Category Archives: Women’s Corner

  • Pad statistics

    Before my husband went away, we wanted to get the quarterly taxes done for the business. This gave us an aprox. total of sales for 2010.
    So my good friend and I were discussing the aprox. number of Homestead Emporium pads sold this past year and trying to come up with the statistics of cloth pads used, versus disposable pads kept out of the landfill, by our Homestead Emporium customers.
    I have no problem admitting that statistics, and math, are NOT my strongest suit. I do love statistics though, I’m just not any good at figuring them out myself, so I asked  my good friend if she would be willing to give it a go. She said “Sure!”
    We used averages, for everything. This is NOT scientific. lol If any of you love statistics and would like to tackle this ‘problem’ in your own way, please do share your results!
    Here’s what she came up with:

    Homestead Emporium sold  an avergage of 6,300 pads last year.

    An average woman would go through aprox. 12-18 of those pads sold every month. So, we’ll average that number to 15 okay?

    So, if we divide those 6,300 pads by the average a woman would use them, we come up with 420 women buying 15 pads each.

    Okay…hopefully so far that makes sense!

    Now, lets talk about those lovely disposable pads. On average, a woman would use one box per month. One box contains  28 pads, which is roughly 5.5 pads per day.

    So, lets multiply those 28 pads, by the number of women that bought those 15 pads each from your store last year:

    420 women x 28 disposable/m = 11,760 disposables per month.

    11,760/m x 12 months = 141,120 pads into the landfill per year by those same 420 women.

    Now lets go further…each person will be using your gorgeous pads for around 3.5 years:

    141,120 disposable/yr x 3.5 years = 493,920 pads saved from the landfill!

    Hope that makes sense!!

    Thank you good friend, for putting that all together!
    So there you have it! Tell me what you think? Share your math skills with us and tell us what you come up with! Let’s have some fun with this, and remember to be proud of yourself for the number of pads YOU are keeping out of landfills, and for that extra step you are taking to help keep not just the earth healthy, but keeping your body healthy too!

  • Homestead Emporium 2010 Goals

    I’ve spent a lot of time this past weekend working on my ‘goals’ list. Each year I make a list of goals for the year. I have different ‘sections’ such as “In the Home”, “In the Family”, “Heart, Mind and Body”, “Our Schooling”, and the last one, “In Our Business”.

    I thought I’d share with you here, a peek at my business goals list for 2010. Keep in mind it was made up mostly under the assumption that my  husband will be moving out of province for work and will not be around to help with the business any longer.

    And if you didn’t realize it before, you’ll notice that Homestead Emporium is very much a part of our family ‘life’. It’s not just ‘my’ business, it’s our business. Yes, a very large part of the business is mine, but as anything that involves itself into this homestead, it must fit into the daily family lifestyle, or it won’t fit at all.

    So, with that in mind, here are the main goals, the ‘family’ goals, for Homestead Emporium this year.

    “In The Home Business”
    -Mostly to put it, and keep it, in it’s proper place in our lives. For it to support our family but not run our daily lives.
    -To help each child to find their own ‘niche’ in the business.
    ~Alesia; more of the computer work, listings, media representative, etc.
    -To purchase an electric cutting knife to make her cutting time of inners and backings more efficient.
    ~Joshua; to work him OUT of a job with the business by the time he goes fishing in April/May. Have him help find a solution for us girls to do snaps. Have him create a more ‘automated’ snap press/table solution. Otherwise, find a used semi-automatic snap press which can fit into our studio.
    ~Elsa; to have her realize her importance within the business more fully, to develop in her a bigger sense of responsibility and personal confidence in all she CAN do. This will include more of an active role in ‘managing’ how many cotton balls should/could be produced each week, and how many she can personally do herself. (Because of the aspergers, it’s very important that Elsa learn to be self sufficient, and more importantly, self confident. This business was started as much for my girls then it ever was for me.)
    ~Shaylah; to have her become more responsible and confident in all she can do within the business and possibly have her create a small ‘pet’ line, possibly with Elsa as her partner.
    ~Julia; to teach her to sew without any help, and learn more about the machines. (She’s been wanting to do this for a while now.)
    -To help her acheive her goal of earning enough each week to cover all her horse costs.
    –ALL FIVE KIDS– help each one learn about short term savings, long term savings, and helping others/charity.
    -If Graydon (husband) starts the new job, my personal goal within the business will be to spend no more then 3-4 hours a day, 5 days a week, working in the studio, and no more then 2-3 hours a day, 5 days a week, working on the computer.
    -To continue handing in my quarterly tax reports on time, but this year, to also prepare all the necessary information each quarter to have the business’s FULL taxes close to done by the time the end of the year rolls around.
    -And lastly, to work smarter, more efficiently, and waste less time.

    And there you have it.

    It may not be one of the most ‘professional’ looking business goal lists, but it’s ours, and that’s what makes it, and our business, unique.

  • Random musings of the day…

    Today my husband sent out his full resume, complete with his recent course certificate and anything and everything else he could find that needed to be in there so NOTHING would/could hold things up.

    He sent it express post an the oil company should have it by Wednesday.

    He spoke with a very nice woman on the phone on Friday and she said they would review it fairly quickly and process it between Christmas and New Years.

    I wonder how long it will take from that point to hear anything?

