Was just thinking that I should mention that we had several items actually go DOWN in price for 2010 – off the top of my head, they are:
Nitrile Touch Gloves (yes, our best-selling gloves!)
Copper Markers
Copper Tags
Green & Tan Plant Coasters
Super Soft Kneeling Pads

Life is good, eh?

Our 2010 catalog has been mailed, so everyone who’s on our list should have received it by now. Please let us know if you haven’t! We’re excited about all the new items, but most especially the OXO garden tool line. We’ll be heading to Atlanta for AmericasMart the first week of January – looking forward to seeing many of you there. We love the new location of the garden temps (Bldg. 2W, third floor, booth 722) – great lighting, and a big bonus of being able to see outside through those nice windows. In the meantime, have a terrific holiday season. All of us here wish all of you a Happy, Healthy, and Profitable New Year!

Over the years we’ve carried several garden totes, most of which we liked and thought were well done…and we’ve seen many more that we just didn’t think were useful enough to carry.  Much to our dismay, the vendor of nearly every tote we’ve tried has either stopped making them or gone out of business altogether.  Word around the office is that we have the proverbial ‘kiss of death’ when it comes to garden totes…once we decide to carry it, its days are numbered!

Since we’ve never really been THRILLED with any tote we’ve carried, this year we decided to stop looking and instead have concluded that we can make our OWN tote that will have all the features we want it to have and none of the features we think are useless.  We would LOVE your input on the matter and have crafted a survey for our current customers to complete…and all of you that take some of your precious time to do so will be entered into our drawing for a FREE pair of Joyce Chen Unlimited Scissors! 

You will need to fill in your name, your phone number AND your DBS account number in order to complete the survey and enter the drawing.  If you don’t have your account number, you can find it on any invoice.  If you still can’t find it, call us toll free 888-712-3239 and we’ll be happy to look it up for you.

Make  your voice heard…and help us create a GREAT new product!

CLICK HERE to take the survey.

I was surprisingly pleased with the new facility for the PANTS show in Oaks PA.  When I first saw the building, I thought “this is going to be awful!”.  But once the show was set up inside, it was great – good lighting, good traffic flow.  And best of all, there were attendees!  It was the best PANTS show we’ve had in several years.  Our new items were well-received by the buyers, so I came home happy.

The following week I went camping w/my family up at North Lake State Park in the Catskills – our first family camping trip in 15 years!  It was really fun spending 3 days w/Chuck and our three ‘kids’ Matt, Mike, & Liz (ages 32, 30 & 26) – we hiked, kayaked, and spent lots of time sitting in front of the campfire.  I found that sleeping in a tent is not quite as easy as it was when I was younger, but was grateful for the Thermarest mattress.  Take a look at the photo of us on Sunset Rock… a beautiful spot!

Oh boy, it’s that time of year again…no, it’s not Christmas yet (but darn it’s close, isn’t it?)…but it IS time for us to add our mid-year new items.  There will be more when we print the 2010 catalog in the fall, of course…and yes, we ARE going to have the catalog out in the FALL!

My favorite new item is…okay, actually, I have TWO favorites: the Flexible Flower Stripper and the Haws Handy Indoor Watering Can.  Great products, and they both come in a rainbow of colors.  I’m a sucker for bright, pretty colors…to me, they make a rudimentary ‘useful’ thing FUN to use.  There’s a purple Haws can here with my name on it, and I cannot WAIT to use it.  And I normally despise watering plants.  I’d imagine some of YOUR customers feel the same way, so these just can’t miss.  Plus, they were apparently all the rage last year in Europe (yikes, did I really just type that?) and will be a ‘must have’ here in the states this fall. 

The Flexible Flower Stripper is just the neatest gadjet…heck, if I’ve stripped 100 flowers in my life that’s a LOT, but I want one of these anyhow because if I DO need to strip something I want it to be with something comfy and colorful.

There are more, and you can find them HERE.  The Dramm tools won’t be in stock until September, but they come in bright colors too, just like the Dramm Scissors we already carry.  The Giant Knee Pad is fabulous too, in a funky floral print and it is truly GIANT.  Great for sitting!

We love adding new stuff to the line…we collect samples, drag them out into the middle of the office, then sit around having a tasty lunch while debating the merits of each one, as well as the end cost to the retail consumer.  Then we test them, and if they don’t pass they are put aside.  Sometimes we even have to put aside things we really love but don’t think will sell well enough for you.  I wonder how many companies actually take the time to do this kinda thing?  When you order from us, you can rest assured that we’ve TRIED the product and that we’ll stand behind it 100%.

