Spa Quality Bath and Beauty Products, and Beyond!

"Why should I buy handmade bath and body products?", you ask? For the same reasons you want to eat healthy foods, and take your vitamins! Commercial body products such as lotions and soaps contain numerous synthetic ingredients, some of which you probably don't want to know where they came from. These can be very harsh on your skin, in spite of the label's claim to Moisturize or Protect. Some preservatives, such as parabens, are even believed to have a link to cancer. Why take that chance, when all natural products are widely available and their ingredients have proven over time that they are vastly superior? Over the next few posts, I will highlight one or two ingredients I use, and list some of the benefits they can bring!

I'm not usually comfortable with "tooting my own horn", so to speak, but I'm so happy with the products I have been making (Yes, I have used them all!) that I wanted to share this with you! Since I first started making sugar scrubs this Spring, my friends and family members have been regularly buying them, and eagerly trying out all my new creations. (Thanks guys!)It's not just friends and family who enjoy them though...here is what a happy customer said about her lotion bar purchase from my Etsy store:

"It is wonderful! I love it! It mailed just fine, barely smudged the bag, unlike the lotion bars I order from [a major online retailer of natural bath and body products], which generally arrive in liquid form (ugh). Your's was cheaper, bigger, arrived faster (and not liquified), and I loved the scent! So I do believe I will switch to buying them from you exclusively. =] Is there any chance you might be able to make a vanilla-scented one? I noticed, as popular as vanilla is, you didn't have it listed, and it's my absolute favorite."

Of course, I added vanilla as soon as my shipment arrived from my supplier, along with many other scents! Right now I offer them as a "choose your scent" listing, but I will be trying new shapes and sizes, so I will also be listing individual scents in my ArtFire store. I have some sample sizes ready to post now as soon as I get my pictures edited!

As always, feel free to contact me. If you have a favorite scent that you don't see listed, just let me know...if I don't have it, I can get it!

I am also working on lip balms and lip gloss, and will have those available soon.

Click on the links to any of the items in my stores in the right column to find out more about each one!-------------------------------->>>>>>>>

What's Going On?!

I know I have not blogged in almost 2 months...where has the time gone?! To be perfectly honest, I have been considering giving up my stores altogether, since I have not had the time to create new things and keep them fresh while balancing kids, housework and homeschooling. I also have a goal of spending more time in the Bible teaching work. We had a wonderful Bible convention last weekend highlighting the importance of staying focused, since we are very deep in the "time of the end" according to Bible prophecy. Nothing is more important than that! Anyway, I have a lot on my plate, and I think I am starting to figure things out slowly but surely! Of course, just when I seem to be catching up, I get sick!

In any case, I have decided to keep my stores open for now, and I have a plan to get some new products in them in the next week or so. My next post will focus on some new products I am making...lotion bars! I also had some great encouragement from some family members visiting all the way from Canada, who loved my new shea butter sugar scrubs so much they bought 3 jars!

P.S. Cranberry Orange and Bountiful Harvest potpourris are HALF PRICE in my Etsy store! click here: http://paradisepotpourri.etsy.com

A Cool Contest on Handmadeology!

I don't consider myself a photographer, but since I opened my Etsy shop last year, I have been learning the ropes of how to photograph my items to the best advantage. Of course, I happen to sell items that half of their appeal is scent - and you can't smell them on a computer! (what's up with that anyway? Someone please invent a scratch-n-sniff feature!!) So, it's doubly important that I have good photos. I have had a lot of fun taking photos of my items for my stores, getting lots of help and tips from Megzy who IS a photographer ( http://tredlightphotographs.etsy.com ) as well as the Etsy forums. I think my photos have come a long way! So, whilst feeding my daily Twitter addiction this morning, I kept seeing retweets of this tweet: @tweetmeme Etsy Worthy Photo Contest! Handmadeology http://bit.ly/Eu9F3

I duly entered one of my favorite photos...you will see it above, so please head over there and vote for it! The winner gets and ad space on Handmadeology's site, which is usually $60! There are already lots of wonderful photos besides mine, and you can even add yours...let me know so I can check it out too! :)

http://www.handmadeology.biz/home/etsy-worthy-photo-contest

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!

