Fresh This Week: Spring Show Schedule

Just a heads up - my Spring Show Schedule is now updated and in place on the web site. There's quite a bit going on earlier in the spring this year.

There are 2 shop appearances at Group Health this spring - one right around the corner, just in time for Valentine's Day, and the other one is the beginning of April - perfect timing for the start of spring, Secretary's Day and Easter. I've done a number of times over the past couple of years, setting up a temporary shop in their tiny retail space. And I've reserved it for 4 times this year (Feb 5, Mar 31-Apr 2, Aug 18-20, and Dec 15-17). So excited to do a hearts and flowers theme for Valentine's Day with all the brand-spanking new spring stuff.

Best of the Northwest is moved up to March, and we're back out at Magnuson Park for this one, but in a different hangar than before. It's still super easy to get to plus free parking.

I'm headed back to the Mt Vernon Street Fair in April, for the Tulip Festival. I've missed it the last couple of years, just scared of the weather, but since we've had such a mild winter, I'm going to give it another shot and hope I'm not rained out or blown away. That weekend is always so iffy. We've even had snow. Fingers crossed that this year is at least partly sunny and mostly dry. That's all I ask.

There's a new spring show at Eastlake High School in Sammamish, and it's in the gym, like we were in November. So if you are in that neighborhood - it's Sat only, March 20, and a great time to stock up on spring scents and stuff.

Then there's the usual Starving Housewives show in March at Echo Falls Country Club. A new (for me) Garden Art show at the Depot Arts Center in Anacortes, April 24 & 25. And finally I'll be back at the U Dist Street Fair in May (15-16).

That's the show scoop. And next week is the big Spring Newsletter and all those exciting announcements, so meet me back here for all the news. Have a great weekend!

Simple pleasures

Last week I posted the quotes that I chose to signify the philosophy behind my business. Today I wanted to share the ones that didn't make the cut, but that I still keep nearby, and refer to from time to time, just for inspiration. They are all in the same theme, and all still pretty good too.

"One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats." Iris Murdoch, The Sea The Sea, 1978

"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all." Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1917

"It isn't the great big pleasure that count most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones." Jean Webster, Daddy Long Legs, 1912

"Taking joy in life is a woman's best cosmetic." Rosalind Russell

"Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex." Oscar Wilde

"Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived." Helen Keller

"In the end, what affects your life most deeply are things too simple to talk about." Nell Blaine

"Beauty is an ecstasy, it is as simple as hunger." Somerset Maugham

And if you're not into all the quotes -- I promise I'm done for a while :)

Sunrise

The colors in the morning sky this time of year are spectacular. Dark purples transforming within minutes to exotic oranges and pinks as the sun pokes its head up over the mountains, streaming into the windows.

You've got to get up early to see the sunrise show. But that's my favorite part of day, quiet and peaceful as lights pop on in windows around the neighborhood. Dogs and their walkers start their daily route, the jangle of leashes breaking the silence of the sleeping world.

I can't wait until I can sit outside with my coffee and watch from my patio. The lure of spring is getting louder and louder.

Fresh This Week: New Lip Balms

Such a hectic day. There hasn't been much time to get to the computer until this evening. But there is new stuff in the studio this week. It's a little sneak preview of some of the new Spring Seasonal stuff, just for those of you paying attention.

I have 3 new lip balm flavors which I'm announcing in a couple of weeks in the newsletter. I just finished them today, and they are different than the usual stuff, and pretty great. They are all natural-flavorings, so the lip balms are still 100% natural, with a natural sweetener and a ton of great, nourishing oils in them. No color, just clear and a tad bit glossy, but not gooey. It's the perfect mix of oils to wax so it's not too soft and not too hard, a nice balance. Some people have said it's the best lip balm ever. But you can decide for yourself.

Ok, drumroll please. The newest flavors are: Jasmine Tea, Sweet Dreams and Passionfruit. Jasmine Tea is a lovely blend of Jasmine Blossom and Green Tea leaves. It's subtle and natural, a light floral green tea scent and flavor, and perfect for tea lovers.

The Sweet Dreams is a complement to the aromatic spray of the same name that I have made for a million years. It's a blend of lavender and chamomile, sweetened with a bit of vanilla sugar. Flowery and similar to the Lavender lip balm I made a couple of years ago, this one is light and fresh, not overpowering, but delicious.

And the Passionfruit is a luscious tropical fruit flavor, similar to mango. The kissing season is coming up soon, after all, with Valentine's Day just around the corner. What better way to pamper your kisser and get it in the mood than to pucker up with Passionfruit lip balm?

Ingredients: Almond oil, coconut oil, beeswax, avocado oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, vitamin E, natural sweetener, natural flavoring oils
Nt. wt. 1/4 ounce.

