The Hive updates ..

Wanna a taste of what's new and exciting over at The Hive? Check out the blog for some updates!

Buy Handmade vol 63 and GIVEAWAY!

This week we head to Woodbridge, VA

Name:  Ashley McKannon
Age:  26

Occupation:  Private Tutor / Sometime Confectioner

Etsy Shop:  SweetDiscourseBakery

When did you start creating and how long have you been on Etsy?

I've only been on Etsy for since February, but I have been baking on a serious level for several years now.

How did you come up with your business name, is there any special meaning behind it?

It took a long time to come up with a name.  I wanted it to be unique (something I could build into a brand if I decided to), and cute but not overly silly.  "Sweet Discourse" was a phrase my best friend found in several Renaissance-era English writings.  It meant pleasant conversation, and I like to think of my treats as conversations between the ingredients, me, and the person eating them.

Has your Etsy shop become your full time job? If not, would you like it to be?

The shop has started to cover its own expenses and fund new materials, which is a huge start!  If I decided to take it full-time, I would probably open up a physical location (my dream is a bakery and tea-parlor), rather than build a huge Etsy store.

How would you describe your creative process?

It usually starts with seeing someone else's recipe, a particular method or combination of flavors.  I then start to think of all the other things I could do to build off of that.  For example - my brother loves spiced chocolate (often called Mayan-style).  I started by incorporating those flavors (cinnamon, cloves, cayenne pepper) into a chocolate cake.  Just recently, when caramels became a focus of the Etsy store, I found a way to use cinnamon and clove oils, coupled with a pepper-infused salt, to make a Mayan version of my chocolate caramels.  Mostly I just play with things until they taste right!  I use organic, natural ingredients because they taste better, not just because they are better for you.  So many of the baked goods we have access to are highly processed and full  of preservatives at every level, and you can taste the difference.  A lot of my motivations and inspirations are actually reactions to this - I wanted to give the people around me something better than anything they'd had.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Love, as trite as that sounds.  Love of the art form itself, as food (and, I believe, pastry and candy especially), is one of the few arts that plays to all the senses at the same time.  It can be beautiful to look at, pleasing to touch, invigorating to smell, fun to listen to, and of course, delicious to taste.  My inspiration also comes from love of the people around me.  I adore the look of wonder on someone's face when I present them with something special I have made just for them, and the sense of care and belonging that you can convey with something as simple as a cookie.

What is your most cherished handmade item?

I have a framed embroidery that my mother made when I was a baby, of the lullaby she used to sing to me.  I'm keeping it to put up in my own nursery one day.

Apart from creating things, what do you like to do?

I like to play video games, garden, and read.  I also love to learn about and experiment with different types of food and with cocktails.  Making things that are more than the sum of their parts (even aside from baking) is one of my primary joys in life.

Was there ever any other job you dreamed of having growing up?
I wanted to be an archaeologist, then a molecular biologist, and then at the end join the State Department.  I got my degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, so who knows on that last one!

Five years from now you will be…

Possible opening up that bakery/ tea parlor.  I'd love to have a place of my own!

Describe yourself in five words:

Intelligent

Creative

Resourceful

Whimsical

Generous

Carrying on with the five theme, if I were to turn on your <insert whatever type of music player you use here>, what five artists/songs would I see on your recently played list?

Foo Fighters

Silversun Pickups

The Lumineers

Mumford & Son

H.I.M

Lastly, do you have any advice for anyone thinking about opening their own shop or participating in craft shows?

You have to find something that you can sell - some things, like many knitted/crocheted items - just often can't be sold for a high enough price to cover materials and labor, much less a profit.  Try to find a niche and the right balance between cost to produce and expected revenue.  Otherwise, you will end up with a very expensive hobby rather than a business!  That said, it doesn't cost much to try.  Photos are everything in an online store - invest in not only a decent camera, but learn how to use it!

Now because I have you drooling over your monitors..we thought we would "sweeten" the deal - One lucky reader will win ONE POUND of her Fleur de Sel Caramels!!! Your choice of original or chocolate!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

iPad Mini Giveaway!

Andrea, aka. Andie over at Mostly Happenstance graduated nursing school on June 15th. To celebrate she pooled together 23 bloggers to giveaway an iPad mini!

I am proud to be one of the 23 to help her with this quest. Also, how cool is it that because I'm not the host of the giveaway I get to enter just like all of you?! That was an added bonus!

All the entries are SUPER simple! Everyone only provided 2-3 links, which were GFC/Bloglovin, Twitter, and Facebook. No instagram, pinterest, 'click on this site and favorite this'. Just plain and simple entries which = more chances to win in a shorter amount of time.

