finding small ways to brighten up these days + good news
From your comments and emails, sounds like there are quite a few of us suffering from January doldrums. To get through this miserably cold weather, I’m trying to think of little ways to brighten up the long winter days. Like eating oranges. This is the season to buy clementines in a bag or box. It’s surprising how many little clementines you can go through in one sitting, but they are like little bursts of sunshine that remind you of warmer days even though they are technically a winter fruit.
Or getting hugs from little people. I don’t know what it is, but kids give hugs with as much warmth and presence as a bigger person 2 or 3 times their size. Plus I love when they hug you and simultaneously pat your back with their tiny hands.
And of course, any bit of good news helps. Last week Dean & Deluca called us and requested some samples. So we gave them some. Today they said yes. Our shortbreads and chocolate gingersnaps will be on the shelves in both Manhattan stores by Valentine’s Day. Yay (though if you saw Mark’s reaction you wouldn’t be able to tell that we are actually happy about this – he’s feeling the pressure and haven’t had a free moment since our Christmas break). But let me rewind and tell you a little story. When we were conceiving of the idea of the business back in March last year, Mark’s sister and I went into Dean & Deluca to do some market research and see what was on the shelves. We actually did talk to an employee (for a long time as I recall), and I vaguely mentioned that we were starting a company somewhere in our conversation. I got the card of the baked goods buyer which I tucked into my planner and to this day remains. We thought that we might eventually approach Dean and Deluca someday. We just didn’t think that it would happen this way.
