Trying to Regain my footing.....

Wow....so much has happened this spring! We have been spending the last few weeks just coming out of the tailspin and trying to regain our footing. Traction, in life, is so important. When life throws you off, most usually it's about one or two things that have concocted a mess to make your head spin. This spring, it has been about one thing after another and everything getting progressively stronger in it's ability to break the spirit. We are getting back on track. Slowly but surely. We do see a light at the end of the tunnel and we just have to remain strong and diligent and keep focusing on the light. In an effort to cut every single expense that we could, we no longer have phone, internet, and cable at home. This has turned into days and nights of camping out at starbucks to mooch our connection to the world wide web. It also has made our home nice and peaceful.....without technology, it makes our interactions more authentic and things like a redbox 'movie night' are considered a treat and are for special occasions or date night. We have also shut down our website. Now, I know that this will worry some of you. We are not leaving. We will stay strong and committed to getting your orders to you, as we can. Instead of spending $70 for our website and domain every month, we have added a shopping cart to our website. We will not have the wide range of products we once had. I need to scale back to an amount that is easier to maintain and I just can't do that with so many options. We have been blessed to have a few extremely patient customers and I am so thankful for that kindness during this exceptionally hard time. We have also been blessed with a friend who let's me use internet several hours a week. {you know who you are!}.

Finally, today is Father's Day. I lost my father when I was 20.....20 short years ago. He was everything to me and had a heart of gold. I like to think that I possess all of his great attributes. His caring heart, his artistic expressions, his blue eyes, his compassion, his love of animals, his strength, his courage, his ability to make others smile, his hope, his kindness, his ability to know no stranger...the list could go on for miles. A hug from him, or him reaching out to hold your hand when you were scared, always made me feel safe and special. I hope others feel that from me. Hope you all have a great father's day. I'm heading home to work in the studio. Much to do, Much to do!

What a Gorgeous Day!

Fall is having it's way with my allergies...that's for sure. I was so sad to miss out on the day by being down with a migraine.... but, in an effort to salvage the day, i spent a couple hours this evening doing resting work. what exactly is resting work? it's simple....it's work that i can do from a lounging, or semi~lounging position...lol. I spent the evening scanning vintage postcards and creating digital collage sheets for our VintagePress shop over at storenvy. i've neglected it, mainly because we needed to unpack and find all of our postcards and such, and also because i had many other priorities with the .com, that i just sorta put this on the back~burner. like this blog, i am recommitting to posting and remaining active with the storenvy shop between now and christmas. i have TONS of Christmas items to scan and really wanted to fine~tune the process and get my feet wet, so.to.speak, with a couple of postcards...so be warned...Christmas is Coming! I also updated the storefront and made it a little more cohesive with the other shop.... and a little less spring~like... i'm definitely liking the looks of the .com, blog, and storenvy all looking like they belong together! other than that...tomorrow i am working back in the studio again {if a migraine doesn't land on my head!} and helping with my mom's antique sale.... hope your weekend is beautiful! blessings, ophelia

Season's Change

{photo from our drive to Springfield yesterday} one of my all time favorite things about fall, my favorite season, is of course, the beautiful fall colors. i loooooooooooooooove the crisp fall air, the beautiful leaves, the smells in the air. ....then comes the allergies and all the dry skin from the air dropping in temperature.... lol. i spent today pouring lip balms, blending our new jewel~tone eyeshadows {that will be available soon in a grab bag promotion!}, and pouring body balms...because, let's face it, it's only going to get cooler and now is the time to stock up on scrubs and body balms! oooooh, we also jarred about 20 body butters....so we are stocked up on moisturizers!

hopefully you are planning ways to have a fabulous fall weekend this weekend, wherever you are! hugs and blessings, ophelia

All Hallow's Eve....

after several requests...we decided to bring back these lovely little halloween treats.... our signature lip balm in caramel apple, pumpkin cheesecake, vanilla, and buttercream in cute little jars to hand out to your trickers or treaters! these are hand~stamped with a sweet little spider~web and spider.... and have a hang~tag attached with black, orange, or purple ribbons! only 16 sets to go around, as we didn't really have time to make more...so now is the time to snatch up a lot! sweet sweet little handouts for this halloween's special little ghosts and gouls!

