Day 45

Hello everyone,

I must say the mini duck soaps are quite the success! So far I've sold 88 little ducks this month, that is sooo exciting. Also my first thought was that they would be great for Easter, but a lot of people are using them for baby showers. That is a great idea, especially if you don't know the sex of the baby.

I have sold a lot of stuff this month, in fact we are up to $106.41 in sales. Since I've been reinvesting the money in molds and soaps and shipping cost unfortunately are bottom line number is staying low. Right now it's at $2.79 :(. But on the bright side, I have tons of inventory! Just posted on my shop alone is $85 dollars worth of products, and I have tons more in my cupboard. I think maybe Caradoc and I should do inventory again. That always makes me feel better when my budget is low.

I made a ton of soap yesterday, and even got a few listed today. I made these really great egg soaps but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get them out of the mold. Caradoc put them in the freezer hoping they would shrink a little and fall out. Here are some pics of the new soaps I made. They are my new Two-Tone Heart Collection! For now I better get, my kitchen is in dire need of my attention.

Bye,
Holly

Day 43

I'm sorry there was no blog update yesterday, it's just that my littlest girl isn't to fond of my new found hobby, so yesterday was spent as Mommy Maddie day. I think from now on unless I have something really exciting, my post will be every other day or so. I'm just sooo busy. Today alone I have a math test and I haven't even glanced at the material yet, and a English assignment. I finished taking photos of my lip colors and want to get them posted today, but I still need to write a description. Also I just got a custom order for 40 teddy bears today. That is awesome, but I need to run to the store for more soap and bags. So I'm busy busy busy, but at least everything I've got going on is fun, and I enjoy every minute of it.

Caradoc was funny this morning. He figured out that I take up 15 square feet of our house strictly for my business, so my rent should be $8/month, and $5 - 8 dollars for utilities. Not a bad overhead if I do say so myself. I think he was hoping for more so there could be a possible write off :). I will let you know when my lip colors are posting, but for now I have got to get to work!

Bye,
Holly

Day 41

I can just not get over how cool it is to be able to make lipstick out of crayons! There are so many colors to choose from and that is great because they are fun for face or body paint too. They will be great for Halloween, or sporting events, and there are great shades for everyday use. I can't wait to get some labels made up!
I'm gonna try and get the labels designed today then printed up tomorrow. I have an ink jet printer, so I need to go somewhere that has a laser printer. I read that the ink jet will just smear with the oil in the lipstick.

Today I've had two sales, one on my etsy shop for a set of colored ducks, and then my mom in law bought some more lavender flower soap squares and some pink and black hearts. It's the first time I've had more than one sale in a day, maybe they'll keep coming in. I think the funnest part of starting this little business is breaking my own little records.

Today, however is also a bit stressful! My husband is taking the 2nd part of his CPA exam. It's always a bummer because you have to wait at least six weeks to find out the results. He has been studying a lot so I think he'll do great!

I better get going, lunch time is rolling around again.

Holly

Crayon Lipstick Success!

Okay, so I haven't made any soap yet today, but I did finally get all the ingredients needed for the crayon lip color. It turned out so good, all I need now is a cute label. Here is a picture of me wearing Crayola Red!

Wow, we've made it to day 40!

It is a rainy day outside, all the more perfect to make soap inside, but first I need to clean my kitchen up a little. I'm getting kind of a late start today, I had to run some errands, then I went to visit a friend I haven't seen in a long time.
Now I'm back home, and ready to get to work. First task is make lunch, second clean kitchen while kids eat, third make soap. I don't really have to much to update today, no new sales, but our shop got like 38 views yesterday! I think I need to go through my listings and write better descriptions, they are just pretty basic and I think I would like them to be more interesting. The kids are telling me they're hungry so I better get. Oh I almost forgot, here is some pics of the bath salts I made yesterday. Since they are wild berry scent I thought t would be fun to make their container a little wild and added a little boa to the lid. Very fun!

Holly

Soaps and Such by Holly Goes International!

It's day 39 and we've gone international! Yep, I got a custom order yesterday for 20 mini pastel ducks, and they are going to Canada! In the last 3 days I have made over a hundred little ducks, and my husband say he thinks I'm gonna quack soon, haha.

I'm glad to be getting all these orders because there is a special project I'm trying to save up for. Here is a link to the tutorial I found: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-lipstick-with-crayons/
It teaches you how to make lipstick using crayons, and I think that is just awesome. With all the different colors crayola has, I think this project will be fun. I already have a lot of crayons because I stocked up on new packages when they were on sale for a quarter after school season started. I have a few ingredients already, but I still need a couple more things. I'm really excited about this project, I hope it turns out good. Thank so much Belsey for posting this instructable!

I got side tracked with all the duck yesterday that I didn't end up making my bath salts so I better get in my kitchen and start on that. I did end up getting a little cabinet, Maddie doesn't like it which means it is doing it's job :). Have a great day everyone!

Holly

Day 38

Good Morning Everyone! Today's mission is organization. My craft area is a mess and no thanks to my youngest daughter my soap molds are everywhere. I'm gonna go look for some sort of cabinet today that is "childproof", and hopefully be able to keep the place picked up. Maybe something like this...

I made some really cute black and pink heart soaps for the gift bag I'm working on, they turned out so nice I might put them on my shop. They are larger than my mini heart soaps. I just have to wait to post them for a bit because I used a different kind of dye for these and I want to make sure it doesn't get ruined if it bleeds. If you remember those black and white squares, they ended up bleeding so much that they kind of just look like purple squares now, so I had to take them off my shop.
Speaking of shop, my Etsy store has been doing great at averaging 21 visits a day, which is incredible. www.soapsandsuchbyholly.com didn't get a single view yesterday, but I think it will just take some time. Well I'm off to go organize wish me luck!

Holly