Hot Days

Whew, it's hot and getting hotter. This week is going to be record breaking for us in the Pacific Northwest.

The Bellevue show last weekend was already hot. There was so much hype about how high the temperatures were going to get that I think everyone made plans to go to the beach or something instead of coming over to the show. It was dead and sales were so slow that it turned out truly awful. So disappointing.

And I came back to find that my pumpkins are suffering the dreaded powdery mildew disease now too. They looked great on Friday morning. And Monday morning the entire thing is a goner. There's nothing to be done at this point, it's too far gone to save anything. Total bummer. Now I remember why I decided a few years back to skip the veggie growing and just do flowers. You work so hard, spend so much extra time watering and caring for them, fighting bugs, fighting diseases, mulching etc and then they don't put out. I'm back to thinking I should just save all my time and energy - not to mention water bills - and just shop at the farmer's markets. Let the experts do the farming. I'll just do my picking there instead of the back yard. It usually looks better than what I grow anyway.

The exception is the tomatoes. I love those and they always do well here. They are exploding now in all this sunshine and I'm already giving some away, having more ripe ones than I can eat this week.

And OH MY GOD the plums! I have a plum tree in the front, little green things. Don't know what they are and I've never liked them all that much, even though they are tasty and free and no work at all. The neighbors go crazy for them, and I let them pick as much as they want. But this year? This year is different. I've never seen so many fruits in my whole life. The branches are so low you can hardly get under it. One big branch cracked and split under the weight over the weekend. And I spent Monday morning scrounging every piece of bamboo pole, 2x4, lumber scrap, pvc pipe, garden stake etc to prop up branches. I had to get them off the electrical wires too. It was starting to get really scary. So the front yard looks ridiculous - dozens of poles propping up branches all over the place. It's like a funhouse trying to maneuver around the poles, up the steps, and to the front door.

Cityfruit.org is keeping track of city fruit trees, with a huge list of projects they have in the works - from growing to help with harvesting. We've contacted Seattle Tilth to have volunteers come harvest the fruit this year, donating the plums to food banks etc. But we've got a few weeks before they are fully ripe and it's nuts out there.

The cats are totally crashed out, they are so hot. We keep trying to relocate them to cool spots in the basement or breezy windows - it's cooler inside, but they insist on being outside under the plants, their little fur coats must be so miserable. This week is Seafair - the boat races and the Blue Angels screaming overhead all week. The jets arrive today, which will make the cats even more unhappy. And a bit scary even for us.

And it's Coupeville this weekend. I'm already working on that. Anacortes and Coupeville switched weekends this year and Coupeville comes first in August. I'll get info and link up in a bit. Promise. I'm pickling beets this morning and need to get back to it. Super cute candy striped Chioggia beets in a crazy yummy pickling brine. Just a couple bunches of beets from Bellevue's Sunday market. Not a year's supply. Well, maybe that is a year's supply. I mean I like beets, but a jar of pickled beets can go a long way.

Bellevue - 6th St Fair

Since I blew it last week, I am definitely not going to forget to post the particulars for this weekend's show. It's usually a really good show, so I'm hoping for the best again this year.

This weekend is the Bellevue Arts Fair extravaganza. It's actually three different shows, all going on simultaneously in downtown Bellevue. The Bellevue Arts Museum ArtsFair, is the fancy pants show in the garage of the Bellevue Square Mall. It's exclusively fine art and is the biggest draw for national artists to travel here. The second show is called Bellevue Festival of the Art and is located in the Cost Plus parking lot across the street from Bell Square. Also only traditional fine art categories and lots of lovely folks there, another 300 artists or more.

And the third show - my show - is the 6th Street Fair. Now, this is not the poor cousin of art shows - it's just an extension of folks who show locally, and they in fact allow some other categories too, like traditional crafts, which are not allowed in the other two shows. Soapmaking is obviously not high end fine art. So the only show that me and others like me can even participate in, is Sixth Street. And believe me, there are some very lovely artists in our show too. All kinds of things, from furniture to glass, pottery, jewelry, woodworking - but also soap, candles, fabric arts etc., gift items that don't require a year's worth of salary to invest in. There are 120 artists, food booths and music stages over our way. If you've oodles of time, it's nice to visit the whole entire hullabaloo and see everything. The weather is supposed to be hot and sunny, hopefully not too hot as has happened in previous years. This particular calendar weekend usually breaks heat records in the summer, but I'll be in my same old spot under the tree in the shade.

Details: 6th Street Fair
downtown Bellevue along 6th Street

Friday, July 24: 10:00 am - 8:00 pm
Saturday, July 25: 10:00 am - 8:00 pm
Sunday, July 26: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Soapworks Studio Booth Location: I am located in #3, at the corner of 106th & 6th, right in front of the California Pizza Kitchen, facing east towards the Bellevue Galleria complex. Same spot as last few years!

Side note: I made mozarella cheese today! It's messy and sort of weird. I had no idea that a gallon of milk had so little curd and so much whey. But it still made a good amount of cheese. I'll make pizza tonight I think. It's a tad tasteless. I added a bit of salt, but I think I'd add a sprinkle more next time. It's never a super tasty cheese anyway, but it will be fresh and lovely with all my ripening tomatoes and pots of basil, especially after the weekend's heat.

Fromage

Dudes, I totally forgot to post the specifics about Gig Harbor before the show last week. I came down with a snotty little cold over the weekend, and have been a little spaced out. The weather was perfect, and the weekend turned out lovely anyway.

I took it a little slow yesterday, mainly because that was all I could manage. But I've got a full plate this week in order to be ready for the Bellevue show this weekend. It's another 3 day show, and one of my biggest, so there is quite a lot to be done.

In between all this work work, I've made a couple of batches of cheese. Yes, you heard right, cheese. Mascarpone and chevre to be exact. And they turned out quite nicely for the first experiment. I plan to do more. It's easy! In fact, as I was reading through all the instructions for the harder cheeses - the molded ones and the rind ones - it sounded a lot like soap making. I think I might just be able to do this. Where can I find sheep's milk I wonder. Mozzarella is next. There are so many to try. Yum, cheese.

I was reading the other day about the tomato blight on the east coast - it's awful. So disappointing to put in all that hard work and then have the plants die off before you can get any crop. I know, that's what's happened to a bunch of my squash in the front. I'm trying to save 2 little ones off in the corner which still have healthy leaves on them, but the other ones are gone. I have no idea if it came from my soil or came from the plant itself, but it's awful. The pumpkins on the lower terrace are growing like mad, but my treasured little round zukes and yellow summer squash are no more. My tomatoes are incredible - biggest plants ever and they are all starting to turn this week. I've had a few small handfuls of cherry tomatoes, and the romas might be good for dinner. It's going to be so hot the next few days - I'm sure they will all ripen and fall off while I'm working in Bellevue on the weekend. I'll have to get up extra early to harvest.

In case anyone is wondering, business has been down. The shows are ok, some really awful, some just down a bit from last year, some borderline ok, nothing great. It dawned on me about a week ago that this soap business might just be a pot of hot water and I'm the frog. I'm hoping I can hold on this year and wait for the economy to pick up. At the moment, I'm in too deep with summer and fall commitments that I don't have a minute to make new plans or change anything. I just have to hang in there through this bunch of shows and see where I'm at in mid-August.

