The year was 1987 when a very good looking young woman walked past my home. I had recently purchased a home in an unfamilar neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. I peaked out the window as she past my home. Wow, I thought, ‘She is cute’. I watched her continue her walk unsuspecting that I was following her every step. Eventually, I came to know her as Michele the girl who lived just down the street. For the past 32 years I have called her my wife and the mother of three of my four kids, funny how that all works!

Michele has always been the creative, artsy one in the family. I remember the day she started sewing clothes for our very young kids at the time. I could not tell the difference from store bought school clothes to the  ones my children wore to class, made by their mother. Between the ceramics, the paintings, her quilting and the decorative mindset that Michele has always had we have enjoyed years of her creativity and never ending pursuit of making “Pretty Things”.

Michele started making hand-soap with the goal of using healthy, non toxic skin care for herself. This morphed into a hobby whereby she was wanting to make unique pretty stuff to give to kids and parents offering healthy stuff. Michele has always sought after good facial care products for her skin. She started realizing that a lot of the stuff she was buying had harmful products in the formulas. The hand-soap soon became facial creams, salt scrubs and bath bombs. What the heck is a bath bomb?

In January of this year she launched “The Body Shack Makes Scents” because her hobby was turning into a customer based business. Her co-workers were raving about her body butters and the like. They became more than Christmas gifts or birthday gifts around the office. Women were ringing our door bell wanting to buy her stuff, who knew? Well, we set up an ecommerce website, had a launch party in our home, and the Body Shack was born.

As she learns how to manage the website,  filling the orders the SHACK is growing! Orders are coming in from around the country! She has also managed to set up a Post Office account whereby they pick up the products sold, at our residence for delivery to the customer. So far, it’s been a good thing to do and is going fairly well.

The girl who walked past my home all of those years ago has a small business, licensed through the State of Washington, growing. I sit on the sideline wondering how she does what she does. Her day job is one that she loves doing but her weekend, production time is what she calls her, “Happy Place!”

Take a peek at the various links, consider placing an order. The folks who are posting reviews say it all, her effort at producing healthy skin care stuff is spreading around the country.

We enlisted Courtney Clark (Light of Mine Web Design) to build the site. Courtney is the wife of one of my collegues, they are raisng three very small children. She is gracious, patient and was willing to accommodate what Michele wanted. The Body Shack Makes Scents happened because of  her reasonably priced efforts!