Oh, hey. It's the last week of July so I guess a whole newsletter isn't necessary at this point, but I can't let the month go by without checking in with you here!
The summer months are never not a blur for me, but this year is especially blurry as my days and weeks no longer have the structure of my retail shop hours to hold it all together. I feel like I'm just coasting along... coming and going as I please... no idea what day it is or what I'm doing, ever, besides packing up boxes of Twinkle to send out into the world.
Honestly, I'm loving my freedom, and I'm so glad that I chose to give myself a "summer break." Despite the weirdness of life during a sucky, awful, no good pandemic, for the first time in almost 5 years, I can see a life for myself outside of Twinkle Apothecary - 24/7 starting to take shape. But I still have my work, which is actually working well. I think what I'm doing right now is called balance? Maybe?? Could it be???
So how do I maintain my newfound sense of balance and move forward? During a sucky, awful, no good pandemic? No idea. (You don't have to know either, by the way!) I told myself I'd have a plan to re-open my shop by mid-July, but I don't yet. Like every other parent in America, I still don't know when (or if) my son will be going back to school, and my shop schedule would of course be dependent on his schedule and whether or not I have to manage a distance learning program on top of maintaining my business.
But I'm starting to plan... I have lots of ideas about how I could let people back in to pick up orders, test products, and even provide refills safely. So rest assured that I will be back soon, even though it will look different than it did before. Hey, it might even be better than it was before!
Until then, I'll be shipping your boxes, dreaming up new fragrances, adding new products, scheming about how to be better than before, and just generally enjoying my new work/life balance.
Stay tuned here for more updates as I plan to move forward, and thank you for keeping in touch! I hope you enjoy these last few (or possibly endless because who knows?) weeks of summer!
-XO-
Stefanie
