It started with a truck...

 So, as some of you may not know me, my name is Amanda. For about 10 years now, all I’ve ever wanted was to start my own flower business. You know you dream big, start small. Well that’s what I did, I started working at flower shops to gain knowledge and more experience. As I got farther and farther into my path, I got more comfortable in the everyday routine. As much of us do, but for me, the unknown future was scary and unforeseeable. So I continued working hard, trying to learn something new everyday. That continued until this year, when a huge door opened before my eyes.

 I was scrolling through facebook on a Sunday morning, when I came across a post about a flower truck up for auction. My eyes immediately widened with hope, as I wanted to start small, as I had said before. What better way to start small, than to start with a truck?! As I looked through the photos, my excitement was turning into hope. I started looking through the 150 comments that it had. Everyone was interested in this thing! My hope was slightly starting to dwindle as I see so many people tagging other people and comments saying how badly some of the people really were wanting it. I sent the post to my husband, who I was for sure, was going to tell me, there’s too many people interested in it. There’s no way we could get it for what we wanted to pay for it. Not to mention that the truck was across the country. I forgot to mention that. So we sat down and really thought it through, how much we could afford and how we were going to get it here, if we did actually win it.  So, two weeks go by and it’s the day of the auction. My husband had everything ready to go. He had signed up through the auctions website, got all the information they needed. It was time for the auction. I had to work that day, so it was all up to him to make our dreams come true. I just kept telling myself, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I was leaving it up to fate at this point, because, well, I was at work and there wasn’t much else I could do. I knew the auction started at 11am. So I waited until noon to talk to my husband. So I messaged him and he told me we got it!

 I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I was so excited and scared at the same time! Everything I’ve been working hard for, was really coming true! I’m skipping all the parts about the paperwork and the hauling of the truck to get here, it’s kind of boring. Haha. I remember waiting all day for the guy to bring that truck to the house. As soon as I saw it coming down the road, I immediately jumped up and ran outside. The man must of thought I was looney, but I didn’t care. She was finally here and home! She was big and beautiful and purple. Which isn’t my favorite color, but that was changeable. I ran over to her and hugged her like she was a family member. My husband, just shook his head and laughed at me. The man handed me the keys and she started right up. I put her in the barn, and we got to get a real good look at her. She was even better in person! Everything I needed, was already there! A sink, a cooler, a couple of tables. This was it! The start of my dream!

 Now let me tell you, if you want something super bad enough, you’ll work super hard for it. To save money, we stripped the vinyl off ourselves. Which, if you have never completely stripped a food truck of it’s vinyl, let me tell you, it’s not a easy or fun job! My husband would run the blow torch and I would pull away the vinyl, which didn’t come off in big easy strips. Usually it was small tears that would come off at a time. It was definitely time consuming, but we got it done! Come to find out, she used to be a water truck for Los Angeles. Which I found to be really cool. Being a water truck, and then a flower truck. After that, we went around it and sanded everything down. From that point, we sprayed her down with white sparkly paint, which I wanted irredescent paint, but my husband didn’t think that was very professional. He did let me put some sparkle on her though, so I was happy. We then painted the bumper and trim on her royal blue. Got out in the sun, she glimmered like a new diamond! We still have to get the decals put on her, but at this point, it’s winter. That will have to wait until it warms up a little bit.

I started on the inside. I took boxwood panels and ziptied all the panels to the ceiling. Then I took wallpaper and put that up on one of the walls. I painted the other walls the same color blue as the outside trim. After I was done, I stepped out and looked inside, and it was just the coolest, most unique space we could’ve ever created! It’s like a florist oasis in there! I can’t wait to put her to work in the spring! I’m starting now to apply for farmer’s markets and festivals. I let my son Ben who is 9, name her. Her name is Poppy. So if you want to come out and see Poppy, keep up with my calendar on my website, as I will be adding to it daily! Thank you for all the love and support, while we’re on this journey!

Much love,

Amanda