March 24, 2026
This spring I decided to send a tiny pressed flower DIY kit to the next 100 people who subscribe to my e-mail list. Why am doing this? Here's why.
I love planting seeds and watching them sprout. I love getting my hands in newly-warm spring soil and planting newborn seedlings. I love nurturing the garden and feeling the excitement the first blooms bring. I love harvesting armfuls of stunning flowers, carrying them to my shop, bunching them and hanging them to dry. I love coming up with a new craft idea using my flowers and creating kits for my customers. I love packaging my kits, making sure they're extra pretty, and mailing them to new friends who will experience the beauty of dried flowers.
Do you know what I do not love? Marketing. The reality is, however, that if I want people to love my flowers, they have to KNOW about them. This launches people like me who love dirt and sunshine and natural crafting materials into the world of computers and SEO (search engine optimization) and forces us to learn terms like "loss leaders" and "permission-based e-mail marketing". I will spare you the details about how this is all supposed to work, but simply put, I need to find a way to CONNECT with real people who will not just happen to walk down my gravel road and stop to admire my flowers.
In the marketing world, one way to connect with people is to somehow get people to be interested enough in you and your business to subscribe to your e-mail list. Because this rarely happens naturally, it is usually "incentivized" by offering some kind of "freebie" in exchange for an e-mail address. You have likely come across this often in your internet adventures...typically it is some bit of extra information to be had or a "free printable" something-or-other. I have a few free printable craft night invitations in my shop for subscribers, but computers are not my love...flowers are. I'm a gardener and an artist. My "free printables" do not reflect my heart or even what my business is about. So what do I do?
I was thinking about this recently while sitting in my favorite spot--my flower workshop--and I looked up at all the beautiful bunches of flowers hanging over my head. What do I have to offer from my farm? It's the flowers. I had an idea.
Offering a printable or "info" that could easily be found anywhere else on the internet just feels "schmoozy" to me (that is likely not a real word!), but what if I gave prospective customers a little "preview" of what my flower kits look like...a tiny little gift from my farm?
So, I took inventory of what I had available. Since dried flowers would need larger packaging to ship, I couldn't realistically afford to send them for free. I do, however, also press flowers, and am beginning to create kits using those flowers, as well! I also sell dried flower gift tag kits with handmade paper...those handmade paper tags would pair beautifully with my pressed flowers!
My ideas bloomed into a very unusual but exciting endeavor...the next 100 subscribers to my e-mail list will receive a little "kit" to make their own pressed flower gift tag. A handmade paper tag, one pressed bloom, an herbarium-style flower label on mulberry paper and a length of twine for tying it to whatever they please. Packaged in a glassine envelope and tucked into a kraft envelope with a note, it feels like ME. It feels like my farm. I hope it will be a sweet introduction to Bouquet Yesterday for many.
If you would like to see if one of the 100 gifts are still available, you can find out HERE. Once they are all sent, I will work hard to make subscribing to the Bouquet Yesterday family still worth your while...and not "schmoozy". I promise.
