It's Been Emotional: Our Biggest Achievements of 2021

To say it's been a busy year is a bit of an understatement. We hadn't even realised that actually this year has been huge for not only Fosse but everyone on the team! 

After receiving an email from the big boss, Amy Wag, she reminded us that we've acheived a hell of a lot this past year and that is something to be shared and celebrated. We were thinking of ways we could round of this year and this was the perfect way.

So grab a glass of wine, or gin or cup of tea and let me take you on a journey, a journey of us and our 2021...

FEBRUARY: Hired the Alice's...

Back at the very start of the year, why does that feel like yesterday?, 2 Alice's (one of them myself, who writes all this stuff for you) entered the Fosse Living family. 

"I had just come of the back of being furloughed from a job I actually loved and then because of that I moved onto a job I loved a lot less, we've all been there. Desperate to get out of my current situation I started endlessy scrolling on Indeed, until I saw an interesing ad that caught my eye: ''Operations Assistant" wanted "Work can be repetitive". I had worked in a kiwifruit factory so that aspect didn't even phase me. Straight away I applied, I thought why not? What have I got to lose? Forgetting about it completely I was then called to an interview where I met a very pregnant Amy and an very small Lois. You know when you just know that a role was made for you? Yeah, that happened. Match made in heaven. 

Here I am, nearly a year later, with four new best friends that I never knew I needed, with a career in front of me, making luxury wax melts that smell amazing (perfume? who needs perfume when you work in home fragrance!) and creating/writing creative content for a business that is bursting with passion and love. (sobbing)." I knew my degree would come in handy at some point! - Alice U 

Alice U's first day ^

MARCH: Relauched Candles...

COVID-19. Ugh. I wanted to refrain as much as possible from bringing up this up! Because no. But anyway, it was the catalyst to us redesigning and reformulating our candle range, due to all sorts of stressful supplier issues (thanks Covid hun x). It gave us that little push that we needed to improve our candles and now we have a luxury, beautiful range of candles with a very elegant (if I do say so myself) glass and bamboo design that we're all in love with.

APRIL: Welcome to the world...

On April 2nd this year, Liam and Amy welcomed a baby Girl into the world, and into the Fosse Living family. We were all waiting with anticipation in the office, placing bets as to when we think she'd be here! Little Francesca Louise was 6lb 11oz and made quite an entrance being born at home with all the neighbors outside listening to her arrival!

She has meant a few things have been put on hold this year in terms of new products, but what could be more worth it? She's adorably cute and her favourite things involve watching her two older fur-brothers fighting, boobie milk, walks in the park and lots and lots of playtime! 

MAY: Social Media Excitement...

Things were going pretty well for us by this point and we were so overwhelmed by the love and support so we wanted to give something back to you. We definetly felt like it was something we needed to do, this meant GIVEAWAY time! With 388 likes and over 600 comments (still shook) it was what tipped us over the edge to 1,000 followers.

I remember watching it increase each day and someone would always be messaging our work group chat whenever we gained a follower. It felt like such a great moment when we finally got there and we have all you wonderful people to thank...

3...2...1 AND LAUNCH!

June, July, August and September were all about new products and scents...

JUNE: Our brand new electric diffuser range kicked off the summer, lauching for armothreaphy week. Adding a little bit of spice to our website, electric diffusers gave us a perfect pairing with our essential oils and have become such a staple product!

 JULY: The invansion of the bee burners! Well, these guys blew us away by flying (pun intented) off the shelves, before we knew we were phoning Amy asking to get more in as we'd completely sold out. These beautiful burners are one of our best sellers, they really are the perfect addition to any bee lovers home, especially in the summer months! 

AUGUST: The biggest and most exciting lauch was our brand new 5 core scents that were added to our luxury wax melt collection. After months and months of testing, I have drawers FULL of samples that didn't quite make the cut this time, we finally had our 5 newbies. We couldn't imagine our wax melt range without them now and we are very much looking forward to continuing to expand our scents in 2022 so watch this space... 

SEPTEMBER: Tealights! An exciting addition to our product range that kind of just came from nowhere...I had taken some annual leave and when I came back a few days later, there they were! It seemed like the next obvious step for us and they are such a beautiful addition to our website. They are the perfect match with our burners and wax melts, creating a cheeky little starter pack. 

 

OCTOBER: Our New Home...

As we grew our product range, it became very clear, very fast that we needed more space. We were getting very cramped in our tiny unit, wax was being spilt over people (Lois I'm looking at you), shelf space had gone and trip hazards were a common feature and with 3 of the clusmiest people in Warwickshire working here something had to be done.

It was time to take the plunge and move to a much bigger place! It was terrifying, but a very welcomed move. After the move been put back a couple of times (moving is such a nightmare!) it felt like we wouldn't be in the new place until after Christmas...then all of a sudden we sat down, had a meeting and put a plan in place and we were moving that very weekend.

Arriving in the new unit on the Monday after the weekend Liam had moved all the heavy duty stuff in was pretty choatic! Stuff everywhere. We couldn't believe that we'd actually managed to fully function in such a small unit for such a long amount of time. Blew us away!

Then it began, the fun but slighty daunting task of putting everything in place in our new home! 2 months later and it feels like we've always been here, this place is bursting with opportunity and we can't wait to see what the future brings with this unit. 

There is no way we would have been able to make such a big move without you guys, for that we are so so so thankful.

NOVEMBER: How many orders?! 

November hit and we were all like, what? How..how did that happen? All of us a little bit shooketh. Black Friday was looming and Christmas was also waiting in the wings, we were nervous but super excited. To say it exceeded expectations, again another understatment of the century.

Order after order meant that we had one of biggest months for sales which honestly took us all by surprise, we were just were not expecting it! I'd be lying if we didn't think it would go well, but damn. AGAIN, you guys! You made this happen, we love ya for it. 

 Liquid lunch for the OG's on Black Friday^

DECEMBER: The month of complete and utter 'realisation'.

In all honesty it hadn't quite hit me that this year was even ending until Amy Wag sat me down and was like "I want you write a blog about all we've achieved this year please". "Oh yeah, we've actually done a lot" we turned and said to each other as we were planning this. 

We realised we've learnt so SO many lessons this year and that the 6 of us are honestly, the best team! No matter what is thrown at us, as long as we stick together, we got this. 

The realisation hit that we are: "One of the biggest eco-friendly wax melt businesses in the UK" because of every single one of you who placed an order, who like an instagram post, who shared a story, who entered one of our giveways. There are truly no words to describe how much is means to us.

We are going to go and have the best Christmas with lots of drinking and eating involved to celebrate all our achivements, we invite you to do the same! We hope you have the loveliest Christmas and the happiest New Year and we'll see you in 2022 for more launches, laughs and love. (why does that give me live, laugh, love vibes x). 

^Our Christmas Meal filled with a lot of laughs, food and cocktails (our other Amy was sadly too poorly to come!)