Candace Creations: gift for grandma

Showing posts with label gift for grandma. Show all posts

Sunday, October 5, 2014

The Bouqs Company Flowers Product Review

I was recently contacted by The Bouqs Company to do a product review. I occasionally get offers for product reviews but ignore them because the free product offered in exchange for review just doesn't entice me. However when I got the offer from The Bouqs, I was totally interested in a free bouquet of flowers in exchange for an honest review! I mean, who doesn't want free flowers?

I had never heard of The Bouqs Company before. When it comes to ordering flowers online, I am most familiar with Pro Flowers. I have recieved Pro Flowers multiple times from my loving parents and sister and have sent them as well. I've always been happy with the quality of the bouquets I've received, only once did they not seem fresh. I will say it always frustrated me when I was on the ordering end, and thinking it was going to be one price and then at checkout, after the shipping and fees the price being a LOT more, and it was always hard to decide what to order, not knowing if it would be good or not.

Let me introduce you to The Bouqs Company if you are not familiar with them...They are apparently grown on the side of a volcano in Equador providing the flowers lots of sun, snow melt and mineral rich soil resulting in amazing color. They are cut the day you order and arrive within 2-4 days.

When shopping on their website, I found it very easy to browse and although there were lots of beautiful arrangements to choose from, it was pretty simple to just choose a bouquet without worrying about price comparison. You simple browse through their gallery of beautiful bouqs and when you select one you like, you can then choose which size you would like, a classic sized bouq being $40, a delux which is double the size for $50 or a grand bouq which is tripple the size for $70. There are no other fees or shipping so once you select your bouq and the size you want, that is it! I really enjoyed browsing through their online shop which I refer to as their gallery because the photography is so gorgeous!

I decided to go with the Bouq called Dawn, I ordered the Original $40 bouquet of roses. My Bouq arrived by FedEx the morning of the date I had selected for delivery which was a Thursday. I really liked the slim, black sleek package design. I made a little video of when I opened up the package, the sound didn't work but just to give you an idea of what to expect...

fyi I got a little distracted by my kitties at the last part of the video...

Here's the Customs sticker as these came from Equador, straight from the volcano!

When you open the box you will first see the care instructions printed on the box...

And on the inside is the notecard that you can customize to the person you are sending flowers to, adding your own message.

The bouq was securely wrapped so all the flowers were protected and not shaken about during shipment. There was a cool little thermal pouch/sleeve that kept the ends of the stems moist and cool. When I opened the bouquet there were a few outer rose petals here and there that were not as pretty, but I just removed them, showing off the very beautiful petals underneath. I think I actually learned about that from a special episode about flowers on the Nate Berkus show a long time ago...when ordering flowers, consider some of the outer petals part of the packaging that needs to be removed. Anyways, the color was amazing and vibrant and pretty much like the picture on the website, but not only that, they had a very nice smell too. I kept them on my kitchen island and everytime I walked past I would catch a wiff and it was such a treat!

I had a friend come over the second day I had these and she was really impressed, we were hanging out in the kitchen and she was like "OH MY GOSH! Where did you get these flowers! They are gorgeous!" and later as we were still visiting, she was like "I'm sorry, these flowers are so pretty they keep distracting me!" I was pretty much obsessed with them as well! I loved the rich vibrant pink/yellow/tangerine-y color!

Yes I took even more photos than this because I was obsessed with them! They were so pretty! I was very happy with them and I'm actually planning on using The Bouqs to send flowers to my hubby's grandma this week after enjoying mine for over a week. I waiting to post my review so I could let you all know how long the bouquet lasted for. I got the flowers on last Thursday and today is Sunday so I've had them for 11 days. They stayed vibrant and beautiful for a full week and then as the days went past a week, they started to lose some of the vibrant color and looked a little more pale, but not bad, but by yesterday, the 10th day, they were looking like they were at a good point to hang up to dry, but I didn't do that yet, maybe tomorrow, I'm still hanging on to them...Today they are looking definitely not fresh anymore but still in good enough shape to hang up to dry. So based on my experience, The Bouq roses lasted nicely for a week and a half. I'm not an expert, but I think that is fine...I have had flowers in the past that don't last very long and are already on the tail end of their existence when I received them, but other times I've had bouquets that have lasted 2 full weeks.

