Ordering Food From Etsy is a Thing...

For Jeff's birthday this year, I was looking at finding some unique presents for him. Something that he normally would not buy on his own, but would be interested in once it showed up to the house. This was a landmark birthday - he turned 60 in May - so I got to work finding at least 7 presents so we could celebrate "Birth Week" instead of "Birth Day."

I ended up finding some meal kits on Etsy - a sort of "Ebay" for artsy craftsy people. You can find everything from handmade jewelry to furniture to journaling supplies to spices to grilling accessories to glasses/plates/silverware to meal kits, and anything in between on there...

I found and purchased a kit from one seller for loaded potato soup, and gave it to Jeff as one of his presents. All of these kits are all of the dry ingredients, so all you have to do is add the wet ingredients and meat, then cook. 

Jeff cooked the potato soup one but did not follow the directions on the package, and we ended up being less than thrilled with the results. I blame that on not following the cooking instructions. 

From a second seller, I bought a BBQ Chicken Pasta Kit, and a Beef Stroganoff Kit for a couple more presents for Jeff. This seller packages up the kits once someone buys them - they are not pre-made waiting to be shipped out. No additives or preservatives are in the kits either.

I cooked the BBQ Chicken Pasta one first. Jeff was less than enthusiastic about making it because he didn't think that the wet ingredients that were getting added would go well together. Turns out they did, but I didn't read on the website when purchasing it that the seller put Sriracha powder in the kit. It was very good, but also very spicy. 

I next cooked the Beef Stroganoff kit. We had a winner here! It was really good, and tasted homemade. The kits are shelf stable for up to a year, and could actually be used when going camping, should one want to use them for that.

A few weeks later, we ended up purchasing another Beef Stroganoff Kit, along with a Cheesy Taco Skillet Kit and one for Chicken Noodle Soup. As of the time I am typing this, we have cooked everything but the Chicken Noodle Soup. The two we have cooked were really good.

One thing I noticed with this particular seller's page on Etsy, is that she also sells other things as well. I have purchased two Oatmeal Kits (Cherry and Cherry Vanilla - I have already tried the Cherry one and it was really good). Since Jeff loves meatloaf, I bought the meatloaf (and meatballs) seasoning kit. Also purchased a Mild Chili Seasoning Kit. Once Jeff makes those, we'll see how they taste. The last thing I have purchased to date is a Muffin Kit (Cherry flavor). We'll need to go get the wet ingredients from the store to see how the muffins turn out.

She also sells bread kits and actually sells loaves of bread, muffins, and biscuits. We haven't bought any of the kits or any of the actual baked goods yet, but I am excited about trying them as well. Who knew this would actually be a viable option for some good home-cooked food that is easy to make?

I wanted to link the Etsy page where I have purchased these kits - Chickens In the Road Etsy Shop.

Crazy Weeks...But I'm Not Complaining...(Sort Of)

I am sitting here at my laptop, with lots to do on my to-do list. It seems that May and June are getting just as busy each year as September - December normally is. At least that is how it feels this year. I am not complaining though, at least about May...the busy feelings kept my mind pre-occupied and off of things that would take me down dark roads for several weeks.

Back story: my dad died by suicide in November 2012. I thought that over time, the grief would be easier to manage, and day-to-day life would become more manageable overall. For the most part it has. Except for May. For some reason over the last several years, it has become harder for me to get through May than it used to. My birthday is at the end of May, and when my dad was alive he would always call me around my birthday, and we would have the most amazing, absurd, dumb conversations. Like what he had for breakfast or lunch the day I was born, how much gas or bread cost about that timeframe, etc. However for some reason, my brain still expects a phone call from him each year. When I finally realize that there is not going to ever be a call from him again, it usually causes me to spiral into a deep depression - even though I already knew he wasn't going to call, it still somehow surprises me every year.

The last few years I was down for almost a month, and considered just getting out of bed a victory for the day. Things would usually get worse as I was not mentally ready or capable of handling my regular to-do list of concert planning items, silent auction tasks, weekly emails to the band, etc. So, I'd get even more depressed because I was falling behind on regular (band) work. I was able to get my regular tasks at my job outsourced to teammates, so it wasn't that bad at work during this time.

This year, I started planning early. 

We were invited back to the City of Sugar Land's Memorial Day Celebration, so in April I started copying our Music Director on all correspondence with the contact at the City of Sugar Land. That way, if he had any planning/logistics questions he could ask the contact directly instead of waiting for me to reach out, get a response, and report back to him. It actually worked out quite well - they met, worked out musical logistics, he picked up parking passes for me, and it went fairly smoothly. I still had a lot of work to do coordinating rehearsal time information to the band, letting them know where and when to park, where and when to perform, what the dress code was going to be, publicizing the performance on social media, etc. But, the Music Director took a lot off my plate this time around. It was an unexpected surprise, and I was very thankful for the assistance!

The main area of concern has been getting the silent auction baskets prepared and ready, and also setting up the silent auction website in time before the silent auction begins. In early May, I realized I had most of what was going to come in for our silent auction in June. I decided to go ahead and start grouping everything together, adding a basket, cellophane bag, ribbon, and shredded paper to each basket (making each basket easier and simpler to assemble). I figured if any additional items came in, I'd either just add to an existing basket, or create a new basket as the items came in. After grouping everything together the first week of May, I decided to go ahead and start organizing the items in the baskets, wrapping them, and getting the ribbons tied around the tops of all the baskets. The baskets were essentially done by the end of the second week of May. I then spent a few days setting up the silent auction website, building the virtual baskets in there, so people could bid on them once the site went live. By June, the baskets were completely done, and the website completely set up. This was a first for me, and it was such a relief knowing that was not hanging over my head!

