What a weekend!

So it's been a long one. We have been cooking and wrapping none stop since Saturday. We have had to, with much sadness, stop selling individually wrapped caramels until we get caught up. It's gonna be a bit too. We received over 100 orders this weekend on Etsy, Foodzie, and the Brick & Mortar world. It's a quite a change from last year. We were busy but no where near this magnitude. It's gonna be a great holiday season and I am so excited that so many people love our confections so much that they are sending our treats as gifts, or are featuring them as a holiday treat. Now I know that I featured this photo before but we sold over 40 orders of these this weekend alone. Just a note, we will stop taking holiday orders on the 30th of November. This is tenative but it looks like this will be the last day for Christmas orders. For New Years orders we'll be able to take orders until the 15th of December I think.

Thank you so much to everyone who has made and continues to make Have It Sweet a great success.

Come on in to Have It Sweet???

Yes, I said it. Have It Sweet will be in it's own storefront(ish)/kitchen in one year. I am doing a happy dance. I love getting up to amazing news. You know what that means? No more schlupping our stuff to and from our rented shared kitchen. No more cleaning the stove because the chef's before us left a mess. No more cleaning someone else's kitchen. Now we get to clean our own. Words can't describe the happiness.

Thanks to everyone who has supported and continues to support Have It Sweet. It's your support that helped us show a demand for an awesome product line. One that can now grow and grow.

Have a sweet day!
b

Holiday Gift Guide...Have It Style. Featuring My November and "Honey"

I know I said this was my selfish blog but I just can't do it. I'm not that kind of girl. I am the kind of girl who loves giving. So I am going to do my own gift guide. The choices will come not just from Etsy, but from Foodzie, and 1000 Markets. Come on folks, Etsy is great but there are plenty of other places to shop handmade. You know it's true.


Do you want to nominate someone? Please do. I need more suggestions for gift giving. I have no time to bake this year so I actually have to buy gifts. Which is great, I am excited about an all handmade holiday.

So check out Have It Sweet's blog everyday for a new and special holiday gift. You can trust me, I'm sweet. ;0)



Honey by My November
This is my first pick for holiday gifts this year. I just received this in the mail and it is gorgeous online but wait til' you see it for yourself. I have "known" Melissa for a while now but I had no idea she was a photographer. Boy is she ever. I would love to receive a few more of her pieces for holiday gifts. They perfectly affordable, come well packaged, and believe me they look great on your wall.

Featured Item Of The Day....

Tah Dah! Apple Pie Marshmallows. If ever there were a perfect time of year for these, this would be it. I make the apple butter from a recipe I created one year after way too much apple picking in Santa Cruz, CA. I had over twenty pounds of apples and once I started making this apple butter everyone I knew was begging for more. So I kept making it. Well we love creativity at Have It Sweet so I decided Apple Pie Marshies would be perfect for the holidays.

They are divine. They come ready wrapped for gift giving. But you can keep them all for yourself if you like. I put them in hot cocoa yesterday, cookie crumbs and all, and I have to say, brava.

Have a sweet day!

B @ Have It Sweet

A Have It Sweet Giveaway? No way!

Yes way. Now don't get too excited. No one gets anything for nothing and I am not one for setting precedent. However you don't have to do very much and then you may win one of three prizes. That's right there are three winners. The winners will be chosen by my awesome 5 year old. She is very excited. This drawing will take place two weeks from today. Your package will be shipped within five business days. (U.S. Residents only! APO's okay)

First Prize: One full order of Marshmallows (your choice)

Second Prize: 1/4 Pound of Cloud Nine Caramels

Third Prize: 1/4 Pound of Cinnamon Almond Nougat (uncut)

So what do you have to do to enjoy my delicious treats for nothing at all? I ask to very tiny things, go to any of my shops (Etsy, Foodzie, or 1000 Markets) and tell me what your favorite treat is and perhaps why. The follow my blog. If you want to pass it around to friends and family that would be great too. The more response I get from this giveaway will up the chances that I'll do another in the near future.

So everything is here for you, the links are to the right, so is the follower thingamajig.