So that is my honest opinion. I really enjoy the appearance, format and ease of use of their website and how streamlined, straightforward and cost friendly it is. AND I enjoyed the actual bouquet too. The Bouqs Company also has an app you can get on your phone to make it even easier to send flowers. I know I will be using them in the future as I do not live close to family so any occasion I want to give flowers to a relative, I usually order online or call a local florist and have them deliver, but it's always been more than the $40 flat fee you get with The Bouqs, plus I'm ordering blind in that situation and just trusting it will be good. I ordered Dawn, here is the picture from The Bouqs Company Online Shop, and thought my bouquet was pretty close to the actual picture. My photos above were actually a little overexposed so they look a bit lighter than they really were. The color wasn't exactly as intense as this sample photo, but it was similar and still very striking so I was not disappointed.

Before I finish, let me leave you with some of my other favorite bouquets I saw on The Bouqs Company when selecting my flowers.

Marshmallow

Vibrance

An Elegant Twist

Harvest Moon

Sincere

Shop The Bouqs Company

Click HERE to save $10 off your first Bouquet

Disclaimer: I recieved a free bouquet of flowers of my choice in exchange for a review, I will receive a small compensation from any sales of Bouqs that come through this blog.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Footprint Butterfly Tutorial

well, I made the footprint gift for Grandma like I was hoping to do! It was a big hit!

Footprint Butterfly Keepsake Tutorial

Supplies

a round wooden "plaque" from hobby lobby (but could also be done on a small canvas or other shaped plaque)

foam brush

modge podge

tissue paper/crepe paper

ribbon

non-toxic tempura paint

glue gun

kids

I covered the entire front surface with modge podge and then lined up and pressed on my crepe paper. After smoothing it out and letting it dry, I put a bit of modge podge around the edges on the back side and wrapped the crepe paper around (as you can see in the above pic). I also hot glued a ribbon to the back for hanging.

I mixed some tempura paint and then used a foam brush to apply it to my daughters feet, while she sat on the counter in the bathroom. I pressed the the plaque against her feet to make the prints. I realized after the fact, it would have made better butterfly wings if I had done her feet with the outsides facing each other like I did with the baby's feet.

As soon as I got her prints, I set it aside, and we washed her feet off in the sink. Then later while she was taking a nap and her footprints had dried, I did the baby's footprints in the same manner.

After both set of footprints were dry, I decided to go over them with another layer of paint to add some depth and definition. I also painted in the simple butterfly body, nothing complicated...anyone could do it!

After looking at it...I couldn't stop noticing the upper right corner is so bare, but I only had one shot to do the kids feet and maybe didn't arrange them the best...I just couldn't think of what I could add to that space without it starting to look to cheesy or something...I had a couple ideas but then decided to leave it the way it was. What would you have added to balance it out?

Here is a little poem I wrote and attached to the back of the plaque on card stock. It's from the point of view of a little grandchild exploring their grandmother's garden, in their own world just observing the details. The gardens of grandma's are always a special place to explore.

Grammy's Garden

I tiptoe down a secret path

smelling flowers as I go

I come upon a small bird bath

and what do you suppose?

A little robin cooling off

splashing water to and fro

and then I see a butterfly

alight upon a rose.

and then I see a butterfly

alight upon my nose!

-that might be a cute illustration

Enter my currant Giveaway...5 days left!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Handprint craft for Grandma

Grammy and Grandpa will be here soon and we are excited to see them, and celebrate Grammy's birthday too! I'm wanting to have the kids make a birthday craft for her, encorporating handprints or footprints or a combo of both my 3 yr old and 4 month old. Maybe a handprint flower (3 yr olds hand) paint a stem and then use the baby's footprints as leaves? I don't know, I'll let you know what I figure out, but I did come across a link with some really sweet poems for grandma (or grandpa) to go with handprint crafts! Check it out here. I think I like poem #9

This is my hand.
My hand will do
A 1000 loving things with you
And you will remember
When I am tall…
That once my hand
Was just this small.

~Author Unknown

The idea of making a butterfly with footprints popped in my mind too and I thought I was clever, until I googled it and found out it's been done a lot...which is fine...lots of cute ideas for inspiration!

Here are some great projects using footprints and handprints that I've found to give me ideas! I'm going to do something tomorrow so I'll let you know what we end up doing!