Custom orders! Day 37

I finished the 40 ducks yesterday and got them sent out about fifteen minutes ago, and now I have a second custom order. My mother needs sort of a gift basket made, so I'm gonna put all kinds of neat stuff in it, and will take a picture when it's all done.

I was thinking yesterday how neat it is to do business on the internet, because in a few days my little duck soaps that were just here in my kitchen will be all the way in New York. I've never been to the east coast but have always wanted to visit, to bad I couldn't sneak in the mail with them, haha. Now I have soaps that went to Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, and New York! I don't know, I just thought that was pretty cool!

Today I'm gonna work on my mom's gift basket, but really I need to work on my English paper. I should be a lot father then I am, so that is going to take up most of my day. It's just hard to focus on studying when I can't think of anything besides soap. Oh well, I'll get it done, then back in the kitchen I go!

After paying for the shipping today my budget is now down to $13.84. Keep me out of the craft store and we should be okay! Here is a copy of our register so you can see how we're doing. Maybe we can get more red!!!

Day 31 and almost out of money

Hello everyone! So I need some clear glycerin soap, but if I buy it I'm completely tapped out of a budget. I have a little white soap and some scraps left of different color soaps. Quite the dilemma because I haven't thought about what I would do if I ran completely out. Then last night my daughter woke me up at 3am and she shortly went to sleep again, but I was wide awake. So I was thinking about my soap business and what I have that I can put on my shop. Well, I have my bath salts, I just need to make labels. I can't use my sugar body scrub because I still need containers. Then I was think I have tons of polymer clay, maybe I can make some bathroom themed jewelry or bathroom themed scrabble tile necklaces. The only thing is I don't want to stray to far from soap and would this be considered cheating??? I pondered and pondered this for like two hours, and I decided I might give it a try and I convinced my self it wasn't cheating haha. I mean I have been using as many free resources as possible, and the first step I did was looked around my house for whatever I can use that I wouldn't have to go out and buy. Anyways, I guess we'll see how it works out. For now Maddie is being grumpy so I've gotta get.

Holly

Day 21

What a busy morning I've had already. I dropped the kids off at school, then yesterday I sold my car (YEAH!!!) and had to pick up the notarized title from my husband today, went to the grocery store, went to the craft store, went to the bank to pay rent, to the post office, and finally back home, whew! Oh yeah, in between somewhere in there I stopped and got an egg mcmuffin with OJ, yummy.
So I've got some good news and some bad news about the craft store. Yesterday when I went my usual craft store was closed because it was Sunday, so I went to another down the street and I had amazing self control. I spent a little over five bucks on lavender fragrance, which I needed to finish my order, and some cute little bags for future packaging. Today however was a different story, I saw the cutest teddy bear molds, then these little pink and blue plastic bears I can put in the soaps, and then of course I needed more soap. I spent $11.54 today, which isn't bad because I printed off another 40% off coupon from the internet, but if you put that with yesterday's 5 bucks it adds up. Then my shipping cost were more than expected at a whopping $6.30, and I paid my etsy bill early because I don't want it sneaking up on me and it was $5.15. So the bad news is my bottom number which is now only $18.10. I am in absolutely in no way allowed to buy anything else for sure until we get that number up at least over 30 dollars. It makes me nervous being so low. I am still confident however, I have quite a bit of raw soap to make more and more inventory. I can't wait to do something with these little bears. Unfortunately my busy day is not over, I still have some English homework, housework, and finish the car transaction so I better get going

Bye,
Holly

CLEARANCE

Back on day 4's blog I mentioned how I should probably get a clearance section going on my online shop, www.soapsandsuch1.etsy.com. It's now day 20 and I set the clearance section up this morning. I made some really cute soap squares that turned out so great, the only problem is I accidentally mixed the scents together so some are sweet pea/vanilla/honey almond, and the rest are sweet pea/vanilla. They still smell good and look so great that I just couldn't throw them out.

