Spring Blooms

Spring is here & everywhere we look nature is putting on a beautiful show! Here’s a few of the flowering trees and shrubs on our property in Burlington, NJ that we’ve been drooling over…

Crab Apple Blossoms at Steins at Sunset Florist

Forsythia at Steins at Sunset Florist

Plum Blossoms at Steins at Sunset Florist

 

Plum Blossoms at Steins at Sunset Florist

Rejoice in the beauty of spring with us! Stop in one of our stores, call us at 800-887-4013 or visit us online at www.steinyourforist.com.

Flowers make the moment... Let us make a moment for you, at Stein Your Florist Co.

Purple & Green Wedding Delight

It’s Wedding Wednesday!! This week’s featured wedding was a true joy to design; between the wonderful couple and the opulent flowers they selected, we couldn’t have asked for more!

The bride’s bouquet was designed in beautiful bright green bells of Ireland, plum calla lilies, purple lisianthus, purple stock, white spray roses, purple mokara orchids, plumosa and seeded eucalyptus.

 
The bridesmaids bouquets were designed as miniature versions of the bride’s bouquet, sans the roses. The purple flora was the perfect pop of color against the girls’ verdant dresses.

If you're in the Philadelphia, PA or Burlington, NJ area and would like to meet with one of Stein Your Florist Co.'s expert wedding consultants call us at 800-887-4013.

Thank you to Jordan Brian Photography for the wonderful photos!

Penny for your Thoughts

November is Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness month. This devastating disease has touched the lives of the owner and his family here at Stein Your Florist Co., as well as, many of our staff. Through sharing our story and our fund raising efforts we have also learned that it has affected the lives of many of our beloved customers and friends in the community as well.



Purple is the color for Alzheimer's Disease Awareness. Our model is draped in
purple blooms and an awareness ribbon on our hand laid penny
floor benefiting Alzheimer's Disease Research.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that attacks the brain; it is the most common form of dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 5.4 million Americans are living with the disease and every 69 seconds someone in the US develops it. It is the 6th leading cause of death in the US and of the top 10 diseases that kill, Alzheimer’s is the only one that is not preventable or curable. 

Eager to do our part in the fight against Alzheimer’s we held a fundraiser at our Philadelphia location benefiting Alzheimer’s Disease Research (ADR), a program of the American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF). Since 1986, ADR has funded more than $74 million to support Alzheimer’s research and has made significant progress in the understanding and treatment of this puzzling disease. They are confident that with the help and support of others that they can eventually defeat this cruel and dreadful disease.

 

One of our online campaigns to raise the awareness of Alzheimer's disease.
We also painted awareness ribbons on our shop windows to show our support.

In addition to our fundraising event we held a penny drive benefiting ADR as well. We collected pennies from the community and began installing a penny floor at our Burlington, NJ location, Steins at Sunset Florist. Our staff and customers donated their pennies, which we glued to the floor, and the funds were donated to ADR. Additionally members of our staff and students from the neighborhood donated their time to help us record the date and mint of each penny to gather “fun facts” about our project. We made monetary contributions for every hour they spent working on our penny floor. The “Penny for your Thoughts” instillation benefiting Alzheimer’s Disease Research was the talk of the town, few people have ever seen that many pennies glued to a floor before!



Our floor benefiting Alzheimer's Disease Research included a medallion hand
laid in pennies as a centerpiece of the room.

Unfortunately, on December 2, 2014 a car crashed into Steins at Sunset Florist, causing massive damage to the store, including tearing up pennies and spilling the car’s fluids over the floor. We are saddened that we will be losing our penny floor in the reconstruction, but are grateful that no one, sans the driver, who will recover, was hurt and that we remain open for business. We are brainstorming ways to pay tribute to our former penny floor in a new benefit for Alzheimer’s disease research.

Fundraiser for Alzheimer's Disease Research at Stein Your Florist Co. in Philadelphia, PA

If we all work together we can raise awareness about this devastating disease and one day find a cure.

For more information about Alzheimer’s Disease Research, please visit http://www.ahaf.org/.

Philadelphia Florist Shows Their Swag, Listening to the Language of Flowers and Following Their (Dub)steps

PHILADELPHIA FLORIST SHOWS THEIR SWAG, LISTENING TO THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS AND FOLLOWING THEIR (DUB)STEPS – Stein Your Florist Co. Keeps Current by Dancing Dubstep While Celebrating Their Milestone 125^th Anniversary

Belardo shows some smooth moves
listening to the language of flowers.

