My Blog

This is my first blog, so bear with me :)

On August Bank Holiday, we decided to head away from the mayhem which is Barmouth at this time of year.

We went to one of our favourite places, which is Coed y Brenin Forest Park near Dolgellau.  We love taking Hetty (our little Jack Russell) for a walk there and then sit outside the cafe with a cuppa & maybe a piece of cake and marvel at the view and watch the little birds get cheeky after some of the crumbs.

If you have travelled to this part of Wales and have never visited Coed y Brenin, then you are missing out on a real treat.   So many walking and mountain biking trails and stunning scenery.   It is a joy for the senses and great for mental and physical health to be outdoors in such a wonderful place.

However, we were not there to walk this time, we had decided to hold 3 days of drop in craft sessions. 

One of the things I really love is to share my knowledge and help people make their own gifts and bodycare.

So we set the space in the Visitor Centre up, so that people could make their own Scented Candles, Scented Wax Melts, Lip Balms and (for the kiddies) Ducky Soaps.   We even brought our Mug Press to print photos onto mugs!

Saturday started of slowly and we were wondering if anyone would pop in to see us.   But then - WOW we had a full house with every activity going on at the same time.  It felt a bit manic at times but so exhilarating.

Simon (Mr Cader Soap) took charge of the Ducky Soaps which was a great help.

Most of our 'crafters' were children and teens with the favourite activities being Lip Balms and the Ducky Soaps.  Our youngest Ducky Soap maker was only 4 - obviously helped by his Mum - but letting him do enough to feel proud of what he had done.

One thing we were impressed by was the attitude & behaviour of everyone that came through the door.

We had people from all over the UK and even from Europe.    On Monday a really lovely Family from Bavaria came in.  Lilli made Lip Balms and helped me with my very rusty German and Linus made Ducky Soaps and Skull guest soaps with Simon.   We also printed 2 mugs for them to take back to Germany.     On the Tuesday morning when we went back to collect the rest of our equipment, the most wonderful thank you card was left under the door for us from the children.

Another lady sent a picture of a 'memory' another little gentleman had written to himself.  It read... "To ------ my memory is that one day I met 3 amazing people and a dog called Hetty. Thank you for helping me.  Julia, Simon and Sandy"   (Julia shared the space with us with her lovely artwork).   When I read what the young man had written it actually brought a tear to my eye.

Anyway, we loved bank holiday weekend so much, we are going back again Friday 30th and Saturday 31st August (possibly Sunday 1st September too)- this time though it will be Menthol Shower Steamers, Lip Balms, Ducky Soaps and Mug Printing.

Now for something on a serious note... Natural Resources Wales are determined to close the Visitor Centre along with the Cafe, the shop and (I think) the Bike Centre, resulting in many redundancies.   These days (especially after Covid) looking after our Mental and Physical Health is critically important and places like Coed y Brenin (and the other 2 NRW Visitor Centres they want to close) should be preserved and invested in - not closed because they are not able to run them properly.   There have been approaches from people to take over and run the Cafe and Bike Centre but NRW do not seem to be interested.

What I would like to let you know is that there is an online petition which we hope will raise enough signatures to get the issue raised in the Senedd.

It would be wonderful if you would consider signing this petition and ask your friends to do the same. 

https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/246323

Sorry to end on a sad note :(  but it is so important

Lots of love - Sandi