Author: thecRavensnest

Some of you may have heard me tease some of the new products we are thinking about adding to the line-up. These ranged from more bath bombs with super fun shapes to the possibility of soap!

But are we making soap? The short answer is yes, the long answer is it is on the to-do list. I found and started following a very impressive soap maker on Instagram and decided that this is the kind of soap I want to make. This soap is something that I believe will add something fun and necessary to the products I already have. I love this style of soap because it allows me to be really creative in a way that makes the product not just something functional but also something fun to look at.

Soap however is on the to-do list. Unlike creating bath bombs there is a much greater learning curve with soap. I have had to begin by researching terms like saponification (in layman’s terms the process that must occur to give your soap.) Then I had to compare the processes between cold and hot process soaps. Which will be best for me and the designs I want to create? I also had to research materials, like lye, what is it and how dangerous is it really to work with? Find the supplies like the correct containers and molds, plus the right safety gear so that when I soap I am being as safe as possible. Lastly a recipe. How do I make one up, what are terms like superfat, and how do I know I am doing this right?

As you can see soap making is a whole different ball field from bath bombs and those took a lot of learning about as well. My current plan is to delve into the field of cold-process soap making, which means I have to come up with a recipe or two to try, make the batches, cut them, and let them cure (4-6wks) before I can even see if the results are worthy enough to add to the line-up. Then I have to learn how to make cool designs in the soap similar to what you see from these other soapers but unique enough to not be a copy.

Therefore soap is for sure on the list but it may not be until spring or even summer before you see our first bar. This will all depend on how well I can figure out the steps and process while also keeping up with the rest of the business, homeschooling, and homesteading (don’t worry my plate is not too full.)

Tell me below if I can make it happen what kind of themed soap would you like to see? Do you have a scent in mind? Shapes, colors, or even ones made for men? Send me your ideas they will help me when I brainstorm and you never know you could see your suggestion come to life!

It is winter here in NC so what does that mean for our homestead? In the area of NC where we live our winters aren’t back-to-back snow storms and freezing weather, but it is a lot of up and down temps and lots of rain. So many days it feels like we are just growing mud, which sadly doesn’t yield much profit. What are we up to then during these months?

First, remember we are not a huge homestead, we work on trying to grow as much food as possible and raising our birds. So that means that we focus on planning the garden, and keeping the birds happy. Step one of prepping the garden was to be sure that the garlic was well covered. We planted the garlic back in the fall and it needs to stay under a nice deep bed until the late spring when it will be about ready to pull out.

Step two is planning what we are going to plant this year. If you look back at last year’s post about starting the garden you can see I have a large area to cover and honestly did not get the amount done I would have liked to. That means this year I am going to try a different approach, starting with checking all my old seeds by sprouting a few of each type that I have left over. This will help me to narrow down what I actually need to buy.

I have already gotten my seed catalog and begun circling things I think we may use. I am still working on narrowing down the best varieties and amounts of each seed that we need, although I have yet to figure out what we need to make it through the summer and have extra to can. The only thing that I know I get right is the number of potatoes I need to order which tends to be a whole crap ton. I get my seed potatoes from Fifth Season Gardening in Greensboro and tend to be one of the customers that get the most.

How is the planning this year going to be different? I am starting earlier, last year I was very late getting going but this year I am starting now! I also have a great journal that I plan to use to help me get my thoughts and goals straight. I still have the map I made last year of the garden with all the measurements and the potential placement of the beds. I plan to start going one bed at a time and re-creating their borders and adding the soil to raise the beds. I will then plant some cover crops that will help keep things happy until I need the bed.

But why raised beds? My garden is in a great place in terms of sun, however, the soil at one ends gets and stays very wet after every rain, which means I need to raise my beds. I raise them in a few ways. I make hügelkultures in some spots, in others a standard raised bed, and in others, some made using fencing to keep the soil contained. I have realized that raising the beds on top of the wet soil helped to keep the beds moist underneath and allowed me to not have to water as often after a good rain.

Other than garden planning I spend this time getting ideas put down of all the things I think we need to fix or improve on. This year I know that we need to fix some fencing and fill some holes on the property. Plus I would like to make some improvements to my chicken coop to keep it as strong as possible. Last year we had some predators get into the coop and kill a good number of our birds in early spring because there were holes in the fencing that we had missed, so this year I want to get out there earlier to double-check everything. We also have some areas where some animals look like they have been burrowing and I would like to fill those in.

