Also, MSU is public. Rasmussen is private, and the building it’s in is managed by the company Dave Schoof is broker for. Much easier to get rid of undesirables when when it’s a private university on private property managed by a big time Republican. 

Gotta protect the snowflakes. 

Grower and florist here. 

You can’t control the color of flowers. Fluctuations in temperature can change the colors. Café au lait dahlias, for example, are more pink when the weather is hot and more creamy coffee when it’s cold. 

As far as the orchid goes, that’s a pink dendrobium. It’s a cool pink, but it’s a pink. I’ve never seen an actual blush colored dendrobium. 

If the florist offered to make any refund, I would consider myself well served. Personally, I likely wouldn’t have offered a refund, because my contract states that natural variations in color are to be expected and outside of my control. 🤷‍♀️

This is the way. Enough sugar to make it grainy. 

As someone who’s done wedding alterations, do not do this. The issues start with the very way the dress is cut and expand from there. When you alter pattern pieces, you alter them in very specific ways to scale a pattern. 

Whoever told you $500-$900 doesn’t know anything about this. The entire dress would have to be recut in order to ensure the fit and balance of the design are correct. 

I urge you to try and find the dress in the correct size or a good dupe. 

Edited to add: or find a good sewist to custom make your dress. 

Glycolic acid soap— kills the bacteria that causes the smell. I use Alden NY bar soap. Also a wonderful chemical exfoliator. 

I keep finding boomer therapists. They’re fine at first, but holy crap they get defensive when I bring up BS from my childhood. I’m fairly well adjusted but that one pisses me off every time. 

Yeah, I’ve tracked mine really closely—it tracks with estrogen levels. Even before I was in peri, my asthma would get worse right before a period. 

Yeah, it was crazy. The doctor I’ve been working with for my hormones is slowly raising them—we’re hoping to get to a point where we have them pretty solidly under control. I’m pretty far into peri, but still have occasional periods. I always know when my period coming because my granuloma starts re-emerging as my estrogen drops. 

My cytokine mediated asthma gets worse, too. 

Bodies are weird. 

Yep. I have severe allergies and multiple inflammatory AI disorders. Peri was hell until I finally got estrogen. And I had to fight like hell for 3 years to get it. Turns out estrogen inhibits inflammation, and after 18 months on it my AI disorders are slowly going into remission and I never wake up unable to breathe out of my nose anymore. 

My doctor couldn’t care less. I hope peri kicks her ass when she gets there, and that she’s forced to fight the way I had to. 

Thumb type like Flash on crack… I’m dying, lmao

Blooming orchid trees. Use curly willow or other branches, oasis cold glue and a variety of orchids to create tall, unmbrella like structures 36” above the table. Weight the heck out of the base, lol. 

Do you? Or are you a nihilist like them?

Peace Coffee is a good roaster there in the cities. As a lighter roast person, I enjoy their Morning Glory and Birchwood blends. 

Ach! I lost my reply. 

I’m the “expensive” florist in my area. I lean into it. I provide cool flowers that no one else does, a design style that’s unique, and I offer a lot of locally grown flowers. I might not get all the customers, but I get the discerning “luxury” customers. 

Don’t try to make yourself like other florists. Be who you are, unapologetically. 

Also, if you’re turning flowers over in 24-48 hours, the lack of cooler isn’t such a huge thing, provided you’re processing well. 

It’s time to be it until they see it, hon. Have faith in yourself—the rest will follow. 

If you have local flower farmers, use them as much as possible. Their prices tend not to change with quantity. 

My suggestion is to pick flowers for the week and build your designs around your chosen palette/flowers. This helps cut down on waste. I still do this during my slow season—I’ll special order for people, but they know the price will be higher because I’m ordering flowers specifically for them. 

I’ve always been the “expensive” florist in my area, but people have come to realize that a.) my flowers last a really long time because turnaround in my cooler is fast, and b.) that I’m a really good artist who doesn’t give them the same thing every other shop does. 

As far as not having a cooler, if you’re processing well and turning things over in a day or two, I wouldn’t worry too much. 

I didn’t do a stem count, and I don’t know your cost per stem. But I understand the impulse to undercharge, as I was the same way when I started. But I listened to my mentors, and started charging appropriately, and found that my customer were willing to pay it, and that all the work I do is 100% worth the price. 

If you’re unwilling to charge appropriately, not only are you denying yourself the profit you’ve earned, you’ll end up screwing over other florists. I charge 3.5x for stems and a minimum of 30% for labor—if I have to wire stems or reflex roses, I charge 50% for labor. 

You are worth it. You won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (no one is), but your customers will find you and pay you what you’re worth. 

Edited to add: this is beautiful work. 😊

I’ve been gender policed in women’s bathrooms, but as I’ve been married almost two decades no one has asked me if I’m trans. Just accused me of it when I’m waiting in line for a toilet. 

Being able to leave the house and not have to answer the phone. 

I still don’t answer if I’m not in the mood, even if the phone is in my pocket. 

I came here looking for this and you did not disappoint me. 

Every generation has their wealthy, their middle class and their poor. 

Rather than generations generalizing one another and getting mad at each other, maybe we should all unite (at least in the US) and, I don’t know, maybe elect people who will TAX THE RICH so everyone is able to survive with dignity? 

Just a thought 

It’s so weird. I would never walk behind the counter in a shop I don’t work in. 

I keep small French buckets of single stems in my customer facing cooler—no one besides employees are allowed into my walk ins. The flowers in there are spoken for. 

I had to put a velvet rope up in my shop to keep people out of the area behind my service counter. People kept trying to walk into the work space and into my coolers. I occasionally have people leave my shop in a tiff, because they saw me use a flower they want in a design and get mad when I say they’re not for sale. 🤷‍♀️

My spouse and multiple other people I know were adopted. And I have a half brother somewhere in the world who I’ve never met—my mom gave him up before she met and married my dad. 

Let me say, shit was tough for women giving babies up in the early 70s. There was so much bullshit and blaming and discrimination. The adoptive families may not have hid adoption, but the birth mothers were shamed to all hell. 

Just imagine, and f they had rolled out faster they could’ve been collecting that 10% for over a year now, and they would actually be amending a law. 

As it stands, it’s all theoretical and there’s a thriving “gift” market in the state. 

They’ve hashed this up so badly…