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From the farm to your living room: BloomsyBox's sustainable flowers will brighten your world

Celebrate life's milestones, or just make any day special with a weekly or monthly subscription to BloomsyBox — the gift that blooms all year round.

From the farm to your living room: BloomsyBox's sustainable flowers will brighten your world

Flowers hold a distinctive place in our lives. They're there when we want to express love, celebrate milestones, or simply add a touch of beauty to our everyday life. A vase filled with colorful blooms isn't just a decorative accent; it's a mood booster, a conversation starter, a breath of fresh air. It’s the delicate balance between nature’s wild beauty and a gardener’s careful attention. And BloomsyBox is a service that doesn't merely deliver flowers but curates joy, beauty, and nature’s elegance right to your doorstep.


Expertly Curated
BloomsyBox Flower Subscriptions
BloomsyBox Flower Subscription
$59.99+ at BloomsyBox


This isn't your standard flower delivery; it's a sustainable flower subscription service that pairs the magic of blossoming petals with a commitment to ethical sourcing and eco-friendly practices. It serves as your personal gardener, delivering this extraordinary beauty straight to your home every week, every two weeks, or once a month. BloomsyBox makes it possible with flexible subscription plans designed to cater to your lifestyle or gifting needs.

Whether you're a lover of roses, a fan of orchids, or someone who adores a mix of seasonal blooms, BloomsyBox has you covered. And the best part? Every bouquet you receive is a surprise, a new chance to discover an exotic variety or reacquaint with a classic favorite.

What Is BloomsyBox?

Let's dive deeper into what sets BloomsyBox apart from other flower delivery services - its commendable commitment to sustainability. The ethos of BloomsyBox is deeply rooted in conscious consumption and ethical sourcing. Each bouquet is wrapped in paper, not plastic, significantly reducing waste. But the eco-friendly approach doesn’t stop there. Even the farms they partner with share the same philosophy, focusing on sustainable farming practices that respect and protect our precious environment.

BloomsyBox takes pride in partnering with farms from every corner of the world. This global outreach brings you the most vibrant and unique flower varieties. And through their collaboration with Rainforest Alliance-certified growers, BloomsyBox chooses farms that prioritize fair wages, safe working conditions, and sustainable farming practices. This ensures that every bouquet is a step towards a better world. When you open a BloomsyBox, you're not just receiving a collection of beautiful blooms but participating in a global initiative for ethical and sustainable farming.

When it comes to blooms, freshness is king, and BloomsyBox reigns supreme. They ship flowers directly from the farms where they are picked, meaning your flowers are just 2-5 days post-harvest when they arrive at your door. And here's the delightful twist - the flowers arrive in bud form, giving you the unique pleasure of watching them unfold and bloom. This doesn't just extend the life of your bouquet; it makes you a part of the blossoming journey, brightening your world one bloom at a time.

How It Works

The journey to add more color and fragrance to your life starts by signing up for a BloomsyBox subscription. Customizing your plan is a breeze, making it as unique as you are. You can choose from weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly delivery options to perfectly fit your lifestyle. The process is designed to be as flexible as needed, giving you total control over when and how often you'd like to receive your fresh bouquet.

Once you've picked your plan, BloomsyBox gets down to making your floral dreams come true. This involves a meticulously detailed process of selecting, handpicking, and packing your flowers with utmost care. From rare orchids to classic roses, each bouquet is a stunning display of variety, chosen for their beauty, freshness, and uniqueness. It’s not just a box of flowers; it’s a box of stories – each flower comes with a tale of its journey from a far-flung corner of the world.

The finishing touch to the BloomsyBox experience is their reliable and flexible delivery. You don't have to fret about logistics; they bring your blooms straight from the farm to your doorstep. Catering to various lifestyles and needs, BloomsyBox ensures that your flowers arrive when you want them to, offering a freshness guarantee that surpasses any grocery store bouquet. It's like receiving fresh air and a burst of colors delivered right to your home just in time to brighten your day.

What’s In The Box?

As the old adage goes, it's what's inside that counts. This certainly rings true with BloomsyBox. Upon receiving your box, you'll find a bouquet and a hand-tied arrangement of the finest global flowers curated just for you. Every delivery holds a surprise – from exotic orchids to romantic roses and cheerful sunflowers; the bouquet you receive depends on the season and the most exceptional blooms handpicked from the farms. Wrapped in eco-friendly paper and not plastic, these flowers come with comprehensive care instructions specific to the floral varieties in the box. This ensures you know precisely how to maintain your blooms for the longest possible vase life.

