Minerva Day 2012! First Soap Sale Event…

Updated:  7/16/12
I have been busy making soap for the Minerva Day Garage Sale on June 30th.  I have made over 50 bars of soap and I cannot wait to show the world my work.  I started on June 8th and have made over 11 batches of hot process soap, in order for them to be ready to sell on Saturday. 
Here they are:
     
This happy fragrance begins with top notes of clary sage, Italian lemon, and hints of bergamot; followed by middle notes of spicy carnation, and lily of the valley; with base notes of cedar wood, patchouli, and amber.
                                     
This unique fragrance begins with top notes of fresh bananas and juicy grapefruit, middle notes of kiwi, juicy bubblegum, and strawberries; and a hint of vanilla as a base note.
             
Beach Bum fragrance oil captures the essence of summer like no other fragrance; combining juicy mandarin, sand, jasmine, and refreshing oceanic mist.
              
A fruity blend of ripened mango and juicy papaya.  ****Sold Out****
                 
A citrus bouquet of lime, kumquat, grapefruit, lemon, with a soft floral undertone of jasmine, on a background of musk and sandalwood.
                                           
A soothing bedtime blend of mandarin, lavender and chamomile, neroli and lily of the valley.
                                            
This fragrance begins with a medley of sweet orange blossoms, yuzu, and kumquat; followed by middle notes of juniper, Mediterranean fan palm, and rosemary with base notes of fresh sandalwood and Tahitian vanilla beans.  
          
French verbena and lemon, a green Florentine iris and violet leaves, and sublime notes of Mysore sandalwood and ambergris.
           
This fragrance begins with top notes of fresh lime, mint, and ozone; with middle notes of French lavender,  and base notes of white musk.
                                        
Notes of geranium, bergamot, and rich Indian spices; with notes of amber, woods, and musk.
                
Breezy tones of fresh ozone and bright orange oil highlight a floral blend of jasmine and lily at the heart of the blend. Clean woody elements of cedar and pine balance with a hint of spice to accent the floral accord. A clear musk undertone envelops the outdoors sensation with shimmering sweetness.
               
Non Fragranced.  ****Sold Out****
                
Non Fragranced.    ****Sold Out****


I am already getting phone calls with orders for mid summertime.  I am having so much fun, and being able to make wonderful soaps for people really makes me feel like I am improving on the world somehow.  I will let you know how my sales turns out.  If anyone is interested checkout the town wide sales going on, (http://www.townofminerva.us/documents/2012-MinervaDay.pdf)  (http://www.townofminerva.us/documents/2012%20GarageSaleMap.pdf )and maybe I will see you too.  I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend, whether you are going to fireworks this weekend or next, please stay safe and I hope you have a great time.
-Carrie

Summer has arrived, and planning interesting activities has begun.

My children decided to stay home with me again this summer, so that means planning activities and making sure the boredom doesn’t kill us all.  We have already went to the Adirondack Museum, and to the beach a few times, but honestly that alone will not tide us over.  We are heading out on a 4 day camping trip starting Thursday.  We have made it a routine to check the newspaper for upcoming events so we won’t miss out on some wonderful opportunities.

Filling our days with interesting things can be burdensome but if you get the kids involved it will lighten the load.  The kids want to live at the beach, but I cannot tolerate the crowds or the hot sun (I am just recovering from a bad sun burn….  LOL!).  A compromise was in order, we will go to the beach on the nice days, but it will need to be after 3pm so we can avoid the crowds and the bad UV ray times.

I will be hunting online for new and fun activities for the kids to do, I cannot wait to get started.  If you have a game plan, and keep a routine in which the kids help with the housework, the planning, and the packing for these events, it not only teaches your children great needed skills, it gives them the freedom to have a say in what is their “vacation”. 

