12/17/2023
Title of Piece: The Aftermath
When I turned to Lexilou one day and said "We should make simmer pots!" I assumed they would go over well (who doesn't love good smells?!) I planned to borrow my mom's dehydrator and run a few batches of fruit through my oven. We planned to save some trimmings off a few arrangements of Lexi's. I planned to use some leftover spices, string, and cardstock. NEVER in our wildest DREAMS did we think we would wind up with 350+ ORDERS in LESS THAN 24 HOURS!!!! π³π³π³
Pictured below is the aftermath of one of the wildest Saturdays ever. The front table is where 350 tags were designed, (printed at home), hand cut, hole punched, and stamped. The white side table is home to SIX dehydrators that have been running nonstop. The brown side table is home to TWO MORE dehydrators (though that white one has been moved to the floor for space) and our prep station. Here, 120+ apples, 120+ oranges, and 20 bags of cranberries have been cut for dehydration. The gray side table is the assembly line, where each simmer pot bag is filled with a cinnamon stick, anise, cloves, nutmeg, cranberries, oranges, apples, pine, and cedar, then tied up with string (see what I did there? π) and a tag.
NOT PICTURED: Dehydrator NUMBER NINE that lives on the third breaker (more on that later); Lexi's workspace, where ENTIRE CHRISTMAS TREES were cut down into tiny pieces to fill bags, and where she coordinated with nearly 100 people for placing orders, arranging pickups, and REarranging pickups; shelves full of ready-to-go orders; and a floor full of smashed, runaway cranberries.
Our souls are SO FULL. Our bellies are full of snacks and sweets, our veins are full of caffeine, and our hearts are full of intense gratitude.
We are BEYOND grateful for your support of our small businesses. We are two ladies just trying to make a living doing creative works, and your purchases make a HUGE difference to us. We are grateful for those of you who have been so incredibly patient when we pushed back pick up times. When we arrived this morning, breakers had tripped and our fruit had HOURS left to go. We are SO STINKING GRATEFUL for our families and other loved ones who have lent us dehydrators, run errands and bought supplies, and have quickly answered our requests for help.
YOU ALL ARE THE BEST
We are working as quickly as we can, and our dehydrators are running nonstop. We are so excited to get these orders to your hands and homes.
Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
With all the love from my exhausted body, aching feet, and incredibly full and happy heart,
β€οΈ Samantha