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?
Wowee, I knew you’d been busy but… We’ve had some quieter times around here, spendng time as a family and the crop sown there is harvesting 10 fold. 🙂 I did get into the garden on Sunday though and mulched out a couple of square metres of weedy path. Some scrounged eucalypt mulch and it’s looking good. 🙂 Most importantly I can now reach my metre high, thick as fat leeks sprng onions all going to flower. 🙂 I want to save those seeds! 😀
Flat out like a lizard drink’n! I am hoping to get a big weekend of gardening in this week, and will finally get that mountain corn in that you gave me! Looking forward to harvesting that in the new year. x
You certainly put a lot of effort into your weekend. Around here we celebrated my 11 year olds birthday and put up our Christmas tree. The heat doesn’t help when you are busy trying to get things done. Brisbane had some really hot days and no matter where you were it was hard to stay cool. Enjoy the rest of your week Gavin. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane
Staying cool is a lot easier now that we have refreshed the roof insulation and have some double glazing installed. Congrats on getting the tree up, I haven’t even thought that far ahead yet, so better get a move on! x
By the way do you know what natural thing I could put in my veggie boxes to deter rats from eating my seedlings. The boxes are netted with plastic wire and I thought it was possums but my seedings all disappeared including my lovely spring onions one by one so it must be something small. I need to replant again. Kathy my second post down you can see my veggie box set up
The only thing I can think of is 20mm chicken wire. They may not be able to get through that if you wrap the box in it?
wow, you have been busy, but i can sense the excitement in your posts. I am so happy that things are flowing so well for you. I can see the time and effort you put into making everything perfect before you hit that post button and it shows. I have given santa a link to your feta cheese making kit….
Cheers Gillian. And Santa will deliver promptly!
Gav x
Looking forward to the podcast with Adam. I love your soaps. Can you sell them in the online shop as well. So pretty. I hope Kim doesnt over do it. Evenings by the pool would be lovely. I am only able to garden early morning and late evening. Any sun and i am burnt to a crisp, with sunscreen. With red hair and fair skin the sun feels like its eating me some days.
Hi Lynda. Yes we will be selling them online (after we pay the registration fee to NICNAS). Kim is starting to take it easy now, and we are going to trickle feed the soy candle making products on to the site instead of the big bang approach. It is too draining. x