Off To a Slow Start

Greetings to all! My year has indeed gotten off the ground slowly. Good news, I've just sent out some adorable gift sets for Valentine's Day to my friend Laurie at Shirts and More in Kiowa, KS. I love doing these and the packaging designs are fun to create. Bad news (but still good) is that I sold out nearly all my inventory, with the exception of the few Christmas scented bars. So, inventory and reordering to prepare for 2014. A minor health setback has me slowed down but I'm looking forward to getting back in my groove, only better than ever! Today I made 3 batches of new soap with some of the marvelous fragrance oils I've collected recently. Will cut tomorrow and get some photos out there!

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It's the little things in life....

Today was full of exciting firsts. My farmers market plans that I had my heart set on fell through a couple of weeks ago. Don't you think that when you call for vendor information they should provide accurate information? So I'd been considering another venue, however I was concerned about getting a TID for another state - Kansas City sits on the state line of Kansas and Missouri. I live in KS and the venue is, of course, in MO. Anyway, I was able to get my new licensing taken care of with ease today. This is the first time I've encountered such nice people who were happy to help in a government office setting- no offense, but you know how it can be. I was pleasantly surprised. I'm hoping my vendor application goes through by weeks end and I will feel much better when it's settled. Now, this evening - I intended to work on soap packaging. That didn't happen but Hubby and I ended up organizing my storage and curing space, so it's w...

Lots of experiments

Today I got the chance to indulge in soaping for most of the day. I did four batches today, using a technique I've never tried before, courtesy of a great Youtube tutorial from SophiasNaturals . She demonstrates an interesting form of thermal transfer that I haven't seen, immediately mixing the lye water into the hard oils until melted. The liquid oils are added after. I used this method for all my soaping today and it seemed to work well. I didn't need to use the stick blender very much at all, which helped me tremendously as I often tend to overmix. I wanted to attempt the "Holly Swirl", which is basically an in the pot swirl done twice. Sorta.. I had a lot of half bottles of fragrances, so I did some custom scent blending, too. It was a day of experimenting. Top: Small batch trying Sweet Cakes "Aria" . I used a some ruby mica for a cute little swirl. It smells so good right now. Middle: This wa...

Balancing the Possibilities

Many soapers like myself aren't living the dream of operating a full time soap business. We have other types of work and careers that must remain top priority to pay the bills and keep our families going. Those of us who are taking a shot at soaping as a side business have to squeeze out the extra time for it in rather creative ways. We can't be profitable if we aren't working at it several hours a week. I'd venture to say many of us are in that same boat. I've done alot of thinking this weekend about moving forward in a new marketplace this season, and had another wonderful opportunity offered out of the blue. Lots of exciting things are happening, but this also brings with it a degree of fear and anxiety for me. I have a wonderfully supportive husband, but why do I immediately worry about failing? I swear I have a dozen batches of soap curing right now and lots more already packaged and waiting, but still I fear I "won't have enough"! When I...

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