Sweets for Your Sweetie

Sweetest Day

The "Sweetest" of Gifts

Treat that special someone with a token of your affection on Saturday, October 15, otherwise known as "Sweetest Day." Sweetest Day was created by Herbert Birch Kingston in Cleveland in 1922 to bring happiness to the lives of orphans, shut-ins and others that were normally forgotten. Over the years, Sweetest Day has turned into a time to express love and to show appreciation to friends and family. Baskets by Bonnie has you covered with a nice variety of gifts for all your treasured relationships.

Book Reviews

Books for the Occasion Romantic Holidays tend to put relationships under a magnifying glass. The scrutiny can either push a romance to the next level or cause a breakup. A good book can help a friend navigate through the various stages of dating and can make a nice addition to a gift basket.  For the Romance that is heating up:    Are You made for Each Other?  By Barbara & Allan Pease about Are You Made for Each Other After more than thirty years of research into how relationships work and where they often go wrong, Allan and Barbara Pease devised this clever quiz book to help you determine how compatible you and your partner are.

To console a friend in the throes of a breakup: It's Called a Break Up Because It's Broken By Greg Behrendt & Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt about It's Called a Break Up... It's called a breakup because it's broken, and starting right here, right now, it's time to dry your tears, put down that pint of ice cream, log out of his e-mail, and open this book to Chapter One-and start turning your breakup into a breakover. For a friend who needs to move on but doesn't know how:     How to Dump a Guy   By Kate Fillion & Ellen Ladowsky about How to Dump a Guy Irreverent yet practical, supportive, knowing, and very, very funny, How to Dump a Guy is a wise, refreshing book about how to end relationships. It is a coward's manual that takes the reader's hand from the first sign that it's over to the aftershocks. There are the Dumping Do's and Don'ts.

The Value of FaceBook

After questioning the value of having a FaceBook page for Baskets by Bonnie, we finally took the plunge a few months ago.

The tipping point was when we were testing new cheeses for our shop. I was really excited about a few of the choices and posted a photo on my personal FaceBook account. I was amazed at the number of friends that were interested and had an epiphany.  FaceBook is perfect to post pictures and short updates that don't warrant a blog post or newsletter.

It was relatively simple to set up. What to post, how often and if our customers would  find this useful were some of my concerns. I was also worried about redundancy with our website and blog. We were reluctant to beg friends and customers to become "Fans" & "Like" us. However, we remained open-minded.

A little over a week ago, on a whim, I posted a quick photo of Matt wrapping a basket for a custom order.

After posting and "tweeting", we had a good laugh and forgot about it.

Yesterday while taking a phone order from a new customer, I asked how she had found us.

After the usual response of "I found you from the web", she added that she had looked at a couple of websites.

Aside from being impressed with our assortment, she was sold from our FaceBook page; specifically "Matt in Motion". The picture conveyed the idea that we made each basket to order and could customize.

I couldn't wait to tell my staff. After a few chuckles at Matt's expense, I had a shift in my attitude. A simple phone call had turned me from skeptic to advocate.

Status Update: I'm a "Born-Again FaceBook Fan"