Gourmet Blog

August 26, 2011

2011-08-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Our new "Saugatuck Collection" is already available at Butler Pantry in Saugatuck, MI, as well as directly from our website.

The 3-pack Collection features

The Lost City of Singapore Strawberry Jam;
Mt. Baldhead Cherry Honey Mustard; and
Chain Ferry Cherry Salsa

Read about the history of these unique places while enjoying the delightful gourmet treats -- 2 gifts in one!

July 27, 2011 New Gift Box Graphics

2011-07-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that we've finally arrived at a new gift box / graphic solution for our Michigan GOURMET TRAVELS (tm) line. Not only does the box graphic allow the use of our beautiful logo in gorgeous, 4-color art, it's also a solution that does not require a price increase!

After months of searching online, calling, making appointments and meeting with box people (bearing boxes both with and without graphics until my head was spinning), the thought finally came to me several weeks ago, that maybe a nice clear sticker on the box would do the trick. Well, I searched online for hours, and finally called and spoke with a specialist who listened carefully to my dilemma and offered some ideas. Later that day, I emailed my graphic to him, and he made some sample labels with several different formats and ideas, and sent them to me.

What I saw knocked my socks off. The one that worked best is not clear, but is actually printed on white vinyl, and they did a die-cut job on the bottom of the label, so all the little fruits in the logo are cut out. When it is attached to the box, you hardly even know that it's a sticker! It's an unbelievably wonderful solution, and a much more economical solution (as opposed to up into the $7 per box range for graphics printed on a box.... PLUS die fees of several hundred dollars per design, which was absolutely out-of-reach).

The box that we have been using was imprinted with our logo, but in a one-color line art. The new solution is so much better!

◊ We’ve also been busy marketing the Michigan GOURMET TRAVELS ™ line. We are so very pleased to welcome two new retailers this summer:

Dow Gardens in Midland, and
Andriacchi’s in Ishpeming

and we’re working on adding a couple more new retailers!

As before, our wonderful 3-packs and individual jars of salsa, mustard, jams, and BBQ sauce with the labels that tell the history of Michigan's special places are also available at:

• Michigan Thyme in New Buffalo • Sawyer Garden Center in Sawyer
• Marie’s Hallmark in St. Joseph • Slocum’s Gifts in Buchanan

Please support these retailers, and let me know where else you'd like to see our products carried!

Can it really be mid-May already?

2011-05-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

My goal for 2011 was to put more effort into marketing Michigan Travels Gourmet Specialties, my gourmet gift box portion of the business. I have taken some steps, and I'm glad for that, but had hoped to be further along with it than where I am. I have researched new boxes for the product and contacted 3 companies who are working up samples for me. I met a friend for coffee, who is a respected business leader and she offered suggestions to help guide and direct. One her suggestions was to speak with a certain banker, which I did last week, regarding obtaining a business line of credit. Not so much because I need it right now, but it will position me for future growth. Another discussion I had was with a lovely woman who was my assistant at Christmas time 2010, and she agreed to come to work for me part time through this summer, which will free me up to do more.

Making progress ... one bitty step at a time!

Christmas Clean-Up

2011-01-13T10:08:00.001-08:00

Just like the clean-up that awaits homes after the holidays, my studio and business requires much care after Christmas and New Years have passed. All Christmas "enhancements" -- that is, ribbons, beads, floral picks, baskets, tissue paper, and the like -- are put in boxes and put away until late summer (when the photo shoots for the next Christmas begin). Likewise, another big box is marked for tax season, and file folders are cleaned out of receipts and paid invoices, etc, for the year just finished. Telephone, credit card payment receipts, insurances paid, vendor payments, etc. -- all are set aside for tax time. Four big banquet tables are taken down and stored; they are needed only when working on large orders. Boxes galore are broken down and recycled -- all of the incoming outer cartons as well as the inner cases. Then, the vacuuming, dusting, and other general cleaning. You just wouldn't believe how much stuff gets strewn about here!

