Flower Factor: A Lifestyle Blog From Aboutflowers.com

Winter is great for many reasons — warm soup, fuzzy coats and toasty fires. And, it’s also a season in which on some days, it seems like the sun gets swallowed up by the moon, never to be seen again. Days are short, the landscape is grey and drab, and the temperature keeps you hiding inside. As a result, you start to feel just like the outside landscape — drab, sad and blah.

I lived this way for years, every February finding myself in a panic to escape the Midwest winter — put me on a plane to anywhere. But this got expensive, didn’t always fit my schedule and frankly, waiting until you get to the point where you just “have to” do anything isn’t the best way to make decisions. You spend more, waste time and usually don’t get what you need. One short burst of sun to combat the effects of the months of winter gloom just didn’t cut it. Read More

There are lots of occasions over the holiday season when you feel obligated to bring a gift — whether it’s for the host of a holiday party or the person who’s opening their home to you for a meal or a stay. You know you are supposed to bring a gift and that you should, and so you do. And while it’s a nice gesture, you might be leaving love on the table. Giving gifts from the ‘shoulds’ is giving from obligation — and obligation creates ho-hum results at best, and stress and self-doubt at worst. Do yourself and your hosts a favor this holiday season and dare to give from love. How a gift is received and the impact it has is all about the come from.

You want them to feel special — to know that you appreciate them, and to stop for a moment during their busy hosting activities to really let the LOVE sink in. You have that kind of power. Especially when you tap into the love power of flowers. The secret is all in asking yourself the right question. Watch this video I taped for you where I share my secrets for gifting love to the people who are loving enough to invite you into their homes and I reveal the secret love question.

How do you thank hosts for opening their home to you?

Somewhere around the age of 27, I decided to look past the pilgrims, stuffed turkeys, and football games to find what Thanksgiving really meant to me. While the food was always good, and it was nice to see relatives and friends, there always seemed to be something missing. On a day that is expressly about giving thanks, I often ended Thanksgiving Day full of stuffing but with plenty of room still left in my heart for what I think every human being could use three, four, even infinite helpings of — LOVE.

So I decided to shake up the old traditions, shake off the stuffing and turkey malaise, and experiment with new, daring gratitude-filled Thanksgiving traditions. Following are three of my favorite ways to stuff myself with LOVE during the Thanksgiving season. Give them a try, and give yourself (and others) the gift of a heart full of love this holiday. Read More

All over the northern hemisphere, October is a month of harvest, of bringing in the bounty that you worked so hard to create. If you were a farmer, you’d be out in the fields about now working to harvest all of your flowers, fruit, veggies, or grapes. You’d want to bring in that bountiful harvest to make sure you were stock full of abundance and happiness throughout the fall and winter months.

While you may not need to don a pair of overalls or climb on a tractor, seeing yourself like the farmer of your life can be hugely beneficial to your happiness. At the beginning of the year, you had an empty field, you planted seeds, and you watered and fed them all summer long. You’ve put a lot of time, energy, money and heart into creating your field of opportunities and dreams this year, and you want to make sure come Dec 31^st you are full up of abundance and happiness, too.

Here are four ways to help you bring in your happy harvest this fall: Read More

Think of all the time, money and energy you’ve spent over your lifetime wishing or yearning for a loving relationship — whether you were single and looking for a mate or in a relationship in need of more intimate connection. Do you remember how in these kinds of moments you felt totally out of control as to whether or not that love would ever find you? (Horrible, right?)

Now imagine you have at your very fingertips the power to feel loved whenever you wanted — no matter what your romantic relationship status. That sounds fabulous, doesn’t it? To be able to feel loved whenever you want?  When I realized that I had this power, which I call my “Love Power,” my entire life changed. I went from a person looking for love to a person who was wealthy in love.

First, I stopped looking outside for love and began to be a ‘love generator’ — a person who creates love for themselves by taking acts of self-love and love. Then I discovered that one of my most potent love powers was Gratitude — finding people whom I could express gratitude to in really simple ways. This love exchange always left me feeling more love and less alone. Read More