Tuesday, June 20, 2017

I took Meghan and Madison to the shop with me yesterday.  I decided I needed to put them to work so they labeled some bags for me.   

While I was there I got two Etsy orders.  I was out of the Old Red Barn candle so I made a batch.  I love making the grungy candles and most of them have a story behind them.  This is a picture of our barn as it began to burn.  Twenty minutes later it was gone.

Oh my aching back. Spent most of the day in the dungeon trying to get it into some kind of shape. 

I have learned to make a list of things to accomplish because if I look at the whole picture, I get overwhelmed.  First I finished getting all of the fragrance oils organized. That is kind of a big deal because it's too easy not to put them back and then they pile up on the table. I end up ordering oil I don't need because I can't find the bottle (until the order arrives).

Next I started finding a place for things.  That is also key.  When everything has a place, I am much more efficient.  I sorted jar candle lids, candle odds and ends, tart odds and ends.  The average person wouldn't see a difference, but I know I have made progress.

I also needed to do inventory for the shop up town.  I made 2 batches of lavender room spray and collected things I was running short of.  I work there tomorrow.

I packaged up the Apple Jack soap that finished curing last week.  I have started wrapping the soap in tissue paper rather than cello bags.  That serves 2 purposes.  It allows the soap to breathe and it allows the customer to smell it.  Samples are one less thing I have to deal with at craft shows and at the shop.

There is always some overpour with each batch.  I love the goat soap mold.  I do bag these because of their irregular shape.

I got all of my paper work and bill paying finished before heading down to the dungeon.  I still have laundry to fold, Christmas stockings to make, orders to process for shippng, and a bit of quilting to do as my reward..

June 27, 2016

I have been super busy the last couple of weeks.  I may have mentioned that I am listening to a podcast, Etsy Conversations.  I have learned a lot about improving my Etsy shop.  I have spent the last couple of weeks re-doing my tags and titles.  I am learning a lot about SEO - search engine optimization.  My views have gone up quite a bit, but not much of an increase in sales.  However, the shop has doubled in income compared to this time last year.  I am finding it fascinating how descriptions and tags affect views.

I have also been revamping the labels on our products.  I am a "visual" person so packaging is high on my list of priorities.
Here are some of the labels I have done for our jar candles.

          The wax melts have a new look also:

                                              Soaps too!

The brick and mortar in town is also keeping us very busy.  Our dips and mixes are selling very well.  I laugh now when I think of how nervous I was about this move, but I am so glad we went on board.  The people I work with are fantastic and a lot of fun!!

I've also been working on grungy candles.  I love the Candy Cane scent even though I really should be working on the fall grungies.  

Sunday, June 16, 2013

First of all - Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers, father figures, Godfathers, etc out there.  I hope your day is wonderful!

After last week's batch of Lavender and Lemongrass, I was itching to do a re-make on a lot of our soaps. (Maybe itching isn't the best word to use).  I actually made 4 batches of soap last week.  I normally make soap on Mondays, but because warm humid weather is approaching, and because we do not have central air, I decided to make soap while the sun didn't shine - so to speak.

 I noticed that I was almost out of Lemongrass - so I made a batch of that:

Then I discovered I was almost out of Country Roads  - so I made a batch of that.  

Actually, I made a batch of this a couple of weeks ago and the colors bled and morphed.  Good soap, but not terribly pretty.  I was thrilled with the way this batch turned out.

My Lavender stock was dangerously low (it's always dangerously low) - so I made a batch of that.  

I was so excited by how this turned out that I had to try an idea I've had in mind for a while.

So - I made one more batch.  I'm calling this one Americana.  It  got a lot of attention on our Facebook page.  Now I have a ton of ideas swirling in my head for some special edition Christmas soaps.

I have also been experimenting with different flavors of fudge.  We have added Snicker! Snicker! to our line.    Made with peanuts and caramel bits, that one disappeared pretty quickly.  



Next was a fudge inspired by Heath Bars.  This one has almonds and toffee bits.  We had a contest on our Facebook page and the winning name was Almond Toffee Delight. 



 I want to do a pink peppermint fudge for Fall and Christmas which will have some of those soft peppermints ground up in it. Then there will be a Peppermint Patty fudge which will have Junior Mints in it.  Now I am getting bombarded with other ideas from several people.  I have this summer to finalize all of this and then in September we start getting orders for Christmas Stockings. (Which we have been working on since January)  

October starts our Fall craft shows and we have added two more to the four we usually do.  And to add to the fun, we are having a change in leadership at our parish (where I work when I'm not playing with grandkids or making soap, fudge, candles, and rugs.).  Not only will we have a new priest, but for the first time in my time at the church, we will have a man as our business manager.  Lots of changes ahead.  

Monday, June 10, 2013 - Cutting Lemongrass Soap

Ugh, my big chore for the day is to get soap oils measured. It's my very least favorite part of soapmaking. I have somewhat streamlined the process, so it isn't as bad as it used to be. The part that makes it so tiresome is actually only measuring the hard oils. I hate having my hands all greasy, but at least with the coconut oil, soybean oil, and palm oil, I can scoop it out and be done with it. But cocoa butter - oh, that evil cocoa butter. In order to keep prices down, I order it in a 50 pound chunk. It requires a hammer and a butter knife to chip off the chunks. And my lovely scale always decides to shut off before it is all measured. Today I hammered the butter knife down so far into the chunk that I couldn't get it out again. Sooooo, I have one batch of oils measured. I will pour these into four smaller buckets and each of those is enough for one batch of soap. I think I will do several of these today and then I won't have to bother with it for a month or so.

The girls were here this morning so I finished my Lemongrass video from yesterday.  They like to watch me cut soap and they absolutely LOVE to sniff it.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com