Lets Shindig!

It was a perfect weekend to Shindig!

Last weekend was one of our big 3 day festivals/fairs.  We had an amazing weekend.  We chatted with our city's Mayor, caught up with old friends, and meet some amazing new people!

I came home with my heart overflowing with gratitude for my amazing customers who came to see me and bless me every day with their wonderful support, new customers who made me swell with pride as they complimented our products,  and even old High School friends that came out to show their support.  

If it wasn't for you...my wonderful customers...we would not be here. 

So THANK YOU for all of your support!

We have some amazing news coming your way...big things are happening here and a few great opportunities are coming our way! We will keep you posted, and we will make this amazing journey together!!!

Check out how much fun we had!

Our booth was right behind the logger show.  It sure got loud on Sat/Sun with their huge chainsaws, but was fun to watch the extremely athletic logger competitors climb up those high poles! Phew..I wouldn't even make it ten feet up! scratch that..five feet! I lost my helper often during the logger competition..do you see him back there?  It was great having my hubby along helping this weekend. 

We sold out on a lot of soap over the weekend.  The Mountain man is all gone as well as the Cottage Garden, Energy, and Blackberry sage.  Most of those will be re-stocked asap, the Cottage Garden will not.  We also have only a few bars left of the Tropical Sorbet, the Ocean, and the Detoxify activated Charcoal soap!

The scent of the month (Lemon Chiffon) was a huge hit and we enjoyed the many compliments of our booth smelling the best! We love it when customers walk by and get a whiff of what we are burning that day...stop..do a double take...and say "mmmm it smells so good" Thanks <3  

My Best Friend and fellow Artisan Teria with Huaracha Studios was there also with her exquisite leather.  She has some beautiful new stuff and when I wasn't busy I would sneak a peak down the road so see her booth always full of customers! 

She has a fantastic new handbag called Lil' Sissy...isn't it beautiful!

And as they do every year the Sultan Sportsman Club was there selling their Onion Burgers.  Always Delish! 

I think the fair food is one of my favorite parts of the festivals..although I usually have to eat like a bunny for the next two weeks!  What did I eat? Well I enjoyed  BBQ from Two 1/2 Men BBQ two days in a row...delish, and I had Chicken teriyaki, as well as half of my husbands Onion burger.  I also enjoyed a Irish Cowboy iced coffee drink from the Coffee Corral.

Fantastic Washington weather, and a  fantastic weekend at the Sultan Summer Shindig in Sultan, Washington.  See you all next year for another fun filled weekend!

What's up next? We have another hometown show in Gold Bar, Washington (right down the road from our Candle Lab).  We'll be there the weekend of July 27th-29th for Gold Dust Days.  Lots of activities for the whole family including music, panning for gold, and much more!

See you there.

Soapy Goodness

The latest for your soapy pleasure is the NEW Enchanted soap!

Created with love with nourishing Olive oil, Coconut oil, Palm oil, Castor oil, and Mango Seed Butter.  Blended to perfection and topped with cocoa powder and turbinado sugar.

The bottom purple layer is colored with a mix of Burgundy Oxide and Ultramarine Blue Pigments and the middle is colored with a mix of Chromium Green Oxide and Yellow Oxide.  Each layer is seperated with a rich Cocoa Powder line.  Cocoa Powder is a natural Antioxidant and of course a pleasure for your senses.

The Fragrance is an Enchanting fragrance with top notes of ripe forest berries and sof sensual musk, middle notes of sweet mimosa flowers and apricots, and bottom notes of oak, juniper and musk.

It is truly ENCHANTED

Enchanted will be available for purchase in 5 weeks. 

For more information about our soapy story go to http://www.greenladycreations.com/

Come take a Walk with me!

After a week straight of nothing but pouring down rain...I woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine.  While walking with my son to catch the bus this morning, Nature as always, provided me with some amazing inspiration.  

So grab a cup of coffee...and take a walk around my neighborhood with me.  Remember life is short...so always take time to stop and smell the flowers!!!

We'll start in my own garden..

Just look at the beautiful coloring on this Wave Petunia.  I have never seen this coloring before.  I was amazed to find this at my local Fred Meyer store.  My favorite colors are purple and lime green so of course I had to have this.  I bought all they had and put a few in each basket! LOVE IT!