Favorite quote (at least this week): "It's not about miracles, it's about persistance." Gotta keep plugging away at it, that's all I can do.

July

Beautiful day today. Nice to have a bit of warm sunshine again after a few days of cool and cloudy.

Farmer's Market Day at Columbia City. And we've joined a CSA too, so we are up to our eyeballs in fresh produce. The best thing I've cooked this week: sauteed a summer squash with spring onions, garlic and sugar snap peas - a sprinkling of herbs de Provence tossed in. The peas stayed nice and crunchy but sweetened up even more than raw, the squash got that perfect melty brown - so delicious. There is sweet corn at the markets this week - it tastes terrible. I'll wait a while to try that again. And we're freezing flats of raspberries and blueberries to keep for winter. I got a half flat of the final strawberries of the season on Sunday. Got a few minutes to make jam on Monday evening - with a splash of balsamic and a hint of ginger. It's so yummy. The last bits in the pot that didn't fit in a jar made an amazing salad dressing, just mixed with olive oil and red wine vinegar. The perfect sweet tart for arugula, pecans and goat cheese. Oh and raspberry liqueur - we made just a little and couldn't help drinking it all once, it was that good. There will be more.

My own little garden is having a small crisis. All the squash and zuchini are catching some stupid blight or powdery mildew. I've been picking leaves, spraying with a natural spray and trying whatever I can to save them, but it seems to be moving from one plant over to the next. I'm so bummed. I have a few unusual squash and dark green pumpkins out front that I was really looking forward to. Fingers crossed I can save even a little something.

What I'm reading: Animal, Vegetable. Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Mollie Wizenberg's new book, A Homemade Life, plus all the gossip on Michael Jackson that comes out daily. What I'm watching: the Tour de France, Wipeout, Superstars, Ghost Hunters, pretty much nothing on tv. Waiting for: Harry Potter at the Imax, ripe tomatoes, a few free days in August. What's percolating in the business: working on fall scents, finishing the fall show schedule, changes to the web site and email marketing, how to survive after a month of super crappy shows.

So that's the nutshell of what's going on here - vegetables and work. I'm buzzing around getting ready for Gig Harbor this weekend. I'll post the details on that tomorrow.

West Seattle Street Fair

This weekend is the West Seattle Street Fair - Friday through Sunday, July 10-12. It's a great community festival and everyone turns out for it. It's at "The Junction" on California Avenue. So all the restaurants up there set up sidewalk cafes, spilling out onto the streets. The shops bring tables out to the curb and have little sidewalk sales. There are beer gardens, bands and evening street dances. There's a huge kiddie playground area with those big blow up thingies to jump on and in. Fun for everyone. And shopping. Handmade crafts, arts, import stuff, and great goods. Plus a bunch of commercial sales-y stuff like chiropractors, vinyl siding, insurance, and nursing homes - soup to nuts at this one, but in a good way.

Friday and Saturday hours are 10am-8pm. Sunday is 11am to 7pm. I'll be in the north block, about mid-way, facing East (booth #102). Sorta near Matador's, maybe up a few booths or so, if you know where that is. It's the next little bunch of booths up from where I've been the last couple of years in front of Jak's.

So, that's the business bit. I know, right? It's all business and no play around here any more. Boring.

Here at the studio, it's been a holiday weekend of play. My last bit of summer for a while. I've got shows scheduled for the next 5 weeks in a row and I'm feeling a little blue about it. At the moment, the very cusp of the show blitz, I'm regretting that decision. But it's necessary. I have to make hay while the sun shines. And I'm going to need a lot of hay to catch up this year.

July is smack dab in the middle of summer and it's so full. The Tour de France and Bastille Day - I love to sip rose' and celebrate that. Birthdays. Setting up my calendar of fall shows. Starting to make all the fall soaps and plan Christmas. Harvesting scads of tomatoes - all that early hot weather has my tomato plants just loaded with fruits that are a few days away from turning color. The new Harry Potter movie at the Imax. I want to can stuff this year - pickles at least, tomatoes, maybe jam. Picnics. I've got stuff to do man, and all this working 7 days a week for a month and a half just doesn't fit. Phoooey.

What are you guys doing? Having any fun?

Best of the Northwest/Art 30

Art 30 is the new name for the new incarnation of the summer show that Best of the Northwest is doing. The last few years it's been in Marymoor Park (Redmond) in mid-August. This year it's back at Magnuson Park off Sand Point Way and it's June.

If you're following along to the Best of the Northwest story, we are probably never going back to the old location in the Hangar at the Naval station. The Cliff Notes version is that the building was decaying into such bad shape that the city wanted to sell it to a developer rather than fix it. And then a developer decided to buy it and fix it up. But it was to be for their own purposes and no longer available to be rented out to groups. Lots of protests from the community who wanted access. The deal stood. And then the deal fell through, some financing snafoo. But the building is not habitable and not worth fixing, I guess.

The NW Art Alliance (business name for Best of the Northwest shows) has signed a longish lease at Seattle Center now for the spring and fall shows. So they'll be staying put there. But this summer show is testing the waters back at Sand Point. It's teamed up with Live Arts of Bothell, and it doing this show during the same weekend as the bicycle ride "Artride '09" along the Burke Gilman Trail.

We are going to be at Hangar 30 this time - partly inside and partly outside. The Soapworks booth is outside and luckily it will be sunny and dry all weekend, or so the forecast predicts. It's free admission at the summer shows, and there is free parking right there and we're back in Seattle. All good things, so I'm hoping this version will be successful. Do not expect as many artists though - it's a busy summer and there are lots of shows to choose from, so some of the usual artists didn't want to take a risk for this first-time show, opting instead for the tried and true. Totally expected when times are tough. I think there's about 75 artists scheduled which would still be a nice showing, but I'm not on the inside track.

Deets: Saturday and Sunday, June 27-38, 10am-6pm both days

More info at Art 30

ETA: Linkie fixed

Boo

Yesterday I posted a picture of Louie, so it's only fair that I post a picture of my other beautiful girl, Dora. I usually call her Boo. Or Skinny Butt. or Chick Pea. She's got a hundred names.

I know. Pictures of your cat on a blog are stoooopid. I obviously don't have kid pictures to post. But some of you out there have heard so many stories about them, that maybe you want to see what they look like lately. Still super cute. Maybe the cutest cats in the world. I'm not biased :)

Zzzzzz

This is what I usually feel like on a Monday after a long show. Not so bad yesterday - it was a busy day around here. But this little gal had a rough night and needed a serious snooze.

Just wanted to post a little extra cuteness.

Edmonds Arts Festival

Lots of shows in June -- this weekend I'll be at the Edmonds Arts Festival - voted "Best Street Fair" in Western Washington for 2009 by the Evening Magazine poll for NW Escapes.

One of the most prestigious fine arts fairs in the Northwest, attracting artists from across the nation -- in a beautiful setting overlooking the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. There is also live entertainment, a juried gallery exhibition, a nationally-recognized juried children's art exhibit, a hands-on children's art activity area, wonderful food and a wine bar and bistro.

