A Personal Blog for Rachel

So, I just wanted to issue an invitation to everyone who might or might not check in with this blog.  I am basically starting a personal blog connected with my business at www.RachelsFlowerPatch.blogspot.com where I will post all my personal stuff...in other words, this site is where I will post all my family things, but all the things like craft concepts, tips on recipes/food stuffs, gardening things, and personal experiences will be on that site.  I hope you will all forgive me and come check in regularly on the new site as I needed to find a way to keep updating more than one thing at once and this seemed to be the simplest method.  Please click here to be taken directly there, and please send along the info to anyone you might think would be interested...if you think they can stand keeping up with this little scrambled brain of mine, that is. ;}  I will probably try and keep things balanced between the sites as I am able but you all know how infrequently I have maintained this since I keep running out of time so it will probably be more in the nature of some double postings, though not many.  Can't wait to see what you think of what I've come up with so far!

We did it!!!

We did it, we did it, we did it!

We managed to finalize our food certifications this morning and are now officially legally allowed to sell all the treats and goodies that we have been testing out with everyone over the last few months.  You'll have to come over and check it all out!  The Handmade Heritage

By the way, we are going to start offering a finder's fee to anyone who helps us find stores who we successfully negotiate sales with.  If anyone is interested, please just let us know!  I can't promise much, but with the holidays coming every little bit can help!

Family Updates

Well, school is here, summer is all but over, and we are definitely kicking into high gear!

John is still working for the Olive Garden on the swing shift, though thankfully his hours are finally getting back to closer to normal.  He is working hard helping me with all the business things (more on that to come, and no groaning...if you don't want to hear it just read the rest!) and coming up with new ideas all the time.  Plus last week our bishopric decided to shake things up a little bit and change his calling from being 2nd counselor in the Sunday School to being 1st counselor.  We keep teasing him about being promoted (before being in the Sunday School presidency he was the ward librarian and answerable to the 2nd counselor of the Sunday School), but he is doing well and really starting to grow. 

Tia started the 4th grade 3 weeks ago.  I didn't think it would be (sounds a little silly even now to say), but this was actually a little bit of a shock for me: my baby is starting 4th grade and is beginning to move around between teachers!  But knowing Tia, she is taking it all in stride and loving the whole novelty of it!  At home she is still our little mother (when you can pull her out of her book that is!), and enjoys having friends who call her at home now.  Oh and the other major milestone?  Next week she is starting orchestra!  Yeah, the shock set in all right...

Caelen, my baby bear, started kindergarten 2 weeks ago...sniff, sniff.  Actually, after last year (he was in Headstart preschool which is twice as long) this has been super easy.  Except that we are having a hard time remembering what time we need to go and get him!  Terrible I know.  But in my defense, he has been having so much fun he doesn't want to come home either!

Kieran is absolutely loving school too, though in his case it is all because this way he gets mom, dad, and "his baby" all to himself for a few hours every day.  Though that is going to get more scarce now that things are starting to change with the business, it just means that there are times when he gets just mom or just dad for a little while (yeah, I know, hurt his feelings a little more...).  He has also been talking so, so, so much more clearly too!  It has been wonderful to hear his little voice now!  Especially when he is saying sweet things like "Ok, mom" and "I love you"!!!

Damon is finally starting to chunk up, though with how fast he is growing I think that is only going to be a temporary thing for a little bit yet.  But he likes all the higher calorie things I've been giving him so much, I guess that is a good thing!  In the meantime, no matter how short he is, I'm not worried at all about his mental and physical development in any other way.  He is crawling super fast (his favorite game is to play chase!), and is also cruising along the furniture or pushing things while he steps.  He is also experimenting (when he doesn't think anyone is looking) with standing all on his own!  (Yeah, one of those "Look, ma, no hands!")  I just know that before I get much more than a chance to blink my baby boy will be walking, and then look out as the chaos begins!  Ahhhhh!  I'm not ready to lose my baby yet, I only just got him!!!!

Anyway, enough with the melodrama.  I'm mostly just running my feet off trying to keep up with everyone and everything.  Between John and the kids, plus trying to clear out the house (we are having a yard sale with some of my sibs) in the next week and a half, plus getting all the food stuffs ready for sale, and getting Fall and Christmas shows scheduled/organized, plus getting all our gift packages organized, plus trying to prep a kind of catalog to distribute, plus, plus, plus,...anyone have a cloning machine?!?!?!

Anyway, that is us in a nutshell.  We hope to see you all soon, or at least hear from you sometime!

Come and Join Us!