Luscious Lip Balms HERE! I've just put them up on the web site so you can purchase them any time.

The power of words

When I first began dreaming about my business, and trying to come up with an entire new concept and name and logo and whatnot, I decided I needed a little inspiration. I wanted to convey simplicity and necessary daily luxury, but I wasn't quite sure how to put it all together.

So I headed to the library, and hit up a couple of bookstores, searching for books of poems and quotations, looking up those phrases and related ideas. It has always seemed to me that just the perfect little phrase conveys so much more meaning than endless sentences and paragraphs of lengthy description.

I wanted a meaningful tag line for my new brochures. And I ended up with pages of them. Then it was a matter of editing it all down to the single one that worked the best. I couldn't do it. I ended up with two, and they've been there since the very first day, on every printed flier I've done for the past 14 years.

For those of you who might not have seen one of my simple little brochures, on the very back of the 3-fold brochure are two quotes. The top one I found in a pile of ancient magazines at an antique show, and it absolutely stopped me cold. It's from Woman's Home Companion, December 1935. And it could have been written ten years ago, or yesterday. It's absolutely the theme of the day, in this culture that we live in right this very minute. I can't imagine how different the world was then, and yet the sentiment was so much the same:

"Year by year, the complexities of this spinning world grow more bewildering and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities." Woman's Home Companion, December 1935

Each time I read it, it seems more true than before. So it stays in place.

The second one is a poem from Edna St Vincent Millay (1982-1950), a fascinating woman poet, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, for The Harp-Weaver, and Other Poems. Her best-known poem might be "First Fig" from A Few Figs from Thistles (first published in 1920):

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
It gives a lovely light!

As much as we all love that one, the one I chose for my brochure came from the Pulitzer prize winning book, The Harp-Weaver and Other Poems, 1923. It's just two lines from the poem called The Goose Girl:

"And all the loveliest things there be
Come simply, so, it seems to me."

The full poem encompasses so much more and sort of takes the sentiment off track, for my own purposes, but it's here:

"Spring rides no horses down the hill,
But comes on foot, a goose-girl still.
And all the loveliest things there be
Come simply, so, it seems to me.
If ever I said, in grief or pride,
I tired of honest things, I lied:
And should be cursed forevermore
With Love in laces, like a whore,
And neighbours cold, and friends unsteady,
And Spring on horseback, like a lady!"

I'm not sure I have ever shared the story of why these quotes are on the back of my brochures. But it probably seems obvious anyway. I treasure my little simple daily luxuries, and a beautiful bar of heavenly soap in the shower each morning is one of them. I was hoping that sharing my own hand made soap bars would give that special lift to other people who used them too. And after all these years, and all the different evolutions of the scents and products, I still hope my customers feel that way.

A Totally Sunny Day, for a change

The things that will destroy us are politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. - Mahatma Ghandi

I know, it's MLK Day and I should be quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. today. There are a gazillion good ones of his too. But I'm purging files this afternoon (so holiday-making, eh?) and found this little quote tucked into a corner. It's worth sharing.

I spent the morning out in the garden. Which is sooo cool. We've had endless days of gray and rain. (In Seattle? Why, yes) But today is warm and sunny enough to be outside basking in just shirt-sleeves. The temperatures have been fairly mild, instead of freezing, but today blows the roof off. Garden hands in January! What a hoot! Little pink nubs of things are poking out everywhere. And bitty leaflets of things coming out of the ground. Now I'm getting desperately anxious for spring to arrive, fully knowing that we've got a couple of months yet.

Since there is no mail delivery today, shipping of orders will resume tomorrow. And I presume, the rain will too. But today is shiny and happy and bright, and I hope most of you had the day off to enjoy it.

Fresh This Week: Erm . . .

Ok, so I've committed myself to posting a blog every Friday, announcing what's freshly made or new this week. It seemed like a great way to be more regular with the blog, more productive with my communication and a way to describe what's going on behind the scenes here at the studio/factory. All really good things.

One of the most important things I want to do with this regular "Fresh" feature is to link to the cool new stuff on the web site and hopefully increase traffic and sales. Of course. This is a business after all.

But this month it's really hard to do that. The "what's new" is still curing for a couple of weeks. I'm up to my eyeballs in making batches of soap to catch my inventory up to speed for the whole spring seasonal announcements in a few weeks. I'm making batches of the regular scents, batches of the spring scents, soap, soap, soap.

And I don't want to spoil the anticipation and excitement of what the spring stuff is too soon, so I'm keeping my lip zipped about that this week. In fact, I'm not even 100% sure what they are. I do a few experiment batches alongside the ones I think I'm going to do. Just in case something turns out super good, or super bad. It gives me wiggle room.

