Honey Bee Soaps Blog

Happy New Years

Planning for 2009

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Ours was really wonderful.

I've been in business for about 5 years now and I have never planned ahead or thought about where I wanted my business to go in the future. Well, I have thought about where I wanted it go but never actually broke it down and figured out how I am going to get there. So these next few weeks will be full of planning and figuring. We are working through our end of the year inventory, which is quite a project and if you've been to my workshop you know what I mean :0) It's amazing how many different herbs, oils, essential oils, packaging pieces and soap related stuff that a small soap lady can acquire over the years. OMG I had no idea how many end pieces of soap that I had until yesterday, what I am going to do with them all. After inventory is put in the computer and all my numbers are run I will be forming a plan. Sounds scary to me though I think it's high time I do it.

Some big steps that we took last year were most recently hiring 2 part time employees.

Jessica is my production assistant/whatever needs to be done lady and she does a

mighty fine job as well. Amber, who has very nicely organized my files and does all my

office stuff that I am not good at. I'd much rather be making goodies of course.

We are working Monday – Thursday from 9is to 4ish, if you'd like to stop by our soap workshop please feel free too. Give me a call first and I will give you directions. Fridays are my catch up days but often I am here :0) I'd love to have you stop by and say Hi, Oh you could take home an end piece of soap too if you'd like.

Fall Foliage in Northern Vermont

Living in the North East more specifically Northern Vermont is such a blessing.

It is always gorgeous here, our weather is unpredictable and people are genuinely

nice and giving. It is a great place to raise a family. As we are in the depths of

fall you can't help but notice how beautiful the trees are we've been lucky to have

such a nice fall. I spotted these pumpkins in Stowe yesterday while making a delivery

to the Body Lounge. There were tons of people in town enjoying the shopping,

pumpkins and the foliage. It pleases me to know that people come from all over to

stay in our state and enjoy everything we have to offer.

Here is what you see when you pull into our yard.

Here is our back yard looking out of the dining room & living room.

Here we are looking at the trees on the edge of our property.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing our yard in the fall.

This week I made a much needed soap delivery to Apple Tree Natural Food Store

as well as sending soap to City Market in Burlington.

Get out and enjoy the nice weather this fall and take time to admire the leaves it

is so gorgeous out there.

Happy fall!

Lavender Solid Perfume / Balm.

If you have been following me on Twitter or Facebook you will know

that last week I made some Lavender Solid Perfume. If you like

lavender you will love this perfume. It smells divine.

I make this (as well as all of my goodies) from scratch in my soap shop.

This perfume takes time to make. First I use dried lavender and put it in

sunflower oil, and then I place it out in the sun to infuse the oil.

 

When the oil has been outside for about a month I bring it in and stain it

then I get all my ingredients together including the lavender oil, local

unrefined beeswax, jojoba oil and vitamin e. I then heat it all up until

it is melted at this point I add a large portion of essential oils of French

Fine Lavender and Bulgarian Lavender to the heated mix and then pour.

You don't want to add the essential oils when the beeswax mixture is too

hot because the oils can burn off and we don't want that. Then pour and use.

 

To use this perfume apply it as needed on pulse points. It has also been

known to help people sleep so you could use it as a balm before bed.

I hope that you enjoy it.

 

It’s Blueberry season!

I have been lucky enough to have received blueberry bushes several years in a row as a Mother's Day Gift. I have been patiently tending and watching them for several years now, and we do get some blueberries every year but……………..this year our bushes are FULL of berries. How lucky am I? I should probably make blueberry soap but I think I will just enjoy them in homemade pancakes; I have the yummiest family pancake recipe.

I couldn't help myself, I had to make blueberry cobbler. The kids really enjoyed it and it was so easy to make. Most farmers markets have fresh blueberries so go out and support your local farmers. If you're not sure where to find one look here it has lots of information. Enjoy!

Rose Soap Disaster

 

Rose Soap , originally uploaded by HoneyBeeSoaps.

Every now and again when you soap you get a failed batch, even when you try to prevent it. Here is a photo of my last batch of Rose Soap, it looks horrendous.

This soap should be a beautiful dark pink color and not have those huge holes in it. For the life of me I can't figure out what I did wrong.

Rose soap lovers, you'll have to wait a few more weeks. I am sorry.

Let me know what you think.

Opposing the FDA Globalization Act of 2008

There is a piece of legislation that is being talked about right now by the Committee on Commerce & Energy that I believe will put a lot of small business owners out of business. The legislation that is being talked about is the FDA Globalization Act of 2008, the current draft of this legislation will require hefty, yearly registration fees and a fair amount of paperwork. The fees will prohibit small business owners and people just starting out to continue doing business. We provide environmentally friendly body care to local customers who choose to buy from us. We are benefitting from the buy local movement, which gives customers a choice between big companies that include unfriendly ingredients in their products and handcrafted products made with wonderful ingredients. Shouldn't we as consumers be able to make and have choices for our own body care needs? I strongly oppose this piece of legislation and I have chosen to tell my legislators, senators and congressman, I hope that you will choose to do the same.

Let your voice be heard.

Please sign our online petition, include your name, city and state please. Watch the video here:

Thank you. Please forward this to your friends so that we can get the word out.

Rock Art Brewery Open House, Tonight!

Here is where I will be tonight, will you be there too?

Renee sent me this invite last week and now I am passing it on to you. It is a great way to support local crafters and keep your business right here in our community. I hope to see you there.

