Here’s to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2014!
“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” ―Brad Paisley
Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Here’s to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2014!
“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” ―Brad Paisley
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
A goal without a plan is just a wish. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Look back over the last year and take stock over where you are today in your personal and professional life. Are you where you hoped you would be? Did you meet the goals you set for yourself?
My beloved treadmill desk! Such a great way to work toward my fitness goals for 2014.
My friend Carol Frazy from TheFitSchool.com has a useful exercise that she does when she coaches individuals in her running and nutrition programs. She even has downloadable sheets that you can use to make your own plans using this formula.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
I made a goal last year to read 52 books this year and came in just over the wire. Phew! With a new baby and sleep being at a premium, I haven’t had as much time to read as I’d like. It was good I had that goal or else I’m not sure I would have cracked open much more than a children’s book or 53,482 of them (side note: for every children’s book I read enough to memorize, another important series of facts from college flits out of my brain. I now can no longer diagram a sentence, do long hand division or explain what a kinematic equation is.)
My favorite fiction books of 2013:
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ”
― Oscar Wilde
The first thing anyone sees about your soap creation is its color and shape. The thing that will intrigue a customer and get them to pick up a bar of soap is not the scent; it’s the color. From LabColors, to micas, color blocks for melt and pour and pigments, there are many options for coloring your soap. If you prefer to use natural ingredients in your soap, you can still achieve vibrant, beautiful colors using natural colorants. Natural products that impart color include clays as well as herbs and botanicals.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
I hope everyone had a happy holiday filled with plenty of food, family and friends! Although Bramble Berry is still operating with a skeleton staff until January 2 (we took inventory today; fun times!), Bramble Berry will be back in full force in 2014 to get your goodies shipped out and answer all your crafty questions.
There were lots of behind the scenes sneak peeks on the blog this week. We spent Sunday filming three brand new episodes of Soap Queen TV, and on Monday we recapped our annual Salvation Army shopping trip. There was also an adorable last minute gift idea, some festive photos from Christmas and a beautiful Dream Catcher Swirl cold process recipe from our friends at Otion.
The Facebook Photo of this week takes a departure from the holiday theme. This brightly colored soap is too unique to miss.
Filed Under: Cold Process Soap
This is a very simple swirl technique comes to us from our friends and Otion, and it yields dramatic end results. This is a great beginner cold process recipe, but it is important to keep the batter nice and thin during the entire process. That’s the key to getting nice rings of color and making the end swirl really pop.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Happy Holidays from my family to yours.
May your day be filled with laughter, love and family. Ours has been filled with lots of baby squeals and toddler peals of excitement.
We have Gingerbread House decorating still to do. Jamisen can hardly wait. He has had more sugar today than he’s ever had in his life. He is one happy (wound up!) boy. Happy holidays!
Filed Under: Home Crafts
If you’re not having a white Christmas this year, this cute little snow globe might be the next best thing. A fun decoration for your own home or a quick gift idea, our Holiday Snow Globe is a simple and customizable project that is kid friendly and easy to whip up at the last minute. For the example project we used our Penguin Erasers, but you could use any embeddable toys (how fun would a snowy unicorn or cute koala be, for example)? Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
While there are many reasons to love the holiday season (cookies, Christmas music, fun decorations and spending time with family), my favorite thing about the holidays is giving back to others. Wednesday, December 11th marked the 7th year Bramble Berry teamed up with the Salvation Army in order to provide presents for more than 11 families including 21 children (you can see last year’s trip here). It was great being able to go all shopaholic for families in our community and provide them with presents for under their trees.
This years annual shopping extravaganza was our largest ever! Over 20 Bramble Berry employees, family and friends met at our local Fred Meyer with lists for each family in hand. Three hours and several thousand dollars later, items for all 11 families were checked off the list. Team Bramble Berry had a great time “playing Santa” while shopping through clothes, toys and electronics to provide families with the items they coveted.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Lights, camera, action! The team and I spent this morning filming not one but three episodes of Soap Queen TV. We filmed a cold process recipe, a melt and pour project and finished off with three shades of lipstick. We even had time to squeeze in a helpful Soap Queen TV short (hint: it will make cleaning those oily lipstick containers a breeze!). Look for these brand new episodes coming in 2014!
All prepped and ready to go!
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Hello everyone, merry (almost) Christmas! There is holiday hustle and bustle both at home and at Bramble Berry. We’re gearing up to shoot a few episodes of Soap Queen TV tomorrow before taking a small break for the holidays. Bramble Berry will be closed for Christmas and have a skeleton crew the 23rd, 26th and 27th. The warehouse also has to do inventory (Thanks IRS!) and as soon as they’re finished, will ship orders in the order they were received.
Take a break from the holiday madness and check out my favorite pins, tweets and ‘grams from the past two weeks. Happy Holidays, all!
Pins of the Week:
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Can you believe Christmas is next week? These last few weeks of the year have been racing by, and I’ve been busy with end of the year festivies (taking the annual Santa photo, for example. It went over exceedingly well….).
The blog had a lot of action on it this week. Kenna of Modern Soapmaking kicked it off by sharing solid tips on how to run your own business and on finding inspiration. Make sure to read her interview to find out what she considers to be her biggest business mistake. Do you sew? Have you ever thought about sewing? Here’s an easy tutorial on making little pants for babies and toddlers. You can size them all the way down to newborn up to 4T. Curious to know what commenters called “gorgeous” and “beautiful” this week? Click on through to see the Smoky Bay Cold Process Tutorial and see how gradiants took a colorful upscaling. Over 35% of candle sales happen during the Holiday season. If you are curious about how to capitalize on that trend, read all about EcoSoya Advanced Wax here and check out the oh-so-seasonal Chai Tea Latte Candle tutorial.
Now on to the Facebook Photo of the Week! These soaps are worth their weight in gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Filed Under: Cold Process Soap
For this sensuous soap, we may or may not have been inspired by a certain best-selling book that references multiple (or 50) shades of grey in its name. This Smoky Bay soap features clean, straight layers colored with four perfect gradients of grey. The orange in the middle provides the perfect burst of color!
This soap is scented with Indian Sandalwood Cybilla Fragrance Oil, which is remarkably strong in cold process soap. It does not discolor or accelerate trace and keeps its scent brilliantly. For a robust scent on the masculine side, this is a go-to stand by.
Filed Under: Home Crafts
Pants! I was excited to do a fun sewing project that the kids could actually wear. I’ve been trying to learn how to sew all year and sharing those projects with you as I (slowly) learn (see: A Givember Sewing Project, Soothing Eye Pillow Sewing Tutorial, Handmade Pin Cushion with Walnut Seeds).
Pants seemed intimidating, but your basic pant for the littles actually come together pretty quickly when you have a good pattern and a few hours. A great (and free!) pattern for newborn pants can be found here and a pattern for older kids can be found here. Etsy also has a good selection of pants patterns that are available both pre-printed and as digital downloads that you print yourself.
Typically the patterns will come with their own instructions, but here’s a (very!) basic pant-making tutorial from a beginner’s perspective. I made pants for both Lily and Jamisen, so you’ll see two different colors of fabric in the pictures.