Happy New Year!

2009 is now coming to an end, so on to 2010!! We hope it starts off well for all.To get the new year kicked off we are offering 10% off the first 10 days of 2010! Either online at our website or etsy shop, or in our booth in Prescott Valley.

To Use Online:
Go to our etsy shop and/or our website and order anything you like as normal putting "2010 10%" in the comment field. Be sure to include this in the comment field before checkout or we wont know to give you the discount. (Paypal still does not have discount code availability, so the amount will be refunded back to you.)

To Use at our Booth:
Come on in and shop, mention this blog post before checkout, and 10% will be taken off your subtotal.

Don't miss out, this 10% off is only good January 1 through 10, 2010.

New Scents:
We have a couple of new scents that will be available...

• French Vanilla
• Lilac
• White Tea & Ginger

We will also have our best sellers...

• Sweet Pea
• Lemon Zest
• Gardenia
• Cucumber Cantaloupe
• Lavender
• Irish Tweed
• Sage Citrus
• Oatmeal, Milk & Honey

We hope to see you in 2010, and wish everyone a healthy and safe year!

New Booth

We have had a booth in a mini mall for about 6 months now. A lot of booths are vacating after Christmas, so we got bumped to the front. I think this will be a good thing. So we got all moved this weekend, and I think our booth looks great. :)

Christmas Tree Soap Centerpiece

I saw this Christmas Tree Soap Centerpiece Tutorial on the Soap Queen Blog. Well of course I just had to try it out.
The hardest part was gathering the tools. It is Christmas time….finding a star shaped cookie cutter should be that hard??!! really?? I went to wal-mart and the grocery store...nothing!! Found a nice big box of wilton cookie cutters....NO STAR??!! The joys of living in a small town I spose.

I decided to borrow some star cookie cutters from friends hoping to gather some staggered sizes. But today I stopped by wal-mart on my way home from work and decided to take a pass down this newly stocked Christmas item isle. I tell you I was like a kid with a shiny new toy when I spied the exact cookie cutters I was in need of. I was grinning probably bigger than I have in a long time….sure hope no one was watching me, lol.

I borrowed a silicone brownie pan from a friend because….yup you guessed it…not sold here in my town. So I got home and got started. Here are most of my tools I used.

I varied the instructions a bit pouring 10 oz of soap instead of the 6 oz. OK reason being I got a serious ugly green my first try and poured it into my pan to get rid of it so I could wash and restart….only to find I didn’t like how much it filled my pan I didnt think it was enough. So I did 10 oz base, added some apple green pop mica and 4.5ml of holly berry scent.

I cut 2 of each of my 4 sizes from the clear based green, along with my topper star.

Then 2 of each of my 4 sizes from the white based green, along with my topper star.

I went ahead and mixed both of the leftover soap pieces together and remelted, added a bit of black green mica, and cut 2 of each of my 4 sizes, along with my topper star. From all of this I was able to get 2 cute little trees.

I stacked them on a skewer that I had precut to size. On the second one I gained a little bit of smarts and marked my center hole with the skewer before I started stacking. Blindly stacking hoping for center is not as easy as you think.

Here they are next to my cell phone to give an idea of size. I think they came out very cute.

Losing a First Tooth

Tonight our youngest grandson Orion lost his first tooth. My husband Ron has pulled the first tooth of all three of his kids....his 2 oldest grandsons...and now in keeping with tradition he got to pull Orion's. His mom thought he would have lost it in school, and since he didnt she drove him to our house so Grampy could have the honor.

He was such a big boy about it. I was there for the youngest child and 2 grandkids...and they would start crying when you looked at them and hadnt even touched the tooth. Not Orion, he was so good and didnt make a peep.

When asked how much he thought the tooth fairy would bring...he said he would like the tooth fairy to leave him $6.00, lol.

I received an email from two sampler companies, funny enough within the same week. Basically these companies have you send in a bunch of samples of your product that they divide out amongst a bunch of boxes that they sell. This was the first company that contacted me. So of course my OCD nature has to kick in and I must order one to "check" this out before I decide to participate or not.

The box cost $20 and included postage. The other company I think is $22, but I received their email after I purchased this one.

