Standing still so that we can move....

Kumbha Moon booth at Olean's Art in the Park

Seriously, it can't be nearly 3 months since our last blog post??!!! But it has, and we are ashamed to admit it! We can make all the excuses in the world but the reality is that there usually aren't enough hours in the day to attend to our two full-time career jobs before we can devote attention to family, furry family critters, our backyard farmstead, and of course to Kumbha Moon Soap Company. Whew! Just thinking about all that we try to do during the course of each loooong day, is overwhelming but, hey, we wouldn't keep doing this crazy thing called life if we didn't love each other and all that we do. 

We've had great times on a few Saturdays this summer selling at the local farmers market and have met so many new friends and customers and also reacquainted ourselves with friends that we haven't seen in years (okay, decades in some cases). That's an advantage of remaining in one's hometown, especially when it's your 35 year high school reunion weekend! We have also had several outstanding festival weekends that kept us busy for hours on end in our tent. We love to set up at events because we get to meet with people in person and there are always great questions about our products.  We've noticed that many people are very concerned about what they put on and into their bodies and we are thrilled when someone asks us to explain an ingredient that's listed on our label or asks us to elaborate on the methods we use to make our products. We love inquisitive customers and we proudly disclose all of our ingredients, sizes, weights, and production, curing, and storage methods - all to assure that each and every product is truly all natural and safe to use. 

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We still continue to be humbled and blown away by the wonderful stories that our customers share with us about how using Kumbha Moon Soap Company products has changed their life in positive ways. Many people report seeing chronic skin conditions clear or reduce after using our all-natural products and people love our shampoo bar for the way it leaves their hair and the absolute pure ingredients that we use. Who know how transformative real simple soap could be?! 

Our display is always changing!

It has been nothing short of a whirlwind during our first year and few months of business and we have worked almost nonstop during evenings and weekends to formulate new recipes, make hundreds of batches of soap, load our curing racks, and hand label each and every bar. Even though we are a little more exhausted than usual, we love every minute of it. We should be busier than ever in August to build our inventory for holiday sales and we had mentally braced ourselves for the busy batching schedule that we'd have this month. We even calculated how much time we could devote to our garden balanced with the amount of time needed to tend to Kumbha Moon Soap Company. But as you know, things in our life often take a complete change of course, and this is just about as much of a change as we've ever experienced because......

We are moving.....

Yep - it's not a big move, just a mere 6 miles away, but no matter how close or how far, moving a household (both physically and emotionally) and a home-based business to a new location means life drastically changes for a few months. It wasn't an easy decision, especially since we just undertook a major home renovation to create a dedicated studio and production space for Kumbha Moon Soap Company, but we have fallen in love with a restored 1890 farmhouse with a few acres of land. We love our modest cottage home and have efficiently and creatively used every inch of space indoors and outside, but we've yearned for a bigger home to comfortably host our friends and family and a small tract of land that we can do more homesteading (think bees, goats, chickens, berries, and loads of veggie production!). We never think small or practical, you know! There is still some paperwork that we need to finalize and closing on the house is still about 4 weeks away so we can't share all the wonderful things about our new little farmstead until we can actually call it our own, but we can tease you with this: 

We will be moving from this lovely
modest cottage style home.........

Interested in this lovely home in Olean, NY?
 Check it out here on Zillow 

....to this spacious old 1890 farmhouse 
that's been lovingly restored by 
its current owners.

And this.....

And this too.....

So dear friends and customers, it seems that the Kumbha girlz have to stand still with soap production for a short time while we pack up our life in this wonderful little house and reopen our boxes and treasure in a new home. And NO! We are not going out of business, we are just abbreviated our production schedule during this big life change! We are planning on carving out a special space for Kumbha Moon Soap Company in our new home and ramping back up to speed shortly after we settle in. In the meantime, we will make soap and natural body and household products in between packing and trying to keep all the pieces of our chaotic life together. Please check back to our Facebook page and to our blog as we chronicle our transition and to learn about which products we have available. If you are interested in a custom order for holiday gifting, please contact us as soon as possible so that we have plenty of time to make and cure your special items. 

Standing still so that we can move forward is a great way to describe this place and time where we are and we look forward to sharing our story with you.


Love and peace - Kimberly and Kellie