Local Holiday Gift Treasures

All you local folks should get over to The Chandellier, next to the Miner Family Restaurant in Gillespie. The owner, Valerie and her husband have done wonderful things with their space and it's just full of all kinds of upscale resale treasures.

And of course, there are a few brand new things as well, namely my line of Wild Sense soaps and body products.
I still have a lot of holiday items to add to what's there...Whipped Body Butters, Sugar Scrubs, Sugar Bumps (individual sugar scrubby cubes), Melting Bath Truffles, Body Creams, Herbal Teas and both Fragranced and All-Botanical Soaps.
Coming soon will be an assortment of Gift Basket Sets too!

Custom rubber stamp

I'm getting a custom rubber stamp made to stamp all of my bag with. I found a great online site with lots of in stock stamps as well. Lots of nature oriented ones and foliage too!
<--Here's what mine will look like. so much to do last minute to get ready for the holiday events and packaging! I got it online here:
Hope all of you other soapmakers out there have a great holiday season - I know I won't be hearing from many of you since you'll all be working events and markets on the weekends cutting and wrapping and decorating! Not too many more days until christmas... I refuse to do the countdown or I could send myself into a tailspin of stress!

WildSense Artfire Studio is Live!

Go take a peek at my Artfire Studio.
Wild Sense Artfire Studio

The design and photos aren't the concept I originally wanted but I procrastinated so much getting this up it was high time I just DID it. I will mess around more with a "concept theme" for more cohesive photos and graphics on my actual website when I launch that as a companion to the Artfire Studio. In the meantime, get ready to shop! Still lots of soaps to load up on the site but I'm getting there.

NEW WildSense YouTube Channel active!

Just wanted to let you all know that I now finally have a YouTube channel for my videos and I'll be adding many more tutorials on various soapmaking techniques as well as other bath & body product how-to's as I go along. I hope you enjoy them. The above photos are from my CP swirling tutorial, which I made with Cindy Gooding of Pittstown Soapworks, moderator of the Yahoo teaching group, Soap_makers. We had some fun when she came to visit and swirl with me!
There is a cricket hiding somewhere in my workshop who has provided a lovely soundtrack for many of the videos, LOL! And I should tell you that no animals are present; although you will hear my cats meowing upstairs from time to time, as they protest VERY loudly when Mommy "goes to work".
To go to the Tutorials, simply click on the title of this blog post :)
Have fun swirling!

Wild Sense in new local store!

Wild Sense soaps and body products will be available locally at the new store called The Chandellier located next to the Miner's Family Restaurant in downtown Gillespie! Grand Opening will be Saturday, Oct 23rd with refreshments and lots of great bargains.

I'll be running a special on my soaps for the first week as well. Customers buying 4 or more bars receive a scratch off card with a chance to win a free Soap, Lip Balm or an Aroma Bead sachet.

Aroma Bead tutorial

Woohoo! I finally figured out some of the glitches in uploading my videos so I will be posting several over the course of the next few days. The following video tutorial is a short video telling you how to use Aroma Beads from www.ElementsBathAndBody.com ((edited to change a couple of frames))

Tropical Fruit Soap Cut

Just realized I forgot to put up the pics of the Tropical Fruit soap once it was cut into bars.
Love this soap!

Artfire store almost ready

I've been getting a lot of emails asking where to get my soap creations..my Artfire store will be up soon. I have been taking pics all week and editing descriptions. It took awhile to get all the bio and policies done to my satisfaction, and i'm fussy with the photos too. But finally, it's almost ready to launch!
My other "regular' website has been taken down so I have redone it with the new business name and design and that's a project I've been working on as well. That will be completed after my Artfire Studio is done and loaded...so stay tuned. You'll hear it first here when I do launch, so follow this blog!

New Video - How to Easily Line a Slab Mold

Well this is my first demo to see how my FlipVideo works. So far it seems to be pretty cool!

Tropical Fruit Smoothie Soap

Just had to share this soap slab with you all...
It's CP soap with M&P embeds. It is making me crave one very large tropical drink, preferebly with one of those cute umbrellas. LOL
I took my time with the embed molds, coloring and scenting each type of fruit for realism. I'm not quite happy with the peach slices, but I will improve on those next time.

Hope you enjoyed today's soap porn!