This is the package you receive it in. I have to say I was inpressed with the initial presentation. The box is very nice and eye catching....and was filled right up.

Check out all the loot here. Most were soap, which will make me pause in thinking if I want to do this type of marketing, kind of hard to be noticed when over half the items were soap.

I will be honest here as well and say...I wasnt overly impressed with the presentation of all the samples. Some I quickly tossed to the side as they did absolutely nothing for me. But I will go over some that caught mine and my daughters attention.

How totally cute is this little soap guy!!?? This came from Lolli Luscious and is absolutely adorable!

This is a cool little box from Purrfect Gifts. It is a box that could hang like an ornament and had a york peppermint patty enclosed in it.

I think this is a melt for a tart burner, it is a cute little butterfly.

These look like tasty treats from Rhoda Rose.

This is from SBS teas and has a tea and a soap sample, and they packaged them together very nicely.

Another soap along with a lip balm from Flower Branch Essentials. My daughter loved the smell of this soap. The lip balm is real nice, but I do wish it had ingredients with it.

So all in all I thought it was a nice box and a very cool idea. I think people should think out their packaging a little better and send their very best...after all the goal is to get noticed and receive sales in return?

If I do this I havent decided which company, there is this one...Sampler Village....and the other is...Out Of The Box Sampler. Should I try it out??? Any thoughts on these companies.

***Free Shipping at www.lustercanyon.etsy.com 11/27 - 11/30***

http://www.lustercanyon.etsy.com/

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.

Cyber Monday refers to the Monday following Black Friday that unofficially marks the beginning of the Christmas online shopping season.

Luster Canyon Etsy.com shop is going to offer free shipping on all items purchased from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. That is 4 days to shop from the comfort of your own home. No crowds to wade through, no elbows thrown your way. Shop for your family and friends at any time within the 4 days of November 27 through November 30, and receive free shipping.

**Sending a secret Santa gift? We can ship directly to your recipient keeping you anonymous. Just be sure to specify this in the comment field or send us a message as soon as possible following your purchase.

**Something you want that isn’t listed? Send us a message and we will check our stock.

Jump start your holiday gift giving and save money!!

http://www.lustercanyon.etsy.com/

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I hope everyone is surrounded by family, friends, fun, and food!!

1 Day to Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for today?


**I am thankful to have people reading my blog**

As I begin my new venture of soap and lotion making, it is a tough world to break into. There are many of us out there, so just getting noticed is hard. So to everyone coming back here each day to read my blog…….THANK YOU!!!!!

Sign up for our mailing list.

http://etsy.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=aedb691baf6941aacd7861c5c&id=6c5d5e1e04


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2 Days to Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for today?


**I am thankful to have pets**

Yes I am thankful for my pets. We have 3 kitties, Simon, Charlie and Miss Lily. We also have a long haired Chihuahua Billy. They all 4 bring such enjoyment to our lives!!

During the holiday donations, don’t forget your local animal shelter. They are always in need of cat/dog food and kitty litter. Animals shouldn’t go hungry either.

Free Shipping at www.lustercanyon.etsy.com

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, which is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.

Cyber Monday refers to the Monday following Black Friday that unofficially marks the beginning of the Christmas online shopping season.

Luster Canyon Etsy.com shop is going to offer free shipping on all items purchased from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. That is 4 days to shop from the comfort of your own home. No crowds to wade through, no elbows thrown your way. Shop for your family and friends at any time within the 4 days of November 27 through November 30, and receive free shipping.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lustercanyon

3 Days to Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for today?


**I am thankful to have food on my table**

We are lucky to have food on our table and to be able to have a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. But a lot of people are not so fortunate, which is why I donate locally to our mission. They gather food to pass out to families so that they can enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

http://www.oldtownmission.org/pages.asp?pageid=78035

4 Days to Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for today?

**I am thankful to have a home**

Again this economy is tough; people are losing their homes because they are losing their jobs. We built our home ourselves, so we have a lot of emotional ties to it, and we are very thankful to have a nice home and warm bed to sleep in every night.

5 Days to Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for today?


**I am thankful to have a job**

In this economy it is tough, and I am glad to still be hanging on to my “real” job. It feels like a week to week thing of “are they laying off??” so I am thankful to keep hanging as long as I can.

