Fresh Bet Bits, Claire Burke Original Memories, Home Fragrance Product Updates and Commentary

This is just a quick post to bring you up to date on some of the recent personnel changes at Freshbet. Leia was with us for nearly 2 years and we absolutely adored her. Sadly, she has had to move on to greener pastures to insure her future financial success.

Deb who started with us around Labor Day 2007, is now full-time and doing an excellent job!

Our newest employee is Dawn who will be with us part-time in the middle of the day. Please be patient with Dawn as she learns about our business. We think Dawn will be a wonderful addition to our team and she is so enthusiastic!

Pamela continues to work for us part-time in between pursuing her degree from Clemson.

Jenn who worked for us in 2006 and early 2007, has returned to working part-time doing website maintenance and uploads. Jenn is now expecting her 2nd child and we hope she will continue along with Freshbet as her family grows.

Our storefront is now starting to be frequented by local customers who are discovering our unique product offerings. We have just renewed our lease for an additional 2 years, so if you are ever in Upstate South Carolina, do stop by!

WOW, Wade & I had a hectic trip to Atlanta for 2 days to attend the huge January Gift Show to order new merchandise for Spring. Needless to say we were exhausted by the time we left. Here is a brief recap of what we have planned for Spring/Summer 2008:

* New WoodWick candles and Reed Diffusers.
* New Old Virginia Tarts.
* More new WoodWick car scents and Home Fragrance Oil scent choices.
* New WoodWick Fusion art-glass Candles & Reed Diffuser - simply stunning!
* New WoodWick Reed Diffuser oil refills w/new Reeds.
* NEW Olive Oil Organics in travel tin candles and large 22 oz clear glass. AWESOME scent!
* More new Hillhouse Farm Naturals tin candles and new Pomegranate Reed Diffuser.
* Hillhouse Good Dog Linen Spray and tin candle.
* NEW Greenleaf Reed Diffusers and refills. These are ceramic and so charming.
* Greenleaf has introduced a new scent called Evening Twilight which is a powdery soft scent that will be available in Aroma Decor Diffuser Oil.
* 2 New Greenleaf Aroma Decor Diffusers: Yellow Vase, Shanghai
* Greenleaf has also reformulated their lotions to include Jojoba making them even better!
* Greenleaf has a new Spa line which we will be adding soon: Bath Salts, Scrub, etc.

We are optimistically guarded that we will soon be selected to become an Aromatique retailer. They gave me their new Peach Pizazz candle to burn and it is phenomenal! We are excited to report we have ordered:

* The Smell of Spring
* Summer Sorbet
* Fresh Fig
* Citrus Plum Berry
* Peach Pizazz

Thanks to the feedback from Sandy Wood who was kind enough to share her thoughts with me regarding Aromatique!

We have also ordered several other new lines which will be arriving over the next few months:
* Baekgaard leather purse accessories in bright colors.
* Scentier Parfum Fragrance Lampes and Oils
* Lastly, we are expanding our Caswell-Massey lines due to your comments and strong interest to include: Men’s Verbena & Tricorn, Ladies: Almond & Aloe, English Lavender.

I also visited the Enchanted Meadow showroom and will be ordering a few of their new lines as well. So, it was a busy market and we expect Spring to be very busy at Freshbet. As always, if you have comments or suggestions, please email Bet.

This past July while attending the Gift Show, I had a chance to meet Rebecca; who is the co-owner of Sonoma Lavender. She told me that heat wraps and spa booties were some of her most popular items. I had seen them in their catalog before, but wasn’t sure about offering them.

Well, I came home and thought about it for awhile and decided we should give it a go. So, we now have quite a bit of new Sonoma items for your spa at home personal time this winter. Sonoma also introduced their new scent: Sonoma Spice - absolutely fabulous dahling!

We have always offered the Sonoma Lavender because Lavender is such a personal favorite of mine. The Sonoma Eucalyptus was their 2nd scent they released a few years ago and it has definitely been picking up in popularity. Many companies just don’t offer Eucalyptus and the Sonoma is all natural…win-win!

Now their new Spice is beautifully presented in rust and purple colors with some of my personal faves: cinnamon, cloves, lemon and rosemary. (I just adore Rosemary!).

Kayce and I have been busy adding all the new Spa Plush heat wraps, neck pillows, spa booties and sachets-by-the-yard to the website for the past week. All of these plush spa beauties are made from rich fabrics that just make you want to run your hand across them and savor the softness of their touch. Beautiful colors in elegant greens, Vibrant Purple & Rust and of course soothing lavender colors in various embroidered or dot patterns.

My mother Norah, used a neck pillow as she got older to help naturally relieve neck aches. She would pop it in the microwave briefly and then lay in her lounger with her neck pillow late in the afternoon. This sage green color was Norah’s favorite!

