As great as a personal business relationship you may have with your clients via phone, it’s hard to imagine the face behind the voice even if you would be able to identify the voice in your dreams.  That is why, we at The Sweet Shoppe care personally to actually meet with our clients whenever possible.  Sometimes due to the mileage and busy lives we all lead, it can take a little while until the meeting takes place, but eventually we’re going to try our very best to make that visit happen.

Yesterday we made a little trip up to Riverdale, NY to meet with some of the greatest people we have been doing business with at Park Gardens Rehab.  We have spoken countless times, and even got to know about each other’s personal side of life somewhat.  Yet, it was kind of interesting to have to size each other up like strangers: that is until we started to talk!  Once the voices matched the faces, we all felt like old friends once more.

As we walked around the offices meeting the social worker, administrative professionals, and the administration staff; Rachel and myself were introduced as the women behind those great gift baskets and gourmet cookies they’ve been sending and receiving all this time.  Some of them were still able to vividly describe the gifts they received in December of ‘07.  Of course they remembered the owls in the winter design gift baskets; they didn’t want to dismantle the gift basket until winter was almost gone!  We definitely have our bar raised for this year, and we’re are planning to go for it!

Do you ever realize how much thought and trial process go into the designing of color blending?  Try putting a black knit sweater next to a separate black wool skirt, and you may realize that black is not always black.  The same goes for reds, greens, and any color you can think of.

As we work on our new fall line we are up in colors and blends once again.  We see the color in a catalog and think it’s just perfect.  And then we get the actual merchandise.  It’s time to discard and try over again.  This starts with the baskets, to food products and gifts, and ends with the matching ribbon we use for the bows.  Sometimes the color we wind up using, is the exact thread color as the basket and products.  Other times we do rely on the blending of different versions in a specific hue.  The latter winds up being more fun and interesting.

So, as you pull out your clothes in the morning or are shopping for a new wardrobe, enjoy mixing and matching the wonderful hues!