Soapmaking Hiatus

Well, a lot of stuff has happened. First, I damaged my right thumb beyond belief on mandoline. Not the musical instrument, the kind you use to slice vegetables. Or your thumb. It was pretty awful. After a month, I can finally remove the bandage. My thumb has a different shape now. It still skeeves me out to think about it. The idea of handling lye any time soon is a sphincter-tightening notion. As a result, I am out of every kind of soap except for a select few.

In addition, supplies for soapmaking have skyrocketed. The same 50 lb pails of coconut and palm oils that cost $50 (plus $25 shipping for each one) have essentially doubled in the last few months. Since they are major ingredients in soap, the price of making it has literally doubled. Then there's higher gas costs for shipping. Oh yeah, and fragrance oil prices have gone up too. I think the days of the $5-6 bar of handmade soap won't last much longer.

For all these reasons, I'm going to sell what I've got left at Sea Sprite Soaps and go on hiatus until I can figure out if it's worth doing anymore. If I come back to commercial soapmaking it will probably be on limited basis with a lot fewer kinds of soap. I may just do my ocean and sea-themed soaps. That would keep supplies and shipping costs down. I've also thought about sticking to just roll-on and solid perfumes and forgetting about the soap. I'll have to see how I feel after a while.

For now, I'm going to sell off my remaining stock and take a break. I still have a good amount of Sea Glass, Oatmeal Stout and Pumpkin Lager left, plus a few bars each of Fata Morgana, Ocean Rain and Cedar and Saffron. If you like my soaps and want to get some, please check out my shop.

In the meantime, my digital products have been doing very well. My Mingzhu for Mavka has recently been released on Renderosity. I'm working on a skin texture and morph for Daz's Victoria 4 now and hope to have it finished soon.

A couple of things to love about digital products:

• No overhead
• No physical storage required
• Unlimited inventory (make it once and sell it forever)

Stacked up against soapmaking, digital products seem the way to go, to me. I know I'm going to miss my soapmaking business though.

Update

Three weeks ago our dear, 10 year old Welsh Terrier, Taffy, died. It pretty much knocked the stuffing out of me. We've taken it very hard. I'm gradually getting back to work.

I took advantage of ArtFire's new promotion of a lifetime price of $5.95 per month, and opened Sea Sprite Soaps on ArtFire. I don't know why ArtFire doesn't get more traffic and sales, but they have some wonderful tools and get their listings right into Googlebase, so this is a relatively inexpensive gamble I'm taking to get my shop out there.

I'm still tweaking Ghislaine's skin textures after some constructive criticism. As usual, every little change takes way longer than I ever think it will.

Monday we went up to Tampa to help Vicky celebrate her 21st birthday. We went out to lunch and she had her first legal cocktail in a restaurant -- a Margarita! Her dad had one too, so I drove home and he snoozed all the way back to Naples. I can't believe my baby is 21. It doesn't seem possible, but it must be true. Next year it's Geoff's turn.

One of my favorite suppliers, Southern Soapers, is going out of business. Not only will I miss their wonderful fragrances and fabulous service, but it's going to cut a hole in my stock. They had stuff I couldn't get anywhere else so some things, like Havana Nights, Twilight Rose and (especially painful) Tassie Lavender will be no more.

Etsy Front Page!

My Ocean Rain soap made the front page of Etsy today!

Sea Glass Soap

My Sea Glass Handmade Soap is featured in an Amazing Soap Treasury today!

Our 10 year old Welsh Terrier, Taffy, was limping terribly this morning. He had a tangle with a possum in the back yard last night, so I was afraid he'd been bitten. Took him to the vet, and $260 and X-rays later we found that he has arthritis in his feet and a twisted toe from his nails being too long. He must've got tangled up and pulled something. Argh. So now he's on pain med for his toe, as well as an anti-inflammatory for his old boy doggie prostate.

It's raining again here. Summer weather means a good thunderstorm every afternoon in South Florida, but the weather is outdoing itself just now. The other day we had 3 inches of rain in a couple hours, and the next day we got the same amount again. Looks like a 50% chance of thunderstorms every day for the next week. Sigh.

Featured On Babble.com!

I am so thrilled to be featured on Babble, the comprehensive and fabulous site for moms online! I'm one of the 50 Best Etsy Moms!

Things have been busy for me the last few weeks. My hosting service, which had been stellar for many years, suddenly began having a lot of down time. My SSL wasn't working properly. So I had to move to a new hosting service, one that has a lot of experience working with Zen Cart. I'm happy to report that my Sea Sprite Soaps site is working great, I have been updated to the latest, more secure version of my shopping cart, and my SSL is having no problems. Yay!

In the mean time, my Geoffrey has moved into his own apartment and is learning about how to budget his money and shop for groceries. He's only had a couple week, but he's slowly learning how to pace himself! We are going to pick up Vicky from USF on Friday and bring her home for the rest of the summer. Then she will be moving to her own apartment in the Fall.

