My First Order

It has been a lovely few days of sunshine, with hope of a real summer.  I think we deserve one after the winter we have had.

Mum has been foisting my products on poor unsuspecting guinea pigs. Yesterday, she gave a sample of my body butter to a friend, who has placed an order for a full size pot. Yippee, my first order. From tiny acorns, and all that.

I am trying to find suitable outlets for my products rather than just relying on the internet. It is a really time consuming excercise, but hopefully will bear fruit.

Gardens are starting to look lovely after their long sleep. I don't have a garden to speak of, so I have to make do with a few pots. My Camelia is just about to flower, and the Passion Flower never fails. It is a lovely bright purple spot in an otherwise dull spot.

Creation Collaboration Women Wednesday blog hop.

Last Wednesday was the first Women Wednesday blog hop.

Creation Collaboration was set up as a way of networking by a group of women friends, who are all in business. Women Wednesday was started as a way of promoting the businesses of all who register on the blog roll.

It is a great idea. We are barely out of the recent recession, if indeed we are which I wonder about, and we all need a little help to promote our businesses. Goodness knows it is really difficult to get a business of the ground, and as women we are sometimes not taken seriously, so isn't it great to be able to offer some support to fellow business women?

It just shows how technology is changing the way we promote our businesses. Gone are the days when you just advertised in the local paper. Commerce is now global and the world shrinking.

The world is shrinking that is unless you are one of the poor unfortunates who were caught up in the Icelandic volcano fiasco. I knew I did not shop in Iceland for a reason!

Selling

My products are now on Folksy. I uploaded them last Thursday, and on Friday go an email to say that one of the products was to be featured on a blog. I can't tell you how excited that made me. It does not take much. Sad really! 

This evening, I have uploaded some of my jewellery to see if that sells.  Fingers crossed!

And Finally!

The website is finally live. It has taken a while, but it is up and running. All I need to do now, is wait for the orders to pour in!

Lavender Mist

I don't quite know what it is about Lavender I am not keen on, but I am just not. I do know that there are many other people who really love the fragrance, so I have made a batch of Lavender and Tea Tree soap.

I thought that I would see whether the guest soaps I made the other day were a bit of a fluke, so I made a slightly bigger batch than I needed and filled the moulds I have. I still need to work out how to get the back of the soap nice and tidy, but otherwise I do like the results. I have used a little alkanet root as a colour, and I think that they look a little like stone.

Packaging

Finally, I have the soap packaging. I have gone for a really simple option of calico with some really nice ribbon and a simple tag. I really like the way it has turned out, simple but pretty. I am ready to roll. All that I need to do now, is to set up the shop on the website. Simple!

Guest Moulds

Deliveries arrived yesterday, so I have started making soap again. I had ordered a guest mould to have a play with. I have not used these sorts of moulds before so I did not know what to expect. They are a bit of a faff to fill, but then I am not terribly adept at fiddly. Then there is the difficulty of getting the little buggers out of the mould. A great deal of twisting, banging the moulds on the work surface, and a little bit of yelling and they popped out. I am quite pleased with them, but I think that next time they I will leave them longer before trying to extricate them. I think that they would look lovely with a touch of mica to highlight them, but I don't have them on my assessment.

I have been getting soapy withdrawal symptoms waiting for my ingredients to arrive. The bank holiday weekend slowed things down a little and I am still waiting for my ribbons so I can make a final decision about packing.

Easter

Surprisingly for a bank holiday, the weather is sunny with blue skies, albeit windy.

I have been messing about with packaging, but can't quite decide what I want. I like both options (see above, but please ignore the delightful background) and there does not seem to be an overall consensus. I think that I will have to defer my decision until I have the "proper" ribbon and have created my label. Still, I have plenty to do to be going on with.

There is a lot of work involved with getting a business off the ground, and my loo roll list of things to do, never seems to get any smaller. It does keep me out of trouble however and what I find so encouraging is the reviews I get for the products I make.