Another end-of-the-old-year / start-of-the-new-year task is to get caught up on Quickbooks -- Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Reconciling the business checkbook (4 months' worth - yikes!), Reconciling the Credit Card statement, paying accumulated sales tax, paying credit card processing fees. Printing preliminary reports for tax time, looking them over and finding things that need to be re-classified and/or corrected, for whatever reason, and making those changes. It's usually just the result of something not being classified correctly when the transaction occurred. When all looks good on the reports, they're printed "for real" and saved for the tax appointment in March or early April. Next, the costs and expenses that are associated with (and stored) in my home are tackled -- gone over with a fine-toothed comb, combined, added to a spreadsheet, printed, saved for tax appointment.

It is exciting in December when orders are flying in, and gifts are flying out! This "slow" time is welcome, too, a time to regain normal working hours; eating, sleeping and exercising habits; thinking about how the year went and how to fine-tune things for the year ahead, and make plans.

Christmas Craziness

2010-11-27T05:58:00.001-08:00

Hello! Yesterday was a really long work day, but typical for this time of year. I worked 15 hours (8 am - 11 pm), standing in one spot about 90% of the time. Painful feet and back today, but today should be fewer hours. First big Christmas order of 104 gift baskets is due on Tuesday, and I am finished with 74.

"Santa" Carol must mention her great appreciation for her Elf Amy, who has an incredible work ethic. I would not be where I am today without her help yesterday.

Back to the baskets.............

October 23, 2010

2010-10-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been a flurry of activity lately, and a lot of long hours. The months leading into the Christmas season (September, October) can be just as busy -- if not more -- than the actual production time in November and December. Why? Because there is so much to do in terms of preparation.... preparing the building for incoming product, preparing my work station by doubling up on tables ... stacking them. Then there are the calls to customers, preparing sample baskets for them, running the samples around to the customers, tweaking sample gifts if necessary (sometimes requiring extra trips to the customer), then working on invoicing and getting down-payments. All of this in addition to keeping up with everyday business, and everyday personal things (with a chronically ill spouse) that also take extra time. So -- I am tired already! Come on, January! But I do look forward to when things really start to *rock and roll* around here! It is fun and exciting and fulfilling to see my hard work being appreciated.

More soon.

September 11, 2010

2010-09-11T08:27:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update. I've been so-so-so busy, and it's all good news! One of my very best clients, a local company, has been keeping me very busy with hotel welcome gifts for their VIPs. Also, a
wonderful large order came through a few weeks ago, where I did 85 "Stacked Tower" gifts for suite holders at the University of Michigan (GO BLUE!), and a gift basket to be given to the visiting teams' Athletic Director -- all done in maize and blue, of course! The AD gift basket is also a standing order for their home games for the entire season!

Here are some of the "to-do" tasks (which I should be working on right now!): 1. credit card reconciliation, 2. reworking the labels for the new (Michigan Travels) salsa and barbecue sauces (because I recently changed vendors, therefore ingredients, on both of those), 3. new labels for a prototype MTGS gift box for a local organization for next week; 4. the U of M AD gift basket for next week, 5. (3) gift bags needed for Tuesday, 6. some legal paperwork which I need to prepare and send to certain of my vendors, 7. computer file back-ups, 8. preparing orders for gourmet food and baskets, and9. organizing my file cabinet. I hope to get to most of those today, Saturday, um... yes, my day off!

Thanks for checking in -- it is exciting to be so busy -- although exhausting!

Till next time,
Carol

August 2, 2010

2010-08-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

Wow! Well, this is embarrassing that I haven't blogged in nearly 6 months! Let's just chalk it up to a busy life: trying to keep up with two businesses, one household, and a chronically ill husband.

Here's what I've been working on today: 3 new pictures for the website and email newsletter. Doesn't sound like much work? HA!

First, I have to create the gift baskets. They have to be designed "just so" that they photograph well. This means not too big, not too small, bright enough, nothing that will cause much glare, and attractive enough to attract attention! The baskets are NOT wrapped in cellophane, because cellophane is a nightmare to photograph. The basket's bow is attached to a very long pick, put into place atop the gift basket, taped, twisted and tweaked into an acceptable position, so it will look nice in the picture.

