Bettacreek - New home? Plus a pic of some of the ladies here

[Bettacreek]

Finally seems like things are starting to go a little smoother, but of course, xmas is right around the corner. I've been getting a few large xmas orders in for soaps, so that's helping. Grades are still awesome.

 

[Bettacreek]

I'm still struggling with xmas. The "kids" in the family have decided that we're not exchanging gifts. I'm still trading a friend for her jams and such for my step father and my brother and then making candles for the women in the family. I already have the supplies so that'll cost me out of pocket right now exactly $0. I also have orders for candles, soap and lotion bars, so that'll help cover my costs for the boyfriend's present. The "grandkids" (my kids, my neice and nephew) my mother has helped me out with, thank god. I also plan on buying the neice and nephew a gingerbread house kit so my SIL can help them make that and they can have some junk food to eat, if they manage to make it without eating it first, lol. The boyfriend just wants a new microwave or new frying pans. I've been scouting for a deal on the frying pans, hoping to get him T-fal brand. If I can manage to sell enough stuff, I'll get him both things he needs. He's broken the secret and has had me searching for a new rifle for my xmas present. I've FINALLY found what I wanted... a Savage Axis 30.06 (comes as a package deal with scope). It's $304.95.
The soaps have been going fairly well. The candles and lotion bars, on the other hand, have been having rave reviews. I've taken some in for presents at school (teachers and admin staff, plus the girl who I picked for secret santa) and now everybody has been requesting them. Hopefully I get some true orders (most of us are piss poor broke in school, so we'll see). I don't have any other craft shows before xmas though, so that's a little bit of a bummer... Never got a chance to sell any candles or lotion bars at a show. :/

 

[rathbone]

Sounds like you are doing just fine in the gift department. This is a hard time of year - I gave out jams yesterday and they were well received. I had been holding my breath on that one, hoping people liked them - and it was just fine. Glad I worked so hard this summer and canned all those.

 

[Bettacreek]

Next summer, I definately plan on picking more than 2g of black berries. Everybody just loves that jam. I've been having more requests for it, but I have a pint hidden so when it gets to the point of desperation (when the more liquidy jam runs out), I can open that one up, lol. Hopefully next year the boys will help a little more than they did this year (they did help though, gotta give them that!). Plus, I have next week off from school and work, so I'll be trying to do a LOT of soap and candles to have for the craft shows next year. I also hope to start the shows a little early, with maybe some farmer's markets, instead of waiting until the very end of the year to cram a bunch of shows in.

 

[HeronsNestFarm]

What a great list. I need things like this as I will just slip into the now!

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, Thursday was my last day of work for the company I've been with for almost a year now. I was working on school breaks, but after they cut my paycheck by $90 and claimed that they couldn't find the paperwork on it, I decided that they weren't worth my time any longer. They've sent me places where clients have cancelled and never bothered to tell me, so I've wasted too much gas money for them to steal $90 from my paycheck, especially right before xmas. The jerks. I'd rather enjoy my darn breaks instead of having the hassle of a company who can't keep their crap together. Their bullcrap just isn't worth the pathetic $8.25/hr and $0.22/mile... Not when I've got the training that would pay over $12/hr right now and over $20/hr in another 6 months.

Xmas went fairly well. Everyone got soaps, candles, lotion bars, handmade candy, jams or apple butter. Mom got a subscription to All-You magazine (she likes the coupons and recipes) and my step-dad got hunting socks along with the other stuff, plus I get to hang onto the canning jars after he uses all of his jam, lol. Boyfriend got an "easy bake" microwave (it's tiny and we've dubbed it the easy-bake oven) and a set of Oneida pots and pans (Ross's super deal on that!). I got a gift card to get my oil changed and new wipers on my car, Sheetz coupon books (yum!), a really cute thermal bag (like a really cute carry bag, but it's thermal for lunches), the Savage Axis 30.06 with locking case, scope assembly and sling and a cookbook for a ton of meals with 5 ingredients or less. The boys got umteen gazillion train sets and LOTS of very nice clothes (I love my family for this, they always get a load of very, very nice clothing) and a bunch of other toys.

For the crafts, I'm hoping to sell out my hand-cut bars of soaps to make some room. I'm also planning an order for new lids for my candles and 50lbs of wax (saves me like $0.45/candle with the bulk wax). Still working on labels, haven't figured out exactly what I'm doing there yet. :/ Also ordering tins for my lotion bars. All of this will probably be waiting until tax returns, since I'm a po' folk. Trying to order my scents at different times of the year, so that I can save money on fragrances that are out of season, but lots of places don't put sales on them unless they charge outrageous prices to begin with.