I am grateful for the time I have with them and am very blessed to be home to spend time with them (plus they chose to stay here with me for the summer, which is awesome as well).  All in all, when I start to feel overwhelmed by the whole situation I can stop and realize that I wouldn’t trade this position I am in for anything in this world.  Remembering last summer and how much fun we all had will keep me (hopefully) from going out of my mind.  I know that in my past posts, I have sounded well organized a collected, but I lose my grip on sanity more than I prefer to let on.  I am far from perfect, but the awesome thing is I don’t choose to be perfect so its really hard to fail with that attitude.

I hope everyone enjoys their summer!  Check back to find more ideas to keep your kids busy this summer.

Planning a Budget for Your Business Idea

With all of the research that I was doing I found out that I needed 4 types of things.

I needed:

1. Safety Supplies
2. Equipment
3. Materials
4. Storage

I created a list of everything the books told me that I needed.  Then I went and broke that list down to see what I already had and could use instead of what was on the list, or I could ask around for.  Then I made the list of what I needed, which by that time wasn’t as overwhelming as the first list I made, Whew.   

I didn’t need to make a lot of purchases right away, which was a relief.  I had to get the goggles, gloves and mask, there was no compromising on safety.  Since you cannot use your equipment again for cooking once you have used it with lye, I gave up my stick blender, my old crockpot and my candy thermometer, to the cause. 

For the materials  my husband and I checked out the local Wal-Mart to see what oils would be easily available to us, and I took note of them and created my recipes with them in soapcalc.  This gave me an idea of how much I would need.  I will go into this bit of planning in my next post on this subject.

The last thing that we needed to buy was storage to contain all of these items that were strictly for soap making. We bought these a week later after I realized what needed to be contained. If you buy everything the immediately you might not know exactly how you want to organize everything. I am glad I waited, because I was able to really know exactly where and how I wanted to store everything.

My husband and I discussed how much we could spend, we decided on a set amount per pay check.  This could be different for you, you might decide to have a set amount per month, or whatever.  A set amount during a specific amount of time is a sure fire way to not cut into your normal monthly budget and hurt yourself in the process. 

This is important, don’t charge your credit card or take out a loan for this.  It can be done a little at a time.  We started with only $40.00, it can be done.  Plus this makes you slow down and be very careful with the materials that you do use when you start out.  It makes your really respect your outcome more, because you can’t just go out and buy more if you mess up (well you know you physically could, but not if you want to cut into your budget).

If you cannot be disciplined and respect a budget then how do you really think you will be able to manage a business and all of the financial attributes that go along with it?  This is a key lesson here.  Do not put yourself in debt for something that you aren’t even sure you will like doing or are sure you can make into a sustainable income.  It is going to take time, it won’t happen over night, plus you don’t want it to happen overnight, you need to learn as you go.

I hope that you are able plan a budget to fulfill your dreams.  With a bit of planning a small amount can really add up to a big difference in you life.  Good luck on your path, I hope everything turns out wonderful for you.

My Handmade Soap

 

                            

I would like to share with you a few pictures of my first soaps.  I have given most of them away now but I will be making more soon.  I cannot wait to keep going, I am having so much fun making them and using them as well.  I have found that I love the recipes that I started out with, but the colorant and fragrance weren’t always spot on.  But I was able to rebatch those that I didn’t care for too much and they have turned out beautifully.  This set is my last one, I loved it so much I new it would be a great one for my testers!!! 

                   

These are my Orange-Bergamot Bastille Soaps that I made by Hot Process.  This set is my last one, I loved it so much I new it would be a great one for my testers!!!

 

      

These are my Lavender Lard Soaps that I made by Cold Process, but the color didn’t stay and the fragrance was very weak.

      

So I Re-batched them and made a beautiful soap with Aloe, Oatmeal and Honey Additives.  I loved how these turned out.

      

These are my Apple Pie Shortening Soap, that I Cold Process Oven Processed.  They turned out beautiful.  They have Oatmeal and Honey and Lather so wonderfully.

