I always do this!

My title is so true. Every year I tell myself that I will blog my way through the chocolate making process. Then this funny little thing happens. I start. Suddenly I'm up early and in bed late, sometimes the two mesh together, all in an effort to reach that special golden number. What is the golden number? Well it's the weight of all produced chocolates for the year and every year since beginning this crazy process, the golden number has gone up.
   The chase this year became more difficult. Past years I've had to work pretty hard to get my chocolates all sold. This year, I set a higher goal of 80lbs of chocolate sold and 100 lbs made. That's 20 lbs more than last year. What I didn't anticipate was the amazing and supportive response I had this year. After sending out an email to pretty much everyone in my contacts and posting a few pictures and details on facebook, I sold the 80 lbs in a week. One week exactly. What?! That's crazy bananas! I was so excited about the response I recieved.
 Okay folks, it was supply time. And that is both a fun and frustrating process. My Aunt dips every year in Utah, and has a list of suppliers she uses in the West. I had a major problem though. The shipping from Utah or Calorado, or California was going to kill my budget. I hate increasing prices, and I'm at a point where Its probably not going to be feasible for next year if chocolate prices continue to rise. This year however I vowed to look harder at solutions so that prices would remain the same. At least for one more year.
   In 1999 I was hired by IBM for a couple months to search particular websites and verify that they had a Y2K patch available. It was what I considered a serious waste of time, but it paid my 19 year old self really well. I became pretty good at finding hidden things in the Internet...and no people not the dirty kind...gross.   I first found a box company out of Cleveland that made their own box, and shipped for very little. Then I reached out to a candy supplier in Cincinnati that produced pads, candy cups, stickers, and flavorings, some at almost half the price of what I was previously getting. After hours of searching and price comparing, I learned something, candy supply companies need to improve their online shopping experiences. Blah, I'm glad that part is over.
      Meanwhile, the emails and messages kept trickling in. People wanted candy! My 80 lb limit became subjective as I sarted selling off just a lb here and there. And with my continual caving to pressure I started to panic.... Could I make all this? Is it possible to fill all of these orders? And worst of all, what if I can't do it? There is only one way to find out. And so the process begins. Day one.