Woo hoo over 100 hits!

We have officially had over 100 hits on this blog, and I want to thank all of my readers, and thank everyone for passing my blog around. It is day 16, so only 349 days left to make this project a success.

I thought maybe I should do a quick recap for any new readers. About 3 weeks or so ago I made molded glycerin soaps for the first time and fell in love with the process. It really is fun, and there are all sorts of shapes, scents and colors you can use. Well I was watching the movie Julie and Julia. In this movie Julie tries to cook every recipe in Julia Childs cookbook in a years time, then she blogs about it daily. I though, what a fun idea. Then the next day on the radio I heard this woman talking who took Oprah's advice for a year, and blogged about it everyday. When I heard that, I just had to come up with something of my own. Since I recently found a new passion for making soap, it seemed perfect. I have a year, 365 days, 52 weeks to start a successful soap making business with only one hundred dollars. By successful I mean turns a profit, it doesn't have to be a lot, just more than I put into it. The challenges I face with this project are by no means am I an expert of making soap, I made my first bar ever about 3 weeks ago. I also am extremely busy, a mother of 3 with one on the way, a part time college student, and a wife.

So far this project has been going great. I have opened an online shop at etsy.com called, "Soaps and Such by Holly." To visit go to www.soapsandsuch1.etsy.com. We have not gotten any sales yet, but are well on our way. This morning I posted my 12th item for sale, it wasn't that long ago that I had no inventory. I thought it would really be hard to make soap and still have a lot of quality time with my family, but it's the complete opposite. My youngest daughter that stays home with me still hangs out in the kitchen while I'm melting and pouring, and her nap time is perfect blogging time. My son doesn't get to involved, but he is loving the soaps I mess up because he plays with them in the bath. My oldest daughter is having fun making soaps with me, she add the color and does the stirring. Up above is a picture of her in action. What is really great is my husband has been super involved. He is a public accountant and has all kinds of ideas as far as business plans go, but what is funny is before my project he didn't even know decorative soap existed. It was blowing his mind when I showed him all the different soaps there were online.

Needless to say I'm having a lot of fun with this project and I hope you are having fun being a part of it. Some of my plans for the future are too maybe post some tutorials or make a video, open another online shop at a different venue. I would like to get enough inventory to actually do a real life craft show, but that could be a long way off. If any of you have any ideas please feel free to comment, I would love to hear them!

Thanks again everyone,
Holly