    When speaking with this woman, he found out that the rigs he would be working on go 8-9 months a year (yay, some are quite seasonal) and they work shifts of 2 weeks on, 1 week off. If we can figure things out with him being so far away (over 1200 miles), once he’s settled over there (this is all if he gets the job of course!) he may just be able to come home for that week in between each time! That’s SO much better then we expected! Still so much to find out, but so far the more we learn about the job, the better it sounds!

    It’s starting to look like Christmas around here. Not outside, not like a few weeks ago.

    That snow is long gone and instead it’s been raining, raining and raining some more, but around the house, and even around the studio, it’s getting cozy.

    Shaylah decorated my studio window sill.

    This is set up in my window right behind my serger. So cute!

    My puppy is obsessed over a particular toy.

    TOTALLY obsessed.

    He wants to take it everywhere, ALL the time.

    It’s this toy.

    I got three of these one year, one for each of my youngest three, from Nature Baby Knits. Elsa, who’s almost 13 now, decided she’s too big for it and the puppy could have hers. He LOVES it. Throws it around like he’s a cat, and catches it, and throws it up again. It has a little bell inside that just adds to his pleasure.

    Christmas is on Saturday.

    I haven’t begun my Christmas sewing yet.

    I have 2 pairs of pants, 2 skirts, 3 bean bag chairs and some other things I can’t mention because certain people read my blog, all to finish before Saturday…

    Right now it’s time to go snap photos of this week’s stocking.

    We’re stocking early. TUESDAY!

    Come and see tonight as we put everything in the shop! There’s some nice stuff!

    http://hyenacart.com/HomesteadEmporium/

    Along with the holiday15 coupon code, you can’t  beat the deal! That’s just 5% less then our CO-OP Pricing! But you won’t need to wait the 10 weeks or so for your order to arrive!

  • ‘Tis the season… for a sale!

    First off, since it’s getting so close to Christmas and I know so many are very busy, I want to take a moment now to wish each and everyone of you a

    VERY Merry Chrsitmas!
    From our family, to you and yours!

    Dreaming of a white Christmas

    I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen here on Vancouver Island! I do see some snow in the forecast though, but so far it’s just been rain. Hopefully that will change!

    How about you? Are you going to be having a white Christmas? Is that a good thing for you, or not?

    Since Christmas is so close, ‘Tis the season to be jolly! Right?

    Well, if you have a business, and your husband is out of work, and it’s Christmas time, and you still don’t have the funds together for gifts to be put under the tree, it’s also the season to panic!

    Or…

    Get creative!

    The only problem is… time. Time is always the issue!

    I haven’t had any!

    Things have been SO busy (which is good, really, I am so VERY grateful for each and EVERY one of our customers!) that I still have not had time to get the children’s Christmas gifts made. Plus, I wanted to do something special in the shop.

    So, I had two choices. Either I could spend more time trying to dye some more drool worthy bamboo velour to entice you all into my shop on Friday, meaning I’d be busy all week yet again, and yet again, have a week go by without my children’s gifts being made…

    OR…

    This morning I suddenly realized that I could instead, have a sale! We have been putting SO much stock into the shop in the last while, that there’s still a fair amount of selection in there! Lots of pretty colors in all sorts of sizes and styles.

    However, I still wanted to add some new pretties as well! But, if we stocked on Friday, as per usual, it’d be Christmas Eve, and all of you would be busy spending time with your families, instead of spending time with us! Which is totally how it should be of course!

    So… this weekend  I’ve spent every spare minute creating some more products in pretty swirl dyes, and some of our newest colorways like the mystic rainbow gem, to put in the shop for Tuesday afternoon. An early stocking!

    Plus, I’m going to add a coupon code for a sale! As my gift to you!  This will be the first time we’ve ever had swirl dyed pads on sale!

    I really need to do this because I really need some slow down time, to finish (who am I kidding,  to even START) these gifts for my family, however, we can’t afford to just have me take the time off. Having a Tuesday stocking will give me a few days of ‘non-business’ related sewing time before Christmas. I’m also hoping to squeeze in some time to do a bit of Christmas baking.

    Yes, things have been that busy, I’m THAT far behind with the festivities. We didn’t get our tree until yesterday, and it’s still not decorated! Our tradition every year is to get it on or around the twins birthday on the 8th, but it was either a couple of gifts, or the tree. Financially we just couldn’t do both that week! We have it now though. So glad! Better late then never right? But for Christmas gifts, being that today is the 19th, and I won’t be finished business things until at least Tuesday, I had better get going on all this. There are still a few custom orders left to finish up and then it’s time to concentrate on family for a while.

    So I invite you to stop by our shop this week when you’re not busy with your own holiday festivities!

    The coupon code for the sale will be: holiday15

    And will give you 15% off your entire purchase (not including shipping). It has already been created so it’s good as of now, Sunday, Dec. 19th at 7:00  pm pst (10:00 pm est). This sale is not retroactive and can not be combined with any other coupon codes. The sale will continue through this weeks stocking on Tuesday. If you want to wait to see what new goodies we’ll have this week, check out the hyenacart shop on Monday night when we put up our previews.

    Otherwise, feel free to use the coupon code now either at our hyenacart shop:

    http://hyenacart.com/HomesteadEmporium/

    Or our etsy shop:

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/HomesteadEmporium

    And enjoy!

    We hope you will feel blessed with the coupon code, as you have blessed us this entire past year. Our family truly does appreciate your continued support!