As soon as we got the music for the Memorial Day performance (which was mostly doubling at the Patriotic Concert), I went ahead and started writing program notes for all the pieces. So, in addition to working with the Music Director on Memorial Day logistics with the contact at the City of Sugar Land, and wrapping silent auction baskets, and designing the silent auction website...I was also writing program notes and working on the initial design of our concert program! Thankfully, we repeat several pieces every year, as they have become annual favorites of our patrons. This means the program notes have already mostly been written (minus any new pieces we might have in our folders) - I just have to drop them into the program notes pages that I build for each concert program.

The only real tasks I have to do for the patriotic concert program each year is update the roster for the band (which is really done for each concert, based on who can play and who cannot), update the chorus roster, update the American Legion / VFW roster, dropping in the performance order, dropping in the program notes, adding any guest conductor bios to the program, and adding any restaurant spirit fundraiser information we have for an event shortly after the concert. This only really gets busy over one weekend - the weekend two weeks before the concert - the program items are due at that time so I can send it off to print.

I set up all weekly emails to the band in the email software we use at the beginning of May, and added weekly emails for the chorus starting the end of May. With the emails already set up, all I had to do each week is just populate the emails with any information they need to know for that week. Made it so much easier with the emails already designed and ready to be populated! I also set up all concert notices to go out, along with all silent auction notice emails and the spirit fundraiser emails.

Normally I set up everything with the chorus, doing announcements for them at the beginning of their rehearsals, taking attendance, etc. This year, I passed it off to one of the other band members, who is also singing in the chorus...this has really helped as well.

Although it has been super busy these past two months, it has actually been easier this year than in past years. I felt more prepared, tackled things on my to-do list earlier so I didn't get overwhelmed when I was already struggling. I got others involved to help out so I didn't feel like I was the only one doing all the work. 

And on my actual birthday, there was a huge issue with our main customer chain not turning in their orders on time, so I was super involved in meetings starting at 4:30 am, all the way through 4:30 pm...making sure we got the orders in the system, routed, and notifications sent out to the warehouses and transportation so they would be prepared. I didn't have time to think about anything other than making it through the day at work that day, and ended up not spiraling into a deep depression after all this year. I am super grateful for that! 

Dreaming of Silent Auction Baskets

Our Patriotic concert is in a few weeks. There are a lot of moving parts to this concert by nature, and for the most part I am ok with taking care of all the moving parts. The audience typically loves this performance, and all of the added extras that come with it. 

The ball really gets rolling in May for planning and executing the concert, from securing members of the American Legion and VFW posts for Honor Guard duties, planning and notifying the public about the community chorus that will be organizing and performing, securing the chorus rehearsal director, and getting music ready for the chorus.

One big thing that happens at the Patriotic concert (and also the Holiday concert in December) is a silent auction. Since COVID, we have held the silent auction online and doing so allows us to have the silent auction active for more than a few hours. We used to hold the silent auction during the concert, allowing patrons and band members the opportunity to bid on the items before the concert and during intermission. We then would announce the winners shortly after intermission, which would take up a lot of unnecessary concert time.  

With the silent auction now held online, I can more easily monitor it, adjusting the bids if needed to get people interested in the item. We can share the baskets on social media to garner more interest in them as well.  And with the auction active for an entire week, we can get people involved who are not even local...and ship the basket to them afterwards!

For the Patriotic silent auction, I start requesting donations from companies in January. This includes preparing and mailing physical requests, emailing requests, and going online to request through donation portals. Donations start trickling in in February, and we see a steady stream through the middle of June. As we are receiving items, I go ahead and group items together for baskets, and just set them in a basket, along with ribbon, cellophane wrap, a bag of crinkle paper, and a rubber band to close the wrap up at the top of the basket. This makes it easier to put the basket together and make it look nice!

I build the baskets in a spreadsheet, along with the value of each of the items, who donated the items, etc. At the end of the silent auction, I add what the auction price was for each of the baskets, so I can see what the value vs sale price was. I try to make sure we bring in at least 50% of what the value was of all of the baskets for that particular auction. So, if the baskets for an auction are worth a total of $5,000, I try to at least bring in $2,500 in the silent auction.

Usually in April or the beginning of May, I will go ahead and set up the initial silent auction website (through 32Auctions).  By this point, I have a really good idea of the baskets we will have for the silent auction, so I can start populating the website with basket information. Instead of taking a picture of the basket itself for each one, I use Canva.com to make a photo collage with the logos of the companies that donated items for that particular basket. 

May is spent stuffing and wrapping the baskets, and adding a removable sticker with the basket name on it to quickly find the basket after the auction is over. I print out the invoices from 32Auctions, and attach them to the baskets (highlighting the winner's name on each), so the winners can more easily find the ones they won.

On concert day, I take the baskets with me to the performance venue and have the baskets set up out in the foyer, so the winners can get them as they come in, or while at intermission.

The reason I have said all of this is because last night I had a very real dream that it was concert day, and I realized that I had not brought the silent auction baskets with me to the performance venue. Not only that, but I had not even been monitoring the silent auction while it was live, so I had no idea if all baskets had been sold or not. It was quite disturbing to me that in my dream I had allowed such a big opportunity to raise funds slip through my fingers!