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!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Time for a family breather...
Hello to one and all! I'm sure if any of you ever really check this blog you are ready to throw your hands in the air in disgust at how "regularly" I update...or rather don't. What can I say except that I'm going out of my mind busy and can't afford to pay anyone else to do any of the stuff that needs doing? Yeah, I know, everyone is in the same boat these days.
But, just to make a start in the right direction, I'm going to change that around a little tonight. With everything going on in trying to figure out how to set up a business (beyond just getting a sales tax id number and registering with the city), I've clearly become...well, to quote a friend, focused. It is pretty much consuming as many of my waking (and sleeping) hours as I let it. And I really mean "let" in the loosest of terms. I swear, this thing is taking on a life and personality of it's own which is really good at strong arming me. But the biggest things that I'm more stubborn about are my family and church. So to update on family:
Tia has been out of school for a week. Unfortunately for all of us, that is the time it has taken for us to be rained out, or rather in as the case may be. The upshot of this is that her bedroom is starting to look better than it has for at least a year now, maybe even longer. Plus she is starting to realize that we (her ignorant parents) really were right when we tried talking to her about getting rid of many things she has been refusing to give up. So she has started to organize things in boxes...I'm hoping this will last, but we'll see. If nothing else, at least she is getting rid of a lot of papers and such that she didn't need before I end up being the bad guy by going through it all myself (like I'm going to find the time). Oh, the treasures that she keeps finding to try and tuck away in some corner until later!
Caelen has been out of school for more than two weeks now, and is starting to try and climb the walls. Between all the rain, and the fact that Tia is stuck cleaning her room while John and I are trying to get business stuff done, he's been stuck inside for too much of that time. Thank heavens for sunny days breaking through to Logan at last!!! Now he can ride his bike, and play with his friends every chance he gets...until we drag him out to the garden to help weed (we pull them and he stacks them in a wheelbarrow). Then it is back to the drudgery some call child slavery and some call family chores...personally, while he sort of has my sympathy (I remember a little of when I was 5 and pulling rocks out of the garden), it still cracks me up. Was I ever really that anti-gardening? Then at night, his focus (of course, after I've already supposedly put him to bed to sleep) seems to be keeping Kieran up with tickling and giggling as long as they can get away with it. Heaven help me, but listening to those hushed giggles and squeals is fast becoming music to my ears even if it means I have to get up and scold them.
Kieran is mostly just chasing after the others when they let him, and finding ways of playing around them when they won't. Oh, and proving just how much he can hold onto the baby every chance he gets. I wish I could get a good video of him chasing the kids on their bikes...he has a bike, but it goes too slow! Oh, if you could just watch those little legs move! And then he still has energy to play with Caelen at night? Where do they get all that glorious and seemingly inexhaustible energy?!?!?!
Damon, heaven help us, is starting to roll and scoot all over the place. I can't believe all the things that he finds ways of getting into! I even found him hiding in the middle of my 'flower bush' (a basket of silk flowers I use for the business). John and I each thought that the other had him, so we panicked a little until all of a sudden this round little smiling head popped up in the middle of all these silk flowers! It was sooo cute, but the little imp wouldn't hold still long enough for me to grab the camera. I think I'm just going to have to pose him later or something...
John is basically just trying to keep up the same as I am, though the poor guy is really catching the brunt end of things since I'm currently consumed with all the paperwork...and brainstorming all the stuff to prep for this fall and Christmas season. But he is hanging in there. Between all that and the roller-coaster ride at work (one week he only has about 20 hours, the next he has about 38, plus he is also helping train everyone for a new menu), he is my shining example of being able to keep it together.
So, that is basically us in a nut shell...nuttier than ever and loving it. Especially with all the sunshine that is predicted in the next week, and all the change that comes when spring begins the dry out and head into a true summer, who knows what will follow. I can't wait to see what restless fun these sweet little souls come up with next!
But, just to make a start in the right direction, I'm going to change that around a little tonight. With everything going on in trying to figure out how to set up a business (beyond just getting a sales tax id number and registering with the city), I've clearly become...well, to quote a friend, focused. It is pretty much consuming as many of my waking (and sleeping) hours as I let it. And I really mean "let" in the loosest of terms. I swear, this thing is taking on a life and personality of it's own which is really good at strong arming me. But the biggest things that I'm more stubborn about are my family and church. So to update on family:
Tia has been out of school for a week. Unfortunately for all of us, that is the time it has taken for us to be rained out, or rather in as the case may be. The upshot of this is that her bedroom is starting to look better than it has for at least a year now, maybe even longer. Plus she is starting to realize that we (her ignorant parents) really were right when we tried talking to her about getting rid of many things she has been refusing to give up. So she has started to organize things in boxes...I'm hoping this will last, but we'll see. If nothing else, at least she is getting rid of a lot of papers and such that she didn't need before I end up being the bad guy by going through it all myself (like I'm going to find the time). Oh, the treasures that she keeps finding to try and tuck away in some corner until later!
Caelen has been out of school for more than two weeks now, and is starting to try and climb the walls. Between all the rain, and the fact that Tia is stuck cleaning her room while John and I are trying to get business stuff done, he's been stuck inside for too much of that time. Thank heavens for sunny days breaking through to Logan at last!!! Now he can ride his bike, and play with his friends every chance he gets...until we drag him out to the garden to help weed (we pull them and he stacks them in a wheelbarrow). Then it is back to the drudgery some call child slavery and some call family chores...personally, while he sort of has my sympathy (I remember a little of when I was 5 and pulling rocks out of the garden), it still cracks me up. Was I ever really that anti-gardening? Then at night, his focus (of course, after I've already supposedly put him to bed to sleep) seems to be keeping Kieran up with tickling and giggling as long as they can get away with it. Heaven help me, but listening to those hushed giggles and squeals is fast becoming music to my ears even if it means I have to get up and scold them.
Kieran is mostly just chasing after the others when they let him, and finding ways of playing around them when they won't. Oh, and proving just how much he can hold onto the baby every chance he gets. I wish I could get a good video of him chasing the kids on their bikes...he has a bike, but it goes too slow! Oh, if you could just watch those little legs move! And then he still has energy to play with Caelen at night? Where do they get all that glorious and seemingly inexhaustible energy?!?!?!
Damon, heaven help us, is starting to roll and scoot all over the place. I can't believe all the things that he finds ways of getting into! I even found him hiding in the middle of my 'flower bush' (a basket of silk flowers I use for the business). John and I each thought that the other had him, so we panicked a little until all of a sudden this round little smiling head popped up in the middle of all these silk flowers! It was sooo cute, but the little imp wouldn't hold still long enough for me to grab the camera. I think I'm just going to have to pose him later or something...
John is basically just trying to keep up the same as I am, though the poor guy is really catching the brunt end of things since I'm currently consumed with all the paperwork...and brainstorming all the stuff to prep for this fall and Christmas season. But he is hanging in there. Between all that and the roller-coaster ride at work (one week he only has about 20 hours, the next he has about 38, plus he is also helping train everyone for a new menu), he is my shining example of being able to keep it together.
So, that is basically us in a nut shell...nuttier than ever and loving it. Especially with all the sunshine that is predicted in the next week, and all the change that comes when spring begins the dry out and head into a true summer, who knows what will follow. I can't wait to see what restless fun these sweet little souls come up with next!
Monday, May 24, 2010
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
www.TheHandmadeHeritage.blogspot.com
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