My letter just came.......

[anytimeflowers]

I was not invited to join AIFD, although I missed it by 1.32 points so I was given the CFD. I already knew, I knew the time was called that I had not given it my all.

Not surprisingly, the design I had to copy qualified for AIFD, but that was the only one, although sympathy was almost as close as it gets, 3.86 - without actually getting there.

Whew, I'm glad the waiting and wondering is over. Now comes the family decision of whether or not to go to San Francisco next year, I don't know if my nerves could handle it, or my hubby for that matter!

Regardless of that, I now have two sets of initials behind my name, and that's more than I've had in the last 30 years!

 

[herndonflorist]

Wow....Congratulations on trying to go for it! You have a lot of guts. I wish I had the pleasure of trying what you did. While it is disappointing, I am sure you learned a life's worth of new ideas! Yay for you!!

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

next year you will be more relaxed.
Take Hitomis class in OKC if you can, or attend any class she does before you go again...You'll pass then.

Also, Phils school is famous for producing AIFD designers.

 

[Palms]

Well congratulations on getting CFD, sorry you did not get the AIFD bit. Thanks for sharing Linda

 

[lori042499]

Congrats...my best scoring design was the copycat one too...

now see all that worrying and you missed by even less points than me...I told you your pieces were fine...you were harder on yourself than you needed to be..

 

[emilymoonflower]

Linda,
WAY TO GO! I'm really happy for you -now go celebrate!
Emily

 

[anytimeflowers]

I really wish they had not done away with the comments, I have the score sheets but a couple of them have me scratching my head and I have no way of knowing what was a sticking point.

I took all of the individual judges scores for each category, added those, and then divided to get an average score for the different catagories.

Highest were creativity, Unity, Focal, Color, and category interpretation.
Lowest were balance, line, and mechanics.

Mechanics were actually quite good but one judge nailed me to the cross, obviously their pet peeve. What really got me was that on that judges sheet, I scored quite high on everything BUT mechanics, go figure.

When you look at the wildly different scoring for different categories, you realize how subjective it could be.....and yet.....
most of the judges sheets averaged 18.6, with a couple slightly lower and one that put me at near perfection. Each one clearly has their pet peeve. So....the system really does work!

It is really good to have those to know what I need to work on, (everything, really, except creativity which to me they were boring, I would have scored them lower....) HA! Obviously my pet peeve which quite possibly is why I scored high?

Hmmm........

 

[Victoria]

Congratulations and salutations... And way to go!

V

 

[OB1]

Another round of congratulations for a very deserving new CFD member!
Be proud of your accomplishment, and take pride in the knowledge that you have made a committment to embracing continuing education, not only for yourself, but by extension, all of the young people who look up to you.
It is so easy NOT to try...and your conviction to give it a go shows your strength of charactor and willingness to learn and desire to succeed.
I think this deserves high praise, and I congratulate you for your efforts, and your accomplishments.
Now, go have a glass of wine, and pat yourself on the back, and get ready for San Fran!
With any luck, I'll see you there.
JP

 

[RWK]

Congratulations on CFD first off. That in itself is a great accomplishment.

Now, I too hate the fact that the new score sheets don't have area for comments. My sheets were LITTERED with them.

and running the risk of repeating myself........creativity is only ONE aspect that is looked at.

A common thread, running through all my score sheets, - in essence they all read the same - great mechanics, flawless execution, great techniques, however COULD have been a little more creative.

 

[anytimeflowers]

Yes, I could not agree more, Ricky. The comments would have been SO helpful to me, but I also remember somebody else saying that they were confused by them because each judge has a different criteria as far as what their pet peeve is...I think one judge said great line, and another said where is your line. I suppose that's why they did away with it.

I'm very lucky in that Richard Milteer, (one of my wonderful mentors), was there on Friday night when I went to put my name on the table, so I snagged him and asked him to give me a quick evaluation. I knew I was cooked, even though he did not lead me to believe one way or the other. But he saw them, so he will be able to better help me in deciphering where some of the numbers came from.

I have come to the conclusion that I will have to work doubly hard at all of the principles and elements, until EACH ONE is one of my pet peeves.

You may not have understood what I was getting at earlier. Let me explain.

My highest marks came for creativity, which surprised me the most, because they looked pretty boring and run of the mill to me. I think that is because I so love to be creative.

I slaved over mechanics and yet that was my lowest score. 17.86.

I think that is because I am far too sloppy in my mechanics on a daily basis. It's not a pet peeve of mine, I think partly because I'm always in such a hurry. So, I have to make it a pet peeve, then it will come naturally instead of my having to think about it, and feel like I slaved over it to get it right.

