Thank you Google!

Posted by Bill on April 3, 2018

Best Soaps Ever!

Imagine my surprise when I arrived at my workshop last week and saw this wonderful poster had been delivered to my workspace!

It is small things like this and a public stellar review of the items I make that does my heart good to keep doing what I do.

Best Soaps Ever!

Thank you, everyone who has given valuable feedback past, present and future.

Last half of the year.

Posted by Bill on August 10, 2017

I keep saying I need to post more often, but I SERIOUSLY need to post more often.  Having two or three updates a year is far too few.  This one makes the third update for 2017, and I have so many things to share.

The spare time is occupied with the honey-do list at home, coupled with spending time at the workshop making soaps and other goodies along with planning and attending shows and events.  There are so many things to tell you of all that is happening.

Busy Work space

The workshop is open for business… kinda.  It is open by appointment.  The question I got the most was, “where are you located”?  For the longest time, I was not able to say that I had an actual location, but now I can.  We are located at 1860 Mellwood Avenue, Studio 241.  It is by appointment because while I can manage to be at the workshop, I also have a full time job and I can’t just leave.  But, I can meet you after work if you call and say, “I would like to meet you”.  I have soaps to smell, sage to feel, salt lamps to enjoy and other goodies you can find in my online shop.

I am also cutting out the Outdoor Summer shows.  During one event in June, my other half joined me for an outdoor event for both days.  Set up, tear down and everything in between.  The down side, while we were under a canopy, we were also in the sun in the middle of a field.  We were prepared as far as water, snacks, food, hydration, sun screen and rest.  We had a scare on Monday when he felt dizzy at work and finally went to the hospital for having very high blood pressure and was kept overnight.  Long story short this is a reason that people with high blood pressure should not spend time in hot tubs or saunas, and we were in heat all day.  With that, and heeding a warning, I am going to continue doing indoor shows year round, and limit my outdoor events to Spring and Fall.

I am also re-creating a vision for the yummy soaps I make.  While I have many best sellers in my collection for sale, it hit me that I want to have ALL of my soaps be best sellers.  If I make a batch of 60, I would like it to be sold out in a matter of months (or sooner) and not linger for a long time.  This is why I have several items on sale.  Not that there is anything wrong with these soaps, they are just not popular and I am worried they will run out of scent before they go home with someone.  So, I have cut the price, online and offline do they can go home.

I am also planning on two of my largest events of the year, and stocking up for these.  The Universal Life Expo in September and the Louisville Christmas Show here in December.  While they are several months away, they will be here before I know it.  As it takes nearly 2 months for a batch of soap to cure, I had better plan and stock up now.  🙂

httpS

Posted by Bill on April 9, 2017

Look for the S

Look for the S for security.  I am either joining the 20th century, or I have been paying attention to the security guys I work with during my full time job.  Either way, I am “locking down” my online shop to use the https for security reasons.

Some of the log files I have been reading have been yielding some very questionable results.  Not so much of a breach, but just some things that are being sniffed out (sniffers are looking for graphics that are not there, trying to browse to links that do not exist) and looking for a POSSIBLE security breaches, which I do not have.  My site and my web provider are very good when it comes to keeping the site patched and updated.  With this in mind, I have decided to add another layer of security for the shop my the next step.

I am also working on a cost-saving measure.  Square (Point of Sale) has an interface I can use with my online shopping cart (called an API).  The processor I am currently using charges me about $25 a month for use, even if I don’t use it (no purchases made by my online store that month).  In addition, if there is a purchase on my online store, I get a nice bill for use of their gateway (per transaction), plus a percentage of the transaction fees.  Some years ago, I shopped around, and it was actually cheaper than my previous processor and I am currently paying about $300 per year for use… if there are not any purchases online.  Now, there are more options available and I can feel free to shop around.  The only caveat is that I need to have the httpS enabled which is in the works.  Square currently charges me 2.75% per transaction, and it can “sit” there for months without being used, and I do not get charged for it sitting there.

Now the other side of this is putting it into place.  As I use OS Commerce for my shop’s program, I’ll have to get with both programs to smoosh something together to get them both to work together.  This should be fun!

(by the way, thank everyone for letting me know there was a problem with my shopping cart… it’s working now)

2017 Events and More.

Posted by Bill on March 22, 2017

Events

I really need to post more often… seriously.  🙂  The last time I posted was at the end of November and the next time I look up, it is already past mid-March.

There is some good news… my husband and I moved into a house in late January and we are still in the process of making the house a home.  We are getting tired of the corrugated look (cardboard) and we are going through boxes to see if we can find everything we know we moved!

Looking forward to the future… I have trimmed out some of my outdoor events from my calendar.  Most of them had been in the summer and while I do like the summer events, the summer is hard of my equipment and hard on me.

Normally during my indoor events, it takes me two hours to set up; outdoors, in the heat, it takes me three hours to set up and three hours to tear down.  It isn’t that there is any more work, but more like setup setup setup, rest rest rest, hydrate hydrate hydrate… then back to setting up.  It is very exhausting, not to mention my equipment looks like I had been camping with them.  In some cases, I had been camping with them in the same setup.

Some days during the summer, I set myself up for the seasonal cloudburst and gust of wind.  You know the kind… the cloud burst that comes up out of the middle of nowhere, lasts for 2-3 minutes with blowing winds and then disappears as fast as it had appeared, blew everything around to hell and back and while it was enough rain to cool it down for a hot minute, it was enough rain the make the temperature even hotter.

Soap Drying Racks

You can see my event calendar here.  And, while my calendar may be sparse in some places, I have been productive in my own setup, prepping for a retail outlet of sorts.  I am located at the Mellwood Art Center at 1860 Mellwood Avenue; Studio 241.

Before you start knocking on my door, because I still have a full time job and open By Appointment.  I am not there all the time… yet.

This is a large space, part workshop, part retail… and I really enjoy being in this creative space.  I had someone walk in asking about soap saying, “It feels good in here” which is 100% of my intention.  It is just right.

Looking forward to the future!