Wow - It was just New Years! Then we had snow and ice for about six weeks in a row - that was crazy with 9 snow days for the kids. Then it was Valentines - and yes, I finally got what I wanted this year (even if I had to put a note on his pillow for several weeks every night to drop the hint on where to get the James Avery necklace I wanted). Then my wonderful family from Texas came for a visit, a couple trips to East Tennessee, a couple trips to West Tennessee, a photo shoot and sprink break - and voila here we are! It is almost April. Oh, I forgot - I went to Mexico for a week recently, too - how could I forget that??
We have made a lot of progress in the production department, too. With changes in design, we have improved the strength of our slings and we have started doing some smaller bags called The Pouch which are both useful and original. We have taken a lot of time also to get some pillows designed and on the market. Still working on another pillow design which is exciting - a long pillow for a sofa back that will utilize an entire coffeebag.
We are tossing up ideas about doing some music festivals - having looked into participating in Bonnaroo this year. We decided not to do Bonnaroo in 2011, but are definitely going to do one or two other smaller shows and get our feet wet in this arena. In looking at this market, we explored new designs. This has been really fun getting my boys involved and seeing their creativity and enthusiasm for what we do. They love to educate me on what is cool and what people their age are wearing and what they would like. We have a Hobo prototype and a BackPack prototype in the works.
Because of what we have had going on lately, developing your gifts and talents is something that has been on my mind. Working with my boys and helping them bring out their individual talents is great because sometimes they never realized they were good at something until you show them. For example, my oldest son is great at design and at selling (wonder where he gets that?) and my next oldest son is great with production and processes (that's obviously coming from the other direction...). He organizes the work load and trains our helpers. He is also quick to give an opinion on whether something will or won't work or whether something looks good or looks bad, very opinionated but with a great eye. Placing the responsibilities with the matching talent is fun. Now, if I can just find a place for a guitar playing football player and a very animated three year old lego-building wild child, we will be set!
