Hen’s Tooth Turns One: A Year of Slow Business, Creative Freedom & Learning the Hard Way

October is the month that Hen's Tooth turns one 🎂

Happy Birthday Hen's Tooth 🍾

When I started shaping Hen’s Tooth last summer, it seemed like a distant daydream. It was something that mostly lived in notebooks and on Vision Boards. 

A year on, that daydream has become a real, living business. It hasn't been fast, or flashy or showy. It has been steady and stubborn (much like me).

It's been marked by slow traction, creative revival and unexpected confidence.

It’s also been a year of freedom. And that, more than anything, is the reason Hen’s Tooth exists at all.

A Year That Changed Everything

Losing Mum last year shifted something fundamental in me. Grief has a way of rearranging your priorities overnight.

It bought a few things into sharp focus for me. Approaching 50, perimenopause in full swing, it made me look at my life and ask myself how I want to spend the time I have left. 

As I confessed to my former boss on the day I walked out the door in February, my mental health hadn't been great for a while, and doing a job I no longer enjoyed wasn't helping.

Some of the money from Mum’s estate became the seed that finally sprouted the business idea I’d been carrying around for years. I wanted to build something that brought all the parts of me together. My creativity, my entrepreneurial instincts, my storytelling, my love of nature, my climate anxiety, my experience supporting small businesses, my slow‑living values.

It needed to be something more than the sum of its parts.

Hen’s Tooth became that something.

Perimenopause, ADHD & Outgrowing the Old Version of Myself 

Perimenopause has been been chipping away at the old version of me. It stripped away my tolerance for bullshit, and burnout culture.

It also unmasked ADHD tendencies I’d been quietly managing for decades. My meandering mind. The moments of hyperfocus. The creative surges. The need for autonomy and agency. 

Suddenly, being an employee felt impossible.

I didn’t fit in the job anymore. I didn’t fit in the industry anymore. 

Community business support is in decline. Since Brexshit, it's been underfunded, undervalued, overstretched, and increasingly misaligned with what I felt it should be.

I realised I could either stay and shrink… or leave and grow.

So I left.

Even though Hen's Tooth was nowhere near filling the financial void (and still isn't), I'd had enough. I wanted to channel all of my energy into a new life for us.

Building Something From Nothing (And Learning Everything Along the Way)

I built my own website. Something past‑me would have laughed at. I learned Shopify, product sourcing, SEO, Canva, and the strange art of writing listings that feel like tiny stories.

I learned that getting people to visit a website is harder than building one.

I learned that markets are unpredictable, community is priceless, and that creativity comes back when you give it space.

I learned that slow business is still business. But with better boundaries and better tea, always drunk for the best mug.

The Allotment: A Lesson in Letting Go

One of my hopes for this year was more time at the allotment. And I did get it… sort of.

The weather had other ideas.

With the hottest and driest summer on record (since the previous record last year. Did I mention climate anxiety?), everything was scorched. And a Muntjac deer decimated my sweetcorn crop. Gutted.

Then a slow adventure to Portugal, right in the height of the growing season. An amazing, inspiring and much needed holiday. But terrible timing for my crops.

Fortunately, one of my allotment neighbours kept it watered but my harvests this year have been underwhelming at best.

But gardening, like business, is a long game. You can do everything right and still end up flat on your arse. Sometimes literally, as my recent DIY incident proved.

Slow living isn't about perfection it is about presence. I am trying to remind myself of this. And the allotment, even in its chaos, has been a reminder that growth isn’t always visible. 

Slow Travel, Slow Business & Finally Claiming My Travel‑Writing Dream

For years I’ve wanted to write about travel. Not in a guidebook kind of way, but in a sensory, human, slow‑paced way.

Hen's Tooth has given me that creative outlet I've needed. I actually have somewhere to publish that writing and share it with an audience that will appreciate it, warts and all.

Our trips to Lithuania and Portugal weren’t just holidays. They were research, inspiration, sourcing, and story‑collecting. They became part of the narrative of what Hen’s Tooth is: a slow‑living business built around curiosity, creativity, and freedom.

Lithuania gave me linen, lava‑glaze ceramics, hemp bags, and the spark for the Love Lithuania Mini Edit. Portugal gave me colour, warmth, and the reminder that slow travel is about savouring that time.

Travel is now part of the work, and part of the life we're building.

Creativity Rediscovered

Behind the scenes, Hen’s Tooth rarely feels like work. I disappear into product photography, blog writing, sewing pouches, curating collections, and building stories around beautiful things.

I’ve rediscovered my SLR camera. I’ve rediscovered blogging. I’ve rediscovered play.

Creative freedom is one of my biggest values, and one of the biggest gifts this business has given me.

Values First: People, Planet, Prosperity

Hen’s Tooth was never meant to be a sell as much as possible business. It was meant to be a good business.

My values are simple:

• Quality over quantity
• Ethical sourcing
• Supporting makers and small suppliers
• Celebrating craft, story, and slow living
• Keeping money circulating in communities
• Choosing less, choosing well

I want Hen’s Tooth to be part of a circular economy. One where prosperity is shared, waste is reduced, and creativity is valued.

Busting the Dropshipping Myth

Let’s talk about the D‑word.

Dropshipping gets a bad rap, often deserved. There are people reselling Temu trash and Shein shit.

But that’s not what Hen’s Tooth does.

I use dropshipping to shorten supply chains, reduce unnecessary shipping steps, and work directly with ethical producers and importers. It’s efficient, low‑waste, allows me to list a wide range of carefully curated items, and stay aligned with my values.

I curate things that are:

• Good quality
• Ethically made
• Often handmade
• Sometimes made by me
• Always chosen with intention

This isn’t mass‑produced landfill fodder. It’s slow, thoughtful retail.

The Unexpected Gift: Confidence

Despite slow sales and shrinking savings, I feel more like myself running Hen’s Tooth than I ever did in my previous career.

I don’t feel like an imposter. I feel like a maker, a curator, a storyteller, a grower, a traveller. No longer an entrepreneurial wanna be.

Year Two: What Comes Next

I hope year two brings:

• Consistent weekly sales
• More collaborations with local makers
• More slow travel and sourcing adventures
• More storytelling
• More creative freedom
• More growth (gently)

Hen’s Tooth began as a daydream in a potting shed. Now it’s a life I’m actively building.

Slowly. Joyfully. Stubbornly. And always heading in the right direction.