I spend a lot of time considering and researching how I can help prevent my little business from contributing to pollution, de-forestation and climate change.

It does not always add up, but I do my best to try and be responsible.

First of all my materials are eco-friendly when available. Jesmonite is a waterbase compound that is eco-friendly, so that is one of the reason why I use that product.

The fabrics I use are either organic, reused or produced locally as much as possible, but its not always easy to figure out where the fabrics come from, so I do my very best to research before buying any.

Packaging for shipping the items are done in either reused boxes or in eco-friend reusable packaging. I purchased it here at www.noissue.co where I am part of the Eco-packaging Alliance. Anything bought from this site is either compostable, reusable or recyclable. However it does not come cheap to be sustainable and therefore the prices on my items are a bit higher than others on the market, but I would rather sell less and know that the people buying it, actually care and support my idea of being sustainable.

For some of the molds I use, I have to turn to China, which is not very eco friendly, but some of the molds are just not sold anywhere else, I try to buy in europe to avoid Carbon footprints from freight but sometimes its just not possible.

/Sussie Spice (my nickname in Tanzania)

Oh my, time just flies when you have a million things to do.

This week I have been working on new designs both in the jesmonite workshop and in my sewing studio and I just love the process of creating.

I attended a course to figure out my new coverlock machine which is both a little scary and awesome. I think the hardest part about getting new gear is that its unknown, and after the course I was just overwhelmed with the new possibilities that the machine brings. So I learned how to do a Coverstick and a flatlock, which are two very important stiches when working with stretchy fabrics like jersey.

So the goal was to make a pair a boxer shorts and I actually made it work - like almost or maybe not that great, but at least I found out how to do the settings on the new machine AND I got it documented so I can actually remember the next time.

I have also been spending time on doing a little youtube videos, Instagram posts and trying to get new molds ordered from China. That is by far the most time consuming task ever. But also a lot of fun.

I also tried to squeeze in some time for training, so I do that ealy in the morning so that I am ready for a day at the computer screen and then going to the sewing studio or the workshop. I have this at home and a yoga mat and some kettle belts to keep fit while all the gyms here are still closed. It's okay for now and I am happy that I have the motivation to train 5-6 days a week.

Snow is almost gone now, and spring is in the air, so I am already planning for the spring collection and hope the new molds arrive safely soon.

So of course a webshop is needed to get all these beautiful items out to now loving homes, but I swear that there is nothing simple about the process of building one.

Of couse one can use a shopify or Etsy webshop - pre build and everything, but where is the fun in that, and the charges and fees are some what high to be honest.

So off we go - wocommerce it is, its a free software that comes as a plugin for wordpress, which is the tool I use for this webpage.

There are soo many things to consider.

Layout, Privacy policy, Cookie policy, terms and conditions, Invoicing, stock keeping, pricing model, coupons, advertisement, email setup, taxing, packaging and posting, NemID (Danish requirement), payment setup etc.. pheeww I'm all dizzy.

Further more I have to protect the site, technically so it is not being hacked, spammed or somehow security compromised. Which is a whole job in itself.

I get why some people give up, before they even start .

But off we go ... one step at a time :-D

I usually order stuff from both Etsy, Wish, Ebay and Ali Express and it takes quite a while to get here, and I am running to the mail box every day, just to check.

A few days ago I got some of the fabrics I ordered for the makeup bags and I am so excited.

Now I'm just waiting for the luxury zippers with metal shine, to come as well.

There are a few not so great surprices when shopping online and the most annoying part of living in Denmark, is the constant VAT and taxes that are added to anything I buy abroad, and there are all these different rules as to what country its from. I know now that I cannot buy much in the UK, due to Brexit and I hate it, because there are so many great craft stores in the UK, but it's taxed heavily. I cost me twice the sum when I bought these little babies.

They are pigments and are the prime colors, and you can literally generate any color you want from this. They are difficult to work with and I really had to dig deep into my memory of art classes in school to remember how to mix them.

Thats all for now, I am working hard on setting up the workshop and getting all the tools and packaging goods.

Luckily I have a great man in my life, who builds the whole thing for me, so I can focus on being creative <3