I'm winding down from a very busy Holiday Open House and switching my energy towards tidying up the yard. I have fifteen paper bags of pinecones and needles sitting under the white pines. I would estimate that there are another fifteen bags as the mounds of pine needles seem to go on forever! Talk about a great workout! Bending down grabbing large bundles of pinecones and needles and placing them in those bags. Repeat, repeat, etc. The weather has been warm, and it feels great to be working outside this time of year. Soon the arctic winds will begin to blow, and the snow will fall. Elle is already crawling under the blankets at night. She must know something that I don't. Dogs' intuition...
Back to the Holiday Soiree... We had a great turnout and I enjoyed when I could, visiting with patrons, friends. It was pretty fast paced. My friend Deb came to help, and we had two checkout counters open. This time of year, one mustn't get in too big of a hurry. If one does get in a hurry your usually encouraged to slow down.
The Twelve Days of Christmas Soaps are not lasting long on our store shelves. In fact, I brought in next week's Twelve Days early on Saturday!
The third week of December and to be exact on the sixteenth day of December we will be offering our last four Twelve Days. I realized that our last day open is on the twenty-third, and so we will need to offer it during a full three-day work week at the shop.
Every holiday seems to fly by so quickly. Even faster when you're burning the midnight oil to keep up with holiday demand. I don't mind that, in fact I'm very much appreciative of the busier each year business. However, having just let that escape my fingers, I'm also very much looking forward to my annual winter break!
Next week's collection contains peppermint infused soaps, and the other Twelve Days is formulated with Star Anise. I'm always drawn to Star Anise during holidays. It's such an unusual scent. Warm and spicy, but in its own family of warm and spicy. I've also found that the fragrance grows on you. Bittersweet blended a small amount of vanilla with the spice essential oil and it's grounded and darn nice to the nose! If I must say!
We've brought back Lavender Laundry Powder to accompany the Peppermint. Both are two of my favorite scents in the laundry. Lavender with its calming properties, while Peppermint helps to neutralize odors. The Peppermint is great to clean doggy blankets, beds, towels, and really anything else if you're a Peppermint loving girl like me.
I've also re-introduced two lip balms. Both are extra yummy on the lips this time of year. The Java Mocha should come with a warning label as you will definitely crave a cup of coffee after you rub it on your lips. The best thing about Bittersweet's lip balm is that it heals dry and chapped lips naturally. Some of my formulations contain old school ingredients that frankly can't be beat!
I have this thing for stars this holiday. I've been hanging them everywhere. The tree, the mantle, and anywhere else that is open. This time of the year, the stars are symbolic of that special star, the star of Bethlehem. The reason we celebrate Christmas...
It's hard to believe that our shop is only open seven more days before we close for winter break!
There is a long list of home projects waiting and I'm planning on a makeover of the shop. I know what you're thinking... Jill changes the shop all of the time! I love keeping our store fresh and new. It's part of what I love about managing a retail store.
Keep smiling.
Jill xo