       

This is my Carrot Peppermint Soap.  I made these with Carrot Juice, Oatmeal, Honey, and Peppermint Essential Oil.  The Lather is gorgeous and it feels great with refreshing peppermint coolness.  I love this recipe because it benefits the skin so nicely.  I only have this bar left!  I couldn’t keep these to myself. 

I hope everyone that got a chance to try these enjoys them as much as we do.  I can’t wait to get started on more.  Next time my focus will be on the style, now that I figured out which recipes work great for me.

My Promotional Idea

I love projects that I can do with the kids.  So a Melt and Pour kit was a great inexpensive taste of what playing with soap making would be.  The kids had a blast and I did too.  I didn’t really think much more about it other than it was a super easy craft to do with the kids.  When my father in law, complimented me and told me how awesome he thought the soap was and that I should start making them to sell, I started to pay attention. 
I wasn’t all that excited on my own because the project was too easy for me.  I know from watching many Soap Queen episodes on YouTube that the creativity is endless, but I wanted full control over the whole process.  Bringing lye into the house was something that my husband would have to agree with me on, it is a poisonous substance and we have small children.  I never considered it an option because I was afraid to ask if I could.  But when his father was encouraging me, my husband was on board already.
I had already touched on the subject about a year and a half ago when I found the Soap Queens series on YouTube.  I subscribed to a few other Vlogs and watched how they made their soaps, I was completely fascinated.  It was always one of those “someday, when I …” type things. 
Well this came at me kind of fast, and its been a whirl wind for me.  I have subscribed to about 6 more Vlogs on YouTube, I have read two great books cover to cover and I have been researching and taking notes as if I were in school.  This has taken me almost 2 months, I want to learn as much as I can before I spend a bunch of money that we just don’t have on quite possibly just a hobby.
Here are the questions I asked myself before spending anything other than my own time on my inspiration.

1. What inspires me?
   
2. What is holding me back from attempting it?
   
3. Do I have a support system or will I have to fight to get support?
   
4. Am I willing to do a lot of research on the subject, before I spend money on it?
   
5. Am I willing to consider other peoples opinions on some of the choices I need to make?  If No, how important is it to me to have peace in our family? 

I would hate to see anyone put a lot of money into something that they just cannot pursue at this time, because of lack of time, a unified support system wasn’t in place, or the research wasn’t done and they dove in to something without being comfortable with the complete process.  There is an economic crisis right now and being very careful with what we spend it critical, I totally get that we too are living on a very tight budget.
I just want you to make a very educated decision before jumping in.  In my next post I will touch on how I budgeted and created a game plan for how to get started.  Good Luck and have fun, but do it smart so you can avoid the pitfalls.

Easter Egg Decorating, a Unique Way...

We decorate Easter eggs every year, but this year I think they came out the best.  We tried a different method using nail polish, and it turned out amazing.  Check it out!

Easter Eggs 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Believe it or not this is was actually so simple!

1.   We started with a bowl of water, nail polishes and hmmm… well that was it!
   
2. You take the nail polish and drip it onto the surface of the water.  Keep adding color until you get the desired effect that you like.
   
3. Take your egg and dunk it onto the floating nail polish and it will wrap around your egg as you push the egg deeper into the water. 
   
4. Pull the egg out and allow to dry.

We loved this technique even though it was very messy and a bit stinky.  It was fun to try something new, and the results are beautiful. 
I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!  Take care!

Easter Egg Soap

Here at Alice’s Niche we had a little fun with the kids yesterday.  We made wonderful Easter Eggs Melt and Pour Soaps for the family.  I think it came out wonderful!
For our soap making I envisioned striped Easter egg soaps, it was a longer process than I really bargained for, and I have yet to master the pretty aspect of soaping.  But we did fine for newbies. 
1.  I started by making a soap mold using a box that I filled in the center seem with to allow for a flattened bottom.  I then taped it together and cut down the side of the box to make a tray.

