There's a good thing going on every Thursday afternoon this summer and the best part is that it's a few skips away from MCD. Homegrown Alabama, the brainchild of some sharp UA students, sets up a farmer's market at Canterbury Episcopal from 3-6 every summer Thursday. Their farmers come out offering the gamut of Alabama produce (summer squash, strawberries, radishes, carrots, onions, garlic, fresh herbs), locally-raised beef, handmade soaps, pottery, live music, ice cream, fresh tea, jams and more. We guess this means we'll have to stop using impromptu beach trips as an excuse to pick up Chilton County peaches. If you missed it this week, mark your calendar to stop by next time, we'll be there.
We swiped today's blog post straight from Mack. She nailed it...what a refreshing take on Bama Game Day decor inspiration! Here at MCD, we plan to re-stock our favorite (sometimes unexpected) elephant accessories before football season, so keep your eyes peeled for our interpretation of transitional Crimson Tide decorating. 
Home game weekends are a reminder of how lucky we are to be in business in Tuscaloosa. If the traffic on campus doesn't deter our friends and clients from coming to the shop on a Thursday or Friday before the Tide plays in Bryant Denny, they're sure to find us working on floral arrangements bound for private parties, UA events, fraternity and sorority houses, Sky Boxes and, last but not least, tailgating tents on the Quad.
We're in our second season working with the stellar team at Game Day Tents to bring their clients a fresh approach to top-notch tailgating. Each home game we get an early start to deliver flowers to the tents. And, although we're night owls over here at Matt Clinton Designs, there is nothing like the energy on a Saturday morning during football season to get us revved up for Fall. Roll Tide!
This week is one of the busiest weeks of the year at Matt Clinton Designs: Sorority Rush. On top of orchestrating parties for a few houses throughout the week and preparing for Bid Day flower deliveries (and a wedding this weekend), we have boxes of fun new merchandise trickling in from market.
One of our new favorite additions to the store is the NEST candle line (fan them on FB). From Moss and Mint to Moroccan Amber, the fragrances are fabulously fresh and a much welcomed addition to the shop. NEST is also launching a diffuser line this fall and we'll have them in stock in about a month. Diffusers are great for dorm rooms (no candles allowed!) - almost as great as a Trina Turk clad dorm room.
While we're on the subject of Rush and dorm rooms, we must plug our Bid Day flower delivery. Orders are pouring in. If you haven't called us yet, pick up the phone ASAP!
Sometimes we miss coed life at The University. Fortunately, we get to stay in touch with our alma mater throughout the school year, working on parties for various University, sorority and fraternity functions. Now that summer is here, campus is a little quieter (and traffic is much lighter!), but not for long. A new crop of kids (err...young adults) are gearing up for summer orientation visits and starting their next chapter in Tuscaloosa. As we've mentioned, we outfit some fun and fantastic dorm rooms each year, and oftentimes students can keep most of their fabrics and accessories for years to come.
Yesterday, we met with a lovely lady from Schumacher fabrics who shared some of her favorite bright prints. Many of our top picks hailed from fashion designer Trina Turk's collection. It's an upper-end indoor/outdoor line (worth every penny!) that will hold its pizazz through just about anything during a four-year jaunt on campus – even an impromptu toga party with John Belushi and Otis Day and the Knights.
We're prepping flowers for mothers and graduates this weekend, and thought it would only be appropriate to pay tribute to one of the greatest movies ever made, The Graduate (although paying tribute to Mommie Dearest was a close second). We'd prefer to wake up in Mrs. Robinson's Hollywood Regency style house from the 1967 classic. The bold black and white stripe, animal prints, futuristic mod furnishings and and a killer bar scream timeless glamor. And the SCUBA suit!
As for this weekend's flowers, we received several gorgeous rose varieties, pure white hydrangea, fabulous Casablanca lilies and rich greenery to create beautiful, glamorous arrangements for the dearest mothers and eager graduates we are honoring this weekend. (It's not too late to get an order in for delivery!) Which leads to us to wonder...would you rather be sending Mother's Day flowers to Mrs. Robinson or Joan Crawford?
As families and friend make plans to visit campus this weekend for the big A-Day game, we are reminded of a few weekends ago, when swarms of soon-to-be freshmen girls came to town for the University of Alabama Panhellenic Weekend. Panhellenic Weekend is an opportunity for the girls and their parents to get to get acquainted with all of the sororities and campus life. Over 1,000 girls showed up (!) and the MCD team, along with a few other local vendors were invited to meet and greet with the girls and showcase how we can work together. (Our tablescape is pictured above.)
Matt Clinton Designs offers flower delivery on Bid Day (one of the busiest days of the year for us) and – believe it or not – dorm room decoration. Some people raise their eyebrows at the thought of custom bedding and window treatments for dorm rooms, but it helps bring a sense of home to the dorm-life and is very sensible in some cases. For example, it can be tough to find a dust skirt with a 31" drop! Additionally, we have all of the measurements for the dorm rooms on hand, which helps to take a little stress off of the parents. We already have a few appointments set for the summer and will be sure to post some before and after images in the fall.
