Good Morning, My Name is Lori. I have been in the floral business as a designer for 32 years. I am currently employed at Flowers Insolita in Huntington, New York. I am sure most of the Flower Chat members know the owner, "Goldfish". I have been working with him for about 3 and a half years now. I got into the business in California while I was doing design work for a local craft supply wholesaler,testing new products and making samples for the trade shows. The company wanted to expand into floral supplies. I left for vacation and when I came back they informed me that they had entered me in a floral design competition sponsered by the San Fernando Valley Floral Association. I thought okay why not, it would be fun. I asked when. They said tomorrow. Panic immediately set in! I had no idea of how to work with fresh flowers, what a design competition was about or how it worked. Good thing, too! I have never liked having all eyes on me and if I knew would be up in front of a huge audience of experienced florists and designers, I probably would have gotten a sudden case of the stomache flu. Anyway, I finished the competition, then finished a huge glass of wine. Come to find out it was a top 10 competition ( not that I knew what that meant at the time). To my surprise I was told I did very well, placed 5th. That's how I got started in this business and haven't left. I love working with flowers, I love the people I've met and the customers that I have served. The business has been very good to me, and it has given me the opportunity to be creative and make a living doing something I love.