Hey everyone!
This week I wanted to share some Etsy.com treasuries that I've created throughout my time on Etsy because I feel that it's a great way to promote the artists featured in the treasuries and it's a great way to browse it's by category!
This first one, my most recent, is a compilation of items from an Etsy team (group) that I am a member of.
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTg2MDc5Njd8MjcyMDQwNDg0OQ/team-treasury-quit-your-day-job?index=6
Ocean Themed
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTg2MDc5Njd8MjcyMjg3MzgyOA/all-things-ocean?index=5
Purple Spring-themed items
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTg2MDc5Njd8MjcyMjc1MjUwNA/purple-spring-theme?index=3
Home Decor
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTg2MDc5Njd8MjMxMzQ4NDg2NA/home-decor?index=2
Amazing handmade cards
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTg2MDc5Njd8MjMxODg1MjA1NQ/amazing-handmade-cards?index=1
Please check these out and help support the amazing artists featured!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
My First Craft Fair
Hi everyone, sorry it's been so long since my last post, life got crazy. I was spending long (and I mean long) hours preparing for my first craft show this last weekend. I definitely brought enough inventory, but unfortunately the show was slow this year and I only broke even for the weekend.
The show that I did was an annual Strawberry Festival celebrating it's 22nd year. Considering the show had been around for 22 years, I would have expected a much better advertising budget/campaign, but unfortunately balloons and a street sign were about all I saw. The show brought in probably 3,000 people, but my booth was in a new "overflow" area for vendors that was placed so far away from the main show that only people parking their cars in the back lots could see these new rows of vendors.
All in all I feel the show was pretty successful, mostly because I potentially picked up my first wholesale client (we'll see if it gets finalized, crossing my fingers) and because it was great exposure in the local AZ area. However, next year I'm going to sign up much earlier and not accept a spot in this overflow area (none of the vendors there did very well), especially for the regular booth fee (we didn't get a discounted booth price). I'm also happy we camped nearby in the woods instead of getting a hotel, that saved us a ton of money and we got to enjoy some time in the wilderness away from the busy Phoenix life
Here's a picture of my booth too. I am happy that my boyfriend was able to come with me and help me set it up. It was great practice and I know that my next fair will be much easier now that I have a basic booth setup going (instead of having to figure it out on the spot).
P.S. -- I want to start hosting a "Featured Seller" page every few weeks so that will be coming up soon!
The show that I did was an annual Strawberry Festival celebrating it's 22nd year. Considering the show had been around for 22 years, I would have expected a much better advertising budget/campaign, but unfortunately balloons and a street sign were about all I saw. The show brought in probably 3,000 people, but my booth was in a new "overflow" area for vendors that was placed so far away from the main show that only people parking their cars in the back lots could see these new rows of vendors.
All in all I feel the show was pretty successful, mostly because I potentially picked up my first wholesale client (we'll see if it gets finalized, crossing my fingers) and because it was great exposure in the local AZ area. However, next year I'm going to sign up much earlier and not accept a spot in this overflow area (none of the vendors there did very well), especially for the regular booth fee (we didn't get a discounted booth price). I'm also happy we camped nearby in the woods instead of getting a hotel, that saved us a ton of money and we got to enjoy some time in the wilderness away from the busy Phoenix life
Here's a picture of my booth too. I am happy that my boyfriend was able to come with me and help me set it up. It was great practice and I know that my next fair will be much easier now that I have a basic booth setup going (instead of having to figure it out on the spot).
P.S. -- I want to start hosting a "Featured Seller" page every few weeks so that will be coming up soon!
Monday, April 23, 2012
Why I stated making my own bath and skincare products Part 2
Sorry, it's been a whole month since my last post, school has been super busy and I've been scrambling to fill orders for my shop between homework and life in general. This actually leads me into Post 2: I needed a creative stress relief.
That's right, stress relief. I love being creative and crafty, and between a hectic school schedule and needing a side job so that I can afford to feed myself and pay my bills, life just gets stressful. So, I started making soap. Getting to be crafty and manage a side income from my art (at least I consider my products art) is really gratifying and makes me, well, happy. I absolutely love what I do, and I have a great support system behind me offering me advice and encouragement when I get stressed that I'm not making sales, or I'm down on my profits for the month. Because of the enjoyment I get out of crafting, and all of my behind-the-scenes support, I've managed to grow this craft into a real business and will be getting licensed soon! The fact that I've been able to express my entrepreneurial spirit into something and it's starting to become successful is extremely rewarding, and I love hearing comments from my customers that they loved my items, and even more gratifying when I see them order again.