Personally I love the Purple and Rust colors. Winter will soon be here; so grab a pair of these fabulous spa booties to warm up cold and aching feet:

Last, but not least, consider these fun heated pets for your inner child:

We have Lou the Lavender Teddy Bear, Spunky the Spice Monkey, Lulu the Lavender Poodle, Lil the Lavender Bunny and Lovey the Lavender Lamb. These fun heated pets look great and they are functional aromatherapy when heated in the microwave to release their fragrant blends.

Below is an excerpt from the TC Fragrance Focus Newsletter written by Jen Hart in Nov 2007:
********
When smelling too many intense scents, the sense of smell can become saturated, making it hard to discern the difference between fragrances. Sniffing the scent of coffee beans can actually clear your nasal passages, in the same way that sorbet is served to cleanse the palate between courses in a restaurant. It is sort of like a reset button for your nose.
**********
We have just added several coffee bean shakers in the Fresh Bet Retail Store for this very reason!

We had a Rebate Program in 2006 that was so well received, I thought we should repeat it again for 2008! The basics are the same. The result is essentially a 10% rebate for our loyal customers who choose to make Fresh Bet their home fragrance retailer of choice.

Here’s how it works:

* You will receive a postcard with your next shipment that explains the program on the front of the card.
* On the back of the card you simply record each purchase by Sale # and dollar amount.
* When you reach the desired level, simply mail it to us and we will mail or email you a rebate coupon. Simple enough!
* The program will end in the 4th quarter of 2008, so be sure to mail your postcards back to us by November 2008.

Now you can accumulate your purchases with Fresh Bet Home Fragrances over the next 6-12 months and use your Rebate Coupon towards FREE Stuff!

Here are the rebate levels:

* $200.00 - $249.99 - $20.00 off Coupon
* $250.00 - $349.99 - $25.00 off Coupon
* $350.00 - $449.99 - $35.00 off Coupon
* $450.00 - $549.99 - $45.00 off Coupon
* $550.00 or more - $55.00 off Coupon

So keep an eye out for the lavender Rebate Postcard in your next order! As always, thanks for shopping with Freshbet.com.

Bet

Every so often, we get a chance to grab up some great-value Vitabath gift sets. These have just arrived and they are already selling like hot-cakes. Available in:

* Plus Pink, Original Spring Green & Blue Spa Therapy*

The 21 oz Value Set includes one 21 oz Gelee and 20 oz Lotion. These are a $48.00 value and while supplies last, they are available for $28.00 in a handy reusable tote with bubble-enhancing pouf.



Click here for Vitabath Gift Sets.

Terra Nova Perfume Essences are highly concentrated and oh so portable. They just released two new perfume trio gift sets in roll-ons that will make great stocking stuffers. These little roll-on perfumes are perfect to carry in your purse for quick dabs of scent when going out.

Now available:

* Island Escapes Collection: Pikake, White Ginger, and Tuberose.
* Terra Nova Signatures Collection: Shea Blossom, Sakura & Green Tea, and Rain.

Each set is only $25.00 and will give some lucky lady lots of enjoyment.

Click here for Terra Nova Perfume Essences.

Personally I love the Terra Nova body care line! I use the lotion every night and the perfume essence is perfect for travel. We recently had some customers request more body care for dry skin. Shea Butter is one of the best known moisturizers with great healing benefits and Terra Nova uses plenty of Shea Butter in their products.

We have just added two new scent groups of Terra Nova to our website:
* Sakura & Green Tea Lotion and Bodywash
* Shea Butter Lotion, Bodywash and new “Tresses to Toes” Moisture Remedy Cream.

Terra Nova is all natural and mostly organic. Click here for Terra Nova.

We now have these very cool scrunchy shirts on the website with more on the way. We are offering various colors in 4 styles:

* Cap Sleeve Shirt
* Tank Top
* Cardigan
* Long Sleeve Shirt

These come in 2 styles called Original or Designer. The Original has more of a pointed appearance, where the Designer is more of a round or circular puffed out look.

These shirts are super stretchy and machine washable. Just throw them in the washer, then hang to dry. Perfect for suitcase travel, they take little space, require no ironing and fit most everyone.

The price on these is very reasonable so you can mix and match or layer them. Stay tuned as we will have more of these on our website next week when our next shipment arrives.

Click here to see these great fun tops!

About a month ago, we decided to try the new Finders KeyPurse key hooks. These are clever little hooks that hang over the top of a womans purse to keep keys from getting lost in the bottom. There are lots of cute styles available and the girls just love them.

We just received 3 new styles for the upcoming Winter Holiday season:

* Glitter Snowman
* Joy Heart
* Silver Snowflake

These are in limited supply as the Factory only produces a small amount.

So…if you know a lady who constantly loses her keys in her purse and has to fish around for them all the time; be kind and get her a Finders KeyPurse Key Hook today. At only $6.75 each these doo-dads are a lifesaver!

Click here for Finders KeyPurse.