My, O, My.....

my my my... how time has flown! so...yeah. so much has happened in the last several months. here is the abridged version. we worked hard, opened a brick and mortar shop, closed the etsy shop, opened our stand~alone .com, closed the brick and mortar shop, moved to a new.to.us. home and now we are just focusing on our stand alone .com. health~wise, we are both doing swell.... we have had the typical ups and downs and are still truckin' right along. i picked up knitting again, like i do every winter, for my 'hobby' during my 'time off' moments.... currently working on a pretty cowl to wear...so the blog will likely get posts about my knitting projects. our home has enough space for a huge workshop...so that's nice to be able to work from home again. ....and, i'm currently working on setting up a guest bedroom/sewing room/art room in our spare bedroom. i will post before and after pics when i get it finished! you can find our stand~alone site at oaandp.com! hopefully, i will be better about blogging... my problems with it are that i forget my password and then just give up on trying to reset it {very old email address that hasn't been used since '07}. anyway....peace be still.... i'm off to work on a project or two! loves, ophelia

14,000 sales!

Wow.... 14,ooo sales..... that's a lot! We are so lucky that we can be our own bosses and we have you to thank for that. I'm thinking a 'things.I've.learned.in.14,000 sales' post coming on. We also have lots to document here about our path to our brick and mortar! stay tuned! ~ophelia

So Much Work, So Little Time!

hello loves! so. kickstarter was a no and i was super discouraged for getting turned down and had to spend an afternoon feeling bad about it, and then i got up, dusted of my knees and started plotting new ways to make it work. those of you who know me personally, know i never stay down for long! we found a new website, much like kickstarter, called indiegogo. i LOVE indiegogo! so, we started a capital campaign and it can be found here.
additionally, we started making final decisions about fixtures and got them on order. the only details on fixtures left to worry with are 1}ordering the sink and installing, and 2}finishing out the cashwrap with logo.

i can't wait for the day that i'm posting pics of the finished shop!...and, i'm loving journaling the process along the way! so. that's it for today... i will soon be posting updates to the campaign with the map of the salesfloor as well as planograms with where the products will go. as one of our family members said on the phone today....'it really sounds like you are serious' ....lol. um. yeah. i think it's official...lol. goodnight lovelies! ~o

kickstarter is a no......

well. i have some good news and some bad news. the bad news is that our idea and concept wasn't accepted by kickstarter. the good news is, we still have two months {as we will get a better deal on the lease if we sign prior to the season beginning} to work really hard to try to facilitate starting the shop on our own. hopefully, by the time April rolls around, 'our place' will still be available. i'm trying not to be super sad about it. but. everything happens for a reason, and i'm sure there is a good one that i'm just not seeing at the moment. .... of course, my knee jerk reaction is to do a heartsy~like deal again. but, while that would give us much needed capital, i swore i would never do it again. so, that is not an option no matter how much i want this shop. sad.snowy.day. big hugs all around..... o

Sunday, happy Sunday!

hello lovelies! as promised, another blog post and pictures of what~we~are~referring~to, as 'our place' ...lol. we actually didn't get to spend that much time yesterday taking photos. not as much time as i would have liked, but we were on our way to visit with family, so we vowed to go back and spend more time there today! this first pic is of our sweet sweet picket fence! While we were outside milling about, the workers called in the property management for us to have a chit~chat. this particular neighborhood is all owned by the same group, and the little shop we want is actually situated right behind the beautiful and historic Branson Hotel. We asked a few pertinent questions and, because it was a bit cold out {february, go figure! the one day we want to hang out outside in the sun, it's actually chilly!}, we went across to the hotel to talk, exchange info, and tell them about Ophelia's Apothecary. The area between the hotel and 'our place', we were told, is where there will be farmers' markets on the weekends and in the evenings, turned into a little local hangout with live music and art. The hotel is a.....m.....a.....z....i...n....g. really. i can't say enough about it, and while the website does give you a good idea of the time and attention to detail these peeps have, it still isn't quite the same as seeing it in person! We shared our vision of the shop and tried to communicate our passion for what we do. hopefully it came through! then, we were on our way....