Added splashes of Color to my Work Area

Just wanted to let you all now I have some new pics up on Flickr of my more colorful work area!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greengoddessherbals/sets/72157624135686790/


(or click on the title of this post)

Failure, Reinvention and Hope

This story about Kayla Fioravanti's journey of transformation, many failures and eventually what I think is a great success has been so inspiring to me and hits so many notes with me personally that I wanted to share it here for those who may have missed it on her blog. It really goes to show that failures can be a wonderful learning experience and as long as you persevere, you can keep going and growing.
http://essentialu.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/failure-reinvention-hope.html

Please everybody Vote to get us back in the top 2!!

We really need to get as many people as possible to vote DAILY until the 30th to win the grant that will help rebuild our elementary school! Please help if you have a minute go here:

www.refresheverything.com/bengilelementary
Thanks for your help and pass this on to get us as many votes as possible in the couple days that remain!!

New Blogwear

Well at long last I've finally made a banner and background for my blog. It's been a long time coming but I just haven't had tome to work on it and the times that i did, I got frustrated by the coding when I'd follow all instruction on how-to sites and nothing would show up right. Finally I have it down pat.
Now on to other things like my Artfire shop. Giving up Etsy in favor of Artfire, as they don't nickel and dime you to death on each and every listing. Then I can concentrate on a new site with database and proper cart.
Guess the graphics classes are paying off. But I still have a long way to go.

No new soaps lately, but I've been making pressed makeup and lipsticks and having great fun with those.

Colorado "safe" personal care products Bill fails in committee! Yay

Excerpt from Winged Seed's blog: "I’m tipping my hat to colleagues who joined me in blogging, tweeting, emailing and shouting “Stop” to the potential affects of this bad bill. The bill failed in Committee today 7 to 4. Some Colorado legislators reported they had received up to 700 emails regarding the bill. I listened to streaming radio from the hearing and those on our side were far more aware of the facts than either the representative from Compact for Safe Cosmetics or some of their small business supporters and individuals who testified. Although learned in his field and knowledgeable regarding environmental toxins and endocrinology, Dr. David Norris, PhD, Deptartment of Physiology, University of Colorado, was not well versed in cosmetics themselves nor skin absorption and allowable dilutions and was a weak proponent of the bill as a result."

Well, we all worked hard to get the word spread and thanks to everyone who helped.
Things like this should be based on real science, not supposition and hasty conclusions.


Leann

Your Personal choices are in danger! Take ACTION!

If you live in Colorado you have some looming legislation that comes up for discussion this coming Monday, March 1. This legislation, in a nutshell, to include formulators of organic or natural soap & cosmetics, will curtail your ability to operate. Additionally, should this legislation get passed, this legislation gives individuals in the state of Colorado the ability and license to sue any manufacturer of products that contain ingredients that quality for banning by the bill. March 1, this coming monday, is the day set aside for anyone to dispute this bill, submit arguments why it should not pass, or lobby for a more reasoned approach. If passed as is, Colorado citizens will be the enforcers not the state. Rewards upwards of $5,000 and $10,000 will ensure that the cosmetic products landscape in Colorado will be come the Wild Wild West, with attorneys being the greatest benefactor of this legislation. Enforcement will consist of simply suing the companies that are making products using ingredients that would qualify as banned. This includes MANY essential oils as well as many many perfectly safe cosmetic ingredients, cosmetic colors, etc.

Here is a shortlinks:
Cosmetic Design: http://tinyurl.com/yffy6a5

The Bill sponsors are using bad science, anecdotal evidence, and mass hysteria to give veracity and traction to the proposed bill. Lawmakers don't have to be genius's to get elected, and can propose legislation that is completely out of their depth of knowledge. As Thomas Jefferson said though, when govt does something that is so intolerable to cause harm to the people it is supposed to protect, it is not just our right to step in and work to stop it, but it is also our DUTY. The Personal Care Products Council will be there on March 1st to challenge and oppose this bill also.

I'm going to post info that both Colorado residents and non residents can use to contact legislators on this matter.

