• The Future of Melanie B’s Creative Studio & Supplies •

• First let me say a big "Hello" to all of my fellow PBN & DP enthusiasts! I hope you all are finding 2023 to be going a little smoother for yourselves than I have, but I will say that the people I have spoken to seem to have been struggling this year as much as I have. I pray that is not the case for you all!

• As many of you know, I lost my mother in July after her health started to decline in early April. When she initially started having problems, I had just recovered from a six week long stint of a nasty bout of strep throat and a *new* virus concurrently that has been apparently running rampant in the US. It seems like that sickness was setting the stage for how the year would begin, and the year did not improve.

• Soon after my mother's health started to decline, my daughter, who helped me run the online business, moved in with my mom to help provide her with 24-hour home care. I lost my full-time assistant, so I was having to battle with the added stress of my mother's health and doing the tasks that Ashlyn usually assisted me with, which ultimately exacerbating my PTSD, autoimmune disorders causing constant flare-ups and hemiplegic migraines. I powered through those physical and emotional issues, because it was important to put my customers first. I hoped that the situation would be temporary until my mom could get back on her feet. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and she passed away in her sleep on July 12th. 

• In the meantime I learned that three of my four older siblings were were taking legal action to try to force the sale of my home and property of 25 years and have me evicted again in order to settle my dad's estate after two and a half years since his passing. 

• Four weeks after my mother's death, my husband had a serious car accident, which he {thankfully} was not as injured as he could have been. Although it totally destroyed our only vehicle, he was miraculously "okay" in the big scheme of things. On the same day as Jim's accident, I was served with legal documents by my siblings that hit my son and me with a second lawsuit regarding my mother's estate. Yes, they are "pieces", and I do wholeheartedly believe in karma. 

• On Saturday, September 2 after much deliberation and consideration and after many months of internal battles, I finally came to the conclusion to downsize my online store to the best selling custom products and a few other "must-haves". 

• The stress of this year made me acutely aware that I have spent so much time trying to simplify our hobbies for everyone else that I complicated my own life to the point of no longer finding any joy in it. I lost focus of why I started these hobbies to begin with…because my health was failing, and I needed to attempt to control my stress levels. Since I have no control over the legal situations in my life, I have to make changes to the situations that I can control...the future of Melanie B's Creative Supplies. The fact that I haven’t been able to paint more than 6 times in 9 months, and that has been counterproductive for achieving “zen therapy” in my life.

• So while I have many customer emails coming asking me about delays on their orders, I assure you that I am diligently working on them…7 days a week. No one is more devoted to their job than I am, but I do have to fill orders alone…plus making all of the handmade soaps, "Diva Doughs", "Sassy Waxes", "Perfect Paints", assembling the packaging, designing the labels, maintaining the website, designing the graphics, responding to customer emails, making social media posts, sending out email marketing, so on and so on…and you get the gist. I also have a personal life that has taken a beating lately, so I apologize if I have had to set my business aside for many hours some days in order to take care of some important family matters. Having to neglect my family and myself was actually the breaking point, and why I finally made this decision. Letting others down is the most difficult part of my job, and I’d rather give it up than have to accept that I’ve given less than 100% to my customers.

• Now to clear the air on the main concern…the future of Melanie B's Creative Supplies and Melanie B’s Creative Studio. I made this decision to allow me to be more present in my personal life but also to be more present on my YouTube channel, my private Facebook group and to my Patreon members, who have a paid membership but who have also become special friends. It is my intent to get back to creating YouTube video content on a regular basis and adding a new, fun series to my channel. Eventually I’d love to be able to teach live classes to make back the income I’ll be losing by depleting the inventory in my store.

• The point is I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE…well, for as long as I am alive and kicking anyway .

• So…I am selling off ALL of my current inventory…rinse cups, paint pots, watercolor palettes, etc, etc, until they are sold out. It may take months of this before I am completely down to the bare minimum inventory, but the plan is to eliminate anything at my store that you can buy elsewhere. All I will have left are paint brushes and a few key items. I have typed up a Discontinued Products Checklist in a downloadable PDF file with the products that I know I will be eliminating from the shop. I will update this file if I decide to remove other products, as I am still "on the fence" on some other items. You can click the link above or the photo below to open the PDF file...{you may need to turn off pop-up blockers for my website to allow the document to open}. Download the file and print it to use as a checklist if you need to mark off the items you own or would like to purchase before they are gone. 

• Yes, I do realize it may take me "forever" to pack and ship orders over the next few months, but I am in the process of training the most amazing young lady to help me. I am hoping she can assist me to getting things out more efficiently again until I get it all down to the basics. Please be patient with us. You know I am not going to leave you hanging without getting you your products. 

• Thank you for reading this LOOONNNNG post…{y’all know how I do! } I have so much gratitude for all of my "followers" and/or customers for such an incredible support system! You all and my faith have helped me to stay strong through the last 6 weeks when I would have been broken otherwise.

Much love ,