (petalandtwigfloral) picked up flowers at forgetmenotfarmsmi for a wedding JoAnne is doing this weekend and decided they were so close, they just had to stop. Yay!! It is so much fun to meet Instagram friends in person!!

18/05/2022

Hey moms with young kids! If you take your children antiquing with you while they’re young, they’ll grow up and enable your milk glass habit! Ian and Jake went to Cincinnati last weekend and brought me these pieces from an antique mall there. Is that not the sweetest thing? I have the loveliest kids! 🤍💖🥰

03/05/2022

OMG! You’ll never guess! An Instagram VIP just walked through the door at work! It’s Dana from Black Dog Meadows!! It was so much fun to finally meet in person!

26/04/2022

This morning, the grass was so green it almost hurt my eyes. And as the sun came up it gilded the woods out back. I hurried to snap a photo and somehow caught a blurry bird in the frame. I think it might have been a goose.

07/04/2022

Tbt to October 1986. My coworkers and I attended a Christmas and bridal show In Lakewood, Ohio. One of the models was a no show and I got scooped up and taken backstage, where makeup was applied and I was transformed into a bride without my coworkers knowledge. They were so surprised when I came out onstage modeling a hat, a dress, and a bouquet!

14/03/2022

14/03/2022

This winter .network asked if I would be interested in sharing my videos with their audience. They have tons of “flower people”, growers, arrangers, chefs, craftspeople, herbalists, etc. Anything that you might use flowers for, there are probably people there that can tell you how to do it. All in one place! So we did a photo shoot with the lovely and talented .g.bundy2 for my profile picture and we uploaded the first videos we shot, there are many more on the way too.
Click the link in my bio to find me on BloomTV and learn more—if you like what you see, use my code JudieB2022 for 10% off a subscription that gives you access to ALL the great content BloomTV has to offer!

28/02/2022

Something sort of momentous happened at work on Friday. You all know that I work at Hafner florist in Sylvania Ohio. Well, on Friday these three young people purchased the business and became my new bosses. I’ve known Josh and Kyle, (), for half their lives and love them like sons! The energy and youthful enthusiasm, in addition to retail/corporate experience these three bring to an already thriving and fast paced flower shop-I just know it’s going to be fun to be a part of this!

28/01/2022

Happy Friday! This time of year I am desperate for happy flowers. This time of year we start having tulip specials at work. These came from Canada, they’ve been here since last Tuesday! I think I’ll probably get two weeks out of them. The foliage is looking a little tired on the tips, I’ll change the water again, give them a fresh cut, strip the tired leaves, and maybe add some of that spider plant foliage to the vase. Two weeks of happy yellow cheer in my kitchen for $9.95? I’m worth it!💛🥰✨

26/01/2022

For my birthday my family, who know me so well, ordered me an assortment of hellebore plants! I have never grown these and I’m very excited to try. I hope all my hellebore growing friends can offer me growing tips for southeast Michigan! Also, Swipe right to see two original abstract paintings created by my granddogter Nancy and her brother Simon, one of my grandcatsons. I think their process included paper, paint blobs, Saran Wrap, a snuffle mat and snacks? Anyway, you can tell Nancy’s rambunctious style from Simon’s very precise and particular use of his face. They plan on creating two more so I have a set of four to hang in what we fondly call the princess room, where Devon and Nancy sleep when they’re here.

24/01/2022

33 years ago today when I gave birth to this lovely human, I guess I knew that I was about to meet one of my favorite people in the whole world. Happy birthday to my partner in silliness, crazy ideas, and household projects that last into the wee hours of the morning. I love you Devon Elizabeth!💖🥰😘

26/12/2021

Hope everyone had a lovely day today. I’m feeling so grateful for this day and this family and this life. Stay healthy, be safe, happy Christmas friends. ❤️💚🎄

22/12/2021

Some of the things hanging around the shop this morning. Remember all of my florist friends! We can do ANYTHING for three more days!! Hang in there!!

16/12/2021

TBT. One of my favorite things about decorating the White House for Christmas all those years was climbing a scaffold in the east room to decorate the garlands around the big mirrors over the mantles in the east room. The date on the back of this official White House photo is December 4, 1993.

10/12/2021

There’s something kind of mysterious about a foggy morning. Leaving for work I halfway expected a wraith to come floating out of the corn towards me.

09/12/2021

This is where I work when I’m not arranging with Judie. . We’re doing Christmas here folks. It usually takes me and my boss Beth, along with a few others, about two weeks to transform the whole store. Usually the day after Halloween we start. We always leave a thanksgiving section up until the day after thanksgiving. And in a few weeks we’ll tear the whole store apart and it will be spring inside.

03/12/2021

Today I cut some evergreens out back and drove to the golf course for some white spruce, white pine and Bradford pear branches to supplement what I had. My rectangle wreath has concolor fir, blueberry cedar, white spruce and Austrian pine cones and some dried sunflowers. I added the red velvet ribbon since the birds left me no red berries. I like to use 2 L-patterns on the wreath to allow some of the branches to show. My basket on the shed door is just a mixture of evergreens and vines and I didn’t bother with cones or ribbon in any of the pots either. When the Bradford leaves finally fall off the branches they’ll have an interesting silhouette.