In addition to making lots and lots of soap, including some new ones coming soon (Satsuma, Jasmine Vanilla), I've been finishing up my little 3D Poser character, Jamika. Here's a sneak peek of her as a mermaid.

Ocean Rain Featured

My Ocean Rain handmade soap was featured in Inspirewire's blog today -- Thanks Bonnie!

Geoff went to IKEA over in Fort Lauderdale yesterday and bought himself a whole living room full of furniture for about $600. It's for his apartment, which he moves into on the 1st. Last night we all gathered around in the living room while he unpacked the contents of one box and got out all his tools. We called it "The Boring Family Spends Friday Night Watching Their Son Assemble a Night Stand." :D

New Silicone Mold

Well, I splurged on this new 12 bar Silicone Mold, which arrived yesterday. One of the things that make soapmakers crazy is having to line our molds so we can get the soap out. There are molds that claim you don't have to line them, but I've never found them as easy to use as they are supposed to be. So this bright bubblegum pink mold was filled to the brim today with Ambra Cioccolata soap.



I had to re-size my regular batch so that it fit into this mold exactly. It was a bit tense because it looked like I would have too much soap for the mold size, but it filled it perfectly. So yay so far!

The real excitemen will be turning it out of the mold tomorrow and having it just plop out without any sticking or coaxing. The soapmaker's dream. There are little "cut marks" on the bottom, which will be on top, as guidelines for cutting into bars. I am truly soap-cutting impaired, but maybe the marks will help.

Vicky is going back to Tampa on Saturday to attend the first summer school session. I'm always sad when she has to leave again. At least we will have her here the rest of the summer starting in late June.

Still Alive...

Things got very busy. First one kid was home for spring break, then the other kid. It's been fun having them here and cooking their favorite meals, going to the movies and beach with them, etc. But now both kids are back at college and we are back to our normal routines. A little boring, but comforting nevertheless.

I'm back to trying to get my stock up again. I have a few new/revived soaps coming soon: Hawaiian Lei Flowers, Lilac, Coco Lime Verbena and Sea Fan, which is an awesome dupe of Lolita Lempicka. Tomorrow I'm going to try to make Gardenia and Havana Nights, maybe even some Sugared Walnut. I'd love to make more new ones, but then I run out of the old ones and have to make them first, so it's hard to add new stuff. I've really got to thin out my offerings, but if only a couple people like something, it's hard for me to take it out of rotation.

I'm making a lot of progress on my new Poser character. I wish I could show it off, but I can't because of an NDA. Even if I do say so myself, it's adorable.

Two New Handmade Soaps

I've been out of action online for a while, trying a couple of different things and returning to my Poser roots to start creating some more 3D characters.

In the meantime, I've been doing lots of soaping too. Brand new in my shop today, hints of Spring with two fresh floral fragrances: Pink Carnation and Lavender Ginger. I wasn't going to bring back the Pink Carnation after I sold out the last batch, but so many people emailed me about it that I decided to make more. These soaps are also in my Etsy shop here.

My Lilac and Lavender soap was featured today in the RI Handmade blog. Who can resist Lavender? It's nice to be in such good company too, some good looking stuff in this feature.

Dragons Galore

My Dragon's Blood soap was featured today in Barbed Lotus' Dragons to Keep gift guide. Thanks!

It's still cold and dreary here, much more so than our usual winter weather. On top of that, I've got a lingering cold. It makes me not want to get out much. We're going to have an outing today to a new health food store, hopefully it will warm up some.

Sea Witch Handmade Soap

New in my Etsy shop today, Sea Witch Handmade Soap -- A mysterious intriguing fragrance blend of Patchouli, Cinnamon and Cedar. Also available in my Sea Sprite Soaps shop too.

I'm pretty excited about the end of the semester, which is almost here. Vicky gets to come home from USF next Wednesday, and Geoff will be home from FGCU by 12/13. Then we get to have them home until the end of the year. Yay!

I've been playing with Poser again lately and made this cute little faery render.

Mr. Funky Water Bottle Holder

I made one of these for my daughter, and it's so cute I made another one to sell at a yearly charity auction I participate in. This is ridiculously adorable, I think. It's made from a pattern in the "Mr. Funky's Super Wonderful" crochet book.

Every once in a while I get lazy and don't make soap for a week or so. Obviously right before the holidays is not a good time to **** off, but I did. I am out of so many soaps it's not even funny. I'm going to be a soaping maniac for the next couple of days.

We watched the season premiere of "Hell's Kitchen" on BBCAM last night. It always amazes me how people with no background in food service or restaurants will sink their life savings into a restaurant when they don't have a clue what they're doing. It does make for entertaining TV, though. Maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I like Gordon Ramsay.

Back in Stock: Ocean Rain

First, let me mention that from now through the end of the holidays, all of my Soap Trios and Soap Bonanzas come with a free mini lip balm!

Back in stock with a new look, Ocean Rain Handmade Soap (also available in my Etsy shop). I made it blue with green swirls and I like this look much better. It smells so fresh and crisp and clean.

