It's Earth Day

Love your Mother!

Make this a non consumption day if you can--don't buy anything, don't drive anywhere, don't discard anything--recycle or re-use or donate--just huddle around your campfire and ponder.

A Spring Contest

I'm excited to have figured out how to set up an email newsletter list so I can send out announcements, and special offers, and just general news from Storybook Farm...

So to encourage people to join (on the left) , and in honor of the Goddess of Spring, Persephone,
( who's taking her time appearing this year--there was a sighting yesterday in NJ with some heat & sun, but she's gone today) I'm offering a free bar of a soap of your choice to one lucky winner in April.

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Setting Up Shop

So I'm finally moving towards getting my products out on the Web. Spent all day yesterday (yes, the prettiest day we've had all Spring) loading my soaps to the site. Today I'll add creams & balms. Taking decent photos is harder than I thought it would be--after all I've been taking pics for my ebay auctions for years --it takes a lot of time and patience.

I'm using Etsy right now, as it's easy to set up, but will be getting a real website fairly soon.
www.storybookfarm.com will take you to the shop. And there's a gallery on the left here of some soaps--click on any pic.

PSEGGreenFest April 3-5

This is a picture of our booth at the Greenfest--it looked better after we cleaned it up a bit--got rid of wrinkles, moved the table in the front to the other side, disposed of the white blob next to the table in the back, also moved out two of the chairs. But by the time it looked purty, the place was hopping & couldn't get a clear pic.

I was pleased with our location--we were across from the bathrooms so everyone came by--and lots of people stopped in to see us--Ed Begley Jr, was a speaker and I spotted him and yelled, "Hey, Ed", to get him to look at my stuff--but then had the embarrassing realization that I had stopped him as he tried to get to the Men's Room! So I waved him on--poor guy...

This is the biggest show we've ever done--and don't know yet whether it will be worthwhile--people really seemed to like our products a lot, and everyone wanted info about the website, which doesn't have anything on it yet--must make that a first priority.

It was exciting to be with other people and businesses who all share (or almost all--there was some Greenwashing--I somehow don't believe in biodegradable asphalt, but whatever) philosophy and a desire to replace old technology and products and way of doing things with new and more sustainable options.

It's all so new, though. The trash collection for the fest was pretty responsible, but no one knew what the labels on the different trashcans meant. For recyclables they had the new single stream--which allows many more items to be recycled--my community still has us dividing everything, and only a few plastics are recyclable--the single stream allows almost all plastics--how great--but confusing--I put my cardboard in that can (already recycled once--i use cardboard liquor boxes and fruit flats to store & transport my stock.), but wasn't sure I should until I found a volunteer to ok this. Then there was the compostable can--ok, I get that--and apparently all the food packaging and utensils was compostable, which is pretty fabulous. Then there was the landfill can--this was puzzling, but it meant anything you put in the trash regularly--I guess if you called it Trash, everyone would just throw everything into it.

My other celebrity sighting at the Fest was Darryl Hannah--also speaking there. I was determined to get her to my booth--I figured how could such a beautiful woman resist lotions and creams and nice smelling things. She stopped twice at the booth--first when someone was trying to get her to the stage to speak--she put some of my Pure & Simple Olive Oil Cream on and dashed off. Then later she stopped and quickly put a little dab of perfume on. I think she is the prettiest person I've ever seen--no make up on--and not hit you in the face gorgeous, because she doesn't call attention to herself--she seems quite unassuming, actually. But when you really look at her she is astoundingly lovely.

It was a relief to pack up and head home at the end. We have a busy week coming up--I have orders for wholesale clients to get out, a messy house to clean, my Mom is arriving Thursday and then we have the first birthday celebration for our granddaughter Caroline Saturday, and then Easter on Sunday.

So next week will be devoted to working on the website, doing our taxes, and getting the curtains and upholstery done on the little trailer so i can put it up on eBay and sell it.