What do you do for an Auction, donate of course:)

Life is Beautiful and so is this basket!!

 Well the BMS Chili Cook off and Silent Auction which will be held next Friday at my job is almost here. This is one of the biggest events and is great because we receive a lot of traffic also due to the high school football game which also takes place as well. The Silent auction consists of not only donations from businesses around the area but also 'Family' baskets which are those made up by the groups of students at my job.

Since I started my business with my whipped Shea butters I'm always looking for ways to spread the word about my business and I came up with the idea back in July to make up a basket centered around pampering. I knew I wanted it to be a unique basket and I remember there was a former coworker, Kathleen Berhmann, who also had her own business, Buddha Bath and Body, making homemade soaps as well as other items. So I thought it would be a great idea to also ask  if she would like to donate some of her homemade soaps to the basket, another coworker, Denise Balley who is unofficially in to Partylite candles donated a candle holder and some votive candles. So since Denise wasn't an official rep I put the name of the lady, Kathy Willhite, who is her contact also in the basket as well.

I also bought a Loofah and some fuzzy socks to round out the items. 

I already had bought the basket and items to decorate the basket in advance at Hobby Lobby. I knew I had a certain vision for the basket but I knew unfortunately I wasn't skilled enough to put it all together. So this past Friday I finally brought all the materials up to the job and a coworker who had experience in making gift baskets put mine together and I have to say she exceeded all my expectations and did an amazing job.

As she was finishing up my basket with my hair dryer to shrink up the plastic so it would mold to the basket, her first class of the day was coming into her classroom. They were crowding around the basket and asking who it belonged to. I told them I had it made for the silent auction and that the whipped shea butters and soaps were handmade while the candle accessories were donated. It's a unique basket because all the items with the exception of loofah and the socks were from staff (present and past) who were connected to the school district that I worked for. 

the item list sign I made to go with the basket

I'm hoping the basket will be a big success and who knows, it might become something that we can do every year. If other coworkers have their own businesses and would like to donate then maybe next year the basket will be bigger. Not only are we doing it for a good cause but also it will help spread the word about our businesses.

All That MsJazz

Buddha Body & Bath

Party Lite - Kathy Willhite

 
Until the next episode....

 All That MsJazz