craigerton

Well now that Valentines day is over what is next in the “Flower World”?

craigerton — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:15:51 +0000

You might want to shout out MOTHER’S DAY, but what about St. Patrick’s Day? March 17th is just around the corner. We have some fun ideas for you to share flowers with your loved ones, friends, family, co workers, or anyone you want to send a little something to for the holiday.

Nothing says Happy St. Patricks Day like sending an arrangement in a Guinness can.

Plus it comes with the rest of the 8 pack! And we don’t have to settle for just Guinness we use Stella as well, and are always up to requests.

We have a great supply of Cut Glass wine bottles that make a great creative way to hold flowers.

One of the great things about the flowers you can find at Craig + Co. is that they will be fresh, modern and fun, like these Parrot head tulips in one of our cut glass wine bottles. The Parrot Head tulips have a large feathered bloom that closely resembles a parrots head. They come in bright reds and yellows and bi-colors with green shading. In the picture below they are still pretty tight, you will have to come into the shop to see what they look like now.

Keeping it green for St. Patricks day

Hope you enjoyed the “Green” Pics and hope to see you in the store soon!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

craigerton — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:45:37 +0000

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s day! Don’t have much time to type today but here are some great pics from the shop of flowers that are headed out to brighten peoples day. Hope everyone has an AMAZING Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

XOXOXO

Classes thru March 22nd

craigerton — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:59:54 +0000

We now offer classes every Thursday night! Grab some friends and come have some nibbles and beverages and learn some new great skills. Here is the list of classes thru March 22nd. If you see one that you want to sign up for give us a call and we will get you taken care of.

The Valentine’s Day Table

Feb 2nd/ Taught by Will Heatter

Sexy Table-scapes with seasonal flowers that create romance and will “wow” your partner!

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A Romantic Meal

Feb. 9/ Taught by Jeni Williams and Brian Golden

An evening of deliciously “naughty” foods, sexy wines and aphrodisiac cooking. Create sensual evenings year round.

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Winter Comfort Foods

Feb 23/ Taught by Craig Edwards & Jeni Williams

Tips, Tricks and short-cuts to creating approachable, tempting “tummy warmers” from American classics that the whole family will love.

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Easy Entertaining

March 1st / Taught by Jeni Williams

Hosting tips, table design ideas, flavorful meals and small bites that will make entertaining enjoyable and easy.

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Northwest Cooking

March 8th/ Taught by Craig Edwards & Jeni Williams

Traditional NW wild game dinners that will wow. Slow cooking , searing, sauces, marinades and more! We’ll show you how to get rid of that “gamey” taste and make fans out of even the toughest critics.

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Italian Classics

March 15th/ Taught by Craig Edwards & Jeni Williams

Master the old and taste the new…sauce basics, polenta, cannelloni beans, olives, pasta, and more.

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Decadent and Sinful Desserts

March 22nd/ Taught by Jeni Williams & Kristine Asin Hamasaki

Bring desserts and sweets to life! Decadent candies, tarts, truffles and more. Sinful gifts and treats for any occasion!

Call and sign up today.All classes are on Thursdays and go from 6pm to 8pm. The cost is $25 and includes the class, nibbles and beverages. For more information log onto our website at www.craigerton.com or call 208.433.9691

Tissue Paper Flowers and Balls

craigerton — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:52:03 +0000

This Valentines day in our shop you will find some fun and bright decorations. These tissue paper flowers and balls are easy projects that you can do at home with the family to help make any space bright and festive.

All you need is;
1. Tissue Paper any size and color. The larger the paper is the larger your flower will be, but play with different sizes to get different results.

2. Scissors

3. Floral wire

Take your tissue paper and line up all your corners. For this project I used 17 sheets. You can use more or less. It is all up to you.

Make 1 1/2-inch-wide accordion folds, creasing with each fold.

Fold an 18-inch piece of floral wire in half, and slip over center of folded tissue. Twist the wire.

With your scissors trim the edges of the folded paper. For this project I rounded the edges.

Carefully pull one layer of the tissue paper up at a time. You can fluff the layers as you go.

For the flowers pull all the sheets of tissue in the same direction. To make the tissue ball, pull have of them oneway then flip it over and pull the other half up the other way.

Experiment with different ways of trimming the edges of the folded tissue paper and with different sizes and colors of paper.

