Surprise!

Pennie and I decided to take an inventory of finished bowls left in stock. I downloaded a CSV. file of the listings, imported it into Excel then arranged it in order numerically and printed it. We keep the bowls in plastic tubs, wrapped in tissue paper, sorted by their item numbers. She took the printed list and opened every tub matching the bowls with their listing on the sheets. This was our first “complete” inventory in two years so we expected to find some discrepancies. I have three websites and sometimes a bowl is sold but not removed from one of the websites.

What we did not expect to find was 17 bowls that were made, signed, numbered and put in the tubs without being photographed or put on the websites. We have a system and it usually works. Our finished basement is where newly made bowls are signed and numbered. They are moved to a table where they wait to be photographed. After the photos, they are weighed (for calculated shipping) and put up on the websites. Finally they are moved back to the room where the tubs are stored. Here they are wrapped and put in the proper tubs awaiting sale.

At one point last year we had over 50 bowls waiting to be photographed. I’m pretty sure that’s when it happened. Some bowls got put in the wrong place.

The good news is that there was a lot of fresh inventory waiting to be photographed and put up for sale. There aren’t many plain ones in the bunch. It’s kind of like finding a stack of $100 dollar bills in your sock drawer.

Another pleasant surprise was Pennie’s decision to retire after over 20 years in the garden center at Lowes. They gave her a surprise retirement party just before she went on vacation for Christmas and New Years. Her last day was Jan. 8th. I’m hoping she will dedicate some of her time helping me in the shop. I am in competition for her time with grandkids, gardening, wedding planning, crafting, baking etc.