Ringing in the New Year

It's almost time to ring in the new year. Time to make those new years resolutions and stick to them! I feel 2009 has many great things to come and I cant wait! I usually don’t make too many resolutions because then I get overwhelmed and drop them all. I do know that I must get back to the gym! And I have a few other resolutions floating around in my head. What are your resolutions? We would love to hear them!

New Year’s Day also brings with it something special for me, yes a beloved day off! Our retail store will be closed for New Year’s Day. We will be open on New Year’s Eve day from 10 -2 just in case you might need something. Then we are back to our regular store hours. But our online store is always open!

We have three new scents on deck so far for the new year, and all 3 are pretty great if I do say so myself. One of them being From the Vineyard which will be January’s Candle of the Month.

You only have 3 more days left to enter the December Giveaway! Remember we have THREE $20 Gift Certificates up for grabs!

ttyl

Merry Christmas!

Only 2 shopping days left!

Yes, there are only 2 more shopping days left!

Need some last minute gifts and some stress free shopping? Pop on by our Things That Make Scents retail store. We are here today 10-5 and tomorrow (Christmas Eve) 10-5pm and we are having a 20% off sale too! Give the gift of soy candles this year. And the best part? We will even wrap it up all nice for you, so all you have to do is hand it over! Gift Cards are available as well! What more could you ask for? Ummm Ok, maybe don’t answer that!

Does anyone know exactly how many renditions of Frosty the Snowman there are?? We are listening to Sirius Satellite Radio's special Holiday channel called Holly and I swear, I hear frosty at least 12 times a day, but its a different singer each time. On the bright side, I only heard Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer once so far, and have not heard Dominic the Donkey at ALL!

Last year I was humming that song for weeks! UGH. (Oh, dont worry, I have included the links for your listening pleasure... You're Welcome!)

I have to say it has been a pretty stress free holiday season here at TTMS. Except for maybe the day our credit card processing company was down, last Saturday in the middle of a busy afternoon. That was pretty stressful! Thanks QuickBooks Merchant Services for the extra grey hair that day. I'm sure we are not the only ones less than pleased about the outage! But other than that it has been good. All of our customers are great and it’s been a pleasure chatting with them and helping them choose scents for their gifts and for themselves, and that includes all of our online customers that I have spoken with or emailed. We appreciate your business and love your feedback and suggestions. Feel free to contact us anytime!

Well back to work for me, we are almost out of Summer at the Shore. Oddly enough it has been a huge seller this holiday season. Go figure?

ttyl

So close now.............

Christmas is just around the corner. I cant believe how fast the time flew by! It’s been busy at the store this week and will probably get busier once people realize they are running out of time.

Snowman Poop, our December candle of the month has been a huge hit. Tom is very proud of his creation! If you haven’t tried it yet, its 25% off until the end of Dec.

We have been working on some new scent and will be featuring them as the next 3 candles of the Month.

Don’t forget we have three $20 gift certificates to be won in our December Giveaway. If you haven’t entered yet, go enter! Just ask the three winners from last month how easy it was!!

And in case you were wondering, the next display window plan is pretty much all set. Which is always a good thing!

Better get back to work now.. lots to do!!

ttyl

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Been trying to update the blog all week and just kept running out of time.. Typing away as I eat breakfast this morning… I wonder if that’s how all the crumbs get into my keyboard??

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! We did, it was nice to relax and enjoy the day with my family.Black Friday was crazy at the store. If you were there you know what I mean!Christmas is just around the corner now and I haven’t even really started shopping yet! Maybe everyone would like candles for Christmas?? LOL Oh wait, that’s what they got last year… oh boy I better get cracking! I wonder when the Malls start staying open later??

As promised we drew 3 names out of the hat for the November $20 TTMS Gift Certificate Giveaway.

And the winners are….. (Pretend you hear a drum roll)

Rachel Smith, Mayfield, KY
James Palmer, Linden, NJ
Judy Bernecker, Miami, FL

Sad that you didn’t win? We don’t worry, you can enter again in the December Gift Certificate Giveaway!
We once again will be picking 3 winners! Ho Ho Ho!

The window is done and I have some pics. I'm pleased with how it came out. Stringing the lights on the ceiling wasn’t as easy as I was hoping it would be.Take a look…..

Baby its Cold outside!

I like to think of myself as pretty observant, and I happened to notice a few things this morning on my way in.

First thing, man it is cold! I almost froze walking across Main Street to get my favorite cup of Kona coffee. I must find my gloves!! Then I noticed that gas is now $1.75 at the gas station across the street from the store, which is a really good thing because I'm almost on “E”. And last but not least, as I pull up to the store, I see other tenants in the building are parked on the side of the building AGAIN!! Even though its only 1 hr parking they still park there all day.
Which is a bad thing because its hogging up the parking spaces for my customers. And now that its getting colder, they have starting complaining that there is no parking.. UGH!

But on the bright side, I have no window torment this time around. I have a plan and will be in on Monday to make it happen! YAY! Its January’s window I have to worry about!