Those are my thoughts, I will be contacting Richard next week. I should have today but I was afraid I would cry while talking to him. (I have not cried, closest I came was when I tried to show my husband my CFD certificate and he wanted to know why he would want to look at a $2000 piece of paper ~ boo on him!) Don't get mad at him, he just does not have any understanding for any of this, he's a show me the money kind of guy, keeps me grounded in business.

But, above all, I want to thank all of you, for your kindness and support through this......I'm not done, I'll still be posting in the AIFD here we come for more evaluations.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

:headbang::blowkiss::grovel:

 

[lori042499]

Yes, I could not agree more, Ricky. The comments would have been SO helpful to me, but I also remember somebody else saying that they were confused by them because each judge has a different criteria as far as what their pet peeve is...I think one judge said great line, and another said where is your line. I suppose that's why they did away with it.

I'm very lucky in that Richard Milteer, (one of my wonderful mentors), was there on Friday night when I went to put my name on the table, so I snagged him and asked him to give me a quick evaluation. I knew I was cooked, even though he did not lead me to believe one way or the other. But he saw them, so he will be able to better help me in deciphering where some of the numbers came from.

I have come to the conclusion that I will have to work doubly hard at all of the principles and elements, until EACH ONE is one of my pet peeves.

You may not have understood what I was getting at earlier. Let me explain.

My highest marks came for creativity, which surprised me the most, because they looked pretty boring and run of the mill to me. I think that is because I so love to be creative.

I slaved over mechanics and yet that was my lowest score. 17.86.

I think that is because I am far too sloppy in my mechanics on a daily basis. It's not a pet peeve of mine, I think partly because I'm always in such a hurry. So, I have to make it a pet peeve, then it will come naturally instead of my having to think about it, and feel like I slaved over it to get it right.

Those are my thoughts, I will be contacting Richard next week. I should have today but I was afraid I would cry while talking to him. (I have not cried, closest I came was when I tried to show my husband my CFD certificate and he wanted to know why he would want to look at a $2000 piece of paper ~ boo on him!) Don't get mad at him, he just does not have any understanding for any of this, he's a show me the money kind of guy, keeps me grounded in business.

But, above all, I want to thank all of you, for your kindness and support through this......I'm not done, I'll still be posting in the AIFD here we come for more evaluations.

I get exactly what you are saying...and I think what you are saying is right on...the creativity part comes so natural that it is second nature so to us it is just average, but in retail land the mecahnics are never perfect because we just don't have an hours worth of time to bother with it so a bit more work needs to go into it....I have been working for 5 months getting my designs as clean as possible...when I have the extra time...

A bit of a hint for you that someone gave me at the gala...write down on two index cards your elements and principles of design, post them in your works space and then after you make every design check them and see what you could have done different to strengthen each one....if you have time chenge it, if not at least you have a running tally in your head where you are doing better and where you are still lacking..

 

[Flowerchatter03]

You go girl! While you are making the signs that Lori suggested, make another one with you name and after it CFD AIFD. Just for you to look at. Make it happen. Feel inside that it already has happened.

That way, when you go next year, you will be completely at ease.

 

[hollyflr]

Congratulations Linda, I admire you for taking the test and doing so well!

 

[anytimeflowers]

:headbang::blowkiss::grovel:

Mikey, I think that may be the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me - right back at ya!

 

[anytimeflowers]

A bit of a hint for you that someone gave me at the gala...write down on two index cards your elements and principles of design, post them in your works space and then after you make every design check them and see what you could have done different to strengthen each one....if you have time chenge it, if not at least you have a running tally in your head where you are doing better and where you are still lacking..

Oh wow, Lori, what a fantastic idea....Thanks!

 

[concord]

Linda, Just back from vacation and catching up on FC. You should be so proud of yourself for CFD and you are certainly one step closer to AIFD. Open up a bank account and put some money in each week to start saving for SF. You owe it to yourself to try again! Congrats!

 

[marigold]

Congratulations to you and Lori ! I am curious if you know how many they "accept" or "invite" in each year and
if you know how many are members of AIFD? I heard there are only 2500 members, but, that just doesn't seem
right to me...too little. thanks for the info.

 

[Rhonda]

Dore, that number is just about right. You have to remember AIFD members are world wide and a concentration in the Asian markets. The number of Asians that tested in Boston was amazing, it is a "need" for them and their school masters for pay increases. As someone had said quite a while ago, google Korean School floral design, their mechanics mimiced will usually produce AIFD invitation (not my thing but was told that)....