A Letter of Gratitude from our Founder

Thanksgiving is more than a time of year. It’s an action of gratitude, appreciation and reflection. We each give thanks on the day when we gather around the table with ones that mean the most to us. We fill up with our favorite comfort foods and take a few days off of work, and kick off the busy holiday season with shopping, cooler temperatures (if we are lucky enough here in the South) and yes, those catchy jingles.

As the owner of a couple of businesses, it’s hard to take the time to just relax. To just be. There’s always one more thing - or 100 or more - to do. To keep things balanced, I do turn to essential oils, long baths, yoga and walks with my husband and sweet pup Hercules. Surrounding myself with positive friends and enjoying the people I work with help to keep things cool day to day too. And my customers and clients are typically (we can’t have it all, can we?!) a great fit and keep me motivated and feeling thankful they chose to work with us. I remind myself when things get tough, stressful or my path must redirect, just how fortunate I am. Every. Single. Day.

When things are going good, sometimes it’s hard to appreciate and give gratitude when it all just seems so normal. Things get busy and gratitude might not be poured out as much as it should. We are busy people. I believe it’s always our intent that “we’ll get to it soon.” And sometimes, we don’t notice how good things are, until they aren’t.

I wanted to take a moment and reflect, and give thanks - total Thanksgiving - for all those actions and moments over the past year that I may have not given enough attention to. To give thanks to those who helped me and my entire team, to those I should have written a thank you letter to, or treated with a hostess gift and ‘forgot’. Seriously, I will be the first to admit that even I, with a gift shop under my office (yes, right below!), sometimes forget the much deserved host / hostess gift! Wow. That is embarrassing, but I’m keeping it real folks.

Let’s start with the kick off of 2018…

Teresa Earnest Photography and Clark Creative worked together for a full, day-long photoshoot to take photos for all the upcoming holidays of 2018, including all the gorgeous shots you’ll see for our Christmas promotions. We covered all the holidays and took some pretty shots that could be used year-long including a series for our wholesale customers at Forest and Fin.

In January we launched a new product line - all natural powdered Bubble Bath. We had been asked for this for the past few years and we were finally able to deliver. It took a lot of moving parts - manufacturing, packaging design, testing, and we even launched a few new fragrances from Lebermuth.

We visited NY NOW market, and were grateful to make a few new connections, and learned a lot about pallet shipping and freight services. A big shout out to Jelinek Cork who helped us get there. They allowed us purchase a shipping pallet from them, borrow big plastic wrap rolls and harass them for a few weeks with the 100 questions we had during the process. We were sharing their manufacturing warehouse space with them until we moved later in the year. More on that later…

We participated in a Pop Up at West Elm Savannah (Dying! Our products looked so good there and it was all so well received! Thanks to all who shopped with us and made us feel loved). Lucky’s Market had us in for demo day. I must say - these are two national brand companies that really get it! They do all they can to promote local businesses. The Pop-Up Shop at Trustees’ Garden was another great event thanks to Roz Morris and Abbie Hastings. These gals sure know how to pull together a great party - and curate some wonderful creative goodies for show. The Spa at the Ford Plantation invited us down for a member’s “homecoming” event - and if you’re like us, you know we’ll never turn down a day at the spa!

The press kicked into high gear thanks for Gift and Decorative Accessories Magazine. They featured our Bubble Bath that we unveiled at Surf Expo in January in their bath and body feature, Get Soaked. Shortly after, national publication Brand Experience Magazine selected our point-of-purchase display of coastal inspired Effervescent Salt Soaks in their featured packaging section for innovation of materials and assembly. We are grateful for that POP of attention.

We started working with the fabulous skin care gurus at Polished and launched a custom foaming body polish and salt soak, both private labeled for sale in their Vero Beach and Savannah locations, plus two shower steamer fragrances. We truly appreciate them choosing to work with our small business and allowing us to shine next to them on the night of their 1 year anniversary as we raised funds for the United Way of the Coastal Empire at Service Brewing!

The dreams became a reality for our salt studio, maker space and gift shop on West Hall Street over the summer. My husband drew up the plans and Brooks Construction made the “big stuff” happen quicker than the tides shift. Friends and family visited at least 3 times from out of town to help convert the rugged first floor apartment into an open space where historic brick walls and heart pine floors become the foundation of what feels like a coastal cottage on the edge of Savannah’s historic district. They made the process fun and go by so much more quickly than if we had to tackle this on nights and weekends. I am eternally grateful for the blood, sweat and (maybe) tears they poured into the project.

Shop SCAD welcomed us into their beautiful alumni-only gift shop this summer. I can’t express how proud I was when that vision became a reality. They are true curators of some of the best goods SCAD grads have to offer. Wow wow wow! Truly, where would I be without that school?

We welcomed 6 years of business in August. Where has the time gone? We celebrated with a brand new website thanks to one of the most amazing, talented women in my life, Allison Worley. She’s the senior designer at Clark Creative and pours her all into our businesses.

This season, I give thanks to all those businesses who support us, their customers who buy from them, those who choose quality over quantity, those loyal brand enthusiasts (like you!) and all those who keep us inspired to keep making products that you are proud to gift, enjoy receiving and make you feel good. I thank my friends who support me, my husband who keeps me living the dream, my employee Morgan who truly does it all, and all our vendors who make the production of our goods possible. The farmers, the ‘chemists’, the packaging companies, the soap makers and candlestick makers. Okay, that’s a stretch. But, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!

We look forward to the upcoming shows (Henny Penny, Craft Scout Market, A Gracious Christmas) - and hope to see you at those - and in our shop. Keep an eye out for our products in the holiday gift box by Suthin Girl too. I am just so excited to share our best sellers with women who love "food, fashion and finer things from around the South!" I met Ashley, "Suthin Girl" herself through instagram and when we spotted each other in person, it was a match made in Savannah (she was born and raised here).

For those of you who have made it through the end of this post, well, thank you for more than one reason. Please swing by our shop and pick up your free Small Salt Soak (available for a limited time in our original blue bottle!) as a gesture of thanks!

Naturally,

Cari Phelps
CEO and Salt Shaker, Salacia Salts