It seems like an oxymoron to use crafting and running a business as a stress relief when in itself runnning a business causes a lot of stress, but I guess all I can say is that being stressed about growing my business is more "fun" than being stressed about school. Well, at least it's more interesting anyways.
That's right, stress relief. I love being creative and crafty, and between a hectic school schedule and needing a side job so that I can afford to feed myself and pay my bills, life just gets stressful. So, I started making soap. Getting to be crafty and manage a side income from my art (at least I consider my products art) is really gratifying and makes me, well, happy. I absolutely love what I do, and I have a great support system behind me offering me advice and encouragement when I get stressed that I'm not making sales, or I'm down on my profits for the month. Because of the enjoyment I get out of crafting, and all of my behind-the-scenes support, I've managed to grow this craft into a real business and will be getting licensed soon! The fact that I've been able to express my entrepreneurial spirit into something and it's starting to become successful is extremely rewarding, and I love hearing comments from my customers that they loved my items, and even more gratifying when I see them order again.
It seems like an oxymoron to use crafting and running a business as a stress relief when in itself runnning a business causes a lot of stress, but I guess all I can say is that being stressed about growing my business is more "fun" than being stressed about school. Well, at least it's more interesting anyways.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Why I started making my own bath and skincare products Part 1
Hi everyone,
This is my first blog ever, so bear with me! I wanted to list a few reasons why I started Seri's Soaps, and what it means to me to be able to create healthy, skin safe bath and beauty products.Today I will go over my first reason.
The first reason is simple: I have sensitive skin and many commercial soaps leave my skin very dry and itchy. If you have ever experienced dry, irritated skin (who hasn't right?!) then you know how frustrating it can be to scratch, scratch, scratch all day long. It honestly took me forever to realize why my skin was so irritated all of the time, and the answer? Yup, commercial soap. Now I'm not saying all commercial soaps are bad, some are quite natural really (but often cost a lot more, and I am on a college budget here), but the soaps that I could afford to buy were not the good kind. After realizing that my soap was making me so itchy (and lotion was not a great fix by the way, a topic I will get into later), I started doing research into what ingredients in commercial soaps were irritating my skin so badly. The answer: chemicals, added preservatives, and detergent. I have a sensitivity to SLS (a sulfate), and unfortunately this is in almost every commercial bar of soap. SLS is not all bad however, it cleans and removed oils from the skin, both things necessary in a shower, however, if you shower too often (more than once a day), then SLS can strip your skin bare and leave it irritated. Since I have naturally dry skin anyways, SLS was no good for me. A solution I have found to be quite helpful is using SLES instead of SLS. SLES is still a sulfate, so it still has all of the benefits of SLS, but it is much more gentle and more suited for sensitive skin types. I have not had any problems with using SLES, and my skin is much happier now. Even worse than SLS irritation were the multitudes of preservatives, especially Parabens that I found in commercial soaps. Paraben preservatives are known to cause cancer in some people and I have no desire to use a product that could potentially cause cancer (expeically one that is SUPPOSED to be good for me!). Now I know that there are a million things that cause cancer, and I'm not saying that if you use a product with paraben preservatives in it you are guaranteed to get cancer, but if you can avoid it, then why not? There are plenty of skin safe, gentle, full spectrum preservatives out there that are much healthier than parabens, and those are what I use in my products. No parabens here! One problem I kept finding in commercial soaps was that they had 2 or even 4 preservatives in them! WHY?! You only need one as long at it is full spectrum, and I have found a great one that is gentle and full spectrum, so I never use more than that in a product, it's simply not necessary. Finally, detergents. Why, why, WHY would you ever put detergent into a soap. Oh, right, because it's cheap, and people won't notice it's bad because it SOUNDS like it is good, but really it is sucking the life out of your skin. Detergents strip away ALL of your skins natural oils (kind of like sulfates but much stronger and much more damaging). Detergents leave that nasty residue on your skin that you may remember hearing about in that old Dove commercial. There simply is no reason why you should have a detergent in your soap, glycerin and gentle sulfates clean us enough without stripping away everything that our skin needs.
