Anything is Possible


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As I sit here in the early morning light of the Christmas tree, coffee brewing in the kitchen, I’ve been reflecting about this Christmas season. Two years ago, on our first Christmas together, Steve and I decided that we would give homemade gifts to our families. It was the first time we made soap and bath products together. As we were creating the gifts that year, experimenting with essential oils, we talked about how cool it would be someday to make and sell bath products. We even talked about the unlikely dream of having our own essential oil line. At the time, we had no idea what significant changes and opportunities the future held for us. We had no real plans to ACTUALLY do any of this, especially not full time.  At best, I figured maybe as part of our retirement plan. 

Fast forward to 2019, this year, when we launched our bath line in the Fall, we had no idea if it would sell. Our mission was to provide people with high quality, natural products that are made with love.  Our goal was to bring joy to those who give and receive our little boxes filled with goodies made right in our kitchen.  We ordered our first 100 boxes for soaps and just a few days later, we ordered 100 more. Three weeks ago, we ordered 1200 more and we have lovingly made and packaged hundreds of products that have been shipped out or delivered to our amazing customers who live all over the country. This really started as a hobby, a project to make Christmas presents for our family. And now, we can see that this may actually be a major contributor to our long term business plan for the farm. Sure, we will have to improve our processes and drive out some costs.  We learned so many lessons but the most important one is that anything is possible with faith and a lot of hard work. There have been many days of waking up before the sunrise to get it all done. Today I’ll make our final run to the post office and do our last deliveries. We’ve been using our dining table as an assembly line, the living room has been full of empty boxes, ready to fill and our guest bedroom has been our stockroom. Today, our house is almost back to normal. As we packaged up the gifts last night, I was once again humbled by the thought that so many people will open gifts made here this Christmas. It is our honor to be under your Christmas trees this year. Thank you for trusting us to be part of your gift giving. We’d love to hear from you with any feedback.


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I’m a big believer that what you put out into the universe comes back to you. I think it was all those motivational tapes my dad made me listen to growing up. It is amazing to think that just two years ago, we were making soaps as handmade gifts for our families. And now, here we are making products and shipping all over the country. Thanks for having faith in us and for supporting our dreams. We are truly blessed. 

3 Comments

  • So proud of you guys, Kelly. We love our soaps and oils. I think maybe the vanilla orange is my favorite. Knowing that you use real Penzy’s vanilla in it is amazing. (I use it in my baking, and I know that stuff’s not cheap!)
    I think it’s so important that you use quality ingredients in all your products. It really matters, especially if you have sensitive skin like I do. Most bath products give me itchy, dry skin, and with yours, that doesn’t happen.
    Keep turning out those high quality products made with high quality ingredients, Grappe family!
    Your customers will return again and again for them. We love them!

    Connie Hurst
    Posted December 23, 2019 at 3:50 pm
  • Wonderful. I love that exponential increase in boxes. As you and Steve told me months ago, you are putting lots of lines in the water to see what works. The two of you have certainly put lots of lines in the water. Dozens, it seems. I celebrate with you every time something works or not, because either way, it’s good information going forward. Of course the soap story is especially good information, because when it works, you can jump in and make it work even more. There is magic in some of those motivation tapes. But there is also magic in the two of you. I am so lucky to have met all three of you and to have become close friends as well. Merry Christmas! Erich

    Erich Vieth
    Posted December 23, 2019 at 8:10 pm
  • Love finds a way.
    God’s love.
    Your love for each other.
    Love to parent a child.
    Love & grit to build a life of quality.
    Success is just inevitable here for y’all.
    🎄❤️🎄

    Debra
    Posted December 27, 2019 at 2:10 am

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