Will you BEE there?

For all the consultants in the audience I give you

Bee promotion video:

I get to go!!!! yay!

And tell ya what, I'm so excited about the bee that I want to do a Bee themed giveaway, I'm currently looking for sponsors who might be interested in working with me for this endeavor so if you know anyone who'd be interested please have them contact me, I'd like to do this in Sometime between June and Early-Mid July so that's plenty of time to plan, I want to do this right!

C Ya there!

-Missy

Dresden Village IGA Destroyed in Fire

Hey Ya'll
Had a news article sent to me telling of the Fire which occurred Thursday morning. The Dresden Village IGA was the only Grocery store in Dresden and the building had been providing it's services for nearly 50 years, first as an A&P then as the IGA. The building was once owned by Dave Longaberger, but was sold to the Vansickle family in the 80's.

Three local fire departments helped battle the blaze, dropping local reservoir levels to the point that authorities almost had to close local schools to ease demands on the supply. No foul play is suspected, accidental causes  are being looked into but haven't been yet determined.

Tami Longaberger was saddened by the loss to the community, she worked as a teenager as a cashier and stock girl with her Aunts and Father, Dave Longaberger.

Thankfully no one was injured, but the community has lost a very important building both in its pantries and its hearts.

-Missy

Dresden Ohio!

I'm SUPER excited about next weekend, My Branch Leader (Read: My Mom) is taking a big tour trip from VA to OH to visit the Longaberger headquarters! We'll be visiting the Longaberger Homestead, Dresden Ohio, The Corporate Office, AND having lunch at Tammy Longaberger's house (the CEO of Longaberger)!

We'll be leaving Friday Morning, and returning Saturday night (Read: 12 am Sunday) from Northern VA.

Ok so here's a little information about the differnet places we'll be going!

Tammy Longaberger's House

Tammy has a certain number of weekends available for tour groups to come in and have a luncheon at her house, it's usually a WONDERFUL spread with salads, small sandwiches and DELICIOUS soup (but if you've ever tried any longaberger recipes you know how awesome they are), There is always at least one member of the Longaberger family there, and occaisionally you luck out and Tammy herself is there! For consultants there is a wonderful scrapbook that Tammy has and they take a photo of all the consultants and all the branch leaders that are there, and then you sign her scrap book, it's really great that she does this. If you're not a consultant- this time is great for getting to know the folks on your tour, and there is a bit of her house and grounds that you can explore (It's beautiful).

The Corporate Office
(aka the basket building)

This is where all the paperwork and ideas are handled, this is an office building, but it's not just any building, it's shaped, like a basket (big suprise) This was one of Dave Longaberger's ideas, but unfortunatly he passed away before it's completion. Inside there is always a great display of Longaberger products. If you have a show you need to turn in, there is a huge basket to drop it off right there! You never know who you'll see there! And it's totally worth seeing!

Homestead
The Homestead is a great place where there is Soooo much to see!
It is pretty much divided into 2 areas, The first where the factory is, you get to go into the workshops of the weavers and watch them weave. You can also shop in this area and find stuff that has been put aside that is retired or just older (sometimes they are seconds) this is a great place to find things to complete your baskets!

AND what is super amazing, you can WEAVE YOUR OWN BASKET with the help of a professional longaberger weaver!

The homestead also features the AtHome store which is full of a lot of great ideas to make your longaberger products fit with your home, as well as a lot of apparel and jewelry to show off what you love! You can also pick up the yearly Homestead basket which is exclusive to the area!

There are a few NEW areas at the homestead including the Homeshow Experience which is a great place to go if you've been eyeing that basket or peice of pottery but just can't decide! EVERY item that is in the catalog is shown in the Homeshow experience! What's also really cool about this area is they have designed what amounts to a "design house" where you can see the baskets in use, just like in the catalog, but 3D!

There is also a consultants only shop where you can pick up supplies free of shipping and pick up other supplies!

Dresden-
Dresden is awesome. Dresden is where the Longaberger business started in 1896. AND it's home of the world's largest basket (actual basket, not basket building)! Today it has several Longaberger shops where you can get souveniers, apparel, basket accessories, and Much more!
But Dresden doesn't just have official Longaberger gear, there are dozens of shops that feature custom items to go with your Longaberger Baskets, handmade liners in dozens of custom fabrics, Great gifts for homeshows, Custom protectors for baskets of every shape and size, Plastic basket sleeves (they go places Longaberger can't, like outside, although technically they could go outside, it just would weaken them some). This area isn't just about the baskets, you can also find artwork, pottery, canister sets, and other home decor!

If you'd like to come on this or our next trip please email my mom!
Connie <-- click that, it will open a mail window! The dates this year are the 17th and 18th of October, Next year's dates are TBD For more information about Dresden, or Longaberger you can check out the following links Dresden Ohio
Longaberger Homestead

Enjoy!
-Missy