The other thing I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on this week, is sourcing new packaging. Sitting on my butt at the computer searching the internet for cute new bags and bows and boxes. Retail is all about packaging, so they say. And I strive to have new and unique looks to the gift stuff. I'm reworking the Pacific Northwest collection for this year, and the Suds for a Brighter Day sets that I had last year, where a portion of the sales went to Kiva. The balance is concept vs cost. I can't make it too expensive that it won't sell and I'm stuck with a big investment of pretty doo-dads that sit on the shelves. I placed a couple of small orders yesterday to try out some ideas. So that's not that fresh either . . . hmmm.

And finally, I've spent a few days shuffling around the show applications, pencilling in and scratching out things on the calendar. Trying to come up with new and better photos for jurying for the shows. Today the whole pile of them get mailed off. This particular task? So not fresh or exciting to announce. I won't know which shows I get into (or not) for weeks. So the show calendar on the web site is totally bare for 2010. I've got a few that I know for sure, a few that I'm pretty sure about, mostly later in the year. But nothing groovy and new to announce this week.

Other tasks going on this week: planning out an email promotions schedule for the year, supply orders, errands to pick up supplies and equipment, costing out shopping bags, catching up on filing and cleaning my desk, infusing the healing salve oil for production next week, drafting the spring mailing newsletter, buying stamps and getting envelopes ready for the mailing, sending out orders, trying to keep the cats from going insane with all this endless rain day after day.

So that's it. Nothing fresh, new, exciting or linkable for this week. But in the spirit of keeping up the commitment, I've duly noted what is happening here in the studio this week.

Perfectionist

I was going through the exercise of cleaning out my blog drafts today. Lots of times I start something, even if it's just a sentence or two, and sort of file it away for a day or two in the future, when it's had time to perk and develop. Or I need a little extra help to get started writing. And after several years of ignoring them, I decided to clear out space.

As I was going through the list, I found this one from January 2006. It's fully written and rather potent. I guess I finished and then chickened out from actually posting it because it was a tad too personal at the time. It probably still is. But it still rings true for me as I sift through my goals of what I'd like to accomplish in 2010.

What is a perfectionist? I use that term for myself sometimes, but I’m not sure that’s what it really is. On occasion, it seems more like an excuse. I’ve started writing a few blog entries over the last couple of days, but never finished them. I wasn’t happy with the topic, the tone, or the way it turned out, so I didn’t publish them. I just chalked it up to being a “perfectionist” and that they needed more work. But I think it’s really fear. Fear that somebody else reading it would find it unacceptable or not worthwhile.

This is a ridiculous assumption, and crippling. Even if I was writing articles or best-selling novels, if I let fear stop me from writing what I was thinking, I would never get anywhere. I know that I let this niggling fear stop me in many projects I would otherwise like to try, and I knew I would struggle with it in this endeavor. I just didn’t know it would show up so quickly and be so pronounced. But here it is. I’ve called it other names too – laziness, procrastination, lack of focus. Today I’m going to call it out as fear and see if I can’t get to the heart of it.

I’ve got lists and lists of things I wanted to do – craft projects, classes, new business ideas – all of them either stopped in the research phase, or the idea phase, because I felt I didn’t have the skills to make it work. And I wanted to do it right, if I was going to do it at all. My rational mind fights back with “how can you possibly be an expert before you’ve even started it.” I know very well that you need to just jump in with both feet and make a few mistakes and keep trying in order to teach yourself how to do something well. Even brilliant geniuses or experts in their field, even people who were “born to do” something, still started somewhere, made mistakes, looked foolish before they became really good at their own particular gift. And the best of them still fall down once in awhile or screw up. Everyone does. So this reluctance to start something because you may look foolish? Is the most foolish thing of all. Yes, this is my brain fighting with my ego and my self-confidence. We are going to duke it out today.

And today I am filing this little blurb about why an otherwise intelligent, accomplished and confident woman sabotages and limits herself with irrational excuses, instead of just living her life full out. Embarrassing to admit it? Maybe. But I’m doing it anyway. (And I’m leaving the little non-sentences in too, for kicks.)

Fresh This Week: Clearance Sale

One of my big new ideas is to be a little more consistent with this blog. And to let you know more about what I'm making here in the studio on a weekly basis. To sort of let you into the process of how the products get made.

So I'm going to try to institute "Fresh This Week" journals each Friday, as a way of announcing what is new, and what I'm working on.

This week has been a frenzy of making more of my regular soap scents to build up my inventory. The last little Christmas rush put me out of stock of many of the most popular flavors of soap. And as I've said before, it takes several weeks for the little buggers to cure, so it's time-consuming and a lot of batches to get caught up again with the full menu of scents that I carry. Since that is so totally boring, it's not worth a big crowing about blog post.

