merry xmas

Here are the "angels" again before church. I guessing if I call them that long enough, it may come through.
I took a day off and I and getting back to the soaps tomorrow. I has to be a record day because I am so behind.

Check out the "soap bar blog" for a great pic of a soap necklace.

My favourite soap maker ( soap pirate blog) has some new soap too. I love how she sets the bar higher every time. I glad she is in Australia.

I made IT!!!!!

I had 8 full days of all day craft shows. WE SOLD OUT OF EVERYTHING.!!!!!
People are still coming to my house for me to make gift baskets for them. I have 2 big orders for January. So you can guess what I will be doing on my Xmas break. But for now, I will take a break and put my feet up. This is time for the kids.

First Show for the season

This is my first show of the busy season. It was a 3 day event , with wall to wall people. I did not put to much on the table because it was so small; but there were boxes on boxes under the table to replace each item that was sold. I just had soaps and lotion at this show. The next big show I will have 2 tables so there will be lots of stuff. Xmas Show Schedule

Nov 28th - Atlantis

Dec 5th - 7th - Crystal Palace

Dec 6th - St Gregory

Dec 13th Goodfellows Farm

See you there

Here we are , the improve packaging with new labels. Each fragrance has a different color. The angels are the artists here. I just try to keep most of the paint on the boxes and not my furniture or their clothes and skin.

I am Back!!!!!

There has been alot going on behind the scene here. In my never ceasing battle to become a full time soaper, I had many hoops to jump through.......and still jumping (more like waiting).

NEW CHANGES

I have reformulated my soaps to include coconut milk and to take out the palm. I can not find a reasonable source for environmently safe palm oil. It is just too cost prohibitive.

I love the effect of coconut milk in soap.....more lather too!

And last but not least, our packaging. The kids are sponge painting to add color. We were motivated by the new logo for the Ministry of Tourism of the Bahamas.

Tourism is very slow right now because of the down turn world economy.But we are holding on and keeping our eyes fixed on the prize.

Back from New York

China Town. There were roasted chickens and ducks with the heads still on in the windows. The fish markets left the nose in a whirl!!!






Here are the three musketeers. My 2 boys and my niece. We stayed at my other sister's new house. As you can see she is still unpacking. The kids only look innocent.....they are not.



The flying raptor. I wish he would give me a good picture





The professor, aka the brain.








Night at the museum T- Rex

This is a display of a coral reef in the BAHAMAS

A grand time was had by all and we are going to make another trip before winter. There is so much to see. I would not mind living there!

The Global Garden

I was inspired by this name by another soaper. Her soap did not look like this but about 3 months ago a patient came to my office oooowwwing and aaaawwwing about this soap she bought at LUSH in Italy. It was only available there and not at the Lush stores in other countries.

So 3 days ago when I saw that name I got a wonderful idea. I had about 40 pounds of soap that I forgot to put fragrance in for a wholesale order just sitting on the rack. It was time to try rebatching as per instruction of another great soaper Miss Lilly.

Here is my first exfoliating soap and I love it. It looks rough but it is not that bad at all. Fragance with Lime EO. The additives are

FLAX SEED from USA
LAVENDER – BULGARIA
POPPY SEED – TURKEY
BROWN SUGAR – PUERTO RICO
OAT – SOUTH AMERICA
RED TEA – AFRICA
RICE BRAN – CHINA
NETTLE LEAF – AUSTRAILIA
LEMONGRASS – BAHAMAS
NEEM SEED - BAHAMAS

and yes that pic shows a soap that is slightly used. I did HP method so I was able to use it 24hr later, and use it and use it. It felt and smelled so good!!!

Bon Bon

By popular demand we have included some "fun " products. Here are our baseball size sizzle BON BON bombs. Fragranced in tropical scents eg pineapple, mango, coconut, lemon grass etc.
For my fellow dishers here are the colors I was telling you about.

We are working on another treat.......stay tune !

Another show

Here are our new boxes.

This is my first show with my new boxes.

I am ready to grow. Watch out Bahamas, here we come!!!!

quote

To waste and destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them. - Theodore Roosevelt


One would think that by now we would have gotten this right. My only question is what does it take for people to really listen. He was the president of the United States. I think he had a bit of respect and authority.

New Soap Boxes

Thanks to Jon and Dottie at Sunshine Package, I have a new box that fits my soaps perfectly and also reflects my island theme. I had this custom made by sending them a bar of my soap and a scribbled diagram.

Life is short.Really it is.....

I just buried another friend this weekend. 43 years old...It confirmed my thoughts and fellings on the pharse, Dare to dream. It is not just a fluke that many people are able to live their dreams. In my opinion, there is one thing they all have in common and that is they KNOW what there dream is. Someone told me once that to reach my goal, I would have to focus on it. As simple as this may sound, you would be surprise how many people do not know what there dream is.
There are to many of us who are just living day to day and letting destiny form you. Take control of your own destiny.