Yesterday I wasn't too productive with Soaps and Such by Holly, but I kicked butt on my English homework and got all caught up, at least till Monday. I also went and saw 3D Avatar with my husband, while my father in law babysat. It was a really great movie, and it was the first movie I've ever seen in 3D and that was so cool. I think the best part, even though it was in the middle of the afternoon, is that Caradoc and I got out of the house together with out a single kid. I love my babies to death, but I think we have been out together probably about 4 times since Madelyn was born and that was like 17 months ago. What was really funny though is as soon as the movie was over I wanted to get back home as quick as possible. I just felt bad for Maddie, I knew she was in good hands, but we were gone for three hours and I didn't want her to think we weren't coming back or something. Who knows what goes on through a babies little minds. When we got home her grandpa said she didn't even noticed we left.

Yeah, we just received another order as I was writing this blog today, this time for 3 dozen mini heart soaps. Thank you so much embrace123! They actually wanted a custom scent of lavender, which I'm really excited about because I've been wanting to add it to my inventory. The only problem is that means I have to go to the craft store, and we all know how scary that is :).

Holly

Good Morning Everyone!

Today is day number 17 and I've got some stuff to do, but first I want to tell about how great day 16 was, yesterday! First of all we hit the 100 view point, but since then my blog got 37 views. That is incredible for just one day, I guess that recap helped. I was very productive yesterday, I posted four new soaps, mainly mini hearts. I also opened up a shop on zibbet.com. My shop address is www.zibbet.com/soapsandsuch1 , and it's still called Soaps and Such by Holly. I don't know how much I'm liking zibbet.com yet, it's very user friendly and looks professional. The only thing is my items were posted yesterday and they've only had two views, so I'm afraid that there might not be enough traffic. But who knows, it is completely free to use, so only time will tell. I also made some soap, cleaned half of my house, and made the cutest little tags pictured above. I though they would be handy to write what scent the soap is on the back when it's packaged.

Today I'm gonna try and clean the other half of my house, and maybe experiment with my soap making skills. So far I've been playing it safe by using molds, which isn't always as easy as it sounds, but I would like to make more bars of soap that have flowers and hearts and stuff in it. I've tried a couple of times so far, but my soaps bleed together, and I end up with a bunch of swirls. I was reading last night that you have to make sure your soap isn't too hot, but that is tricky because it hardens and cools really fast. Well we'll see how I do, later I will be sure to post some pictures whether they are good or bad, haha. For now I just realized I'm completely out of diapers except for swimmer diapers, and need to get Maddie dressed and run to the store. I almost dread going to the stores now because I have to use so much self control to not buy ice cube trays, or packaging supplies, or other business needs. I promise I'll stay strong!

Wish me luck,
Holly

Day 15 continued...

Here are those duck pictures I promised. Not too bad with the digital camera. My cell phone works nice for quick pics here and there, but I think I will use the digital from now on for photo shoots. I definitely need to redo some of the pictures on my shop. for example my fast food soaps are much cuter than that photo makes them appear. Well like I said in my earlier post, tonight is reserved for catching up on English homework so I better get.

Holly

Day 15

So my lesson learned to day is to keep my work space on the opposite counter as my toaster, talk about crummy. Anyways, I think I got my digital camera figured out and am going to take some test pictures on a new line of ducky soaps I'm working on. I'm just finishing up a batch and will try to post some pictures for you later today.

I think I might be getting a little too distracted on this project because I just found out that I am a week behind on my English homework, rather than a week ahead. Tonight is reserved for a non-stop catch up session. Last night however was a great soap experience, my six year old daughter Alexa helped me make some cute little soaps. We had a blast and she was very proud of her work. I gave her a couple of soaps for helping out, and she is now displaying them nicely on the bookshelf in her room.

We still haven't had any sales, but our views are in the 30's. I'm going to post some cute little fruit shaped soaps and see if that gets us any sales, or a least more views.

Till next time,
Holly