April 12-22

Woe, these 10 days just flew blew by so fast!

Saturday the 14th dad was at the event at the LV Zoo. It was very successful for the Zoo and we got to meet lots of new people. I think dad enjoyed getting to see his friends from the farm markets that he hasn't see since the end of last year.

C took a week off from work and we spent it doing things around the house. The list was long, but the wonderful weather held out for us and between the three of us, lots of things got accomplished. The garden is now done, it has it's stone boarder all completed. I got flowers planted in the garden boxes that surround the house. The shed got cleaned. I painted all of my displays that I use at the craft shows. The shed got a new paver entrance, so now the doors open easier and don't get caught on weeds. I took a great class on using a rain barrel and got one for free, so that got installed and will be working as soon as we get a hose. The lawn got edged and now looks all pretty as well. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There wasn't a day I didn't go to bed sore from the work, but happy from the time outside and the things accomplished.

Soaps were picked up by Butter Valley Harvest so they can try out selling my products at their farm stand. Hopefully they are received well and this can be the start of a great thing for both of us.

I attended the Earth Day Celebration at Muhlenberg College and that was a great success as well. The students there really have been working hard and the whole event was huge compared to last year and was really filled with great energy and excitement.

Yesterday's rain was a welcome sight. Not only will the garden love the moisture, but I was happy to just be able to do things inside and to be able to relax a bit.

So now I am energized for this week and the real start of craft show season next week. This week I have classes to teach, meetings to attend, costumes to figure out, a home show to give, and some time with my mom...

Butter Valley Harvest

Soap is now available at: Butter Valley Harvest 1690 Route 100 Bally, PA 19503 (610) 845-0707 Wednesdays 2-5pm, Saturdays 9:30am-12:30pm *Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey and Orange-Spearmint Soap* Let them know you want them to expand into more fragrances, they want to hear from you!

Happy Earth Day (Early)

Come celebrate Earth Day a little early today at Muhlenberg College. From 11am-8:30pm there will be student groups, craftspeople, and entertainment. Parents' Plaza right outside Seegers Union. Hope to see you there!

Craft Night Out!

Save the date! Indiemade craft market is planning a CRAFT NIGHT OUT! Thursday, April 26 from 6pm to 8 pm at the HIVE (905 Harrison St., Allentown.)

DIY crafts include make your own sugar scrub (with ME!), hand-printed cards, gift tags and envelopes with Diane Podolsky from AnniePod Press and collage artist Claudia McGill!

Free admission. Supplies on hand - bring your own container for the finished scrub. BYO drinks, snacks and friends. All skill levels welcome!

April 14: Farm Fest

April 14 Lehigh Valley-wide Farmer's Market (part of Farm Fest), Lehigh Valley Zoo, 5150 Game Preserve Road, Schnecksville PA, 10am-4pm Come visit the new animal exhibit, bring your cooler for local veggies, meats, and other foods. Great alpaca products, our soaps, and information about local farm markets you can visit all season long!

April 2-11, 2012

Well it was a lovely week off. I recharged, got re-inspired, and relaxed. A few of the highlights of the trip include a walk through Old San Juan an Friday. I went with my niece on this annual pilgrimage to tour and pray at seven churches in the old city. Although I am not much of a "go to church" kinda gal, to see the architecture was amazing. So many are in the process of being restored. As i looked around, K prayed in each church, as did thousands of other people. There were even lines to get in all of them! I have to say that the singing, the prayers read out loud, and the music brought me to tears a few times. The faith and love was overwhelming. And then to think that this was going on all over the island, in most towns and cities, people were walking or driving from cathedral to cathedral to pray. It was an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget.

I continued my running plan and finished both week 4 and the week 4 supplemental of the 5k101 running plan. I started week 5, but about halfway through my first interval I fell and rid some damage to the skin on my elbow, hand and knee. So I guess it will be a few more days before I can run again. It isn't so much the knee, that is fine, but my elbow is pretty sore so just sweating burns like crazy.

So here I am, catching up on orders, paperwork, and making some soap. I am finishing up on getting my social networking sites all working and linked together. That is a chore! I have a ton of emails to reply to and phone messages to return. Just going to be a busy day.

But show season is just around the corner, so I have go to keep going :)

Spring Break!

We will be closed starting at 5pm Tuesday 4/3 thru Wednesday 4/11.

Orders placed during this time will ship Thursday 4/12.

Thanks!

Week of March 25- April 1

Well it has been a busy week. We tried vending at Kutztown University but it didn't go as well as we hoped. It is funny how things go like that in this business. You go into an event thinking that you are going to do great, and then you don't. Then there is that one gem, that one thing you expected to be mediocre at best and it comes out shining like a small diamond.

I have been busy at the computer. I have kept the web site up to date as well as the blog. I figured out how to post items for sale onto Pintrest. I also got a Facebook page for the business going. I am kinda bummed about that because there seems to be a whole bunch of things (like my newsletter application) that makes you have a personal account as well. I don't want a personal account. I had one for a week and I don't like it. Now I need to go and figure out how to get an account, make it so no one can see it, possibly block of unfriend a bunch of people in order to get it all straightened out, and then I can post my newsletter directly into the Facebook page. I also think I need to do that for my tweets to update too. And I would like blogger to update to it, but I am not sure if they talk to one another or not.

What I really want is to be able to only have a few places that I post, but to have them cross post to everything else. So I have been giving myself a crash course in social media. Wow, this is a pain, no wonder large companies have people that just do this stuff.

I have been working on getting new product pictures taken. I started with the easy stuff: bath soaks, shaving mugs, etc. Now I have to move onto the small stuff. I think that will all be much harder to photograph.

But I hope that by the end of April all the photos will be up and then I can start in on some other things I would like to do online. I was thinking of starting an Etsy site, and the Soap Guild has a place where I can sell too. Good photos will make that all much easier to get going on and make it look nice too.

I will be taking a week or so off for Easter Break and then will come back all ready to work hard and accomplish lots. Hope you all have a great Easter/Passover/Spring and see you in a week or so!