The other thing that has to happen here in the first few days of January is the big inventory. For tax purposes, I am supposed to count every single item and supply in my entire stock and studio, put it down on paper and call it a "year-end inventory." What sucks about this particular task is that it needs to be tied to a monetary cost. Each product - a bar of soap or a jar of bath salts - has to be broken out to it's actual costs, from raw materials to the packaging and container bits. So I count how many jars of bath salts I have on hand, and cost out the salts, the fragrance, the jars plus lid, and the label, and come up with my actual cost of what that product costs to make. That's the "actual cost." And this needs to be listed next to every item. Plus every ingredient I have on hand too. Lots of searching for invoices from earlier in the year.

Ingredient costs vary a lot throughout the year, and from year to year. It's not that easy to just transfer the costs from one year to the next. Olive oil has gone way up, and back down. Sometimes a particular container radically changes price too - like the tins, due to cost increases to produce it. Anyway, it's a time-consuming effort and boring and blah, blah, blah. The only silver lining is that it keeps me on track with knowing if I'm out of whack with my prices, and what I need to cut back on. Plus it makes me look at what I have on hand that just needs to be cleared out of the studio to make room for new stuff. Odds and ends of items that need to go. Clearance sale!

That's the long, rambling, prelude to my announcement that I've got the Clearance Sale page back up with a few items that I'm putting up at a huge discount. There isn't a lot of stock of any of these items, so if you're interested, don't delay.

Here's your link to the sale page to BUY NOW! When it's gone, it's gone.

Sleep

"It is a delicious moment, certainly, that of being well-nestled in bed and feeling that you shall drop gently to sleep."

Leigh Hunt

For me, January is sort of a month of hibernation. Catching up on sleep. Working quietly behind the scenes. It's a month of creating goals, making plans, setting up a calendar, putting all the building blocks into place for the year ahead.

All the little notes I've made throughout the year for new scents, new products, new ideas for packaging, marketing, selling or whatnot are thoughtfully considered - and either tossed, filed away for another year, or put into action. It's fun to re-imagine the whole business and start fresh. Often it just ends up being more of the same, for practical reasons, but I like the exercise of imagining things completely differently. What if I didn't do this, or this, or that anymore, but did it this other way instead? Usually something interesting pops up. And the end result always makes my life easier or better.

It's the freedom of reinvention that keeps me sane. and happy.

Toast

Phew, the rush is finally over. Last minute orders continued into last week - all while I was juggling all my own shopping, baking, wrapping of gifts, and decorating. Christmas flew by so fast, didn't it? After the months of preparations, it all slips by in the blink of an eye.

Now I am over-sleeping a bit. Wearing my pj's until noon. Catching up on the gigantic heap of disordered mess in my office. It's a lot of putting away and making little piles of things to do. Like the bookkeeping, filing, inventories, taxes. January is full of so many little tasks. Definitely not a slacker month, but quieter. No shows, no rushing around. Orders have slowed down to a little trickle for one month. But the paperwork pile is staggering. New show applications area at the top of the list, along with all the end-of-year books.

I must say, last year was puny in comparison to the last few previous years. Sales were down in the spring, by a lot. And summer was a lot slower than usual. But November and December were up from last year and mail order did a bit better too. So those are positive signs. I'm going to work harder this coming year, on all kinds of things. I've got a bunch of ideas about what I want to change and what I want to make better. I'm kind of excited about it all, and hopeful. Glad that 2009 is over, and I'm still here.

Postage rates increase again on January 4th. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to make some changes in that area. Prices will go up in the next mailing - Spring 2010. I'm also going to do a clearance sale of the last of the winter items. That should be up next week, and it might be a good time to stock up on a few things at the cheaper prices. February 1st will be the spring newsletter, price changes and new updates.

I got a new stereo for my studio for Christmas. It's gorgeous and I forgot how much I liked having a little something in the background while I'm working. I didn't know how much I missed the music. I love it.

I also got a Cuisinart toaster from my sister. I have been struggling with toasting a darn bagel, which always burned or got stuck and had to be shredded to get it out of the old cheapie toaster. This one is so beautiful, it's a work of art. And it makes the most perfect toast I've ever had. Truly. I adore this sleek silver machine in my kitchen. I want to toast everything.

So a toast to the new year. And a chance to start all over again.

Shipping Deadlines

Just a quick pop-in to say that today: Thursday, December 17 is the guaranteed last day for Priority Mail shipping in order to get it there by Christmas.

If you are shipping to a local address, it usually takes just a day or two, so there might be time left. No guarantees. But if you are shipping across the country or out of state, this is it. Get your mail order in right now.

