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Monthly Archives: November 2011

Cyber Monday

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

I got my first Cyber Monday order. How awesome!! I wanted to write last night, but got distracted. *smile* If you’re reading this, thanks again Bro. *grin* There is something so delightfully exciting about the order being on such an infamous day. (Heaven knows it couldn’t have been on Black Friday because I was too busy shopping myself lol.)

I am tickled to have two new holiday orders and especially because I have lots of extra time in which to work on them, since I’ve been running on “sick slow mo” as I call it. Lol. I have several items in my pre-made stash, but still have some work to do. Mostly I need to get my new version of goat’s milk lotion made, so that’s Thursday’s project. I can’t even begin to tell you how amazed and honored I am that my lotion stands up, if not exceeds when I’m not trying to be humble *wink*, professionally branded lotions for severe chapping. Holy smokes!! Anyway, I have a goal to revamp the lotion with emulsifying wax to increase the moisturizing properties and beneficial time. It creates a thicker, creamier lotion that has more binding properties, similar in a way to those silicone glove treatments that were popular a few years back. I’m hoping that the extended treatment will reduce, if not eliminate, the need for people to cover their hands with plastic bags and socks or gloves to create a sauna atmosphere and increase how well the moisturizers work. Who wants to sleep with weird stuff crinkling on their hands? Plus, who says that a good thing is good enough? *grin* Saying it worked wonderfully is like issuing a challenge to try to make it better. Lol. I become way too curious about the benefits and ingredients, so I love to work on a new puzzle.

I also will be making a lot of dessert cake soaps. I’ll try the “ice cream” rolled in slightly cooled melted soap to see if I can make it a little less fragile. *crossing fingers* I’ve been toying with the idea of taking a few of my “ruined” soaps (the vanilla in the fragrance oils turned them brown before I learned about the additive to prevent it) and shaving little “chocolate curls”. Or at least try. *grin* I have a cheese slicer that might make nice little decorations and would LOVE to not have more waste than I must anyway. I know from being a billing consultant that you always have write offs, but even then, even when it was a write off to help a patient or when I knew that something really needed to be written off, I felt like I did something wrong. Lol. Like that balance in the column is saying that I’m that bad and wasteful. Isn’t it funny how the mind can work? Anyway, I try to find uses for everything and doubt that people want little brown soaps in their stockings this year. *grin* May smell great, but that visual…dude. Lol.

I need to look around for some basket wraps that conceal the baskets and product, so that the orders are ready to put from the box right under the Christmas tree. All of my wraps are transluscent. Bah! I then figured out that if I use a wrap on the baskets that I have, then I have to go up to the $10 shipping box all because of a couple of centimeters. So not happening! We all want the cheapest shipping possible and I refuse to let a wrap screw that up. Lol. Dang, that means I’ll have to go shopping…*grin*

It was amusing to me that both orders I got this week seemed simple at first. Then it became obvious that it was my business and got really complicated. Lol. “I want a goat’s milk lotion.” Okay, want 1, 4, or 8 oz? Want it in which scent? If you like that, you might consider this…and do you want the original or the new version? Oh, need some soap? Would you prefer a bubble wash instead of a bar soap…etc. So many options. Lol. I got a little overwhelming I think. I suspect that my need to be occupied and learn has created an overwhelmingly vast array of options for customers. I wonder if some of the people who have told others that they’ll be ordering were intimidated by the amount of options..? That’s a sad prospect.

In the meantime I’m writing my notes (and yes Z, I have a spreadsheet *grin*) while I have zero energy, so I’m ready with a game plan once I find some energy in my toes or something. Lol. I’ll let you know how the science experiment with emulsifying wax goes. Sweet dreams and a wonderful day to all.

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Cinnamon EO surprised me

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

My sinusitis has become quite acute and painful. It got to the point that I struggled to breathe through my nose until a happy little accident.

I noticed that whenever I went into the bathroom my congestion would ease a little, so I could breathe. Every time I returned to the couch, head elevated, etc, I would get completely congested again. I puzzled over this until the one difference hit me. I had a container of cinnamon scented pinecones in there. I got my second container of them and set them beside me, and sure enough the congestion lessened.

Now, I had added camphor, menthol, eucalyptus, and peppermint EOs in my humidifier, all without success this round. Upon the pinecone discovery I put some cinnamon leaf EO in it after cleaning the residue out, then topped it off with my Sleepy Time EO blend (to soften the smell, since it was hard to handle, and to help me get a little sleep). It worked wonderfully until I woke from an acute nosebleed. That part really sucked, but wasn’t caused by the EOs, and I treated separately. I was just tickled to discover this new benefit. It isn’t attributed to cinnamon in any of my research, so this is super exciting! I’ll now add a tad to my congestion items. Yay for happy accidents!!

