soap addict

Indie Genius Bazaar in Dallas this weekend

admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:15:24 +0000

This weekend I’ll be in the Bishop Arts District in Dallas for a 2-day show at the Indie Genius store at 7th and Zang. If you haven’t heard about Indie Genius, it’s basically a bunch of little stores within a store, stocked with handmade, vintage and local goods from lots of great artisans. They are hosting their first Bazaar, and I’ll be setting up a tent outside in the parking lot along with lots of other great vendors (rain, rain, stay away!!).

A few of my favorite local artists will be there: Neke Designs, Christie Cone Ceramics and Original Youth. There will be a great mix of art, jewelry, housewares, clothing and everything in between. And, of course, it’s a free event. If you’re in the area, plan to check it out.

What: Indie Genius Bazaar

When: Saturday, April 9, 12-8pm and Sunday, April 10, 12-4 pm

Where: 7th and Zang, near the Bishop Arts District, Dallas, TX

Why: because you’re a soap addict who needs a fix and likes to shop local!

the benefits of palmarosa oil

admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 21:14:41 +0000

I love experimenting with different herbs, plants and essential oils that you don’t see everyday, and I always do lots of research before adding anything new to a product. I am asked a lot about palmarosa since it’s not as common as some of the more well known essential oils, like lavender or orange. I thought I would share what I know about palmarosa and it’s wonderful, nourishing qualities.

Palmarosa is a grassy herb with a fresh and floral scent, and smells similar to geranium and rose. It originates from India, where it has been used in traditional Indian medicine to reduce fevers and fight infectious disease. Palmarosa essential oil is steam distilled from the leaves of the grass plant, and has many beneficial properties that make it a wonderful addition to natural skincare products:

It is considered a rejuvenating oil and is often used in anti-aging products to help smooth out wrinkles
Palmarosa helps balance sebum production of the skin, and is good for all skin types
It has anti-bacterial and antiseptic properties, making it great for acne prone skin as well
It has a lovely, floral smell (very rosy with a hint of geranium) that blends well with other floral scents (like lavender), as well as citrus and woodsy scents

I love palmarosa for the face, and I use lavender palmarosa soap on my own face every day. I have also combined it with lavender, bergamot, evening primrose and sweet almond oil for a nourishing facial serum to use at night.

Please note: just like any essential oil, a little palmarosa oil goes a long way, so make sure to use sparingly and always dilute it in a carrier oil if you’re applying it directly to the skin.

our new veggie garden

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 23:54:52 +0000

It’s been spring-like in Texas for the last few weeks, and I just couldn’t contain myself. I know planting time is not usually until mid-March in DFW, but it was so nice we decided to prepare our beds early. We actually made completely new, raised garden beds this year and several new trellises.

new trellis for melons

We also planted some seeds in the last couple of weeks and already have some sprouts coming up.

pole beans

zucchini

onions planted from sets

Next up for the garden is my favorite – tomatoes and peppers. We’ll be buying transplants for those and should have them in the ground in the next 2 weeks.

Happy Planting!

a treasury of treasuries

admin — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:00:49 +0000

I’ve been featured in some really great treasuries lately, so thought I would do a little treasury of my own and show you some of my favs from the last month or so.

1. Chocolate High - one of several lucious chocolate treasuries I’ve been in lately. If you have a sweet tooth, view a few other chocolate collections here, here and here.

2. Travel the World – love, love, LOVE this collection.

3. Gifts to show you love - a local V-day collection

4. Eclectic and Cool – a funky, local collection

Now, see how versatile soap can be?

It takes time to create these beautiful treasuries, and I’m happy to be included in them! I’m going to try to do a better job of sharing these on my blog, but we’ll see how that goes.

the end.

front page fun

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:16:22 +0000

Today I was browsing my web stats (something I clearly need to no more often, but I just plain forget to), and saw a huge spike in my Etsy site views for January 11. Well that’s weird, I thought to myself. Then I remembered that I put a bunch of soaps on sale that very same day, and though that must be the reason. People just flocked to my site when they saw I was having an awesome sale. Hmm….maybe not.

Well THEN I noticed some new sites on my referring site list, so went to check them out. Craft Cult was one of my referring sites, and since I don’t advertise there, I did a quick search in their vault and discovered I was featured on the homepage of Etsy on January 11. Yeah me! Too bad I didn’t find out for 2 weeks – I would have really been excited to see it live. Since I’m sure you missed it too, here’s a screenshot for your viewing pleasure.

the end.

lots of fun stuff going on here

admin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:05:52 +0000

I am once again a blogging delinquent and have seemingly abandoned my blog. To my 3 or 4 lonely readers – I’m sorry. I have failed you once again. But I’m not going to promise it won’t happen again, ’cause the fact of the matter is that it might. Turns out I’m just not all that good at blogging on a regular basis. Enough of that, and on to the good stuff.

They say it’s my birthday….

