Time speeds up during the holidays and November and December tend to blur together with all the festivities so we decided to combine them for this purpose and do a holiday season coffee date before ringing in the new year! Only two days left in 2019! Do you have exciting plans? We keep it pretty low key to be honest. I mean, do you know how many hours past our bedtime midnight is? The struggle is real, y’all. haha
Flowers
We have been keeping ourselves busy during the holiday season! November was not only filled with us decorating for the holidays, but also had us busy with finalizing our spring flowers and prepping the flower beds. While we anticipate lots of colorful tulips in the spring, we also wanted to add a variety to the mix. In order to include that variety, we dedicated a bed specific to seeds which will grow alongside the early bloomers like the tulips and daffodils. We selected a few flowers we hope will grow into giant beauties come spring 2020 (Snapdragons and Love in a Mist pictured from Johnny’s Seeds) and were able to get them planted early November just before the ground started to freeze. Which is funny to think about now after having 60 degree days for the past week! Call us crazy, but we would actually prefer the cold and snow right now…not only because it’s the holiday season but also because our dog’s paws stay cleaner in the snow than the mud 🙂
So when you have everything that can be planted in the ground and the summer and fall blooms are done for another year, what do you do? We make wreaths! We used boxwood clippings from Kryn’s house and scoured for evergreen clippings on the farm to make two types of wreaths this season, classic boxwood wreaths and pine hoop wreaths. The boxwood wreaths are a little time consuming, but very simple to make just by weaving fresh boxwood clippings through a grapevine wreath until it’s full. The video featuring our best employee (Max) should give you a good visual 🙂
The hoop wreaths were new for us and extra fun to make, because you can make so many different designs using a variety of greenery, bells, pine cones and ribbon. We found some small antique bells online and they turned out to be just the right size for our wreaths and make the perfect sound when opening and closing the door. That Christmas sound. The hoop wreaths are made by using a combination of wire and hot glue to secure the greenery to the metal hoop. The metal hoops can be found at Joann Fabrics!
We also did our very first pop up shop in December at a local store in town, MatchMade Designs! We had the coziest space to set up and sold our wreaths, coffee and gift packages that combined the two. It was such a great experience and we’ll definitely be looking to do more pop ups in 2020; we’ll be working on some spring and summer designs with the hoop wreaths as well featuring different greenery and accenting with flowers like roses and dahlias instead of pine cones.
A few tips after our very first pop-up shop…
- Visit the shop/exact location where you’ll be setting up prior to selling day to know specifically what you need (tables, tablecloths, hanging space/materials, etc.) and what you’ll have access to (outlets, water, storage, etc.)
- Make a packing list of everything that needs loaded into the car and set up at your location. Check these items off as you put them in the car. Lucky for us, the things we forgot (coffee, yep…one of the main products haha) weren’t far away and Kryn’s husband was there to help us out!
- Bring chargers for any devices you’re using that day – phone, tablet, etc.
- Bring along business cards for potential partnerships or in our case, an email newsletter signup sheet to stay connected!
- Have order forms available for customers to fill out in case an item sells out or a custom order is requested.
- Create flyers and events on your social media platforms in advance .
- Remember to have fun!!
Coffee
We finally ordered and sold our first batch of locally roasted coffee!! Well, sold most of it 😉 Which reminds us to remind you, be optimistic but also realistic when it comes to inventory orders and especially if your inventory is perishable! We just ordered six bags of coffee from Backroom Roasters for our holiday popup! The cool part about working with Backroom (aside from their business morals and delicious coffee) is the way they let small businesses customize their bags of coffee to match their looks and pairing products. Since we were ordering for a holiday popup specifically we decided to do a very festive design that would pair well with our wreaths!
In addition to selling the bagged coffee at our pop-up, we also did free samples of coffee we brewed that morning and kept hot in this thermal carafe all day (last minute Amazon purchase that actually exceeded our expectations)! The samples were great and we would have easily sold more of the coffee, but a few customers were looking for ground coffee and these bags were all whole bean. We may look into some options for next year where we can grind the coffee as requested for those who don’t have a way to grind beans at home. But also, we do try to also suggest affordable coffee bean grinders because it really is the best way to enjoy the freshest coffee! We’ll be working on more label designs and taste testing (if we must!) January through March to finalize what we’ll pair with our Spring flowers!
And since this is our holiday coffee date, we have to share the latte we’ve been enjoying all season! It’s a super simple way to make a gingerbread latte that Starbucks decided not to include on their holiday menu this year! Maybe we should thank them… 😉
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• generous pinch of cinnamon
• 2 tsp sugar
Mix that together in a small bowl. It’s enough for a few lattes!
• 2 shots espresso (or decaf)
• about 1 cup whole milk
• ground nutmeg for garnish
Brew coffee. Stir in 1/2 tsp sugar mixture or more to taste. Steam & froth milk. Pour milk in coffee and sprinkle nutmeg on top! Stir & enjoy!
And the really important stuff…
- Kryn & her husband celebrated two years of marriage in November!
- We went to our first speak easy themed bar for our ‘monthly’ get together with close friends (if you live in the Columbus area, check out ‘The Light of Seven Matchsticks’ in Worthington for a fun environment and good drinks!)
- Sara was able to set up an adorable real Christmas tree this year with no allergic reactions! This is a monumental moment considering in the past her allergies got the best of her!
We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with friends and family and found the time to really enjoy the season! Happy new year!! We can’t wait to share more with you in the new year!
Bloom where you are planted
