HAPPY NEW YEAR, WINNER OF THE RANDOM DRAWING, AND A NEW GIVEAWAY

I don’t even need to comment on what a bizarre year 2017 was in the grand scheme of things. We all know it. On a personal level, though, it was a good year. We were able to travel some and spend time with good friends and family, I’m still enjoying teaching at the university, we live in a beautiful and relatively sane part of the world, and the orchid and perfume businesses are both thriving and growing. The perfume winter sale was phenomenal, and we are still shipping orders out in great volume. This year I had the foresight to have big supply of stock and packing materials on hand, so we didn’t run out of anything. As we move into 2018, I want to let my customers, students, family, friends, and readers know how much I appreciate you all.  

The winner of this week’s drawing for 100 g of samples is ANNE. Please contact me at olympicorchids at gmail dot com or on Facebook PM with your shipping address.

This past week there was a small disaster in the closet where I keep extra clothes, perfumes, samples, some jewelry-making supplies, and some other miscellaneous things. The bar that I hang clothes on also supports a wire shelf, and this whole apparatus has fallen down twice, scattering clothes and boxes of perfume samples all over the floor. I know, I know, I have too much of everything. After the first collapse I went through the clothes and eliminated some of them. The whole thing was put back on the wall and the sample boxes went back up on the shelf. This morning, the whole thing collapsed again. We are going to need to reinforce the bar and shelf, and lighten the load even more. I don’t think samples are all that heavy, but the wire shelves are pretty flimsy, too, like the ones in the photo. It's probably amazing that they have held up this long. 

This week I will be giving away another 100g  of random perfume samples, so leave a comment about anything that strikes your fancy. Some prompts might be what you’re looking forward to in 2018 and whether you’ve ever had a shelf collapse due to putting too much stuff on it. The winner will be announced on Monday, January 8.

[Graphics from Wikimedia]