6 Days to Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for today?


**I am thankful for my health**

Turning 40 this year I am feeling a change. Twinges of aches in the morning, the need to wear glasses now, but as a whole I feel great and happy to be healthy to get up and out of bed each morning.

This picture was taken July of this year on my birthday weekend getaway trip. We love to get out and hike and geocache, so I am thankful to be able to do all of this.

What are you Thankful for?

As we count down to Thanksgiving Day, we know the day is about eating a lot of turkey and stuffing, and watching football. But most important it is about giving thanks for what we are truly thankful for, so what are you thankful for?

I am most thankful for my family. Without them I truly wouldn’t be where I am.

My husband Ron is incredibly supportive of my soap and lotion venture, and without that I couldn’t do it at all. It takes team work, and we make a great team!!

My daughter Ashley is the best daughter a mom could ask for. She is also supportive of me, but is a great person I am truly proud of.

Lazy Dog

What a lazy dog we have. This is Billy when he gets to go for a ride. I think he would think the world was coming to an end if he had to be away from Grampy more than 5 minutes. No way he will sit on my lap!!

He hearts his Grampy!!

Local Craft Fair

I did a local craft fair today. I was excited to do this one even though it is my fourth tent show, it is my first local event in my own town. It is so nice when people ask if you are local, and you can reply....Yes I am!! :)

The turn out was great. I paired up with my friend. We each made the same things in different scents and had great variety nicely packaged. We did well, even after the 15% donation of sales to the church where the event was held.

This section of our booth was my favorite of the day after looking at the photos. Just look how nice these spaceball soaps look. They also sold quite well, so I will try to get more made of these this week for my next show.

First 2 Day Show

Just had my first two day show. A lot of work, but very enjoyable. We loved our booth location and had fun getting it all set up the night before. Here is my crew...on the left is my good friend Anissa who we could not have done without...me there in the middle, and on the right my grandson Joe, and also hubby who is behind the camera.

Here we are the morning of day one doing last minute touches. My girls came to help, and being Halloween Day they dressed in spirit of the day.

I had bought some new lace toppers for my tables as I try to work on my display, but since every show there has to be something I forget....well that was it. So maybe the next show I will get to try them out. But all in all I thought our set up looked great.

Here are the soaps....

Lotions....

And my beautiful helpers. :)

Halloween Weekend Show

Come on out and visit us this weekend….Saturday October 31 & Sunday November 1, 2009….and get your holiday shopping done early!

We will be at the 3rd Annual Home & Heart Marketplace which is located at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, AZ. We have various scented handmade soaps and lotions. We have gift bags already made up to make your shopping even easier.

Admission into the marketplace is FREE to the public!

Words to Live By

Life isn't fair, but it's still good. :)

Bronze Star

Our son was awarded the Bronze Star yesterday. We are so very proud of him and all his accomplishments!

Holidays are approaching fast!

No matter how prepared you say you will be, somehow time slips by you and next thing you know you are far behind. I have already purchased a couple small things for my daughter, but the older your kids get (she is now 21) the harder it is to buy for them. And husbands?? Oy Vay even harder there!


I really want to be ahead and ready this year. Any tips on how to go about that? For one I thought the few things I have purchased I should wrap and tag NOW and start a pile. Because even if you are ahead on buying….well then there is allll that wrapping!

So here is my thought, start buying now. What to buy you ask?? Well pay attention to what your family says and looks at right now…. I noticed while shopping the other day my husband stopped to turn and look back at something…well I am going to go back and get what he spied, one idea down and then it will be one present purchased.

Anyone have any gift ideas? What is the “thing” for teenagers this year? I have 2 teenage grandsons I haven’t the first clue what to buy for them, I seriously doubt they will appreciate my soap, lol.

My Indoor Kitty Caught a Bird??

My kitties are indoor only kitties. I live on a very busy street and I dont want to lose one of my babies, so they cannot go outside, and have never been outside in the 3 years we have had them. Simon the Siamese there up top is my big baby. He is attached to me like glue. On the bottom right is Miss Lily. She is our "special" kitty and asks for nothing but an occasional love, she is very sweet. Then there on the bottom left is our big bad bruiser Charlie. He can be a pill, but we adore him as much as the other 2.


