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A Letter From Our Founder
 The
Seeds of an Idea
I started Blooming Cookies out of my home in January 1984. I had no idea that
Blooming Cookies would grow into the company it has today.
In fact, I never expected to own a business. I joined Delta Airlines as a flight
attendant after graduating from the University of Georgia with a
Journalism/Public Relations degree.  My
career objective was to eventually transfer into either the Marketing or Public
Relations department within Delta. Instead, I resigned after nearly nine years
as a flight attendant and began writing a travel newsletter and book about
hideaway destinations around the world. I sold everything I owned at the time
to publish these.
Although the newsletter gained a nice following of subscribers, it was not
enough to maintain a profit. In the waning days of the newsletter, while
watching a morning news show, I saw a gift of long-stemmed chocolate roses. I
immediately thought that doing something similar with fresh-baked cookies would
be better.
I went to a local florist and purchased a rose box, then off to a craft store
to buy the necessary supplies from which to make the "cookie rose" stems (this
included cutting the leaves from green ribbon.) I proudly showed them to a
friend of mine that managed the Epicure Department of Neiman Marcus. She loved
them and said that if I could make the long-stem cookies she would sell them at
Neiman Marcus.
I was in business!!
A Blossoming Business
 My
parents let me borrow $500 to get started. I soon began selling not only
through Neiman Marcus, but personally delivering the long-stem cookies all
around Atlanta dressed in a chef's coat, pink and white striped pants and a
chef's hat. I drove my father's hand-me-down baby blue station wagon to make
the deliveries. My English Setter, Alfie, went everywhere with me on deliveries
to keep me company. Friends helped me make cookie dough. I even started having
cookie dough made at a local women's shelter (but that's another story....). My
dear mother answered the phone and took orders, sometimes while she was on her
patio sunbathing. A big day was when we had five orders.
We began making flour pots when a customer asked if we could put the cookies in
a flour pot instead of a box. My motto became "yes is the answer, what is the
question" (to quote a friend). It took me about one hour to make one flour pot.
A customer then asked if we could write someone's name on the flour pot. Of
course I said yes and thus the art department was created. Actually, I was the
art department. I didn't know I could draw until I had to. I even hand-drew our
first catalog/flyer. Next a customer asked if we could deliver something to
Washington, DC, so I figured out a way to box the flour pot and shipped the
order to Washington. It got there just fine. We then began shipping nationwide.
Weathering the Seasons
 That
was More than twenty years later, Blooming Cookies has survived numerous
challenges and wonderful experience along the way. We came very close to
bankruptcy several times. In 1992, an arsonist set fire to the call center and
bakery, causing $250,000 in damage. We were insured for only $25,000. We opened
a distributorship in Chicago shortly after the fire. Unfortunately, our high
hopes for the relationship were dashed when the distributor simply copied the
idea and changed their name a year later. A year later, a major fast food
company tried to "borrow" the name Blooming Cookies and franchise the concept.
Still we emerged on the other side of all this stronger and more focused than
ever before. Positive things also happened. We started the basket division for
800Flowers. We now do product development and fulfillment for FTD.com. The
company has grown to around 35 great people and we are on a steady and healthy
growth chart. After the fire my life began to change, and so did the mission of
Blooming Cookies. I had to put Alfie, my dog and constant companion when
starting Blooming Cookies to sleep. A few months later I witnessed the death of
my favorite great aunt, my best friend and college roommate died of lung
cancer, and then I held my mother as she died a few short months later. My
father had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. I learned the
lesson all too well of how fragile and fleeting life is--in what seemed like a
crash course.
Still Blooming
A
few weeks after my mother died, I was taking an order for a gentleman that was
sending a gift to his wife. I asked what message he would like on her card. His
reply was that it did not matter--to just write something. I suggested "I love
you" as a possibility. "No" he said, "I never tell her that." I responded "Well
it's a good time to start right now, " and probably wrote the best note his
wife ever received from him! You see, I had just learned a life-changing
lesson. You never know how abruptly life will end. You may say goodbye to
someone and never see him or her again.
So after all of these years, I finally began to realize what Blooming Cookies
was supposed to be about. We have all come together to form a company that
creates a gift that someone can send that tells another how they feel about
them, or sends a congratulations or celebrates someone's life. Above all, we
are given the honor of helping people connect in a very special way. My goal is
to continue to shift the focus of the gifts to become even more personalized.
We wish to become known as the gift company that helps people express feelings
to others...and make them smile at the same time.
I consider it an honor to be chosen to do so. I hope you do as well.
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