I feel like it's been a blur of a weekend! Friday as we were starting the porch sale our entire checkout system crashed! It took me a while to get it resolved. We finally got one machine working but our main register was out and we couldn't get any cash out of our drawer. Finally, after a couple of hours, I closed the shop and Debbie watched over the sale and I managed to fix the problem on my pc at home. Never in the world of Bittersweet has anything like this ever happened. As I was driving home it hit me how trivial it was, however, I'd also fixed the issue, so my mood had a lot to do with fixing it. Let me please announce how phenomenal our guests were on Friday during our crash! You guys were above amazing! Thank you for being you! Shit happens! I'm learning as I get older how everything that comes my way especially when it's something bad shouldn't influence my character or mood. It's not easy, and undoubtedly bad things will continue to happen, so I might as well make plans to mold my emotions around those unfortunate events in a way that doesn't ruin my day or make me wish that I'd done things differently. I don't like regrets. If not for your healthy and positive dispositions, I might not look at Friday's mishap with such a positive outlook. Thanks again! Without a doubt, my customers are the salt of the earth! I am and will forever be thankful for each one of you that has ever walked through those Bittersweet doors!
The busy summer season is almost here! A lot of times retail shops see a decline in business during the summer months we are at our busiest. In July we start our holiday soap manufacturing, and in between, we're working on new collections and styling our store. I'm getting ready to dig heavy into styling our shop. We're expanding our Scent Your Own, and launching a few new lines as well. I feel like our store gets stale if we don't make upgrades and nicks and tucks every now and then. We don't have a huge space but it takes a considerable amount of work to maintain, clean, and style it in a way that stands out and emphasizes our uniqueness.
At the shop, I gravitate towards neutral styling and prefer the look over any other. A few black pieces for grounding. Black is used in decorating as a grounding color. You should always have at least one black piece in a room. At least this is what I was taught years ago. Nowadays you see a lot of black in decorating. I'm a fan of black and white too. If you're not sure what colors you'd like to have in your home simply open your closet door and see which color you have more of. This is the color you should have in your home. This method is a never-fail method and it's easy to choose wall colors and furniture colors by using this closet method. I have tons of white. In fact, I have a small bedroom transformed into a closet in our 1921 home, and most of the garments if not all are white. Yes, my closet is also filled with white, and I have quite a bit of black.
Years ago we styled our store with jars filled with dried botanicals and I've never really grown tired of the old-fashioned way of styling. We're going to bring back some of that and incorporate the idea into our store once again simply because we've always loved it.
Our apothecary cabinets are filled with curing soaps. Years ago I purchased old glass door apothecary cabinets to use for curing racks. Since Bittersweet has to cure for four to six weeks you need a designated spot to store all of those soap bars. The cabinets have always worked perfectly. One of the cabinets was in an old hotel. At least that's what the guy told me when I purchased it all those years ago. Our old wooden rack that houses wrapped bars at the shop came from a boarding house. It was used for mail. Back in the day, there were boarding houses in every town and city. Usually, a huge old house welcomed a stranger to stay for as long as they needed. You'd have a bedroom and when it was time for dinner you'd head to the kitchen to dining with other guests that were currently staying in the home. You would share a bathroom, and your mail was left in something that looks like the piece that sits in our shop. I remember my great aunt Enid talking about how she had borders in her home to make extra money. She was a single woman and lived in a beautiful old home with a huge wrap-around porch very close to Volker Park in Kansas City.
A guest commented about our Jack in the Beanstalk Fiddle Leaf the other day. I think it's time for their annual trim as they are touching the ceiling at the shop. After we get a handle on all of our projects and styling we'll propagate a few for the taking. It takes around four to six weeks before they start to root. We like for the starters to have good strong roots before we share them. That way all you have to do is to stick it in dirt and watch it grow.
Blessings.
Jill
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