December 9, 2012 (Philadelphia, PA) Stein Your Florist Co. may be as old as an antique, celebrating their 125^th anniversary this year, but they are definitely keeping up with the times with a new hit YouTube video featuring Stein’s employee and popper Marc Belardo in a dubstep freestyle to the tune of “Saxon” by Chase and Status.

 

Belardo asks his boss, Stein’s owener/operator Patrick Kelly, “is it true flowers speak a language of their own?” to which he replies “Sure, all you have to do is listen,” the beat hits and Belardo shows off some smooth moves and fancy footwork across the slate floors of Stein’s Burlington, NJ location, Steins at Sunset Florist.

 

Belardo asks his boss, Patrick Kelly, if it's true that
flowers speak a language of their own.

Stein’s drew their inspiration for their latest video, following their hit Gangnam Style and Chanel No. 5 parodies as well as a poignant anti-bullying PSA, from the music and dance craze Dubstep. Dubstep is a type of electronic dance music described by Allmusic as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals." It has become wildly popular in the US in the last few years, heard in collaborations with mainstream artists such as Cee Lo Green and Rihanna and paired with amazing dances on shows like So You Think You Can Dance.

 

Kelly and his staff are always keeping their eyes on the latest trends in music, dance, fashion, and all of pop culture, and then they pair those trends with flowers. “Flowers are an amazing and wonderful part of our world and we love to couple them with whatever is trending to keep them top-of-mind, introduce them to people in a fun and innovative way, and make them relatable to all people,” Kelly says. “We’re receiving great responses, especially from younger generations that appreciate our fresh perspectives on the traditions of floral gifting.”

 

View Stein Your Florist Co.’s latest video “Dubstep Stein Style” and others on their YouTube channel.

 

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy hit us hard! We lost power at our Burlington, NJ location until late Tuesday, roads were a mess, our iconic neon sign at our Philadelphia location was damaged, and our NJ sign blew down… again. Some of our employees are still without power.

But we didn’t let it stop us from having fun! We tried to make deliveries to our customers… It was more than a little breezy!

 

We hope everyone weathered to storm ok .  Stay safe!

Our New Favorite Thing... It's a Dress Form, Dummies

We’ve been changing our window displays at our Burlington, NJ location, Steins at Sunset Florist, pretty regularly recently. Before we’d only redesign them for the major holidays, but one of our recent purchases has inspired a lot of window flipping lately. It’s a simple dress form.

The ladies at Steins at Sunset Florist love fashion… and what girl doesn’t enjoy playing dress up? So we style our coworker Jessi Rose from time to time to showcase our latest floral creations, usually playing the role of bride, in old prom dresses, colorful makeup and the like. She was even our live model at The Philadelphia Great Bridal Expo back in January 2012. She was the perfect stoic statue atop a pedestal, displaying our beautiful bridal creations; more than a few expo guests touched her arm to see if she was real, followed by a quick and embarrassed “I’m sorry.”

Unfortunately, being a human girl, Jessi Rose can’t stand in our store windows 24/7, so our dress form is one of our new favorite things! We get to play dress up and make fun themed displays at the same time.

Before we dove into an all-out themed vignette, we dressed our dummy in flowers and sewing notions. One of our employees took the dress form home before it even made it to the flower shop and decked it in fabric swatches, vintage buttons and pins, a tape measure, spools of thread and fresh yellow tulips. There was really no reason behind it… we just love playing dress up! This began our dress form love affair.

Prom season was our first display. A puffy pink princess dress with bold floral accents and long streamers of ribbon. We added the turquoise accents to the Jessica McClintock dress ourselves, sewing corset-style lacing at the back for extra drama.

 

For the display we pulled in elements of a teenage girl’s bedroom getting ready for her prom date, so we included a mirror with her prom tickets and flower order receipt tucked into the frame, her clutch bouquet on a side table and a pair of high heels kicked over to the side.

Next was graduation season. One of our employees is a graduate of Drexel University, so we had a pretty decent cap, gown and stole. We added an overly dramatic set of tassels (‘cause we love honors) and finished our display with text books, globes, and flowers (of course). You can see more about this display in our post Congratulations Class of 2012.

Then there was Independence Day (we blogged about it in Hooray forthe USA). We added a red, white and blue sash and a big bow to the back of a simple white sun dress (so Sailor Moon *smirk*). A couple of red necklaces, a patriotic corsage and a pocket full of flags and our dummy was ready to party! Our live model Jessi Rose even dressed herself to match the mannequin for the holiday, it was adorable.