Dates: June 19, 20 & 21, 2008
Hours: Fri 11:00am-9pm, Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 10am-6pm

Soapworks Booth Location: I will be in the indoor Plaza Room, the top floor of the Edmonds Library, Space #P105. Just a note, Fine Art is located in the field at the street level. Traditional Craft (which my category of soap stuffs falls under) is located above the library, in the outside plaza and inside the Plaza Room at the top floor of the library. We're all above the street, on the other side of the building complex from the other art vendors, so look for us!

For more information: Edmonds Arts Festival There are lists of participants there, maps and shuttle information, free parking and more.

Sorticulture this weekend

I'm late in posting this. Sorry for the last minute. Lots of things going on - not the least of which was a water emergency the other day. Don't ask. Oh ok. I have to tell. I've been spending weeks on the front bushes. Taking them out I mean.

For the last month or so I've been hacking away at the two gigantic laurel bushes that were stupidly planted (not by us, the previous owners) right up against the house between the sidewalk and the foundation. For years I've battled those bushes, trimming them back like crazy, only to have them grow a foot in a week and flop over the sidewalk again. You couldn't even get to the front door anymore without trampsing through the flower bed on the other side of the walk to get in the house.

Then when we did the work downstairs we discovered the roots had come clear through the foundation and started growing in the basement. It was causing all kinds of trouble inside and out. It was time for them to go. So I decided heck yeah I can just rip them out myself. No problem. Right. I sawed and hacked each week until the giant yard waste bin was overloaded. Then the next week I did it again. I think it was a solid four weeks of branches and limbs. Until I got down to the two trunks sticking up out of the dirt. I started digging with my shovel. And axing. The first one would hardly budge.

Hopes dashed, I started calling around for stump grinders or someone to help. But since we live up a flight of stairs from the street, there was no equipment that could be used. I kept hearing "just dig it out by hand." So Saturday afternoon I donned the gloves and started in earnest. When I finally got the first trunk out I was ecstatic! Bliss! All my hard work and I finally did it - a hole in the ground!

That lasted about two whole minutes. I went back to get a piece of big-ass root that was caught up against the house foundation and it was really stuck in. Pushing and pulling, I felt a give and then whoooooosh - water started gushing up, making a swimming pool in the blink of an eye. I had dislodged the water main. My heart sank at the same time I ran for the shut off at the front curb. No budging it. Ran for the basement, muddy boots and all, to get tools. Ran back to the curb and finally got the water shut off. Emergency calls to plumbers, so sad.

Realistically, I knew that was going to happen. There was no way that giant root system was NOT wrapped around the water main line right there. It had come apart few years back for the same reason. I'm convinced that it was already slow leaking, the dirt seemed much damper than it should have been for that dry spot under the eaves.

What happened next was hours of panic and frantic calls. In a nutshell, there are no parts for that stupid piece of pipe from the street. They tried to convince me I needed to spend thousands and dismantle my new landscaping walls to re-dig the main line. I tried to convince them that I was not stupid and not rich. They then found a lovely fitting that worked, and a nice solid piece of copper pipe and fixed it for me. A few hundred bucks. Not a few thousand. I'm good to shower. But almost had a heart attack.

My next project? Removing a clump of bamboo that's like 30 feet high and crammed in a two foot space between the house and the patio up against the fence (again, bone-headed move of the previous owners, not me). I've spent hours the last few days trying to find a rescuer. But I'll still be digging the rhizomes out for months and years anyway. It's poking up through the patio stones again this summer, dropping leaves and messy junk all over my dinner and I just can't live with it any more. But it's beautiful and it should have a much roomier home. So we're trying to find a new owner for it.

Oh, and I'm doing a show this weekend. A gardening show. Did I forget to mention it? That was the whole purpose of the blog today. Sorticulture. If you like plants and gardening, you really should go. It's gorgeous and fabulous, filled with rare finds, new and lovely plants, garden art, funky stuff. Everett, this weekend. Link to all the seminars and talks and special guests and entertainment HERE. Plus hours and directions and map and stuff. It's free and the view is beautiful from that park up there. I so look forward to this show every year.

Summer Heat

It's been hot around here the last few days. The tomatoes, peppers, basil and pumpkins are really happy, and growing several inches a day.

I don't mind the hot, especially when we begged for sunshine for so long. And I'm not complaining about having to water the garden every day either. It's one of my favorite things to do in the morning, to check out how much has grown and what's new, the cats racing past the sprayer playing their daredevil games. Louie especially likes to outrun the water droplets and crosses back and forth under the hose spray. Hiding behind big leaf plants, she waits until I just get to her spot - waiting, waiting, as the spray gets closer until the first drops hit her in the nose, then leaping out, racing around again.

The greenery is suddenly so, well green. It seems like just a few weeks ago when there was hardly anything alive out there and now it's a jungle, a tangle of vines and drooping foliage and big fronds everywhere. The flower pots have suddenly gone from measly little starts dwarfed in their container to big frumpy masses of blossoms. It's lovely and wonderful.

Of course everyone keeps saying, "well you know it won't last - we always have rain in June." I try not to listen to them. Of course it will rain at some point, and that's fine. All this lushness needs a good soaking now and then. But I'm not hoping for a month of drizzle ahead, like I think the rain-lovers around here are. I think it's going to be a good month, and I'll be eating ripe, juicy little nuggets of cherry tomatos in no time.

Cucumber Melon Lip Balm

Big production day yesterday, even though the weather was so summer perfect outside. I got around to making a boatload of lip balms, and realized that I totally forgot I had gotten some cucumber melon flavor oil to do a summer seasonal flavor this year.

I made a batch yesterday afternoon, a little late for the newsletter and all the hoopla about it, but it's really good. It's more melon than cucumber - mostly Jolly Rancher watermelon with a slight tinge of cucumber, which makes it a little hip and cool. I can still drool over the favorite candy of my childhood but feel all grown up about it.

I can't believe that I just remembered it now. Last fall when I found the flavor, I was dying to make a batch, but held off because it was pumpkin and eggnog season. And I guess it just got buried after awhile, both in the cupboard and in my brain. But it's here now, and super fresh and yummy. It's ready for the summer show season, and I'm putting it up on the web site this morning too. Lip smacking delish. But as I mentioned, I'm sort of a sucker for that watermelon candy thing.

Hey blog readers, if you order on the website in the next week, type "free lip" in the message box and I'll toss one in for you to try. Offer ends Sunday, June 7 at midnight. Try it HERE.

The poppies popped!

Oh my, we've had such gorgeous weather, especially for a holiday weekend. I know that was days ago, but I'm catching up. I had to work a small show Friday, but had the long weekend off, and I didn't work a lick. Just enjoyed the lovely weather, hanging out with friends, and grilling with the family. I can't remember when we've ever had a Memorial Day holiday with all three days of sunshine and warm weather. What luck!

Tuesday was a blur of orders, calls, emails and work. The big summer show season is just beginning, and I've got two weeks before it truly becomes a non-stop slog, with back-to-back shows every weekend for months. I'm trying to gear up, get inventory built up, and be ready for it. But there's so much gardening and lazing about to do.

