What a couple of weeks! Plants are getting huge, the weather is turning, the kids are on vacation and I've started a new job. It's a whirlwind! Life is so much better now than it has been in a long time. <3 While the world may look bleak it's important to seek joy. <3

Whoa...it's been a month. We planted, protested, mowed & made.The tents are up in the backyard. Combined with a wild fence these are going to make the best hot house I can for this year. My seedlings have taken off! I've barely made a dent in my pandemic panic seed stockpile. <3

#holdingon #grow

Gardening feels like a good place to be right now. Seeds are seen and things are sprouting. <3 Soon I'll have enough veggies, fruits and herbs that we'll eat from the garden with little supplementation. I'll have herbs for teas and oil infusions for soaps, salves and butters.

I'm struggling with how to use social media for small biz without being tone deaf. How do we continue on with the daily while it feels like it's all burning down?

Ugh...

Haters are wild. For real, it's weird to be an adult so obsessed with making sure you spread hate & angst. Like we don't have enough of it. But also, kudos to me for reaching so big, so wide to catch my own little crew of them. <3

Going to garden, post and see if they try to make my plants famous.

This will require me to be more brave and more steadfast than ever. Head down, shoulder to the wheel, forward.

My calendar is filling up with private soap lessons! I am so glad to be teaching again. I love passing on skills and watching others joy when they see their finished bars. It's awesome. <3

Finished up website updates to allow folks to book private soapmaking lessons with me. <3 If you'd like to see the latest newsletter here you go!

Sold my heavy duty sewing machine and am back to my starter machine. I forgot what a little beast this machine is. <3 I'm going to remaster the basics and then focus on garment making, alterations and high-quality mending. I can already make a mean hem!

I finally got my soaps up on Etsy, Faire and eBay. I always hope people will buy direct, but I need every sale I can get. I need to be done with the debt and the only way to cure that it to sell the heck out of soap in 2025.

www.handmesoap.com/shop

I'm doing my best to stay calm and focus on the small steps I can take to protect my family, then community. But I struggle with the feelings I am too small to affect change, I'm not doing enough, I don't have resources to help, I'm inadequately prepared.

Going to bake bread and silent scream.

Packing out orders to get the online shop reopened! It's hard to be sad about having to close it to catch up on the orders.
Thanks for all your support! The shop reopens later today.

www.handmesoap.com

#onlinesuccess #ecommerce #madeforyou #handmade #artisangoods #soapmaker #soapmaking #soap

Just dropping my new balms here:

Sustainable - handmade - premium quality - that's me!

#handmade #artisangoods #madeinMaine #MaineMade #lipbalm #shopSmall #smallbusinessmatters

Ah...the feeling of not being on a social media platform filled with morons and haters...yet.

Cheers!