Rock Art is going to have an Open House on

Tuesday July 1st from 6 - 8.

Our visitor's room will be open with Rock Art clothing and cold beer for sale,

as well as some wonderful local handcrafted items. A $3.00 souvenir glass

will be available for people who would like to sample The Vermonster Ale and

a few of our other beers. We will be pairing The Vermonster with Taylor Farms

Maple Smoked Gouda form Londonderry Vermont. They will both be available 

to purchase for the first time, at a special price for the evening.

 

For those interested there will also be a guided tour of the brewery available.

   

We hope to see you soon.

Cheers!

Renee

Rock Art Brewery, LLC

254 Wilkins St.

Morrisville, VT  05661

802-888-9400

   

Regular brewery hours and visitors room is open Monday - Friday from 7 - 5:30.

Tours are available on Friday's. Saturday hours may be available soon.

    

Please feel free to forward this invite to friends.

Soap, Soap everywhere….but where?

As a business owner I often receive donation requests from a wide variety of organizations. I am fortunate enough to have been able to accommodate most donation requests that I have received. I'm sure as my business grows I will need to pick and choose where my donations go but I am not there quite yet. All of the donation requests are from wonderful organizations and I am pleased to help them. Our most recent donations were assorted products to the Lamoille Area Cancer Network for the Sweet Hearts Dance which helps families that are stricken with cancer, we also donated samples to the Stowe Hope Weekend and our biggest donation ever was for an event that occurred today. This event was not for families with sickness but it was to encourage people to exercise.

Roughly 300 of 3000 soap samples :0)

About 500 samples

Here are all 3000 samples in boxes almost ready to go.

Ok, so all of these cute little soap samples went to the runners at the Burlington City marathon. The marathon was held on Sunday morning and the weather was quite nice, maybe a bit warm but not rainy. Several of our friends ran in the marathon and did quite well, I think. One friend ran it in 3 hours and 17 minutes and I think she rocks for that time :0)

Congratulations' to all the runners for getting out there and trying your best, that's awesome!

If you are local, the annual Sigrid and Trace Remembrance run will be held on June 8^th at Peoples Academy. It is a great event and the proceeds go to the scholarship funds that were set up in Sigrid & Trace's names.

 

The Farmers Market Season Has Started

 

 

Saturday morning was the first farmers market of the season for me. I regularly attend the Morrisville Market held on the green in front of Hannaford's Grocery Store from 9am to 1pm. Being it was the first week; I forgot lots of the little things you should bring with you. I am sure after a few weeks I will be back in the swing on things. I was a bit short on soap because I made a large donation of soap samples ( :0) I can't tell you to which organization until their event comes up, it's top secret ya' know) that I will blog about this weekend. I am still a bit short but I have enough for this weekend's markets. I do have Liquid soaps ready including a new kind :0) I am hoping to have my shampoo there too.

If you are closer or attend the Waitsfield Farmers Market or the Stowe Farmers Market you can get some of my goodies their too. Stop by and visit my friend Heather from Green Seed Herbals she makes wonderful face creams and other goodies too. Heather has been attending the Stowe Farmers Market regularly and started attending the Waitsfield Market last fall. Heather was nice enough to take along some of products with her and it has worked out nicely for both of us.

I do have to forewarn you, I had to increase my soap prices for several reasons which I will detail in another post, but the new soap price is $4.50 for each bar and I have not decided if I will offer a discount on multiple bars I just can't decide.

Have a great day and don't forget to stop by the market and see me.

I almost forgot, I have been trying to do some business networking so check me out in these places too. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I would love comments on my blog, if you see something you like shout it out to me :0)

Have a safe holiday weekend.

Stowe Weekend of Hope

 

A few weeks ago a friend of mine came by my house to ask for donations to the Stowe Weekend of Hope. Of course I agreed to donate samples for the guest goodie bags, I sent lavender bath salts and chamomile soap. Well, in all honesty I had no idea what this weekend was all about so I asked a ton of questions and then researched the event. I was amazed to learn about this wonderful event.

Here I am with Terry Smith, the event coordinator and owner of the Bagel.

It was held last weekend, May 2^nd -4^th in beautiful Stowe, VT. This year was the 8^th year they have put together this event. I could not find the right words to accurately describe this event so here is how it is described on the website's home page.

    "The Stowe Weekend of Hope is an annual forum for education, enlightenment, and recreation for cancer patients and survivors with any type of cancer...and their families. The focus is to inspire, educate, and celebrate the lives of people living with the cancer. This unique event addresses the complex challenges and needs of people with cancer at any stage in their disease. Cancer presents families with many challenges - physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial." - www.stowehope.org

Our lives have been directly affected by cancer, from our family members to our friends, and I find it amazing to see the strength and will power of these families that are affected by this awful disease. I cannot even imagine the fear and uncertainty that they encounter everyday but they still fight with all they have. I am thoroughly inspired by their courage and determination. You never know what will happen in your life; take the time to let people know you care about them. Every day is a new day and you have another chance to reach out to your loved ones.

I ran into a friend on Tuesday (our kids go to the same school) and she had said that Stowe was very busy from the Hope Weekend. We first meet when I was right out of high school and we worked at the same resort, The Golden Eagle Resort. She had said that they donated rooms for the cancer patients that attended the event. How amazing is that? The family at The Golden Eagle Resort is truly a caring group of people from the owners and Inn Keepers all the way down to all the staff. If you get the chance, let them know how wonderful that is to give to such a great event.

Let the special people in your life know that you love them!