More Etsy Tips

I hope everyone had a great weekend! My son came in town, so I had a wonderful time. :)
More tips to share!
1. List new items and list often. I try to list a new item at least twice a day. I have found, using google, and most of my visits come around noon and again between 8 and 10pm. I try to list new items, but if I don't have anything to list, I will renew an item.
Renewing will bring your shop up to the "front of the lists". It doesn't always brings tons of views, but I do think it keeps your shop "fresh".

2. Visit the Etsy forums. I can't tell you how much I have learned from the forums. Granted, you must take advice with a "grain of salt", but there is a lot of good info in the forums. Ask lots of questions and most of the time you will receive good advice. The forums have changed in the past few months and sometimes you have to wait longer for answers to your questions.
3. Visit the Etsy blogs. No, I don't read each and every one, but I do try to each week. Be sure to comment on the blog. Why? Because every time you comment on Etsy you are leaving a link to your shop! I have noticed an increase of views each time I comment on the blogs. Google also picks up your comments!

I hope these tips have helped you. Please feel free to post any questions you may have and I will be happy to help you.

Late Spring in St. Louis!

Warm weather is already here, so I thought I would show you some pics from around my house. Above is my Cairn Terrier, Finch. Notice the ball in the bowl? When she needs a drink, she drops her ball in the water and then drinks around it! Finch always has a ball either in her mouth, or next to her.
I didn't have a choice the other day. I HAD to plant these Sunflowers! I had to cut them out of the milk jug. LOL! These were winter sowed, so they are all ready to go!
I planted lots of Tulips when we moved into our house 9 years ago. They bloomed for about 2 years and from then on the only thing that came up were the leaves...until this year. This beauty decided to adorn our front yard. Tulips are my favorite flower.
And this is my favorite tree: Weeping Cherry Tree. The blooms only last a few days, but when it's blooming, it gorgeous!

I wanted to show off the finished soap. I covered the bar with a brown paper bag and a cute red checked ribbon. Didn't they turn out well?

Hot Process Handmade Gingerbread Soap From Scratch

It was a cold and damp day, so I thought it would be a great day to make more soap. I'm running low on basic soap, but I also need some holiday soap....so I'm made Gingerbread Soap!
In the above picture you can see the hard oils melting. I have coconut, palm kernel, shea butter, and palm oil. Off to the side (which you can't see), I have my carefully measured lye/water solution and my soft oils. My soft oils are olive, rice bran, and castor.
While the oils are melting, I got my mold ready to go. I put oats on the bottom of the mold. This will actually be the top of the soap.
I also added ground oats and cocoa powder. The oats are great for your skin and the cocoa is for coloring the soap.
This is my favorite part...right after I poured the lye/water mix into the melted oils. In the above picture I just turned on the stick blender.
This is what it looks like one second after blending.
Here you can see a light trace. If I were making cold process soap, I would stop at this point, separate the mixture and add coloring. Since I'm hot processing, and I'm using cocoa for color, I'm skipping this step.
This is what it looked like after it came to a medium trace and I added the oats and cocoa.
Now the soap is "cooking". You can see the outside of the pot starting to gel.
About 20 min. later. It cooks from the outside in, and when the white spot in the middle is tiny, or disappears, it's finished!
This is a crummy picture, but this picture was taken after the soap had cooled to 170 degrees and I added the Gingerbread oils to the soap.
I added oats to the top (bottom of soap), but most of it fell off after taking it out of the mold. Hot process soap is ready to use as soon as it's finished with the "cook". It takes several hours for the soap to cool.
All set to go! See the oats? This was the bottom of the mold.
All cut and ready to go! I like to let my soap sit for a week or so before using. You don't have to, but the soap will last a lot longer if you do.

Now you know what it takes to makes soap!

Can You Picture The Scent?

I added candles to my Etsy shop awhile back. I have always wanted to make candles and after lots of testing (which was fun!) I listed my candles. I think bath products go well with candles and what better way to pamper yourself!

The problem I have this that I love so many scents, so I get carried away when ordering my oils! I also have a hard time narrowing down the size of candle. I decided to offer tea candles, round tin candles, and glass candles. Tea candles are nice to have around and are pretty inexpensive to ship. I am offering glass candles because they look really nice I am selling them in my shop...so no shipping costs!
One of my favorite scents is Tomato Leaf. It sounds like a strange scent, but it's really a nice FRESH scent! My son was home last weekend and after smelling this candle, he said, "wow, that really smells like a tomato vine". This coming from a young man that won't even walk into a bath and body shop! He even took one home with him. Now that's an endorsement!

Blogger Problems

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I can't stay logged into Blogger. Every time I leave a page, I have to log back in. Sigh....wish I knew how to navigate computers better!

Anywho....lot's of new stuff today! My Treasury was on the front page again! Although this is exciting, I was sad that they took a few of my Show Me Etsy Teams items out, especially the ShowMeEtsy Shop item!

Here's the treasury!
I have also added candles!! Come see my newest here!
Candles

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The Fall Craft Show Was A Sucess!

The show is over...whew! It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! Above is my table. This was taken before the sun went down and right after the doors were first opened.
I was the first table by the front door! Lots of wonderful comments on all the wonderful scents everyone smelled when they walked up to the table.
The view from the side of my table. We had, I think, 23 booths! The bar was in the back. We served cheese and crackers and there was a cash bar.

Kumquat Cold Process Handmade Soap!

What an amazing scent!! I was not sure what Kumquat smelled like until I received my oils...OMG...I'm not a "fruit scented" lover, but this smells amazing!! Big chunky bars of juicy fruit!

Pick Three Handmade Soap - Cold Process Method - With Shea Butter - You Pick Your Scent

I decided to offer 3 soap bundles in my shop. I think it will take the guess work out of how many to purchase and you can't beat the shipping price of $4.75! I picked up this bucket at an Estate sale last year and I really like to use it in my pictures.
I used scrap paper to wrap my soaps in. The paper came in a bundle and they match in color and style, which I like!

The Soap Came Out Beautifully!

I think they turned out great! The Lemongrass is divine and the Black Tea adds a touch of a "earthy" scent.