Flower Balm Minis and Pumpkin Creme Brulee

I was busy taking photos with my new light box setup yesterday so I could get new goodies into my shop. I finally got ahold of a huge box of the cutest little mini lip balm tubes, so my first product with them is my Flower Balm Minis -- My Luxury Lip Balm flavored in Rose, Violet and Lavender Vanilla, packaged with a little cello bag and shiny bow, perfect for gift giving. It's here in my shop or over here at Etsy.

And my Pumpkin Creme Brulee soap is here, plus it's on Etsy too. This stuff smells amazing!

Both of our kids were home for the weekend. It was so nice to be able to spend time together, watching movies and cooking their favorite foods. I miss them so much.

Mabel's Mint Sugar Cookie Soap

New in my shop today, Mabel's Mint Sugar Cookie Handmade Soap! It's a nice warm bakery scent and the mint is delicate, not eye-watering. Think of a sugar cookie right out of the oven. Mmmm.

Cozy Christmas Handmade Soap

Well, it's kind of a homely, speckled brown bar, but the fragrance of my Cozy Christmas handmade soap is amazing -- A deliciously complex blend of rum, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate. Mmmm. It makes me yearn for a mug of something wonderful and a rocking chair in front of a fireplace.

One of the things about making soap that I don't like is cleaning up after I remove the soap from the molds. It seems to take forever to scrape all the excess soap off, then scrub all the stuff off the molds in the sink, banging and clanking around, knocking the water filter off the faucet, then drying everything with paper towels. The other night I got a brainstorm and wondered why I hadn't thought of this before.

I filled up a big storage container with water from the hose in the front yard, put all the molds in there and let them sit for a couple of hours. I came out and voila! Everything had dissolved off the molds. Just had to hose off all of the pieces and laid them out on newspaper to dry on the lawn. It only took me almost 10 years to come up with this method.

Winter Festival Handmade Soap

This new soap smells sooo good, bright citrus and deep conifers in a lively, wintry blend! Check out Winter Festival, also in my Etsy shop here.

We drove up to Tampa to have lunch with Vicky the other day. It was so nice to get to spend some time with her, since she hasn't been home for a couple of weekends. She got a job at a whole foods grocery store and will start working there soon. She wants to make more moolah to attend more of the many, many concerts available in the Tampa Bay area.

This weekend Geoff and his girlfriend drove up to Tampa to spend the weekend with Vicky. It's so nice when your kids grow up and get along. I remember the first few years, trying to keep her from banging him on the head with her bottle. They are only 11 months apart and it's only in recent years that they seem to have fun together!

Patchouli Raspberry Handmade Soap

New in my shop today, sweetly exotic and luscious Patchouli Raspberry soap! It's also available in my Etsy shop here.

We had quite a scare yesterday. Vicky attends USF in Tampa, where there were reports of a man with a bomb and a gun, and another guy with a knife around the library. The entire school was in lockdown for 3 hours. Fortunately, the school sent text messages to all the students and staff, so she knew to stay put until the crisis was over. The schools have learned a lot from the tragedy of Virginia Tech a few years ago.

Cute Crocheted Bath Mitt

I think this is too freaking cute for words -- A crocheted duckie bath mitt! I got the pattern from one of my favorite sites, Annie's Attic. It doesn't have a thingie for the thumb, but there are little pouches on both sides for your fingers to get a grip.

Last week I made some cute little soaps in a seashell candy mold. I thought I might give them away with big orders over the holidays. Then I got the idea that they would be pretty on top of regular, full sized bars of soap. So I tried it out and these turned out so pretty! They are topped with a light dusting of white gold mica for some pretty sparkle.

Two days ago I had to go to the eye doctor for my annual exam. This visit he didn't have the lower dose eye dilating medicine that they usually use so they can look way into your eyes. I had to have this full strength stuff that messed up my vision and perception for most of the day. I had a terrible reaction to it, including grossly elevated blood pressure, nausea and rapid heart rate. I was really scared about the blood pressure especially. It's finally gone back down to normal, thankfully.

You never think about something routine like that having such scary and potentially life-threatening side effects. But the eye drops contain atropine, and among the side effects which are rarely reported are perceptual disturbances, nausea, dizziness, elevated blood pressure and racing pulse. Just my luck.

Winter Grapefruit and Tassie Lavender Soap

Back in stock after a summer hiatus, my Winter Grapefruit (below) and Tassie Lavender handmade soaps! As always, they are also available in my Etsy shop. I love the smell of Winter Grapefruit, it smells juniper-ish, like a drink!

I made some little seashell soaps from candy molds the other day, just an experiment to see if it would work. They are indeed adorable, and they popped right out of the molds. But they are so teensy tiny that they don't hold much soap. It would be a nightmare to make them in quantity. But I think these will make cute giveaways for holiday orders.

My kids are off doing their thing this weekend. Vicky went to Tallahassee to a football game (basically, to party) and Geoff is hanging out with his girlfriend at school. So no kids at home this weekend. Sniff.