The Essence of You

I’ve been thinking lately about my creative process. I once had someone tell me, “You are a creative life force”, and I’ve only recently come to understand the meaning of those words. I have always compartmentalized creativity when in reality, creativity and your creative process make up the entire essence of you. Not something you “do” but something you “are”. This may seem like common knowledge or even cliche, but do most of us clearly know what our own unique creative process is? I’ve come to see that my creative process not only applies to how I arrange a bouquet or how I structure my business, but it applies to every aspect of my life. How I dress, how I decorate my home, how I nourish relationships, and how I organize and make sense of my unique human experience.

I would describe my creative process as organized messiness to begin with. Similar to laying out puzzle pieces on the table then slowly, and sometimes quickly, putting pieces together. The analogy is, yet again, somewhat cliche, and yet so perfectly describes the emotional journey. When designing a bouquet for a bride, sometimes the ingredients come together in such an airy way as to be effortless, and other times I’m holding so tightly that my hands are sweating and the design becomes full of so much tension that I need to release the entire thing, sleep on it, and come back to it in the morning.

Our unique process comes with different levels of risk tolerance too. I am comfortable to throw the card table up in the air while others will spend a lifetime avoiding such disruption, hellbent on perfection from the start. Perhaps that is related to our fears and insecurities or rebellious nature. Some play it safe while others tend towards recklessness. To truly understand your unique approach to life is to truly know yourself and to make peace with your process, knowing there is no right or wrong way. This takes failure (many of them) and triumph (you only need a few) to understand where your magic lies. Your unique magic lies in your unique process. There is no rule book for you and there is surely no right or wrong way to experience life.

Back to the basics...

Does anyone else struggle with how much stimulus we have in our world right now? I don’t know about you but, for me, constantly clicking and scrolling and typing, and and and…it gets to me! I’m old school, like pen and paper old school. So this past summer, when the BC wildfires were burning all around us, Covid and the circus that came along with it was putting on a show, and among other media-heightened hot topics, I cracked! I closed my instagram account for OA along with four years of time and effort. I deleted my Facebook, shut off the news, and gave my soul some room the breathe. Well would you believe it, nothing happened! The sun kept shining, the flowers kept growing, and all of you beautiful humans kept buying my flowers. The minutes in my day slowed down, I had room for more, more of the things that I needed. Like sleeping, taking uninterrupted walks, reading books, talking to friends, gardening (like the way our grandmas used to do it, like fully present, no phone, no anxiety, crazy hey?!) all without my phone beeping at me. I became a flower farmer for a handful of reasons, and becoming tied to my devices was sure not one of them. This is the battle a business owner faces these days. Can I succeed without all the noise? Will my products sell without having a social media presence? I don’t really know those answers yet but I decided I was willing to find out. I took the plunge. Ok, full disclosure…I then caved a few months later and opened a new OA instagram account. So I exist again (oh thank goodness!), but you won’t really see me on there. I love my website and I love meeting new people face to face and I love the slow organic build that my business gets to experience this time around. My soul is happier now for it and I think the flowers are happier too. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed or anxious today, I highly recommend taking the plunge. The world is waiting for you xoxo.

We Bought a New Farm!

I planned to write consistent updated blog posts throughout the process of building Oriana Acres but then reality kicked in and I had zero time in the midst of actually growing a flower business. We chose to move at a quick rate with perhaps a little more hustle than is sustainable long term. We knew that the entire time but we had a goal and we weren’t taking our eyes off of it. That goal was to buy a farm further south and we did just that. We signed the paperwork yesterday on our new farm near Kamloops BC. For many reasons, business and personal, we made this leap. Once we saw the potential with our flowers, we knew we wanted to be in a bigger center with a longer growing season, having an additional 2-3 months. Personally, we love the outdoors and wanted to put roots down and raise our children in a culture centered around getting outdoors skiing and mountain biking. On top of the flower business, Landin has a “day job” and has hustled so hard to build a team province wide, providing high end technical expertise in the electrical world, meeting his goal of management and partnership. We pushed hard and we knew it, all the while trusting it was for something bigger. So as I sit here today writing this, we are one week away from moving into our new farm where we can grow our dreams even bigger (although at a more sustainable rate this time).

Our new farm is just fifteen minutes east of Kamloops with sweeping views of the Thompson River and neighboring wineries and farms. The property is south facing with full sunlight and nutrient rich riverbank soil. This year will be our transition year as we plant roses, peonies, shrubs, and more, while setting up my studio and workshop spaces. We will be running a small flower stand at the end of the driveway later in the season so we can start to get our flowers to our new community as soon as possible.

Although the past three years have been a hustle, we know the real work is just beginning and we are here for it, ready to jump in with two feet. Stay tuned by following us on Instagram @oriana.acres and by subscribing to our newsletter to be the first to receive monthly updates.

Surviving Year One...

Well we are officially through the bottleneck…the Floral Studio construction is complete, the greenhouse is ready for spring, and we successfully pulled off our first official growing season in 2018. I get told all the time how damn lucky I am to be working with flowers but I’ll be honest…I almost quit..like more than once. The flowers were only a small percentage of that first year. Construction, heavy labour work, and some serious self doubt made up the majority of that first year. So how did I survive? I sold my truck to pay for the Floral Studio, invested in the Floret flower farming course, and worked damn hard. My husband Landin and I pulled 14-16hr days, trusting that it was all for something. And it was. We so look forward to bringing bundles of beauty to the Peace Region this growing season. Stay tuned.