You can hang these from the celling or put them on the wall even make napkin rings with them by looping your excess wire around a napkin. The possibilities are endless. Have fun and send us pics of your finished projects to our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Craig-Co/353521191328138

Yarn Hearts

craigerton — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:55:12 +0000

Have extra yarn just sitting around the house? Have some fun with it for this Valentines Holiday. With just a few household items you can make some fun decorations.

All you need is some yarn, wire (you can use a wire hanger), scissors, wire cutters, and pliers.

Cut a strand of wire, with the wire cutters to the length you want and tie the yarn to make a knot at the end of the wire.

The next step and be tricky till you get the hang of it. Wrap the yarn around the wire. I have tested many different methods to do this from just sitting and wrapping to twirling the wire above my head to get it wrapped. Find what works best for you. When you get to the end of the wire, cut the string giving yourself a little extra so you can tie another knot to keep the string from coming unwound. After you tie your knot, cut off any access string.

Once you have the wire wrapped, take the ends of the wire and twist them together. This is where the pliers can come in handy. Then shape your wire into the heart shape that you want.

Now let the creative juices flow and have some fun. Add different colored yarn and play with shapes and textures. When you are done with it hang it from a window or door. Have Fun!

Light Bulb Hanging Vase

craigerton — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:52:01 +0000

One of our designers came up with a creative way to use light bulbs that will soon be obsolete.

The tools that you will need to make this are;

1. Sharp knife

2. Wire cutters

3. Needle nose pliers

4. Clear light bulb

5. Twine, string, wire, whatever you want to hang the bulb

6. Tall bowl

7. Flowers to finish off the project

Use your knife to cut around the base of the lightbulb. Wrap a washcloth around the glass part of the bulb to help you hold on to it and to protect your hand if the bulb breaks.

When you have the opening cleared to the lightbulb you will be able to break away the inside pieces and shake them out of the opening. Also you can use the needle nose pliers to get out stray pieces of wire. If you want you can chip the cement seal away around the rim. It can be tuff to get started but once it is cracked it will come out fairly easily.

Put the empty bulb in a bowl to keep it upright. You can put paper towels around it to help keep it secure.

Use twine, wire, string, whatever you want to hang your bulb with. Make sure that its tied tight so that when you add the water it will remain secure.

Add water to the bulb and put your favorite flower in and hang it for all to see. Cover a full tree in the bulbs for spring. Or use on your Christmas Tree for the holiday season. The flowers that we used are Lizzianthus. Have Fun!

Up-date

craigerton — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:16:33 +0000

Good afternoon everyone.

Well it is about time I made an up-date about what is/has been going on.

Sorry I have been gone for so long but life for me has been very very very busy.

After acquiring Paisley Roberts in July my life seemed to take off from there. Having two retail stores and a event planning business became larger then I even thought it would be. I needed to focus my strengths where they were needed hence my absense from my blog.

I am going to be catching you all up on the past few months as I get time. I have a ton of photos to share and a bunch of things we have been busy with.

Be on the look out for new stuff coming your way here in the next few days.

Father’s Day

craigerton — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:47:12 +0000

Hi all. Sorry for the lengthy delay but I have been rather busy and things have been movin and shakin. It really has not given much of a social life but that’s what happens when you run your own business, right?

I had a meeting with my marketing person and we started brain storming about what we should do for father’s day and she came up with a brilliant idea. She said “how about selling beer with a flower arrangement in it” For real, that is brilliant. So, I contacted my beer and wine purveyor and here we have a great idea for father’s day. Let me know what you think.

Partly Cloudy

craigerton — Mon, 02 May 2011 05:17:49 +0000

I own a little retail store in an area called the Linen District here in Boise, Idaho. We are primarily a flower store but we are quickly becoming so many other things. John Carpenter has been a florist in Boise for over 50 years. And I took over the business about 5 years ago, his name is still on the front of the building but we are working on changing it.