Well tonight around 7ish....after dark.... my husband takes Mr Bills our pup out for his business, and I hear him say "Charlie get back in" so I look over thinking why is my cat outside??!! But he isnt, only his front paws are out the door. So they all come in and my husband is quite calm in asking Charlie what do you have? Over and over he asks....so I finally look over again...hmmm what IS THAT in his mouth and why is he growling? I go to get the kitty to take outside to release what this is....and a bird...A WILD OUTSIDE BIRD...drops out of his mouth!!! I am shocked, trying to grab him and the dog that are trying to get at it while while DH is trying to find a paper towel to retrieve it to get it outside.

What was a bird doing at my back door....how did the cat know this...and how did he snag it in seconds while DH and the dog were coming in the door?? How insane is that? Plus it shows how that is all total instinct being he has never been outside to see or stalk a bird before.

So DH took the bird outside. I do hope he is OK, I dont think Charlie had him long enough to do any damage, but I feel bad. Ah Nature....so cruel. :(

Words To Live By

When you have doubts....just take the next small step.

Fun Soaps

I needed a break from it all, so I made some "fun" soaps this weekend. I am quite happy with my attempts....only one failure...not too bad.


Here is my watermelon scented soapsicle. Should have made the green a little deeper...but I like it.





Here is my rocket soap. I scented them Ginger Lime, I really like the way they came out.






Here is a watermelon loaf soap slice....complete with soap seeds. :) (should have photo'd before I bagged for a better picture.)

Here is my boo boo for the day. I made freesia scented soapsicles. My purple looked good until I added the pink, which looked so awesome it made the purple not so great, but I still like it. I got to the last one...#10, pulled it out of the mold....OOPS...the top didnt stick, lol. Thats okay. 9 out of 10 is all good in my book. :)

Words To Live By

Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

Reaction to Cinnamon??

I was going to post this weekend about the soap rockets I made, but while they were cooling I poured my cinnamon cold process soap. Cleaned all up...took my gloves off....to find my right arm all angry blotchy red. I had no clue what happened, I never felt a burn or tingle, I even turned my glove inside out and found it bone dry. So nothing got in the glove, I am guessing I had a reaction to the cinnamon. I tried to take a picture, but it is hard taking a picture of your own arm so it is blurry.

Thankfully a couple hours later it was all gone, but gave me a scare. I didnt know if I had gotten lye on me or what...my hubby said I would have known if lye got on me, but since I never felt a thing and it went away, I must have an allergy to cinnamon? This was a body safe scent, and I used way under the manufacturers recomended amount, so I am glad I did that or I guess it could have been worse.

On a better note we had a tent at a local function. Didnt do great, but didnt do bad either. Here are some pictures of the set up.

Tweeting on Twitter

I find it hard to gain a following on Twitter, it has finally picked up and I have almost 40 followers. I say WOO HOO to that as it makes me happy to finally start gaining followers, but I see that is chump change to some peoples numbers. So it is a slow going build up which is ok, and here is what I have been learning on the way……

Post something everyday even if it is something small, it can be funny…a quote…or just say hi.

Don’t follow people in hopes they will follow you.

Don’t feel obligated to follow someone that is following you.

Follow who YOU want to read from everyday.

Make random comments. Do a search to find a few posts to comment on.

Tweet about one or two of your items, but don’t make all your tweets only about what you are selling.

Just be personable, because I find people jump on to follow…some in hopes you will follow back, but they quickly unfollow. This can be either because they just wanted follow numbers and got yours…or you are hawking your shop too much you have turned them off. So just be yourself, with some of your products peppered in here and there.

Oh and if you want to follow my tweets…..
http://twitter.com/lustercanyon

Using vanilla stabilizer‏

I am by no means an expert on this, and have only used it this one time, but I thought I would blog my observations for future.

When using fragrances that have a high vanilla content, they will discolor your soaps from a range of tan to a very dark brown. It is all dependent on the vanilla content percentage. Some fragrance oils have none to very little so you never notice a difference in color, but some fragrance oils, such as most bakery scents, have a high vanilla content.