Expertly Curated
BloomsyBox Flower Subscriptions
BloomsyBox Flower Subscription
$59.99+ at BloomsyBox

The Perfect Gift

Considering a gift that keeps on giving? Whether it's a birthday, an anniversary, a graduation, or even just because a BloomsyBox subscription is the answer. Each delivery feels like a personally crafted surprise, opening up a world of floral beauty and wonder for your loved ones. It’s not just a gift but a recurring burst of joy, a celebration of life's vibrant hues and sweet scents, a reminder that they are cherished, month after month.

But what's a gift without a personal touch? With BloomsyBox, each delivery can be accompanied by a heartfelt note. Maybe it's a fond memory, a motivational quote, or a simple 'I love you' — whatever your message, it adds a beautiful human touch to the fresh bloom delivery, making it a gift they won’t soon forget.

Order Now

In an increasingly chaotic world, BloomsyBox brings a breath of fresh air, quite literally, with its vibrant, sustainably-sourced blooms. This flower subscription service isn't just about delivering nature's finest creations to your doorstep. It’s about embracing ethical practices, promoting sustainability, and ensuring the quality and freshness of every stem that goes into your bouquet. With a focus on customer satisfaction, BloomsyBox has revolutionized how we gift, celebrate, and enjoy flowers.


Expertly Curated
BloomsyBox Flower Subscriptions
BloomsyBox Flower Subscription
$59.99+ at BloomsyBox


So, why wait for a special occasion? Transform your space into a natural sanctuary, or share this joy with your loved ones. Click here to discover the magic that is BloomsyBoxiscover the magic that is BloomsyBox today. With their vast variety of subscription plans, there's something for everyone. Experience the thrill of having the rainforest delivered to your living room, one bloom at a time. Trust us, once you start, you'll never want to go back to the tired, dull grocery store bouquets again.

Family

Millennial mom asks her own mom about raising a kid in the 80s and is mortified

"What did you do without Google?!"

@thedailytay/TikTok

"My anxiety could not have handled the 80s."

Raising kids is tough no matter what generation you fall into, but it’s hard to deny that there was something much simpler about the childrearing days of yesteryear, before the internet offered a million and one ways that parents could be—and probably are—doing it all very, very wrong.

Taylor Wolfe, a millennial mom, exemplifies this as she asks her own mother a series of rapid-fire questions about raising her during the 80s and the stark contrast in attitudes becomes blatantly apparent.

First off, Wolfe can’t comprehend how her mom survived without being able to Google everything. (Not even a parent, but I feel this.)

“What did we have to Google?” her mom asks while shaking her head incredulously.

“Everything! For starters, poop!” Wolfe says. “Cause you have to know if the color is an okay color, if it's healthy!”

“I was a nursing mom, so if the poop came out green, it was because I ate broccoli,” her mom responds.

…Okay, fair point. But what about handy gadgets like baby monitors? How did Wolfe’s mom keep her kid alive without one?

“I was the monitor, going in and feeling you,” she says.

@thedailytay My anxiety would have hated the 80s. Or maybe loved it? IDK! #fyp #millennialsontiktok #parenttok #momsoftiktok #comedyvid ♬ original sound - TaylorWolfe

Could it really be that easy? It was for Wolfe’s mom, apparently. Rather than relying on technology, she simply felt her child and adjusted accordingly.

“If you were hot, you slept in a diaper. If you were cold, you had a blanket around you.” Done and done.

Wolfe then got into more existential questions, asking her mom if she ever felt the stress of “only having 18 summers” with her child, and how to make the most of it.

Without missing a beat, Wolfe's mother says, “It's summer, I still have you.”

Going by Wolfe’s mom, the 80s seems like a time with much less pressure.

From feeding her kids McDonald’s fries guilt-free to being spared the judgment of internet trolls, she just sort of did the thing without worrying so much if she was doing it correctly.

That’s nearly impossible in today’s world, as many viewers commented.

“Google just gives us too much information and it scares us,” one person quipped.

Another seconded, “I swear social media has made me wayyyy more of an anxious mom."

Even a professional noted: “As someone who has worked in pediatrics since the 80s, the parents are way more anxious now.”

I don’t think anyone truly wants to go back in time, per se. But many of us are yearning to bring more of this bygone mindset into the modern day. And the big takeaway here: No matter how many improvements we make to life, if the cost is our mental state, then perhaps it’s time to swing the pendulum back a bit.


This article originally appeared on 8.24.23

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Community

Hundreds of parks and playgrounds have added these colorful picture boards for autistic kids

Communication boards for nonverbal autism are a huge game changer.

Smarty Symbols

Taking your kids to the playground is supposed to be fun.

You chase them around, hold them up on the monkey bars, follow them down the slide — it's a hoot!

(Or, if you're exhausted and overstimulated like so many parents, you take a little quiet time to scroll your phone on the bench while your child plays happily — there's zero shame in doing so.)