His work stands out from everyone else’s and he has a HUGE following. He has become so popular and has dealt with the who’s who of Boise for so long people think he is “expensive”, “booked out for months”, and a medley of other reasons. It is funny to hear people say, “oh, I love his flower arrangements, but I could never afford him”. I am always perplexed by that statement. How can he expensive? He does not charge you a fee for making the flowers. He charges you for the flowers and the vessel and that’s it. I figured out why people think he is expensive. When and if you call another florist they make it easy for you. You can pick from A,B,C, D…etc it’s the typical menu board, the fast food for florists. Other florist (and yes I am generalizing) have taken the design aspect of floral arranging away and have given us diagrams to work from. The FTD’s and TELE-FLORAL’s of the world have told us when you put A in to B you get C. A photo is taken of said arrangement and there you go. It has been made easy for you. They have told you a few flowers, filler and a zippie vase is the trend so without hesitation you purchase it because you do not know any better. We, however have not lost craft of flower arranging. We base the arrangement on what’s in season, and your budget. If all you can afford is a $35 arrangement we can do it and so can the other florist but you’ll get whatever one else gets and with us you get so much more.

I believe it is important to find a florist to have a relationship with. Once you get to know your florist they will get to know your home, your vessels and your likes and dis-likes. John has made such relationships with most everyone in town. To this day he can remember what vase you like to use on your dining table for Thanksgiving. It surprises people when we tell them to bring their own vessels in. Then they get it. It is a craft that is slowly fading away.

Besides a floral shop, we sell gift items, and we have an event planner, a graphic designer and a chef on site. Are clients now have a one stop shop. I am working on getting the shop in a position where we can take care of most of our customers needs. I just had the exterior of our building painted. It is a fantastic color. It is called Fairy Tale Blue and it can stand up to Tiffany Blue any day. I have painted part of the interior the Fairy Tale Blue and I have installed “clouds” from the ceiling. People always ask how I made them, it’s easy I made the frames out of chicken wire and suspended them from the ceiling. Then using plain white tissue paper we stuck the tissue in the holes of the chicken wire. The texture, the feel and look is fantastic. They have become quite popular and people are constantly taking photos and asking about them, I always tell them it’s always partly cloudy in the shop. They laugh.

William and Kate Get Married

craigerton — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:28:52 +0000

It seems we have another Royal Wedding under our belts. As I write this William and Kate are probably winding down from their day of pomp and circumstance.

This Royal wedding I spent watching on my computer via CNN. It was a surreal experience since I watched the previous Royal wedding while I was living in England. I was 11 years old when Charles and Diana were married. Watching the festivities of William and Kate’s wedding brought back the memories of when Charles and Diana were married. It was fun, exciting and people were celebrating as if it was one of their own getting married. Streets were closed and block parties popped up. Pubs were filled with people and everyone decked out their homes, businesses, cars, bikes, and anything that may move and could be covered in banners, ribbons, balloons, etc. They made the day a nation holiday. Everyone was off and if they were working they were still celebrating the Royal wedding. At 41, 30 years later, I did not think much about William and Kate’s wedding. I heard about it, saw all the media about it, talked about it but never really sunk in. As I watched all the festivities I was envious that I had not made the trip to London or the very least to England to spend it with my family which were celebrating in numbers. Instead I sat on my stool in my shop at 7:00am watching it on my computer. How things have changed in 30 years, I am older, grayer and a different person then I was 30 years ago. I never thought I would be doing what I am doing now and this time I am alone and it just doesn’t feel the same. I feel a certain emptiness with a bit of ”if I had only thought about going”. Why didn’t I think about it? I have yet again missed out on another major part of history and where did I spend it? Working. When did I become this person? The workaholic who thinks about nothing more than business, growing the business and making sure the margins are good. Oh yeah, I remember, when the economy slowed to a mere simmer.

Were not hoppin anymore. I work 7 days a week to try to keep an income coming in. Although I have to cut the schedule I am not sure my employees understand the amount of work I take on when I call them off. They just complain. I am re-creating my business in the hopes I will be sitting pretty as things turn around. But in order to that I must make changes. Changes that will hurt people’s feelings, changes that some will not understand and other changes that I have more support then one can handle. Changes in a business can be difficult, I work with people who do not welcome change. It up-sets their world and I am always shocked by that. As designers I would have thought any sort of change for the better would be welcomed but not with this group. They take it personally, like nothing you have ever seen or could understand. I have learned that I can no longer tell my employees I am making a change instead I have to gradually do it. I have to sneak it in or make it their idea in order for it to happen. It takes so much work sometimes that I wonder if it is worth the effort.

With business being the way it is I find I have must take on any work that comes my way, but I am thankful to be multi-faceted which allows me to work in many different fields.

