Massive Weekend and a Big Launch

I cannot begin to describe how tired I am.  No, I tell a fib.  All I have to do is look at Kim, and see that she is equally knackered, then I feel better!

Let me tell you about our massive weekend.

We started off on Saturday prepping for a Soy Candle Making workshop, packing the kit for the class into my little hybrid car.

By 11.30am we were at Hillside Community Centre setting up for the workshop.  We had a class of 10 students, the biggest we have ever taught.  Normally we only teach a maximum of eight students, but there was a mixup with the bookings, so we said what the heck, and gave it our best shot.

Kim was fantastic and took it all in her stride.  She is an amazing teacher and just oozes enthusiasm and authority when it come to parting her soy candle making knowledge.  Every single person leaves the course with as much skill as is possible to learn within a 2½ hour session.  At 3.3opm everyone left with beautiful and fragrant soy candles and a smile on their face.

This was our final workshop for the year.  Now we get to focus on other things, like food gardening, preserving harvest, and just generally relaxing around the pool for a little, until we begin work on our Soy Candle Making line of products.  Small business is hard work, but very, very rewarding, especially if it is congruent with one’s values.

After pack up, it was back home to unload, do the laundry from the course, and relax a little over a light antipasto dinner of salami, olives, sun-dried tomato, couple of pieces of cheese with a slab of turkish bread.  Delicious, and all local fare.

We then worked well into the evening putting the finishing touches on some products for the Little Green Workshops shop before the big launch on Sunday.

Sunday morning was not the time to slow down.  I constructed three shelving units for our new shed that should last for many years.  Then I put together a small trolley for Kim to cart kits from the shed to her office without having to lift stuff.  While I was building the shelves, Kim was photographing the final few kits ready for the shop.  By the time I finished it was 34°C.  Unseasonal for this time of year, but what do you expect.

I then worked all afternoon on our online shop, making sure everything was read for publishing.  With the final nod of approval, we hit publish.

What did we launch, I hear you ask?

Well, we launched our entire range of Soap Making Kits, equipment, and supplies for the home soap maker!  No mean feat, and certainly each product line has been a learning curve.  As the entire line was created by ourselves, we had to do everything from scratch.  We even asked our daughter Megan to test our basic kit and instructions, which helped us refine everything and add in a few more steps in the booklet.  We have even had our first soap making kit sale to a nice gent in Western Australia.

Before we launched, we had to develop the kits, buy the ingredients, look for local solutions, ensure all the packaging was able to be reused or recycled, and, ultimately, to ensure that these are the best soap making kits on the Australian market.

Time will tell for that last part and we can only do our best and improve as we build our simple/sustainable living business.

If you are interested, you can check out our Soap making range at www.littlegreenworkshops.com.au/shop.  We have also been curing some pretty exciting bars of soap as well as we are looking to begin selling soap from our shop in the new year.  The NICNAS chemical manufacturing licence fee has dropped to only $138 so we are going to take advantage of this, and start selling some of the soap we make as demos during our workshops.  You can only give away so much to friends and family!

Then, and I don’t know how we did it in 36°C heat, but we cooked roast chicken dinner, with all the trimmings as it was our son Adam’s last night with us before he flew back to Cologne, Germany.  Organic free-range chicken of course, with home-grown spuds, garlic, rosemary, and steamed vegetables.

Finally, with our last ounce of strength, Adam and I recorded a podcast episode that I have titled “Greening around the world with Adam”.  I should have it post-processed and published on Wednesday evening for you all to listen to.  We had a great time recording it, and I learnt a lot about his travels and each culture’s attitude towards sustainability and environmental awareness.  Or at least the people who Adam mixed with during his travels.  Watch out for the podcast episode on Wednesday evening.

So that was it.  A lot of work, a massive weekend, and a big launch.  On to the Soy Candle Making kits and our work is nearly complete for the year!

How was your weekend?  Did you work your butt off, or relax around your gardens?