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

Computer Savvy Day 19

First of all, woo hoo!!! We hit 200 views this morning on my blog. It took 16 days to reach 100, and only 3 days to reach 200, incredible! So yesterday I got a lot of technical stuff accomplished. I think if your gonna try something like this, you definitely need to know your computer well. I have an okay amount of knowledge as far as computers go, but I don't know a lot about programming or terminology. I would have to say I'm a trouble shooting type a girl, and can work the basic application. For example my husband tore apart and installed an "S-Video card" so we can watch whatever is on our computer on the t.v., and I set up the program so we actually could see it on the screen, talk about team work.

Thankfully a lot of the websites I've been working with lately are pretty easy. The three sites that have been must haves for this project have been fairly simple, blogger.com, etsy.com, and paypal.com. I was reading reviews on blogging websites, and it looks like blogger beat out the rest of the competition as far as user friendly goes. Etsy.com has so many helpful tips and advice and is not too complicated. I've had my paypal account for years from paypal.com so I'm not too sure how difficult it is these days.

Yesterday I started working with two new websites, technorati.com and Google Analytics. Technorati.com isn't hard, it's suppose to be the number one blog directory. You pretty much just sign up, and you can browse through blogs and get your own seen. What I really wanted to tell you about today is Google Analytics, it is so awesome. I have yet to discover all it can do, and I think you definitely need some comp knowledge. The best feature is the visitor trending, it pretty much can tell you everything except the identity of who visited you. You can see what times your site was visited, what part of the world your visitors live in, what website sent them to yours, and how many visitors you got and so on. I even noticed this morning it tells you what browser they use (Internet Explorer, Mozilla etc...), and what kind of connection (cable, DSL, Dial etc...). Don't worry though, it doesn't share any personnel info, such as name, address, or anything like that. I set up an Analytics account on both my blog and my store and it's been fascinating.

All the websites I wrote about this morning are free to use, and great online resources. Etsy.com charges a fee for listing and selling items, but it's not too much. It is just amazing all the FREE resources there are out there on the world wide web, I almost find a new one everyday. They come in very helpful it you want to start up a low cost business and get your name out there.

On a side note I would like to apologize for my misuse of grammar and punctuation and even spelling. It's almost like my mind thinks way faster than I type, and I barely have time to write these blogs much less go back and edit them. I promise from now on I will try to at least give them a once over. Just like the fact that I'm not a expert soap maker, I'm not a professional writer either. I was reading my blog to my husband this morning and he corrected me a lot, and I know that has to be frustrating to some of my readers. Well thanks for reading despite my skills :).

Okay, I'm off to post a new soap in my shop, here is a sneak peak picture of it up above.

Holly

Blog Makeover!

I just gave my blog a new look, let me know what you think?

Holly

We got our first sale, YEAH!!!

Today is day 18 and we received our very first sale at www.soapsandsuch1.etsy.com, YEAH!!! I just knew it was gonna happen soon. The order was for a dozen red mini heart soaps and a dozen purple mini heart soaps. A woman all the way in Indiana purchased them. Thank you so much kplucker for being my very first customer! Here is a picture of the soaps all packaged up and ready to go!


So now we can actually add money to our budget instead of taking it away. The total sale came up to $6.23 and that's including what she paid for shipping. That brings our budget up to $36.02. Now I haven't deducted any money for my cost of shipping yet, because I haven't received the funds through paypal yet and haven't sent it out. As soon as the funds come in I'll go to the post office on my way to the grocery store. I'm so excited, this is a great start to the success of my project.

I was actually discussing all morning my astrology chart with my father in law, he is an astrologer. I was asking him if my chart looked like I was going to sell a car today, because after the baby gets here our little prism will not fit all of us and I need a bigger car. Now he whips around a lot of astrology lingo that goes over my head, but basically he said my creativity will be educational and fruitful until about June. He said I have all sorts of trines on my chart, and trines are usually gifts. The "until June" part makes sense because that's when the baby is due. So from an astrological point of view, my experiment looks very promising to succeed. Honestly I think it's already a success, I'm connecting with all sorts of friends and family, and I've learned more in the last 18 days than I ever expected. Thanks every one!

Holly

hmmm

This one isn't bad, but this is suppose to be the bottom of the bar.


This on didn't turn out very neat or clear.


You can't really tell what is embedded in this one unless...


you hold it up to the light!

Well my soap experimenting so far today wasn't a complete failure, however I wouldn't exactly call it a success either. My soaps did not turn out good enough to sell, but I think I learned some tips.

1. Make sure your molds are clean and completely free of left over soap. This will help keep them neat and tidy.

2. There are two bases to start with, white and clear. If your embedding soaps I don't think you should use clear with clear because it is hard to see, unless maybe if your using the loaf technique.

3. Be patient, no soap looks good with a fingerprint right in the front of it, let your soaps harden all the way.

Now remember in no way am I an expert, these tips are just my opinion, and stuff I learned through trial and error. I said I would post some soaps even if they didn't turn out good so here you go.

Enjoy,
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

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