President's Message

To The North East Chapter of The American Institute of Designers

I hope this finds you well on your way to a successful holiday season.  Even though I’m no longer in the thick of it, I have vivid memories of the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the preparations needed.  Christmas is particularly difficult because we must squeeze the holiday and our everyday work into the same space. Thank goodness for recipes and a staff who got their ideas to me well in advance so the set ups, the “greening” and any other accessories were done before they were needed.  It also helped that we were in the Northeast, so “greened” containers could be stored outside.  It worked great except for the year I used cheap foam, and everything froze! It took forever to defrost…lesson learned.

Believe it or not, I missed it so I went back to work in a wonderful flower shop near me.  I am still in love with this industry and whenever someone says, “It must be nice to play with the pretty flowers”, I always answer Yes.  It’s not only nice…it’s fulfilling and rejuvenating.  What other industry gives you that perfect yellow rose when you think you can’t go on….or fills your senses with fragrance…both floral and green.  And I think about how lucky I have been to experience this daily.

So…. lucky floral people…I hope you can answer Yes when asked about the pretty flowers….even knowing what goes into it.  I hope the baby oil still works on your pitchy fingers and I hope you Stop to Smell the Roses.

Happy Holidays

Dot Chenevert, AIFD CDF
AIFD North East President