In The Beginning....

When I lost my job and all of my self esteem back in 2011, I discovered dumpster diving. I lacked the self confidence to find another job and needed a way to support myself. I quickly learned that big box retailers throw out anything that’s returned to the store, often times still in the box. I also became quite adept at fixing minor problems to restore whatever it was back to “like new” condition. I’d sell my finds and was able to support myself for 2 years selling what I found. I haven’t paid for dog food in 8 years. A well known pet store throws out brand new, full bags of dogs food if the bags get ripped or cut open when they open the pallet. I donate a good portion of the dog food I find or give it to friends who can’t afford the “good” stuff. I kept a lot of what I found and had some pretty nice stuff that I could never otherwise afford. My greatest discovery was a popular chain makeup retailer that threw SO MUCH stuff away. Brand new, never opened expensive makeup, hair products, lotions and potions…. You name it. I used to be obsessed with all of that and it sold well. I wasn’t the only girl crazy for makeup. I sold it cheap, too, so it was actually affordable for these women. But, as time passed I met a guy- a great one- and he wasn’t a huge fan of me going out alone late every night in dark back alleys, so I had to finally get a “real” job, during the day. You know- do things that normal people do. He helped me gain my self-confidence back and I landed a good job selling websites to small businesses. About the time I turned 34, I started experiencing hormone issues. Never a fan of doctors, I started researching natural remedies to help regulate my hormones. It was like opening Pandora’s box. The more I learned about natural remedies and how truly terrible commercial products are, the more I wanted to learn. I read everything I could find, researched every ingredient on every product label on everything in my house. What I found was about 10-20% of the ingredients in almost everything were not harmful to me, my pets and the environment. The other 80-90% of ingredients were harmful, even toxic. And so my quest to make all my own stuff began. I’m 39 now and still research and learn things everyday. I’ve successfully formulated my own line of makeup, hair care and body care products as well as natural cleaning products and cbd-based products made from oil from plants I grow myself. I continue working to develop more products and improve my existing formulas. I will share in more detail everything I touched on in this post as I feel inspired to do so. I made it a goal in 2019 to take more pictures and will share those, too. Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you find it interesting or have questions, please leave a comment.