There is a product called vanilla stabilizer. It is used to help rid your soap of brown discoloration. You can use it with fragrance oils that have more than 5% vanilla content. (You should be able to get this information from your supplier.) It won’t make your soap white, in fact I have read that it can yellow your soap if you have a real high vanilla content, but it is to reduce the browning of Melt & Pour and some Cold Process soaps caused by fragrances that contain vanilla. (It will not prevent color changes due to ingredients other than vanilla.)

In order to use it you would mix equal parts Vanilla Stabilizer and fragrance oil, mixing well, then add this to your soap mixture as you normally do. So say according to your recipe you are using 2.5 oz vanilla fragrance, you would also mix in 2.5 oz vanilla stabilizer.

For this illustration I soaped the same scent IFT-Vanilla Bean Noel. One batch I used only the fragrance, and the other batch I used equal parts fragrance and vanilla stabilizer. Quite a difference. Obviously the one on the right is the one without the stabilizer.



Personally, I don’t mind brown soap….well unless it creates brown bubbles and discolors my wash cloth…I just don’t find that appealing, but this dark brown vanilla soap of mine produces white bubbles, so to me I only care about the end result being a good safe bar of soap.

What are your thoughts, would brown color discourage you from purchasing? Is having extra additives in your soap worth it to have a lighter shade of brown?

Words To Live By

Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

Success is Ours!!

YAY we found it. A fellow cacher Kristina (on left) and myself (on right) went back out into the desert to find the cache. We found it in 10mins, so not too bad, but I was actually a little disapointed. It was a good hide, in fact quite hard for a night hide, but being a night time hide I expected reflective tape or something needing our flashlights, hence the need for it to be a nighttime hide. Instead it was a matte black box which would actually be an easy daytime hide. Plus another stage or two would have been more fun and worth the effort over just a 2 stage run. BUT...dont get me wrong...I am not complaining, a cache is a good cache no matter what, and FTF on top of it....well it cant get much better than that now can it? :)

Wandering Wyatts Back in Action....Sort Of

As I have said before we LOVE to geocache, and since we started this business we have had no time right now to be off in the desert looking for hidden tupperware. Well last night before going to bed I noticed there was a newly hidden geocache....and it is a night time only cache. Now I myself have wanted to hide one of these, but you have to have the perfect spot for such a thing....and desert is a little harder than say a nice park with pathways.

So off Mr Wyatt and I go, pupper dog on hand as well. So we pull up to the posted coordinates....along with another car...DRAT another cacher?? Nope, it was 2 girls wondering if we were there to check out that red light also. Well I knew this must be part of our geocache, so we explained it was a game, and after being relieved it wasnt a radar or something they went on their way. So here is Mr Wyatt, Myself, and Billy the geopup off to find our treasure.

We found stage 1 alright....a bright glowing red light catching everyones attention as they drove by. We got the next coordinates....well sort of....110 feet-325 degrees from stage 1. OH....now we have to remember how to project coords....ummm....sure! But we actually did, but the red light was getting so many looks, and my allergies kicked in we had to leave the cache not finding the final stage....but we will be back!! I think it will be a great cache, the owner is now modifying it to not be so noticable to Muggles.

I would have took pictures, but it was night time so nothing would have come out. We have no clue what stage 2 looks like, just that we need a flashlight to find.....Ohhhh the FUN!!!!!

B.R.A.T.

I am home sick on the BRAT diet...well isnt that nice??!! Actually no it isnt, but it is what it is. The BRAT diet is basically Bananas-Rice-Applesauce-Toast. But your toast cannot have butter...you can have jelly though.

So after my doc visit I went to Safeway to get my stuff. I met a super nice lady in the broth section (my sub for B-bananas). She was looking for broth to make chicken for a stray cat that is injured that she is trying to befriend to take to the vet....how nice is that?? Then she gave me a coupon for broth and went on her way. I wish good things for her. :)

For rice...somehow that doesnt sound so good right now, but I found a box of Cream of Rice. I usually eat Cream of Wheat every morning, so I am hoping that is the same.

Applesauce....YUM...Cinnamon only though, so hopefully that is ok, and then toast with jelly. I have a jar of jam our daughter made so I know it is good and not full of fillers my tummy wont like.

So that is the jist of my day, and I am most bummed I cannot make stuff. I have a long list of lotions to get made, but I dont make anything when I am under the weather....so my list will wait.