Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I always look forward to sitting around the table that my father built for our family many years ago. It's kind of a funny thing that table. The table was actually built inside the family room, it was made to fit our large family of 8 children, spouses and my parents.

My sister purchased our family homestead a couple years ago . She realized soon after that the table had to stay whether she liked it or not. One, because she planned on hosting Thanksgiving to keep our family tradition going, so she needed the table, and two because she would have to dismantle the table if she wanted to get it out.

Even though our family has grown even larger in the last few years, we all still try to squeeze around that table to keep our family tradition going.

Thanksgiving is when you really stop and think about all the things that you have to be grateful for. I have many things to be grateful for and my large family is one of those things.

This year, start a tradition of your own if you don't have one already.

Shari

This year has really flown by. I can't believe that Christmas is only 76 days away from today. I really hoped to be in better shape with my Christmas shopping by now, but I'm not.

We are hoping to make your life easier with your shopping list this year. We are offering a variety of great gift ideas, plus we offer free shipping which can really help out during the holiday season. Check out each one of our newsletters for special offers on baskets that make great gifts.

Thank you to everyone who visited us last weekend during our annual tent sale, it was a lot of fun seeing familiar faces. We were blessed with beautiful weather this time, what a surprise that was.

If your visiting the Peterborough area, stop in and say hi. The foliage is pretty right now and it is still warm up here in NH, so it's a good time to take a ride up to the monadnock region. If you make the trek up here soon, plan on climbing Mount Monadnock, the most climbed mountain in the country, it's right in our backyard.

Enjoy the rest of your autumn season, I sure plan to.

Shari

 

 

Time flies...... stop for a moment and enjoy the things around you. The fresh air your breathing, the blue sky, the colors of the trees changing, the smell of Autumn, all of these things we sometimes take for granted.

This year is passing us by so quickly and I want to soak in every moment of Fall this year and be so prepared for Christmas that it will amaze everyone. That is my goal and I really hope to stick to it.

Now that I am back from QVC, which I might add, was a great time. I got to spend time with my sister who lives in VA, she came down to QVC to help me get things ready for the shows. We had beautiful weather in PA and I had David and Patty to work with, how great is that! Lastly about my trip, I have to add that everyone at QVC was so kind to me. Everyone who helped, from getting my microphones on, to the studio salon girls who make me feel like a million bucks, to the behind the scenes crew who get the product out to the set for us. Thank you to everyone for helping make our shows so successful.

I have already started to decorate for the Fall season in my home. With of our baskets being so versatile, you can use many of the ones you already have to decorate for all four seasons. Just add a Chrysanthemum or some gourds and pumpkins for Fall, add a Poinsettia, some red berries or freshly clipped greens for Christmas. For the Spring and Summer months take those same baskets and add seashells, spring flowers or some pretty antique linens and flower petals.

There are so many things you can do to get into the spirit of the season. I visited a local farm stand recently and purchased some gorgeous fresh cut flowers and just put them inside our pencil caddy basket in the center of the table. The basket comes with a plastic protector, so it holds water. It just adds cheerfulness to you home as well as a traditional country feel with the basket.

Get outside and enjoy the rest of the nice weather, before you know it, it will be too cold to go out at all!

Shari

 

 

Can you believe it, it's almost Fall again. I feel like this was the shortest summer ever!

September is our anniversary month with QVC, it's hard to believe we have been selling our baskets on the QVC Shopping channel since 1993. I started here in 1995 as temporary help to work on orders that were shipping out to QVC. I am still here 12 years later, so I must have done something good.

September 4th, 2007 we celebrate our 14th anniversary on QVC and we are very excited about it. Our show kicks off at midnight and we have two other shows that day, Noon to 1PM and 8-9PM. We have many new baskets to offer as well as lots of customer favorites. There will be a couple signed baskets for those who collect the Walter Hood signature baskets.

For those of you wondering when our annual fall sale will be held at the factory here in Peterborough, stay tuned. The date has not yet been set because we have been sooooo busy getting ready for our QVC show. We will keep you posted on the date as soon as we have a chance to catch our breath. We will be sure to post the dates on the home page of the site as soon as we set them.

Even though the summer is almost over, there are things that I look forward to in the Fall season. I love, love, love the apple picking season! There is nothing like picking a sun ripened apple from the tree, wiping it off on your jeans, and biting into it.

If you enjoy apple picking also, I encourage you to bring your own Peterboro Basket for gathering your apples.  It just looks so much better on your kitchen counter or table in a Peterboro Basket, and the bags that they give out in most places are plastic. I like to help reduce the use of things that are not biodegradable. Our baskets are great for picking any kind of berries, vegetables, fruits and wonderful if you shop at your local farmer's markets.

Shari

 

July 4th has come and gone and what a day we had. Our big day on QVC went so well, we couldn't have asked for a better show. Walter and I made it back home safely and we were pleased with how things went.

The month of July is always busy for me, but last week was like a whirlwind. It was my week of vacation and I feel like I didn't stop for one minute to take a breath. Although it was a busy, I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my siblings as I always do.

We really took advantage of the beautiful weather we had, we spent a lot of time outside cooking out and going to the beach. I did overdo it in the sun, but that did not stop me. One of my sisters brought her NH Drum Cooler to the beach twice and both times people stopped her to ask her where it came from. She is a great representative for our company, she's like "oh you can order this on www.peterborobasket.com", "It's free shipping and this cooler holds ice for several days". Even though it's a huge basket for her to carry, she insists on using it and dragging it along.