A client of mine called me months ago and asked me to come over to her home. She was planning a party and needed my help. Come to find out that she had decided to host her own William and Kate party. But not only is she hosting a party but it’s a sleep over for her and her girl friends. I should note here the women who were invited to the sleep over are all in their 60′s. She is excited and you can tell she is vested in this as she opens her trunk to expose all of the treasures she has been collecting for months. It was a treasure trove of goodies. Everything from ribbon to frames, mugs to pictures of the prince and his bride. It was truly a remarkable treasure this side of England.

The furniture been removed from a room she referred to as the “man cave”. Her idea of a man cave and my idea of a man cave is certainly a little different. Her man cave is decorated with amazing art work, furniture, fabrics, pillows and is properly accessorized. The walls are painted a light butter color and it is very comfortable and lovely. Not the man cave I have seen before. She had three queen size beds brought into the space and had two more flat screen TV’s installed. She also had a special HD cable brought in so they could be assured to see the wedding in flawless quality. However, with the addition of the new TV’s this required the cables to be pulled across the walls from one TV to the next. This caused an eye sore which is one reason she called me. We needed to somehow hide the nasty cables and soften the room up. My client had purchased most everything and anything that had a sparkle or glitter on it. She found frames, candles, beads, garlands, fabric, pillows, you name it.

I enlisted the help of my good friend Amy Granger. Amy and I have a great relationship. She is a graphic designer and works out of my shop. Her talent levels are amazing and she blows my mind away me with all she can do. I knew bringing her on would be great for me because she could see things in a different manner and shed some light on things I was getting blocked on.

My client had purchased a bunch of fabric, it was her idea to use the fabric in some fashion to cover the cables. As you can see below we used it to soften the area behind one of the TV’s but also to hide the cables that ran up and around the doors. We also used fabric to give an “entrance” to the “man cave”. Adding the fabric around the entrance to the room really help pull the project together. As I was adding ribbon and bows to the corners of the doors Amy was trying to find another use for a piece of fabric that we had left over. She managed to use it as a table-cloth and covered a side table by one of the beds. Adding the fabric to that little table really brought the room together and seemed to polish off the room. The next task was for my client to have the beds made with linens and accessories in soft hues of blue and pink.

My client wanted a dinner fit for a king. Lisa Peterson a well-known cater here in Boise was brought in to prepare a first class dinner. A butler was hired to come in at 10pm in coat and tails to waited on the women hand and foot all night until the following morning. A special cocktail was concocted which was certainly assured to make for a very giddy evening. A lovely 4 course dinner which was laid out on her grandmothers table linens, the finest silver and the most incredible china and crystal. It was certainly set for a princess.

And least but not last, flowers. Who can have a party without flowers? If the princess is spending $1.3 million on flowers then my client should have some for her party, right? The table linen which is 75+ years of age is a pale blue with the slightest silvery damask pattern on it. We placed little crystal vases down the center of the table and my client draped pearls around the vases. We used the palest of pink roses in the vases and added the very fragrant freesia (a favorite of mine). On the side board is the most amazing piece of pottery I have ever seen. It is creamy in color with animals painted on one side and people painted on the other. My client wanted hues of blue . We put large hydrangea blooms cut directly from the plant with greenery to make it fuller and lovely.

The crystal, sliver and china were top-notch and really set the stage for something so very lovely, elegant and sophisticated. This was truly a first class event.

In the living room she wanted color, deep dark reds in a vase that could handle height a room that could handle color.

Downstairs she has this amazing wire basket. It looks vintage and well taken care of. She places it on a coffee table, we put succulents with moss in it. It will go from the coffee table to outside on the patio once the Idaho weather warms up. I loved the basket and LOVED how it turned out with the succulents in it.

I loved how everything came together. This was certainly my client vision and I believe it turned out better then she anticipated. I was happy that she was happy and I I think all of our hard work all paid off. The eye to detail was amazing. When I was there helping place the arrangements she had friends there lining up the flatware on the table to make use everything was lined up probably.

I have yet to spent to my client about how things went. I am sure things went very well. She had everything planned to the minute and with the company she was keeping I am sure they all had a blast.

Another Royal Ceremony is over and now it is time to move forward with our lives. It was fun to watch the new age of Royals get married. I still wish I had gone but I was there in spirit.