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Tonight’s touch of random

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

I honestly haven’t done much the last few days due to being so sick, but thanks to my amazing Scatterbrain app I have been able to “jot down” the random thoughts flitting through my odd mind. *smile* Since I’m in an odd mood, I’m going to subject you to my random thoughts. Lol.

I did a ton of paperwork and updates while preparing for Saturday’s event and my ingredients are fresh in my mind. I got into a romantic mood and contemplated if I should do some Valentine’s options, to which I decided why not (may not be making enough to break even, but I figure that it’s keeping me from going more insane than I all ready am *grin*), and I planned out several items to make. First off, the Seduction Basket is getting reworked. I’m going to make “Aphrodisiac Body & Massage Oil” that clearly has to go into that basket. I’ve been doing some refresher reading on EOs and realized that I have several EOs that are thought to have aphrodisiac properties. It just makes sense to do a blend then. I absolutely hate the smell of the “Sensuality” EO blend that I bought back in one of my first orders with this wholesaler. I haven’t put my finger on the ingredient yet, but something seriously stinks in it to me. I suspect it is the Ylang Ylang. I’ll make a few varieties of my blend though, in case others like the variations, and can’t keep some natural “brown chicken brown cow” (this is where I know if you like country…lol) assistance from people. I was catching up on episodes of “The Doctors” and they were discussing how to increase the bedroom sizzle. One tip was to get a massage from their man with their man’s favorite scent, since it will increase the arousal and connect to what they associate with their mate. See, I was right to include the male scents!! *happy dance* I’ll have to add a few more though and maybe do a massage only combo.

I still hope to sell the Seduction Baskets though and make the embarrassment of buying six packs of intimacy coupons and erotic dice worth it. Lol. Little ol’ me was beet red while checking the multitude out. All I could think was that the teen ringing me up at Spencer’s was probably going to tell others about the perv who was stocking up. Rofl. Okay, my cheeks are red again just remembering.

I have some bath salts that are starting to degrade, which is disheartening. I realized that in my enthusiasm for my sugar scrub I almost put down salt products, so I’m shooting myself in the foot. I made a note in my app to make a blurb on my site about how salts are great for an occasional use, whereas sugar is better for frequent use. Big facepalming moment! I suppose this was one of those learning experiences.

I’m seriously thinking about making donut soaps too. The cakes were so well received and adorable, and I’d like to extend that a tiny bit further. I think a “sweets platter” with one of each soap would be so cute!!

I’ve been really utilizing my stock of EOs and will end up having to reimburse my business for my bottles of EO if I use much more. Lol. The “healing” EOs are cycling through my humidifier and my neck rubs. I have some EOs that I don’t feel comfortable including in items that I sell yet. I’m more than happy to experiment on myself though and it’s been helping. Lol. My proportions of the oils are generally beyond (okay, some way beyond) the maximum guidelines for helping ease my congestion, so I couldn’t sell these things. Every so often I get tired of the camphor and herbal scents though, so I’ve been cycling some Wintergreen EO on occasion. Mmmm. Gotta love it!! Between the infection and the EOs, I appreciate the side effect of appetite suppression. Lol.

Anyway, I have some fun scent profiles rumbling around in my brain and look forward to seeing which ones become successful. Now it’s time to go back to thinking about Christmas stuff! Have a fantastic day!!

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Details about the event

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

As my recent picture posts hint at, the craft sale didn’t have as robust of a turn out as hoped. I’m delighted to have done $111 though! Much better than the last time where only the event organizer bought something. I have so much product ready to sell now. If 1% of the people from the event that said they would look at the site and order do so, then I should have a good amount ready to get to them immediately.

I sold completely out of the dessert cake soaps and both of my Mechanic’s soaps (they’re pricey, so they don’t sell fast, which is why I don’t make more than a couple at a time). I’m beyond tickled!! I loved how people just lit up and marveled at them. Two little boys weren’t having a good time at the event (I suspect it was probably nap time) actually cheered up when their mom bought them each one. The little cello bags turned out perfect for little hands, too. They could grip at the top and there wasn’t a worry about heating up the whip “ice cream” to melting or smooshing it. Yay! I look forward to the next batch when I’ll try rolling the refrigerated whip “ice cream” in a layer of melted soap. Hopefully the low temperature will prevent the whip from melting when it comes in contact with the soap.

