And Abruptly, She Was Gone

I'm back. I'm not sure how long, or if this blog will be a consistent thing again, but for the moment, I'm here. Last March I was going through an existential crisis, questioning my life path and the work I was doing, the direction that my life was/had been going/gone, and whether it was making a difference in the world, as I had hoped it would. I made a few critical decisions back then; number one, I stuck with and rededicated myself to the fragrant path regardless of how my work was received, and two, I signed up for TikTok. The rededication began with a late March drive from Sacramento to the neighborhood of Portland, OR, to take a class with the esteemed Jessica Ring of Ring Botanicals. It was a ride-share situation in which I trusted a total stranger who has since become one of my greatest friends. TikTok was suggested to me as a means of posting some of my hands-on work, and videos showing me (actually, just my hands) in the creative process. What ended up happening is I fell into the world of witches, politics, and outright silliness for a lot longer than I had anticipated, eventually posting those brief videos, of which I will be posting much more and longer videos of the creative process. I also took the first steps to start a podcast with that traveling friend, and teaming up with her to teach live classes under the name of The Rebel Perfumers. And the book writing has begun, in earnest, featuring the long-awaited incense book. That process really kicked off when I used Canva to create the book cover, which is gorgeous. 

What I haven't done since March is struggle with what to sell on Etsy. I created what I wanted to when I wanted to and pulled way back on the pressure to compete, and I made some absolutely gorgeous soaps and incense. I upgraded the courses on the Natural Perfume Academy, I took a lot of trips to the mountains to study the plants and where and how they grow, and I harvested more this past year than I had any years prior. Right now I have big boughs of juniper, cedar, eucalyptus, and neem drying. I pulled ALL of my incense materials from the garage studio put them in beautiful thrifted jars, and placed them on bookshelves lined in a row in my living room so that I could see them all of the time and be inspired to work. Next, I will be pulling all of the perfume raw materials in as well, leaving just tools and equipment in the studio from here on out. I think that keeping all of these materials tucked away, out of sight, was demotivating. There was some pushback from the family about my 'junk' somehow being in their way, or how I'm cluttering up space, but I've stuck to my guns. I don't say anything about the Rick & Morty rug in the loft, or the other childish, inappropriate, and downright dumb 'decorations' featured in the loft, or in their bedrooms, and I keep entirely mum about the state of their bathrooms.