Bloomin Crazy Floral

08/07/2025

Well….this day ended differently than I anticipated. Thank you, , for awarding me the best window display. Being put on the spot to give a speech made my introverted, homeschooled self freeze and go mute. I did, however, have so much I wish I could say so I’ll take the time to write it here.

I was blown away with meeting the princesses and hearing their speeches. Very inspiring. As a woman who has only recently found my courage to step into my potential and find my power through business ownership, I can’t tell you how much the speeches about inspirational woman meant to me. There is so much in our culture telling us to make ourselves smaller and hide in the background but instead we should be stepping into our full potential no matter what the field may be. I chose a very feminine coded career field that is notoriously looked down on as just a hobby job. It was a safe feminine job for me at the time when I was encouraged not to find a career but start a family instead. However, it has been the very field that has allowed me to slowly find my voice and calling while also being a wife and mother at the same time, which I love.

It was such an honor to be able to design and donate flowers to this event celebrating the rich maritime history of our lovely community. From my Finnish grandparents who immigrated here to be a part of the fishing and logging industry, to the Coast Guard bringing me my husband, I have lots of ties to this river town that has my heart forever. Winning this award with my “Moss”ler Bridge from the Home and Garden show and Nina’s boat model captures why I love this area and everything that inspires my work.

Good luck, princesses, on your futures! And let’s have fun celebrating Astoria!

07/30/2025

We are officially moving to Astoria full time!!! After almost 4 years of trying to find my husband a job in the Astoria area and not in Portland we finally found it and we can finally create more stability for our life and for the business. Phew! 😅 Nina is also starting preschool so that frees me up even more to finally have the energy and brain space to do all the fun ideas I’ve been holding onto. It also means getting classes up and running again. Definitely keep your eyes out for future posts!

Another piece of good news is our lovely Lydia is moving back!! Her fabulous design skills will be bringing back the consistency and wow factor to our everyday orders that you all have fallen in love with. Yay!

I’m not going to lie, this year has been excruciating for me. Weddings have been almost nonexistent, staffing has been a struggle and the back and forth schedule has been burning me out. This spring I was on the verge of calling it quits. Every part of me didn’t want to, though. I love this business and this town so much! After a long night of talking it out we decided we would throw anything we had left into trying to make Astoria work for us and we finally got all the pieces coming together!

You may have noticed I haven’t been as active on here lately and I haven’t responded to emails as promptly. Besides being sick last week, I have been in the thick of covering extra at the shop and trying to figure all this out. Thank you so much for your patience while we finalize all these details. We really appreciate all your support. It’s such a privilege to be apart of this amazing community. ❤️

06/29/2025

Happy Sunday!
Greenery isn’t always the support team, sometimes they are the leading lady.

06/25/2025

Why is Finland the happiest nation? I believe it’s their connection to nature. I have been to visit family over there many times. My soul craves the slower pace of life, the baked in culture of summer “loma” and taking significant time off to escape to a cabin in the woods. Finn’s are culturally very connected to nature all year round and it shows. Nature heals the soul.
We could also talk about how culturally Finns are basically accepted autistic and don’t need to mask…….but that’s a conversation for another day. 😄

06/01/2025

I’m going to get a bit vulnerable in this post. I don’t get political with this platform because as soon as you do it alienates a huge swath of our community. I want the shop to be a healing space for everyone, no matter what your beliefs or lifestyles, etc.

As humans we are as diverse as the flowers and plants so when we judge others and try to put them in our box instead of trying to understand their perspective and life experience we are trying to force a flower to be a different color which causes it to die faster.

I was raised in a very fundamentalist environment but the last 4 years I’ve been on the most intense, stretching and growing experience of my life. The most important lesson I’ve been learning is how I have had so many dehumanizing views. Life, politics, religion are all so confusing to navigate. How do you know who is right, how do we interpret the info we are given, are we in a cult and can we trust anything? The one conclusion I know I can anchor myself to and should align with everyone’s belief system is loving our neighbors. To love others does not mean forcing our beliefs on others and telling them they are wrong. That is a narcissistic view.

As humans we do not thrive from abandonment and judgement. We thrive from being cheered on and supported.

05/31/2025

50% off all loose stems! Can’t beat that! Come in and find some affordable serotonin boosters or try your hand at some zen design moments. 😉💐

05/29/2025

We are so honored to be a part of this community’s big life moments. I can’t tell you how much that privilege drives us every day. We don’t make much money at this but we keep going because we get paid with knowing how much our flowers help our community and instantly boost well being.

Shop small, shop local. We’ve heard this mantra all over social media the last several years. To be honest I feel we’ve been desensitized to this message. The problem is, our local downtown is in a desperate place right now. Every business I’ve talked to lately is struggling big time. Many are not going to survive much longer. Business owners are not thriving, we are barely surviving. I’ve had two people close to me in our community loose their jobs this week.

Here’s the thing, I believe in this community. I believe we need to survive. As a rare brick and mortar floral shop I still believe that we should exist and our community needs us. The numbers aren’t there but I want to believe that someday we can turn it around and actually make a livable profit.

I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, though. I’m writing this because we need to know how bad it is before we can be called to change things. Big businesses get help and have buffers in an economy like we have right now but small businesses do not. We depend on our community. We need your support now more than ever.

What if, instead of grabbing a cheap bunch of poor quality flowers from the grocery store we just buy a couple of stems of high quality and unique flowers grown by local farmers. Instead of gifting an Amazon gift card what if we bought gift cards to local businesses. Let’s show some big love to our little community, lift each other up and not just survive but thrive!
🌻🌷🌸

05/23/2025

Lots of beautiful flowers went to Astor Place today to cheer up some residents! We don’t always have left over flowers past their selling point but when we do we love spreading joy to those in our community who need it. It’s also an opportunity for newer designers in our staff to get extra practice. A win, win for all! Shey’s joy in delivering the flowers is an added bonus. ☺️

05/05/2025

It’s Mother’s Day week. Thoughts I had today while I took some time to recenter myself. The quote “stop and smell the roses” is a cliche quote but really shouldn’t be. Stopping for moments in the midst of busy life is so important for our health. Smelling flowers is grounding. It recenters us and helps calm our nervous system. Flowers also inspire.
There’s a message I’ve seen in advertising and other places making flowers a cliche and saying we should not do the cliche thing and give our mothers flowers for Mother’s Day. Why not!?! As mothers, we are constantly juggling so much that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and maxed out. Why not gift mothers something that helps them feel centered, calm and special.
Art also helps us destress, boost serotonin and enhance brain function. Our flowers may be more expensive than grocery stores but you are paying not just for flowers, you are paying for art and flowers. And that, I think, is a good deal worth paying for.

04/23/2025

04/15/2025

Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when dark, somber skies blanket our thoughts. -Dobinsky