Hello! I don’t know how many times I have sat down to write this blog post. I don’t know what it is about the New Year but I always feel really intimidated by a “blank page” another 12 months of possibilities and even though I am really aware time is a man made constraint I can’t help but be dragged in.
This year I have been pretty kind to myself, instead of jumping in with a squillion ideas and pushing myself to def con one before the first week of the year is out I have tackled a couple of things I have been putting off.
The first is an acceptance I made a really big mistake in the last part of last year, holding it lightly and accepting it. I started on the usual process of beating myself up and blaming myself, bullying my most inner person - all things I have done over the years out of habit, but actually I took positive action. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to admit this has happened but Lil’s Parlour CIC is a community and I am always honest about the bad stuff as well as the good. In a nut shell “The Chocolate Chronicles” was the worst business decision I have ever made in my life. It was so simple in my head, sending out chocolate bars, people who supported us would raise money with them and the profits would go towards things I had planned for 2023. In reality despite the deadline being at the end of December I am still in a deficit of 690 bars, that’s 690 bars of chocolate I sent out in good faith and are unaccounted for, £1324 of my own savings that I could have in actuality done something better with. Emails are ignored, I have been blocked on social media and by telephone. I want to thank here the people who did accept bars, who raised money and who those who have been honest if things haven’t gone to plan, some bars are on the way back and I genuinely thank those people for trying, life gets in the way and I get that more than most. With your AMAZING efforts £694 has been raised for the CIC and I am so grateful. Another amazing human has raised £633 with his bars and has pledged this will be with me by the end of January. Sadly this does not change the fact I have found myself in a hole of personal debt because of a very silly decision. Flipping heck I didn’t realise writing a paragraph could make you feel sick but here we are! Anyway, lessons have been learnt and I move forward with my head held high. With the bars that are due to be returned I am sure there is something magic I can do for Easter - always ace when the most chocolatey event of the year is coming up.
ANYWAY. Now that is out in the open on to the second job I have been putting off. Setting up a Patreon account. Patreon is a platform whereby for a small subscription per month you can support a creator with their work. There are 2 levels of subscription you can choose from, a £2 a month option or a £6 a month option. Both come with a range of “perks” and the income will go towards getting my Very Greedy Girl Podcast back up and running. If you haven’t listened to the original episodes yet you can find them here. The next series will be shared to Patreons along with recipes, behind the scenes news, and sneak peak chapters of the next book I am writing. It’s essentially providing me a small perk of creating content, which as a bit of an oldie seems really abstract theory but apparently artists should be paid for their content - who knew? Head over to Patreon for a look and there is already a first post with a recipe that is FREE to everybody. <<< Link here.
It’s now time to move on to the next things on my list.
Getting ready to open the shop on the 21st of Jan along with our AWESOME STUFF SALE <<
Organising Pitches to take Audrey on the road
Organising a Free Easter Bunny meet & greet at the shop
Working with The Eden Project to provide a free community BIG LUNCH
Looking for grant funding to create a workshop to go to local community groups to talk about pay as you can and why community is so important in current times and do some fun activities using cheap ingredients to create great meals.
But I am doing these tasks in my own time, with kindness.
Happy New Year and I am looking forward to seeing what 2023 brings!
Lucy x