First off, today is my birthday. I’m 29 today, on the 29th (fancy, I know). I usually look forward to my birthday quite a bit, but this year seems bittersweet since next time it will be the big 3-0. I also broke my ‘no decorating for Christmas until after my birthday’ rule for the very first time this year. Oh well, it was kind of a dumb rule anyway.

buzz buzz, I’ve been a busy bee

I’ve been super busy lately getting ready for my first holiday season, doing tons of shows and beefing up my Etsy shop. The time is here, and I’m ready (I hope)! I’ll be posting daily and weekly online deals on my blog (and Facebook and Twitter, so feel free to follow me around in which ever way pleases you most) starting NOW.

Deals, Deals Deals

So now you’re wondering what kind of fabulous deals you can get on soap addict products right now, huh? Well I’ll tell ya:

Today’s daily special is all of my favorite products are on sale (I am the birthday girl, after all). that includes lemongrass green tea soap, key lime lip balm and cuticle oil. Each is $1 off for today only.
From now through 12/4 you can get 15% off everything in my shop with the coupon code HOLIDAY15
AND from now through 12/16 all online orders ship for $5 or less

Free stuff – hooray!

If you’ve read to the end of this blog, you will now be rewarded with an opportunity to win free stuff – yippee! Visit the Etsy Fort Worth blog and leave a comment to enter the contest for 2 bars of soap and lotion bar – your choice of scents. The giveaway goes until 12/4, so I suggest you head over there now before you forget.

Funky Finds in Fort Worth this weekend!

admin — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:35:01 +0000

This weekend is the Funky Finds Experience 2-day, all handmade craft show. I’ve been looking forward to this show for a while, and I think it’s going to be a great one. I’m hoping to do most of my Christmas shopping at it as well, and have already given hubby some tips on participating vendors I like for birthday and Christmas gifts. ;)

Funky Finds is a FREE event happening both Saturday and Sunday, featuring more than 130 local, handmade vendors. It is a juried show, so you can expect the best of the local handmade artisans to be there. There will also be swag bags for the first 50 attendees each day (plan to line up early for these), raffle prizes throughout the weekend, a toy drive for toys for tots, live music and a free photo booth. Sounds like a good weekend to me!

Check out this video preview featuring a couple of my favorite artists in attendance, Cindy of Revel Designs and Sarah of Original Youth: CW33 Funky Finds Preview video

Oh, and did I mention Soap Addict will be there?? Hope to see you this weekend!

Funky Finds The Experience
Saturday, November 6: 9am – 5pm
Sunday, November 7: 10am – 4pm
Amon G. Carter Exhibit building at Will Rogers Memorial Center
3400 Burnett Tandy Dr.
Fort Worth, TX 76107

experimenting with natural colors, part 1

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:25:03 +0000

Last week I got a big box o’ goodies in the mail from Mountain Rose Herbs, so I decided to do some experimenting with some of them this week. I ordered some brightly colored herb powders to try in my cold process soap, and also had a few other things already on hand that I had just not gotten around to trying out yet. Well today was the day, so thought I would share my initial results. This picture was taken right after mixing in the colors, so the soap is still raw. I also decided to test 2 essential oils I haven’t used yet – anise and a root beer type blend. I’ll update in a few days once it’s hardened – can’t wait to see how these progress!

top row (from left): beet root powder, ground tumeric, sandalwood red powder, bayberry root powder
middle row: spinach powder, alkanet root powder, calendula pedals, ground anatto seed
bottom row: yucca root powder, anise essential oil, root beer essential oil blend

I made a 1 pound batch of basic soap and split it into 11 different cups that were pre-measured with my herbs. I mixed each one in and made sure to label the cups. Just after mixing the colors in I was already surprised by a couple of them. I ordered the beet root powder because of its super bright pink color (and didn’t bother to do any research to see what others have said about using it in soap), thinking it would make the perfect pink soap. We’ll see what it does after it cures, but as of now it’s brown. The red sandalwood, on the other hand, is a beautiful shade of burgundy, but the powder is orange. I’m expecting them all to change once they’ve set for a while, so we’ll see how they turn out. Stay tuned for part 2!

a giveaway and great review

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:43:26 +0000

I’m hosting a giveaway on this great green blog, Going Green with Noah. Melanie, who runs the blog, came by my booth at the Cowtown Indie Bazaar last month and later contacted me about reviewing my products. I sent her a few things to try, and offered up some freebies for a giveaway. It’s always nice to hear such wonderful feedback from someone new to my products – read her review here.

Now for the good stuff – freebies! You can win 2 bars of soap and a lotion bar, and the giveaway runs until October 25. Lots of ways to enter, so head on over to the blog and check it out

a couple of new treasuries

Karla — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 13:20:48 +0000

This week my products were included in 2 lovely new fall treasuries, so I thought I would share them here with you, my faithful blog readers.

This one titled ‘Southernmost Autumn’ is a warm weather fall treasury. It certainly doesn’t fee like fall yet at my house, so this one is right up my alley. This treasury includes my key lime lip balm.

‘Fall is in the Air‘ includes all Etsy Fort Worth members and lots of lovely fall colors that I wish I was experiencing. 2 falls ago Joey and I took a trip to New England to see what fall is really supposed to be like. It was beautiful, hot cider drinking, sweater wearing weather that I wish we had here in Texas. This treasury includes my soap chunks grab bag.