Helping those in need - the final tally!

Thanks to everyone who has made a purchase from Pepo Park this year.  After the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild put out the call to help Clean the World after the earthquake in Haiti, I decided to donate a bar of soap for every $15 spent by you, my awesome customers.  If you made a qualifying purchase between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2010 either on my Web site, at a craft fair or directly through me, you had an impact!

The final total???  49 bars!
And, I decided to match that!  New total???  115 bars*!!

Thanks, everyone!  Keep your eyes on this blog, the Web site or Facebook page for future events, offers, etc.

*Sending bars & scraps. Total weight = 115 bars.

Help those in need to get soapy!

Friends and fans! Just one day left in our quest to get tons of soap to Clean the World. Last time I reported on the count, we were at 31 bars. Today, we're at 48!! So, get your order in. For every $15 you spend by midnight tomorrow PST, we'll send a bar to Clean the World! And, thanks to everyone who's placed orders so far this year. Click here to be taken to the Pepo Park store.

Ginger spice is on sale for $5!!

Clean the world!

As you know, there was a terrible earthquake in Haiti on January 12. People from all over the world have rallied to help the people of that nation.  A charity called Clean the World started taking donations specifically to be diverted to the people of Haiti.  Clean The World's mission is to recycle soap, shampoo, and lotion discarded by hotels and to distribute the recycled products worldwide to people who cannot afford these essential items. 

The Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild has partnered with Clean The World (CTW) and so I decided to send donations to CTW and to help you do so, too.  For every $15 you spend (before shipping & taxes), I'll donate a bar of soap to CTW on your behalf.  Then, I'll match it.  So, for every $15 you spend, 2 bars will go to someone in need.

The first box is ready to go.  Thirteen pounds of soap!  Thanks, everyone who's purchased so far this year.  I plan on doing this through the end of March, 2010.  So, get some great Pepo Park products for you and help someone in need!

Three weeks down...

Three weeks down. In that time, I've made over 14 batches of soap. That is a lot of soap and storage is becoming an issue. :) But, the house smells so good!

Still to do to prep for the holiday sales:

• make lip balm
• make bath salts
• make bath bombs
• make salve
• package and label all of it

I think it's doable. And, it's fun!

While I manufacture products, Defined By Eye is working on our new Web site. It's a vast improvement over the current site - really attractive design. It should launch in early December. Stay in the know and get special offers by becoming our fan on Facebook.

Taste it!

People often smell my soap and say, "It smells good enough to eat." Others see it from a distance and wonder if it's cheese. I say, "Smells better, tastes worse." But, I've never tasted my own soap. I'm just going on my childhood experience(s) of having my mouth washed out with soap when I say it tastes worse.

This week, I was presented with a bar of my soap that had a wet film on it. There are many reasons this could happen and my mind jumped to the worst: Failed batch! Leaking essential oil! Leaking lye!!! Poison!!!!!

If I'd been calm, I would have rememberd that the rest of the batch is fine so this must have been a storage issue. But, I could easily test to see if it was essential oil. Just wipe off the wet film and smell it. It didn't smell. Phew. But, did that mean it was lye?!?!?!

In soapmaking, there is a thing called "the zap test". It is used to test if your soap is lye heavy or leaking lye. You touch your tongue to the soap and if you get a "zap" it's lye and that's bad. Ew. I had never tried this. I have never licked a battery, why would I voluntarily lick soap? But, on this day, I had to figure out what was going on, so I licked the film that was on my hand. Ew. Very soap. No lye. The film was plain water from the air, regular old condensation. The soap was being stored in a cold place and it's been raining a lot.

Phew! And, ew!!! Pass the gum!

I made chocolate soap once. It was really nice soap - very rich, made with cocoa butter, cocoa powder and chocolate. It looked like a brownie. Didn't taste like one, just ask my friend's son. :)

Fun time in Ballard!

Tonight, I drove over the lake on a weekday (something I try to avoid) to meet up with an fellow Team EtsyRain member, Kristen. Kristen is a potter and she's going to be making soap dishes for me.

The only thing is, neither of us is a soap dish designer. I had one that I'd found that I liked some things about, so we took it from there and came up with 5 prototypes that use various methods for keeping the soap dry and drained. It was really nice to play with some clay.

After the dishes dry, Kristen will do the first firing. Then, she'll glaze them and fire again. The prototype dishes will be ready for usability testing in mid-Sept.

Let me know what you'd like to see in your ideal soap dish. Or, what you don't like about your current soap dish.

The right tool for the job

I always want to kick myself after I buy the right tool for the job after struggling with the wrong tool. I was reminded of this tonight.