I've gotten so many mail orders this month that I'm down to the wire on lots of my products. A bunch of the regular flavors are sold out, though the 4 holiday scents are still in stock. At least for today. The holiday lip balms and bath salts are sold out. All the sprays are still available. And the shop shelves will be very bare until early January. I'll get back to making the soaps in the next few days, but they will need cure time. So it's not until the new year that I will be fully stocked again. I tried so hard this time too, not to sell out before Christmas. No matter what I do, there is always something that comes up and wipes me out. Which is good, don't get me wrong. But gives me panic attacks too, which is no good.

This whole announcement is probably a little too last-minute - sorry. I lost track of time with all the coming and goings and running to the post trips. But there you have it.

I'm almost at the end of the long, long ride that is the holiday circus. What a relief. It was good. And chaotic. And stressful. And prosperous, for the most part. So now I need to get my own shopping done. And find cards, if there are any left on the shelf. I can't wait to get out of the studio for bit today and see what's out there. Fa la la la la.

We've Got A Shop This Week!

This week I've got my own little shop space over at the Group Health campus on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Michelle Deyoe is joining me with her whimsical jewelry pins, and Nancy Ensign too, with her vintage pieced jewelry and collectibles. Lots of holiday gift stuff, loads of great gift ideas.

We're located in the Group Health Shop Space, Central Campus, Capitol Hill
Address: 108 - 15th Ave E, Capitol Hill, half a block south and across the street from the Safeway at the corner of John St.

Hours: Wed-Fri, Dec 9 to 11, 9:30am to 4pm daily

We're going all out, with twinkie lights and trees. Hope to see you there.

Oh, by the way, this is my last show of the season (except for the final weeks of the Allied Arts show in Bellingham). So last local Seattle show, anyway. And I'm starting to get a little thin on inventory. Yes, I know there are weeks left before Christmas. But it's been a big huge month of shows and mail order and that's how it works. So if you are on the fence or need a bunch of stuff for gifts this year, it's a good time to either stop at the shop, or get an order in. No pressure, though :)

This Week's Shows - Dec 1

A whole bunch of stuff is happening this week. It's packed full of shows. And the mail orders are flowing in. There's still time to order, but stock is getting thin in spots after all this hoopla. So don't delay on working on your gift list.

The Holiday Festival of the Arts in Bellingham continues, and has their big gala reception this Friday night:
GALA RECEPTION AT THE HOLIDAY FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
Friday, December 4 from 6-9pm - 3548 Meridian St. across from the Bellingham Country Club
Please join us for hors d’oeuvres, a glass of wine and live music. Music provided by End of the Road String Band, The Honey V’s, The Honeybees and Chuck Dingee & Friends. This is a great time to shop for the holidays and enjoy your self!

Hilltop Holiday - part of Bellevue's Magic Season of events
Northwest Arts Center
9825 NE 24th St
Bellevue (Clyde Hill area)
Wed - Fri 10am-8pm, Sat 10am-5pm

Phinney Winter Festival
Phinney Neighborhood Center
6532 Phinney Ave N, Seattle
Sat and Sun 10am - 5pm
* Note: I've got a different spot this year and will be in the downstairs Blue Room of the main (blue) building. Right across the hall from my usual spot in the Red Room, and a little smaller space. So look for me, and let me know if you want a big bundle of any one thing so I can make sure to bring it. Or if you are looking for something specific, just to make sure I have it along. I've got to squeeze in and cut back on some of what I usually have there due to my smaller location, and I want to make sure I don't disappoint anyone who needs say a dozen bars of anise soap or a boatload of berry baskets.

Wow, it feels like I've been in this merry-go-round of holiday madness forever, maybe a year or more. But it's only been one month. Four weeks of non-stop shows and orders. And we've still got a month til Christmas. My party horn will be all worn out by then. But it's going good. Very good.

Blown Away

Blown Away. That's the theme this week. The wind is fierce, the rain is never-ending, the weather is awful.

I am blown away too, not just by the weather, but by all the shopping madness. Between the last few weeks of shows, the piles of mail orders, a couple of big corporate orders, and the shows left on the schedule, I am getting thin on inventory, and even thinner on time. So I have to cancel a show this week -- the one that I had just added before things blew up, and that's PLU in Tacoma this Saturday. I really hate to do that. But I stretched myself too thin and have to finish the orders that are already here on my desk. That's the number one priority. And in doing that, I have literally nothing prepared for Saturday. There isn't a minute to spare to package up an entire new show from scratch in an hour or so tonight. And it's not worth all that agony to even try. My apologies to all the south end folks who were hoping to catch me there.