2.  I then wrapped the box with freezer paper to allow for a leak proof seal.
 
3.  Then I got my colorant out and chose which ones I would use.   I use this ELF pallet only for coloring crafts. 

4.  Using a tooth pick I took a bit of the eye shadow out and ground them up with my mortar and pestles(for this project I chose 3 colors, pink, orange and a bluish green).  I wrapped them in plastic wrap so I wouldn’t lose most of the color onto their rough surfaces.
 
I just love using the eye shadows for colorant, because you can mix your own colors so easily if you cannot find the one you like.  Here I chose to add a bit more yellow to the somewhat orange color I already had.

5.  I then cut my white Melt and Pour into chunks and placed them into a heat safe container. 
 
6.  I then melted it in the microwave for about 50 seconds (depending on your microwave this might be different for you).
 
6.  I then mixed in one of the colors and poured it into the mold.  After the soap had hardened I popped it out and repeated with the next color until I had all 3 colors made into flat soap sheets.  I then began to cut sheet using a cookie cutter that was in the shape of and Easter egg.  I then bagged up the scraps of leftover soap to use in a project at a later time.

7.  I repeated this until all 3 colors were cut into egg shapes and the scraps were all picked up.  I then stacked the egg shapes into pile of 1 orange, 1 bluish green, and 1 pink.

8.  I then cut the stack into 3 equal parts, creating the “stripes” that I was envisioning. 

9.  I then chunked up a very small amount of clear melt and pour soap and place in a heat safe container.

10.  I then melted the soap in the microwave for about 40 seconds, and added fragrance to it.
 
11.  I then poured the melted clear melt and pour into the cookie cutter about 1/3 of the way up, while holding it on a sheet of freezer paper. 

12.  After the soap had set up I was able to add 3 of the chunks of soap that were of different colors into the the cookie cutter to create the striped egg, then I pour clear melt and pour to fill the cookie cutter to the top. 

13.  In order to make this process a bit faster I began doing the same process but in a soap mold instead.  (Whew!  I didn’t think I could hold onto that cookie cutter forever!)

14.  And here is the final results. 

Natural Soap Making, Why?

I have wanted to start my own business since I was still in high school, I just never found my “Niche”. This fits, and it fits better than I could have ever expected it to, so in my book that means it was hand picked for me. This is the biggest reason why I am starting with soap, oh yeah, and my husband is on board… I only struggle when I am fighting against him, this time, he’s here with me.
I love creating things, whether it be the perfect cup of coffee or food that I just love.  I love the research, the experimenting while making it and the reward in the finished product.  I am rarely dissatisfied even when an attempt was “what seems” to be a complete failure.  I love the knowledge I gain either way.
Soap is not the item I am addicted to, it is the process and art of how everyday items can come together to become something as beautiful and luxurious as the perfect lather.  There is so much more to soap other than the pretty bar that smells gorgeous in the store.  It can also be healing and change your perspective to the day just from the essential oils tickling your nose in the morning. 
I could go on and on but I will try to keep this short.  I have only touched the surface myself of what the craft of soap making holds for me.  I am challenged with the idea of making better soap with every batch I have made.  I look forward to making the perfect swirls and creating healing, beneficial recipes.  I can even safely do some of my projects with the kids, which is the greatest of all greats. 
I would love to keep a journal here to track my progress.  I can write about how I am making it work out for me, so others can possibly find inspiration as well.  How I am able (or not able, lol) to keep my family, household, and a business rolling.  I am a real person and want everyone who reads this to understand that I am by no means striving for perfection.  I am simply making the most from what I have, and I want to share it with you.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs and I am not Talking Insects.

Well my 10 year old daughter was out of school all but one day last week with this wonderful stomach bug that is going around.  Now my 5 year old son has gotten it too.  What are we are we to do when no one can eat?  Well we waited until everyone got better last weekend before we made chili…  We even had to laugh at the thought of having a chili incident.  It would have been memorable, but not one that we would like to look back at, if you know what I mean.
Well we have stocked up on Ginger ale, and Lysol Disinfectant Spray.  The poor kids that are sick are quarantined and the rest of us can go on as normal for the most part.  My son is watching Jimmy Neutron on my Kindle Fire right now, he seems content.  I have to get going and make dinner for the rest of us.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Take Care!

