Friday, October 01, 2010

I'm glad it's October

Mostly because that means that September is OVER!!! It was an absolutely crazy month. Some of it good, some of it bad, all of it insane.

To start with, we moved. The bad news: We moved, I'm still living in boxes, and we moved. Good news: We LOVE the new place! It's an older house with lots of storage. And I have tripled the space that I have for the business. Can we say YAY!!!

The 'oddest' feature of the house is what actually makes it invaluable to me. It has an unfinished 2nd kitchen. So it's got the counters & cupboards, but no sink and no appliances, but still! I'm just thrilled! Here are a few pictures of it! (all of these were taken within the first few days after we moved in)


(I share the room with the washer & dryer, but it actually helps keep me caught up a little more on laundry, lol) Those are now scooted back against the wall. The cement was still wet when we first moved in)

(the room is just huge! It's roughly 15'x15')

(we actually changed around the table set up after getting everything in there. I'll probably take new pictures once I actually get everything organized)


Then I have a 2nd room (also 15'x15') that will be my office/shipping room. I'll keep all my finished product in here, along with my shipping supplies. I have a 2nd table set up in here for shipping orders.

The black shelves are holding all of my wrapped soaps. The white shelves (and other black shelves) are now filled with the rest of my product. I will probably need one more set of shelves to hold everything & not feel crowded though.

This is A LOT more organized now! LOL! We're still figuring out the homes for everything, but it's coming along nicely.


But this honestly is what I lived with for nearly 2 weeks after moving in. I was constantly digging through boxes to find everything I needed. It was NOT fun!!!


And I also have this wonderful space to store bulk oils, cases of containers, show supplies, etc. I DO have to share the space with the rest of the family (darn them for wanting to store their crap in here too!!!), but it's still an invaluable space to have!


So there is a quick recap of the first 3 weeks of September. Trying to get everything moved over & moved in! (heck, we're still working on the moving IN part, lol)

Then I had a big show up at Sundance Resort the very last Saturday of the month. So I had to PREP like mad for that when I should have been unpacking, organizing, sleeping... Alas, no, it wasn't meant to be.

But the show was AMAZING!!! I more than doubled what we made last year at the show. I managed to snap off a couple pictures before the show officially started & we ended up slammed for the day!



Lots of stuff going on with this table! We got Indulgence Creams, Bath Salts, Sugar Scrubs, Facial Products.


This is the first show we've done since introducing the Mineral Lipsticks. We were a little creative with the displays for them. We found these great triple trays that fit them perfectly. Then we stacked white boxes underneath them to create the tiers. I was VERY happy with how they turned out!

We also got those adorable white lip balm boxes for the show! They hold 12 lip balm tubes, and just showed them off so nicely! This display really sold well for us!


We always try to have a few soap logs to cut by the slice. It's such a crowd pleaser, and really draws in the crowds. Although we always get a lot of people asking if it's fudge! I want to get this table better signed next year. It was kind of a last minute load it into the car thing this time! Oops!

That yellow & green log was our new Lemongrass Essential Oil Soap. I hadn't even offered it online yet. It SOLD OUT at the show! I was so amazed! It was an 18 inch log too! So we are planning on making another log this week, then a large batch once our Lemongrass EO arrives later this month.


And everyone wave to my husband, David! That's him hiding out at the back! I LOVE it when he comes to shows with me. It's always hard on his back, so he doesn't come to a lot of them, but he's always been such a better sales person than me (he's so much more outgoing than I am). That and it's always a lot of fun!


The last week of the month wasn't much fun though. I had a root canal the Monday after the show. My mom had hip reconstruction surgery the Wednesday after that (she went home from the hospital today). I was fitted for a crown yesterday (and still ache enough that I'm on a soft food diet). And I get to repeat the root canal/crown appointments next week. Joy.... (a different dentist cracked both my back bottom molars when he removed my wisdom teeth, so all this is fixing what he screwed up)


And in between all that, we're still shipping out tons of orders, and making stuff constantly so that we're ready for the big holiday rush!

So September was crazy. And I'm SOOOO glad it is over!!!

3 comments:

Pili said...

YAY for moving to an awesome place and YAY for an awesome craft show!!

And I really hope you get all better super soon from all those dental appointments! Damned bad dentists!

Shannon said...

awesome new place, im a little jealous! And wow on the display! amazing!

Anonymous said...

Oh your packaging and retail tent is amazing. Where did you get your display goodies?

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