Here are the lovlies that pulled this altogether:

Now get clicking and earn all the entries you can so you can have the best shot at winning the iPad mini!!

Here is where you can enter:
{Please read the Terms and Conditions}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

fff vol 70

Favorite finds from the past week:


Etsy find of the week:

source

I am completely in love with these clocks.

Please can I move in?

source

This cabin is amazing. It is exactly what we want for a house. Maybe someday we'll finally be able to live and build our own little cabin in the woods.

Get in my belly!

source

Yes, please!

Tee shirt of the week:

source

I NEED this tee-shirt, my birthday is in 2 weeks (hint, hint any relatives reading this!) I think this is going to be my roller derby name..thoughts? (hahah I still need to share about roller derby!)

I can't believe vacation is over, back to work on Monday - booooo. It rained all but one day my entire week off. Insane how much rain we have been getting here. Saturday is supposed to be nice, but Sunday rain again. So I'm hoping we finally have a good day at the market. 

Sunday is a cookout at my parents for Father's Day - I will need to make him some whoopie pies, they are his favorite. 

Anyone doing anything exciting for father's day? 

Have a great weekend everyone!

the truths behind the long words...

Lately I have been having a lot of doubts and stress about my business. How difficult things can be when you get down and begin to worry about every little thing and allow the stress to wash over your entire being.

source

I started noticing myself becoming envious of other businesses having success and beginning to take off. I started to question, "What's wrong with me? What am I doing wrong?"

I was so excited to share many different opportunities that were expressed to me, but then just simply fell through. One of which was Anthropologie. They reached out to me in January, I was simply shocked and amazed. I didn't want to share anything because I didn't want to jinx the potential. But I guess it didn't matter because it fell through anyway. I honestly cannot tell you why, or what happened. The woman that reached out to me, simply just never got back to me after I sent her over 100$ worth of products. I tried reaching back out to her...but silence. This has happened on a few different business ventures that I was really looking forward to. Each time it happened, I just kept my chin up saying, "Something better must be coming along"

I think there is only so much rejection you can take before it starts to really affect your outlook. I noticed my attitude started to seem very negative due to the stress. Mind you, the stress is not only business related - there are personal issues going on as well. It just became overwhelming. I look at my business and think, I want to make this work - I need to make this work, why isn't it working?! 

One of my biggest concerns is with the consumers. Business owners slap labels on their products like "Vegan", "Green" and "low impact" so it has the consumer feel as though they are buying this amazing eco-friendly product. All the while they still use ingredients such as "triethanolamine lauryl sulfate" and "cocamide DEA" in their products - both of which are known carcinogens. 

I am not here to preach to you all about what to use on your skin, lips and hair. But I know why I started my company. That was to create products with truly all natural, fair trade and organic ingredients. My message to you is read ALL ingredients before purchasing any product. If there are words you cannot pronounce or that someone needs to explain to you why they are putting it in their products- more than likely they are evil chemicals that you should not be putting anywhere near your skin. 

So while my business may be slower than I would like right now, I know it's just because the right opportunity has not come along. But I can still hold my head up high at the end of the day and know that the products I am putting out into the marketplace are completely safe and good for your skin and body. And that alone, will allow me to sleep at night. Here's to a positive attitude and outlook on what is in store for us.

wiw vol 24 - Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters

2012- NR- 1 hour 17 minutes

Streaming Netflix

Storyline

Filmed over a decade, Brief Encounters follows internationally renowned photographer Gregory Crewdsons quest to create his unique, surreal, and incredibly elaborate portraits of suburban life. He sets a house on fire, builds 90 foot sets with crews of sixty, shuts down city streets...all in the service of his haunted image of American life, and his own anxieties, dreams and inner desires. Brief Encounters is an intimate portrait of one of the most heralded image-makers of our time. 

Another week, another great artist. I found his images to be stunning, and the amount of time and production that goes into one of his images is unheard of. They are basically movie sets for and he is capturing one frame of a movie. It's just amazing what he captures.

Etsy update

This weekend I spent Sunday playing photographer and updating the majority of my Etsy photos. All the soaps were redone - just have the lip balms to work on next. I decided to make my "Grit" series of soaps have special backgrounds - I am in love with how my mechanics grit pictures came out. The best part is I just walked into the mister's motorcycle shop and placed the soap down. I didn't touch a thing or "stage them" at all. Amazing!

I'm also releasing Garden Grit for all the gardeners out there. This soap is amazing and gets your hands dirt free, even after you have been playing in the dirt all day and think it will be impossible to get all that dirt out from under your nails...this does the trick!

So if you know a mechanic or a gardener...get on over to the shop and pick up some soap!