Winds of Change

With the sweet long-awaited days of spring finally within sight, the fresh winds of change are blowing through my soap studio as well.

For a while now, I've been desiring a simpler and more refined product line. Over the last 6 months, I have slowly been implementing style updates to everything from soap wrappings, shea butter labels, and gift boxes to color choices and ribbon selections. As a one-woman creative business, I have been working hard towards offering a beautiful, cohesive line of products that is a more personal reflection of my style and sensibilites. When I can create something that is "me", I find an effortless joy and satisfaction in my daily work, like a fresh-water spring of inspiration bubbling up from within.

Today I thought I'd share a sneak peek of an up-and-coming product that will be making its debut very soon... The new and improved Soap Sampler!

Everything is cuter in miniature! I've upped the "cute factor" with miniature bars of soap, each just 1/4 the size of their full-sized counterparts, but still individually tissue-wrapped and labeled for a fully gift-worthy presentation. Rather than many different overlapping choices (do you want bath soaps? kitchen soaps? complexion soaps? gardener's soaps?!) this new sample set will come in just one variety. I'm notoriously bad at making un-important decisions (I can spend 10 minutes trying to decide what kind of paper towels to buy at the grocery store), so I've eliminated the need to choose entirely - the new sampler has one of everything!

With my new business makeover, I am cutting back on the number of different kinds of soap that I make - from a whopping 19 down to a perfectly complete selection of 8 proven favorites... All of the best, none of the rest. It's an approach that not only reflects my personal preference for simplicity and timeless classics, but one that also allows me to realistically stay ahead of the demands of a handcrafted business where everything from labels, business cards, wrapping & packaging, and (of course) the soap itself is made from scratch by my own two hands.

 

Packaged in a crystal-clear cellophane candy bag and tied with a sweet cream and tan polka-dot ribbon, I am in love with these new sample sets. They are sweet yet sophisticated, simple yet fun... Maybe just a little like me :)  

They'll be on the website soon! I am waiting on a few batches of soap to finish curing so that the Sample Sets will be ready to ship.  Look for them in the next couple weeks!

Going, going... Gone already?

I LIKE everything I buy for my etsy shop, but occassionaly I find myself with an item that I not only LOVE, but that has photographed so beautifully that I want it to hang around the shop for weeks. Like the eye candy in a storefront window display that causes even the most focused soul to slow their steps and gawk, even if just for a moment...  Reality check. Those are the items that inevitably sell within an hour of listing it for sale. Case in point:

A simple item. Thick rustic white ironstone, with a gorgeous footed sillhouette. Paired with a handful of sunny lemons, and the whole picture was just singing. Alas, it was a short song. I listed this lovely bowl on Thursday and it sold the same afternoon. Such is the problem with one-of-a-kind vintage.

I know, I know, it's a good problem to have :)  But I thought this beautiful ironstone bowl deserved one last curtain call.

My Own Super Bowl

My husbands "joke de jour" has been that we should be the ones hosting a Super Bowl party because we are the only people he knows who do, in fact, literally, have a "super bowl"...

He is, of course, referring to the huge 5' long antique carved wooden trencher bowl that sits beneath the living room picture window, holding extra pillows, throws, and blankets. I bought it years ago on a trip with my family to the small picturesque Amish town of Shipshewana in northern Indiana. There is a fabulous antique mall there, and the minute I laid eyes on this amazing bowl I knew I had to have it. With a blush of excitement, I nervously shelled out $80 for it - a huge purchase for me as a live-at-home 18 year old, with no house of my own and no plan for such an oversized piece.

But the bowl was so big and beautiful and full of character, and even with my limited experience I knew it was an incredible deal and a once-in-a-lifetime find. As I watched my dad load it into the back of the van, I suddenly felt like a collector. An antiquer. A bona-fide treasure hunter.  It was the first real antique I ever bought, and I guess you could say I've been hooked ever since.

Taking a Personal Day

I started today with the best of intentions for getting a lot of work done. After all, there are orders to be packed, new items to be listed on etsy, website pictures to update, supplies to be ordered, soap to make...  Not to mention the small mountain of laundry.

But, as it turns out, my lingering urge to paint my dining room table (which up to this point has been twarted by my lack of paint) crystalized into a full-blown project upon realizing that the leftover wall paint from re-doing the kitchen might just be the perfect gentle off white that I was looking for. Bingo! An hour later, I had my white table. (Pictures coming soon)

But as always, one decorating thing leads to another... And so, my entire morning and early afternoon was spent painting, rehanging pictures, moving unwanted chairs to the basement, swapping things like yellowware bowls and ironstone pitchers between the kitchen and china cabinet, and to top it all off, unloading the hundreds of books from our bookshelves in order to shove them a foot and a half to the left.  For me, a very fun morning :)

Now it's off to more practical things, like packing the 3 etsy orders that came in today...


