New Shop, New Ideas, New Fundraiser

Times are tough and fundraising for a great cause is even harder! Just ask any high school student wanting to attend Spring Tour on 2011 all the way across our U.S. continent to New York City. 

I have two...yes TWO students who have the grand opportunity to attend this great tour and experience the art and creativity that NYC has to offer...if only they can raise the money to get there.

Our school does not provide the funds. Yes, we have a fundraiser booster, but it will take much more than what they are offering to get these guys on the trip.

Solution?  Well, one is that I have opened a new shop on Artfire and with this shop, I plan to list some great items that my teens have created to help raise the funds needed to attend. They will be making a variety of items. Currently, we have dog treats up and going. These are without preservatives and monitored by mom to ensure quality and cleanliness. 100% of the proceeds will go toward the Spring Choir Tour to New York City for Evergreen High School Choir Students. More items will be showing later since this is a new shop site.
One more thing: ALL items on Ai Chihuahua will be dedicated to this Spring Choir Tour until May 2011! Fifty percent of all proceeds of all other items on this site will help defray the costs.

Are you ready to help a student with a once in a lifetime experience? Want to show your support for music in the public schools?  Stop by

I just thought I would add a video of our District Honor Choir from last year, which my teens were participants. Don't they sound great? Sorry for the picture quality. I am truly an amateur at videos!  Please click the music off my blog site to hear this fantastic choir. Many of these same students will also be going to New York this Spring...if they can raise the funds needed.

Jasmine Sugar Cube Scrubs...a TODAY ONLY Special

Just what is a sugar scrub cube?

Sugar scrub cubes pamper your skin by gently removing dead skin cells.

Each cube is about the size of a regular sugar cube. Just pick one or two out of the jar and mix with a little water in your hand and start polishing. Keep cube jar tightly closed and avoid getting water in the jar and store in a cool, dry place. Sultry jasmine fragrance too!

You receive approximately 5oz of sugar scrub cubes, usually 28 to 29 cubes per jar. The small size of the cubes allows you to use on one area of your skin only without waste. If you want a total body scrub experience, use two or more.

Jasmine Sugar Scrub CubesClick above to see this delightful product

This is a TODAY ONLY SPECIAL!

$1.00 off listed price.

*****All you need to do is purchase this item at the regular price and your invoice will be adjusted via Paypal refund.*****

Pink Champagne Soap

Yes, it's made with real California pink champagne. The fragrance is berry champagne with swirls of pink and a sprinkling of sparkly "pinky dust" on top.

This soap is 3oz of luscious oils that include products that California is known for, such as avocado and almond oils.

OK, OK, I admit, I'm a California native and love the state's diversity of product and creativity. I wanted to create a soap that celebrates my roots.

Delightful, fun and great for you skin too!

I made this soap earlier this summer, but didn't list it on etsy. Instead, I listed it on my sites on silkfair.com and 1000 Markets. Also it went with me to several farmer's markets and a festival.

Now, it's on etsy too!

Now, here's a deal for you! The first person to order this soap from ANY of my shops, receives a second soap of their choice for FREE! Make your order, then comment me here on my blog site and let me know which site you ordered from.

I'm going to make real easy for you and list my sites where this soap is listed, OK?

SoapyBlessings.etsy.com

SoapyBlessings.silkfair.com

1000markets.com/soapyblessings

Please click on the links listed on my blog to get to my shop sites!

Happy shopping!

Supplies and Loofah Soaps

Loofah soaps are one of my best selling soaps over all. It's a fun soap with a slice of loofah drenched in glycerin soap, scented, sometimes adding an herb or two on top (like you see in the picture).

Brings me to the point of where I get my loofah sponges to begin with. Typically, I order them online. Occasionally, I find a special on them in a local store. But it is usually ordering them from the same supplier because I want continuity in my product.

Last time I ordered though, the loofah had changed significantly! It was shipped flat, which is fine with me, all I have to do is soak it to plump it back to its original form. What was different was that when the loofah plumped up, it was MUCH larger than they were before. So large that it could not be held comfortably in your hand in the shower. This is extremely important! You don't want to be fumbling around with a larger than life soap in the shower! I pondered this for awhile, trying to figure out the best way to make these monstrosities work for my needs. I ended up cutting these things in half! It is much easier to handle now, but they just don't look quite as nice as the completely round ones, in my opinion. Who knows? Maybe you folks out there might like them even better! See the picture below...



So for now, the loofahs will be in half. Still a great item, just looks different. In the meantime, I will be hunting down some loofahs that better fit my needs!

