What does it look like getting ready for Disney?

We are 11 days away from leaving for the Food & Wine Festival (a 45 day festival to boot.)  What does that mean for our workshop?  Things like producing until we run out of ingredients (which is happening more often than not); back-ups in what gets done (tons of soap needing to be shelved, dishes to be done, ingredients to be ordered…); packing our displays… All while trying to keep product stocked at the workshop to fill wholesale & web orders while I’m away. 

soaps that are waiting to be put up to dry

shelves, some full, some empty – all will be full by the end of the weekend

This doesn’t even include packing for 45 days of unpredictable weather; getting the house in order to be a bachelor pad while I’m away or spending all of the quality time I can with one little T.

Enough for now.  Off to put up that soap!

Back to the Workshop

Just wanted to say hello, and that we made it back from Chicago safely.

We had an amazing time at the Chicago Renegade Craft Show.  A full report & pictures are coming soon.

Now off to the workshop to:

1. create some sparkly goodness which we will be launching at Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival later this month.
2. ship our website orders
3. ship a few wholesale orders
4. unpack from this weekend's festivities
   
5. make product that we're out of or nearly out of
   
6. try to do it all over again by applying for the Chicago Holiday Renegade Craft Show
   

Hardly a Master... part II

Since I am no master, but am pretty handy when it comes to making a log or two of soap it's always exciting to find new & better ways to do it - especially after you've been doing it for over 7 years!

Today was one of those days. Since we've upped our production getting ready for the craziness that is about to ensue I've been able to streamline quite a bit of the production.

My amazing father built quad molds (they hold 4 logs of soap) so my dear husband had to build a log splitter (splits one big slab of soap into individual logs.) Now that I've gone quad I don't ever want to go back.

Scheduling the production & creating a production chart have help tremendously too. Less dishes to wash because I'm planning what we're making, how much we're making & when we're making it. Out of 34 logs of soap, only 4 pots were left to wash. And let me tell you, washing dishes after soapmaking is just as fun as it is after making dinner.

Now if only I could find a way to add a few extra hours to each day... hmmm...

Hardly a Master

Some have said that I'm a master soapmaker. At times, I would have to agree for instance, after making 2,000 perfect bars in a 3 day span - impressive. But today I am far far far from that.

As I was working on log numbers 24-28 there was a terrible turn of events. The pot was too hot, the lye was too hot & within a minute, soap that was beautifully lying in its mold started to volcano. Yes... bubbling, steaming, rising... Luckily I was near to stir, stir, stir & poke, poke, poke the soap back into its place.

After wrestling with the logs they finally started to behave. They are certainly not going to be the prettiest bars (watch, they'll be amazing and I'll never be able to nor would want to reproduce them) but they should work. Guess I'll be showering with that batch for a long while.

So, where has the soap girl been???

Making soap of course. We're gearing up for the busiest holiday season ever. Our FedEx & UPS people are feeling the pains of the season already as an average of 3 boxes show up on a doorstep everyday.

We are ordering all of the things we'll need to hopefully get us through the next 4 months & the 15 confirmed shows we have left on our schedule!

Our soap rack (for drying soap that is) is full to the brim, which poses another interesting problem, we have more soap to add to it. We have the biggest inventory of product ever, and we're worried it's not going to be enough... good problem to have I know, that is except for when you're up all night making more (time to make the donuts...)

We're heading this weekend to the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival. It's our 1st time there and we hope it's not a wash-out. Good 'ole Fay (the storm) has been lingering all week long, and frankly we're over it.

Then we are setting up shop here to take a look at our display, tweak it as much as we can, then pack it up and head northbound to Chicago. I've heard amazing things about Renegade, and I hope they are all true. If they are we'll try to head to Brooklyn (and maybe even squeeze in their holiday show this year.) I've made my shopping list - that is if I get a moment to step out of my space. The list includes my favorite jewelry designer Freshie & Zero - I haven't seen her in months, can't wait to see what's new and of course the ICE Atlanta Girls. Other than those two for sure I'll be walking around with my head spinning looking at all of the indie craft.

Then we're back home to visit our folks at Sun Trust Plaza with a trunk show at Rejuvenate Spas & finishing September up with the East Atlanta Strut - now this is a fun one!

Now off to make soap, but don't have any more room for it. Hmmm...

Ha! Just Kidding!

Just when we thought we would have enough soap to make a sale, we don't. Not kidding, as fast as it is being made and drying it is going out the door. It's a good problem to have, I know, but still, can't a girl catch a break (and a breath)!?!?

We definitely did it to ourselves. Last I counted we have 8, yes 8 shows this month. In MAY, it's crazy. That's not even to mention the new accounts we're picking up or the re-orders that we're getting.

I can't wait to see what October - December brings. (just a guess: soap, soap & more soap)

All the soap is gone!

Not really, but almost! 15 batches, that's 30 logs and we have nothing to show for it. Well nothing except happy customers, boutiques & spas. We've been making more soap every week, but need to plan an all out war on our soap production soon.

And you know what that means!?!? Probably another Fresh Soap sale is coming your way.