This is an article I wrote for my mum in February 2013 when she decided to close her business and asked me to write something to encourage people to shop local and save other small business from the same fate. Following the sharing of this article on facebook, Hey-Day Florist was invited to speak on national radio about their decision to close and their feelings on the matter. I am happy to say that after a period of working from home creating wedding pieces, Hey-Day florist has re-opened at a new location.
After years of putting our heart and soul into creating unique flower bouquets, we are saddened to have to announce that Hey-Day Florist will be closing her doors for the last time at the end of this week. We started our journey in 2006 in Clane and five years later were forced to shut up shop in search of a more budget friendly location. When we discovered The Dandelion Market Place in Naas we thought we had found a place where small creative businesses could thrive, unfortunatley it was not the blessing we thought it was. It is just another case of a small business not being able to keep it’s head up in a society dominated by multinational corporations. We have fought hard to add some beauty to the world and give everyone the chance to experience it by keeping our prices down to a point where our profit was non-existant. We enjoyed practicing the art of floristry and the praise of our satisfied customers was our reward.
We often organised Demo Evenings, giving our customers the chance to learn some of our tricks to make their own floral arrangements at home. These evenings were always either free of charge, or to raise money for a local schools or charities. The bouquets we had made during these evenings were given away as raffle prizes at the end of each evening. We were happy to be spreading creativity and beauty in the world, to the people around us, and making a huge profit was never a motivating factor. “Be the change you want to see in the world” was our motivation, we decided to do what makes us happy and put our time and energy into a positive occupation. Unfortunately our society is not set up to allow such projects survive and so we have been forced to throw in the towel.
One task that we always find especially rewarding was wedding floristry. However big, or elegant, or extravagant the couple’s dream is, we go to the ends of the earth to make it come true. This is one project that we will be continuing. We are looking forward to focusing on wedding floristry on a freelance basis. So please feel free to recommend us to any friends who are getting married, you can find photos of our previous weddings on facebook and on www.heydayflorist.com.
We would like to thank our customers for so many good years. To everyone who smiled upon receiving our flowers, to everyone who spread the word and told their friends about us, to our wonderful neighbours and friends made during our beginnings in Clane and all the creative minds who surrounded us in The Dandelion Market Place, Naas. We wish everyone there the best of luck with their various creative projects and are happy that such a place exists to support and nourish small craft and home-made projects.
We would like to leave you with a question to make you think about where you choose to spend your money. When is the last time that you bought something that was hand-made by a person with love and passion for art? The popularity of sewing, knitting, re-purposing and crafts is on the rise, it is encouraging to see that people are once again embracing the value of putting time into creating something with their hands and turning away from mass-produced plastic goods. Think about it the next time you need to buy a gift for someone: children have so many toys these days, but do they have a hand-made rag doll? Does your dad need another tie/pair of socks or would it be a nice surprise to give him a gift of a family portrait taken by a local photographer? It’s easy to quickly pick up a tin of biscuits for your Granny, but wouldn’t she just be over the moon with a patchwork quilt? Got teenagers- Woody jumpers are trendy these days :o). We could go on and on, and we know that we are asking you to put extra work and effort into tasks that you probably have to sort out on your way home from work. In the interest of keeping love and art alive in our daily lives, we ask you to stop and think the next time you need to make a purchase, ask around, check facebook, find something that was made with love. You can also share this note, so that something positive can grow from this sad announcement.
Oscar Wilde said “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
Use the power of your penny to keep our world colourful and full of creativity.
From Marion, Shirley and Hey-Day Florist: Over and out…
Seriously hilary 