April Showers?

Hi again! This month is half over already, I can't believe it!! It has been very busy for my family...first of all, we traveled out of town for a 2 day Bible assembly. It was very upbuilding, and we got to visit with friends we hadn't seen in a long time! Hard on the heels of that trip, our annual observance of Christ's death, the Memorial, was celebrated on April 9th, which just happened to be hubby's and my wedding anniversary! Since he gave the talk this year, he was preoccupied and pretty nervous all week, so we waited until Saturday to celebrate our anniversary. It was our 15th, and sadly the first one in which Grandma Doreen was not there to have special time with the kids. We took them with us and had a wonderful family dinner out at a local steak house. (There is a new one opening soon so we are going to save our "alone" dinner for when that one opens!) Then we all exchanged presents, which is our yearly family tradition! The kids each got their first digital camera, and they are loving them.

The flowers above were one arrangement I helped make for the Memorial. A group of us got together on the 8th at our friend Debbie's house and had a great time! We had several bouquets around the Hall...and since I believe in Upcycling, many of the roses will become potpourri eventually! ;) Here is one of the Rose Bouquets:

With all of this activity, tax prep. kind of got shuffled, so now we are doing the last minute tax dash...but several surfaces in my house that I haven't seen in a long time are now shiny clean and free of stacks of papers!

Store News!

My store on Etsy has been busy with some custom orders recently finished and one in the works...yay! I made my first sale on ArtFire too! I hope my buyer loves my Starbucks Coffee Sugar Scrub as much as I do! I have another batch in the works, but this time I am using 90% Organic ingredients! Also, it will be scented with a hint of chocolate.....mmmmmmm!!! I will post here and Tweet about it as soon as it's ready...gotta finish Taxes first, ug!

In hopes of having some income to order supplies with, I am having my first ever BOGO SALE in my Etsy store! Buy any item and get another item of equal or lesser value 1/2 off!! This sale lasts through April 18th, so hurry!

It's My Etsy-Versary!!

Wow! It's being a great first year since joining Etsy! I truly believe that having a special place to sell handcrafted items is the way for an artisan to go...I know that potpourri isn't something in high demand like, say, soap :) but I have made at least one sale every month since opening my Etsy store, and I have only made 2 total sales of potpourri in my ebay store in the same time period! Of course, I haven't really tried hard on eBay, since other items of a non-handcrafted nature seem to do very well there. It's our place to recycle clothing items! But I digress....I'd just like to say Thank You to Etsy for getting the ball rolling for us little crafters everywhere!

Of course I wouldn't still be in business if it weren't for my customers, soooooo......In honor of my First Etsy-Versary, I am offering FREE SHIPPING throughout February on all orders...even the somewhat heavy and bulky Luxury Size Bath Tea! In addition, mention this blog to me in an Etsy Convo or on Twitter and I will give you an additional 5% off your order! I may get brave and have a blog contest but I've never done that before, so if you have any tips or suggestions, please share them! :)

http://paradisepotpourri.etsy.com/

Cafe Rouge du Chocolat!

Here is my latest creation...Cafe Rouge du Chocolat! I had to look up the French terminology on Babel Fish, so I hope I got it right! It's a re-creation of my classic Mocha Java, and it smells just like walking into a super uppity coffee shop! I have only listed the one size so far, but more sizes will be available soon. I can easily make them up now, too, for anyone who wants to shoot me a convo!

Back to Work...I Promise!

Whew! The kids go back to school this week...except one, I haven't received his materials yet for homeschooling, so probably next week for him. Anyway, no more running around means a bit more time at home, so I finally got to work on a couple more potpourris! I started with Mango, so voila! Mango Madness! I also made a new batch of Lemongrass, one of my all time best sellers. My supplier no longer carries some of the ingredients, so I improvised! I will be posting new items over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

Discoveries!

Well, I was wrong about selling my very last Mocha Java sachet...I went to my workshop to start the new batch, and discovered 2 more large ones and 3 small ones! One of them even had a keychain charm on it, so I will be photographing that one and listing it ASAP! I still started the new batch, because I'm really excited about adding the red color to it. I know there are alot of fans of the "just brown" batch too though, so now I can have something for everyone! Feel free to leave me a comment with your personal opinion here if you want :)

And The Winner Is....

You!!
July 31st is my "official" 6 month Etsy anniversary! I also just made my 20th sale on Etsy, by selling my very last Mocha Java sachet...but never fear! Another customer suggested that I create Mocha Java using a dark red color mixed in. Since some of the ingredients I used in my last batch are unavailable right now, I have decided to substitute some of them with some dark red rose petals, and perhaps another dark red flower, and call it Mocha Java Rouge! I also received an exciting Alchemy request...another first! But I will save that to blog about when the order is done :)
ANYHOO...To celebrate, I am having Free Shipping on anything in my store through August 15th, which is the actual 6 month anniversary of my store opening! This sale will include any alchemy requests...so convo me!
Finally, I am going to create the winning scents from my Party Potpourri Poll...Margarita, Mango, and the runner up, Cold Relief Bath Tea!

Working on New Things...

Whew! I decided to take advantage of the overcast day and clean out my workroom (aka storage shed) this morning. It also helped that my boys decided to put on their Superman costumes and have a Lois and Clark marathon...don'tcha love DVD boxed sets of TV shows? :) Anyway, I found several little gift containers that I had forgotten about, intending to use them for presents at one time or another. It seems such a waste to let them just sit in there not being used, so I began experimenting with gift sets for the store. I am thinking of grouping them in scent themes, such as Lavender, Rose, etc. in a re-useable container. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any suggestions on what you would like to see!

I'm getting the hang of the photo thing!

I mostly cleaned house today, but I did so well that I rewarded myself with some long overdue photo-shoots of my potpourris. When I started my shop in February, I took all my photos in front of a dark green curtain that I had been using for photographing my ebay items. I got lots of compliments, and liked them really well, but I finally decided to try the all white background which is more Etsy-ish! :) As a result, I updated a couple of currently listed small ones, and re-listed Victorian Bride (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9919296) and Healing Lavender (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9874176). I had been using extremely antiquated photos of both, so now they are fresh and lovely, to match their scent!

Now if only Etsy could invent a scratch-and-sniff feature!!!!

Until then, check out my Sampler Pack...three scents of your choice in any color sachets for just $2.00 each!! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12839584 You can even choose bath tea!

Welcome to my Etsy Potpourri Blog!

Hi! Thanks for visiting my little corner of cyberspace ;) I started this blog to tell everyone about my Etsy store, Paradise Potpourri. You can check it out by clicking here - http://paradisepotpourri.etsy.com I create scents to bring cheer and delight to any room in your home, your office, or even your car! I also have a plethora of other ideas, so I will post here regularly for the latest!

Please take a moment to vote in my poll, and if you have something you'd like to see in my shop, or a comment to share, feel free to drop me a line here!