Dried flower invitations

My Mother started her little business the year I got married in 1974. She loved flowers, especially wild flowers on the side of the road. She would stop to pick them, press them in a book that she kept in the car, then decorate wedding invitations with the dried flowers. There is no telling how many invitations that she did during all those years.

When she got sick, the summer of 2010, she moved a bit slower up and down the stairs and slowed down on her basement business. Several times,  old customers would call her to do an invitation for them, and she hated to say no. Toward the end of that fall, when she was so sick, I would finish up the few that  she had orders for. It was her love, but I was quickly understanding why she loved it so much. She passed away that December and I just thought her business would stop too... I packed up her things, still had books with flowers pressed in them, and brought them home to my house. I just wasn`t ready to go through them and do away with them...

One day, our friend from the Framin` Shoppe, Chris, called me to say one of Mother`s good customers was asking if we were still doing the invitations. Chris wondered if I would want to do one for her. I agreed and took it to her, finished with the flowers that Mother had picked and pressed.

Months went by....

Last week, Chris called me again, to say she had another customer who Mother did invitations for, and wanted hers done.  I picked it up and as I was getting the flowers out, I realized that I was running low. It was my mission at that point to find some Queen Anne`s Lace on the side of the road and stop to get me some, just like she would have done in the summertime.  I found it in abundance last weekend as my husband and I were driving down the road. He let me stop and pick some, which is certainly out of his comfort zone to do (!!) but I got a handful and brought it right home to press.

I found  some larkspur  in several colors to press, and now, I am thinking, that I may like to continue her little business. It was never full time for her just something she enjoyed doing. With her gone, it is a way for me to remember and feel close to her, as I am doing what she loved so...

This is not a great picture, but it is just one I took before I took the matted invitation to the Frame Shop for Chris to finish up. ... In the future, I will start doing the frames like she did... She had so many frames and glass pieces, now, they, too, are in my basement, waiting to be used!  

Have a great day
Love,

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