100 Reasons to Shop Early

The day after Halloween, my husband had Christmas music playing by 9am.  Fair enough, since the stores already have Christmas décor lining the shelves.  Why not extend the holiday spirit, I say, and relieve a little bit of the stress of shopping by getting it out of the way in November!  That way you can enjoy family, friends, good food, booze, and warm fires.

And, of course, you can get some decorating done, too. Each year we make 100 limited edition stocking ornaments and give them away starting November 1.  The ornaments are free with every purchase of $100 or more (before tax and shipping) through www.MOXIEandOLIVER.com and we’ll give ‘em away until they are gone – that’s what they are for!

Our bee patterns have been so well loved that this year we decided on the “One Bee” pattern. Each stocking has a bee and a little line of honeycomb.  They’re all the same pattern, but since they are all made by hand they are all a little different.  Each actually opens like a stocking so you can put a small candy cane or gift (engagement ring!? How awesome would that be???) inside.

I’ll post an update here when they’re gone.  As of 11/3/2014 at 4:17 PST they’re still available!

xo

c

My Biggest Mistake (and a give-away)

 

Last Wednesday when I got home from the studio there was a message on my voicemail from a customer.  The week before we spent a few days making a set of “Conquistadors” flasks for him.   His message said something like, “The flasks look really good, but I’m torn – they say ‘Conquistadors’ on them.”

My heart sank, and I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out what had gone wrong.  My husband looked at the flasks and suggested, maybe it was supposed to be “Conquistador.”

He was right.

When I talked to the customer the next morning I agreed to re-make every single flask.  I had one assistant out sick Thursday, and one came in Tuesday and was taking Thursday off.  I called the gal who usually does just the stitching on an emergency and she helped a bit.  But, 50 flasks in a day is a lot even for two people.

I got the flasks to the post office just after 3pm and they arrived in time for the customer to give them away at the event, “The Conquistador”  - most importantly, everyone loved them.

I beat myself up about this – it was totally my mistake.  We never got printed artwork from the customer so we were doing it all by phone with a poor connection most of the time.  Somewhere along the line, my brain over-rode the singular version because I thought – they are all conquistadors that they are giving the flasks to, so it must be plural, right?

Well, now I have a limited edition of 50 flasks.  And they’re cool, too!  So here’s the deal: I will sell 25 of them at a discount through my Etsy shop. The other 25 I will give away,  All you have to do is tell me the biggest mistake you’ve ever made, and how you conquered it.  That earns you the right to be one of our conquistadors (and gets you a free flask).

xo

c