Is it really March already? Doesn’t seem like it with the weather we’re having! That said, today has been a little brighter in Yorkshire and there are signs that spring is perhaps on its way.
Apologies to any of you who have been following this blog, for the radio silence so far this year. We’ve had a fair bit of disruption in our personal lives and I’ll be honest… I just haven’t felt like writing! But I’m hoping that as the snow melts we can start getting back to some sort of routine – I nearly said ‘normality’ but there’s not much in our life that’s ‘normal’!!
So what have we been up to these past few months…
Well as many of you will know, before Christmas I broke my shoulder… falling over pallets of all things. Guess you could say it’s a hazard of the job but more like just plain clumsy. I’ve broken bones in the past but, as anyone who has had the misfortune to break part of their shoulder will appreciate, this time it’s not a straight-forward fix!! Luckily I have managed to avoid surgery but nearly three months down the line movement is still pretty limited… and I can’t drive which has been the most frustrating thing of all! Dave has had to chauffeur me around and juggling the logistics of our separate commitments has been…. shall we say ‘a challenge’!
Business at this time of year is always a bit slow and in some ways that has been a blessing in disguise. Dave’s work-space is currently a temporary shelter in the garden – which is beautiful and peaceful, but rather exposed to the elements… Even before “the beast from the east” hit our shores the weather hasn’t really been conducive to working outdoors.
So although it appears we’ve fallen off the social media radar a little, behind the scenes we’ve actually been making some pretty big plans for later this year. The first priority for us is to establish a permanent workshop space… and we’re hoping to build an ‘eco-cabin’ which will replace Dave’s makeshift structure.
It kinda goes without saying that this ‘eco-cabin’ will mostly be built from scrap wood but we also want to power it using solar… in an ideal world we would like to be 100% self-sufficient but, as it turns out, that’s going to take some serious funds. So while Dave has been thinking about the structure, I’ve been looking into crowd-funding… and I’m not afraid to admit I’m more than a little out of my comfort zone. Asking for help is not something that comes naturally to either of us – so asking for money… well that’s a whole new ball park!! And I think in some ways that’s why I’ve been doing more ‘thinking’ and ‘planning’ than actual ‘DOING’!!
But the hard truth of the matter is this: if we don’t find some way of establishing premises which are ‘fit for purpose’ I don’t know how much longer our little business will keep going… and that my friends is the motivation to keep pushing those boundaries and doing things that scare me, because the alternative seems much worse.
So here is my first small ask – would you take a moment to sign up to our mailing list?
You can do so here.
It’s getting harder and harder to reach our customers through social media – if you want to hear from us occasionally this is the best way we can keep in touch and we promise not to fill your inbox.
What you will receive is a monthly newsletter (even that is probably a bit optimistic as it’s three months since I’ve written a blog post!) with exclusive offers, the first chance to see new products, and updates on our workshop project – plus advance notice of the limited edition rewards we’ll be offering to supporters of our crowd-funding campaign when it goes live.
We’ve lots of other ideas in the pipeline too but I will save them for a future post… and hopefully won’t leave it quite so long this time.
Talk soon,
Jac.x
Positive Earth UK 