Monday, February 21, 2011

Scratch That Spring Thing

We were in a snowglobe yesterday. I just spent 1 hour 45 minutes clearing the driveway. We listened to sleet hit the windows all evening. Not sure how many inches of snow we have- maybe 6. A lot of it was in drifts due to the winds. And another 3-4 inches of snow coming tonight. Ughhhhh. Make it stop.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Spring is Coming

And I couldn't be more ready. I ordered some seeds for gardening a few weeks ago, and potato and onion sets will be on their way soon. I've been collecting compost from our compost tumbler for several weeks now. The snow finally melted this week so the muddy, half dead foliage is all in view. I'm eager to play and plant outside!

We keep developing new products for the business, and I'm wondering if I should have a blog for it alone because there is always news to talk about. I want a website, and I guess I'll include a blog on it. I'm open to suggestions on how to create a website with little overhead/time investment and preferably a cart for placing orders. I can only imagine how much we could grow just having a facebook presence alone. But we aren't quite ready for more growth yet. Our sales are up tremendously lately. The last quarter of 2010 was over 1/2 our sales for the year. And 2011 isn't slowing down. We can't keep up! I also prefer to have our own labels with our logo (thanks Bryce and Shannon for the beautiful logo!) rather than the store's for outside sales. We have had no time to develop and relabel 100+ products that we make. It's so exciting, but until we're secure enough to have one of us do this full time... it's getting exhausting working full time, plus the business, plus (this one gets left out the most) maintaining a house. Happy I took this Monday off, but I'll probably spend most of it trying to catch up on (what we call) Job 2.

In fact, since we make tinctures based on moon phase, this weekend we are finishing more tinctures. Eight formulas for a total of 3 1/2 gallons this time. We usually do about a gallon per batch (4 formulas, 1 quart each), but we have run out of so much and go through so much more volume we had to make more. Hoping to buy a 1/2 or gallon tincture press soon. Chris's very own recipe for Stress Formula has become very popular. I have a co-worker that loves it. Every class Chris teaches, we hear more and more testimonials on how much our customers love our stuff. One was a soldier with PTSD getting his first good night's sleep after using our Relax-Eze. It's humbling and exciting to say the least.

I'd love to do more on the culinary front, too. We sell about 40 herbs, spices, and blends, as well as 20 teas. Mom used our mulling spices in some tea for a group of people and everyone was asking where they could buy some. :) It would be fun to teach cooking classes, too but we just haven't had the time. The concern now has become time more than money as we are well stocked on supplies and starting to turn a profit, so I may be quitting my full time job sometime this year (crossing fingers) to keep it growing.

I did make 2 product lists - one for culinary/teas and the other for medicinals. Let me know if you want a copy and I can email it to you. :)