So here's where I am this week (in addition to flitting around the studio from dawn to dusk):

November 19 - 21
Vasa Park Christmas Craft Show
Vasa Park Ballroom, 3560 W Lk Sammamish Rd, Bellevue
Thurs and Fri 10am-8pm, Sat 10am-5pm


Nov 20 - Dec 24
Allied Arts Holiday Festival
Wed-Sun 10am-6pm, new location with great parking!
3548 Meridian Ave
West of Bellis Fair Mall on Meridian, across from the Bellingham Golf & Country Club

Opening night is this Friday, Nov 20 and it continues through Christmas Eve.

Veteran's Day

If you need a reason to smile today, check out these videos of doggies greeting their soldier-owners at the door when they return.

This Week's Shows - Nov 9

A little whiff of holiday cheer -- yep even at the beginning of November. I feel a bit like this elf - feet out from under me. It's starting to go so fast.

First off, the newsletter went out last Friday and I was a little surprised at how many people showed up to the Eastlake show on Saturday looking for the new winter soaps. Dang! I thought I could squeak out one more weekend with the fall soaps, since I have to make the winter soaps last for so many more shows this month and next. But we're all good now.

I've sent off a pile of orders today that came in over the weekend for the new stuff. And I'll have the full line of winter soaps at both shows this week. We set up today for the Starving Housewives show at Echo Falls Country Club in Maltby. And the weekend will be the gigantic, stupendous, Best of the Northwest show at the Exhibition Hall in Seattle.

The following week is will be the busiest yet, and I hope to make it through in one piece. Allied Arts in Bellingham begins that next weekend, and I'll be at Vasa Park all week, PLU on Saturday, and Grandma's Cupboard in Snohomish too ( I think, we're just working that out now, more later.)

Here are the details for this week:

November 10 - 14
Starving Housewives Holiday Home & Gift Show
Echo Falls Country Club, 20414 121st Ave SE, Snohomish (Just off of Hwy 522 E onto Echo Lake Rd)
Tues - Friday 10am-8pm, Sat 10am-6pm

November 13 - 15
Best of the Northwest
Exhibition Hall, Seattle Center, Booth # I-13
Fri 10 - 8pm. Sat and Sun 10-6pm
Click the link for a $2 off admission coupon to the show
160 local artists and their wares - lots of wonderful and unique holiday gifts

That's the news for this week. Everything else is a blur. Some of the fall scented soaps are going fast, so if you were still interested in those, order quickly.

Winter Holiday Newsletter 2009

I've sent out the Winter Holiday newsletter and it should arrive in mailboxes today or tomorrow. The email version will ping into mailboxes this afternoon. So I'm posting the letter here too, just to keep everyone up to date with the latest.

I haven't time to include linkie-poos here for each and every item. But if you want to click directly to the web site, on the winter holiday seasonal product page, CLICK HERE!

WINTER HOLIDAY NEWSLETTER

Dear Friends,

What I notice most as we slip from late Autumn into early Winter is the darkness. Daylight arrives in the morning long after our day has begun. And the deepening dark of sunset creeps over the sky before we’ve even begun our suppers. Staring up into the inky black skies of a chilly winter night, the stars blink and twinkle, more sparkly and clear than any other time of the year. Scientists say we are made of stardust. Our human bodies, like all life forms, were created from the dust and elements in the explosion of a star - the atoms of our bones glittering with the magic, chance, and chaos of those twinkling stars so far away. The wonder and sparkle of Winter is more than the season of parties and shopping. It’s a celebration of just being here, made all the more special when you share it with others.

As the holidays get closer, the gift lists begin to grow – but the intentions seem a bit different this year. Rather than the usual exchange of “stuff” , we all seem to be looking for more simplicity and meaning. Handmade gifts and items that are both useful and use-able make more sense, especially while we are watching our budgets a little more closely. Soapworks Studio’s little gifts of soap and bath goodies are the perfect fit. All locally handmade and reasonably priced, there is something for everyone on your holiday gift list.

Holiday Seasonal Soaps

The upcoming holidays have sparked a bunch of new wintry wonderful soap scents for a little fun in the shower, or a special gift for someone (or everyone) on your list. ($4.00 each or 4 bars for $15.00)

Cool Yule - Oh baby, the ultimate cool. This scent is a soft blanket of freshly fallen snow, an icy breeze, and a wintry breath of juniper. This clean white soap is as cool, fresh and tingly as a snowflake against your cheek.

