Sweet Sally's Soaps News

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Free Shipping For Mother's Day

I am offering FREE shipping on everything in my Etsy shop until May 7th for Mother's Day Gifts.

http://sweetsallyssoaps.etsy.com

Monday, April 27, 2009

Herb Festival and Dream Garden

The weekend before last I attended the Pennsylvania Herb Festival. Sales for me were better than last year, so I can't complain about that. While at the Herb Festival, amidst all these wonderful herbs and plants I conjured up in my mind my DREAM garden. I would love to have bed after bed of beautiful blooming flowers in every color of the rainbow. Flowers would be blooming all through the season ready for picking and making into sumptuous bouquets. Of course I would also have an amazing vegetable garden with all my favorite veggies including tomatoes, eggplant, arugula, and shell peas. Abundant herbs would be tucked in amongst the flowers and vegetables, both medicinal and cooking.

But alas reality strikes. My dog would probably dig up most of the flowers, our resident neighborhood squirrels always have a hay day with the vegetables, and oh yes that little factor of time that we all seem to run out of. Oh well for this year I guess I will stick to my little herb garden and my meager veggie patch.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24037740

Friday, April 24, 2009

Celebrate Etsy Day

Friday, April 10, 2009

Brighter Days Ahead

Well I have been to two more shows since last we spoke and they were definitely a little brighter than the last. Two weeks ago I attended a Women's Conference sponsored by Bloomsburg University and it was quite a nice little event. Women at these sort of events always seem anxious to spend a little money on a quality local product. Last weekend I did a craft show in Harrisburg, PA at the Central Dauphin High School. The event had a good number of exhibitors, the attendance was strong, and sales were not bad for an early spring show.

Next weekend I will be at the PA Herb Festival in York, PA at the fairgrounds. I did this show last year and I am looking forward to this years event. I enjoy attending this show because I love learning more about herbs and all of their uses. And of course I will probably have to buy some herb plants for my garden. I have even made a new soap, Lavender and Bay Laurel, to celebrate the herb of the year bay laurel.

Below are some new items I have added to my Etsy shop.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Slow Start to the Year!

Well, my first craft show of the year did not start off with a bang. Spring craft shows are traditionally a little on the slow side, but this was well beyond a little slow. I spent the last two weekends at the Maryland Spring Crafts Show, a show that I did last year and did fairly well. This year was definitely a different story. My sales were pro bally about half of what I sold last year. The economy, the weather is too nice, the weather is too bad, other events happening same weekend.................if there is one thing I have learned doing arts and crafts shows is that
exhibitors always have a million reasons why things aren't going well. I think this show was a reflection of our poor economy. All I can do is hope the rest of the year will be a little brighter.

As always at craft shows you get to meet a lot of people. Slow shows you usually have a chance to get better acquainted with other exhibitors. I had 2 very nice neighbors, to my left was Sassy Sweets http://stores.sassysweets.net/StoreFront.bok a gentleman from Virginia who sold handmade chocolate goodies. My son and I bolstered his weekend sales by buying and eating way too many chocolate covered pretzels. Very yummy!

On my other side was Mitzi Hall of Mosaic Mitzi, from the Pittsburgh PA area. As you can see from the pictures she does a vast array of mosaics ranging from very cute small items to stunning large pieces. Mitzi is fairly new to the craft show world, this being only her 4th show, but she is not new to mosaics. She has been making mosaics for over 10 years. she also does stained glass work which has been doing for 25 years. Mitzi told me she started making mosaics because she had so much left over glass pieces from her stained glass work, making mosaics seemed the perfect answer.

Saturday evening Mitzi told me she was a little disappointed in the show, but by the end of the day Sunday seemed to have done fairly well. At least she sold more than most people. If you would like to see more of Mitzi's work take a look at her shop

http://www.mosaicmitzi.etsy.com/

Thursday, March 5, 2009

On The Road Again

I have been very busy getting ready for my first craft show of the year. No matter how much work I do regularly I always seem to be in a dead panic the days preceding a show. There are always so many little details to take care of. I will be at the Maryland Spring Craft Show in Timonium, MD. http://www.slprod.com Check out their website for all the details. The show actually goes two weekends in a row, which is nice because I can leave my display set up for both weekends.

Take a look at my website http://www.sweetsallyssoaps.com I am running a promotion of FREE SHIPPING for the entire month of March. My main website is still a work in progress but I will be adding all my lotions, scrubs, bath salts, and lip balms very soon. Keep checking back!

Time to get back to work. I will report back after the first weekend of the show.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Proud to be From PA

Welcome to Sweet Sally's Soaps News! This is my first post on my very first blog so here goes!! First I guess I should tell you a little about myself and what my main purpose is for this blog. As you might have guessed from the title I'm from PA and I'm a soapmaker and a photographer. I am part of an Etsy team called the HIP Team (Handmade in PA). We are all blogging on why we are "Proud to be From PA" and at the same time all offering promotions in our Etsy shops.(see links below) By the way my promotion is buy any 3 soaps in my shop for $15.00, more on that later.

I was born and raised in PA, lived in several other areas of the country including Florida and Arizona, and moved back to PA to be close to family. I have to say since moving back to PA I have met more talented artist and craftsmen than I have anywhere else that I have lived. I am an advocate of supporting local and regional business's especially when it comes to handmade and local grown foods. In the summers I sell my soaps at farmers market so I have become very interested in the Buy Fresh Buy Local food movement.

My main purpose for this blog will be to list and review craft shows and events that I will be attending. I hope to interview fellow artisans about their experiences at these events. My first craft show this year is coming up next weekend at the Maryland State Fairground in Timonium. The show is the Maryland Spring Craft Show and it runs for two weekends March 6-8 & 13-15.

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