My All Around Kitchen, Etsy-fied — My All Around Kitchen

About 15 years ago, I had a dream to open up a brick and mortar shop. A dry goods emporium of sorts where I sold a vast array of items. Being in the industry, I wanted a lot of women's accessories but also foods and gift items that would speak to a range of people. A mini-marketplace. Living in NYC, where commercial rent is absurd and not having the start-up capital, it remained a dream.

About 7 years ago, I got into making my own herb salt blend, mustards and marmalades as a hobby and I would give these treats out as holiday gifts for friends and family. I also attended some interesting events where people like myself swapped their homemade treats. My day job at that time was working for my family's business as a jewelry designer and I was making silver jewelry on the side. I decided to open an Etsy shop that encompassed both passions, 'LeelaMart' on Etsy would be a fun and budget friendly outlet for the time being. I even got as far as making a shop banner :

Flash to 2018-I totally forgot about this banner! I found this image a couple of weeks ago, it is from 2011 and it blew my mind. Since 2011 I have been very busy: I took culinary courses, I began dating my husband, I opened my own jewelry business (Lisa August) with my Mother, I left Astoria and moved to Manhattan, I got married, I was running a business, etc...life kept moving and I totally forgot about little LeelaMart.

Then, in early 2017 my Mother and I decided that we needed to close Lisa August, for many reasons-an extremely difficult but correct decision. We are still in the final phases of closing, but when we made the decision, I decided to open a Lisa August shop on Etsy. I have been having a great time selling my jewelry direct to customers, and making one/two of a kind pieces so I get to be more creative than when I was selling it wholesale by the quantities.

Summer 2017 was when I decided to start this venture, My All Around Kitchen-it was time to use my passion for cooking as a means to not go work for someone else! Wouldn't it be great if I can make and sell my jewelry while also having a few monthly cooking gigs? I would be living my best life on my terms.

Closing Lisa August has taken longer than I had originally thought and I am currently trying to balance it all. In the meantime, since my brain never shuts off; I thought about opening an Etsy shop for My All Around Kitchen where I can sell my original spice blends, mustards and what not. For my wedding I made our wedding favors: LeaSalt: my salt blend that was always everyones favorite food gift from back in the day. We got tons of post-wedding compliments about the salt, so I thought hey, I can make event favors available on Etsy too! So, MyAllAroundKitchen is now up and running.

Imagine my surprise when I came across that old LeelaMart banner a couple weeks ago. Memories of my 30 year old, kind of lost, kind of at a cross-roads self came flooding in. I still have open wounds with Lisa August the company, I'm healing with Lisa August the Etsy shop, I'm trying to start-up My All Around Kitchen and if it sticks, my dreams from 15 years ago can come true, it just was a long strange trip getting here.