Dead Plants

All of my indoor herbs have perished within the last two months. My mint, my rosemary, my sage, my lavender, my lemon balm- all dead. My aloe is still thriving fortunately, I'll have to split it into another pot again soon.
Perhaps it is because they just weren't getting enough sunlight, perhaps I didn't trim them as much as I should. I have also found that the live herbs they sell in the produce section at the local grocery store always die within two weeks no matter what I do. I have no idea why this is. Oh well.
Currently I'm watching the snow and trying to get some readings done for my Tuesday class. I really miss summer. The building I live in is old and drafty and I've had the worst time digging out my car and getting to classes this past week. I'm ready for spring, I don't think I've ever missed it so much. On the local weather the meteorologist said that we have twice the average amount of snow for this time of year.
I'm already planning my 'Welcome Back Spring' party. It will have to be quite exuberance to make up for this winter.

I'm in Love

If I could marry a scent this might be it.
I've been stocking up on fragrances, essential oils, etc. for some new projects (more on that later), and some arrived today.
This morning I made a new soap called "Captain Wentworth" after the hero of my favorite Austen novel, Persuasion. It is a blend of tobacco flower, blood orange and leather with a little sea salt for exfoliation mixed in. It smells so fresh and clean- and it's not super masculine so females could totally use it too. I think I'm going to have to make a 'man soap' gift pack with this scent as the centerpiece. My new gunpowder fragrance blend is gorgeous as well. I had a female friend request that I make her a solid perfume with the scent.
My next projects on the horizon are bath salts, sugar scrubs and lip balms. I've already started playing with bath salts, making some lovely eucalyptus scented salts the other night. For the rest of the year every order will come with a small sample of my new bath salts- I have some friends testing them as we speak.
I've found a recipe for whipped sugar scrub which intrigues me, so I'll be playing with and tweaking that. And as soon as my beeswax arrives I'll be playing with some lip balm recipes as well. So, I'm keeping busy and finding new inspiration for my soap shop.
I will be putting my first shop, Blackbird Crafts, on vacation for a while and just focus on Morning Valley Soaps. I see that being a better long term focus.

Shopping for Supplies and Trolling the Flea Market

This was my first free Sunday afternoon in months so my father and I decided to have some father-daughter bonding. I had to get supplies (the craft show is about two weeks away and I'm out of necklace clasps!) but we thought we'd go to the local flea market on the way. I met some really interesting people- a guy that gave me some great archery advice, a fellow English major (once an English major, always an English major, after all) and a creepy guy who tried to give me a shirt until his girlfriend showed up.
None the less, I found a great bedside table/mini chest of drawers for $5. I also got my findings at the craft store and found something I've been meaning to get for ages: a fake neck. On sale were little velvet stands that have that neckline shape for modeling jewelry. That will keep me from taking any more of those awkward photos of my own neck with the necklaces on. It is a hard angle to photograph correctly and it makes me self conscious about how pasty I am. Unfortunately I have to mooch camera time again before I can photograph my new items, until then I'm trying to renew what I have and get it sold if I can.
I also found out about a website yesterday called "This is Handmade" I heard about it on an Etsy thread and it proves a great point about how difficult and tedious hand making things can be. I would love to make my out video, even if I can't contribute it, I could stick it here on my blog for perspective customers to see. One interesting thing about all the videos of different crafters is how they all set up their respective work environments. It made me chuckle that one woman was listening to a recorded lecture about string theory or something while she worked.