OK, now we have to actually TAKE the picture. Today was a nice day, so I could take the pictures outside. Only outdoors creates the best all-over lighting, to create photographs that are acceptable, for an amateur like myself. I set each gift basket on a table against my studio, with a white box underneath. Get the camera settings just right .... and shoot! About 3-4 shots per basket so I can sort through them on the computer and hopefully have one "keeper" per basket.
I did! No reshoot necessary today!

The camera is attached to the computer and the photos are uploaded, sorted through, renamed, resized, cropped, brightness and contrasted adjusted. Then I use "Paintbrush" to manually clear out unwanted background -- this is one of the most time-consuming parts. I use the tools to cut completely around each gift basket. In between bow loops. In between basket weaves. You get the picture!

OK, so now I have my photo just where I want it. Now I move the photos into my FTP file (website), and re-write the website coding so that the new picture and the gift basket's description will show up on the website. Sometimes one picture goes into 2 categories, so I will need to change the coding on two files (for instance, today my "sunny spa" basket went into my 'current' category AND 'luxury/spa' category).

When all the website files are done, I use a special tool to upload all the files to the server (a/k/a "going live"). If all goes well .... great! If not .... tweaking needs to be done. It's not uncommon to have to tweak the picture size to get it to show up with correct proportions.

So now, the website is updated. Now to work on the e-mail newsletter. This isn't too hard once all the above is done. I use Constant Contact for my e-mail marketing. I upload the pictures that I want on the newsletter, and use a template to create the e-mail. After a full day of photo work, I need to be somewhat coherent in my conversational skills to make the newsletter sound "chatty enough, but not too chatty"! The newsletter usually also takes several tries, with changes made to photo size, color scheme, where to place my logo, etc. Once the newsletter seems to be complete, I can do a preview, and then I can send myself a "test" of the newsletter.
If all looks OK, well, then I can schedule it to be sent to my e-mail list. If not, back to the template to try again!

Did I mention that my previous work background is in computer programming and analysis?!

Good night, dear readers! It is 11:38 p.m. and I have been working since about 9 a.m. this morning. You see, being self-employed doesn't mean 9 to 5! But I love what I do, and am thankful for the flexibility of having time off when I need it.

February 10, 2010

2010-02-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

We're just a few days before Valentine's Day, and I have been very busy marketing Valentine gift baskets. This week alone, I've spent about 6 hours driving around to local companies and leaving postcard ads, requesting that they be posted on employee bulletin boards/common areas. I've been to about 35 companies/organizations. Most places have been extremely nice about posting the cards. That makes it much easier -- I'm not a pushy sales person. I know I have an excellent product and have an excellent reputation, and that is all it takes, usually, to bring enough business my way. Valentine's Day is different, though, because it is mostly men who are the buyers, and unfortunately, a lot of men are resistant to do anything "out of the box" .... a box of candy, a vase of roses. But there is still plenty of time left, and I hope sales will improve between now and February 14.

One of my Valentine ideas is called "Wild About You", and it is in a black container with a tiger decal on the front, with a tiger print bow. I think it looks great! It's filled with snacks and sweets, and a stuffed gorilla! The best part is: it'd be great to give a lady OR a guy.

Another, Valentine Indulgences, has a big price tag ($90), but it is filled with all kinds of things for a woman. There is cherry blossom bubble bath, body lotion, and shower gel; double chocolate truffles, sparkling juice, plenty of cookies and snacks, a notepad, a sweet bear, and more!

I'll report back after this Sunday!

January 20, 2010

2010-01-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we're 3 weeks into the New Year already! January is supposed to be my slow month, but it's not turning out that way (and I'm thankful!)

A number of hotel hospitality gifts have been delivered so far this year, as well as "Get Well" and "Sympathy" gift baskets. One client will be picking up 2 gift baskets that will be given to her new clients. The same lady also ordered about 40 of my little packages containing 2 white chocolate aspirin (she's in the health care industry, so it's a natural tie-in). Yet another company orders "Welcome Aboard" gift baskets for their new hires, and I have 5 of those ready to ship today. (Yes! Somebody is hiring! Although they are in South Bend, IN.) Then, there is also an order on the books for 30 baskets due February 3. Adding to my workload is the planning for Valentines and late-Winter baskets. I need to prepare a few ideas for pictures so that I can update the website, make flyers and postcards. Yee gads, I just remembered: It's also time to do another of my monthly e-mail newsletters! Wow!

