Can this count as a garden log post? There are daffodils in it, so I say yes. When I can’t have the actual flowers, even flower representations help!
I’m so behind on e-mail and Slack work right now — the recent lack of sleep makes it both very hard for me to focus and I’ve also gotten sort of weirdly cranky-avoidant; I have a hard time making myself do anything other than lie in bed and read. I was in a very crabby mood for much of yesterday.
I got to bed by 1 a.m. last night, which was an improvement, slept well and woke at 8, so I have some hope that this stretch will be over soon and I’ll go back to my normal good-sleeping. I have so much sympathy for people with chronic insomnia — it just shatters me when my sleep is disturbed. My work life falls apart.
That said, I knew I was feeling a little better last night when I found myself starting to make some soaps for the Patreon spring treat boxes (unicorn garden theme, link in comments). I’m trying something new with these daffodil soaps, hand-painting them. I don’t have very steady hands, so this is never going to be my greatest strength as an artist! But it was fun to experiment — I did three different kinds of daffodils, including the pure white Thalia, my favorite. 
I left them to dry overnight, and they’re definitely streaky in spots, so I’m going to do a second coat this morning, and then I think they’ll be done and look rather nice. These go in the Sol System and up treat boxes — or rather, I’m figuring I’ll give those people some choices, as I have more molds I want to play with than Patreon tiers.
I’m trying to offer unscented soaps for every tier going forward, because as much as I enjoy playing with scents, I want people who have scent sensitivities to get to have fun soaps too, if they like.
• Interstellar ($30/month): add peony soap
We’re going to mostly concentrate on adding digital rewards in the next few months, like the new Story Bits tier ($3/month), because there’s really only so much “stuff “production I can take the time to do. But making things physically is also very satisfying, so… (One plus of the unscented soaps is that Stephanie Bailey can produce those for me without my worrying about trying to get her the exact scent amounts I’d like. She’s going to do the snowdrops this time around, since I need about 30 of them (more if more people sign up…))
Okay, back to the e-mail now. Hello, computer. Did you miss me?