Well, here comes another business update.  I know, I don't seem to have any more, but in my defense have any of you tried to start a new business that is nearly 100% new research?

Basically, this is an all call to anyone and everyone in the Cache Valley area!

Thursday and Friday Aug 5 & 6 from 5-9 p.m., we are joining forces with a friend (some of you know her as Carmel Prows, who is now doing Jewelry by Carmel) to put on what we are calling the Last Chance Summer Open House.  It will be here at the Hanbury Manor Clubhouse at 251 W. 1600 N. in Logan.  We are doing all the usual things with children's chairs, crocheted blankets, headbands, wood-burned things like food trays, plaques, keyboards, (hair) flower nets, plus special sale prices on hair clips.  We are also including a door prize (done raffle style with tickets put into the pot with your name on it for coming, bringing a friend, purchasing anything, pre-ordering or custom ordering, writing down suggestions for the food, etc), plus specific to this open house: a special free commercial taste testing of many of the candies, cookies, and drink mixes we are developing for sale later in the season. 

So please help spread the word and plan on coming yourselves!  I can't wait to see everyone there!!!

FYI: for people who live outside the Cache Valley area, we are also doing an open house Aug 20th in Brigham City, so if you can't make it either Thurs or Fri, please plan on coming then!

Calling one and all!

Well, we figured out something fun that we wanted to do for Father's Day with the business.  The only way it will work is if we get lots of input from everyone possible, though!  It is a competition of looking for Father's Day quotes that will be voted on.  We are giving away a carved and wood burned plaque featuring the winner's quote as the prize.  The more quotes you enter, the more votes you can get, the more likely that you will get the plaque.  So tell all your friends and family to come and weigh in!
www.TheHandmadeHeritage.blogspot.com

I know, I know.  I've been lousy at posting here.  In my defense, we've been insanely busy with trying to get things going for our business, specifically online.  I've crazy busy particularly lately with getting posts and also setting up an etsy shop.  You guys will all have to check it out and let me know what you think, the more input we get (especially on/connected to the site) the better and more accurate the things we offer will be. www.TheHandmadeHeritage.blogspot.com or www.TheHandmadeHeritage.etsy.com.   And, heaven knows, I could use all the help that I can get in promoting the site and things as well so please don't hesitate to leave comments!

On the family front, the kids are going stir crazy from all the storms that we keep getting here in Logan.  I keep almost catching them playing house, which has been hilarious and ever so sweet to listen to!  With only 2 weeks left to the preschool year for Caelen and only 4 weeks left to the school year for Tia, we are all starting to look forward to the lazy days of summer when we can sleep in...at least until 8 am anyway!

How simple encouragement can be...

So we managed to survive the open house Saturday more or less intact. By the time everything had happened way too much sleep had been missed by both John and I, but we made it. The open house itself wasn't a huge crowded success, but we did manage to get our first paid orders! Hurray for friends willing to take a risk! Now, the next challenge: a friend of mine has proposed joining forces and having a stall at the Home and Garden show at USU March 19-20. One down, one to go I guess. But at least this time I'll be a lot more prepared and aware of things to prepare for. Plus I can finally say that we are starting to see a little money. A little, but hey encouragement can come is small and simple forms as well as great and overwhelming!

On a more familial note: the boys are still alive as well, plus I'm being an evil mom and making Dad feed Damon sometimes just to get him more open to a bottle for those times when we have babysitters here. He seems to be taking it...from Dad at least. Caelen and Kieran have also more or less survived, though they are mostly just exhausted from driving Dad nuts while Mom has been gone. Tia got to spend a couple of hours with me during the open house to "help"...she's actually learning to crochet and having a blast to see how long it will take her to crochet the skein she got from Santa for Christmas. I promised her that after she practices for the whole skein that I'll teach a granny square next, and she's anxious. But her excitement persists, and she can't wait to start making projects as well. I guess we'll see how long it lasts, but I figure that since crochet projects usually require a lot of patience (as well as time), this is a good a way as any to see if she is going to stick with it long enough to learn the patterns so she can start designing her own stuff. I guess we'll see. I sure am proud of how quickly she seems to be picking it up, though. She's sure doing a lot better than I did when my Grandma began to teach me!

Grand Beginnings!

Well, it is official: I'm finally getting the sales blog up and running. I even had my first open house today! Check it out and let me know what you think: www.thehandmadeheritage.blogspot.com. If anyone is wanting to try and sell anything through the site, let me know. For that matter: please check out the site and let me know what you think. The more input I get, the better the blog will be (assuming I can figure out how to work your suggestions in!) and the more people will approach it. Let's help each of us find the Christmas money we are all looking for!