If you are not already receiving my monthly e-mail newsletter -- and you would like to -- just send me a quick e-mail to: gifts@giftbasketclassics.com, and I will add you to my list.

This Saturday, I will be exhibiting at the Lake Michigan College Mendel Center. The event is called "Winter Delights: a festival of wine, food and jazz". Here's the link if you'd like to check it out, and I hope to see you there! It should be a great time!

December 5, 2009

2009-12-05T07:16:00.000-08:00

Christmas is in full swing here at Michigan Travels / Gift Basket Classics! So far, we have completed 229 gift baskets and boxes. Still to do (so far) are 115 gifts. Today's "must do" list includes 17 Dump Truck gift baskets, 12 custom baskets (all 29 are to ship via UPS - whew!), and all the shipping labels from a previously completed order for 46 gift boxes. That's a total of 75 shipping labels, which is a project all its own.

Another client will be placing his annual Christmas "thank you for the business" order today. He usually averages about 10 gifts to be delivered locally, so I will try to finish his order today, as well.

I'm so very thankful for all of the business. While I do business year-round, the orders that come in in November and December are what provides enough income to survive the other ten months of the year.

It does mean some very long and difficult hours (physically). This week I'm averaging 14 hours per day, and most of that is spent standing in one spot! My back, legs, and feet are in pain ... but thank goodness for Ben Gay and Aleve .... two of my closest friends in the month of December!

More later .... obviously, I need to get to work! Thanks for reading!

November 7, 2009

2009-11-07T08:21:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe how quickly the past month has gone by! When you're in the gift basket business, September and October can be just as busy and stressful as November and December. There's a LOT of planning, marketing, calling prospective clients, designing and creating prototype gifts, dropping them off to clients, following up, placing orders, receiving and unloading incoming products. In addition to keeping up with the daily concerns of a business - filling orders, bookwork, deliveries, and etc. If you are (or have been) self-employed, you'll know exactly what I mean!

Things are shaping up nicely here for Christmas - several corporate orders have already come in and several individual orders, as well!

About 2 1/2 weeks ago, we had a booth at our local Chamber of Commerce's Fall Trade Fair. It was a great opportunity to show not only our beautiful gift baskets, but our Michigan Travels line, as well. We received quite a lot of interest, and have several new contacts from the show.

Thirteen big Halloween baskets were delivered on October 29th to a generous client who gives them to special children in her life. They included puzzles, coloring books, Halloween socks, Halloween CDs, Halloween popcorn balls, lots of candy and much more. I used black plastic cauldrons as the "basket" part of the gift!

Today I am preparing 5 gifts for Tuesday. Four will be delivered to a local hotel as welcome gifts for VIPs who are interviewing with a local company. The fifth is a marketing tool for a local Home Health Care company -- will be hand-delivered to a local physician.

I'd better get back to work! Thanks for reading!

Visit our websites at www.giftbasketclassics.com and www.gourmetgiftboxes.net for ideas and contact information.

October 2, 2009

2009-10-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hello again, dear blog readers! Here's the latest from the Gift Basket & Gift Box Studio on Lake Shore Drive, Saint Joseph, Michigan!

Yesterday, October 1, I had a booth at the Benton Harbor Airway Oxygen's Octoberfest, displaying some medical gift baskets and, of course, my Michigan Travels Gourmet Specialties gift boxes! There was some interest there, mostly among other vendors who were there. It was a good networking opportunity, and I'm grateful for that. Airway Oxygen also catered a wonderful meal for everyone (attendees and vendors) that included bratwurst, sauerkraut, sliced cucumbers in a creamy sauce, German potato salad, and apple pie for dessert. Quite a good spread!

Looking forward to October 15 -- another expo to be held at the Mendel Center at Benton Harbor's Lake Michigan College. It is the annual Trade Fair held by our local Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce. Again, an incredible networking opportunity, a chance to show off my products to attendees and other vendors, and to learn more about others' businesses. In order to have a booth, you must be a Cornerstone Chamber member, but anyone can attend. Hope to see you there -- Thursday, October 15 from 4-7.