The ups and downs

For those of you you think being a soap maker is easy, here is one of the downs. I had a craft show at the world famous Atlantis resort. I did one last year and it was great. They had a lot of games for the kids and dance , limbo contests.

This year they set up craft booths with make you own bath salts, make your own candles and a few other make your own craft booths. They also sold tickets for their games, food and booths. There were 4 of us local crafters there with our stuff. We were only allowed to accept cash not tickets. Needles to say ,it was a bad day for me. People kept coming trying to buy things with tickets. We did about 25% then we did before.

The up of this is that I am more determined by next year not to being doing these kind of shows. I appreciate the opportunity but I am not a novelty , I am a niche.There is a difference!

Another up is that the hotel and water park is awesome and me and the boys will spend our next holiday there and not disney!

Some good books

Like me, these coconut shell soapdishes are a work in progress.

I love reading and I have had more than enough time lately. I am finding these very helpful :

"The little book of big packaging ideas"

"Little red book of selling"

"Lovemarks"

"The little book of big promotions"

You may have notice a theme here. After reading "The Secret" , I made up a vision board and I also decided to spend 2008 focus on my goals. I am not sure about the mystics surrounding that book but I do know that whatever you focus on will be your goal.

So no more mystery or romance novels for 2008!

Another ritual I have is that I watch "The Big Idea" on CNBC at 10pm. Most of the guest are inspirational. He does go board once in a while e.g. Marrying a billionaire with Donald Trump's wife.......give me a break! All in all his show is great.

New fragances

With my new label, I have been inspired to create a new line of "fragrance soaps". I like natural colors and essential oils but my clientele like "Bahama" fragrances.

Here are some that I am trying this weekend. Pineapple, Vanilla, Coconut, Allspice and Key Lime. Do these remind you of the islands?

This flu season has not been pleasant.I have had the flu from Jan 25th, which lead to bronchitis, which lead to asthma and still today I am coughing. And still I will not slow down with working. I really should take a few days off but I did not. Looking back I should have rested.

I am on a roll and the creative juices are flowing. Here is my new logo. This month I will also develop a line of "tropical" fragrance soaps. I am working on the styles now for pineapple, mango , coconut and vanilla soaps.

We also have confirmed our hotel/guest soap line with 3 fragrances: seaweed lemongrass, rose geranium and hibiscus lavender.

Our Farmers Market

Hot hot peppers











Our petit gourmet's breads











Mark entertained us with his art work and guitar music.










My Peppermint soaps.

Here are some of our locally grown freshly picked corn.

Our Farmers Market

My friend Tims wedding

I was lucky enough to leave my sick bed long enough to go to my friend Tim's wedding last Sat. Feb. 2nd. It was on the beach and was simply lovely.

out with the Flu

I have been out for the past 2 weeks with the flu. It has left me with asthma and I have to use an inhaler but all will be well in a few more weeks. I will get a flu shot next year!!!

of course more soaps

bath bombs

I just finished an order of 60 bath bombs. Not my best work but it is done. I still do them manually because I can not get my bomb press to work. It was very humid in my oven from the bread I baked this morning.(BTW for french crusted bread you put water in the oven to steam it up). I just caught the bomb before they fizzed on me.I was supposed to spend the day resting to get over the flu but I could not watch the View one more second.

The other pic is the view of the ocean from my kitchen. Note the inspiration for the bomb color.

more soap pics

Tea Tree

Lavender Mint

Seaweed

Tea tree and Lemongrass

My new camera

Sorry about the lighting but I wanted to show my soaps off with my new camera.

Edamame ( soy beans)

I love these and more importantly my kids eat them. They are very easy to grow and are an extremely healthy food. I just boil in salt water for about five minutes; shell and eat.

I also using a little soy bean oil in some of my tester soaps and I am loving the results.

My kids now drink only soy milk too. There has been a lot of studies showing the increase of allergies due to drinking cows milk. It is not really the milk but all the crap they feed the cows.

Google soy beans, it is worth a try.

Here they are. My little soapers. My eldest cuts the soap and my youngest just looks cute as we try to sell.

They are not allowed in my soap building because of the lye( which they call factor X).

I hope one day to be a full time soaper. I have more fun for that than my job.

I believe in living life to it's fullest. From 2006, it seems like someone I knew has died every other week. I just attended my boss' funeral yesterday. I am still not over it.

On a happier note, there is one of my soaps. I am changing the look this year. I will have new pics when I buy a new camera.

Whitney-Thomas and Max' s mom

I have 2 great boys ages 5 and 9. I guess most parents feel like I do. We live in the lovely Bahamas with our little poodle.