Up and Running on ArtFire!

As promised, I have indeed taken the plunge into the bath products section of our little handmade universe! *plunge, get it? Dorky Bath Humor!! Oh well...* I even upgraded to the Verified Account on ArtFire, which I LOVE!! Not only can you click on the nifty little item boxes on the right side of this page--------------->>> but you can purchase them right here! No login needed! If you do decide to join ArtFire, be sure to give ParadisePotpourri as a referral and help me earn a Free Ride for Life! :) 10 referrals is all it takes! Did I mention the $7.00 for life accounts are almost gone? *end of ArtFire shameless promo! :)

I really am happy with the new products I am offering also! (Well, duh, I wouldn't offer them if I wasn't :p ) My daughter has even made a salt body scrub of her own, it's so much fun! I may have to offer that one for sale too...it's Pink Grapefruit-Lime and smells lovely! But I digress...the coffee scrub has proved to be such a hit, even Megzy's husband uses it...he who scorned any sugar scrub as being "too girly"! If you have a scent you'd like to see me create, please let me know...feedback is GREATLY appreciated! I really can't say enough about what a difference using handmade soaps and bath products has made in my skin. My husband is won over too!

In non-store related news, Spring Break is here, so I have all the kids 24/7 for the week...fortunately I am already insane so I don't have to worry about that! I will be twittering for therapy if I can kick them off my computer! We started off the week with our cat ignoring her newborn kittens, so we took her prisoner in the kids' bathroom and made them all a cozy box. They are doing much better. Sadly, only 2 of 4 survived. They are very cute though! We will be TwitPic-ing photos later in the week no doubt!

A Month of Ups and Downs...and Downs and Ups!

At the beginning of this month, our little town was facing something big...the local mine, which had been booming and prospering to unprecedented proportions, was caving in to the growing economy crisis. Layoffs were announced, over 1500, which was about 1/3 of our town (give or take). As Feb. 2nd got closer, there were even rumors that disgruntled people were going to start trouble to the extent that the National Guard would be called in. Fortunately it didn't come to that, but a mass exodus has begun. So sad to see truckloads of people hoping to find opportunity elsewhere. Many of our friends have been affected too. Some have gone to other towns within the state, some to Colorado, and some to New Mexico. My husband thought that his department, which deals in Vibration Technology and Preventative Maintenance, wouldn't be affected, but unfortunately it was shut down, and he was laid off too.

We, like several others, have decided to stay in the area if at all possible, so we had planned to use his layoff as an opportunity to take care of things around the house that had been put off. Things were shaping up pretty good, and he was planning on Auxiliary Pioneering, as we call setting aside extra time in the month to share Bible truth with our neighbors, for the first time. Then the phone rang...apparently knocking out the department hadn't been such a good idea after all. His boss wants him back on Monday. Go figure! We are thankful he has a job, especially as hard as they are to find right now. But I have to admit a teeeeensy bit of sadness that "the old grind" has to take up so much of his time again already! We were getting used to having him around! OK, I'm just a little weird. So, a bittersweet sigh of relief here in our house!

In my employment news, in spite of Tweeting profusely, Free Shipping has not brought the droves of people to my store that I thought it would, and I think I am going to have to branch out to keep my business up. Potpourri just isn't a necessity in these uncertain times! I have made a couple of trades, which I think is great! Like the old days, when you could pay the doctor with a chicken or two! Imagine trying to do that now, lol! Anyhoo....I have started making Bath Salts, and will soon begin creating Sugar Scrubs and the like. So, you heard it here first, my new studio at Artfire (http://paradisepotpourri.artfire.com/) will soon feature many new botanical Bath Salts, Scrubs, and fizzies!

Megzy and I are also stocking up our eBay store, and getting ready to part with some former treasures. People still need clothes, right? So, we will keep listing and hopefully help our families by doing something that just may be helping others in a small way too! http://stores.ebay.com/paradisepotpourriglobalbizarre?refid=store

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/