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still going...
A belated Happy New Year to all of you out there!

Sorry to be so absent lately but things have been a little crazy on this end.

I want to say thank you to all of you for standing by us through a very crazy year. Thank you for all of your words of support when I decided to make motherhood my priority and thank you for your continued support when you trekked out to the various craft shows to come and find us. I can't tell you how much all of that has meant to me and my family. Its truly amazing that in this time of crunched finances, many of you chose us to spend your precious dollars with. My gratitude and appreciation is unending.

2008 has come and gone and it was one crazy ride. A quick little recap for all of us. We closed the store in april because the demands of being a parent and trying to balance and grow a business proved to be a challenge I wasn't doing so well at. It seemed more often than not that while paying attention to one, the other suffered so I made a choice and closed the store. It was rough for a couple of months. I viewed closing the store as a failure on my behalf for a while but have eventually come to see it the way my husband and family had seen it all along - a good strategic step in the right direction.

I still miss it in many ways. I still get a little pang of sadness when I drive by the old shop. BUT I don't miss looking for parking or trying to figure out how I'm going to take care of kira and pour a thousand tubes of lip balm.

We changed the way we do business to suit our new lifestyle (being parents!) and in many ways this is so much better. Yes, I do miss the consistent flow of income that the store brought to us but that just means that I need to learn to budget a little better. So we're continuing to do craft shows and wholesale orders. To contact us, emailing us through our website is best over calling. I can't always get to the phone or answering machine but emails go directly to my phone and I can usually send a quick response within a few minutes of receiving it.

With the changes in how we do business has come many positive things. I can eliminate products that don't move so well and concentrate on those that do. I've been able to create new scents and bring them to the market faster than before. I have been able to experiment more with new ideas like our solid perfume and roll on perfumes. On a personal level, being a work-from-home mommy has brought us a happy, intelligent and inquisitive little girl who loves collecting rocks, dancing and running. My work day has changed from 11am to 4pm to 9pm-3am, but well, that's life!

Last year was a re-evaluate and get-stable-first-before-trying-to-expand year. Now, I think I've got my bearings about me a little more clearly. A plan is coming into view for 2009...

We are going to start our year off with the islandwide spring show in the beginning of may. Then, we're going to do made in hawaii in august, season's best in october, diamond head arts & craft show and the islandwide craft & food expo in november. We will end our year with a private show in the beginning of december. Unless something comes up (like another baby?), this is what we're looking at this year.

I think that we will stick to our existing fragrance line up - jasmine green tea, mango tea, satsuma guava, summer love, sweet lavender and wasabi bliss for another year. Wasabi bliss is on the board to be re-blended and re-released under its new name, wasabi blossom. It will be a very clean and refreshing unisex floral, similar to jasmine green tea but more lemony and less green. Sweet lavender and mango tea haven't been performing as well as before BUT they are consistent so they get a reprieve.

I was surprised at how well roll on perfume did last year so I've brought in twice as many bottles and plan starting their production earlier. I'll keep doing solid perfumes as long as I've got those compacts. I'm discovering that I'm really loving blending and making perfumes.

We are discontinuing our sprayable lotion. I thought it a great product but many seem to find it too unusual. Our sweet escape pods will be one product down this year.

There are a couple of other ideas I'm toying with and I'll tell you more about them later.

So, what have I been up to in the past month?

Well, Kira is now 16 months old. We're still doing gymboree. We're also looking at dance class and/or gymnastics for her in a couple of months as well as swimming lessons. Sounds ambitious but it really isn't. She's a rough-and-tumble kind of little girl who loves dancing and music. She loves the zoo and the seals at sea life park. I've just introduced her to fingerpaints which she absolutely loves!

I have also taught myself to knit (with Sandy looking over my work periodically, telling me what I need to work on as far as technique). I am currently working on a blanket for kira. Nothing too ambitious, just knit and purl stitches only. I swear I can crochet faster than I can knit. I also want to try doll making next.

I am also working on little hair clippies for her and if they are super cute, I may be making more to sell this year.

What about jewelry? Well, I still have so many design ideas stuck in my head and no real time to work on it. I miss it and still want to get it done so we'll see what we end up with this year. I do know that my designs are reflecting the way my life is going - more and more simplified, streamlined and easy-to-wear. Easy-to-wear meaning, you can wear it with almost anything and it looks great. I really want to focus on earrings and necklaces again. I find myself moving away from traditional sterling silver chains and looking to more organic materials like woven cotton cords. I still want to get my mommy and me lines done.

A couple of friends have also been suggesting I write a book about the whole pregnancy/mommy/marriage thing. They feel I have a lot of funny anecdotes about becoming parents and words of wisdom when it comes to redefining a sense of self once the little one comes along BUT the hoops required for getting published is daunting! In the meantime, I have a little folder on my computer in which I "chapter" when the mood strikes.

My work times have shifted from the day time to 9pm to 3am. My work day starts when kira goes to bed for the night. Hubby works all day so it doesn't feel right making him take care of kira when he gets home so I wait until she's asleep to start working. She wakes up at about 7:30am and hubby takes her for an hour in the morning so I can sleep just a little longer. I make it a point to call it quits at 3am. In preparation for made in hawaii last year, I worked through the night and by the time I got to bed, I had been up for 40 hours. I'm too old to be doing that kind of thing already.

It always feels like there's never enough time to do what I would like to do. I keep reminding myself that kira's only going to be a baby once and there's more than enough time to do all of this when she's a little older. So thank you again for being so patient and supportive about what I can and have been able to do with my limited mommy time.

I'll write again soon!