Snowflake Faery

I finally finished her for the Earthpath Artisans Street Team's Winter Wonderland Challenge. She's all crocheted with acrylic and wool variety yarns including sparkling threads and shiny beads. I think she turned out pretty darned cute, especially her little fae ears! I have a bunch of photos of her on my Flickr page, here.

Winter Grapefruit

I've added some more new stuff to my shop. Winter Grapefruit is the most delicious blend of Grapefruit, Juniper, and Italian Lemon and it smells like a Vodka Greyhound -- really! As you can see below, I'm finally getting my swirling mojo down pretty good. These swirls aren't as delicate and feather-y as I want them to be, but I'm getting there. :)

Also new is Afternoon Delight, a gift package of Turkish Mocha and Cuppa Chai soaps paired with Lick My Latte and Chai lip balms. Mmmmmm...

Tonight I finally finished my entry for the Earthpath Artisans Street Team (EAST) "Winter Wonderland" challenge. I decided to go against type and instead of making a bath or body product, I crocheted a luminously pale white and silver and blue winter faery! She turned out so pretty cute, I gotta say it! I'll show you what she looks like soon.

This weekend my daughter is going to Orlando with her school band to march in a parade at Universal Studios, and my son and husband are going camping. So you know what that means, right? Eating whatever I want, long quiet naps with no interruptions, lots of book readings and perhaps a matinee of "The Golden Compass" or "Atonement," or maybe even both.

I've been waiting impatiently for Pullman's book to be made into a movie for a looooong time now. I can't wait to see it. And I loved "Atonement," the book, so I can't wait to see the movie. It's getting great reviews.

Lick My Latte Lip Balm

I added Lick My Latte Lip Balm to my shop today. It tastes amazing!

I spent the morning running around and going back to WW after missing last week. Even with Thanksgiving and some rampant bread eating, I still managed to lose 0.4 lbs. It's a lot better than gaining, and holidays are deadly for weight gain. I gotta get back into writing down every bite I eat and tracking my points.

This afternoon I spent a couple of pleasurable hours packaging up 4 holiday gift sets. I love doing gift packs! The only part I don't like is the clear, sparkley shred that goes in the boxes, oy, it gets all over everything!

Flower Bath Teas

I frequent a wonderful forum, The Soap Dish, where people generously share ideas and inspirations. I was going to put together some Bath Teas anyway, and had ordered some big, heat-sealable tea bags. But the other day I learned how to make these adorable little Flower Bath Teas and have added them to my shop. Aren't they pretty?

These are really fiddly and time-consuming to make, each layer of the flower has to be hand-tinted, but the results are worth it. They're stuffed with skin-soothing oatmeal and milk powder, dried lavender, chamomile, calendula and roses, herbs and essential oils.

I got such a nice blend for these bath teas I made big honking Mega Bath Teas too, packed into 100% cotton wash cloths and tied up with ribbon and a flower. Here's a peek at them.

Quiet Forest

I just added a really lovely, intriguing new soap to my shop, Quiet Forest. It's hard to describe verbally, but it went straight from my nose to my brain's wowee! lobe -- a complex blend of woods, orange, brown sugar, walnut, patchouli and vanilla. Mmmmmmm.

And I did a little more soaping today, Vanilla Latte. It smells just like the kind I get at Borders, which I'm on a book and coffee splurge.

Cyber Monday?

Well, so far it's been a bust. But at 20 cents a pop, I think Etsy is making a young fortune today on sellers who are re-listing lots and lots of items, LOL!

I have been concentrating on getting some more holiday-themed packages into my shop. I've recently added a Holiday Penguins Handmade Soap Gift Bag, and a little handmade sparkling red felt Christmas Stocking Vegan Lip Balm Trio. I also just added my all-time favorite soap fragrance, Relaxing.

Here's a peek at my little Christmas stocking.

I don't know if I mentioned this or not before, but I'm switching all my lip balms to a vegan formula. And I've added some fantastic new flavors: Chai, Latte, Pina Colada, Sangria and (my personal fave) Rum Raisin! Check them out!

I've been shopping around IRL and online for new holiday packaging ideas and found some adorable 12 oz. clear cookie jar-type canisters with blue snowflakes on them. I'm thinking they'd be perfect for bath salts.

Something I'm trying to do a couple of times a day is spend 15-20 minutes in the Promotions forum on Etsy. Often after I've posted a link to a thread asking about specific kinds of products, I'll get a sale. At least often enough for me to notice and feel that it's worth doing. You start a thread that says "L is for..." and chances are I'm going to post "Lemongrass Coconut" with a link. You ask about products with penguins, I'm going to post a link to my Holiday Penguins gifts.

Seems pretty straightforward and democratic to me. Sellers who invest time and energy in capitalizing on these opportunities to promote their shops are likely to get more sales. After all, it's not kindergarden where everyone is guaranteed the exact same number of oatmeal cookies. We gotta work for our cookies on Etsy. So I'm sometimes amazed at how many people complain about how other sellers are too aggressive or pushy in promoting their products.

Um....hello? It's the Promotions forum, right? Instead of complaining about sellers who make an effort to promote, put that energy to work in a more positive way to get your own products noticed. Or sit around going "Wah, no one complimented me on my widget, they just posted links to their own widget," it's up to you. Working hard to get noticed doesn't necessarily making you a philistine. But it might make you more successful.

Happy Thanksgiving

To all my friends in the US, Happy Thanksgiving! We got a turkey, potatoes, gravy and dressing from Publix this year instead of cooking our own. I'm still going to make my family's favorite part of the meal, the sweet potato casserole with cranberries and a streusel topping covered with mini-marshmallows, and green bean casserole. I have to weigh in at WW tomorrow, not looking forward to it!

I added a couple more holiday gift baskets to my shop, packaged in really gorgeous velvet boxes, shown below.

Check out the Velvet Gift Boxed Skin Pampering Set and Velvet Gift Box Handmade Soap Trio. And finally, Turkish Mocha soap is back in stock.

Etsy started a series of Gift Guides for shoppers. I was pleased to see my Oatmeal Milk & Honey soap listed in the House Warming section. It's here on this page.