Our family holds a golf tournament every year to raise money for my niece who has Muscular Dystrophy. This was another successful year and we had lots of fun. Peterboro Basket Company donated several baskets for our raffle,  people were practically wrestling each other for them, including my sisters!

Summer always feels like it's so short, especially when you see Fall stuff in the stores right after the Fourth of July. We still have quite a bit of summer left, so get outside and enjoy it while it lasts. God knows we deserve good weather with the Winters we get up here in the country. I can't image how people who live in places like Alaska do it.

Enjoy the balance of the Summer!

Shari

 

It's almost here and everyone seems to being gearing up for the big celebration. This morning I stopped for a coffee and I saw lots of people getting the vehicles fueled up. The week of the 4th is a big vacation week for many. When I was little we used to spend a week at the beach every summer and watch the fireworks on the evening of the 4th, great memories.

If you are traveling to Peterborough on your vacation, be sure to by our factory outlet store and think about picking up one of our baskets coolers. You won't be disappointed that you did. These coolers are so durable and keep things chilled for a long time. They are great for taking to the beach because you don't have to worry about them getting sandy, you just shake it out.

For those of you that cannot visit us here at the factory, don't forget to tune into QVC on July 4th from 2-3AM and 1-3 PM. Walter and I are "on the road again".

Have a safe and happy 4th and a super vacation!

Shari

Can you believe it, the fourth of July is almost here. It's so funny, we wait all Spring long for the big day and it's all over so quickly. All we can do at this point is hope for really great weather.

Our factory is shut down the first week of July every year. We close for maintenance of our boiler, which is what produces the steam to make our baskets. This needs to be completely free of hot ashes so that someone can get inside and give it a good cleaning. We also use this time to give our employees a week of vacation time.

We will not be shipping any website orders during this week, they will not be processed for shipping until we return. So, any orders received from June 30th through July 8th, won't actually get processed until we return on July 9th. Please keep this in mind if you place any orders during this time. We always try our hardest to get the orders out as quickly as we can as soon as we return.

Again, our QVC show will be on July 4th from 2-3AM and 1-3PM EST. Be sure to tune in to catch Walter and I and see first hand our brand new basket styles that we produced just for this show. Walter will have a very special Limited Edition basket with his signature on it. Plus, we have an amazing, amazing patriotic flag basket that I am in love with. All exclusive to QVC, so you need to watch!

Our Factory Outlet Store is open during the week of our annual shut down vacation, so please don't hesitate to visit us if your off that week and in our neighborhood. The only day our store is closed is July 4th. If you want to give us a call for directions or our Outlet Store hours, call us at 603-371-9020.

Have a Fabulous vacation whatever you do, and may it be a safe and happy one!

Shari

This is the time of year when you can really start to enjoy the great outdoors. The sun is shining and it's good to be outside. If you enjoy being at the water, keep in mind that we have some of the greatest basket coolers to offer on our website. Our coolers have custom insulated foam inserts that are made of high density foam. These are so great for taking to the ocean, lake, golf outings, picnics, and more. These are also a much more unique wedding gift than your typical picnic basket.

I am just coming back from a week of vacation time, it was a nice week for getting things done around the house and I was able to spent some time with family as well. My brother just bought a new house, so I gave him one of our laundry hampers as a housewarming gift. As soon as I brought it in the house, everyone that was there was like "oh my goodness what a beautiful basket". It really is a nice basket and I enjoyed giving it as a gift.

Well back to work this week and time to start getting ready for our big day at QVC on July 4th. I always look forward to our shows on July 4th, we feel Peterboro Baskets and July 4th on QVC go hand in hand because we are a Made In America product.

We have lots of brand new items for this show, so be sure to tune in on Wednesday, July 4th from 2-3AM and 1-3PM EST.

In the meantime, enjoy the gorgeous weather!

Shari

Ooh la la it's hot outside! We hit high 90's the last couple days here in NH. I love it, I have been complaining about being cold since October of last year and couldn't wait to be warm again. Things are heating up here in the factory too, we use steam to make the baskets, so it gets pretty warm inside here during the summer months. We are already serving Gatorade to our employee's and it's only the end of May.

If your planning a trip to our factory outlet store this weekend, we just filled it up to the gils with lots of baskets. We also got in some awesome denim tote bags with the old man of the mountain embossed into the fabric. These make great beach bags for the summer. We also got some new t-shirts with our logo embossed into the fabric. These make great gifts for the Peterboro enthusiasts. Keep in mind that we will be closed on Monday May 28th, 2007 to celebrate the holiday.

Remember all of our troops, past and present, over this long holiday weekend. God Bless America!

Shari

I would like to thank everyone who made it out to our Spring Tent Sale. Despite the rainy weather we still held the sale, we just moved it inside. We saw lots of familiar faces, and enjoyed catching up with everyone.

Mary, who runs out factory outlet store and I are always amazed at how far people travel to come to our sales. We had two ladies visiting us again that come to our sales every year. All this time I thought they must live in Massachusetts or some place like that. Come to find out, one lives in PA and the other in MD. They drive up for each sale, one in the Fall and the other in the Spring. These girls are crazy about baskets and they give them away as gifts too. I also met another couple that happened to be up in ME on business and drove here for the sale. They are also from PA, and stopped here on their way home. I enjoyed chatting with them about my trips to QVC.

I would like to thank my two friends who stopped by to bring me gifts. It was also great to see them, and of course loved, loved, loved the gifts. Thank you girls!

I am now ready for a couple days off after a long 7 day work week. Time to do some gardening and spend some time with my 3 four legged children.

Shari