Treating Yourself to Happiness

What a glorious day it is. Yesterday my husband sent me a text message that had a quote from Maya Angelo, the quote said something to the effect of look up at this beautiful day, thank you for this day, I’ve never seen this one before. How awesome is that to look at each day as being something new, a day we’ve never seen before. Why is it so hard for us to think that way at times? I guess it’s because life is so busy, we just need to slow down a tad. Whether we’re crafting our own beautiful little candy boxes or wreaths (which you know I’ve grown to love talking about), life can be so full of wondrous things at times. It merely takes a new perspective to appreciate those very things you don’t typically notice.

That’s what I love about working in The Wreath Shoppe: it feels like a slower pace. I’ll hunt and peck over details in a wreath instead of frantically running around poking things in here and there. No, in The Wreath Shoppe I sit back and ponder, I take a 1000 breaks, I stop and listen to the birds singing outside! I don’t know why but something about a hobby relaxes us even when we may have a deadline, we still work toward that deadline in a more Relaxed manner.

Just like when cleaning The Wreath Shoppe, it can be a daunting task depending on how much work I have been doing there in the past several months. Seeing all the boxes that need repackaged, seeing all the baskets that need straightened, seeing all the flowers scraps and ribbon scraps that need to be swept, can feel a little overwhelming! But what if I looked at it as an awesome chore that I get to do, because I’m healthy enough to do it. What if I looked at it as I’ve never cleaned the shoppe this way before. Might that attitude bring even more joy to me in my everyday activity? Might that attitude lower my heart rate just a tad (to combat the extra sugar from the many candyboxes I sometimes get into)? I believe that attitude would work miracles if only we could adopt that attitude, and it’s not even a matter of “being able” to adopt it or not. It’s making that choice to see things in a new and positive light.

How to ship chocolates

Cold weather is always ideal for shipping chocolate for longer distances. However, during summer, people and firms have to look for alternative means of keeping their valuables safer and for longer.

Important Rules

Know the melting point

The melting point for chocolates is closer to the body temperature. Therefore, one shipping them, make sure that you avoid body contact. On the other hand, ganaches melt at room temperature. This means that ganaches have a lower melting temperature compared to the chocolate. Therefore, it is always safer to research on the melting temperature and come up with the best cooling needed.

Keep it Cold

When you keep the chocolate cold for long, it will stay colder longer. Therefore, always make sure that you refrigerate the goodies until it is time to transport them to the market.

Materials Required

To make sure that the chocolates stay cool for a more extended period, the following elements are needed. A box, cold packs, kraft paper, and Bubble-Wrap mylar. The box should be about three times the size of the gift that you indent to send. The extra space caters for bad shipment that may arise along the way. On the other hand, the silver colored wraps aid in deflecting the heat thereby keeping the chocolate colder for longer.

Cold packs are the most crucial material for transportation of the chocolate safely. Therefore, a keen estimation of the same is needed when choosing the amount required. Therefore, to better understand this, the transporter needs to know the size of the packaging box. The bigger the package, the more the cold packs one needs. For instance, with a small box that measures about (9X6X4), one might need one packet of the cold packs. Therefore, from the size, one might quickly get the right amount of cold packs.

Furthermore, always ensure that there is additional packaging material. The extra equipment may be the bubble wrap or the Kraft paper as well. The other stuff is to make sure that the candy box is stable.

The packaging procedure

Once you have all your wrapping material, ensure that you alias with your carrier to ensure that you are there before time elapses. Knowing of the last pick-up ensures that you don’t miss the delivery and also that the goodies stay in the cold room for long before the right time for shipment.

Procedure

• Start by building your shipment box
• Then make sure that you tape all the seems to slow air entering/leaving the table
• Measure that you measure the right amount of mylar to be placed on the bottom of the box.
• Remove the candy boxes out of the cold storage facility
• Wrap the ice pack around the cold box.
• Then stack the chocolate box with the ice pack and wrap it thoroughly with the mylar
• Sack the candy boxes as you would a gift making sure that you tape the ends well enough to insulate.
• Add the padding material to the bottom of the box
• Add more chocolate package
• The gaps left behind may be filled with the packaging material.
• The top of the package may need additional mylar packaging
• Lastly, close the container tightly by making sure that the chocolate is safe and ship it.

Done the right way, the package should arrive safely and with no harm.