Q&A thursday: megan gray of honey and poppies

how/why you got into the flowers

i can assure you that it was not by choice. my parents opened a flower shop when i was a toddler, so i grew up in the business - spending endless hours waiting around while they worked and being dragged on deliveries and to wedding setups. i was helping out with head crowns and cake set setups by the time i was 7 and even making little dried arrangements to sell (please forgive me for the drieds...it was the 80's) by the time i was 8. i was taking the bus in for regular after school work shifts by the time i was 14. it's not illegal (or so they told me).

i had a rebellious teenage phrase where i worked in a party supply store with my best friend. we dressed in a way that would never be tolerated in my parent's store, smoked in the parking lot while pretending to be gathering shopping carts, and purposely snapped the heads of hideous chalk angel statues when the management was too abusive. but then i quit and went back to the flowers.

i went away to college and studied anthropology. i graduated from a prestigious university fully intending to be a brilliant and witty cultural studies writer and never touch a flower again but six months after graduating i went back to the flowers.

i worked with my dad for the next 8 years, running the shop and getting increasingly frustrated and burned out. when the shop closed it's storefront in 2009, i took it as an opportunity to escape. i planned on concentrating on my fledgling stationery business and leaving flowers behind. six months later i started honey and poppies. i've come to see flowers not as a choice. those bastards own me, body and soul. like an abusive boyfriend i keep going back to. i just love them. i do, i do, i do.

on your current playlist

jonathan richman, t. rex, donovan, times new viking, jay reatard and in the car nothing but kday (old school rap station).

savoury or sweet?

both please.

best ever flower (for this week at least)

oh my. if i only have to commit to the week then it's dahlias.

tipple?

me + vodka = b.f.f.  lately vanilla vodka mixed with root beer.

your most unappealing habit

right now i'm feeling that it may be taking a simple question and using it as a platform to write a full biography (see #1, feeling guilty about the length of my response). also if a single thing goes wrong at a wedding, i will mope around the house for days, whining to my husband that i'm a fraud and worthless. it's pretty disgusting. but vodka and root beer help.

couldn't live without

flowers, duh (see #1). also books, museums, video games, drawing, my cat, my husband, and obscenely large amounts of coffee

favourite website(s)

i subscribe to many flower blogs, and the first thing i do in the morning is usually check my reader to see which of my flowery friends have new posts.

what makes your heart sing

um...flowers...did you miss that? above? also art and design. things that are pretty to look at. things that smell good. things that taste good. and the odd baby animal photo.

tell me a secret

i have a horribly dark sense of humour, a wicked potty mouth, and i'm something of a heathen.

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honey and poppies is in long beach, california. go here for megan's bright and beautiful blog.