Back to Business

Both Dick and I took a few days off this past week but we've been making up for lost time in the shop. Now that we're caught up with everything, we've been able to add a few new varieties to the lineup. We had a huge essential oil delivery arrive before we left, so there were plenty of scents to play with. Still working on the name thing, as usual.

First off we have a cocoa butter soap scented with a Lemongrass blend. There have been a lot of requests for lemongrass, and this one is very rich.

Another essential oil blend is a Lavender Spice. Lots of lavender and clove, plus a few rose notes from palmarosa and rosewood.

Still more lemongrass! This one is blended with coconut for a light, summery scent. I love anything that lets me pretend I'm on the beach.

Dick came up with a mix of vanilla, orange, cinnamon, and some cedar for depth (he's nothing if not deep). Kind of like a spicy creamsicle, but better.

Finally, I decided we needed a new blend for Heaven. This one is still light but more floral than our old soap. There have to be flowers in heaven, don't you agree?

All these soaps will make their debut at the Leesburg Flower and Garden show. And we're still soaping away, so any fragrance suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Crozet, here we come!

Just got word that we've been accepted into a new (for us) craft show: The Crozet Arts and Crafts Festival in Crozet, VA. Dates this year are May 9 & 10 and October 10 & 11. We've heard nothing but great things about this show and are really looking forward to being part of it!

More bad news for our Maryland customers...this year we were not invited back to the Mistletoe Mart in Westminster. But I'm still trying to find us some new Maryland craft shows. Wish us luck!

January Soap Making

We had an ice storm in Lovettsville today, which made it the perfect day to stay inside the shop and be productive. Making soap in January is always a relaxed process. Holiday gifts have long since been mailed out, craft shows are over until spring, and business in general is less frantic. There’s time for trying new things and catching up with the “to do” list.

Today I experimented with a couple of new scent blends. We’ve had customers asking for a peppermint soap for a long time now, and I’ve never been able to hit on a good blend. There are plenty of artificial Candy Cane fragrances out there, but we always try to use essentials if possible. Peppermint is tricky in cold process soap—it has a real tendency to fade and is easily overwhelmed in blends. For this batch I mixed the peppermint with tea tree oil and sweetened it up with a touch of vanilla. Dick added some finely ground black tea leaves at trace. The tea not only looks pretty but will also make the soap slightly astringent.

We always seem to have odd ounces of fragrance hanging around, so for our second new soap I mixed several of these odds and ends together. I put in several florals, some linden/cucumber for depth, and a shot of rain to lighten it all up. I have absolutely no idea what we’re going to name it. It might be time to bring out the paint chips again (some of those color names are absolutely inspired!).

Today we also brought back a couple of varieties from years past: Black Tea & Rose and Citrus Linen. Everything we made today will be ready in about six weeks and in plenty of time for the Leesburg Flower and Garden Show. Hope to see you there!

Shaker Forest Festival

I just got a letter from the Shaker Forest Management Team saying that they will no longer be holding the festival. It's a shame, because it was always a fun weekend for us. It was the only show we had left in that part of Maryland, so if any of you know of craft shows we should be at in the Maryland/DC suburbs, please share.

Happy New Year!

Hard to believe it's January already. Time for us to be catching up on all those chores that get put off during our busy season...inventory, cleaning the shop, filling out craft show applications and above all replenishing the soap supply. Hopefully there will be time to experiment with new scent blends. Some of our most popular soaps were suggested by customers, so we'd love to hear any ideas you might have.

As far as resolutions go, Dick has his heart set on mastering liquid soap and I promise to clean up the website. My goal is to add more descriptions and pictures of the soaps while still keeping everything as simple as possible. We'll keep you updated on our progress.

Here's hoping for an early spring!