Downtime

We all need it and I bad was needing it a little more than usual ...

Husband gifted me a wonderful evening of relaxation and fun, we even played that new Disney Wii game Think Fast with Caity ... silly but fun none the less.

Today is time to run errands after a delightfully long sleep in in readiness for tomorrows 600+ batches of lollipops and jewels

Had a request this week for a panda soap, and having almost every creature imaginable somewhere up here, I found this cute lil guy and created him his own soap. I was actually surprised that I sold 2 within 48 hours of posting so I guess I should consider getting some other creature features in the store.

I love what I do, but I am going to be one tired momma in a few days when I'm all finished!

OOoooohhhh It's The Little Black Box Time!!

It's that day again!!

Time for The Little Black Box and this month I'll actually not just be buying one for myself and the girls but I'll actually be in it!!

I'm so totally excited to have my ducky soaps and lollipops in the box and see how people like them, I hope they're enjoyed as much as I enjoy creating them. And then the added bonus of getting my own box, like wow there are some amazing stores in there this month and a guarantee of at least 17 items ... it's like getting a Christmas gift without it being Christmas! I really hope I get one of the hypnosis samples, having an interest in the subject I'd be really interested in trying one of those out.

In other news this weekend is going to be insane, I have my biggest set of orders since the summer, a possible 600+ lollipops in one weekend, plus about 2lbs of jewel candy. When you consider my average weekend is 150-250 lollipops, this is going to be a lot of work that is most definately going to spill over to Monday but thankfully I have my wonderful daughter to help me out and she'll earn lots of extra spending money this week which I have a feeling will go towards her new ipod and maybe even a new oufit!

Not wanting to sound ungrateful at all, but I'm really praying for a quiet weekend the following weekend as it's our annual Halloween party on Saturday and the thought of sleeping in VERY late on Sunday is just soooo appealing!!!

Orders for the week

We had 2 big orders come in to be completed over the next week or so, one for a very large amount of boxing gloves (waiting for extra molds to arrive to complete the order), and one for large snowflakes.

My 15 year old daughter Amy decided that she'd like to try and help make some candy, she's usually my official lollipop wrapper and labeller so I let her try to make a batch of candy yesterday with some limited supervision so she didn't feel like I was breathing down her neck (you know how teenagers hate that!).

Unfortunately it seems she over agitated the batch and it crystalized, which is not too pretty and even less tasty. She kept apologising about it and I felt so bad for her because it's such an easy thing to do with hard candy. She actually did a fabulous job overall and I made sure that I told her so. I'm going to involve her more this weekend so she can get a better feel for gauging temperature and how and when to mix once the cooling begins. I think once she tries again, she'll find she's actually very talented ... I already know it, she just needs to believe it too!

I had to admit it was kinda cute to hear her comment how she was now more impressed with mom because she thought making candy was so easy and now she knows it's not as easy as it looks.

Be Gone To Chronic Fatigue!

This last month has been a struggle battling with the fibromyalgia and CFS, it's hard to get going and then keep going without feeling like you've ran a marathon because you were standing for 20 minutes!

Of course my schedule is out of wack also, I really have to work on that. And then there's the planning for the annual "Halloween Bash" we hold every year. Ed says we won't get any better than we did last year, but then makes the ultimate solid wood full size old fashioned style coffin - to say it rocks would be a total understatement and pictures will be forthcoming!

Orders are caught up on for the week, for the rest of the week, I'm mom, taxi cab and somewhere in there going to have to seriously get a hold of some hidden energy and finally tackle 'the office'!

I will be so glad when he finally finds time to put some built in storage up there.

Oh My Gosh ....

Ok well I'm buzzing ... I recieved a call yesterday from a very nice lady representing a very large and famous company that is interested in my ducky soaps and possibly lollipops also!

I don't want to say too much right now but I'm buzzing with excitement, I'm sending her a big box of products to look at and they'll run testing on everything and if they like what they see this could be huge for my family!!

I am so excited I could burst!

The Little Black Boxes

Like Wow ... I figured my Little Black Box would be good, but I didn't expect to be so good that I'm fighting over it with my girls!!

