Almost everyone loves a surprise. Before Anna was born, we gave the doctor strict orders that we did not want to know whether we were having a boy or a girl. Despite the fact that he sort of let it slip in front of Debbie, I did not know until that precious little bundle emerged into the light of day for the first time, right in front of my eyes. 15 years ago, and I still see everything as if it were happening in slow motion.
I don’t know what the pace of life is like in your home or business, but it’s about to get pretty crazy around the bakery. Things get really busy, but we try our best to keep everything in balance, pay attention to the details and be grateful for ‘little gifts’. I came upon a couple of these ‘unexpected surprises’ while taking photos for our 2013 Holiday Gift collection.
We’ve been preparing for the holiday season for several months now. We look at what we did last year and try our best to come up with packaging that fits a broad scope of celebrations. Debbie and I worked together to come up with a selection of box and ribbon colors that can be mixed and matched to create gifts that deliver a memorable experience.
Debbie put together some sample packages and I headed out to Jim and Trica Bell’s shop, Under the Oaks, off Highway 98 just outside of Wake Forest. They make our pottery and have a garden center that is one of my favorite places to visit. I’m always finding an interesting setting to highlight our products.
I wondered around the grounds looking for that perfect spot for another photo. From a distance, the large green magnolia tree seemed like a promising setup. On closer inspection, I noticed the buds strutting their bright red berries on this Southern magnolia. Another small surprise that made it all the more appropriate as a backdrop for holiday product photos.
If you look carefully through our website, you’ll probably find some hints of these little surprises in our photos. Can you see them? Please hit reply and let me know. Who knows, maybe you’ll get an unexpected surprise…
The holiday gift season is hands down our biggest time of the year. While we have orders in the queue, but also know that there will be some people coming to our website on December 23 and even after. We take care of each order, just like it were the only one, looking after the smallest of details, because sometimes the small, unexpected surprises make all the difference.
The pace around the bakery won’t let up until after December 24th, but you can rest assured that even in the midst of the rush, I’ll be thinking about the small gifts I found at Under the Oaks. And we’ll make sure that a little bit of that feeling goes into every package that leaves the bakery.