Sunday, June 24, 2012

Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co and our Great Big Gypsy Summers!!

    Since the 2008 recession The Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co, like so many small (micro) businesses, has had to adjust to the marketplace by working harder to keep our revenue stream from declining. As a seasonal business we have always worked all year designing and producing our product line and then in September of each year we would start our Holiday selling season with vigor and pull in 85% of our revenue in the months of November and December
.
     Not anymore! Chesapeake Bay Christmas now hits the road in April and does the Northern Neck Farmers Market circuit along with several other wine festivals and holiday markets...every weekend rain or shine, heat or wind, in sickness or in health...we are there!! Shawnette and I have become Gypsys with our own traveling road show. We can put up a tent in mere minutes and turn it into a cute coastal gift shop within an hour! We do our farmers market selling for four hours and then we pack it all up and load it back in the SUV ready to do it all over again in a few days! We have good days and not so good... But most of them are remembered by whatever weather element mother Nature decides to put in our path. Wind and rain give us our biggest challenges closely followed by excessive heat and humidity! But we are usually up to the challenge! Shawnette is an expert at staking, bungeeing, tarping and tucking while I am good at always expecting the worse....and being very grateful when it does not actually happen.

     We have survived 40 mph winds, 105 degree heat, out of control children, out of control dogs, and weather so cold you cannot feel your hands and feet! But the key is to survive the worst...and then we so appreciate those perfect days we are also blessed with! We always love our face to face time with our wonderful and loyal customers! They are what keep us going week after week...traveling hither and yon.., tent up...tent down, Santas out... Santas in, packing and unpacking, sore backs, sunburn, and smiles....lots of smiles and lots of laughter! We love it .... and we hate it... Like all things in life the good and the not as good... but always a challenge to meet, and a stranger to become a customer, and a customer to become a friend. Maybe we could become our own reality show!! Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co...a Big Beautiful Gypsy Business!

    Once again thank you to all of our customers that we meet out in the fields, streets and parking lots. We love you for loving what we do! We are so lucky to be in such an awesome business and we know it! Check out where we will be from now until Christmas on our calendar at www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com

Ouch... My sore back!

Lynn McPherson

CBCC
sales@chesapeakebaychristmas.com
www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com
Bringing the Chesapeake into your Home and Holidays!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Painting Pirates...and other Sweet Stuff

     Today the majority of my day will be spent painting  skulls and crossbones on a small army of our crab pirate ornaments.... then a ribbon and a tag... some tissue paper, a box, a UPS label, and they will be on their way to a charming shop in Hilton Head, SC. There they will hopefully charm their way into tourists hearts as a remembrance of their coastal vacations!
    This is a day that I so appreciate what an awesome job I have! Just me and my paintbrush.... bringing my whimsical friends to life to find their way onto hundreds of family Christmas trees... Reminders of happy times and happy places... Sweet Stuff!

Thanks for reading...
Lynn McPherson

Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co

Bringing a little bit of the Chesapeake into your home and Holidays!
www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Summertime!

Summer is here! Graduations, vacations, lazy days, lazy kids, sweet memories to be made! So why am I feeling a little blue? Hmmm...
My kids are now wonderful responsible young men who have stepped out of their parents lives and into their own....and summertime revolves around children! I'm feeling a little older and creaky, moving a bit slower than I would like... Hot! Always hot!... But I want my summertime feeling back! I want to listen to the sounds, and smell the smells of the neighborhood pool, camping at the lake, sweaty boys coming thru my door looking for food and drink... Sweet memories...I want to go back and relive them... But I can't.... I have to move forward and figure out how to turn today into a sweet memory of tomorrow...? I do not have the answer to my conundrum right now. But I will work on it... Maybe borrow my neighbors kids... Wish I was closer to my niece and nephew...
Pretty soon the neighborhood kids will be playing in their yards and roaming the neighborhood on bikes and scooters... I will listen to their happy chirping and remember... and work on bringing back my own lazy days of summer. I will be thankful for what I have and find new summer experiences to look back on and smile.
Shawnette , Allison, Carolyn... Let's go kayaking!!!!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Free Ferry to Paridise!

We are on the 9 am Ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island to check out their annual Folk Festival. We are looking at it through the eyes of being a vendor there next year. The ferry is always a treat! Today is a crisp and clear after the storm kind of day, a day that begs you to change your perspective! We are listening to Jimmy Buffett who also coaxes you to step back and spin around to look at life from a different angle.. Be happy, be thankful, make your own paradise! We just docked on the island!... And are ready for an island day... A day of promise ... Worries left behind on the mainland! Arrived safe and sound... Free Ferrry!.. Fun!
Lynn McPherson
Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co
www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com

bringing a little bit of the Chesapeake into your home and holidays!