Eucalyptus Lemon – Cold, wet weather sparks sniffle season and this soap is the perfect antidote. Bright, sunny lemon banishes the drearies while eucalyptus opens up breathing in your chest, head and nose. A dusting of French green clay adds soft color while adding detoxifying benefits. Lather up and breathe deeply in a hot steamy shower to give you a lift on a grey morning. (100% natural soap)

Winter Day – The perfect winter day is spent outside in a lush Northwest forest – skiing, hiking, skating, or searching for that magical Christmas tree. I’ve tried to capture that essence in a unique fragrance blend. While the list of elements will at first sound perplexing, it’s really quite lovely. Pine trees and dark forest, wood smoke and flannel shirts, woolen mittens and sugar plum treats all stirred together. This soap is the soft red color of Grandpop’s Union Suit long johns.

Tangerine Cinnamon – Tangy sweet, juicy orange and tangerine mixes it up with warm cinnamon. This is a classic and lovely holiday combination in a pretty cantaloupe colored bar. (100% natural soap)

All the Autumn seasonal soaps, Cinnamon Pear, Pumpkin Carrot and Honey Orange Clove are still available too!

Holiday Spice Home Fragrance Spray

Add a little festive spirit to your home with one of our winter holiday home fragrance sprays. Mist your house and holiday decorations just before guests arrive, or spritz your gift boxes, cards and stockings -- your family and friends will receive a whoosh of holiday scent when they open their presents!

Holiday Spice - this is our most requested seasonal spray, every year since the very beginning --oranges, cranberries, spices and greens all blended together for the perfect scent of magic and delight. (4 oz bottle - $ 6.00)


Sugar & Spice Bath Salts

Sugar & Spice – and everything nice. That’s the winter seasonal scent we’ve added to the regular menu of Dead Sea Bath Salts. Sweet vanilla cookies, warm spices and a splash of orange make this a wonderful holiday treat in the bath.

Our rustic, chunky bath salts come directly from the Dead Sea. Pure salts with a mineral content that is much greater than other types of sea salts, they work wonders on purifying and detoxifying, improving circulation and moisturizing skin, soaking away stress, and relaxing muscles, aches and pains. These bath salts dissolve in water almost instantly, with a lush, silky feel – no gritty bottoms. What we know for sure is that when you finally drag yourself out of the luscious bath waters, you are left with unbelievably soft, silky smooth skin that seems brand new. For little footbaths or long evening soaks, these are the best bath salts ever.
Standard scents: French Lavender, Vanilla Bean & Honey, and Almond Ginger (16 oz bottle - $8.00 each)

Festive Lip Balm

Just for the holiday season I’ve added Hot Cocoa, Pumpkin Pie and Candy Cane flavored lip balms to the menu. It’s the same nourishing, natural lip balm base that I always carry in a dozen-lip smacking flavors, just a few new flavors for Christmas stockings and holiday memories. See the enclosed brochure or the web site for the full list of flavors – Coconut Lemon, Vanilla Tangerine, Root Beer, Raspberry Soda . . . . mmmmm. (1/2 oz tin - $3.00 each)

Gift Ideas
Attention Holiday Shoppers! It’s the gift-giving season, and fun bath stuff is the perfect gift for everyone on your list. I’ve got an elfin mountain of new gift sets and packaging ideas.

Gift Boxes: New, unique, and downright adorable origami style boxes to hold a single bar of soap, two bars of soap, or perfectly sized to hold a bar of soap and one of our cotton scrubby accessories - like the cotton washcloth, soap sack or scrubby mitt. These are the perfect small gifts for those special office folks, the patient teacher, the friendly neighbor, the lovey who watches the pets while you're away, the dear who does your nails or hair, that gaggle of book club gals -- you know who I mean. Two colors/patterns: Chocolate brown/Paisley Chicken, Sky Blue/Cherry Bomb. ($ 4.00/box)

Gift certificates: So you know they love Soapworks Studio products but you’re not quite sure which scents they like the most? Or you have a choosy someone on your list that likes to select their own signature scents? Or you’re just plain out of time in all the holiday rush? I’ve got the perfect idea! Give a gift certificate from Soapworks Studio so they can choose their own favorites from any of the products on our list. You may purchase a gift certificate in any denomination to fit your budget. We’ll pretty it up and send it off in a lovely decorated envelope. Gift certificates are the perfect gift for that exacting person on your list with a flair for sensual pampering.

Go Green!: Skip the wrapping paper this year and gift a bar of soap inside one of our scrubby mitts or sacks. A little piece of recycled ribbon makes it special. Order them separately on the accessories page, or as a set on our gift ideas page.

My Own Holiday Shop

I’ll be repeating my little temporary storefront at Group Health in November. I will have my own retail shop for several days – Wednesday through Friday, December 9-11. Group Health has a tiny storefront that I am “renting” to have my own shop space. They loan it out to artists from time to time, and a percentage of our sales funds their TLC Guild, which helps with patient's needs. It’s designed to be a gift boutique, full of winter holiday gifts, and a great way to shop the entire Soapworks Studio selection. It’s located at 108 – 15th Ave E, kitty-corner from the Safeway on John St. See you there!