I have to say that I loved being able to provide helpful tips and products to receptive people. I talked so much that I lost my voice and had to have a lozenge to get it back. Lol. For those that wanted to learn about stuff, it felt amazing! I hadn’t realized just how much I miss that helpful interaction that I got, one on one, with patients as a medical billing consultant. The really cool part is that I have learned enough from being around the doctor and nursing staff that I understood a lot of the conditions and symptoms that people asked me about, so I was able to recommend the right products for them. I figure that the extra work to figure out the right product for people will have a greater chance of being a return customer. One woman even bought some acne soap after she had bought some other products a few minutes before! *happy dance* Her son has some skin issues and I’m hoping that my soap helps. I told her to let me know how things go, etc, and actually look forward to the challenge.

I was surprised that none of the combos sold. I really figured at least one of the Twilight combos would sell since the newest movie is about to premiere at the theater.

I’ve been up all night due to a surprisingly massive flare up after my exertion. Meh. At least dealing with all of this has made me very aware of the needs and complications of chronically ill people and now I have some potential customers for the new pain relief line that I hope to work on ASAP. That makes this flare up so worth it! If I can actually help someone that will be amazing. I try so hard to have a good impact and this seems to be a great avenue for it. Awesome!

So…does anyone want to come deal with my mess? Lol. I got all of the product shelved, but now all of the boxes and tote, etc, are stuffed into my office and need dealt with. At least it’s no longer where others will see my mess!

One last little thing that really surprised me was how many people told me that they really could appreciate and admire my entrepreneurial skills. Wow! The first time totally caught me off guard and the couple of times afterward were no less surprising. If anything, I was more surprised each time, because it seemed unfathomable that more than one person could feel that. So freaking cool!!

By the way, I will never carve a pumpkin or house out of soap. A guy literally asked me if I did or would do that. Of course, he also said that he wanted me to carve the house so that he could live in it, so that made it feel even weirder. I have no desire to carve soap. It’s enough of a pain to trim the overflow off with an Xacto knife (especially with a tremor and involuntary movements!). Lol. I definitely got some great experience for how to handle unexpected things on the fly. If I do another event, it should be a lot easier. I think all of the weirdest questions that could ever be asked were at this event, so easy peasy!

Have a great day!! Thank you all for the encouragement and the support!

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Fisherman’s Soap Samples

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

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The sample size turned out so cute in my opinion. Only seventy-five cents and not a single one sold. Lol. At least I know a great candidate for several of these for Christmas.*smile*

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Caffeine combo

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

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I think it would make a cute and cost effective gift exchange or host gift. There is a jar in the bottom of the new Cellulite Away Rub and the new Coffee & Dark Cocoa Facial Mask is in the bag on top.

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Christmas sampler basket

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

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I think this basket turned out pretty cute. Surprisingly not a single combo sold at the event.

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Leftovers

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

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Due to not selling as much as hoped, I have a lot of leftovers. I had to bring out another bookcase (my poor books…) just to hold the abundance of prepared products. I still have a little that doesn’t fit. Lol. Whew! Ironically, despite the leftovers, I need to make more of the two soaps that I sold out of. I’m like a little store now *grin*

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Overbrook Craft Sale

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

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Even with another table and keeping the extras under the table, I had quite a full booth. *grin* There wasn’t more than a few centimeters between my booth and the neighboring booths. I had planned on a different set up, but with the tight fit, it wasn’t going to work. The booth to my right had quite a set up, so I didn’t want people having to wind their way around my stuff.

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Event Prep

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

Well, the craft sale event in Overbrook starts in a few hours and I’m actually extremely calm about it. *smile* I got almost every single goal for prior to the event accomplished even! Booyah!

I was in the throes of insomnia last night, and since my mind was circling all of the things I wanted and needed to get done, I figured that I might as well burn the midnight oil and get a lot of work done. I made a ton of changes to my website. There are a few new scents that I still need to create descriptions and identifications of, but didn’t worry about the ones that I haven’t been working with yet. I even put away the dunce cap (somedays I swear I need to slap one on lol) and remembered how to create a picture slideshow, so I now have a slideshow of some of my pre-made baskets. Somedays I manage to impress myself. *grin* I need to take a few more pics of some baskets, but overall I think the site has come a long way. By 7:30 Friday AM I figured that whatever I ended up changing or writing had high odds of coming out poorly, so I saved the changes and called it good. Lol. I admit that it took a while to quiet my mind even then, to get even a few hours of sleep. I’m really proud of my site though. I now have three rows on my page menu too!! *cheesy grin* I’m bizarrely delighted over that. Lol. I have another page that I didn’t set to be viewable my the public yet, too, called customer and tester feedback. I’m excited to include some of those! I really need to add an ingredients page since I no longer have to put ingredient labels on products and happily take advantage of that. However, I feel that people should have the ability to review the ingredients and want to make it possible. (Hey Z, I’m going to add that to a spreadsheet of things to remember. *teasing smile*)