Gosh I’m verbose today…hope your summer selling season is going super well, and if you have any questions about new stuff feel free to ask.  Enjoy!

Okay folks, finally I have bested what was starting to seem like my nemesis…the new version of www.dorothybiddle.com.  It’s  uploaded, tested, and it all seems to be working just fine.  The categories in the shopping cart portion now match the main site so it should be a much more user friendly experience.  I will be doing more work on the cart portion, and we’ll be adding new items very soon.  I hope you like it, and that it makes things easier.  Your thoughts are welcome! 

Last month I headed down to Atlanta to combine a little business and a little pleasure.  I spent a day walking the aisles at the Super Floral Show, which is mostly flowers, but I did find a couple of interesting items that we may be adding to our catalog.

Then I spent 5 days up at my brother’s lake house on Lake Burton in northern Georgia.  Wow… there is nothing more relaxing than sitting atop a boat house, jumping in the lake when it gets too warm, drying off while reading a good book, and then dropping off to sleep.  When I’d wake up it’d be time to hit the water again.  I earned my keep by doing some weeding & clean-up chores.

Then it was back to Atlanta to the National Lawn & Garden Show, which is the show with an appointment format… kind of like speed dating for products.  I had a full day Thursday of 42 appts., and am now sorting through all the information and trying to come up with a great selection of new items.  We hope to have some of these items in stock soon… I’ll blog about them as they’re available.

Just a note to let you all know that I’m working on reorganizing the shopping cart categories, so if you see double you are NOT imagining it.  Hoping to be done with it today, and thanks for your patience whilst I work on it. 

 And, by the way, the new version of the website is DONE and I’ll be uploading it once I’m done with the shopping cart updating.  YIPPIE!!!!

Really, and this time I MEAN it!  I’m on the very final stages of getting the new and vastly improved (well, I think it is and I sure hope YOU do too!) version of www.dorothybiddle.com up and running.  It should be ready and uploaded with in the next few weeks, just in time to showcase the new items we’ll be adding. 

I posted back in September 2008 about the project, and thought I’d have it done in a month.  I actually said ‘I’m hoping to have all the website revisions done by then [October], too.  In case I don’t (goodness knows things always take longer than ya think, don’t they?)’.  It took longer.  Much longer.  I wound up completely redoing some other web work here that needed attention in time for the holidays, and then, it was spring and you were all kind enough to send us order after order.  THANK YOU!

This month was the first ’spare’ time I’ve had to really focus on the redo, and I am just tickled pink that it’s almost ready for you to see.  It is by far the most complicated project I’ve ever taken on, and every single item will now have its very own page with extra photos and details…we hope to add some video too, at some point.

Another thanks for your patience with the old site…things are there that are no longer available, and I apologize for not updating comprehensively and regularly while working on the new version of the site. 

I’m off to hyperlink land again now…hope you’ve had a GREAT spring season!

Best,

Amy

We always promote our items as great gifts for Mother’s Day…and this year it occurred to us…what about DAD?  There are plenty of men out there who garden…heck, our owner Lynne’s husband has one of the greenest thumbs we’ve ever seen.  He’s a dad, and the kids and Lynne invariably gift him with something garden related at this time of year.  So we thought we’d share what we think are items that would be PERFECT for the gardening dad on anyone’s list!

• 894A05 Garden Kneeler Seat…ideal for anyone with knee or back issues.
• 442B06 Felco #2 Pruner…it’s classic, it’s Swiss, and sized for the fellas.
• 421B06 Felco Pruning Saw…this will cut darn near anything!
• 650A12 Cobra Head Weeder…Lynne’s husband loves this tool.
• 849A06 Hori Hori Digging Tool…use for cutting, scraping, digging and more. 
• 605A12 Bucket Bagger Plus…fits on a 5 gallon pail, which we’ve noticed lots of men schelp around in the garden anyhow.  This way he can bring stuff with him and not carry a ‘tote’.
• 855A05 Bos Bag…for weeds and garden rubbish, and anything else that needs carrying.
• 617A12 Bug Baffler Headnet…it even fits over a hat and will keep the nasty bugs at bay.
• 729B12 Bionic Gardening Gloves for Men…amazing gloves that he won’t be embarrassed to wear.

There you have it…lots of choices to offer your customers that will make the Gardening Guys delighted when they open that gift on Father’s Day.  Because in all seriousness…does he really need another mug that says ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ or (oh the horror!) ANOTHER TIE?!?