Babies and weddings and boyfriends, oh my!

This has been a good month for Sudstress.  A few weeks ago, I got an email from a woman who was looking for 40 baby shower favors and had been referred to me by the lovely Joanna of The Soap Bar and Product Body.  (Thanks Jo!)  Her shower is this weekend and all has been delivered and signed for.  She was so kind to still work with me even though I couldn't do custom without more time; we figured out a way to make what I had in stock, custom for her.  I hope they're a hit.  We went with exotic berry, stamped 'Baby M' with some pearlescent purple mica.

Then I got an email about a week ago for 60 wedding favors.  All was confirmed a few days ago, and I made them Tuesday morning.  Her wedding is in September.  I've already ordered the gift tags - my best design yet, thanks to istockphoto and their amazing vector artists.  One in particular whose style I LOVE.  A month seems like plenty of time, unless you're talking making soap, cutting it into 60 little pieces, stamping 60 little pieces, assembling 60 boxes, filling them with shred, packing the soap in them, tying a ribbon and gift tag around each one, packing them and shipping them....  whew! 

They will look similar to this:

Today I received confirmation from Allison, who bought a custom order of Gravel Road Grunt - a novelty scented soap with pumice in it that I made for gift bags given away at the Fool's Gold 50/100 mountain bike race a few years ago.  Apparently he really liked it because he kept the label all this time and this is the second custom bulk order for it!  I'll be making the batch this Sunday for local delivery in a handful of weeks.

Sorry for the poor quality on that last picture.  I sort of took it last minute before moving it to the curing shelves.  I wanted a record of it, but who needs it when it looks so poorly lit and on paper towel...  clearly not staged properly, but you get the idea.

A little early...

...but I made some candy cane soap.  YUM!!!  Not the super cool peppermint, but rather more candy and less cane.  I haven't really had much time for soapmaking as, both fortunately and unfortunately, I'm working full time and gettin' my learn on.

.. and of course, Christmas Cutie Pies...   scented with spruce tree and woodsmoke just like the crisp air outside of a snowy winter cabin...   makes me swooooooon

Here are a couple of others I've made recently.  Sweet baby blue smells like blue sugar, also YUM!!!  I also whipped up a batch before going out of town a couple of weeks ago that is a sort of slightly fruity vanilla latte scent and I have to say, absolutely gorgeous.  I love anything coffee or dessert themed, in case you can't tell by my last post...

two of three, which is now four (sweet!)

A little over a month ago, I wrote this blog post talking about some exciting possibilities that have come my way recently. Well, since then, a fourth press opportunity has popped up, but I'm not going to blab that one either! However, I am now ready to tell you about number two! (hee hee, number two...) *ahem* sorry.

I was approached a while back by the Atlanta editor of Daily Candy about my soap cakes. She originally asked me about the large soap cakes and floating cupcakes which are cool and beautiful, but out of production with good reason. So, I told her about my cutie pies which are an evolution of the soap cake, but with a more specific purpose; wedding favors. Of course I've sold them since as...

baby shower favors

bridal shower hostess gifts

li'l gift sets

After a couple of weeks without a yes showing up in my inbox, I thought maybe they had decided not to use me (yet, hopefully). But today I received word that they'd like to use my cutie pie favors in their wedding guide. Woo! I'm not exactly sure when it comes out, but past 'issues' have come out in the end of October.

presenting...

custom cutie pie soap slices

I've finally come up with the perfect wedding favor soap. I was on the verge of this idea when this contest surfaced. Please view and comment on my entry. Mark is my brother and Melissa is his wife. They're such a positive example for me that it seemed only fitting to use their names.

Each slice weighs approximately one ounce and will be available presented in either an organza bag or white box with affixed label. Presentation and packaging photos still to come..

I will make available several versions of this. I will be offering whole cutie pies (pre-sliced if desired) for under $15, including gift packaging. Also, I will offer 4 slice gift packs for about $6.50 - pictures coming soon.

clankin' around in my noggin

custom wholesale soap

chocolate raspberry soap cake custom made for a bridal shower

tomato, pumice, clay, lemongrass, rosemary & clary sage gardener's herbal scrub soap

more sensual calendula petal - one of my favorites

silk & shea re-design

Gah! I've been meaning and meaning to write. You can rest assured that when there's nothing going on in my blog that there are all sorts of things happening my real life. I've been wrestling with several major issues lately and have been trying to sort them out. If you could see my thoughts, they'd probably resemble the aftermath of a tornado and I've spared all but those I need to help me through them. There are no quick fixes, I just have to trudge on through.

One major speedbump is that I quit my job about two months ago when I decided to permanently leave bartending after 14 years in the industry with no real plan on what to do next. It's obviously been and continues to be a huge transition for me even though I sort of glossed over it in a previous post. Then, three days after I quit, Neko died, overshadowing everything leaving me feeling as though the rug had been pulled out from under me. Every other day, I get this feeling like someone is wringing out my intestines when I remember how permanent death is. I've also been feeling isolated and disconnected as a result, which is strange because I love alone time and value it as highly as food, water and sleep. I'm an odd contradiction. My apologies for being so vague and so brief for those that might actually want to know what's clankin' around in my noggin.

Today I took a ton of pictures of soap that will be finished curing soon, so I'll share a couple with you and then come back later (maybe today, maybe not) to elaborate, vent, wax philosophical or just brag about my soap.

Holy Canoli!

So I was cruisin' my regular blogs and on one of my favorite blogs I could not resist checking out soap porn.  I'm an addict, I admit.  I love soap, I love my soap, I love making soap, I love looking at other people's soap, I love using other people's soap, I love sniffing other handmade soap, I love everything about handmade soap.  Now that that's out of the way, one of the pictures in the soap porn had me dumbfounded.  Soap carvings.  If I thought I had problems with some people not wanting to use my soap because it's "too pretty to use", I can only imagine that these peeps will never get anyone to use their soap.  Here's why:

I'm sure you'll want to check out the rest here.

Also, in my "morning" computer routine, I clicked on etsy and low and behold there's my Healing Waters Spa Bar in a treasury right there on the front page!  Woo Hoo!  I took a web archive of it, but it doesn't save in jpeg format, so I don't think it'll post, but I'm about to try.

Also, I'm working on a couple of projects and have been using a Ginger Lime fragrance and am absolutely in love with it.  I made another Chocolate Raspberry Soap Torte, but I did the regular cold process for the bottom and whipped soap for the top.  Normally I think this would've worked out quite fine, however I made the layers on different days and now the top doesn't stick to the bottom.  It's beautiful but very delicate.  Pictures coming soon....