Our current display has a tropical theme for the Summer. With a sparkly seashell top, a colorful lei, and hippy hula skirt our dress form is ready for a luau. We finished our vignette with pretty Polynesian accents, colorful tropical flowers and happy tin fish. More than a few customers have commented on our exotic Summer theme, they really seem to like it and we’re happy to bring a bit of the tropics to Burlington, NJ.

We haven’t planned our next window display yet… but we can hardly wait to play dress up again!

Shopping Green

Upcycled handmade notepads made
from vintage Monopoly game
pieces by Stein Your Florist Co. 

“Our planet, our home is being neglected. Climate change continues unabated. It seems there's a new ecological disaster happening almost daily. This Earth Day it's time to mobilize the planet from the ground up to send a message that the Earth won't wait!”

This powerful statement is from the Earth Day Network, which is committed to diversifying and mobilizing the modern environmental movement. At Stein Your Florist Co. we love the Earth, it gives us the wonderful gift of flowers! This Earth Day, and everyday,  we want to share a few simple shopping tips that are sure to make the Earth happy :)

Complete the loop, buy recycled!



Handmade upcycled greeting card gift boxes
by Stein Your Florist Co.

Recycling is a 3-step process. That’s why the recycling symbol has 3 arrows that complete a loop. The 1st step is collection – that’s when you put your recyclables into your curbside recycling bin or take them to the drop-off center. The 2nd step is manufacturing – that’s when they’re processed into raw materials to make new products. The 3rd step is buying recycled – that’s when you complete the recycling loop. Even better is to buy upcycled products.

Handmade upcycled gift bows made from
magazine pages by Stein Your Florist Co.

Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value. Upcycling tends to avoid manufacturing processes that can be environmentally detrimental and you always get a wonderful product and interesting conversation piece.

Go Green and Buy Handmade!

Upcycled and handmade shirt pillows, reusable
cloth napkins and hand towels, and fair trade journals
covered  in sari cloth scraps by Stien Your Florist Co.

The accumulating environmental effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming and the poisoning of our air, water and soil. Every item you make or purchase from a small-scale independent artist or crafter strikes a small blow to the forces of mass production. We love handmade products… we’ve been hand making beautiful flower arrangements for 125 years! Wonder if Abraham and Bertha Stein realized way back in 1887 that they were part of a green movement when they opened Steins…

Handmade flower arrangement in a
recycled glass vase designed with
organic flowers by Stein Your Florist Co.

Go green and buy organic!

Keep chemicals out of the air, water, soil and our bodies. Have a healthier happier life and a more diverse, healthier, greener planet! We love when we get in organically grown flowers and shop for them whenever we can.

Buy air purifying plants!


Handmade terrarium planted with air
purifying plants in a vintage pickle jar
by Stein Your Florist Co.

Indoor air contamination is more wide spread then most people realize! The good news is that NASA studies found that common houseplants were able to remove up to 87% of air toxins in 24 hrs! The recommendation? Use 15 to 18 "good-sized" house plants in 6” to 8” diameter containers for a 1,800 sq ft house.

Shop antiques, collectables, and vintage items!

Vintage pottery at Stein Your Florist Co.

It reduces the impact of big industry’s creation of new items and reuses or repurposes these wonderful treasures, giving them a second life, and keeping them out of landfills. When we cleaed out a location we used to have on Front Street in Philadelphia we found thousands of vintage ceramics and collectibles that Steins bought in the 40's, 50's and 60's. We are now sharing these treasures... woderful pieces from McCoy, Roseville, and Occupied Japan pieces.

Buying fair trade is socially & ecologically responsible!


Fair trade recycled wrapper purse and fair trade
gourd maracas at Stein Your Florist Co.

Purchasing fair trade products helps producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions & promote sustainability. It advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as high social and environmental standards.

Fair trade telephone wire bangles at
Stein Your Florist Co.

We love carrying an array of unique handmade fair trade products from around the world, including Africa, India, Mexico and parts of Asia. We also make every effort to purchase fair trade flowers whenever we can... it's just the right thing to do and the quality is always perfect!

Handmade all natural soy Wickie
Candles at Stein Your Florist Co.

All the products you see in this post can be found at Stein Your Florist Co. and Steins at Sunset Florist. Stop in one of our stores today to see all our awesome eco-treasures!