Now, I'm DYING to go shoot my gun. Bought 180gr bullets for it, since nothing else was in stock (wtf?!) but hoping to get 150gr before too long. I need to make sure this baby is sighted in and ready to rumble for hunting season, and need new arrows and tips for the bow before archery arrives. I'm HOPING to get a cheap shotgun so I can get some small game done too, but that's not super high priority.

 

[Bettacreek]

I feel somewhat productive. A few girls from school got together and we tackled 10 pages of homework in two hours. Those pages were front and back no less. That's all of the homework for the first week of school, so I feel pretty good starting school with work done for once, lol.
I'm also FINALLY working on a website!!! I've got most of my soaps on it, but need to work on photographing each individual bar and getting the store front and "about us" page done. Then candles... I think I want to get the new lids before I start posting pictures of my candles on the site. But I feel pretty good about getting stuff done... It's only taken me, what, two years, to get a website up for my soap?! Lol.

 

[Denim Deb]

But, at least you're getting it done. I bet it feels good.

 

[Bettacreek]

Oh my goodness yes. I started on it last night, and I've got a good jump start on it. Freewebstore.org is my new friend, lol. For free, you can add 15 products, it has the shopping cart and everything built in. You can upgrade it to get more products in ($10ish/month for 50 products) and it's actually pretty versatile.

 

[Bettacreek]

Alright, still haven't taken pictures of everything for the site! But, my friend signed us up for our first show already... In May! Usually we wait until the end of summer to start, but we're starting early this year. I'm waiting for income tax to come in and budgeting out a certain amount for my crafty stuff. I know for sure that lids will be on that list for my candles, then maybe some colorants of soap. Not sure what else yet, still need to do some thinking on it.
I've got to really start pumping soap out. I made a few batches, but I definately don't have nearly enough. I probably have about 50 bars of the new molded stuff, but that's not nearly enough to suit me, plus I need to make batches of new scents! At least with the soap sale I've made some room, and as soap cures, I can wrap it and store it in a tote, instead of having to keep all of the different scents separated. Then as I get orders or load up for shows, I can just grab the scents that I need instead of worrying about getting labelling done right before the darned shows! I'm trying to add some new stuff to the line as well. Been mostly selling soap, but a few clay mask packs and some bath bombs. Now I've added soy candles and lotion bars (I still need to get the little tins to package them in!) Next, I'm debating on "liquid" lotion, shampoo bars (have had a ton of requests for these actually), maybe laundry detergent and I have a few other ideas bouncing around in my brain. I'll probably get the shampoo bars pumped out next, now that I think about the demand...

Sold about $45 worth of soap with my old bars sale. I also have about 14lbs of soap that needs to be rebatched. Still debating on what exactly to do with that. I can rebatch it and make it unscented and donate a ton of soap to the local food bank, or I can attempt to make it look pretty for sales. Hrmmm.... Will probably end up going the donation route.

School is still going fairly well. I did get a low score on my pharmacology exam yesterday. I wasn't happy to receive a 91%, because I had thought I had done pretty darn well on it. :/ Definately sours the 106% I got on the last one!

As for gardening, I've been thinking long and hard about salad fixings. I LOVE baby spinach, and could sit down and eat a huge bowl of straight baby spinach with a few drops of basalmic vinegarette... Instead of purchasing it at the store all of the time, if I could just snip it from a box growing in my house, I'd maybe feel a little better about my salads. I'm still figuring out which other salad fixings I like best (DEFINATELY NOT the purple crap, that tastes like grass!)
I'm also debating on tomatoes. Maybe grow a few plants for fresh tomatoes, but I don't think I'm wasting my time on growing romas when it's so dirt cheap to buy them in bulk from the amish. The other plant I KNOW I'm planting is bell peppers... Over a dollar for a damn pepper?! Gotta be kidding me! Same with the wax peppers, I'd like to grow some of them and can them up.

Thinking back on the laundry detergent, I need to get a 5g bucket so I can make it in bulk... I've been making it and putting it in little jugs, but it's a PITA to measure out the amounts and then add the remaining water to the jugs when I could just dump the pot into a big bucket then add remaining water to it.