New Business Card!

I am seriously in love with my new business cards. Thanks to Natasha Desiree of Little Paper Sparrow! It is just so sweet. I ordered a million of them, so I was hoping I would love them, and I do!

On another business note, my little company is now official. Lion and Rose, LLC is the real deal! I am now super motivated to give out these cute business cards.

On a Personal Note

We had a gender reveal party tonight for baby #3 and we are having a girl!!! I already have a wonderful son or daughter, so either a boy or girl would have been fine with me, but I am thrilled we are having a girl. Unfortunately, my son Leo, really wanted a brother, Poor little guy just couldn't hide his disappointment!

New Packaging!

Won't you call me Sweetheart? Valentine Soap

Hugs and Kisses

Star Anise and Sweet Orange

Spearmint, Grapefruit and Litsea Cubeba Essential Oils
Colored with Sea Clay

The most exciting new development is my new labels, Etsy Banner, and business cards! I am really working developing cohesive branding. Next up....this blog! I love all things vintage, so it only made sense to have a vintage vibe to my design. The new branding is the perfect marriage of modern, hip and vintage, all rolled up in one.  Thanks again to the wonderful Natasha Desiree for helping me achieve the new look!

I have been having fun with making new soaps. I have really discovered what sells, and so I have been focusing on making these soaps. I just need new avenues for selling. I would be set if I had one event every week. I need to make this happen. I also need some more wholesale accounts!

I participated in a wonderful women's luncheon yesterday, as a vendor, called the Wild Women's Society.  The theme of the meeting was about trusting your intuition. It was a fascinating topic, especially since the guest speaker was a well known psychic named Suzanne Jauchius. As soon as Suzanne found out I was pregnant, she said I was having a girl! The kids think I am having a boy, so now I am really interested in learning what gender our sweet baby will be. 

In addition to all of my fun and colorful soap creations, I have been experimenting with using all essential oils and natural colorants. I love having these options,  but wonder sometimes if I am trying to appeal to too wide of a customer base. Locally, what makes my soaps unique, is how they are all vibrant, swirled, and textured. Most soaps that are sold locally are more straight forward (no color or a single color, no textured tops, etc). Perhaps I should stick with where my passion lies....with design and artistry.  I have read that it is best to keep things simple and not provide too many options. This is difficult for me, but I am trying. 

Back at it! Horray for 2014!

Love Spell

Look! It's my pretty Grandma n the background!

Fresh Ginger and Lime

Energy Fragrance Oil. I call this one
"Good Day Sunshine!"

Butter Cream and Snickerdoodle

More Beer Soap

Now that Christmas is over and I am in my second trimester with baby #3, I am re-energized and so happy to be making soap again!

I have been doing a lot of business stuff....getting all the necessary licenses, permits, insurance etc. I have a much better handle on business things than I did a few weeks ago. It is expensive, but worth it! I have also been reading a lot of literature about starting and running a small business.

I hired a lovely Digital Designer from New Zealand to design new soap labels for me. I highly recommend you check out her Etsy shop: Little Paper Sparrow. Her vintage inspired style is exactly what I was looking for. I spent soooo much time packaging my soap this past holiday season and was beginning to recent the process. These new labels will be so easy and cute! I will feature them in my next post.

I am getting my inventory up again. I have no major selling opportunities coming up, but I plan to make them! I need stock to do this!

I have been focusing on making the soaps that sell really well. I just purchased a bunch of essential oils from Bramble Berry and plan to expand my line of soaps with essential oils. Oregonians appreciate this! I have been making tons of citrus based soaps, because they always fly off the shelf and they are perfect for spring.

The homebrew supply store, Above the Rest, is now going to carry my beer store at both their locations! They sold out my soap within 2 weeks (18 bars!).....yeah!!!

My focus now will be to streamline my line of soaps, get my own website, obtain some more wholesale accounts, secure some more farmer's market dates...oh yeah, and have a baby! What a year 2014 will be!!

Big News!

Bastille Buttermilk Baby Bar!

This is not necessarily soap related, but it has been a very exciting event that has brought our family much joy! Please click on the link below called "Big News" to see how we shared surprise with our kids.

Big News!

In honor of the new baby, I also made a buttermilk "Bastille  Buttermilk Baby Bar." I got the recipe from Bramble Berry. I made 2 variations, one with no scent and one with a scent I love so much! It is the Huggies type Lavender Chamomile fragrance from Bramble Berry. I am so in love with this scent and am considering making a batch for myself. To me, it is such a great scent, even if it is intended for babies.

I plan on having this bar have a nice long cure since it is mostly olive oil, so it will be ready when my baby is born (June 20th or so) Also, since I have so many mommy friends, I am excited to share this bar.

I  have not mixed my own lye water since I found out I was pregnant. I still make soap, but have been very cautious abut the health and safety of my and my little one.

I still am very excited to keep moving ahead with the business. I figure that this is the perfect career for a stay at home Mommy. I do have a slight dilemma though. My company was named after the kids, Leo, the Lion and Somerset Rose, thus "Lion and Rose." I don't want to rename the business, but how can I make the new baby feel included?

Oops!

Ok, so now that the holiday soap selling season is over, I am thinking of new ways to keep my soap business thriving. I want to generate enough business to help with family finances. I have never owned a business, so this is all new, and a bit scary to me. I really don't know what to do next (help!). My Etsy shop has not been a big revenue generator. I know that many soap makers do well on Etsy, so maybe I should try to tap into that market. I feel lost in the huge Etsy sea of sellers!

Wholesale accounts would be good too. I am so clueless about how to do all this though! I have been blessed with how well things have been going, and I know that a lot of it is because I have worked very hard to learn my craft and have sought out local bazaars and markets.

So you may be wondering what the "Oops" photo is all about. Well, it is 2-fold. First it represents how I feel currently. "Oops! What do I do now?" I feel so lost and clueless. "Oops" is also a new listing that I have on Etsy for soap that I am selling at a highly discounted rate. This "Oops" soap is great, it just isn't as perfect as I would have liked.

If you have any advice on what steps I should take next to cultivate this small business, I am all ears!

It's Over!

Months of preparation and my Christmas soap selling events are finally over! What a great season it was too. It so so tricky trying to plan how much inventory to make since there are no last minute soap making opportunities, but I think I did a good job. I still have soap left, but this means I can be very generous with gifts and donations.

After making soap everyday, I took a month hiatus to work on packaging and selling. I am now ready to start making soap again for spring. It has been too long!