It's a split decision on our favorite item, my girls both love the beautiful and baby soft pink scarf from Smitten Kitten Originals, I am torn between the scarf and this amazing pendant by BeeDazzlesPendants, which I just had to wear immediately. Not only did I love the pendant but the way it comes packaged in a clear vinyl box with handmade notecards and envelopes is simply stunning and no amount of begging from my daughters will ever make me part with it!!

I also have a soft spot for things cute and cuddly so my next favorite pick definately had to be my Glump pin by rosewoodcreations, bright and cute, this handsewn little creature is a delight.

Of course there are plenty more fabulous surprises, numerous pairs of earrings that my 15 year old daughter has been loving on ... her favorites were from jacjewelry, delicately beaded and dangly ... my favorites however were more cutesy, what can I say cutesy is my thing and the delicate teacup and saucer earrings from ohpolly.com were just so cute. Other earrings included a pair from ccdesign and artsfarm, unfortunately I'll have to gift them to my daughter as I can't wear anything but sterling silver and platinum which is a shame because my husband particularly liked the pair from ccdesign (for me of course!).

Other items included a gorgeous pendant from Beth Lisa Goss of WireTree, another one my daughter would like that I'm just not handing over, I also got a cute glass bead zipper pull from Lori Anderson Designs, a phone charm from D'Elle Juwelen which I love and a delightfful magnet from Daisy Mae Designs. Finally I recieved a very handy purse size mirror from TialeyVintage (I needed a purse mirror badly), a delicate vintage pin from material, a sweet birdy gift tag from Designs by Vanessa, lily flower handmade soap by KaressKrafters, bathtub candy from bodyluxe (my 9 year old has dibs on this one!) and last but not least a rather interesting photograph by risamay.

I have to say I am more than impressed with the contents of my little black box, so much so I'm tempted to buy a second one to see what different treasures I could recieve. I really don't have anything negative to say, if I had to choose something constructive I'd probably prefer less in the way of earrings but that would be simply because I cannot enjoy them being allergic to almost all earrings finding, even hypoallergenic, but then that's what daughters are for .. to gift to what mom can't fully enjoy! I can't wait to see next months box ..

To buy your own box and check out more about The Little Black Boxes - CLICK RIGHT HERE!

I Vant To Bite Your Lollipop!

Well despite a tough few days I finally got my vampire and werewolf lollipops up and listed ... I'm still searching for a way to get the details to show a little better as the lollipops are so remarkably detailed and many times it doesn't show in the pictures ..

Now that my husband has updated our regular website we've actually had 2 orders in the last week, I'm beginning to grow encouraged that the new webhost, server and updates are all helping get the website more views and potential customers.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some more lollipop photographs edited and listed and also get the new soaps I made listed on http://duckysoaps.etsy.com one of our other etsy stores. I do however need to get my samples made up for The Little Black Boxes, http://www.thelittleblackboxes.com/ . I purchased one myself this month to get a feel of what to include and to say I was impressed would be an understatement (full review to come shortly when I'm feeling a little better and not stuck in bed). Also big on my to do list is some more cards for the kinky store http://kinky.etsy.com , they were really popular a few months ago and I have been so busy with the life all summer I've fallen behind on making new ones. Time to get the tushy in gear Louise!

Another one of my new molds for Halloween this year, I opted for molds that show really nice detail and stand out and this was a definate winner in my eyes. Kind of reminds me of the wicked witch of the west in The Wizard Of Oz, just a lot sweeter!

Still have a few to get in the store including the vampire, however it's been a busy week and so I've got side tracked elsewhere.

Definately need to get back to editing and listing this week.

Making new molds

So I bought some compounds to make my own silicone molds a while back and haven't ever gotten around to using it ... a rather expensive faux pas that I've recently decided to correct.

After playing around with it last weekend and making some major boo boos (well I didn't realise my objects would float to the top!!), I think I've figured it out and I'm playing around with making different molds, including some I'm hoping turn out great because they're based on vintage things that I love ...

More to come when I demold in 24 hours ;)