Internet & Mail Ordering

Holiday shopping online or by mail saves you time, expense, and the headache of traffic jams and crowded malls. We usually ship within two business days, and can send your items directly to family and friends with gift enclosure cards too. Send in the enclosed order form, call during business hours, or for late night brainstorms, order from our website at SoapworksStudio.com. Spend more time celebrating and less time fretting. Let Soapworks Studio be your answer for holiday gifts!

May your holidays be twinkly and bright!


Again, I would love to have the time to type in a perfect little clickable link for each new item I've listed in the newsletter, but there's too much to do today. So if you want to click directly to the web site, on the winter holiday seasonal product page, CLICK HERE!

This Week's Shows - Nov 2

It's going to be a busy week - lots of running around. I'm at Meridian Valley Monday and Tuesday, Red Ribbons the rest of the week, and a one-day show at Eastlake on Saturday.

November 2 - 3 Meridian Valley Artisans Festival
Meridian Valley Country Club, 24830 - 136th Ave SE, Kent
Monday 4pm-9pm - members only, Tues 9am-8pm open to public

November 4 - 7 Red Ribbons and Reindeer
The Hollywood Schoolhouse, Woodinville

November 7 Eastlake High School Holiday Bazaar
400 - 228th Ave NE, Sammamish, Sat 9-4

The Best of the Northwest show is next week - I have postcards for $2 off admission, and there is a downloadable coupon on the web site for the same thing. Click HERE for more info and the coupon. Northwest Art Alliance, who runs this show, has a new director and a new marketing director too. So there is all kinds of new energy and a huge advertising push this time around, which is much appreciated. We'll be at Seattle Center Exhibition Hall again this time. I'll have more details about next week's shows in the blog next week. Oh yeah, if you want a postcard with the coupon, let me know if you see me this week at Eastlake or wherever. I'll have them at my tables at the other shows, next to the brochures. Or give me an email or quick phone call and I'll send one off.

The Winter Holiday Newsletter is going out this week - in a few days. I'm getting it back from the printer today, with a stuffing fest going on in between everything else. It will be in mailboxes before the week is over. I'll post it here too, and send out the email versions at the same time, so everyone will be updated at once. I started all the website updates over the weekend. Just need to get some new photos on there of the winter soaps. One more project on the list, whew.

Stamps and blather

These are the stamps I'm using for the Winter newsletter mailing. It's called Thanksgiving Day Parade, and it looks like a window pane of 4 designs on the USPS web site, but they've just arrived and it's really a vertical strip, with one entire design spread across all 4 stamps. Kind of cool. If you look closely the bottom row attaches to the back of the first two and it's a little slice of band and giant turkey balloon from the New York Macy's parade.

I just thought the colors were nice and it was more hip than the stupid holiday stamp designs this year. I never like to do religious ones - just doesn't fit with business. But the generic holiday is usually dumb - nutcrackers, ornaments. I'd love a pretty snowflake design. But the parade it is. And I'm running on about this why? Because I don't got nuthin' else.

I've been mulling over the blog, which is especially dusty and forlorn. In order to write a blog - a personal type blog, not just a business/advertising/marketing type blog - you have to be doing or thinking something interesting. Or else be an especially great writer of boring nothings. None of the above going on over here. My life is so singularly dull right now. Nothing but work.

It's a week or two before the big kick off of November and December holiday sales. Next month is when the newsletter goes out. The craft shows will be 3 per week. The mail order stuff will be piling up into mountains. And I'll be buried deep for a couple of months, just running frantically. And right now is just as frantic, but in prep work. Finishing up the last minute decisions, writing the letter, updating the web site etc. I spend all day making as much soap as possible, running around from task to task, doing half of it, while my mind reels out of control, jotting notes, starting another little task, another little pile. Printing labels, making supply runs, endless lists, questioning everything. So, so dull.

And the blog? Well, there's hardly time to write. But I can't think straight enough to get a sentence out anyway. And honestly, even thinking about doing a blog post seems like another chore. You know what happens when you commit to a personal blog? Your whole perception of your day, your life changes - like you work your way through each activity thinking about how to describe it to strangers rather than just doing it and moving on. Should I write about this? or this? or this? Oh, maybe I should be taking a picture of my breakfast? Or talk about what I had for dinner? which might be interesting, if it weren't just toast or noodles.

So alas, I'm just incredibly busy. Doing the doing that has to be done right now. And not having any kind of entertaining thoughts about any of it. Just head down. Shoulders hunched and sore. A slight headache. Because I'm a one-gal show over here and there's way too many things on my plate at the moment. It's like this every year. This one isn't worse, or better. It just is and that's what I do.