FAQs

Frequently asked questions...

Hey, aren't you Silly Dog Studios? Is Ritual Mischief new?

Yes, and yes. Silly Dog Studios has been the back-end name of our creative small business, property, and home since 2016. On his own, Daniel does business as Daniel J Gregory Photography, and as an author and home-canning instructor, Lori used to do business as just Lori Kane. When we hosted makers markets, workshops, and other events together, we invited people to Silly Dog Studios. However, in late 2019, as her herbalist classes gave her confidence, Lori began to create local plant-infused self-care products. And when the pandemic began in early 2020, Lori quickly pivoted away from in-person teaching and full-time writing and she began selling her local plant-infused herbal products online--and she used the name Silly Dog Studios because it was already the backend name of our business and seemed the simplest route to go.

As we grew, however, we soon learned that the herbal products and herbal classes needed a different name. Far too many people came up to us at markets and said "Oh, are these products for dogs?" (So many, in fact, that we started making shampoo bars for dogs.). ;-) However, the focus of the herbal business is actually falling in love with land and deepening relationships/connecting local plants, forests, fields, and people--not dogs--though we love dogs too. So in the spring of 2022 we started brainstorming new names and new packaging for the herbal endeavors. As of June 2022, Lori's side of the business is called Ritual Mischief. At Ritual Mischief's core--thanks to our whole community--exist these gifts: 1) expanding moments of wonder and belonging, 2) holding moments of grief and fear, and 3) receiving and offering emotional support as community with people-loving plants and whole place-loving people. 

Will you pull together a custom gift package for us? How does that work?

Yes, in all months except December:

• In December, you must create your own gifts or choose from among our pre-made gift sets and boxes, although you can add custom language in the Comments field and we will include that language on a little card in the gift box with the Gift Sets.
• From January - November, you can contact us via the Contact Us page (or via text if you're a friend), and we will happily pull together a custom gift box for you. We typically talk back and forth via text about the person you're shopping for, and about how much you want to spend, then I pull together a box, send you a photo, and you approve it/add to it/remove something from it as you'd like. You give me language to write on a small gift card that gets tucked into the box. Then I send you an invoice via email. The day you pay the invoice we ship the box to the person you're sending the gift to. Super easy and fun--for all of us!

Is there any way to receive free shipping?

At the moment, if you spend $100 or more in our shop, we will pay for shipping so that the shipping is free for you.

Why does shipping cost so much?

We're not wealthy, so we get that $9 for shipping really sucks for many people, including us. And yet from our perspective, $9 to ship goods from our island to anywhere in the continental US seems like a remarkably good deal. It costs us almost three times that just to ferry over to the mainland in our car. :-)

We could inflate our product prices and then offer free shipping to make shipping seem free, but we don't do that. Instead, we choose to be honest about how much shipping costs (it costs us between $9 and $15 to ship our goods to individuals--$9 is the low end and we eat the rest of the cost the farther away you are from us). We also choose to keep our product prices as low as possible to help make them accessible to a wider range of people. Accessibility matters to us. We are a small, 2.5-person business. We simply can't afford to pay shipping on small orders without your help. We aren't Amazon--nor do we aspire to be.

Will you ship outside the continental US?

Not in 2023. Not likely in 2024. Given our focus on the local, we suspect it's more likely that other variations of Ritual Mischief will pop up elsewhere in the coming years. 

What hours are you (the herbal studio) open?

Visit us on Instagram or Facebook to see the most up-to-date hours. They change by the season. Our Ritual Mischief herbal studio is always open by appointment. Just text or call us. We're also here most weekdays and we LOVE company, so if you're in the neighborhood, you're welcome to stop by!