Why a soap maker is tired

My first blog. I remember in high school sitting down in front of a typewriter (yes, I AM that old) trying to figure out where to start, what to say, how to grab the teachers attention. My mind would make up this whole scene where she reads it and pulls me aside after class and tells me that I need to pursue a writing career because she was riveted from page one.

And now, here I sit, in exactly the same position except on a computer and hoping that what I am writing will entertain and amuse my audience.

Why is a soap maker tired? Well, it's almost the same thing as "time to make the donuts".

We spend hours, days and weeks ahead of the holiday season preparing, making, cutting, stamping, wrapping and around October 1st, we step back and peruse our inventory, SURE that THIS year you will have enough. It will all be worthwhile. The hard work. The industrial accidents that are still healing. (For those who don't make REAL soap, that means the lye mixture has splashed somewhere you never figured it could go and burned that tiny, minuscule area of skin that wasn't covered.) All the crazy mental energy we put into our businesses for the holiday season.

Then, 2 festivals in, half your inventory is gone. All of your retailers are putting in orders. You see that beautiful, bountiful amount of soap quickly leaving your shelves. You know that you have 4 more festivals to go, in addition to your regular markets. The tiny thoughts of worry start to enter. Surely, you will have enough right? I mean, you know you made well over 1,000 bars of soap! Could it possibly be that WASN'T enough? Are you going to disappoint? How many? How many aren't going to get what they were hoping to buy for their friends, colleagues, family? You've spent years building up a clientele and they rely of you. You rely on them. CRAP!

I'm already out of one of my scents. I literally have one bar left. It's November 1st. How many more will I run out of before Christmas? Sighs........

So a soap maker is tired because despite everything, we can never keep up. We're happy to have the business, happy to have customers. But the carousel never stops spinning (to quote a popular TV series). We make it, we sell it. In addition to this, we have to keep up with everything else too. Lotions, scrubs, balms.......sighs........

53 days until Christmas. Then I will sleep. 2,000 bars next year....I'm POSITIVE that will be enough.

Off to the soap room, dear readers, off to the soap room.