I've planted a mix of radishes in an old drawer, and they need to be thinned. Those little sprouts make the nicest salad, especially with the mint tops that keep shooting up several inches a day.



And I've got a mix of baby lettuces just starting to pop out - planted in a couple of wire locker baskets. Looks like they need to be thinned and rearranged too. And all those squashes, pumpkins and tomatoes need to be watered while the weather is hot and sunny. There's no time for work!



By the way, yes the raccoon has been back to visit. He likes to toss my buckets and pots over and roll them around the yard in the wee hours of the morning. And in all my slug hunting (which has made great progress) I've come to the conclusion that it was the snails that ate most of my petunias. Wow, great big snails. I hadn't seen them before. Double ewww.

Fighting Nature

Ewwww, gross! Slugs!!!!!!

I'm so mad at the slugs. They've eaten 2 of my new zuchini plants. Not all of them - in fact they haven't touched the other ones - the regular green ones, or the pumpkins. But the yellow zuke and the new super cute 8-ball zuke that I just planted are gone. Totally chewed to the ground. And they've pretty much decimated my coneflowers too. I found two of the three starting to come back, and I tried to leave a little (garden-friendly) slug bait around them because they looked a little beat up. And today, they are in much worse shape. I almost couldn't find one of them, it's a nub.

I've been picking and plucking them. But I guess I need to get more serious - beer cans, traps, hunting. They are getting way out of hand.

The other thing that's out of hand? This stupid racoon that decided to mess with me last night. It was 4am. And I heard a giant racket out in the back yard - loud thumping and trampling. And before I could even get to the window, there was a crash. The thing was out there playing around with the lawn furniture and cat toys. And when I peeped out, he waddled over to the window, stood up on his hind legs and stared at me. So I ran for the back door and turned on all the lights to shoo him off. He crossed the yard, coming towards me, and jumped up onto the potting bench, and stared back down at me from about 12 inches from my face. I pushed him with a stick and he wouldn't budge, yelling all the way.

So I went back in. It was chilly. My little nightgown was thin. My feet were bare. He explored my plant stuff there, and started tearing away at the bag of slug stuff - got the zip-lock open and was pawing around in it. And I felt bad, I didn't want him to get sick, so I ran back out, lights blazing, stick waving. He dropped the bag, but didn't move. So I grabbed it from him, zipped it back up, stuffed it behind some things down below. Wow, am I dumb.

He watched the whole thing from a foot away. And when I headed back inside, he knocked over everything on the entire shelf and grabbed the bag again. Starting gnawing away like crazy, ripping it to shreds and throwing the little pellet thingies all over the place. I missed the beginning because the dumb cats had just run over to help me out and I was trying to shoo them back in the house and out of the way.

When I realized that the guy was having a food fight with the slug bait, I ran back out and practically slapped it out of his hand, grabbing it and taking it inside. He was still sitting there, with a defiant look on his face, daring me to wave my stick again. I was tired. I think I pulled something in my back from all the stick waving. I closed the door and headed back to bed. Let him have his jollies.

Which he did. This morning, I opened the back door to a bigger mess. I had a few of the last little plant starts that didn't get planted yet sitting in a far corner. One was turned over and ripped up - dirt and roots and leaves in a trail across the patio. One was gone. Just missing. I've looked everywhere - back yard, front yard, side yard, the neighbors yard, the other side of the fence. He just took it cleanly away. Little saxifrage with the sweetest teeny pink flowers. Gone.

What gives? This is the city. Like seriously, the real city. Not the suburbs. A couple miles from the flippin' highrises of downtown. I'm not supposed to be fighting wildlife here! I'm sure he'll be back. Can't wait for the next episode.

Best of the past

Hi all - just thinking as I'm packing away for the weekend.

Is there a favorite seasonal soap from the past that you are just dying to have me bring back?

I was sort of pining for a jasmine mint soap this morning, and wanting a bigger bar of the cucumber one that I just introduced as a mini in the "Suds" set. Is there anything you fondly remember that I've done before and don't have right now? Summer or any other season?

Just to get you thinking: Jasmine Mint, Citrus Mint and Poppy, Cucumber Mint. Oops, I guess I'm stuck on mint. But please add a comment below if you have a request for me, for any season - fall is coming up next, but winter is almost at the same time. Was there a Vanilla type, a Pumpkin type, a Cinnamon Spice type?

While my hands are busy, my brain is going double time on new ideas for other flavors. Like Vanilla Mint (or Butter Mint). Ok, no more mint. Vanilla Cinnamon. Cinnamon Plum. Nutmeg Lemon. Persimmon. I don't know. I'm open to suggestions. Let me know.

I'm Not Amazon.com

I'm writing a post today in frustration. I know that's completely wrong and a professional person shouldn't be doing it. But by gum, I'm doing it anyway.

My website, while cute, is giving me a headache. And from the sound of it, it's probably giving you all one too. As a lot of you know, I do it all myself. And it's a bit old-school - meaning it doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles that a lot of people who buy stuff online expect. I wish it did. But I can't afford a web designer and all that fancy stuff. So I do the best I can with a little host company and their standard template-type options, some of which do not fit my own unique business.

When you order from a big name online site - say Amazon.com - by the time you hit "submit" it's already charged your card, printed a packing slip and the robots in back are packing your box. When you order from me? Um, no.

What happens is this: you place an order - clicking all the right buttons and typing in all the information. The site sends you a confirmation which is totally doodie. The site sends me an email with all the order info. Then I process the order here on my end. I do all the math. I type out an invoice. I pack the goods and box it up and ship it off.

The confirmation is doodie, like I said, because it pretends it's all already done and gives you an invoice amount. But it has no idea what the real invoice amount is, because the shopping cart flunked math class. It can't calculate sales tax (which is a Washington state thing, but don't get me started on that.) It can't calculate the shipping charges, because I do the shipping according to a flat rate chart, not by actual weight of each item. There's a long explanation for why I do that, but basically it's for simplicity so that folks who want to send a check to order can still do that. And the shopping cart also can't calculate the volume discounts, or coupon discounts or anything else I advertise to give you guys a price break.

So the web site confirms nothing, but confuses everyone. The invoice is for goods only, but not at the discount price. I've yelled at them a lot. But it doesn't do any good.

Most of you dear hearts have ordered from me before and get all this. But some are new, or didn't figure it out at first. And I have had to explain, and explain and explain it - they get their confirmation and don't see the discount, or think I've cheated myself of taxes or whatever. It's frustrating.

Not because I hate to do it, but because I shouldn't have to. The goal is to make this as easy as possible for you all. I WANT more new customers, and I don't want them to think I've got a little backwoods operation over here that isn't up to snuff.

So I've discussed this endlessly with smarter web folks. I've added special instructions, simple, and with color, and with bullet points -- to all the main pages. I've tried different ways. I added text to the ordering process to explain it. I've added links from other places to a whole explanation page. I guess I'm still not quite getting the message across.

It's clearly a work in progress. Maybe I need to change the site to another server that works better. Oh, the headache that would be.