In other news, this past week has been a hugely frustrating one due to the fact that I was having some strange issues with my computer not acting right. I use a signal from a wireless router to connect my DSL, and was continually getting strange "Broadband" error messages, not being able to go to some websites (that were never a problem before), and other odd things. After nearly a week of this limited connectivity, having had AT&T out (they replaced the router/modem), having a service call from a computer tech, and lots of hair-pulling on my part, my husband and I were finally able to resolve the problem. Here's the extreme "Reader's Digest" version: I had installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 last week .... and that was causing the problem! So I restored the system to the settings from before that installation, and things were back to normal instantly. Unbelievable! So I warn you, one and all, be very wary of XP Service Pack 3.

That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by, and hope you'll come back again soon!

Carol

September 9, 2009

2009-09-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Here's what is new in business ..... yet another "Dump Truck Gift Basket" has been ordered, assembled, gently packed, and shipped on its way to Massachusetts. A construction company is interested in possibly sending these baskets more often to its clients. The basket I shipped is for the staff to see how it looks, tastes, etc. I hope that their expectations are exceeded.... and will be disappointed if they're not!

Several local and several internet orders also received and filled in the past week or two. Michigan-made food gift baskets and boxes are definitely the most popular. It is great to see the way the people of Michigan are getting on the band-wagon of promoting this wonderful state. Great websites to investigate Michigan's bounty are www.buymichigannow.com, www.buymichiganproducts.com and www.michigan.gov/buymichiganfirst.

I've been doing some maintenance work on my www.giftbasketclassics.com website. I've removed the background music (too annoying!), made my phone and fax numbers larger, as well as also enlarging the basket categories. On the home page, the main picture is re-arranged to a more central location, which makes it more appealing.

Some of these are suggestions from my SCORE counselor, Mr. P.B., with whom I met about a week ago. He offered several excellent marketing suggestions, and I intend to follow up on them. Also in the works is the "new, improved" brochure for Michigan Travels Gourmet Specialties, LLC. That website is located at www.gourmetgiftboxes.net, and I'll be fine-tuning that also in the near future. Keep checking on the improvements to it in the days ahead!

On the personal side of things, my husband and I recently celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary! The evening of our big day, we had a picnic supper on Lion's Park Beach. He had grilled some chicken breasts, and we wrapped them in foil, and took some salads and sliced peaches, went to a picnic table and watched the sun set over Lake Michigan. A few days later, we went with friends to Elkhart and Shipshewana (Amish land) in Indiana, to a large Farmer's Market, and then to eat at Das Essenhaus .... family style dinner consisting of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, noodles, stuffing, and homemade pie for dessert! Truly a feast.

Thanks for reading. Come on by again, I promise to do better about keeping up with this blog. Stay healthy and happy until next time,

Carol

July 17, 2009

2009-07-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here's what's new at Michigan Travels/Gift Basket Classics:

Late last week,(July 9 - 11) we took a trip to northern Michigan to pick up gourmet product for the business. While there, we made it a "mini-vacation" of 2 1/2 days. Other self-employed people can relate, I'm sure, to the fact that we rarely get a full week of vacation -- summer or winter! It's OK, though, when we can take a couple days here-and-there. The benefit to my wonderful customers is that I'm nearly always available to fill orders for great gift baskets and gift boxes, even on short notice, even on the weekends. It is truly a joy to be able to provide great customer service.

While "up north", we stayed in Honor, Michigan at the Honor Motel, right on US-31. Our hosts were Chris and Bob, the owners. They are friendly and great to stay with. Their motel is clean and comfortable, and shows the pride of ownership. I would recommend it to anyone heading to or through Honor. Here's the link to their website.

We also visited the following towns/cities: Beulah, Benzonia, Frankfort, Empire, Maple City and Suttons Bay. We stopped at Pleva's Meats in Maple City to get some smoked cherry polish sausage and cherry/maple/pecan breakfast links to bring home. They also have more wonderful home-made meats. We're been going there for years, because my parents had a vacation home in nearby Lake Ann since I was a young girl.

