First Friday - September, 2023
Happy September! It's been a minute since I've posted a First Friday post. April was the last one, and so much has happened. So, let's catch up, but I'll share my featured cocktail before we do.
This week, I made a Rose and Elderflower Spritz. The Spritz cocktail originated in the 19th century in Northeastern Italy. The wine was too strong for the Austrian soldiers, so they would ask for a splash of water to make it more palatable for them. Traditionally, a spritz is made with Prosecco, Aperol, a splash of Club Soda, and garnished with lemon. I made mine with a Rose, Elderflower Liquor, splash of Club Soda, and orange garnish. This was the perfect cocktail for the late summer nights.
Usually, this is where I would talk about the soap I am featuring and choose a monthly winner. As some of you know, my soap shop is currently closed. This past April, we suffered a horrible house fire. Thankfully, we are all okay. However, our home sustained significant damage.
It was April 19th when we all went to bed. Josh and I headed up a little earlier than usual, a little before 10:00 the girls were both in their rooms by 11:30. Some time in the middle of the night, Josh woke up and yelled, "What the f**k" It was at that point I woke up and saw what he saw—glowing orange outside our window, along with the sound of crackling. We had blackout shades on our windows; while Josh had left to see what was going on, I had gone over to lift the shade to see what was happening outside our bedroom. I reached my hand out to raise the shade, at which point I felt the heat and heard glass shatter. I started yelling for the girls to leave the house. We made it outside to see the outside of one side of our home completely engulfed in flames.
Thankfully, both the girls had their phones, and we called 911. I sleep with my phone by my bed and always think I will grab it in an emergency. That was not the case. My priorities were my girls and getting us out of the house. We watched seven fire companies fight the fire for several hours. Before we drove away that night, the fire chief pulled us aside to inform us about the emergency board-up process that would be happening on the house and that our home would be unhabitable for at least a year. Most damage to our kitchen, living room, family room, guest bedroom, the girl's bedrooms, and office was from smoke and water damage. Our attic and the main bedroom were damaged by fire. Our garage and the studio suffered little to no damage.
We are still processing and healing from the fire. It's been five months, and our rebuild is moving along. I focus on that and moving forward. I am finally reaching a point where I can look forward. The loss of our home and almost all of our belongings has been devastating. I don't want to put energy into that night, but instead on how grateful I am that we are all safe and able to rebuild. We are also thankful for all the love and support we have received from our family, friends, and community.
We are now in our long-term rental, and thankfully, the rebuild process is moving along on our home, we hope to be in early spring. With no power or water at the studio, I have been unable to make soap. I am not comfortable making soap in the rental. Oh, how I miss it though. In the meantime, I am trying to do the things I wanted to but did not have the time because of soap making. Recently, I started a sourdough starter using a living culture sourdough starter from Breadtopia. I have made sourdough a couple of times, and so far, so good. To get the starter going I followed the instruction videos in the Breadtopia website, and I have a healthy starter.
I have also been planning our rooms for when we move back in. We lost all of our furniture in the fire. I will share my ideas and mood boards as we go.
We feel grateful to be here, and for all the love and support we have felt through the process. Here's to moving forward!
xo
Mindy