But for parents of children with autism or other special needs — especially when those kids are nonverbal — a trip to the park can be filled with stress and anxiety.

Being in an outside environment that you can't control and having few ways to clearly communicate with your child is stressful and even dangerous.

Now more and more communities are installing special picture boards that make playgrounds and other public spaces more accessible to nonverbal kids.

Autism communication boards, more formally known as Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) boards, are a game-changer.

These larges signs feature colorful pictures and icons that help children — and people of all ages — with verbal challenges communicate.

Smarty Symbols

Typically, you'll find them at playgrounds and public parks, where the boards might have pictures corresponding to things a child might want to do like Climb, or Slide.

Smarty Symbols

There may be pictures for Friend or for Share, or for things kids might want like Food, Water, or to go to the Bathroom.

Kids are able to point at the little logos to communicate efficiently and clearly with their caretakers or even with other kids.

For children with budding language skills, the boards often include a full alphabet so kids can spell out words by pointing or touching.

What's amazing is that these boards not only make playgrounds and parks safer and more inclusive for autism families, they actually open up a gateway for nonverbal kids to play with other children.

Parents may be well-versed in some of the nonverbal communication methods their kids use, but other children at the park might not be. These boards make it easier for a child with autism to find a friend to go down the slide with them or go on the climbing wall together.

As an added bonus, public PECS boards invoke a lot of curiosity which helps kids and even adults learn more about folks who may have different ways of communicating.

And the boards aren't just for nonverbal children with autism! They're a great and fun tool for younger children who are just learning how to read and speak, empowering them to communicate and interact more fully with the world around them.

At home, children with autism often have smaller versions of these boards — or they have special tablets loaded with tools to help them communicate.

But out in the chaos of the real-world and without these tools, communications breakdowns are a major risk.

With 1 in every 36 children having autism (a number that's been on the rise) according to the CDC, these boards are a crucial public health investment for towns across the country.

PECS boards in public spaces is an idea that's really catching on. There are dozens of news stories from the last year or two of counties or town in the U.S. and UK, in particular, installing these boards.

Union County in New Jersey added boards to several of its most popular parks.

Teddy Bear Park in Lake Placid got a custom board earlier this year.

And Oyster Bay in Long Island, NY added communication boards to nearly a dozen of its parks and beaches!

You can even find highly customized boards in places like school libraries, school nurse offices, or sports fields — all with special pictures and communications tools that are suited to that particular environment.

Smarty Symbols, one of the main manufacturers and advocates for the use of these boards, has shipped hundreds of boards since 2022.

The prevalence of PECS or autism communication boards in public spaces is a truly amazing sign of progress

Our understanding of nonverbal autism and our willingness to make public space more inclusive has come a long way.

Therapy designed to encourage or even "force" nonverbal children with autism to speak is highly controversial, and there's a lot of debate over its ethics and effectiveness.

But what's clear is that tools like picture boards and communication boards do not delay or hinder anyone's ability to learn to read or speak.

They're an extra tool that keeps kids safe and happy — which is exactly what every kid should feel when they're at the playground with their family.

autism
Culture

Guy starts singing a Sam Cooke song at the barbershop and blows everyone away

With 7 million views on TikTok alone, Shawn Louisiana's incredible viral video is a must-see.

Shawn Louisiana/YouTube

Sometimes a person opens their mouth to sing, and magic happens. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what qualities make a voice transcend the average and transfix an audience, but we know it when we hear it.

Enter Shawn Louisiana.

A video of him singing in a barbershop has gone viral and it's definitely worth a watch. He wrote on YouTube, "The older guy didn't think I could pull off a Sam Cooke song," but when he started singing "A Change is Gonna Come," he definitely proved that he could. Really well. Like, whoa.

Watch:

The older guy didn't think I could pull off a Sam Cooke song #achangegonnacomewww.youtube.com

There's a reason that video has gotten nearly 7 million views on TikTok alone.

Louisiana frequently shares videos of himself just singing casually for the camera, and I don't understand why this man's talent is not more well known yet.

I mean, just listen to this "Stand By Me" cover. Like butter. Sing me to sleep, sir.

Stand By Me - Ben E. King cover #tiktokwww.youtube.com

His Instagram account says he's available to book for weddings. That's nice, but someone please get this man a record deal so we can listen to him croon all day.

For more from Shawn Louisiana, follow him on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.


This article originally appeared on 9.1.21

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Family

Ring doorbell video captures the phenomenon of what it's like to be the default parent

Millions of us know what it's like to be the "default parent."

commons.wikimedia.org
File:Door knocking for Jody Wilson Raybould (48911105817).jpg ...

