So much stuff going on

Just when I felt like things were stalling a bit, a bunch of stuff comes together all at the same time.

On my way out the door to my meeting at the WKO (Chamber of Commerce), the mail carrier shoved a small package into my hands. YAY, my first marketing materials!  It was a roll of stickers I ordered last week as handouts. :)))

They come in a clever box that lets you either take them out on the flat roll, or pull directly off the backing.

Then back at my external home office...

OMG it stopped raining for the first time in 4 weeks. I had to take my stuff outside pronto!

I started writing this post to the sound of two fine looking young men taking a chain saw to the wooden beams that separate my inventory room from the rest of the house.

My handyman said "I'm a little bit scared" when he talked about cutting through those posts today. So am I :-O

As you know, my house was built approx. 80 years ago. Back at that time it was apparently a thing to have maid's quarters built directly onto the house. It's even drawn into the main house plans as "Magdzimmer". It's these rooms I'll be using as my warehouse.

Since it was originally designed as servants' quarters, the only way up to the two rooms is through a narrow spiderweb infested rickety back staircase. We wouldn't want the servants using the main staircase obviously...  ;-D

A master Zimmermann (carpenter) made a hefty door frame to act as a replacement for the vertical supporting beam you see there. How weird is it that a vertical beam doesn't go all the way to the floor? And then there is the random crossbeam. Craziness.

They are popping in the frame this afternoon. I'll be so happy to have the doorway done so I refinish the floor and start moving the racks in!

Exciting news!

But this time it's someone else's news :)

I've been following Heather's blog since we met online during a contest on Pattern Review a couple years ago. On Friday, she sent us all a teaser that big news was coming up.

And what fantastic news it was! She became a new business owner, taking over a yarn store called Itsy Bitsy yarn!

I find it so exciting to hear about other people who have pursued their dreams. Like me, she said it was something she's wanted to do since she was little. Also like me, it just took a lot of education and other careers before making the leap.

Congrats to Heather!
I hope you will all take a gawk at her blog and wish her all the best :)))
http://thingsimakeplusrocks.blogspot.co.at/2016/06/exciting-new-now-live.html

And I thought boxes would be easy to organize

I think there has been a tear in the space/time continuum. The days are speeding by!
So much to organize, so little time :)

What time I haven't spent renovating the warehouse room has been spent trying to figure out stuff like which boxes I need.


At least with gas you only have 3 options!

I never knew there were so many norms and standards. Which FEFCO box meets your needs? Check it out here,

White boxes, brown boxes, long boxes, short boxes. Some you have to glue together, some just need tape. For a little bit more money, you can get ones that you just fold together and tuck in the flap. For a lot more money, you can get your logo printed on it. How many colors? 1/0, 4/0? Pantone, CMYK...

However, the biggest problem so far is finding the right size. You can't just pick any old boxes. You have to find the optimum convergence between product size, box costs and shipping fees. 

Party plates have standard diameter of 23cm. So I need a box that has a base at least 24 x 24 cm. Cups have a diameter of up to 10 cm. So if you want to pack a box with both cups and plates, I need a height of at least 14 cm.

In order to keep shipping costs down for customers, the longest side + shortest side has to be less than 45 cm.

All of a sudden there aren't that many boxes that fulfill these measurements that don't cost an arm and a leg. My dream box would be 30 x 30 x 15 cm. But after browsing more box catalogs than I care to remember, I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that apparently isn't a standard size.

After receiving a custom quote on boxes of that size, I'll have to settle on a sub-optimum size and/or start researching importing a less expensive custom box.