The Business Diaries: NYC, Jello Shooters & The Other Side of Summer

How is that for a catchy title? Today is going to be all about catching you up on a whole bunch of things. Oh, and the jello shooters part is a funny story. The truth is that I am not very good about sharing about what is going on with your business while we are in it. I feel like every step has so many pieces to it that I need to sort it all out before I share it. So although today is not going to be a full share of everything that is going on, because nobody has time for that, I thought I would catch you up on some things. Last week was a fun and busy week for us. I was invited again to join Better Homes & Gardens for their Stylemaker event. Let me tell you, their team puts on a top notch event. Oh, and do you see Brooke Shields on the cover? She was there too. Of course, I should clarify I could only really hear through the sea of people and never actually got too close to her. But hey, she was there. And speaking of covers, lets talk for a minute about Eddie Ross' new book. Truth be told, I thought I might not really be able to relate to this book since Eddie's style is so much more elegant than my own. The truth is, once I opened the pages, I was hooked. Let's start with the basics. The book is just beautiful and the attention to detail is spot on. The tips and ideas are actually really useful and made me want to run right out to go vintage shopping. Moving into the styling tips, I realized that there were a lot of ideas and inspiration that I too could take away and I feel the need to head to the basement and take out my vintage flatware and put them to good use. We ended the night with an amazing skyline that had us all running out to the terrace for one more shot. My roommate Jessica and I managed to not take any pictures together, but I promise, we were both up there enjoying the view. This country girl enjoyed these moments of the city, but I was so thankful when the view from the train started showing me the Hudson river, trees and fields. And right to the country I returned for our first chance to participate in a local event - The Other Side of Summer. We put ourselves to the test and pulled together a booth, in a very short period of time despite our intentions of starting much sooner. It is was a really great day and we were entertained all day by the bubble show - see it here. How beautiful is the tasting table that Dana made? The top is even more beautiful with vintage taps set in it, but I didn't get a good picture of it. We will be sharing more details on this later. As we were running around doing last minute errands, I realized that we might not have enough tasting cups for the event. So, we quick ran to Party City to pick up plastic shot glasses. As I stood in line with about 400 cups, a woman well into her 80's with her hair freshly done at the salon leaned in towards me and asked "Are those for Jello shooters?" When I explained they were for food tastings, she was very disappointed. I then commented that if they were, that would be an awful lot of shots. Her response was, "I know and if they were, I was going to ask you your address." I certainly did not see that one coming and it left me giggling for days. The good news is that we had enough cups and the booth came together nicely. It was an absolutely beautiful day. We sold a bunch of syrup and had a lot of great conversations about the business. We even managed to have a t-shirt finished for the event and I love how they came out. They will be in the online shop soon. These shirts came about while talking with our youngest. She was rolling her eyes a bit about how much she has had to work lately for the business. Her Dad began telling her stories about "growing up on the farm" and all the work he did. Her response was, "yeah, but that is because you grew up on a farm." And I responded with, "Wake up and smell the farm, so are you." And hence, a t-shirt was born. These girls have put in a lot of work lately and I know sometimes they grumble about it. I am so thankful that we get to do this together and they are learning so many sides to creating, growing and running a business. It may lead them to be inspired to it themselves or cause them to know that is not a good fit for them. Or maybe, they will even be part of this business when they are grown. All I know is that at the end of the day, we were all exhausted. But as we looked around on this beautiful farm, with the sun setting, I was just thankful. And then I looked up and saw this site and knew that at least for now, we were on the right path. Thank you so much for reading!