The Happiness Project :: Duct Tape

The Man came in my office today. {uh oh} He came in my office to offer me some "constructive criticism". Yeah. So. Basically, he came in to tell me all the wrong things I'm doing with my business. And then, of course, he proceeded to tell me all the right things I should be doing with my business. A lively discussion ensued. He stomped out mad, mumbling that I never consider his ideas; I sat smoldering in my chair wishing I could just slap a piece of duct tape over his mouth when he starts 'helping' me. So today's Happiness post isn't so much about what made me happy today as much as it's about what would have made me happy today. Duct tape would have made me happy. Unfortunately, I only had a thin roll of that not-so-sticky blue painter's tape. I'm happy to report, it did the trick.

{And I'm happy that The Man is such a trouper.}

So what makes you happy?  Jump on the happiness band wagon, and link up at Leigh vs. Laundry.

Back To Work (The Brain Damage)

So, The Man decided to check out my blog the other night. (He does this from time to time – primarily to point out my typos. Thanks, honey.) “THIS is what you write about?!?”, he exclaimed. Seriously. What did he expect? The Man’s been married to me for…uh…well geeze, so long I’ve run out of fingers and I’m almost out of toes upon which to count. He knows I’m not an all work and no play kinda gal. He shouldn’t act so shocked.

The fact of the matter is that I’ve been working very hard lately – which is probably why the blog entries have been a little, well, shall we say, frivolous? Developing new products for my shop is hard work. We’re talking serious brain damage. There’s actual math involved! Formulas and conversions…stuff that makes my head HURT. Just buying my supplies takes an enormous amount of effort – finding the best price for the purest, most therapeutic ingredients…ugh! Just the thought of it!

Therapeutic essential oils can be crazy expensive. Committing to a new ingredient can be a significant investment. Example: German Chamomile. It’s one of my favorites. It’s cobalt blue in color and it smells a little funny in my opinion. The color can be a problem – like when it’s combined with oils that are amber or brown and turns the whole mix the color of old guacamole. (Nice visual, eh?) The smell can be a problem too because we’re conditioned to believe that everything needs to smell like flowers or freshly cut grass. But the stuff works miracles. It’s the serious magic in my Once Bitten bite soothing cream -- and if you’ve used this stuff, you know what I mean by serious magic. (And if you haven’t tried it yet and don’t enjoy those itchy red spots the mosquitoes leave behind, well go get you some…right here.) One drop…one SINGLE DROP of German Chamomile costs $.53. Drops probably don’t mean much to y’all so let’s do some conversions. After all, who doesn’t just love conversions? 1 drop = .05ml. In other words, there are 20 drops in a milliliter. And there are 5 milliliters in a teaspoon. That means there are 100 drops in a teaspoon. Now do the math that counts. That’s right…a teaspoon of therapeutic grade German Chamomile costs $53!!! And that’s wholesale.

So on top of the general chemistry involved, I have to ask myself the questions: Is the formula going to be prohibitively expense? Will customers be able to appreciate the therapeutic effects if the smell or the color is a little unexpected? Can I afford to invest in quality ingredients if a product bombs?  I haven’t found a chart or a calculator to help me out with these answers. Is it any wonder the blog gets a little silly when I'm in product development? So The Man should just back off a little, don’t ya think? And really, he’s a fine one for pointing fingers. Just look what he did to my Chickenpants while I was at work the other day!

Tell me, what do you do when the thinking part of the job makes your head hurt?  

Oh yeah, and look for a couple new products coming SOON!

Sleeping Easy...?!

The Boogeyman. Who hasn't heard of him? He's a problem. Just check out the wikipedia entry. Apparently, he's a problem everywhere.

We don't have a problem with boogeymen, monsters and the likes in our family. Everyone in this clan knows Mommy's the only thing to be truly scared of around here. And Mommy on no sleep -- well, let's not go there! Only an idiot monster would think about causing bedtime troubles in our house -- and who's afraid of an idiot monster?

So, monsters aren't our problem, but winding down at bedtime certainly is. Ugh! I hate it! What a horrible way to end the day. Let's face it. It doesn't matter how much fun you had during the day, if the last 45 minutes is an all out war...well, the day gets recorded as a loss. That was happening every day for us. It was breaking my heart. Then it occurred to me! I just needed to do what I'm always doing. I just needed to start mixing things up!

Out came my box of little brown bottles. A drop of neroli, a drop of lavender, a few other safe base ingredients, a spray bottle and VOILA! My own special sleepy time room spray! The kids love it. But they don't get to spray it themselves if they're giving me grief about bedtime. That's my deal.

I told a few friends about our little bottle of bedtime bliss. That's when the stories started coming out of the woodwork...and out of the closets...and out from under the beds. I'd never realized just how many kiddos had fears and anxieties that kept them up at night -- not to mention how many sleep-deprived parents were at their wit's ends about it. So, with my 4YO's help, we got a few more bottles, gave our spray a name, designed a label and handed them out to our friends. Our circle of friends is sleeping a little easier these days.

So check it out. Aack Attack! is available in the Etsy Shop. You can read all the technical information about it there. Share your monster stories with me here and I'll enter you in a drawing for a free 4 oz. bottle. I'll pull one entry out of the hat next Sunday night and announce the winner here on the blog Monday.

Sweet dreams, everybody:)