There are all kinds of web pages out there - from single page business card styles, to the full-blown Amazon and everything in between. I'm clearly in that "in-between" thingie. And it looks like it should do it all - I mean it looks good, doesn't it? So I'm working on getting it right - by either explaining it better up front - which is super hard because all the studies say that people only read a few quick words, less than 20% of the text on any given web page. Or by finding a new way to work this whole online shop. We'll get there together. But it may take a bit more time. I've only got so many minutes in the day.

And today, I'm still answering a bunch of questions. Please! don't read this and think I don't want to explain it again if you don't get it. I do. And I will. I'm not kidding. My biggest wish is for this to be easy peasy for you to order from me. Not confusing. So I'll chat with anyone for however long it takes to get it straight. Just give me a jingle or shoot me a quick email. Really.

Oh, one more thing. I realized just this morning that the comment/special instruction box was suddenly missing on every single item page. Seems like a simple thing, right? Just one click or something to turn it back on. No. It took me over an hour to retype/paste the text into every single item page to get it back. They don't know what happened. I realized it after I got a couple of calls yesterday, in which people said they couldn't find a place to type in a message. Yikes. Could it have happened on a better week? Just a few days after the newsletter goes out and the whole world is looking at my site? It's sort of like walking out of the bathroom with toilet paper stuck to your shoe. I'm embarrassed, and sorry for the confusion on that front too. I caught it today and it's fixed now. Again, argh.

U District This Weekend

Here's the scoop for this weekend - and the weather is supposed to be dry and sorta kinda partly sunny. Or something like that. At least it's not supposed to rain. And if it would just warm up from this cold breezy stuff we've had this week, I'd be happy. I was insane, or maybe just a little tipsy on sunshine when I over-zealously planted planted basil and peppers a couple of weeks ago in that hot first weekend of May. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either. I've lived here long enough to know better. They are freezing and sad, and probably replaced in June.

I digress. Back to this weekend. It's U District Street Fair weekend. This is the kick-off event for the festival season in Seattle -- the first arts and crafts fair of Spring. It's an exciting celebration of arts and crafts, community, music and food attracting over 50,000 people and showcasing over 400 artists.

Dates: May 16 and 17
Hours: Saturday 10am-7pm and Sunday 10am-6pm
Location: University Avenue in the U district
Booth Location: Booth #315. A large corner spot on University Way, between 42nd and 43rd streets, but pretty close to the corner of 42nd. Higher up the street than I've been the last 2 years. Which is good. No great. Away from that crazy "Spin the Wheel" game, but probably smack dab in front of the hollering retaurant wars for $1 food on a stick. Oh well, it's all good.

For more information: U District Street Fair

I'm hoping to have it all - spring stuff, summer stuff, the new shea butter balm, oodles of vintage tin flower pots and watering cans for gift sets, pretty bags, the antique style berry baskets, all the accessories, etc.

That means I have to make a million or more lip balms tomorrow.

BTW, thanks to all of you who rushed in orders already, like the day after the mailing went out. It's lovely that you're so excited about the new stuff. Really lovely. And it's been a very tight spring, so every order is especially appreciated.

Here's a couple shots of my girls helping me garden. They too are cold and sad now. Huddling back in their blankies instead of basking in the hot sun on the patio.

Summer Newsletter 2009

Yo - just cross posting the new summer newsletter here in case you're not on the mailing list. The website has been updated too - links are here.

Dear Friends,

The seasons don't read the business section. The sprouts and petals have no clue about the economy. Daisies aren’t worried about the swine flu. Summer shows up no matter what the stock market says, reminding us that life is to be enjoyed and worries need a vacation too.

When summer rolls around, my cozy little house feels a bit too small and closed in. I spend more time in my “outdoor” rooms – the patio and garden, where I can feel the warm sun on my face, listen to the birds twitter and bees buzz, sniff the rich earth and fragrant blossoms, Everything just feels better outside – meals taste better from the grill, lemonade sweeter on the deck with friends. An entire happy memory can be conjured up with one summer word – like picnic, ballpark, hammock, sailboat, beach, cabin, camp. I’ll have more of that please.

Life is short. Toes need air and the squish of fresh grass between them. Summer feels divine Dive in.

SUMMER SEASONAL SOAPS

In a tribute to summer’s joys, I’ve created some special soaps and bath goodies to reflect the tastes of the moment. These unique soaps are available only for the summer season and are made in limited production. ($4.00 ea or 4 for $15.00)

PEPPERMINT GRAPEFRUIT: Cool and tingly mint, with the energizing pop of pink grapefruit and sweet orange. Colored with a pinch of tomato powder, it’s a luscious cantaloupe color. (100% natural ingredients)

SEASIDE COTTAGE: Throw open the windows of your little beachfront cottage and let the sea spray kiss your face. This is a light, refreshing and captivating scent – ocean breezes mingling with fresh air. This scent is so fresh and clean, you’ll want to linger in the shower all day. It’s a gorgeous pale aquamarine color. (99% natural, fragrance oil)

LEMON ZEST: Bright lemon and bergamot, with a zesty sprinkle of spice and mint. I swear this is the scent of happiness and sunshine. Great fun in the shower, charming in the kitchen, and if you can bear to part with it for a guest bathroom – expect it to go missing when they leave. (100% natural ingredients)


SUDS FOR A BRIGHTER DAY – NEW SCENTS

The “Suds for a Brighter Day” sets, which I introduced this spring, are little packages of 4 mini soaps,
roughly half the size of my standard bars, 2x2 inches square, and weigh 1.5 ounces each. Half of the proceeds for these new packages will go directly to Kiva, the world's first person-to-person micro-lending organization, empowering individuals to lend directly to struggling entrepreneurs in the developing world. Tiny little loans of $25 go towards goals of several hundred or a thousand dollars, whatever is needed for a small business owner in a developing nation to get the help they need to make their business sustainable. I’ve already been able to make a couple of loans, and am looking forward to a prosperous partnership, with continued sales of these charming little soaps.

The first set of soaps, and still available, are fruity scents: Apricot Peach, Berry Delight, Grapefruit Splash, Pink Posy. In addition, for summer I’ve added a set of new flavors, a little more earthy: Rose Geranium, Cucumber, Juniper Sage, and Black Tea. ($10 each, 4 mini soaps in a jute gift bag).

SHEA BUTTER MOISTURIZING BALM

I’ve retired the Foot Balm to make room for a new, more sumptuous moisturizing balm – for feet, hands, elbows and all over.

This new balm recipe includes 25% Nilotica Shea Butter and 25% Virgin Coconut Cream Oil, both 100% organic and super luscious. Nilotica Shea Butter comes from Northern Uganda, rather than West Africa, It is far superior in texture, nutritive value and aroma, plus it’s creamier and softer too. Nilotica shea butter is a highly nourishing ingredient that is remarkably effective in healing dry and cracked skin, eczema, psoriasis and sun damaged skin. And it is a noteworthy anti-inflammatory, reducing swelling and easing muscular aches and pains. The Virgin Coconut Cream Oil is obtained from freshly harvested coconut meat that has been grated and then expeller pressed to produce the coconut milk. It is a light, creamy and penetrating oil, which is anti-fungal and has a high Vitamin E content too.