We had a picnic in Suttons Bay, where we enjoyed some delicious smoked salmon pate that we bought at Port City Smokehouse in Frankfort, along with crackers and apples.

Browsing downtown Suttons Bay, we came across a store that had a lot of neat yard ornaments and decorations. I found -- and bought -- a beautiful metal trellis and a springy butterfly decoration to decorate the new "berm" we built in our yard between the driveway and my studio. Three families from our neighborhood had kindly given us money when my Mom died, and they wanted me to buy something for my yard. So, there you go! My Mom loved butterflies, so this seems to be the perfect commemorative yard decoration. I will think of her when I see that springy butterfly bouncing around.

This week started quite busy, since I had a very nice order for eight (quite large) gift baskets filled with Michigan-made foods. The baskets were delivered on Wednesday to a group of people who are staying in "cottages" at a local golf club. They are very nice, upscale welcome gifts!

I've also had an order for a "welcome" gift basket for a new home purchase, and another order for a "thank you" gift basket, which was being hand-delivered to an office group.

Some paperwork, bill paying, and other miscellaneous errands have also been caught up with. I can be quite the procrastinator sometimes. Today, the studio is going to be cleaned and tidied -- a daunting task if I say so myself!

Till next time,
Carol

June 16, 2009

2009-06-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning work on my e-mail newsletter. What I'm planning to promote this month are budget / under $25 gifts. Whether employed or not, everyone is watching their pennies these days, and these are great personal gifts. In the corporate world, the "Under $25 gift" category also encompasses the "multiple gift" market, for trade shows, conventions, parties, VIPs coming to town for whatever reason. Where there might be a need for 5 -- or 10 -- or 100 identical gifts to say "welcome", "thank you", "remember us", and so forth.

Recently "multiple gift" projects that I have finished include

1) white tote boxes, with a colorful ribbon around the box and a coordinated bow on top, filled with Michigan-made goodies that were used as a "welcome" gift for guests of a local university in April, priced at just $23.50. The same box and idea (in a similar price range) were used as gifts for Administrative Professional's Day for a local insurance agency.

2) A local company used our gift bags filled with packets of pretzels, granola, nuts, snack mixes, cookies, chocolates and bottled water to both welcome and congratulate contest winners. These gifts were priced at only $20.

3) Another organization keeps several of our "stack gifts" in their office, which they present to VIPs and job candidates. We include their logo mug along with cookies, crackers, jam, pretzels, nuts, mustard, dried cranberries, and some other nibbles. It makes a grand presentation for only $25.

On the personal side, I found the following poem today on the Internet, and thought it was just wonderful. I'd like to share it here:

Loss of Mother Poem

Now that I am gone,
remember me with smiles and laughter.
And if you need to cry,
cry with your brother or sister
who walks in grief beside you.
And when you need me,
put your arms around anyone
and give to them what you need to give to me.
There are so many who need so much.
I want to leave you something --
something much better than words or sounds.
Look for me in the people I've known
or helped in some special way.
Let me live in your heart
as well as in your mind.
You can love me most
by letting your love reach out to our loved ones,
by embracing them and living in their love.
Love does not die, people do.
So, when all that's left of me is love,
give me away as best you can.

~ Author unknown

June 12, 2009

2009-06-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended our local chamber's "business after hours". It was hosted by the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Benton Harbor, and featured a tour of their boardroom and several of their hotel rooms. It's quite a nice place to stay and their rates seem reasonable. I would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. The event, as always, was a great opportunity to network with other local professionals. I'm pleased to have been able to tell a few more people about Michigan Gourmet Travels Specialty Foods, my very own line that I began marketing last fall. I even carried a jar of my "Silver Beach Strawberry Jam" with me in my person, so I was able to do some "show and tell" with that!

Yesterday was an extremely rainy day here in S.W. Michigan. Today it has cleared off and is just picture perfect, even if still a little chilly for June.