As always have a sweet day!
B

Candy Cane Marshmallows

Oh yes, they're delightful. Have It Sweet presents Candy Cane Marshmallows. Our fabulous marshmallows with an all-natural red peppermint swirl. These have just the right amount of peppermint and vanilla. Perfect for holiday gift giving, hot cocoa, or for yourself. Have a happy holiday season from Have It Sweet.

Welcome to Have It Sweet!

Okay this is a not-so-secret club. Are you a Have It Sweet Fan? Well this is the place for you. Here you will find out all the latest news in Have It Sweet. New products, coupons, specials, catalogs, where we're featured, who's talking about us...anything Have It Sweet will be right here.

Below is a bit about us:
Welcome to Have It Sweet LLC. We are a small family run Confections Company based in Los Angeles, California. I really hate writing in the third person but I’m going to have to, bear with me. Vincent and Bethany are a husband and wife team who has been delighting the senses for over four years. Vincent is Pastry Chef and since he was a wee lad in South Africa he wanted to be a confectioner. So after years of working for in the computer industry he took a sabbatical and went to California School of Culinary Arts, a Le Cordon Bleu school in Pasadena, CA. He graduated top of his class and then went to work for Whole Foods Market in Glendale, CA as their cake decorator. After a year he was promoted to store demo chef. We moved around a bit, to Portland, OR and then to San Jose, CA but he stayed with Whole Foods Market. He acquired a huge wealth of organic, all natural knowledge and he took that knowledge and incorporated into each and every recipe.

Vincent created all of Have It Sweets recipes and although I’m sure Alton Brown could probably duplicate them, no one else can. Our recipes are under lock and key so when you order form Have It Sweet you are not only ordering a unique treat you are also getting the best all natural confections available. Whole Foods also instilled an eco friendly passion in both of us, which is why we’re a green company. All of our products are purchased from the same suppliers that supply Whole Foods Market with their products. All of our packaging and shipping material is recyclable and biodegradable. We also buy trees once a month to offset our electrical usage.

Okay, I think I can do this without the third person thing. I’m Beth(any). I really am not in love with Bethany so I go with Beth. I had aspirations to be a chef in High School and I pursued it with a small passion. I took a few courses at the San Francisco Culinary Academy but my passion for history pulled me to university. After I finished I decided I didn’t want to teach (I am a bit short on patience and too sarcastic to mold young lives) so it was back to the drawing board. I worked in restaurants for years. Willow Street Pizza, California Café, Market City Caffe (I know it’s wrong but that’s how they spell it), and last and least Chevy’s Fresh Mex. I have done everything from busgirl to assistant manager. Man the stories I have. I digress. It taught me everything I needed to know about running a food business. Then after the birth of our daughter I took a while off and when I returned to the work force I decided that restaurants were no longer for me and I went to Whole Foods Market as well.

Vincent and I decided to revisit Have It Sweet after a few years, it was originally a kids catering business in Oregon. It never really got off the ground but we both knew that with some tweaks it could be amazing. We had just moved back to LA from Northern California and Vincent lost his job, I had just returned to school to get another degree in Philosophy and Art History. I thought I may want to revisit teaching but history just didn't do it for me anymore. Have It Sweet was just a bit of hobby then. Well that hobby changed our lives and it went from three or four flavors to the rainbow of flavors we now feature.

We have learned much in that time. We’re still a small family owned business but we’re definitely make huge strides in the business world.

We are licensed and work from a licensed and commercial kitchen (Lic. #095605). We have comprehensive liability insurance. In addition to that we are licensed with the US Government and the state of California to run a food based business. Because it is illegal in every state to run a food based business from home we work from a licensed commercial kitchen that is inspected by the Los Angeles County Health Inspector monthly. We abide by all state and federal laws for owning a food based business. I just want to clarify, we are not homemade, we are a small artisan food business. Your confections never enter our home, or anyone elses. It goes from our commercial kitchen, where it is prepared and packaged, to our office where we label, then to the Post Office.

You are now have a M.A. in Have It Sweet . Congratulations!