Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow boost Winnipegger's Little Box of Rocks

A Winnipeg entrepreneur is scrambling to keep up with a surge in demand after her product was featured on holiday gift guides of two celebrities.

"I was sitting in my office one day and suddenly my website started to blow up. I started getting order after order after order," said Kiera Fogg, the inventor of Little Box of Rocks (LBOR).

Her first thought was that her website was hacked, until she asked a customer how they heard of LBOR and was told it was on Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop gift guide.

That was followed up quickly with another appearance in a gift guide website connected to actress Cameron Diaz.

"It's been insane. We've been wrapping all day long, sometimes into the night," Fogg said. "We haven't caught up just yet."

The small home-based business only had a couple of part-time employees, so Fogg has recruited her mom and some "very helpful family and friends" to get through the rush.

LBOR is like a flower shop, but instead of roses or asters in the bouquet, it's rose quartz or amethyst. Each bouquet, which sells for $35-$38, is a collection of crystals with an explanation of their energy, along with a secret message on a mini scroll, all wrapped in a wooden box.

The business launched in October and Fogg admits she wasn't sure how well it would be received.

"I mean, you tell someone it's a box of rocks — how crazy does that sound?" she said, adding she targeted millennials but the business has found a much wider audience.

"We're finding that it's everybody, not necessarily the New Age-type people, but people who want a unique way to express themselves in a gift," she said.

A self-described crystal lover, Fogg said she is also a big fan of flower bouquets, but not everyone wants "to spend money on something that's going to die in three days.

"Crystals each have a meaning, so it's the bouquet that lives forever."