What Came Home with Me...

Well, I did it.

I packed up Of Herb & Stone, hauled it to a three-day festival, set up that booth I had been fussing over for what felt like forever, and put all of it out there for strangers to see.

And let me tell you, that is a weird feeling.

It is one thing to sit at home making tea, stringing bracelets, tying labels, staining things, moving displays around for the hundredth time, and thinking, yeah, this looks good.

It is completely different when somebody you do not know walks up, picks something up, reads the label, asks you about it, and then decides whether or not they want to take it home.

That’ll humble you real quick.

But people stopped.

They looked around.

They asked questions.

They told me the booth was beautiful.

They bought things I had made with my own hands.

And one person even came back again.

That one got me.

Because a repeat customer at your very first festival? That feels like somebody quietly tapping you on the shoulder and saying, Hey. You might actually be onto something here.

Now, was the weekend perfect?

Absolutely not.

It was hot enough to make me question every life choice I have ever made, it rained, we had to close early, my feet hurt, and by the time I got home I was basically running on stubbornness and caffeine.

But somewhere in all of that, something changed.

I think I stopped wondering quite so much if Of Herb & Stone could work.

I got to see it working.

Not perfectly. Not magically. Not in some big dramatic movie moment.

Just in little things.

A conversation over a tea blend.

Someone holding a bracelet up to the light.

A person circling back to the booth.

A compliment I knew was genuine.

Those little moments added up.

And when I came home, I brought back more than the leftover boxes and inventory.

I brought back a little more confidence.

Not the loud kind.

The quiet kind.

The kind that says, Okay. Keep going.

So I will.

I will tweak a few things. Change a few displays. Make more of some things and probably less of others. I will learn as I go, because apparently that is what we are doing around here.

Plant it.

Tend it.

Drag it to South Carolina in a trailer.

See what happens.

Honestly, that sounds about right.

Until next time,

Mary

Of Herb & Stone