What do we do in the winter? A lot of little things to get ready for the spring, planning and fixing things as we are able. As we grow this list will get longer, it may come to include the care of more animals or a larger garden to plan. We are not big yet, we are still slowly learning how to do all of the things needed to be successful and have even more food come from our own property.

What do you guys do? How do you spend your winters? Do you have a homestead? a farm? or just a little garden? I would love to hear about your winter plans and what you are getting ready for.

Homeschooling is hard. First off you have to figure out what and how to teach your children while being put under a microscope by most of the people you meet or even your family. Secondly, you have to fight with yourself daily, over things like, if the kids are where they need to be, are they getting out enough and learning how to be social, are you even doing anything right? Well, these along with a long list of other things that can weigh on your mind as a homeschooler is why you need to find your homeschool crowd.

Just like in any activity you need to find others that are doing what you are in a way similar to you. People you can relate to and complain with (trust me you want to find your complain with crowd, we all need one.) But how do you find your crowd when you homeschool? How do you find events and playgroups for your kids? The first place to start is social media. As much as we all have our problems with social media the one thing it does give us is an excellent network to find others that are doing what we are doing. I personally am in a number of groups, some of which I am very active in, some where I am a fly on the wall, and some that I have started myself. There are groups for everyone, no matter how you choose to teach your child. Some take members from everywhere and are designed to be a support group as well as a good way to find out about other groups local to you. Others are area-specific and you can find them by searching for groups based in your area.

If you like me find your area limited in what they offer you can always start your own. When I started homeschool 10 years ago the area I live in had just a few groups and many were not what I was looking for, so I started my own. The group I started was a homeschool hiking group and the purpose was for people to come out to a different trail each week to hike, explore and socialize. I have met so many amazing people through this group and this was how my kids and I found our first good friends. I did not make this group into anything specific about homeschooling, it was just designed to get people out in a relaxed atmosphere to chat and get some outdoor time.

I am also part of a local activity group. Things like park days, field trips, an art get-together, and so on are put up in this group. Through this group, I got my book club. This was done for me. I love meeting up with other mothers and reading a book each month. We all have different views and opinions about the books so the discussion time is always tons of fun. Being in this group led me to another great thing you can find for your kids, a co-op. There are a few other co-ops in my area but they were not a good fit for us. Through my book club, I found out about a new co-op that sounded like just what we needed. Then of course the dreaded Covid hit and put the co-op on hold until this past fall when we were finally able to hold classes.

So far we have had an amazing experience at our co-op. My kids get to meet up with others twice a week. They get to learn, play and just socialize in the ways they need. I get to teach and meet other families that school in similar ways to us. It is a great feeling to have a group to get together with twice a week and know that both my children and I get to hang out with others. This group has been especially good for my youngest who has always struggled to fit in but has found a good number of kids to hang out with each week.

The most important thing about finding your people is that you actually have to look for them. When we homeschool we have to be willing to get out there and try things and meet people. I know many of you might read that and say no way I am not extroverted enough to meet people, but you have to! I know it sounds like a tall order but think about the fact that both you and your kids will benefit from having a group no matter what size to navigate the twists and turns of homeschool.

Once you have found some groups on social media take a moment to post a little intro about you, and your kids, you may even want to let people know the general area you live in. This will give you an idea of how many people leave near you and some may even suggest other local groups that they know of. Now you have to do the hard part, reach out to a few people, plan a park day meet up, or check out that group or co-op mentioned and see what you think. Just because you head to an event or meet a family at a park doesn’t mean that you have to again. Maybe you realize they are not what you were hoping for, and that is fine but you need to try again.

Homeschooling can be lonely, parenting can be lonely and when you are doing both without a few friends that are in it with you, things may begin to feel even more isolating. So get out there, meet some people, try some events and find your crowd. Your homeschooling experience will greatly benefit from it, as will your mental health!!!

Last weekend started early for me, on Thursday! My husband and I took some much-needed time for ourselves by going to see one of our favorite bands, Drake White and the Big Fire. We love going to see them when we can, their concerts are something truly special, especially since the fact that Drake is performing at all is a miracle. In August of 2019, he suffered from an AVM (read more about his AVM here or head here to listen to his TED Talk) which almost killed him, and did leave him having to learn how to walk again. Listening to his story and his positive attitude can only lift you up and make you feel great.

