I am a big believer that if you can dream it, then it’s possible. I owe that to my parents since they always said if we could dream it up and were willing to work for it, anything was possible. Throughout my life I’ve spent a good deal of time goal setting, dreaming into the future and then doing the nitty gritty hard work to get there. Some dreams, especially the really big ones are fun to talk about but it can be hard to actually have faith that they’ll happen. For me, meeting Martha Stewart has always been in that realm. Way back when I started my flower business, I would sit at my friend Nina’s kitchen table and we’d talk about meeting Martha and seeing the Omnimedia Empire that she’s built in New York. In my heart I wanted it more than anything I could wish for but never really thought that I’d get the chance.
Fast forward to last spring when out of the blue I got an email from the Martha Stewart Living team saying they were interested in doing a story about Floret in an upcoming issue. I seriously ran through the house shrieking and dancing when that note came through. It was Martha’s magazine, and specifically a sweet pea article, that set me on this path. It, like meeting Martha, has lived in the “yeah right, probably won’t ever happen, I want it so damn bad I could cry” category for nearly ten years. It has been my personal north star and a symbol, to me at least, that I’ve finally built something special enough for Martha to take notice. She holds some serious weight in my world.
While the crew was here shooting for the story we started talking about their American Made awards and I confessed to wanting to enter the year before but chickened out. Melissa, the editor, insisted that I at least give it a whirl and she thought I had a chance at it. So, during the summer our little team went to work writing the application and getting all of the necessary pieces in place. We studied the grading criteria, rewrote the text probably way too many times, read it out loud to the kids for their opinion, carefully chose the photos and courageously entered in the Floral and Event Design Category which was a super big leap of faith for me. Weeks went by, we had made it into the finalist category but hadn’t heard anything more. At that point I was certain we didn’t stand a chance and I didn’t want to let myself get my hopes up. Then the call came in and Melissa’s voice was on the other end, telling me we had won! I think my heart skipped a beat in that moment. Not only were we going to be in the magazine but now I was going to get to meet Martha in person. Two of my life dreams realized in one year.
I flew to New York a few days before the big awards night and my BFF Sue Prutting from White Magnolia Designs in D.C. met me at the airport. We both agreed that since the stars had aligned to make this whole thing happen, we better just test our luck and see what other trouble we could stir up. In three short days we had dinner with Ariella Chezar and saw her new shop, visited SAIPUA and watched Sarah and the crew make their magic, spent way too much money at M & J Trimmings, met Emily Thompson and Frances Palmer, had dinner and gelato with the amazing Putnam boys, got to see a behind the scenes shoot at Weddings, hit the NY Flower District and arranged flowers for the big awards night. We then attended the awards and met Martha herself!!! The following day I sat on a panel about small business with Martha and some of the other winners, attended some inspiring talks and even did a radio interview. It was a jam packed week full of so much amazingness, I still can’t believe it actually happened.
Here are two videos from the American Made awards I thought you might want to see. The first is a beautiful profile on our farm that was filmed during the height of summer. You get a peek at the farm, behind the scenes shots of a workshop and me getting way too excited about being an entraprenuer. Ha!
The second video is the Defining Moments panel I had the pleasure of being part of with Martha. Sorry for the wonky uploading, but You Tube isn’t playing nice with the blog.
So there you have it. Dreams really can come true, even the most impossible ones. It just takes time and holding on to them way after your faith fades.
Natalie Heather on
It’s actually thanks to the feature in the magazine that I found your blog! I’m so, so happy I did. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your story, and I can’t wait to keep up with you via this blog. I’m sure you’re going to achieve so many more great things. Congratulations on everything, I’m so happy for you.