We have been in overdrive getting stocked up for Black Friday! We will officially announce our sales plan on Monday. (Hopefully)

I got all our gifts for the Candy Cane hunt wrapped and over the Chamber as well as all the bows I helped make for the Christmas Trees in town. Check that off the list. I think they are putting them up this weekend. I can’t wait to see it. I love the look of a decorated street; it reminds me of a Christmas card. If I can, I will try to get a picture of them once they are all up.

Back to work for me now… I have favors to wrap up and candles to pour!


ttyl

Wednesdays Random Ramblings

I have been trying for days to get this post up. But time keeps slipping away, and by the time the end of the day rolls around, my brain shuts off and I can even complete a sentence. So I’m multi-tasking this morning, eating my huge egg sandwich and in between bites, typing this post.

We have a bunch of food donations dropped off so far for the food pantry! Thank you so much for helping out!

Over the weekend, I had customers who have ordered online from us in the past, drive up from Maryland to visit me. How cool was that?? They were both very nice people, I hope they had a nice lunch in Manasquan and a safe drive back home.

We have been trying to crank out the palm pillar candles, I keep putting it off but they have to get done. I don’t have a pic for this post, I will take one when I have more colors made up so you can see them.

We have extended the Tart Cups BOGO (Buy one Get one Free) and all wax dipped critters 25% off sale until midnight Nov. 21st. And don’t forget about the 25% off candle of the month, Pecan Pie. mmmmm smells just like the real thing!

I have the Black Friday specials all ready, I just have to type them up and shoot out a newsletter. Perhaps during breakfast tomorrow? LOL I can’t believe how fast time is just flying by! There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. Well I better finish this sandwich and get to work; I do think I'm going to need some more coffee before I do anything else though!

ttyl

Tom the Turkey saves the day

I got the window switched over first thing Saturday morning. It’s not half bad, if I do say so myself, but we got the finishing touch from my Mom. She let me borrow Tom the Turkey. Thanks Mom!

Its no masterpiece mind you, but it works… Soon enough it will be time to switch it to Christmas. I had trouble getting a good picture through the window, so you only get to see one shot. Sorry.


Congratulations to William Singelman from Georgia! He was the winner of our October $20 Gift Certificate Giveaway. We have 3 $20 gift certificates to give away for November. Enter now and maybe you will be one of the 3 lucky winners! Good Luck!

We are working on our Black Friday specials and will be announcing them very soon.
If you are not on our newsletter list, perhaps you should go sign up. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on any of the specials we have planned.

Well, that’s all I got for ya today. I have to get back to working on the newsletter and I'm almost finished!

ttyl

Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! It stinks that I'm at the store until 5pm today, because I can't wait to get home and give out candy! I love seeing all the kiddies in their little costumes!

And I have good news… Ok well maybe its only good news for me. I have an idea for the display window! Yay! The challenge now is taking that idea out of my head and making the window. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well with it this weekend. I will keep you posted and maybe show you a pic or two. I'm going for a more simple look since its only for 3 weeks. You can let me know what you think when you see it.

Last night on my way home I stopped at Mr. Allen’s Florist in Brick to see if I could get some inspiration for my window. And thanks to the help of the very nice woman there I left with not one, but two awesome pieces that will be perfect in the window. I know I should have gotten her name so I could thank her properly, but it was late and I was hungry and not thinking. They have a lot of beautiful things in there, it actually got some good ideas for the Christmas window too… so it appears that I'm off to a good start for that one.

Well, have fun trick or treating today! Make sure you check that candy first!

ttyl

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Do you hear that? That's time ticking away and now I have two more days before I have to change the display window, and I haven’t got a single idea.

Goodness… what to do? I guess I will have to dedicate some time today to come up with something.

My husband Tom who did such an awesome job on our Halloween display doesn’t want any part of this one. But he said he will take care of our Christmas window. Great! Pick all the easy windows to do!

Here is a photo so you can see his work. Maybe you can call him and try to convince him to help me out here!



Take a good look though because that window might be empty for the next three weeks if I don’t think of something fast!

Off to Google pilgrims….

ttyl

The Start of Something Wonderful...

Or, so I can only hope!

Gotta get a blog! You MUST have a blog! Do you blog? Are you a blogger? That's all I hear lately. I'm a candle maker, not a blogger! Or so I thought! Because alas, I do have a blog, and as soon and I hit the publish post button on this baby, POOF! I am a blogger too!

So I have jumped in head first. As I have mentioned in the past, I am about as exciting as watching paint dry, but you have to give me credit for trying, right? I'm mean after all, instead of blogging, what I should be doing is trying to think of what I am going to do for the store display window after the Halloween stuff comes out. I have about 3 weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving that I need to fill since I cant put Christmas stuff in there Nov. 1st. Can I? If only!

We have been crazy busy getting all the Holidays scents done so they can get out onto the shelves. Who has time to design a display window? Any volunteers out there, just give me a call!

I will try to keep this as exciting as I can and post often, so please stop back and check it out.
You may even find a secret blog only discount or special or maybe even a contest.

Oh and pleaase feel free to comment all you want! They do have to get approved by us first just to keep the spam out but we will publish all your comments.

ttyl