After this, we both had Friday off, with a great surprise as our niece and nephew showed up. We hadn’t seen our nephew in 2 years so we took them and our boys out all day, everyone got along and had a wonderful time. It was such a nice relaxing family day, no one was stressed about having to be at work, or having to get school accomplished the perfect start to the rest of the weekend.

Today, as you are reading this I want you to take out your planner, open that calendar app, or check the schedule on the fridge and see where there is time, any time. Can you carve out 20min a few times this week to just do for you? Maybe you can only find one day but there is a whole free hour. Find that time now and add it to your schedule in Big Letters: ME TIME! Schedule it now so you can see it and not add other plans, and DO NOT cancel on yourself. You are the one person you should never cancel on.

After you have found your day and time come back here and comment below. Then decided on what you want to do. Read? Take a bath? Go out for a drink? Put this on your calendar as well, then come here and tell us about it. Everyone that posts about what their me-time looks like will get a check-in on Saturday in the comments to see if you truly had your me-time. I will post what I plan to do as well that way we all can be ready for the upcoming weekend!

About a year ago I had this idea to start a blog, which then transformed into an idea to not only have a blog with hopefully useful information but to also start my own business to go along with it. But what business? What I could I do or make that might do well? I ran through many ideas in my head. Should I teach on Outschool? Or maybe VIP Kids? No, I really am not sure that will yield the money I would like nor the satisfaction I was looking for. So what else could I do, dog training? Maybe I was always good at it but wait, no, insurance is insane. Then I had an idea. What if I made sugar scrubs and bath bombs? That seemed like a good idea to me since I made some various scrubs for myself and enjoyed the products, not to mention making bath bombs in different shapes seemed like a lot of fun.

Now I had the idea, but I also needed a way forward. How does one start a business? Step one for me was to get an LLC. I applied for and got my LLC months before I launched my company. At this point, I also bought my website and began to learn how to design the store portion of the site (after 4 months I am still learning this part.) Then it was time to make and test products. I made a variety of products both scrubs and bath bombs and just gave them out. Yes, gave them out for free and asked for feedback. I took that feedback and adjusted the products until I was happy with what I had. Once I was satisfied I uploaded products on my site, added prices, pictures and had it go live with my fingers crossed that I would get at least a few orders. I had some friends and family order right away which I was thrilled about because I knew they ordered to help support me and I appreciated each purchase.

That my friends are the cliff notes version of what I did in those first few months however the story is much more in-depth. Before I could even start selling my products I had to do research on how to market my product and what the rules were for selling things like scrubs, bath bombs, and soaps. The key that I found both in my research on the FDA website and from books and articles I had read is that I had to be sure my descriptions did not make claim to curing anything medical. For instance, I could not sell a cream that I claimed cured acne because that would fall under the category of a drug and not as a cosmetic. I had to be sure that all my descriptions met that qualification or I would have to change the way I had my business set up. I also had to figure out how to calculate the cost of making each product and what a good price point was for everything that I would be selling. I not only followed a few videos on how to make these calculations (learning even more about how to use excel in the process), but I also looked at the market, both in person and on sites like Etsy, so that I could price my products competitively.

Lastly, I also started following procedures that were outlined in the book “Good Manufacturing Practices for Soap and Cosmetic Handcrafters.” I have not gotten through all the suggestions they have since there is a lot to record and many procedures to put in place. The one thing I did try to follow from the book was to work on things a little at a time so as not to feel overwhelmed. This is the longest part of the process because it requires hours of computer work to record everything you need to have an appropriate record of things.

It has now been 4.5 months since I have started my business, and I am sure you may be wondering how things are going so far. Firstly, I have made at least one sale every month since I started. That may not seem like much but it is, I think, a great accomplishment for a brand new business. Second, I have already met a ton of new people that also have great businesses they have started. This is probably the most important part of my journey as it is these newfound friends and fellow entrepreneurs that will help my business grow. Meeting these people has driven me to speak out often on my social media about the importance of shopping local, and even helping to promote small businesses in my area. When we all support one another I feel like we will all succeed.

I know that I have a long journey ahead to figure out everything and make my business profitable, but I feel that my first few months have gone well. The next few things that I have to tackle include things like learning how to do the quarterly taxes, getting better at advertising, and of course continuing to work on my product development.

Fellow small business people leave me a comment about what you have found the most challenging and most rewarding part of your journey.

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