Valentines Day

 It's always fun to come up with some new goodies for you guys for Valentines Day,  this is what's coming for this year:

Red Clover Tea Soap Cupcake

Sundance Soap Cupcake. 

I've discovered piping is fun but there's definitely a learning curve. Makes me respect cake decorators even more! 

This soap, Black Cherry Tobacco was suggested by a customer, I think you'll like it. 

And last but not least, Jasmine Honeysuckle, with a pretty swirl of color. I was trying to keep the color palette to a vintage fabric, that was the inspiration anyhow! 

So everything is curing, waiting for their turn! 

Proud to announce...

the Martinez Farmers Market on Sundays is going to be "year round"!! I am so excited, I know my Martinez peeps will embrace this new change. It's been needed for a while! I'm so happy for you guys!

Sisterhood of the earrings

So this lady comes up to my table at my beloved Martinez Farmers Market. She's one of the Artisans and does ceramics. I couldn't help but notice her earrings, I thought they were so cool, and she said that she'd had them over 20 years, and I said if she ever got sick of them she could send them my way! So, at the end of the day, she wanted to get some glycerine soap and wanted to trade me her earrings for them! I said "well you can't do that, you've had them for so long" and she smiled and said "they're MY earrings and I can trade if I want to!" and of course I was thrilled to have them! She said she knew that I'd love them as much as she did, and she's right, I'll enjoy them for the NEXT 20 years. It was just very special and I told her I would always remember her when I wore them, and we exchanged a hug. It was just so sweet. So we'll always have a connection, the sisterhood of the cool earrings!

Let the crazy begin!

When you live in California, and do Farmers Markets for a living, you are blessed enough to have several year-round Markets, you go rain or shine and the customers are so cool, they support the Market rain or shine too, it's not just for "show" it's how they really LIVE! I can't tell you how much we appreciate the support either. Support Local really is a good thing!  So anyhow, I have 3 year-round Markets that I do all year and then two Seasonal ones that I do May-November-ish. The point here is that just one more Market can make a HUGE difference! It's that way for all of us. I have made 220# of soap this week, above is what 90# looks like! A normal week is about 100# just to maintain what I normally go through. So life has already begun to get busier! Here's where to find us these days if you happen to be in the area:
Sunday: Martinez, Main Street 10-2 Look for the Purple Tent as always!
Tuesday Concord - Todos Santos Plaza 10-2 (although we're usually there by 8)
Thursday Antioch Kaiser the first Thursday of the month
Friday Vallejo Kasier 10-2
Saturday - Pleasanton 9-1
So yes, busier, but I wouldn't change a thing! I look forward to seeing all of you that I've been missing!

Manic Monday

Every 4-6 weeks or so, I make the Trek to Oakland and Berkeley for supplies, then come home and separate everything into batch sized increments, this take a couple of hours usually. After that I'll have two shifts of soap to make, 80# in the first shift and 60# in the second shift. There are shifts because UPS is delievering a few things I need and they get here anywhere between 4 and 9 pm. At least by doing them in shifts I wont be in the Studio til midnight! 
My Seasonal Market is about to begin on Sunday (Martinez) and so there's a lot of extra preparation for me this week. It's a good thing, I have been missing my customers, the ones who we do all of this for! 
So I know at the end of the day I will be exhausted, but happy! Wishing all of you a happy Monday!