Kids, man. I'm not sure of the scientific way audacity is distributed, but kids have a lot of it and somehow make it cute. That audacity overload is especially interesting when you're the default parent—you know, the parent kids go to for literally everything as if there's not another fully capable adult in the house. Chances are if your children haven't sought you out while you were taking a shower so you could open up a pack of fruit snacks, then you're not the default parental unit.

One parent captured exactly what it's like to be the default parent and shared it to TikTok, where the video has over 4 million views. Toniann Marchese went on a quick grocery run and *gasp* did not inform her children. Don't you fret, they're modern kids who know how to use modern means to get much-needed answers when mom is nowhere to be found. They went outside and rang the doorbell.

Back when we were children, this would've done nothing but make the dogs bark, but for Marchese's kids, who are 3 and 6 years old, it's as good as a phone call.

You may be questioning why this mom left her two young children home alone. She didn't. Their father was home, likely wondering why the children were playing so quietly. But. He. Was. Right. There. And the kids still bypassed him to talk to their mom through the Ring doorbell camera. It was pressing business, after all.

"My tablet is dead," the 3-year-old said.

The kids ignored Marchese's questions about where their dad was and continued to complain about their tablets. The entire situation is enough to make any default parent chuckle and maybe sob a little.

Watch the urgent doorbell call below:

@tinyann22

Moms can never get a minute of peace lol #momsoftiktok #momlife #ring #camera #kidsoftiktok

And if you're skeptical that dad was within shouting distance, the mom of two uploaded a part two where dad comes into the frame.

@tinyann22

Replying to @iustmerlp part 2… daddy was found! Lol #kidsoftiktok #momsoftiktok #parentsoftiktok #fyp #ring #prioritiesfirst

This article originally appeared on 3.22.23

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parenting
Joy

Photographer doesn't force young girls to smile in photos and the results are powerful

“Allow girls to show up, take up space and not smile if they don’t want to.”

Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash
two girls in shirts posing for photo

The expectation to put on an air of happy, fun, pleasant nonconfrontation through baring teeth, otherwise known as smiling, is something many, if not most, women know very well. What’s more, this pressure is often introduced to women at a very early age.

And obviously, while there’s nothing inherently wrong with naturally being a happy, smiling person, issues arise when kids are taught that being themselves, just as they are, isn’t acceptable.

That’s why people are so impressed with North Carolina-based photographer Brooke Light’s (@bdlighted on TikTok) hands-off approach when it comes to taking pictures of young girls.

Her philosophy is simple, but oh so poignant: Allow girls to show up, take up space, and perhaps most importantly, not smile if they don’t want to.

Light posted a video showing some of her recent portraits, and truly, the work speaks for itself. Each of the girls’ distinct, unique personalities shine in these black-and-white images. Plus the lighting is moody and artsy and cool as hell. So much better than a forced, cheesy, smiling pic.

Take a look:

@bdlighted never underestimate the power of a photoshoot for your kids confidence #moodymini #kidsphotographer #childrensphotography #portraitphotographer #confidenceboost #kidsconfidence #familyphotoshootideas #familyphotoshoots #studiophotography #blackandwhitephoto #girlpower #girlempowerment #donttellmetosmile #momsofgirls #girlmom #greenscreen ♬ Little Girl Gone - CHINCHILLA

Comments began flooding in commending Light for how she authentically portrayed the girls as individuals, rather than producing cookie-cutter images of them.

“I love how they are not trying to be anything ‘extra’ just their own raw and savage selves,” one person wrote.

Another added, “I can feel their power through my phone.”

Light redirected the praise toward her clients, saying, “They are even more amazing in person! Like that vibe you feel is ALL THEM. I’m just there capturing it.”

For many women who had their own memories of being told to smile for photos, seeing the images had a profound effect.

“CHILLS! This healed something in me. Thank you.” one person commented.

“The Sears family photo trauma was REAL” wrote another.

And for the record, Light doesn’t make boys smile either. Here’s the proof in her follow-up video:

@bdlighted these mom's got me blushing in my DMs 🫣📸 I've never had my creativity or my photography validated so much in my life. thank you for the outpouring of love on these photos this week. it's meant more than you can ever know. #boymom #boymoms #moodymini #familyphotoshoots #familyphotoshootideas #portraitphotographer#studiophotography#kidsphotographer#kidsconfidence #childrensphotography #greenscreen ♬ Area Codes - Kali

In the post, Light shared how touched she was by the overwhelmingly positive response.

“I’ve never had my creativity or my photography validated so much in my life. Thank you for the outpouring of love on these photos this week. It’s meant more than you can ever know,” she wrote.

Imagine that…celebrating others for their authentic selves, then being celebrated yourself. Now that’s something worth smiling for.


This article originally appeared on 6.2.23

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