Because of this, and many more reasons that I will get to later, I started Seri's Soaps. I wanted to share my dislike of commercial chemicals with the world, and to provide healthy, skin safe soaps and other bath products to those who, like me, can not tolerate all of the harsh chemicals. If you don't have sensitive skin you probably don't notice any irritation from commercial products, but even so, isn't it better to use something that is healthy anyways? Either way, the world needs more natural, healthy, and higher quality products, commercial marketing has stripped us of anything made to last and worth the money. We are a consumer society, and through that we have lost our ability to scrutinize what we are actually purchasing, and instead purchase because of the brand name or the price. I have gone back to the basics with Seri's Soaps, and I am no longer following the masses in buying commercial brands because I want to give my skin what it really needs instead of simply buying something potentially harmful because it is cheap.
This is my first blog ever, so bear with me! I wanted to list a few reasons why I started Seri's Soaps, and what it means to me to be able to create healthy, skin safe bath and beauty products.Today I will go over my first reason.
The first reason is simple: I have sensitive skin and many commercial soaps leave my skin very dry and itchy. If you have ever experienced dry, irritated skin (who hasn't right?!) then you know how frustrating it can be to scratch, scratch, scratch all day long. It honestly took me forever to realize why my skin was so irritated all of the time, and the answer? Yup, commercial soap. Now I'm not saying all commercial soaps are bad, some are quite natural really (but often cost a lot more, and I am on a college budget here), but the soaps that I could afford to buy were not the good kind. After realizing that my soap was making me so itchy (and lotion was not a great fix by the way, a topic I will get into later), I started doing research into what ingredients in commercial soaps were irritating my skin so badly. The answer: chemicals, added preservatives, and detergent. I have a sensitivity to SLS (a sulfate), and unfortunately this is in almost every commercial bar of soap. SLS is not all bad however, it cleans and removed oils from the skin, both things necessary in a shower, however, if you shower too often (more than once a day), then SLS can strip your skin bare and leave it irritated. Since I have naturally dry skin anyways, SLS was no good for me. A solution I have found to be quite helpful is using SLES instead of SLS. SLES is still a sulfate, so it still has all of the benefits of SLS, but it is much more gentle and more suited for sensitive skin types. I have not had any problems with using SLES, and my skin is much happier now. Even worse than SLS irritation were the multitudes of preservatives, especially Parabens that I found in commercial soaps. Paraben preservatives are known to cause cancer in some people and I have no desire to use a product that could potentially cause cancer (expeically one that is SUPPOSED to be good for me!). Now I know that there are a million things that cause cancer, and I'm not saying that if you use a product with paraben preservatives in it you are guaranteed to get cancer, but if you can avoid it, then why not? There are plenty of skin safe, gentle, full spectrum preservatives out there that are much healthier than parabens, and those are what I use in my products. No parabens here! One problem I kept finding in commercial soaps was that they had 2 or even 4 preservatives in them! WHY?! You only need one as long at it is full spectrum, and I have found a great one that is gentle and full spectrum, so I never use more than that in a product, it's simply not necessary. Finally, detergents. Why, why, WHY would you ever put detergent into a soap. Oh, right, because it's cheap, and people won't notice it's bad because it SOUNDS like it is good, but really it is sucking the life out of your skin. Detergents strip away ALL of your skins natural oils (kind of like sulfates but much stronger and much more damaging). Detergents leave that nasty residue on your skin that you may remember hearing about in that old Dove commercial. There simply is no reason why you should have a detergent in your soap, glycerin and gentle sulfates clean us enough without stripping away everything that our skin needs.
Because of this, and many more reasons that I will get to later, I started Seri's Soaps. I wanted to share my dislike of commercial chemicals with the world, and to provide healthy, skin safe soaps and other bath products to those who, like me, can not tolerate all of the harsh chemicals. If you don't have sensitive skin you probably don't notice any irritation from commercial products, but even so, isn't it better to use something that is healthy anyways? Either way, the world needs more natural, healthy, and higher quality products, commercial marketing has stripped us of anything made to last and worth the money. We are a consumer society, and through that we have lost our ability to scrutinize what we are actually purchasing, and instead purchase because of the brand name or the price. I have gone back to the basics with Seri's Soaps, and I am no longer following the masses in buying commercial brands because I want to give my skin what it really needs instead of simply buying something potentially harmful because it is cheap.
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