Vintage Setlzer Bottle - Penn Bottling Company
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/42189353



2nd ST. - Vintage Street Sign
 http://www.etsy.com/transaction/42230281

 

Set of 8 Delicate White Ironstone Butter Pats - Assorted
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/42225898


...and turning that laundry mountain into a small hill, at the very least.

Enjoy your weekend!

Our New Digs - Part 3

Our next stop on the tour is the bedroom.  It's the only room in the house with hardwood floors, which I absolutely adore.  There are two big windows, again clothed in my favorite floor-to-ceiling curtains.  The bedroom sits in the east corner of the house, so once the days start to get a little longer as we inch towards springtime, the earlier sunrises will bathe this room in light. 

Surprisingly (especially to me) our bedroom ended up red.  Well, okay, accented in red.  But in my book, this is as red as any room in my house is likely to get. I am definately not a red-paint-on-the-walls kind of girl. No offense to those of you who are - I just know it would drive me loony in a matter of days.  I thrive with a backdrop of neutrality. 

But, I found this beautiful antique red and white quilt at an antique mall several months ago (for a steal, I might add) and it was the perfect piece to build a room around. Paired with a few less-than-antique finds...

... like this Pottery Barn pillow cover and a red striped rug from Target, my red bedroom came together.

We haven't splurged on a headboard yet, so in the meantime a simple antique mirror that I picked up at a flea market for $2.00 acts as a beautiful focal point above the bed.

A chippy white dresser also serves as my vanity, with the addition of a few antique crocks and baskets to stash all of my makeup and jewelry, and a wood-framed mirror from Target (I love Target - those beautiful bedside wood lamp bases and linen-look shades are Target finds, too!)

What I love even more than a beautiful antique is a bargain.  I am thrifty to the core, and I love finding dirt-cheap decor that doesn't look it. This little burlap cushioned bench is just such a bargain.  When I bought it at a second-hand store, it was painted bright white with ugly blue floral fabric.  I brushed on a couple coats of cream and tan paint to age it, recovered the top with burlap, and added a border of decorative flat-head nails to finish it off. The result?  I have the look of a french antique for around $15.  And I found the antique feed sack pillow, usually insanely expensive, for $10 at an antique show.

Proof that with the right mix of affordable antiques, repurposed finds, and brand new Target style, a beautiful bedroom doesn't have to cost a fortune!

Our New Digs - Part 2

The kitchen is remarkably beautiful compared to where it started.  Now, I am notoriously horrible at taking "before" pictures when I start a project.  I know I should, but usually I am far too impatient to get stuff finished to put anything in the way of getting started.   And I guess I don't find that much joy in documenting the ugly.  But, I did snap a few quick pictures of the old kitchen before I painted.  And when I say ugly...

Yellow and white are not bad kitchen colors in theory.  In this case, however, I imagine that whoever painted it said, "Great. I need yellow paint and white paint. How hard can that be?" and then proceeded to pick up the first swatch of yellow and white that they saw.  The result was less than fortunate... icy cold gray-blue white and I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter yellow.  Pair that with a flourescent overhead light and you can imagine why I was thrilled with our landlord told us we could paint.

And although it's still small and narrow (and remarkably hard to take pictures of) with only one slab of workable counterspace, the kitchen has turned out the be pretty nice.  There are plenty of cabinets which go all the way to the ceiling (now painted in a beautiful greenish gold called "Thistle"), TONS of natural sunlight, and all the little antique details that make it feel like a french country kitchen. 

Antique lidded basket that perfectly fits my wastebasket!



Tiny yellowware bowl from one of my favorite new antique shops in Lincoln



An antique pantry cabinet for extra storage

A beautiful gilded mirror above the sink in place of a window

Our New Digs

Our new home is feeling like just that... home.  The livingroom is one of my favorite spots in the house.  In the afternoon it is drenched in sunlight, softly filtered by my gorgeous floor-to-ceiling linen-colored curtians.  (Ikea, baby! $14.99 a pair).  I stocked up on those curtains before we moved from Pittsburgh! 

All of my antique ironstone is nestled in a low cupboard beside the front livingroom window.  My favorite collections are ones that are super affordable - I've never paid more than $10 for any piece of ironstone, and most were $5 or under.  My favorite chippy pitcher, heavily stained and perfectly imperfect, was 50 cents at a flea market in Hartville, Ohio. 

I'll leave you with the livingroom for today...  More rooms to come later!