A Typical Friday “Off”
As almost everyone knows, I have a “day job” with a major corporation, where I stare at numbers all day and pull my hair out. Fortunately, this job affords me the opportunity to have every other Friday off, and in the past, those days were spent lounging around, watching tv, making quilts, or shopping with my mom. These days, Fridays off means trips to pick up supplies, making soaps and candles, working on the website, and generally trying to keep things moving in the business. Today is just such a day.
Up at 5:20 am this morning (Chris lets me “sleep in” on the days I don’t have to work), I dropped the male half of this show off at his own day job, came home, took a quick bath and began preparations for a day of soap making by steeping some chamomile tea for a batch of cold process lavender and chamomile soap. It has to steep, then it has to cool, which works well for me, because I need to run a few errands anyway.
First stop is the post office, where I need to drop off Snork’s order from last night. Unlike many orders I receive, Snork’s order was strictly for “stock items” so I didn’t have to do anything special for it. I just pulled the bars of soap and wrapped them up, and will pack them in a box and drop them for shipment today.
Second stop will likely be … well, I can’t lie. Second stop will likely be for food because I’m starving already this morning. I doubt I’ll get too far without something to eat. But the NEXT stop after that will be at a local supplier’s warehouse to pick up jars for candles because I’m out, and a few other supplies.
After that, I may stop at the grocery store and grab a few things I need there, like some new tea blends I want to try for soap, and maybe some oil if I’m low (note to self: check oil levels). Then I’ll come home and get down to the real business of the day – making soap, testing out new fragrances (I haven’t forgotten you, Jenn!), making some wax tarts, and trying out a new technique for casting I’ve had my eye on for a while. I also need to take a few pictures and update the website. Again.
I probably make subtle changes to the website three or four times a week. This week, I have, thus far, exceeded that number. If you go check it out right now, you’ll see a new category – Nearly Natural. After my post about the all-natural tag, I began to think that many of my soaps ARE nearly natural – the only thing holding me back from calling them natural is the sodium hydroxide. I just don’t feel comfortable calling them natural when one main component can cause such harm. So while I was taking a bath (of course, because almost all of my great ideas come from bath time), I came up with the phrase Nearly Natural. To be labeled Nearly Natural, the product will have to meet three criteria:
- No artificial colors
- No artificial fragrances
- No artificial preservatives
This is, admittedly, a very small line for me right now, but as time marches on, you can expect to see more products showing up with the Nearly Natural tag. I’m excited about it! Check it out and let me know if you have any ideas on items you’d like to see there.
Anyway, obviously I managed to fit a blog post into a very busy day, so I really must run and get started on all this other stuff I have going on. As always, I’d love to hear from you if you have suggestions or comments.
Till next time, keep it clean!
Oh … I almost forgot! The Citrus Chunk is now available on the website. Seriously, if you like a clean citrus scent, you really have to try this one. It’s already a legend!