How I Found My Niche

I started writing a blog a year ago for my family to keep up to date with my mother in the hospital. Last summer I started this blog to keep a journal about the activities I did with my children while they were out of school.  When the kids went back to school, I lost my purpose here.  During the fall and into the holiday season I started a blog about photography, and when the beautiful colors of fall vanished so did that blog too. 
I haven't lost my willingness to keep writing, I just cannot focus on one thing.  But then again I don’t know too many that can just stay focused on one thing for a long period of time.  I entitled this Blog “Alice’s Niche” because I was actually in search of my focus.  As most people who search for things they cannot find them.  But when they stop searching it finds them.  Ok… 
When my mother was sick last year, I had bought a Melt and Pour soap making kit to use with the kids.  It got put in a box and into storage because I just didn’t have the time to use it then.  After Christmas I was putting away the decorations and I came across that kit again.  I pulled it back out and waited till the kids had their winter recess in February.  We made a few soaps and were pleased with our craft!  We gave out a few of the extras that we had to family, who were pleased as well.  My father in law told me that I should start selling them, that they are really awesome.
Well needless to say I jumped in, grabbing all that I could to learn about soaping.  I have watched numerous YouTube videos, read a few soaping books, researched online and even started plotting a path to take to start a business.  I have been driving my family crazy with my non stop conversations on soaping.  I am ready to keep going.  I am bringing this up on here because I will be discussing that a lot on here in the future. 
Having no prior experience with making soap, I would like to share my side of how I came to enjoy and become a soaping addict.  I would also like to explain how I came up with my recipes, and why I chose to do this now.  I hope everyone enjoys my new posts and sticks around to follow my journey.  Take Care!

Eat, Pray, Love

Elizabeth Gilbert has an exceptional gift of story telling.  I appreciate her attention to detail, and her down to earth style of writing.  I really was able to follow along easily, and visualize the places that she travelled to.  I loved her journey to Italy, India and Bali.  It was fun to see the world through someone else's experiences. 
I loved how she described Italy, its laid back ways and its beautiful language.  The people there seem to be so welcoming and free from the stresses we place on ourselves here in America.  As with any culture it is intriguing to hear about the everyday lifestyles of others, for me it is anyway.  I loved how free Elizabeth was to just be able to experience different parts of Italy as well.  Quite unrealistic for most peoples lives, but who am I to judge.
I loved how when she went to India she talked about the soulful experience of transcendental yoga.  This has always fascinated me and her description of her struggle with her meditation assignments everyday really made since to me.  This part of the book was beautiful and delicate, and she really bares her “soul” here and shows her vulnerability.
In Bali she is there to learn from a wise man that she had met prior to this trip.  His simple approach to Elizabeth’s questions, really shows how life is a lot less complicated than what we make of it.  I can’t imagine how going to a country that seems to have so little, but is blessed with great beauty at every turn wouldn’t leave a big impression on anyone.
I loved Elizabeth’s journey, but that isn’t my entire opinion.  It is hard to say this because I know Elizabeth is a real person, and I don’t like being mean.  In my opinion, I show no admiration towards people who just walk away from a marriage, because they are unhappy with their lives.  That is completely disrespectful and selfish.  I understand that people can become unhappy, but I am appalled by the way she left her husband. 
Her journey seems lovely and beautiful, but in truth it was a way to run away from her “real issues”.  Granted she had to face them while on her journey, but what about her ex husband?  He didn’t really get a vote in how his life ended up, I am not blinded by this fact.  It was a beautiful, dream vacation of soul searching that anyone would be blessed to experience, but I don’t think it drew the author out of her self absorbed state long enough to accomplish anything good.  Trust me!  Read her next book…

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