The loofah soaps are not listed yet on any of my sites, but if you mention that you noticed this blog entry and purchase one of my half loofahs, I'll give you 50% off (yes, half off) the original purchase price through September 30th, 2009.

Enjoy!

Hibernation until February

I don't know about the rest of the blogging world, but after Christmas, I'm just plain tired and need a rest...more like a short hibernation. I have no desire to do ANYTHING except sit and veg out.

But, I need to look forward into the next season, which is Spring and begin to prepare to make soaps for this time. Being a soapmaker who makes cold process soaps, Spring comes up wayyy too fast if I want to get some Spring time soaps ready. You see, cold process soaps have to go through a curing period of 4-6 weeks before they are ready...4 weeks being the bare minimum in my opinion. So, if today is February 15th, (which it is), then I am way too late in deciding what kind of Valentine Day cold process soaps I should make...it's already too late! However, this is the perfect time to start doing Spring soaps.

Back to Valentine's Day though, I did manage to make some soaps for it that are cold process; Chocolate Ecstasy, Cinnamon Oatmeal and Sweet Lavender. All the rest of my soaps will be melt and pour types.

Oh and by the way, if you are seeing this post and want to check some of those soaps out, visit my shop at SoapyBlessings.etsy.com

If you buy something and want a 20% discount, comment on this blog and mention the discount offer in the comments section at checkout! I will adjust the price for you! This particular offer is good through February 20th, 2009.

Get ready for August! Upcoming Soaps.

Pictured above are two soaps that I've recently made. The top soap is called "Solar Energy" and the bottom picture is "Jasmine Dreams".

Solar Energy was not made using solar energy, OK? It is more of a color and fragrance thing. I wanted to emulate the colors of sunsets or fiery colors...sun related somehow and the fragrance oil I added to it is called "Energy" which is a fresh, citrusy...BAM! type fragrance. A waker-upper. Not overwhelming, but makes its presence known all at the same time. The picture was taken less than 24 hours after making the soap. I had just cut them into bars so they are still a bit rough around the edges.

The second soap is a gentle, tropical floral fragrance with just a hint of green tea in the background. Jasmine dreams has pink and white swirls throughout the entire bar. I love jasmine as a fragrance so these are a favorite of mine. Like the Solar Energy, I had just cut them into bars shortly before taking the picture.

Both of these soaps will be curing into a gentle, lathery soap over the next six weeks and will not be ready until August 27th.

An announcement will be made when they are ready and an immediate 20% discount to anyone who purchases one of these soaps in the first week they are on sale. This discount is ONLY good for those who have read this blog and mention this blog at the time of sale.

Anyone interested in reserving any or both of these soaps in advance, please let me know at either of my shop sites.


www.SoapyBlessings.etsy.com
www.SoapyBlessings.silkfair.com

Each soap is 3 1/2 oz. each and are $3.75 regular price

With 20% discount, you receive each bar for $3.00 (not including shipping of course)

A New Name

I was very happy with my old business name, Jabon Soaps, for quite awhile now. It seemed to fit well for me. I had looked across the internet prior to choosing that name to see if it was being used by anyone else and had not found anything in the search engine. So, I felt secure with the name.I looked again the other day and lo and behold, there were SEVERAL people who where using that, or a similar name...so similar that it was hard to differentiate. It also appeared that these had picked this name prior to me.

As a result, I have decided to change my name so that my products are not confused with with someone else's.The new name I've chosen is one that I have already been using regularly on myspace, on Ruebee and on my blogspot. People already know me by this name and I originally used it as sort of a nickname....Soapy Blessings. My shop site will now be known as Soapy Blessings by Trish, which is already the case on my blog site anyway.

The shop on etsy is still the same, just the name is different.Since the original name I picked on etsy was "jabon", I think it will still come up as "jabon" on the forums and convos. I don't think that can be changed. That's OK. "Jabon" means "soap" in Spanish and still applies anyway.So, come visit my same shop but with a different name.By the way, I am having a sale through March 2nd, so even better!!!

What's a store without an occasional sale?

What's a store without an occasional sale?
Well, here's my sale.
I currently have a 10% off storewide sale through March 2nd, 2008.
However, if you happen to mention that you saw this blog on my blogsite, you get 20% off anything in the store.
How hard is that?
Save a few bucks, get great soap, read a little blog. What could be better than that?
Well, I COULD offer a free trip to Mazatlan, but I think you just dreamt that comment :)
Nope, sorry...no free trips, just a sale.
Stop by and visit me at http://www.jabon.etsy.com/