In all of this bushfire disaster, I wanted to take a moment to thank all amazing Bliss customers. For your warm and compassionate messages. For your overwhelming support shown in shopping our online store! We had over 50 orders in a few days, and you keep rolling in more, thank you! As this keeps bliss going, keeps us personally going keeps us inspired to survive the crisis with your love of our brand. And for your understanding with delays in abnormal delivery times. My dearest friend Bec the Bliss manager My daughter Sky the Bliss marketing manager My mum Glenda the Bliss in-store manager Have been working non-stop to reply and contact all our online shoppers and getting your parcels of goodies sent off asap. Thank you! You have helped, you are making a difference. You are continuing to donate directly to those impacted by this horrific bushfire crisis. We have been silent on social media and our marketing while we dealt with the bushfire disaster but we will be getting back to normal hopefully Monday. Normally this time of year our small town is full to the brim with welcomed visitors and holidaymakers enjoying the beauty of our local areas beaches, lakes, countryside, cafes, restaurants and shops like ours. Their business we depend upon to survive the quiet months of winter. But we love the hustle and bustle, meeting new people creating new relationships. We spend months preparing for this busy period, interstate buying trips choosing and styling the right products, ordering and receiving truckloads of stock and hiring extra staff to cope with the demands. But this year the influx of tourists hasn't happened understandably, the main street is sombre and like a ghost town. We closed our storefront new years eve as many of our wonderful locals know, with a very big threat of fire as it approached our town. Our beautiful community had been battling bushfires for a month already. But new years eve was a horror for our community and the poor holidaymakers visiting who were trapped. But the community band together the Australian spirit shone strong. All of my beautiful staff have been affected in some way, being evacuated from their homes, loss of power and water, normality of life under threat and then out of work for 2 weeks as we had no alternative but to close the shop. Personally, for me, we have been severely affected, and this is difficult to share, as my story is only one of thousands and we certainly are one of the lucky ones. Our property which is the acreage of gorgeous farm and bushland just outside of Milton was completely destroyed by the fires. the firewall came through so hard and fast, there was no evacuation warning and no RFS. Sky and I evacuated within an hour of it hitting. My incredibly brave husband, father and brother-in-law and a close friend stayed, fought to defend and miraculously saved our home but they were lucky to escape with their lives, they were surrounded in all directions and trapped by 40m flames and had to drive through the fire to escape. The fires have devasted our outbuildings and land right up to our doorstep. We continue to live without power and water but grateful to be alive and have community support. The trauma will take time to heal on our street, a street that is now just unrecognizable in charcoal and ashes, with 3 of our neighbours losing their homes and the others that were brave enough and also stayed to fight and protect their homes and livestock. But we will rise from the ashes. But the battle is not over, I told my husband he fought the fire and I will fight the insurance companies. And together we will rebuild. As a lot of our customers know I live and breath BLISS, it's my passion, my love, my world. And everything my team and I work hard to create will continue and grow. I was overwhelmed by the backing and support of our suppliers the people who create the wonderful goodies we bring to you, their loyalty and belief in the BLISS brand. Companies and customers that have become family and friends, nationwide support from heartfelt strangers, a community full of selfless support is the stuff that makes your spine tingle, emotions flood out and inspire you to keep going. THANKYOU from the bottom of my heart!

Mel xxx