Contact info for you Colorado State Rep:
http://www.leg. state.co. us/Clics/CLICS2010A/csl.nsf/directory?openframeset
In case that wraps: http://tinyurl.com/ya85s6r

Betty Boyd is the Senate sponsor
Dianne Primavera is the House sponsor phone 303-866-4667
Dennis Apuan phone 303-866-3069
Karen Middleton phone 303-866-3911
Joe Miklosi Cap phone 303-866-2910

Link to the Bill in full
http://tinyurl.com/yddants

Link to follow and track changes are they are made:
http://tinyurl.com/yg37ro7 Toggle the selector at the top to the House Bills 1201 - 1250 and then scroll down to 1248

More links to learn more
Essential Wholesale blog: http://tinyurl.com/yjpd3l3
Robert Tisserand : http://roberttisserand.com/2010/02/tunnel-vision/

In anycase, if you live in Colorado, I urge you to make your voice heard, and as loudly as you can. The rest of use can also voice our opposition based on the idea that if this sort of thing passes in one state, than other states have an easier time getting something similar passed there also.
(the above thanks to Kelly Bloom of Southern Soapers)

The New Year is almost here!

Along with launching the new business name and labels under Wild Sense, I also decided to embark upon a Raw Food diet. Not a diet per se, but as a way of eating, period. Having too many problems with inflammation and joint pain to continue along the way I am. (Thanks, Dianne).

Here are a couple more pics of the new product "look" which have already been posted in my Facebook soaps album but for those who haven't yet seen them I'm reposting here.

Happy Holidays

I finished with the new label design and have several fresh batches yummylicious whipped sugar body scrubs all ready for holiday gift sets. I used to make a denser version, but now I find that both my customers and my family prefer the lighter whipped formula. Too bad you can't quite see all the gorgeous label background detail in these pics. There's a soft leafy pattern on aged paper as a backdrop to everything else and in person they look even better. Hustling to get all my last minute holiday baskets made up and I'm already planning and starting batches for Valentine's Day. Wait til you see those!

On the family front, we're spending Wednesday making Yule Log cakes and I can hardly wait to decorate those. Meringue mushrooms, marzipan pinecones, holly & berries...what fun!! Check back because I'll post pics of those Wednesday night when they're done.

New Look for Green Goddess Gal

Since the business name has changed to Wild Sense aromatics, it made sense to change the blog so I've just designed a whole new layout template for it. Ditto for a new label look for us; I really like this and want to publicly thank Bobbi Smith of Secret Garden Creations for the use of her lovely graphics that I've used liberally throughout the blog and my product label designs. I'll be featuring her on my GreenGoddessDesign blog, which is in the process of being birthed as well.

Now, after I take care of some health issues I will be working full time to get my new website up with new database features and CRE cart (finally), thanks to Lori at Dazzling Hosting.

**edit** I almost forget to mention the pretty Leafy Fae on my header was created by LadyAnne's Inspired Designz. Remember if you are looking to use any graphics from these scrapbooking sites, for anything other than personal scrapbooking use (ie for your combo personal and biz blog like this one, or a website, labels, or even to make a scrapbook, brochure, or blog for somebody else) then you MUST either buy graphics that are sold for CU, or get CU(commercial use) permission from the designers! Many of them sell CU items, but not all do. They will be clearly marked in the terms of use on each site. It can't get said too often- Don't be a pirate- these talented people deserve any and all recognition for what they do.

More Design fun, new Soaps, Crafty bliss!

I've been on yet another creative kick lately. Being sick has left me no choice but to sit with my laptop on the couch or in bed for hours, playing mostly with digital designs and honing my skills to work up to selling my designs at some point. I have such a blast working with PSP, I have Photoshop, but only on my desktop cpu and these days I seem to avoid that in favor of the trusty laptop that goes everywhere. I'm curious about other design programs, such as InDesign, so I'll be looking into that at some point. I'm sure to have a great time learning!

Soap has been on the back burner while ill, but I have plans to make some different cream soaps and I also need to get some richer winter skin creams ready as well. I have several new Winter themed soaps, and plan to make quite a few more batches this week. But, due to health constraints, I will only be doing one show in Nov and that will be the Litchfield Festival of the Trees. More about that even will be announced at a later date. I played last night with my Frostbitten soap pics (I plan to use these for holiday gifts) . I used a bunch of pretty elements from jtsDesigns Digital scrap collection, and I think I'm going to have to spend part of today making a Holiday soap album because this is so much fun to do. (thanks to Scrapitsassy.com and this wonderful designer http://jtsdesigns.blogspot.com/).

I have been so lax in taking pics of everything that alas, some of my prettiest soaps are gone and I'll have no visual record of them until I recreate them once again. LOL, that's like giving birth, so they will be back.

