Still Working

I realize it’s been a while since I last made a post….actually July 7 last year.  As they say, time flies when you are having fun!  I figured I would just make a bullet list of some of the changes that have happened since.

1.  We made it through winter!  That is no small feat when living in an old building with 11 ft ceilings and lots of holes to the outside.  I have to say the weather was great for making Goat Milk Soap though.

2. I’ve been working on the new soap shop and it is taking longer than I imagined to fix.  Not that anything was terribly wrong, just not done right and we have had to correct a lot.  It was a pricey gamble when I purchased it regarding the ceiling.   I could only see a 2 ft square of tin that was rusting and leaking as everything was covered with an 8 ft drop ceiling.  My husband said “No way are you buying that building.”  Ok, Colin did add a few more adjectives but Ha! I say…now people see what I saw the day I walked in.  While it’s no way finished, I hope to have it opened in July.  Here’s some before and getting closer photos.

  

3. We are no longer shipping international.  I will miss my soaps jetting off to foreign destinations like Iceland, Australia, Japan and Spain but people complain about shipping fees and I only charge actual so it’s just not worth the hassle any longer with customs and paperwork.

4. I started and am still working on the Arcadia Valley Soap website.  It will list all of the brands I work under and showcase the Vintage Valley ™ line of soaps located on the MoSoap site.  I’ve really enjoyed making these particular soaps as part of the proceeds are donated to my community – so thanks to all my customers here at MoSoap.com who have purchased them and helped our food pantry, Historical Society and a lovely little historic Church.

5. We are still working on the Commercial Hotel in between fixing the soap shop and full time jobs.  Soap making is a full time job for me and my husband drives 160 miles per day to go to his job, then on weekends we work on the buildings.  Thanks to those customers that have stopped by and picked up their orders – it has been fun to met some of you after all these years.  I can’t believe I have been doing this online for 14 years and some of you are still with me!!!!

So as always, thank you all so much for baring with me.  I am grateful that I am able to do all of this.  My health is becoming better and, well it’s Spring and warming up so it’s always good.

Happy Easter everyone!

 

 

Moving and moving again…

It’s been a little over a year since I reopened the web store after being closed for our moved down to Ironton, Missouri.  As some of you know, we purchased an old Hotel built in 1906 and thought things were a wee bit better than reality.  Falling bricks and falling through floors have sometimes caused me to be a bit slow in having your orders out because some days, I just can’t make soap.   But the funny part of all of this, is that the business has continued to grow and that was after I did the first price increase on the lye soaps in 12 years~~go figure, I was hoping it would slow things down.

But people love old fashioned lye soaps and most every day new customers comment on how much they enjoy our pine tar products, so it has made all of the troubles worth while.  Nothing like leaning over scrubbing pots with a garden hose along the parking lot in 100 degree heat (or in the middle of the night when it was cool)  because I had no sink for 6 months, our bath was with a garden hose in the public restrooms we now own and I wasn’t washing the soap pots in there!  We love our new “home” so I’m not complaining, more trying to explain why I am slow sometimes.  No internet for a few days because they were working on the walls and cut wires (ugh!), mortar and bricks actually fell in a pot of soap one night and that is when I said I was closing for a few months.  So things are better but going from a 3000 sq ft shop to a 500 ft room isn’t what I was planning on in a 5300 sq ft building but the good Lord does not give you things you can’t handle.  I was able to fill a 500 lb laundry soap order for a construction company in Texas that uses the soap for adobe buildings and that was challenging when the power went out and my mother and I hand grated all 500 lbs with no air conditioning and 92 percent humidity.

So now that Colin and I have decided to make the hotel back into a proper Hotel, I needed to find another soap shop.  A cute little (900 sq ft) building came on the market across the street so on the 15th of this month, it will become home to the Arcadia Valley Soap Co, the home of MoSoap!!  Now it too isn’t in the best of shape but with original tin ceilings and made of chucks of pink granite, I will have a place just for soap again.  I posted on the site that orders would be slow for the next few weeks as I start to transition the business and fix up the building.  If it’s taking too long in your opinion for me to ship your order, please just let me know and I’ll cancel it- no hard feelings and I’m happy to give you links to other soap makers.    Check out the soap makers at the Handcrafted Soap Maker Guild (http://www.soapguild.org) for some soapmakers in your area.  I’m not a member but I am sure they all make lovely soaps just like me and you might find someone local.

As always, thank you for supporting handmade products and reading!

debra

Off to North Carolina

I need to close the store for 2 weeks due to a family loss.  I realize I have been slow on some orders but have been dealing with things that have put soap on the back burner as they say.   I will be leaving on Monday to head to Statesville, North Carolina.  I am closing the store until the 24th of April as I plan on being back by then but don’t want to make any promises.  All orders placed on or before the 14th of April will ship prior to my leaving or I’ll send you an email.

Thanks as always for allowing me to do what I love (make soap) and take care of my family.

Debra

Pure Olive Oil Handmade Soap

Normally our pine tar soaps and old-fashioned lye soaps are what I sell the most of online, but not this month (March 2013).  There’s been a big run on our Pure Olive Oil Castile Handmade Soap!  There’s nothing fancy about this little creamy colored soap that is made exclusively with certified organic olive oil.  With a high superfat number (the percent of excess oil left in soap), this soap is great for winter dry skin and as skin adjusts from a change in temperatures as we move through spring.  People tend to have allergies this time of year and sometimes you just need a break from scent.

Some of you have heard me rant on about the word castile and what it means.  For me as a soapmaker, I like the old traditional definition of “castile” being at least 65% olive oil.  With the cost of olive oil moving up, some companies use the word castile to mean any vegetable based soap.  For MoSoap brand soaps, if you see the word CASTILE SOAP, then you are guaranteed that the handmade soap you are purchasing is well above the 65% pure olive oil.  And since I purchase our olive oil for a sister store too, I buy certified organic olive oil.  While I don’t list “organic” on the other soaps, if you see that olive oil is listed then it is made with certified organic olive oil.  I crunched the numbers and it’s less expensive to purchase a drum than one type of oil for one soap, and organic for another.

Whether you like this pure olive oil soap because of the lack of nut oils, soy bean oil, or the absence of fragrance, I wanted to say “Thanks!” for supporting handmade.

We’re all postal here!

What a difference a day makes.

I have tried to offer people the best options and choices I could find regarding shipping.  UPS was offering a small business shipping special with rates 16% off, I signed us up and offered UPS as a shipping option last night.  This morning after packing and printing the shipping labels, I called for a pickup.  No problem I thought, everything was running smoothly until I went to add a few more packages to the pile for the driver.  Seems from the time I talked to the pickup man on the phone to printing a ship label for the next order, my business discount disappeared and no one at UPS could figure out how to find my “negotiated rate” and apply it to the shopping cart.  After receiving 2 emails with complains on our shipping prices overnight, put on hold and transferred all over the global it sounded like, and realizing I was being charged way more than I or any of you happy MoSoap customers wanted to be charged….I have decided to go only United States Postal Service.    I won’t close my UPS account out as I want the packages I shipped yesterday to make it there and at the price I paid but after that unless you MUST have UPS, I will only be shipping by the postal service;  parcel, regional rate, flat rate or Priority Mail.

I think it time to go have a cupcake and redo all the packing slips.  So if you see a shipping notice come through that I canceled your shipment today, there will be a new one coming through.  I have to repackage all of the orders, print new labels and eat another cupcake! : )