While I don’t normally spend my time watching Oprah, something caught my eye while flipping through the channels last night. Oprah was apparently doing a show about dream jobs, and how people got them. I don’t really know, because all I was watching was the part with Jeff Leatham. He’s the floral designer for the Four Seasons: Paris, and he did a bunch of lovely things to the set for Oprah to gauk at.

What struck me was how simple everything he did really was. Lots of color blocking. Yes, he did things that were a bit unconventional, like tipping the bouquets in the vases at a 45 degree angles, and *gasp* using a single flower for a huge bouquet.(I wish I could link some photos to this post, but Oprah’s site doesn’t even have any photos of the brilliant designs Jeff did for her!)

Let me let you in on a little secret: we here at Slingflower already do simple! We’ve always thought the best way to showcase the beauty of flowers is to let each one shine on it’s own. You’re eye doesn’t get distracted, and you get to truly enjoy the gorgeousness of nature. As for the no vases thing… yep, doing that, too! Why spend all the money on a crappy vase that no one wants, and that one day will just be given to a charity, who will have an equally hard time getting rid of it? We’ve all got plenty of pretty vases at home, why not let your recipient choose how best to show off the flowers they received? And get more bang for your buck, I might add!

The next time you think about calling FTD or 1-800-Flowers, think twice. Go directly to the florist, talk to them, find out what they can do for you. Or find us online, and get the credit you don’t deserve! (Well, you deserve credit for thinking of such a fabulous gift, but we do all the work for you!)

Mother’s Day is nearly upon us! And that means only one thing– it’s also our 1 year anniversary!

It’s hard to believe we’ve been at this for a whole year already. Time sure flies… well, you know the rest. We at Slingflower have been working hard all year to make your days a little sunnier, and we can’t thank our wonderful customers enough! Since our business model depends on feedback from you, we decided our anniversary Mother’s Day sling should, too. So here’s what we need you to do: leave a comment for us on this blog, or post on Facebook or twitter what you’d rather send…

1. Plant (ie: kalanchoe or cylamen)

2. Fresh cut flower bouquet (as in our usual.) :-)

We’ll need to add the votes up soon, so get going! And don’t forget to plan ahead, and let us do the work for you!

We at Slingflower are constantly striving to find the freshest flowers available. While in the summer, that task is easier to achieve, in the winter it can be difficult. Thankfully, our hard work has paid off, and we have discovered a company that not only grows some gorgeous flowers, it’s also environmentally friendly!

Sun Valley Floral Farms is a Veriflora certified operation. That means environmental awareness is a big deal to them. And that’s a big deal to us, too. So we feel it’s a win-win! Check out the link, and see for yourself why we chose to purchase flowers from such a reputable company with an awareness of the world around them.

The product they grow are amazing, and among the freshest flowers around. We’ve been pleased with their quality, and we hope you will be, too.

Whew! Valentine’s Day has arrived and gone, and now we can take a bit of a breath. Holidays are always a bit more exciting around here.

We hate to admit this, but we’ve been keeping a bit of a secret from you. Slingflower has been moonlighting. OK, not really moonlighting, more like expanding our horizons. We’ve been quietly delivering a weekly fresh flower arrangement to our friends at Drake Cooper for over a month now. And we’re loving it! (Hopefully this is a mutual feeling.)

So now we’d like to extend our invitation to all of you, our dear customers. If you or anyone you know is interested in a weekly fresh flower bouquet delivered to their office, please send us a note at hello@slingflower.com. We’d love to help you start off your week with some happiness.

And, as always, thank you for your continued support of our adventure!

So much has gone on behind the scenes here at Slingflower lately! We’ve been finding new vendors, adding new clients, and reworking some of the “rules.” As with any new business, there are always things to tweak and make (hopefully) better.

To that end, we want to assure you that we’ve been working on a way to make it easier than ever for you to give the gift of happiness– in the form of flowers, of course! There have been lengthy discussions about our rule for delivery solely to business offices around here. And a few discussions about our tag line– Get the credit you don’t deserve. We thought it might be a good time to let you all in on our way of thinking.

First, we have always wanted to do something a bit different around here. That’s where our tag line came from. At least in our case, our men rarely do something romantic that involves walking into a flower shop or planning ahead in any way. By delivering fresh, gorgeous flowers to him at work, we are helping him give the illusion of going to all that trouble, without him actually having to do very much. A click of the mouse, and voila! Done! And who really cares how much effort it took? We get to enjoy some beauty no matter what. Quite possibly more often than nearly never, too!

So that explains why we started off delivering to offices only. But, when you do something different, it’s sometimes hard for people to change their habits and preconceived notions about how things should work. And we completely understand that. In fact, sometimes we here at Slingflower have the same problem. Thinking outside the box is hard work!

After a thorough review of our clients’ suggestions and comments, we’ve decided to deliver not only to offices, but to home offices, other places where work actually occurs, and sometimes homes, too. For now, this is a complete experiment. Delivering to homes may actually cause us to increase our prices, because they are scattered all over the city. But for now, we’re hoping it will encourage more of you to make someone’s day a bit brighter. Please remember that we only deliver flower bouquets, no vases, no water. So if you want to have us deliver to your sweetie at home, but she’s gone out, those lovelies will sit on your doorstep ’till she gets home. And that doesn’t make for a very happy flower.

Hey, we got into this business to spread some joy! We hope this slight change of plans helps you make us a regular part of your routine.

As always, please let us know what you think. We encourage your input, as it helps us build a better business. Thank you for your support!