Today's projects include finishing 4 "stack" gifts for a local organization who give my gifts regularly when they have VIPs stop in their office, sometimes job interview candidates. They have me make a few at a time, so they have them on hand as needed. A second project is a flat gift box of Michigan foods (including 2 Michigan Gourmet Travels jams -- Mackinac Bridge Strawberry and Tahquamenon Falls Blueberry). This gift box is going to be shipped via air to Hawaii as a "Thank You for letting us visit" gift. Yet another project is another Michigan gift basket.... this one will be given as a Father's Day gift.

2009-06-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a great photo of my Mom, 3 of her daughters, and a friend. This photo was taken last July.

Friday, May 29

2009-05-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

I've been absent from this blog for the past couple of weeks for a very sad reason..... my mother, Marjean O'Bryant, recently passed away. She had been suffering from health issues for over 10 years, and was admitted to the hospital on Friday, May 8, with a severe headache and backache. Little did we know until 2 days later, that she was in the process of having a stroke. As you can imagine, it was a very difficult week, with her suffering like that. Much of our family was gathered, and with her, when she left us to be with the Lord at about 3:50 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, May 14.

Of course, the week following was filled with family, friends, funeral home, church, cemetery. It was a whirlwind, though, and I'm just now starting to feel like I'm returning to my routine. I miss my Mom so much, and always will. Thoughts of so many wonderful times with her are my comfort these days.

May 5 - newsletter, morels

2009-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Today I finished, saved, and sent out the Mother's Day edition of my email newsletter. Yesterday was basket-making and basket-photo day, which I enjoy because it is the creative part of the business. It does seem that about 90% of running this business is administrative and marketing..... except in November/December, when the 90/10 ratio of admin/creative is closer to 10/90, which is GOOD!

I'm proud of how pretty and creative the baskets are that I'm offering for Mother's Day, and hope that some orders come in early, since I have only a few of each available.

Also, today is Cinco De Mayo! For us Americanos, that basically means we'll be eating Mexican food for dinner tonight! Which I LOVE ..... I could seriously have Mexican food every day of my life and not tire of it :-) Hmmm..... do you suppose a Morel Burrito would be good?

Yesterday, we did find a couple of hours to go looking for morels. Reinhard wandered into one of the most amazing Morel Patches I've ever seen. They were HUGE white morels, and were found among short green foliage. Wish I had taken the camera in the woods with me! Hope you're not tired of seeing morel photos, because I have to share these.

More-Morels!

2009-05-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

Twenty-Eight

Gorgeous

Morels

Found

May 2 !!

Morels!

2009-05-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

We
found
thirteen
morels
on
May 1!

4/30/09 Rain/morels/birds/gift baskets in SW Michigan

2009-04-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

This time of year, one of our favorite things to do is to go out searching for the elusive morel mushroom. It is tough to do around our area due to the fact that there is not much public land on which to hunt. Within the past week, we have been out about 4 times, and have found only a few morels. With the recent warm temperatures and the incredible amounts of rain that we've been having, they are bound to be found in quantities, soon! We are staying optimistic, at least for now! :)

We're also bird watchers (sorry, Marilyn!) and have been seeing new birds as they have arrived back for the spring/summer, and migratory birds, too. New this week is the rose-breasted-grosbeak, a real beautiful bird. Also, the white-throated sparrow and white-crowned sparrow, both with sweet songs. Both the red-bellied woodpecker and the downy woodpecker are regulars here, and we're anxiously awaiting the arrival of the red-headed ("Woody") woodpecker, and the orange Orioles.

Business has been fairly good lately. On the books to do yet today are several basket orders for "Hotel Welcome Gifts". These are ordered by local companies and organizations to be delivered to the hotel rooms of their guests and VIPs. What a warm welcome -- a basket filled with a variety of easy-open treats, such as crackers, cookies, chocolates, snack mixes. Sometimes it is requested that it be all Michigan-made treats, sometimes not. Sometimes I use the organization's corporate colors to unify the appearance of the gift; for one, I even have ribbon imprinted with their company name. It makes a grand presentation.

April 20, 2009

2009-04-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

Today I'm preparing gift baskets for the Lakeland Medical Expo that is being held Wednesday at the Mendel Center in Benton Harbor. Featuring baskets filled with medical specialties such as chocolate aspirin, and using "Doctor's Bag" boxes rather than baskets as the base. It's all looking good!