The recipe also contains Sweet Almond Oil, which is beneficial for eczema, psoriasis and itchy, dry and inflamed skin conditions, plus it’s rich in essential fatty acids and vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and E.; and pure 100% natural, beeswax. It’s unscented, but has a lovely, warm, buttery aroma, Bottom line: this new moisturizing balm is the perfect thing for dry skin anywhere, from lips to heels. (2 oz tin, $5.00)

The Healing Salve is still a great option for gardening hands, or cracked feet, conditions in which the healing power of herbs can be put to good use. A wonderful moisturizer as well, the Healing Salve has a bevy of herbs infused in it, which lend antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory properties, to speed up healing of cuts, scrapes, burns, cracked skin – anything which needs both moisturizing and a shot of nature’s miracles. ( 2 oz tin, $5.00)

SUMMER FAIRS AND FESTIVALS

I get so excited each year to pop up my tent and start another season of street fairs and festivals because I get a chance to meet and talk to all of you. For more details on my summer schedule, including booth locations, check out the CALENDAR section on the website, SoapworksStudio.com.

Let’s all scream for ice cream!

Heidi Risse

Happy Mom's Day

Have a great Mother's Day!

This week's events

I've got a couple of different sales events happening this week - hope you get a chance to stop by and pick up a little something for Mom. Or better yet - bring her along!

GROUP HEALTH SHOP

The shop is back for Mother's Day. I mean, of course, my little retail space at Group Health on Capitol Hill. I'm open this week Wednesday through Friday.

I am "renting" their little retail space on Capitol Hill -- a portion of all of my sales goes to the Patient Needs Fund, a part of the Volunteer Services Dept, which buys supplies and necessities for patients there.

Hours: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (May 6-8) 9:30am-4:00pm

Location: Group Health central campus, Seattle
Address: 108 - 15th Ave E, Capitol Hill, half a block south and across the street from the big Safeway store at the corner of John St.

I've got all kinds of Mother's Day and spring celebration gifts!

EXCLUSIVE THREADS SHOW

Artisan's Gallery is a fusion of art works and fine crafts that is held twice a year to showcase the work of Seattle-area artists. The home gallery concept was created by five core artists (Exclusive Threads) who have grown the event to include their works and those of additional guest artists. The sale is held each spring and December at artisan Mollie Reeve's lovely home in the Wedgwood neighborhood. The addition of guest artists brings an element of uniqueness to each event, as there is always a different collection of artists and mediums represented. This spring we are featuring a garden theme and are pleased to Judy Zugish of Bouquet Banque Nursery join us with a wonderful selection of her plants.

Dates: Saturday and Sunday, May 9 and 10

Hours: 10am to 5pm

Location: Mollie Reeves home, 7525 - 41st Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98115

Link: Exclusive Threads

Swine Flew

It's time to write the summer newsletter, and I'm having a hard time with this one. I'm just out of practice with the writing thing or something. Writer's block. It's not coming together the last day or two. So I work a little bit, set it aside and think, "maybe it will flow better later."

Now it's later. And I'm searching for images of flying pigs on the google. Procrastinating. Wouldn't it have been nice to marry a billionaire over the weekend in Venice like Salma Hayak did? Yes indeed. I dug out weeds instead.

It's cat stare-down day. The neighbors have decided to "transition" their indoor cat to the great outdoors. It's a male and still trying to figure it all out. My two girlie kitties are having a hard time, because they thought they owned both yards, and now they are bravely trying to hold ground on just our own little patch of grass. In fact, the boy cat just headed into our kitchen this evening, to much howling, hissing and posturing by all. I'm sure it will all work itself out over time, but the gals are shook up and nervous.

There's so much coming up in May. I need to really get focused. But I'm swimming - little spurts of effort in between big doses of distractions and lethargy. Is it Spring Fever? Swine Flu?

Cherry Blossom Season

Mmmmmm, I love cherry blossom time. The petals are floating everywhere, like snow.

If you're not from here, or you haven't had a chance to get out and enjoy them, here's a site with panoramic views of Seattle, the most recent being a spectacular neighborhood full of cherry trees. VRSeattle. If you head back in time on his blog, you can see all kinds of other cool stuff too like Pioneer Square, under the center fountain at Seattle Center, lots of snow pix. Awesome camera, awesome blog.

And if you're still in the mood for traveling in your chair, here's a panoramic view of the Sistine Chapel, which I may never get to see in person. Sistine Chapel

Gotta get out and breathe the fresh air, there's sunshine again today!

Double Drat

I just dropped a bottle of fragrance oil on the cement floor in my work area. What a mess. And it's expensive too. There was only half a bottle left, but it's still a pricey accident. And super smelly.

After vacuuming up all the glass shards and mopping it all up, I was thinking about the last time this happened. It's only happened twice in the whole time I've been making soap - a dozen years. And the last time was years and years ago, in the kitchen where it ran under the fridge and back behind the floor and wall trim. Really awful - so hard to clean up and it smelled for days and days.

And guess what? It was the exact same scent!!! It's called Sea Spice, and I have used it for the "ocean" scent in the Northwest Collections, and I've used it to blend some of the "Beach House" flavors I've done in the summer. Today I was going to make a new blend for a summer seasonal. But I guess I'm not any longer. I'll have to find a new blending type ocean-y scent because that one's gone and I will not reorder it. It's clearly jinxed and I am not going to risk using it again. There are others that are similar.

The house reeks. Sort of in a good way. But mostly in a too-much-of-a-good-thing kind of way.

We're having a burst of summer weather here and it's awesome. I just hate to be inside working away.

Puyallup Spring Fair this weekend

Spent the day yesterday setting up and then working the opening evening of the Puyallup Spring Fair. It was kids under 18 free night, but they all hit up the rides and food booths, rather than shop for crafts and art. Can you imagine that?

Just a reminder about the deets:

Dates: April 16 - 19
Hours: Thurs 2pm - 10pm, Fri and Sat 10am-10pm, Sun 10am-8pm
Admission: $8.00 - all the parking lots are free
Link: Puyallup Spring Fair

We are located in the center two rooms of the Hobby Hall Building at the Puyallup Fair. We're the only group of locally handmade fine arts and traditional crafts at the fair, with a wide variety of artists represented and daily demonstrations too!

It's a Spring Garden theme, with the Rhododendron Society display, lots of garden displays and vendors too. Stop by for your onion burger and funnel cake fix - it's a long time til September.

This week: Echo Falls

Spring has busted out all over! Those few days of warm weather and all the leaves and flowers have popped open.

I was so sad to miss the gorgeous weekend, when everyone was gardening and enjoying the sunshine. Instead, we braved the basement (ok, lower level with no windows) of the Exhibition Hall at Seattle Center for the Best of the Northwest show. It was lonely. Just too nice outside.