Young Miss Ash came Thursday and Friday afternoon (hey, I lose track of the days and have an odd concept of days, since mine can be 30 hours long lol. Might as well prevent a bit of the confusion! *grin*). We worked on a price sign for the basket of lump of coals soaps, but it’s more of a holiday scene sketch, so I dated and noted her info on the back, and it’s in my china hutch instead. I made a pretty basic little $2 sign and slapped it on the basket a bit ago. Lol. We managed to get my inventory properly counted and documented (yeppers, another spreadsheet!! Spreadsheets, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…lol) and I now have an accurate spreadsheet to have sales and need to make for orders at my fingertips during the event. It’s also handy as a cheat sheet when people ask what the prices of stuff is, since it so wildly varies. We ended up having some coming of age discussions while I packed up everything. By the way, I did an (oh yeah, totally picture my groovy happy dance for this) awesome job at packing!! I packed that rolling tote so well that it took all of my strength just to pull the handle and wheel it a few inches to make a gathering spot for everything to take. Lol. As to Larry lifting and putting it in the Blazer, I’m sure it won’t be that big of deal. If it is, I might feel guilty, but I’m still tickled that I did a damn fine job of packing it! *finishing out my happy dance* I managed (again, impressing myself) to cushion between the bath salt jars, since I didn’t want to risk them hitting each other during transport and breaking. I cushioned them with the bath tea bags that needed to be packed! Instead of just putting the tea bags in their basket in a box, I figured I’d use less space and take advantage of their natural cushiness. Even thought ahead and put my samples all together in the little removable tray that sits in the top of the tote. Set up should be easy peasy! Ash was thoroughly disappointed that I didn’t make any crackling firewood room and linen spray. We made sprays together Thursday and as soon as she smelled that one, which is a component of a custom blend that I made, she was massively hooked. Every time I turned around she was huffing that FO when she wasn’t spraying the squirt gun into Bo’s water bowl (squirt gun is Bo’s arch rival. It’s his punishment and incentive to do what he’s told when outside, but Ash was fascinated by the stream of the Nerf variety lol). I’ll make her a spray for Christmas, since she argued that SHE would use a spray of just that scent, when I had replied that I hadn’t made any of just it previously because most people don’t want to smell like firewood. Lol. She asked if I made some while she was gone and didn’t hide the disappointment when I said I had to focus on packing instead of making new stuff. She said that my baskets were “super cool”, although the coffee combo got a nose wrinkle and a teen dramatic statement that “I just don’t understand how people can like that. It’s so gross! It…stinks!”. Lol. Gotta love teens and preteens. *grin*

Anyway, Larry loaded the tables and chairs into the blazer when he got home and I stopped him (thankfully) from hauling my boxes of products out so we would just take off when we get up. Somedays I have to wonder what he thinks lotion and bath washes are made out of, since he’s nearly left them out in near freezing temps a few times. Lol. So I have a nice tower of stuff to haul out at 6:30. I’m just freaking proud I took my time, set my mind to it, and got it all done all by myself at my pace.

Wish me luck that I at least get some sales, if not orders, please. *smile* At some point I figure I need to sell what I’ve made before I get to keep making new stuff. Lol. What an annoying little technicality that I need to heed. And I’m hoping that the Twilight force is with me. I’d love to cash in on the new release and share these scents. I’m too dang proud to be the only one using them! I tossed in a set of Twilight stickers and bookmarks to sweeten the deal for a limited time offer. I’d love to sell out of all of my combos/baskets. That would remove two boxes from hauling back home and make me feel pretty successful. Lol. Anyway, I’m being to ramble (okay, okay…it’s all been near insane rambling, but I’m sticking with the delusion that I just started *sassy grin*) and need to get up in 4 hours (I need to find some night owl events from now on lol). I hope you have a fabulous Saturday and look forward to *crossing fingers* gushing about the insane popularity of my booth later. *laugh* Thanks for putting up with me and sharing in my booyah moments!!

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