Olivia & Clara's Firestarters

When my daughters wanted to make money over the summer, I didn't hand them a lemonade stand. I asked them what they could make that people would actually want to buy. They brainstormed. Necklaces. Bracelets. Eventually they landed on firestarters: sawdust from my shop, mixed with candle wax, shaped by hand. Simple, useful, theirs.

My excitement became teaching them everything else. How to design a product people want. How to manage expenses. How to handle a setback and try again. How to be proud of something they made from scratch. Watching my kids figure out how to build something… That’s everything.