This week is the Echo Falls show:

Starving Housewives at Echo Falls Country Club
20414 - 121st Ave SE
Snohomish, WA (Maltby)

Dates: Tuesday through Saturday, April 7 - 11
Times: Tues-Fri 10am-8pm, Sat 10am-6pm

This is a boutique style show with a central cashier. Wonderful handcrafts and charming antiques. Look for one-of-a-kind spring, garden, home accents and gifts! New longer hours on Saturday. Stop by the Greenside Grill - open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Link: Starving Housewives

I've been rushing from one show to the next for days on end. Yesterday we set up the Starving Housewives show, and today I am FINALLY! getting a chance to hang outside for a little bit. Just a couple of quick hours to do some digging in the dirt and move some plants around. My great big spanish lavender plants along the front walk all kicked the dust during the deep freeze. And my two big rosemary's too. I can't believe it - one of them was really big and quite old. Somehow, the little tiny new one survived, but the established ones did not brave the crazy winter.

This morning was digging out the dead stuff, rearranging some of the roses and peonies into better spots. And planning out new areas for veggies in another few weeks when it gets warmer.

It feels like the flipping of the calendar page to April was the turning point. Activity and new life just jumped out of the closet and yelled "boo!" as if they had been there all along, just playing a game of hide and seek with us. It's a real kick in the pants, and now everything is in full swing - shows, orders, the summer announcements just a few weeks away. I'm still getting the last bits of my studio back into working order too. Whooooosh and we're off to the races after a long winter's nap.

April Shows

I've got 2 shows this week, and 2 more later this month. Click on the links for more details for any of the them.

Pickering Barn Spring Craft Show
April 2 - 4
Thurs and Fri 10am - 7pm, Sat 10am - 5pm
Located at Pickering Barn (behind Costco),
Pickering Place Shopping Center, Issaquah

This is a boutique style show, meaning there is one central cashier, and will be loaded with spring crafts, home decor and gifts.

Best of the Northwest Spring Show
April 3-5
Friday through Sunday, 10am - 6pm all days
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
Link: Northwest Art Alliance

Enjoy a festive weekend at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall when over 100 artists gather to show and sell their latest creations. Meet the artist, learn their stories. Purchase hand made fine art and crafts from those living and working in our local economy, and support Americans!

We are staying at Seattle Center with this show, but the spring show is smaller and we'll all be in one building this time - not spread out. Ticket price is $6.00. I have a bunch of coupons for $2 off a ticket, so if you'd like one, give me a shout.

Starving Housewives
Echo Falls Spring Gift & Home Show
April 7 - 11
Echo Falls Country Club
20414 - 121st Ave SE
Snohomish, WA (Maltby)

Link: Starving Housewives
Dates: Tuesday through Saturday, April 7 - 11
Times: Tues-Fri 10am-8pm, Sat 10am-6pm

This is a boutique style show with a central cashier. Wonderful handcrafts and charming antiques. Look for one-of-a-kind spring, garden, home accents and gifts! New longer hours on Saturday. Stop by the Greenside Grill - open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Puyallup Spring Fair
Dates: April 16 - 19
Hours: Thurs 2pm - 10pm, Fri and Sat 10am-10pm, Sun 10am-8pm
Admission: $8.00
Link: Puyallup Spring Fair

We are located in the center two rooms of the Hobby Hall Building at the Puyallup Fair. We're the only group of locally handmade fine arts and traditional crafts at the fair, with a wide variety of artists represented and daily demonstrations too!

Poetry

Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins


I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

It's Spring

It's official. Today is the first day of Spring.

And it actually feels like it's changed somewhat. Little flowers are opening up on my daffodils and primroses. I can see the little red buds on almost everything else. Stuff is going to pop. We just need a couple of sunny days.

It's Friday and life is good. My construction work project in the basement, that has had me relocate to the dining room for what feels like a year is finally getting close to being done. This is a surprise to nobody, but unexpected things came up and guess what? it took twice as much time and money as we expected. Doesn't this happen to everyone? We are no exception. All of it is good stuff though, and well worth while.

My new favorite place to shop is Second Use. If you've never heard of it, just check out the groovy new web site. They re-sell salvaged building materials and just plain cool stuff. I've been going there almost daily to get pieces for my new studio space: a gorgeous cast iron sink, a huge old school desk/work surface for a counter top with cabinets that the sink will go in, a laboratory style faucet set up. Plus super cool other stuff - like old plumbing knobs, handles. I'm keeping my eye out for a great piece of wrought iron for a trellis in the garden. I also got a great piece of marble for my work bench, which will be the easiest clean surface for all my oil measuring and slopping of ingredients. Oh yeah, one day I got a file cabinet for nine dollars. You can't even buy a cardboard file box for that cheap.

There's so many other things on my list that I want to go back over there and hunt for. It's a treasure trove of great junk, and great prices. Need a claw foot tub? A set of bright orange school lockers? A metal cart from a hospital? Head over. Reuse, recycle.

The other great . . . really, really great news I got today is that we're headed over this afternoon to finally sign the papers on the refi of the house. It's been a painfully long wait - just because they are deluged with refi's now that the rates have dropped so low. Whew. Paperwork. Closing. Relief. Happy Hour as soon as we get out of there.

* * * * * * *

The White House is planting an organic kitchen garden on the grounds. Isn't that the coolest? Happy Spring dance. The long winter and the long wait is finally over. Zippity Do Dah.

March Specials

Have you signed up to be on my email list yet? I've been sending out one little special deal or promotion each month to the email list. And if you want to get the news first, you've got to be on the list. Here's the place to add yourself: Mailing List.

But for the rest of you guys, who maybe only check in here every now and then, I'm announcing my March special:

I'm so tired of hearing the words "bail out" and "stimulus" in every promotion and marketing ploy for the last few months. Everybody's got a cute way of trying to jump start their own "economy." Well, I promise not to pile on.

But things being what they are, we're all watching our budgets a little closer and looking for value when we shop. And while we wait through March, drumming our fingers, tapping our feet, impatiently waiting for spring to happen, who wouldn't like a little pick-me-up or small treat with a discounted price? I know I could sure use a little happy-making something to brighten my day. Better yet, something that I don't have to exercise off my hips later.

So for the remainder of the month, everything on my website is 15% off. Everything. No minimum order. No fine print.

Get yourself a little luscious smelling bar of soap, or a bottle of scrumptious bath salts to indulge in. Maybe an aromatic spray to spritz up your room with a whiff of something wonderful, or a tin of skin pampering goodness. Little treats are the best.

And just one more note, because I've gotten a couple of email questions about it. I've tried my best to explain this on each website purchase page (i.e., "Purchase Soap", "Purchase Bath Goods") in the text part above all the thumbnail pictures of the products, but it's not always clear to everyone. My website is not one of those high-tech shopping sites that processes the transactions as you type it in. It's a little more old school and only sends the order information to me and I process the order here at the office, doing all the discounts, shipping charges and tax calculations here at my end. My little site is unable to figure out all that math on its own. I have a flat-rate shipping chart, not actual-weight fees. And taxes here in Washington are caculated to each individual destination, not one rate for the whole state. It's just too much for my wee shopping cart to handle.

So what you see online when you order is the regular price for the items you've requested - NOT the actual invoice amount. The confirmation page tries to say this too, if you get that far. But if you stop part way, and don't see the explanation paragraph, it may be confusing. Never fear - you will get the discounts, but you will also get charged shipping and tax too. It is all spelled out on the final invoice which arrives in your box with the goods you ordered. And if you need to know in advance or are confused, please call. I'm happy to talk it out with anyone.

