Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all! I hope you all had great holidays and a happy New Year celebration. I enjoyed meeting many interesting people over the holidays and going to new places. Last two weeks of the year we spent with kids, looking into their eyes, absorbing their voices, and making fun projects.
Marmalade Hills had another successful year and it is now ready for a bigger growth. I am very humbled and thankful for all the love and interest that we have received. Slowly but surely the routine is getting back on track: filling new orders, working on new leads and organizing my life to be more efficient, more productive and more happy. So this year I decided to concentrate my attention on things that are important and not always urgent. Which led me to my first official resolution list, that so far, I’m proud to say, I am following pretty good. So here is what I have lined up for myself to conquer this year (I will try to blog about every individual resolution and my progress on it):
1. Sleep at least 7 hours a day
2. Physical exercise at least 30 min every day
3. Have salad every day
4. Double our vacation time
5. Have timely physicals and other routine checks for ALL members of our family (including the dog...and sometimes our fish....sigh...)
6. Spend less time on Social Networking and research
7. Develop and launch new products
8. Update and improve MH studio and equipment
9. More frequent blogging
10. Learn 5 new things; do 5 new activities or projects
11. Be more understanding, talk less and listen more
12. Be humble and happy with what I have and who I am


This is my dirty dozen that needs to be polished and perfected this year. I really hope that some of these routines will become an integral part of my live.
Do you have a resolutions list? What would you like to improve in your life? Share some tricks and tips on how to stick to the resolutions list throughout the year.

Looking forward to what you guys have to say!

Till next time,
Liana.

Carry on with a smile.

I took this picture yesterday night when the house was quiet and calm, during those precious two hours when kids go to bed and all noises subside. Just like any other busy family houses, most of the time our house is filled with toys, all kinds of school projects, dirty dishes, loads of laundry and kids laughing, fighting, crying or playing in the background. You wake up in the morning and it starts all over again. Sounds familiar? I bet it does! Today is a start of a new week, new round of chores and endless projects, so I want to pass around a few thoughts to keep in mind: #1 – Optimists get the last laugh, according to a new study that shows their hearts stay healthy longer than those of grumps. The recent study says, pessimistic people may be more prone to developing habits and problems that cut life short, such as smoking, obesity and hypertension.
#2 – Numerous studies over the decades have shown that responsibility strengthens the immune system (check out Chapter 10, Stress, in Matt Ridley's "Genome")

Wake up, smile and say "Hello" to Monday :)

Clean Sweep 2010 with my family

As you may remember, during the Earth Day weekend my family participated in our locally organized Clean Sweep 2010. In the prior years we used to go for walks in the neighborhood and collect litter whenever we felt like doing it. It was a great way to get some fresh air and do a good thing. And as our daughter got older and learned about Earth Day and taking care of Earth at school, we have decided to make our random family litter hunts more official. So I called our township hall and signed us up. They were providing garbage bags and official t-shirts in XL sizes (don’t ask me why XL).
That Sunday was one of the gloomiest days this Spring. It rained the whole morning and it was chili, wet and sticky in the afternoon. But we were determined to do it. So we got our gloves, rain gear, sweaters, blankets, garbage bags and a magic grabber tool that my husband got at the hospital after his back surgery a few weeks prior to this event. If you are planning on doing Clean Sweep with your family you HAVE to have one and I you can buy one in any drug store or on the internet. This tool came extremely handy when picking up plastic bottles from hard to reach, thick bushes or soaking wet plastic bags from the ditches, our daughter had lots of fun with it. Most of the items that ended up in our garbage bags were fast food packaging, Styrofoam cups, plastic bags and lots of plastic bottles! You wouldn’t have believed the amount of plastic bottles we found! It is disturbing to think that someone can just abandon these things in the middle of the street with no shame.
So here is what we got after two hours of walking just 1 mile distance in a nice family oriented, suburban neighborhood: two full 30 lb garbage bags! All rinsed off with a hose and sorted into recycling bins for garbage collection day.
After two hours of wet and gloomy outside we came home with red cheeks and had the most awesome Carrot Cake with Green Tea! It was all worth it!

Till next time friends,
Liana.

Thank You!

Last few days before the show have been very busy. But everything seems to be coming together. I have set my mind to not let anything spoil this fun experience. So I am not nervous at all…yet. I am sure it’ll get to me more on Friday. Since I have never done a show before I have no idea what to expect. I will be just happy to meet new people, establish new contacts, see my old friends and family, but picking up one or two wholesale accounts won’t hurt either! I cannot wait to practice my sales skills, polish up my knowledge about Marmalade Hills’ products and become more organized and prepared to take my business to the next level, because I do have an idea on where I want to be the following week after the show. I would like to get my first retail location where my products will be offered with full shopping experience. This show will definitely put things like my price point, feedbacks, presentation, in perspective for me. I will not be posting much to my Fan Page up until Monday. I will need to retreat and enjoy whatever will be left of my Thanksgiving with my family. On Tuesday, we will have a raffle that would be held at the show and hopefully we will pick up some new fans out there as well and maybe even have another Fan Page giveaway back to back! And then I have a few fun Holiday ideas up my sleeve inspired by one of our fans, Christine Wilson. So stay tuned and hope to see you at the show and in our shop!

Hope you have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thank You for supporting Marmalade Hills!

Liana.


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Reborn and awaken...

Finally my first post, yippee! I’m very excited and don’t even know where to start… Recently I have been awaken and reborn after almost five years of hibernation. Last five years of my life I have been concentrating on being pregnant, raising my wonderful kids, being a good wife and the usual - making the ends meet by working full time side-by-side with my DH in automotive industry. Somewhere in the middle of it all I have discovered a fascinating hobby that would take me away from my everyday routine and get me super excited and energized. It didn’t take long to realize how much potential my favorite hobby had. Effects of my natural soaps and skin care products just blew me away. My skin never felt this good before! I kept smacking my head in amazement: “Natural ingredients, how simple it can be and what a great result!” Ever since, I have been madly in love with natural and nature derived ingredients.

After working on my lotions and potions for a year and some, from a studio in our family room, I have decided to take my hobby to a next level. I wanted everybody to try my products, I wanted everybody to feel the difference! And that’s how Marmalade Hills LLC was born. After getting my head out of my hibernation hole I have been looking around the Internet and I have noticed a new interesting creature - Blog. When I discovered that many companies and craft people keep blogs in order to connect with their customers, to bring them news on every day basis I started to wonder if I should start one of my own. I’ve read many other people’s blogs, I’ve read a lot about running your own blog and finally I’m here.

I’m planning on using this blog mainly for showcasing my products and talking about the process involved in making them. Everything, from why I picked a particular ingredient for my lip balm to why I have designed my label the way you see it. Also I would like to talk about challenges in running your own business, your home, raising kids and being a caring wife at the same time. I hope not to bore you to death and thank you for reading this far!

Liana at Marmalade Hills.

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