A Recipe using Lavender.. and other flowery stuff!

Well, thanks to my wonderful gals Kim, Kelly and Phyllis and guy- Derrick, our professional floral arrangement relocater, a.k.a delivery guy-at the shop.. I actually had two, not one but two days off!! Now for me, this is nothing short of a miracle. A day off is slim to never..so when Kim looked at our schedule and noticed no major events or appointments, she squealed- take the days off! I thought she'd been in the fridge too long, surely a day off is not in store for me- BUT, Kelly our Floral Designing Diva- confirmed, yep, take the days off! Well, that's about as good as getting the Willy Wonka Golden Ticket for me . So, I indulged....

At first I wasn't sure what to do.. so I quickly scheduled a massage.. Floyds Knobs Massage Therapy is wonderful- they made the end of my day the best.. But if I start at the beginning- it's at the bookstore. Okay, I'm a nerd. I have a day off and I'm looking for floral books- flowers, weddings, parties and design.. it's on my brain 24/7 . After spending a small chunk of cash-very well spent, I must say, I got some fabulous new magazines for Kelly and me to drool over. You know, we've both been in the floral industry over 20 years and we still truly love being inspired by other amazing designer's work. We especially love new flower and foliage varieties. We're looking forward to finding the fresh mocha roses we've heard about. I purchased three floral magazines and two new gardening mags and one book for leisure reading.

After the book store, it was time for lunch.. Off to Wild Oates. While strolling through the store, I ran across their herbs, jars and jars of them. Also in the aisle was a gal purchasing of all things Lavender- she was preparing a special dinner for her grandmother's birthday and told me the theme was a Provence menu- hence the Lavender. While we chatted, she mentioned she was having a bit of a challenge finding recipes with lavender.. SO.. I thought, well I have lots of recipes with lavender in them, and we can get wonderfully fresh lavender to cook with. Maybe... other people may be interested in recipes with lavender, so I will be occasionally posting recipes with lavender. Today's recipe will be simple, Lavender Lemonade....but I have to finish my day first.

After a delicious lunch at Wild Oates I drove back to the Knobs and had a great Knobs Carmel Coffee at the Hobb Knobb Cafe and lingered over my floral mags. The coffee was great and the mag wonderful! Both helped me relax and get in the mood for my massage. My massage was wonderful and I truly enjoyed my day off. That was Friday.

Saturday, I and my husband and daughter, drove up to Ball State to visit our son and return to him his beloved Carmela- an adorable kitten he adopted from Kelly- her beautiful Himi had kittens. Carmela had a visit at the vet and was ready to return to her 'daddy'.

Thanks to everyone, I had a very nice weekend. I truly appreciated the days off.

So, now for the recipe:

Lavender Lemonade-- 'the flavor is elusive and yet quite unforgettable'

3 Lg. lemons
1 lg. pitcher of ice cold water with ice
1/2 cup of boiling water
4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon lavender in a tea ball

Squeeze the juice from 2 lemons. Slice the third lemon thinly. Combine the boiling water with lavender, let steep 3 minutes, remove lavender, add sugar and dissolve. Add to the pitcher of ice water along with the sliced lemon. Serve chilled.


Thanks for reading.. and as always please stop in the shop and say - Hello! we'd love to meet you.

Happy New Year !!

We're so glad to welcome in the New Year! I know we've got lots to do in these next few weeks. The holidays may be over but Valentine's Day is just around the corner.

If you've gotten engaged over the past recent weeks, Congratulations!! You too, will have a busy '07 ahead of you. We've been getting lots of calls already for dates in May and June and even some fall dates too. This year's 'Hot Date' is 07-07-07...I'm sure this one will book quickly for every vendor. So far the colors we're seeing are Kiwi, Coral, Red and Black of course that's the tip of the iceberg..it's only January 2!

We will be participating in the wedding show at Garden Court on Feb. 4- Another very good wedding show that same day is the wedding show at Kye's. Although we did receive an invitation by Kye and Heather, we had to pass this year because of our previous commitment to Garden Court. We can only be in one place at a time. I really wish we didn't have to decline the invite- one because it's a great invitation to receive, two, because we love a great show and Kye's is a wonderful facility to have an event at and work and three,we love participating in a wedding show that we feel is an opportuity to present ourselves to creative and adventerous brides. If you're having your reception or ceremony at Kye's- Congratulations, you'll have a great day!

I will try once again to post some shots from some of our weddings from this past year. Please feel free to email us with any questions. We'd love to hear from you!

All our Best-
Carolyn and the Gals