Last soaps before the move

Today I have been completing my last two orders before I get to move my bits and pieces over to the new unit, and I cannot wait although I have no furniture as yet. I have begged borrowed and bought two large tables which I need to install, and we will have to see about the rest :) I have also poured a couple of designs in new colours just to see how they come out.

My Horses

Here are my horses doing what they like second best. Their first best is, I think, grazing - and they do plenty of that as well :) Holly and Humphrey have formed a pair over the last couple of years, and are now inseperable and as you can see they like to do things in pairs. Moonie has to have a bit of extra care as he has laminitis, so he is used to being either on his own, or moving paddocks and groups of horses regularly. Therefore Moonie makes friends very easily, and has a lot of them! I have had these ponies with me since they were about 2yo and they are now in their teens.

Oh! Yeehah! What have I done?!

Well I have been wishing for a while that I needn't make my soaps in the kitchen and spare room as we have very little space and my fella is a keen cook who doesn't appreciate any loss of space :)
so we have rather a battle of wills at times. Anyway today I aquired a workshop/office down at the farm where I run my grooming business, in fact its just nearby - so I am delighted today and looking forward to moving the whole operation to the farm. Of course I must get some photos and post them here as soon as I can so you can see , although it will be higgledy piggledy to begin with till I get used to my surroundings :) .

Wedding Favours

I seem to be getting more orders for wedding favours and I am pleased to think of my soaps gracing someones table on their big day-what an honour that is! Now that I am not offering my soaps wholesale to anyone else, I am left with more free time to concentrate on wedding orders and other pleasurable projects, so I am pleased that I chose this route. Some of the soaps seem to be geared right towards weddings and bridal showers. One lady chose some as bridesmaid gifts and for her 'hen party' - which I think is a classy idea. The most popular ones this month have been the royal crown soaps in Rose and in Vanilla which I have posted pics of. I am trying to despatch the favours early in plenty of time for their deadlines!

rose scented soap

My latest favourite scent (so many favourites)! is a really lovely Rose that I have recently began to use again after a year or so. I am not usually a rose sort of person, but this one has converted me!, because it is not overpowering, just very very moreish! I have made a batch of Pink Roses soaps, including some Royal Crowns for a lady in Australia, some travel soaps in little cases, and a nice heart shaped soap with a cute knitted design which is pictured here.
I have sent for some cute hang tags that I found on Etsy which I want to use when I package the soaps, so many talented people selling pretty things on Etsy-almost too much choice!

Gourmet Chocolate Soaps

http://www.soapychica.co.uk/gourmet_chocolate_soaps

This week I have given myself two days off from my salon, so I can catch up on the things of life. I have spent some of that time updating my website with the soaps that I have made recently and taking pictures. Of course its cloudy overhead this week so they are not the best ever pictures. I have tried top divide the shop into sections to make it easier to find the right soap. I have placed the chocolated truffles and chocolate fragranced soaps all together in a gourmet chocolate soaps section. I have many more items to add to that page, its just I haven't got the pictures ready yet. It is a trial to invite guests to a website, as I remember from the early days of setting up the Mutley Makeovers site, but with an allocated budget of £0 I will simply work hard myself and hope for the best :)

Where the bee sucks

I have added a few new soaps this week, but to the same luxury recipe and fragrances as the others. I like the detailed ones- I am a sucker for them!! I especially like the little bee detail on the heart shaped cake, he is drinking nectar from a tiny flower! I have updated my website with many new soaps, the only trouble I am having is the international shipping calculator-it continues to insist that everyone lives in the UK. Here is the link again for anyone who wants a look-any critiques welcome (its a work in progress for sure)!

Kerrera Skye

I have recently discovered this brilliant seller on Etsy- she is a Scottish lady now living in New Jersey, and she makes the most lovely, wonderful knitted items! I saw in particular this amazing bag which is firmly on the old wish list now of course! Wow but the rest of her shop is the same! Check it out here Kerrera Skye

Dita SoapyChica!

Hey look what my friend Les has made up- how cool is that? He sent me the spoof ad as follows:

"Here, world famous Vintage/retro model Dita Von Teese wears Soapy Chica's new Bustier soap design for Fall '09 ... 'You Can Actually Wash It Off!' ..........."

I dont know how he did such a clever thing but I love it! Oh see my writing has gone all blue with the excitement of it all!

Packaging re-think

I am having a think about how best to package my wares! I am happy with my recipe now, and am making all of my soap to the same recipe-apart from adding honey to the Honey Galore and Honey Pudding. My packaging leaves a huge amount to be desired however. I love the little bags that I use for the fancy soaps, but I need other packaging also, especially for the plain bars of goodness. I have taken up an idea from someone who tweeted me last week and re packaged the corsets in ribbon. I have wrapped them in soft tissue first as there is already a bow on the front of the design which doesnt suit the addition of a ribbon bow. I shall post a picture I took in dim light (what else do we get round here) of the new look! You can still smell the soap fragrance through the wrapping, and I think this looks cute for giving as a gift now. I am stumped as regards hang tags though-I fancy tags rather than cigar bands for the plain soaps so that I can wrap them in tissue or paper first, but tags elude me at the moment......plenty of rummaging on the internet should help! I have seen some lovely ones on Etsy but may be too large.......

Gifts for Teachers

I have been busy re stocking my little online shops last month-it seems silly but I am kind of getting ready for Christmas in my mind as far as soap making goes. It was all a bit of a shock last year and I was overwhelmed rather by the orders I had. I am sorting out getting my labels printed for me, and things like that which make life easier. I am also starting to put together my packaging in a more organised and attractive way. I have also been thinking that teacher gifts may be a possible market towards the end of term, hopefully all those hard working teachers will be getting something nice from their grateful students :) I will be making some more of my ornate square soaps next week hopefully and I am really looking forward to that... That one there is Honey Galore a great favourite of mine!

200 Sales on Etsy

I am delighted this morning - my store has been at 199 sales for days and days ( and it was so tempting to make a target of 200 all those months ago) , so when I woke up to a sale this morning I am full of joy! Also the items are a thank you gift for someone-how lovely, I am excited to get them in the post asap. They are going to Belgium. One of them is a vanilla cake in a small gift box wrapped with ribbon, and this is the first I have sold of those, so I am pleased. I am making some more in Chocolate 'flavour' but probably not till next week now.

Travel Soaps

Yesterday I managed to pour some travel soaps, that is soap in a little container which is perfect for travelling with. I made English Roses for my Mum, and Lavender and Amber for my stepdad. They are over from Spain for a couple of weeks and I spent the day with them yesterday so was up early making the soaps.
You can pop the soaps out of the container to use, and then put them back and click shut, so the soap is then fully portable. You can also use the soap while it is still in the container, but I would prefer to take it out. I have made the soaps to the same luxury recipe as all the soaps I make, so people can have home-y comforts on the go. Ive poured several other fragrances - so we will see how they look.