OUR STORY

Not “In the beginning…” or “Call me Ishmael,” or even “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Just us.

While I have always loved the natural world (I was frequently teased at family reunion campouts for carrying around a backpack full of rocks), I didn’t have a purpose for collecting things other than I thought they were beautiful or interesting. And maybe I have some hoarding tendencies that are only mitigated by my OCD tendencies. 

The true credit for my apothecary obsession belongs to my Bestie. For longer than my husband and I’ve been married, we’ve been friends with this fantastic couple we met at church. They have been there for births, hospitalizations, power outages, family drama, vacations, and everything in between for almost 15 years. 

In addition to just being great friends, they are also platinum-level Halloween Party throwers. They go all out, decorating the whole house inside and out, they wear really cool home-made costumes, and serve creepy food like brain punch (did you know a cauliflower head looks like a brain when it’s submerged in juice, and it doesn’t affect the flavor??) and skeleton rib pizza breadstick things. They also have an apothecary collection that would probably make Hollywood set designers go weak at the knees. 

So when I saw you could combine vintage bottles or upcycled jam jars with spooky labels and then let your imagination go wild with fillers, I was hooked. I love crafts, I love collecting stuff from nature, I love browsing antique malls and thrift stores, and I love mythology and folklore and fantasy. If I could be a character in Harry Potter, I would be a shop owner in Diagon Alley.

Ok, so far we have eclectic interests + highly creative and inspirational friends, now the final ingredient is my husband. He is actually the reason this site exists. Despite battling some serious ADHD, he was the one who sat down and built this site, worked out all the boring policy pages, did the research to find a print-on-demand sticker site, and designed and test-printed our custom labels. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. He brings his own eclectic mix of interests to the table- he’s a seismic processor by day (it’s related to the oil industry and involves a lot of math, programming, and staring at screens that look like TV static) and a graphic designer, artist, and web developer by night. 

He is also incredibly supportive of my somewhat bizarre hobbies. How many men out there are like “That’s awesome, Honey!” when you come in from walking the dog and announce that you found a 3 ft. snake skin you just had to bring home? This guy is. And after I decided I needed an apothecary cabinet (or five, but who’s counting?), and discovered that there were some labels that just didn’t exist, he decided he would make me my own custom labels. And if we could turn something we love doing into a side-hustle, so much the better! (Don’t even get me started on the cost of groceries right now!!) 

There it is folks, our origin story. If our late-night brainstorming sessions and quirky hobbies have created something that inspires your imagination and gets your creative juices flowing, then I consider ours a job well done. I hope our labels help your apothecary, big or small, bring the magic and fun of Halloween to your home. Because who doesn’t need a little magic in their lives?