My neighbors got a new Maple this past week.  After theirs and my contorted filbert got the black rot and had to be dug up, they replaced it with this beautiful Japanese Maple.  Of course I can not remember the name  but it's so pretty with it's varying shades of pink.  Jap Maples are by far my favorite trees and I have many in my own yard...I may have to add this one to my collection.

Of course what is Western Washington without some azaleas and Rhododendrons. 

This Rhodie is GIGANTIC with big beautiful blooms. 

I love when Ivy grows up tree trunks.  To bad Ivy can get pretty carried away if you let it.  Some day I'm going to have a pretty old brick building with Ivy growing up the side. 

Fritillaria Meleagris-the checkered lily.  Some people call them little fritts (cute name) they are the cutest little lilies I have ever seen.  It's super tiny and incredibly delicate looking.

This Fringed Poppy is just about ready to POP out!

Alchemilla-Lady's Mantle:  This beautiful plant doesn't have the most beautiful flowers when it blooms...but it's foliage is striking; especially in the morning or after a rain when the water just sits right on top of the hairy leaves.

Bearded Iris.  My Iris only has two blooms this year.  I think it may be time to divide and transplant.  My yard is perfect for this sun loving beauty; I get full sun for most of the day!

Thanks for taking a walk with me around my neighborhood.  I think I shall grab another cup of coffee and go sit in my garden...I hope you are inspired to do the same!

Enjoy the beauty in Nature!

Prepping for our first Three Day Event!

We have been busy busy prepping for our very first 3-day festival.  This will be our very first 3 day long show and I am anxiously looking forward to this fun filled weekend.  I have daycare taken care of for my little ones (between my hubby, my brother-in-law, and my friend I think we have it covered) and I have even recruited a helper for Sat/Sun (thanks Sis).

We are working every day to stock up on our candles/melts, since we have all of our soap done.  I even have a few new things that I am excited to unveil at this show.  My hubby bought me a small presto pot and made it into a wax melter for faster production...I am in love with it.  Last night it cut my production time down by 2 whole hours!  Next time I am getting a bigger one!

So for the next couple of weeks I may be a bit quiet over here in my little corner of the blog sphere, I apologize in advance. 

Would you like some pretty pictures to hold you over?

Well I'm going to give you some anyway...because you know I love to look at pretty pictures!

My three favorite fragrances for this summer.  NEW Tuscan Melon & Apricot

Jamaica Me Crazy

and

Mango Papaya

You can't go wrong with any of these sweet summer treats for your senses! We also have another new sweet fragrance coming soon....

Not a fan of sweet...how about our Gardenia fragrance...it's a beautiful floral, or our Sea Mist...a great combination of floral and ocean. 

Shhhhh...don't tell anyone...but here is a sneak peak of my NEW Enchanted Collection candles

Look for them soon at our shows and online! They are almost finished.

We got a few new display baskets for our tables.  They are super cute and a great find at the used store for a dollar each!



Our new packaging for our Bath Salts was a huge hit at it's first show. 

The Detox soap turned out Beautiful! This one wont be ready until mid June.  It's so pretty even though it's plain.

Well so long for now. As always have a fantastic day!

Tons of SOAPY fun!

We have been a bit SOAPY over here at the GLC Studio!

In preparation for our summer shows we've been soaping up a storm! Since we make our CP soap the old fashioned way it takes 5 weeks for our soap to cure before it's ready for sale, this means that we have to be fortune tellers sometimes and try to get a fix on what we have planned for our summer shows.  I have made 16 batches of soap these past few weeks....that's over 135 bars of soap sitting on our curing rack! It feels good to have accomplished a goal!

So here's a sneak peak just for you!



Blackberry Sage

No name for this one yet, but I loved doing it! This one is a Faux Funnel pour.  It's scented in a fruity concoction of my own creation:  take a little bit of pineapple and coconut, add some ginger, and finish it off with a bright lime chaser!

Pomegranate; bright and fruity! I'm hoping this one doesn't discolor, the fragrance did state it had a bit of vanilla it in.  I guess we shall see!

Simple.elegant.soap:  Green Clover & Aloe. 

This one is a bit more perfume than I thought it would be, hoping it will calm down just a little bit.

And what is soon becoming a favorite of mine...and especially my husband.  This one is a custom blended Ocean type fragrance.  It's very clean and brisk.