now, today, after having barely had any sleep because of thinking about it and planning, and drawing sketches.... we decided to return to get a few more photos.

this photo is inside from the back wall looking toward the front {and a great shot of heather!} this is the view from where our sink will be located. i find it so so so very important to have a sink on the sales floor for customers to try out scrubs and to encourage them to try new products for their bathing routine!

this photo is taken of the inside down the east wall of the shop. i would like to situate the cashwrap in between the first window {out of view here on the right}, and this second window further down the wall, facing west so that it will be open with full view of the shop. as you can see, much renovation is in the process! everything will be white washed and lovely!

and, finally, a photo of the outside! the usable space measures about 25 x 20, if i had to take a guess, maybe a little more! as you can see, not much work has been done outside.... nothing a few fresh coats of white paint, some landscaping, and a big 'ophelia's apothecary' sign can't fix! now that my blogging for the day is complete, i'm out to the studio for mixing, blending, and pouring candles! goodnight loves! hugs, the divine miss o

Down the Yellow Brick Road.....

wow.... how things have changed since i last blogged! really, obviously, blogging doesn't come first nature for me! lol. i spend tons of time online, and i can totally get behind facebook, twitter, pinterest {oh my, how i need a pintervention!}, etsy, goodsie, you name it..... but blogging...blogging is hard for me! we have a renewed passion to open a brick and mortar, now that we are in Branson, so, this renewed passion is the launching pad to journal making our dreams come true!

so, you ask, why do we want a brick and mortar? for starters, while we love love love our little at~home studio, we really want to grow the business in a practical and logical way. we don't have the space to have employees come to the house to help during the peak seasons, and we really want a space that will allow us to interact with customers and get the product in the hands of {and on the hands of} our clients. Branson is THE perfect place for this! The downtown historical district is alive and thriving with the recently built Branson Landing and has really brought the downtown a much needed boost of money and traffic. we were just down there today, and for the second weekend in February {typically smack dab in the middle of the 'off' season}, there was hustle and bustle about that just made me want to be a part of it. so. that's the why!

now that you know the why, let me explain the how! last night during a late night biz brainstorming session, we stumbled upon kickstarter. wow.....what an awesome site that is! if you aren't familiar with kickstarter, let me enlighten you! kickstarter is a site where you can pitch your artsy~smartsy ideas to peeps around the world and offer them incentives to help back your project. i love love love this idea! .....and, it's just what we need right now.... an injection of capital to help our dreams take flight. now. don't get me wrong.... the site is not a place to fund your life, or pay off bills, or a place to grab wads of cash like winning the lottery. there is still work involved like promoting your project, finding backers, updating progress along the way, and, of course, having a good, solid plan in place. we submitted the preliminary information and it will need to go through some vetting prior to the actual campaign going live. we are saying our prayers and holding this dream in the highest of intention so that we can see it all take shape!

so. for tonight let me leave you with this vision.... imagine a small, little whitewashed house built in the 30's. lots of windows to wash the shop in a warm glow. bundles of lavender hanging to dry along the wall. whitewashed cabinets and tables leading to an old bankers table turned cashwrap. a custom perfume blending bar lining one wall. amber glass apothecary jars, marble, herbs, and essential oils stir your senses. this is our dream, and i just know we will get all the backing we need for it to take flight! tomorrow, i will show you pictures of the little house we found..... it's the perfect spot and is owned by an investment group looking to turn the historical houses into wonderfully eclectic shops. we would be situated near a salon, a wellness center, a photography studio, and a boutique. they have plans to host a farmers market every weekend and live music, wine, and gallery type walk in the evenings on the weekends. the house we are interested in is in the process of being remodeled, so, i will tell you now, you gotta have vision to see it working.... but, don't worry, we have enough vision for us all!

sweet dreams my friends, xoxox ophelia