Lastly, I occasionally make a mistake too - but I'm super easy about making any corrections if you've caught something on the final bill, or it doesn't make sense. Do not hesitate for one second about calling me and letting me know about something. Stuff happens sometimes, no matter how hard you try to get it right, eh?

Sunshine Dreams

All this gorgeous sunshine today is making me crave summer. It's beautiful, but it's still darn tootin' cold. Remember when life was green? And plants existed instead of frozen tundra and dead sticks? Me too. And I miss it.

Me and the cats are hanging our faces out of window into the sunshine this afternoon and pretending that the grass isn't frozen solid.

The business feels stagnant this week. Since shows don't start until next month, all I've got at the moment are the few mail orders dribbling in. It always gets a tad scary right about this time of the year. It's the last month of all the money going out and nothing coming in blues.

I'm just 3 weeks away from the Pickering Barn plus Best of the Northwest spring shows, so there's light at the end of the tunnel. I'm steadily working on building inventory for summer, but it's very quiet here. Kind of a just hang tight while time passes sort of feeling.

It keeps snowing on my tulips

This isn't supposed to be snow country. And it's not supposed to be this cold after the spring bulbs sproing. Brrrr.

My daffodils, teensy iris tops and the first tulip leaves are shivering. It snowed all weekend long, and again yesterday afternoon. The only thing in my yard that's got color this time of year are the hellebores. And they've keeled over in the biting cold at night.

It's perfect weather for huddling indoors and working on my taxes. Right. Hope your weekend was a little more fun than mine. I thought I had the forms all worked out and completed Sunday afternoon. But today when I was double checking my math (if you know me, you know this is critical) I found a biggie mistake. A whole line of expense items I forgot to put in, which changes virtually every other figure across all the forms.

I'm so glad I caught it now. It makes a huge difference for me, and I will actually get a refund instead of the check I was just about to write. How often does that happen? Nice surprise. Now I'm actually in a hurry get this to the post box!

It's March

It's a new month. Time to turn the page on the old one. I was so ready for that last month to go - it seemed to go on forever. But that's probably just me.

Ideally, I'd like a little time warp, where I just jump ahead a few months or maybe even a year - when everything's green again instead of gray and barren. The weather is warm instead of gray and cold. The outlook is sunny instead of gray and scary. When the daily news isn't so dire, and grim and depressing.

I haven't actually gotten out much lately - but I had to make a shopping trip the other day and I was shocked at the changes in retail. Even the big box stores are hurting. The parking lots were empty, and just a few rare shoppers wandering about. The stores themselves were empty too. Whole aisles with nothing on the shelves and no displays. Entire categories of merchandise were missing, I guess because stores need to cut back on inventory in order to stay afloat. JoAnn Fabric - you could drive trucks through the aisles. Entire areas are empty. Once it was so packed full, aisles so tightly filled and so close together. It's literally a third the store it once was. Very sad.

On a happy note: Soapworks Studio made its first loan to Kiva this week from all the Suds for a Brighter Day sales in February. The little sacks of mini-soaps are my newest item, with half of the proceeds going to Kiva, giving someone in a developing country the few little sheckels they need to get their own micro business off the ground. That was gratifying, and I hope to continue to do a lot more of that as the months go by. We (my wonderful customers and me) sponsored a group of women in Bolivia who sell cosmetics and consumables and need to buy supplies to keep going. Yay girl power.

And another fun thing - I have FOLLOWERS! Wow! Hi loveys. I've added a little gizmo for them since Blogger seems to be pushing this new toy. I'm not entirely sure how that's all supposed to work, but it's nice to know there are a few regulars here.

Show news updates - I'm accepted to Best of the Northwest for spring, their new summer show in June at Magnuson Park and Hangar 30, and the fall show. I'm also accepted to U Dist again in May and am moving up the block to be out of the chaos of that insane "spin the wheel" game which makes me crazy. Much better spot, nice corner. Still waiting on word from lots of other shows which should come in the next month or so. I had a pal in the garden show a few weeks ago who had a record-breaking great show, which is very encouraging. Maybe a few of us will squeak through another year? Fingers crossed.

Today's big news story was celebrities who twitter. Anyone have time for twittering? Do y'all have a MySpace page too? And are you spending the rest of your time FaceBook-ing too? Gah - it all sounds like so much work. And so much keyboard. Am I hopelessly out of the loop? What can MC Hammer possibly have to tweet about all day long? Put the Hammer DOWN people!

Hodge podge

Hello. It's been a while. Sometimes life just gets busy.

Mostly it's just been very unsettled over here, on so many fronts. We had to do some construction work in the basement, which is supposed to give me some better space to work in . . . eventually. But in the meantime - this whole month to be exact - I've had to clean out and move every single item out of my business work space and re-locate into the dining room, living room, kitchen etc. There is stuff everywhere and you can hardly walk through the house.

It's a pain. Truly. Even though I tried so hard to be organized and keep it uncluttered and just the basics, it's a towering mess. And happening at exactly the time of the spring newsletter and a flood of orders. Plus I need to be diligent about making soap for the spring and summer shows. That's becoming harder and harder to do, since I have no space to cure it and store it.

It's construction stuff and complicated and necessary and full of delays. It was supposed to be 3-4 weeks. It's already that, and still so far away. Step by step it's progressing and great, but it's slow and tedious too. I think at some point I'm going to be thrilled about it. But I'm not there yet. I'm squished in a corner, and fighting dust.

On the one hand, it's nice to be upstairs in the little bit of sunlight of we've had this winter, instead of the freezing basement with not enough light. But I can't find stuff and I have such a small space to work. My computer is on a dinky little table. And then it died.

That's the other challenge - computer woes. My (relatively) new computer died. It was a hand-me-down, but much newer than what I was using before. Really big and beautiful and fast. And then the logic board went kerflooey a week and half ago. No internets or browsers would work and stuff just kept crashing. Emergency new computer. Which again, has its ups and downs. Ups - gorgeous, lightening fast, totally the newest thing out there. Downs, nothing I did before worked with the new operating system. Besides surfing, and a little document typing, nothing worked. They had a much easier time migrating my old computer to the new one than they thought they would. But it's all having compatibility issues. To be expected when you are making a leap in systems, but so much frustration. Back up external drive, photo program, printer, customer database program, fonts, address book - all had to be upgraded, rebuilt, imported/exported. It's been one mess each day to overcome.

Today I can finally say I think I've gotten to the end of the list. My customer database was the last hurdle. I think I've got it all imported correctly into the new program and I'll be able to print mailing labels for the summer mailing. I don't think I've lost anybody, but please holler if you don't hear from me in May.

So the business has been operating and functioning - orders are coming in and going back out on time. I've been producing as much products as I can keep up with here. And I'm planning ahead for all the later spring and summer events. It's cooking along. Messy, frustrating and cramped, but still moving along.

That's the nutshell. I've been avoiding the blog a bit because whining is so un-cool. One step forward, two steps back, turn around in a circle, the dance is confusing and I still don't have the steps down, let alone the arm movements. If I just stand here and flap my arms a little, will that work?