Yes, I’m doing a second blog post today. I need to get caught up and I’ve finally managed to carve out some time, so please bear with me.

I’ve been working on this custom order since February, and it’s a pretty big one. Here are all the parts.

And here is the finished bouquet! I know it looks like a wedding bouquet, because of the wrapped handle, but it’s not. Just a vase-ready arrangement.

The finished piece was 18 inches tall (including the handle) and about 14 inches wide. And weighed 2.5 pounds.

This order was a pretty difficult one for me. It started with my customer giving me a very specific set of flowers to make. Exact number, exact colors. And that made it hard for me to visualize the finished arrangement. So I didn’t know how I was going to put it all together until closer to the end.

Every flower took longer than it was supposed to, mainly because of my baby (she screamed for almost a month straight), which means I had to extend beyond the time I’d allotted for it. That was a very depressing aspect for me since I had other projects I’d wanted to make to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary and I wasn’t able to do them. But I love how this bouquet turned out.

This brings me to my next announcement. I will no longer be taking custom orders. I have two more orders already on my schedule for  this year, one of which I’m starting on this upcoming week, and then that’s it. I’ve been mulling over this decision for a long time and it wasn’t an easy one. On one hand, I love being able to make flowers for other people to enjoy, and custom work does bring me challenges and new flowers that I may not have considered before. But on the other hand, it’s too difficult and stressful with my family situation. With three kids I am constantly having to worry about whether I’m going to meet a deadline, or if I’m even going to get time to work. And, it really doesn’t pay well. No one wants to pay what the flowers are truly worth, so it ends up being a very large amount of work with very little reward. That’s not something I can afford now that I have less time. If I’m going to spend time away from my family, then it needs to contribute financially to my family, and teaching allows me to do that. There are many more reasons, but I won’t get into that here. The bottom line is that I will not be taking any more orders, but I will be devoting my time to personal projects, tutorials, videos, and books. I love teaching, so I am really looking forward to being able to put more time and effort into it.

I  know there are many of you who have been waiting for a slot for custom work, and I’m sorry that I will not be able to accommodate you. That may change years down the road, but for now, this is where life has brought me.