Sometimes it works...and sometimes it doesn't

Ever have one of those batches that looks great sketched out on paper, and beautiful in your minds eye?  You've made a plan, sketched it out, readied your ingredients, have the perfect fragrance picked out..essentially everything is ready.  And then you make it, it's all going great, your fragrance behaves beautifully, you can see your idea coming to life, and when your done you look up and say "this is going to be awesome"...and right there...you've jinxed yourself. 

because the next day you unmold to find this horrid looking block of soap that just doesn't look good to you.  The colors are off, the fragrance turned into something that doesn't match the color scheme, or the entire project just didn't work.

Yep I've had a few of those...and just last week I had THREE in a row....thank you to those mischievous little soap pixies.

Wanna See...

I'll start at the beginning....It was a beautiful day...just kidding!

I got this amazing fragrance from one of my favorite Candle Fragrance suppliers called Pineapple Coconut.  It was so yummy OOB that I fell in love, it reminded me of the shampoo that really good salons use when you go get your hair cut, absolute heaven.

I tried originally to put it in a candle, but it has to much coconut in it and ended up smelling like toasted coconut/pineapple skewers...yuck. So in to the Soap fragrance bin it went (I love it when they are body safe too). 

My first plan with Pineapple coconut was to accent the pineapple with yellow and green colors.  I was thinking a yellow base with green top and make it spiky, or add soap curls for added pizazz. 

Wrong..bad...horrible idea...the curls looked terrible so I cut them off thinking that would help..nope wrong..still horrid. (well at least to me)

Once I cut the curls off I tried to bevel the edges and get it looking better.  By the time all was said and done they were not near the right size or weight that my soap should be.  Into my find something to do with these bin they go. 

 Then a few nights later I came up with a great idea.  So I shredded 2-3 bars of the above soap's yellow part only.  I thought how cool would it be to use the soap shreds in the bottom, with white on top.  Brilliant, I know I've seen it done before somewhere (sorry can't find where & I forgot to pin it) So There I went planning another experiment.  I had it all sketched out and ready to go. After pouring I had the hardest time waiting to un-mold..I was dying to see if it worked.

It did not...the layers did not stick together and some of the bottom portion fell off.  Maybe not enough alcohol spritz in between layers, or too much of the shreds? I don't know. 

]\

I was determined to at least try to save this batch the best I could.  I cut of the bottom portion, and just cut the bars much thicker than my standard bar so they at least where the correct weight.  It's going to be a bit of extra work making a soap wrap that is the right size just for these bars...but it was worth it to save this otherwise beautiful batch!

  

I do plan on trying one more batch of this fragrance.  I know I am a sucker for punishment.  However this time I will go basic, no fancy footwork or experiments just a nice plain, but elegant batch.  My goal this time is to try and get it whiter and more whipped texture on the top...and of course some glitter.  I am really loving this new glitter I got from Bramble Berry I am quickly becoming addicted, because, well every girl likes a little sparkle every now and then!

Thanks for taking the time to read this unusually large blog post, sorry it was so long.  I hope that if you were not inspired, you at least learned from my mistake, and if anyone has done the soap shreds with desired results; my hats of to you!



It's officially begun

The Spring Craft season kicked off for me this past weekend at the Marysville Spring Craft Show.  It felt really great to be back at the shows.  I met some amazing new people and had a great time chatting with old friends.  I was extremely lucky to get a great spot, not only was it right by the entrance, but I got to be next to my favorite fellow artisan; Teria from Huaracha Studios.  It's nice to be close to a friend that knows your stuff as well as you, especially for those much needed bathroom breaks. 

I got great feedback about my table displays, and everyone loved the new soap shelf my father built me for Easter.  I am however going to change up the color of my tablecloths, and stain my shelving to add a little pop to my booth, it seems like to much light brown to me.  I haven't quite decided what color yet, maybe some black or a splash of blue somewhere, so if anyone has any ideas feel free to share!

I have been super busy in the workshop working on a bunch of soaps for the summer season.  I find myself a little apprehensive about my first full on summer season.  I have 5/ 2-3 day festivals that I want to do this summer, and in July I have a festival every single weekend.  So I have been a busy bee soaping diva these past few weeks.  I had a few ideas that flopped, but am looking forward to sharing all the new stuff with everyone. 

Have a great day!