challenge yourself to only purchase used or handmade items for yourself and your home for the next year.
I really did NOT plan on writing this. But there were so many good comments on the last couple of posts about my pending bath and body business that I wanted to continue the discussion. I know many people don’t go back and read comments later on, so maybe this will be easier?
Can I show you the bath and body packaging decisions I’m dealing with for the future Wonderland Bath & Body? Sometimes voicing this stuff makes it more clear to me. Do you do that too? Blog about things just to figure out your own mind? Yes, I thought so.
I tried many different packaging approaches. I still love brown kraft paper, and string, and muslin and linen. So I played around with soap packaging and various logo designs…
Many of you have already figured it out from my last few posts. You realize I’m obsessed with making bath and body products, while the sewing is not so fun for me anymore.
So now I’m ready to tell you that I have made the decision, and I’m prepping everything to begin my own bath and body business. I will be phasing out the DuhBe shop on Etsy over time, and launching a bath and body shop this October.
It didn’t feel right calling the new bath shop Duhbe, so we came up with a new name which seems to fit the feeling I want – a little dark grunge with lots of playful whimsy. It felt right. Wonderland Bath & Body. (We kinda liked Wonderland Bath project but were afraid people would assume they were signing up for experiments or something)
I’m on schedule to launch in October. I have actually built a lab in the basement, all the ingredients and packaging are here, the product line is decided, now I just have to finish production and get my product liability insurance. (at $500 per year, it’s a stiff entry fee into the bath and body world) This week I’ll be figuring out what craft fairs to start with in October. Now you understand why I’ve nearly disappeared from my blog?
Some of you are frequent commenters that have proven you can deliver honest feedback. (umm, the ruffle pants debate for example? LOL) So what do you think about all this? Am I crazy, or finally on the right track?
(I actually wrote this post several month ago and I’ve been too afraid to post it. Time to bite the bullet – so here it is with a few notes added in for updates)
OK. It’s time I come clean and really tell my embarrassing story. Readers who have been with me for a while have already figured this out about me, but they are kind enough to play along and be nice to me anyway. Today, I am telling my story in the hopes that others can learn from my mistakes and craziness.
You see, Websters dictionary has a word for me …
vac·il·late – waver in mind, will, or feeling : hesitate in choice of opinions or courses
I even created a digital collage to illustrate how my creativity works -
I’m suffering more confusion along this creative path I’ve chosen. This is one of those posts where I ramble on and dump my brain onto you. Here it goes…
In my last post, I promised I wouldn’t blog again until I could talk about sewing. And then an entire month went by with no posting. I’ve been so distracted I haven’t even visited my friends blogs that much. Sorry.
Oh sure, I’ve been sewing orders for customers. But nothing new and exciting to report. So yesterday I finally sat in front of my sewing machine and played. It should come as no surprise the new item was bath and body related.
This is a silk pouch for a lotion bar…
I’ve had that lotion bar sitting on my nightstand for maybe a month? Just sitting there on a paper towel so it won’t leave a grease spot. So I finally whipped up a pouch from recycled silks to house my solid chocolate scented lotion.
Then I needed to make a pouch for my sister in law. She’ll be getting a lotion bar for her birthday this week. But her taste runs more to the contemporary fabrics so I made this for her…
Those last 2 pouches had free motion quilting and embroidery on them. They were sort of time consuming. So I thought about making lotion bar pouches that were fast and easy but still made of fabric. A quick jaunt into photoshop with the Digi Dolly legs, some treated muslin to print on, then a few quick stitches on the serger and VOILA! This was born…
The ingredients are printed onto the back of this fabric pouch. This one was a private joke between me and the husband. Since my lotion bar is chocolate scented with lots of cocoa butter, I rub it on my feet at night and exclaim (very excitedly) that I have chocolate feet! Thus the chocolate feet design was born. It still makes me giggle when I see it, and then I smell the chocolate again. Seriously, I want to take a bite of this solid lotion.
And now that I have fulfilled my promise of a sewing post, I will get back to the bath and body stuff that has consumed my time, money and imagination for the past month. You will be hearing more from me, and it won’t take a month for the next post! I suspect I will be coming clean to you in the near future. (cheesy pun intended)
That’s right, another post about soap. This will be the last one for a while, until I experiment and formulate a few new things. Oddly enough, me and the husband have started watching that old TV show “Soap” on Netflix. I really do have soap on the brain. More photos of my new hobby… Read more…
I guess you would think that fabric + soap = clean fabric
But it’s never about the obvious things with me, now is it?? Read more…
I have a new obsession these days which is distracting me away from my sewing machines.
So here is a quiz for you…
What looks like chocolate, smells like chocolate, but doesn’t taste like chocolate?
I’ve been busy sewing things lately, but I still haven’t photographed the new pants, dresses and shirts I’ve been making. I need a model and a nice, outdoor setting so I can really do it right. I dream of beautiful ladies in lush, green landscapes wearing flowy clothing from an entire collection sewn by me. But yet I wind up with photos that look more like a cheap item strung on a hanger, then carelessly placed on a dark closet door. More Ebay than Etsy. I want to change my clothing product photos, but that means taking lots of time to get it right. Maybe by Christmas my summer clothing will be ready.
In the meantime I’m busy sewing hearts in jars to ship off to my first wholesale customer – a store in Australia which I’m very excited about. Here are the anatomical and traditional hearts in progress…
I’ve been very obsessed with soapmaking and DIY bath and beauty products lately. I’ll write about that in a few days.
Before I go, let me share a humorous conundrum I recently solved. I couldn’t figure out why the herbs seedlings growing indoors were dying off. They were getting enough sun and water. Then I found the plant killer in action.
I guess sleeping kittens are not conducive to growing herbs. Lesson learned.
I received my complimentary advance copy of the Summer 2010 Sew Somerset magazine this week. Yeeeee Haaaw! I love all the fabric collage work they feature in this publication that comes out twice per year.
