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That’s me—in my last hour at the castle, having some fun with fellow castle-dweller-artist-friends and some crowns that begged to be a prop of some sort. It’s been a little over two months since I returned from my month-long residency in the beautiful Chateau de la Napoule in France. In early 2022 I decided to do something brave and apply for a residency so I could finally find a space to write the origin story of Mad Gab’s, which I've been telling in different arenas for years. I had never applied to a residency, nor did I expect to be...

They thought they were getting burritos.  Christmas growing up was always jam-packed with family, food, and friends.  We often traveled to visit our relatives in California, and usually that meant flying from Massachusetts to San Francisco on Christmas Day. For the cheap flights, of course.  That was back in the day when airlines tried to entertain passengers and I was always happy to play whatever game was happening. I remember one year, when I was about twelve, the flight attendants handed out cocktail napkins and challenged us with writing down the names of all of Santa’s reindeers and hitting the “call” button. Being...

...beeswax. It seems so simple, and it really is.  Webster defines Beeswax as: a substance that is secreted by honeybees and is used by them for constructing the honeycomb, that is a dull, typically yellow solid that is plastic when warm, and that is composed primarily of a mixture of esters, hydrocarbons, and fatty acids.  In my life and history, beeswax was the starting point of the Mad Gab's adventure. When I found the original recipe for lip balm and decided to make some, my mother informed me that our neighbor across the street had bees--and suggested I ask him about buying...

I'm not a big believer in a straight path. To anything. When I cook, I make a pretty impressive mess (which I believe plays into how tasty a meal is). If I'm driving somewhere, I don't mind meandering and finding my way. The good stuff can be waiting in all the nooks and crannies we may not see if we're so focused on the path ahead. That's how I see it, anyway. When I share the story of how Mad Gab's came to be, I inevitably explain that it started with a failed math class. If I'm talking to kids,...

People often ask where the name "Mad Gab's" came from. Those who know me, know that I don't get mad often, and when I do, it passes pretty quickly. Here's the thing: like having a company at all, the name was just a fluke, spur-of-the-moment decision born out of necessity. I was planning on making one roll of labels for a few batches of this natural lip balm that I had been whipping up on a whim. Yeah, right.  Like everything else Mad Gab's-related, the name had a life of its own. The original containers I used for Lip Lube...