.church

21/11/2021

The last couple of weeks at work have been pretty intense. Lots of long hours and just sheer physical grunt work. We flipped the store from fall to Christmas except for a small thanksgiving section. A bright spot in that time was when I arrived home one night and found a package had arrived for me. My lovely Instagram friend Jennie had sent it!! I suspect she is one of those people who has never met a stranger, and she just sails through life spreading kindness and joy and sunshine wherever she goes!This mailing box contained sunflower seeds, tithonia seeds, some enormous garlic bulbs, and some holly chapple “pillows and eggs” for flower arranging. And a sweet card saying how much SHE appreciates ME! I am not worthy!! Honestly, if you aren’t currently following her, give her grid a gander. She always has a good story and she’s probably already your friend even if you haven’t met. Thank you Jennie for your thoughtfulness!

12/11/2021

7:08 a.m. today my view from the livingroom while I was doing my morning exercises before work. Ten minutes later the sky was totally cloudy.

24/10/2021

I left a frosty morning at home and drove to Detroit to explore rouge park with the loveliest group of kindred spirits. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the walk and the company were such a delight. Thank you .church for hosting!
.church

07/10/2021

Looking for things that cheer me up on this damp, dark, dingy day. ☀️✨💛

06/10/2021

Photo dump. Scenes from the garden and the end of the driveway as I left for work on a foggy damp morning

04/10/2021

Years ago when we started tearing up sod and building gardens, we piled it all in a pile out back. Over the years we added kitchen scraps and garden scraps and more sod and leaves and stuff. We called it the compost pile. We built compost bins last year, so we no longer add to the pile. But all kinds of things volunteer to grow in the pile now, penny cress, sweet Annie, fennel, dill, borage, catmint, butternut squash, tomatoes, gourds, etc. Every now and then we flip the whole hill with a tractor. Our neighbor flipped it last week and the next day I found this magnificent gourd on the side of the pile still attached to its buried vine. I decided it deserved its own photo shoot and I think I’ll go to the pumpkin farm next week and buy it some friends for a fall vignette.

27/09/2021

I added some dried materials to my rectangle wreath yesterday. Limelight hydrangeas, sea oats, sweet Annie, bittersweet and love in a puff. For practical purposes I leave the corner near the door k**b fairly empty (Mr. Barrett gets cross when he has to fight through vegetation to get inside). But I might add one tiny piece of limelight to the lower right corner, way smaller than the one on the high right corner, for balance.

16/09/2021

We had a storm last night that netted us 1.1 inches of rain. I didn’t have to water after work, so after picking a big basket of beans I sat on the screened porch and enjoyed this magical sunset.

12/09/2021

Beans, tomatoes, and carrots are still going strong here! This is the first year in all my years of gardening where I thought, “Garden, okay, it’s enough!”

04/09/2021

I have a new video on my YouTube channel!! Learn how to make a lush romantic gardeny centerpiece in a vintage footed milkglass compote.

https://youtu.be/NNUiWoM8yX8

30/08/2021

Today’s harvest. It looked for a moment like the beans were slowing down. But swipe to see how they looked this morning. Swipe again to see a sassy carrot taking a walk in the cucumbers!😂💚

27/08/2021

These sunflowers are bringing me so much joy when I drive up the driveway or look out my kitchen window that I can’t bear to cut any and bring them in!! I have a very vague and tentative plan to plant a thick hedge of them next year along the south side of the vegetable garden. It might require removing more grass, so, shhhhh! Don’t tell Dave! And in case you’re wondering, these seeds were from our good friend Jolon .church.

.church

21/08/2021

Do you ever struggle with arranging flowers in a clear glass bowl with a wide opening? My new YouTube video shows how. Without foam, without chicken wire, it’s almost magic😂. Check it out at arrangingwithjudie on YouTube the link is in my bio. Please subscribe while you’re there (it’s free) and you’ll get a notification whenever I drop a new video.

20/08/2021

Foggy morning here. Sort of has a fall feel. Its supposed to reach 90 today and be very humid so I know it’s not time…yet. Swipe to the end to see my little friend is still on the fennel. I hope he hasn’t chosen that spot for a chrysalis! I might have to move him later.

18/08/2021

That time of year when there’s always a pile of tomatoes on the counter, the pan you blanch beans in never makes it to the back of the cupboard where it resides all winter, you always know what you’ll be doing on your day off, and the house is just trashed. Have I lost control? 😵‍💫 Maybe, how you doing out there?

15/08/2021

I promised Dave I would sit and drink coffee and read a book in the garden today (he laughed!), but first I have to find this bench the lemon balm and calendula have overtaken it!!! SSSHHHHHH!!! Don’t tell Dave!

14/08/2021

This morning I cut a lot of limelight hydrangeas from out front. The storms filled the blossoms with water and weighed them down and they were splayed all over. I cut a 5 gallon bucket full and there are still tons out there. Some of them are bigger than my head! Then I had to arrange them because sometimes you just need a huge aqua vase filled with ginormous limelights. I think I’m going to dry as many as I can this year for my Christmas tree.

13/08/2021

Yesterday was my first sauce day of the season. This is the photo I sent my son Ian first thing in the morning. Every year I have to ask for help putting together what we fondly call “the eviscerator”. I don’t know why I can’t remember how to assemble this wondrous machine. This year Ian and I google duo’d to get it right. A few years back my brother in law stopped over in the middle of the kitchen chaos that occurs on sauce day. He watched me painstakingly peel and chop 10 pounds of tomatoes and said, “I have a gadget that will do that for you”. Turned out he had given it to one of his kids for a garage sale, but he went online and ORDERED me a brand-spankin-NEW one saying, “happy early birthday”. (We’ve never exchanged birthday gifts). Every year since then, the first two tubs of marinara sauce belong to him!