My Story
Here it is, my story, why and how I got to where I am and how it’s just as much about the journey as it is the destination.
It all started back in 2006, I was in year 3 at my primary school and a little bit of an art nerd; you know the ones that bring home those ‘amazing’ paintings and beg their parents to hang another one on the fridge. Yeah, that was me, so one day our school decided to have a competition to help design the new school logo. You can bet your bottom dollar this girl applied. I submitted a drawing which I thought at the time was INCREDIBLE. Looking back now you could for sure tell it was drawn by an 8 year old, but that’s beside the point. A week later in assembly they announced the winners of the new school logo; eagerly sitting there I heard my name called over the microphone, I couldn’t believe it, I had just won the competition for the design of the new school logo. A $20 gift card to Dymocks a new school logo and 9 years later I applied for a degree in Communication Design at Monash University, I got in and studied and learnt about everything from Graphic Design to Advertising. I enjoyed it; even got a scholarship to the Land of Spaghetti (Italy) out of it, but realised it wasn’t exactly what my heart and soul loved.
Since I was a child I knew I wanted my own successful business, it run in the family. My dad, his dad and my 3 uncles all owned their own amazing business’, however I just couldn’t see myself starting a business in Graphic Design or the sort. I started exploring careers I had thought of before finishing year 12 and none of those tickled my fancy either, until one day I was reading a book The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart by Holly Ringland. It was about a young girl who struggled with family identity and used the flowers in her grandmas yard to help bring stability to her life. That’s when it clicked, I had always had a passion for design and flowers but in year 12 we were pushed to go to University, not a Tafe or College; so the idea of floral design never even crossed my mind. But you best believe after I shut that book I was online googling Tafes and Colleges that would teach me everything I needed to know to start my own business in floral designs. Thats when I came across Bloom College, one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I applied got in and learnt the ins and outs of the floristry world from real florists and women who knew their stuff. It really cemented the fact that this is what I wanted to do.
While completing that course I opened my business Petal and Sage, and just worked from home out of the garage (thanks dad) it was great, I had events the pinnacle of floral design. I loved working with the client to create a story board of everything they had ever wanted for that particular event and creating that in flowers for them, it was lovely. Soon after graduating my Course at Bloom College, I started to get too big for the garage at home (and dad wanted his ‘man cave’ back) So I started investigating shops for sale, along with the help of my business savvy grandad/ accountant. After months and months of investigating to my luck we stumbled across Sandringham Flowers, a very established business on Bluff Road. I dragged mum down one day to look at it, and one step into the door I knew it was the place I wanted to be, and the rest is history.