I had hoped that by this time I'd have my new soap biz launched and the whole new name and concept done, but after getting ill yet again, I decided to just sloooooow everything way down and just play. Now that I have taken all pressure off myself, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. The business can wait for me, and I'll get back into it at a later date. For now, I'll continue as always to make soaps and skincare for myself, family and friends and a couple of regular here and there.

Delving into Digital Scrapbooking

I've been trying to do something with all of my family photos, so I have plans this winter to make albums and scan as many as possible so I can also make digital albums.
I found this nifty little site with a free scrapbooking program, I thought I'd try out, although I also use Paint Shop Pro. I'll see how I like it and post my results here at some point.


I've been exploring a lot of the digital scrap booking sites, such as Groovy Scraps, Scrap It Sassy, Scrapbook-Bytes, Scrappin' Digi Kreations, to name a few. Fun stuff this is.
There is a treasure trove of freebies as well as commercial use and designer scraps out there.

The planetary Meditations Aromatherapy line

Just wanted to remind all you mountain dwellers to visit the Celebrations Metaphysical Fair in Denver September 4, 5 & 6

Fri 1 pm - 9 pm
Sat 10 am - 7 pm
Sun 10 am - 6 pm

at the
Denver Merchandise Mart

and be sure to check out Holistic Mountain's new line of exclusive aromatherapy products created by GreenGoddess

Planetary Meditations

As promised, here are some pics of my newest creation for my friend. I've done planet embedded soaps before, but I've never tried to make them quite as three dimensional and these just took my breath away when I cut them!

Crystal Cluster Soaps

Several orders included my Crystal Soaps this month, so I've been making quite a few of these. I had offered these many years back and they weren't popular but suddenly there are quite a few sites out there selling something along these lines. However, I personally strive to create the look of a real mineral cluster, with striations, inclusions and even a bit of clay in the base. It's all about the layering which in fact can take as many as 5-6 pours for EACH soap. Are they labor intensive, yes! But they're each a work of art that I'm proud to show. The larger ones are made using a silicone mold, but I also make and hand cut other gem point chunks and will soon be offering those in my Etsy shop. Currently, I make Ruby, Amethyst, Fluorite, Rose Quartz, Citrine, Emerald, Clear Quartz and Celestite in the Crystal Cluster Soaps. My photography doesn't do these justice; their facets sparkle and shine when you're up close and personal. I am fervently hoping that people will buy these not only because they're decorative but because they will use them as soap! They're really not meant to stand on display for more than a month or two, since they're rich in glycerin and aloe which can seep if they are left unwrapped. UV light can also lead to some yellowing of the soaps, but alas, they are meant to be used up after all!

The next ones I'm offering will be Geodes. Again, each is handmade in layers, colored with micas, minerals, oxides and clays. I'm still in the designing process with these, and I must confess I'm a bit torn as to whether or not I should use some sort of half globe mold to pour the layers or if I should continue to mold and dip by hand. During the slower months of January and February, I will be putting up several soapmaking tutorials on this blog. Your comments and ideas are always welcome!

Stay tuned for a sneak peek at some Planetary Soaps coming to this blog soon And for a real treat, try "The Planetary Meditations" 3 CD & Book Set By Michelle Many

This beautiful set of 14 journeys to the celestial bodies in our solar system will help to heal emotional and physical issues even old traumas and help to create new mind sets through cool stories that are set to smooth jazz. Michelle has skillfully integrated several healing modalities including planetary frequencies that will begin to resonate through our bodies and energy fields bringing us to a higher resonance thus causing us to create from a higher frequency where lower emotions and situations do not exist. Create with love and respect by simply pushing play and letting the healing begin.

(*edited and re-published due to spacing errors)

Lavender Herb Beadwork

Well this is my first attempt at making beads with herbs (no clay) and I am thrilled with the outcome! I did buff them somewhat but not to a shine, as I wanted them as natural as possible.

With my next batch I'm going to see if I can use my pro bead roller to make the beads more uniform, since I'm not so hot with the freehand rolling. Too bad you all don't have Smell-o-Monitors because these babies smell utterly divine! Much thanks to Tina Sams of The Essential Herbal for the initial kit - buy yours here Herb Bead Making Kit and while you're there don't forget to subscribe to The Essential Herbal Magazine. I eagerly await my next one!