In soapmaking, you can use almost anything for a mold and almost any pot (not aluminum or tin) or spoon. You need a scale. None of those items needs to be fancy.

But, you might really benefit from a tool to open those 5 gallon buckets. I rejoiced for days when I got mine a few years ago. Long gone is the feeling that I might lose my fingernails entirely as I tried to pry the lid off my base oils. This site has a lot of them. I picked mine up at the local Cash & Carry (Smart & Final for some of you).

My latest "OMG!! Why didn't I get this before!?!? I should just kill myself for being an idiot and not buying this earlier but I won't because I love it!!!!" purchase is the For Crafts Sake QuickCut Soap Cutter. What an incredible time and frustration saver. Not to mention, nice even width bars!!

(photo from For Crafts Sake)

I love my soap cutter. I love my pail opener. I love my DishDrawer and my Tivo.

The soap cutter allowed me to cut 180 bars in 20-25% of the time it used to take giving me more time to watch the TiVo. :)

What is your favorite "right" tool? Talk about it in the Comments section.

Get local!

On July 3, I was at the Juanita Friday Night Market selling my soapy wares.

It was a great day to be at the market. The sun was out, it was hot.

It really felt like summer. And, great summer foods were plentiful.

Dog days. Dogs enjoy cool water that flows from QuilBay Oyster's coolers.

The Pepo Park booth was flanked by emilkman and Burton Brother Homemade Ice Cream.

It was very hard for me to be next to that delicious ice cream and I gave in early. After I tasted the flavors I hadn't tried yet, I chose cherry with choc chip.

I was visited by several friends. Neighbor Lynne who gave me a 1/2 pint of raspberries, Personal Trainer Evelyn and "Long Haired" Jen (I know a lot of people named Jen so they each have a nickname). Jen kept me company for most of the market and helped me pack up. She earned a free bar of ginger spice soap and a 1/2 flat of raspberries from Hayton Farms. I took another 1/2 flat home. Delicious!

Berries from Hayton Farms:

Other plentiful items: Cherries, apricots, squash, beans, peas, lettuce, flowers and more.

A gorgeous bouquet designed by Moua Gardens just for Independence Day.

Fruits and squash from Family Pepper:

And, don't forget the crafts. Soap (of course!), jewelry, carved stones, Bottlecrap, glass, clothing and the kids' booths.

Bottlecrap:

The market is weekly through October. Come visit!

Juanita Friday Market recap

It was gorgeous on the shores of Lake Washington on Friday. Sunny, the perfect temperature...
People were happy to be out and about on such a lovely day.

We offered special pricing on some items to celebrate opening day of the market. And, everyone who purchased something got a free lip balm. We were really pushing the new flavor (chocolate orange truffle from Brambleberry) because it smells so great!

The Pepo Park booth:
Left side:
Right side:
Soap:
Salve:

Some of the other items for sale: flowers, herbs, baked goods, veggies, jewelry, batik, glass, honey, dips, soup (can't wait for the Thai Pumpkin in the fall), and seafood. And, ready to eat: kettle corn, gyros, crepes, and hot dogs. During the course of the afternoon & evening, I had 2 gyros, kettle corn and a lemonade.

Beautiful herbs from Mt. Vernon Herbs:
Poppies. I swear, they are real:

First of the season garlic. Delicious!

We'll be there next week! I'm looking forward to getting more people hooked on handcrafted soap and seeing what else the farmer's will be bringing in!

Market time!

Here at Pepo Park, we're (Mom, Dad, Shawn and I) cramming to get ready for the Juanita Friday Market.

I can't wait! There will be lots of vendors and of course, your favorite soapmaker & seller - Pepo Park! It's every Friday from 3-7 pm, through October.

Go here, click the link for Juanita Beach Park to get a map.

Shawn makes bath bombs.

I love chocolate!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love chocolate. I love to eat it, bake with it, do tastings with fancy chocolate and I even collect antique chocolate molds. Since I love making soap too, it was inevitable that my two loves would meet in a bar of soap.

I wanted the soap to be scented naturally. I started with cocoa butter - not strong enough. I added cocoa then melted chocolate. Still not strong enough. Finally, I turned to Brambleberry's dark rich chocolate. Now, it had a great smell!

The soap looks like a brownie. I made it a year ago and have been "saving" it. Not sure what for, so this morning, I broke out a bar from my stash. The cocoa butter makes it a very luxurious bar. The cocoa and real chocolate cause it to have a "muddy" lather. So, it looks like you're really getting clean!

Photos from the EtsyRAIN Spring Craft Show

Posting a few photos from the weekend's craft show, then off to bed.

The table:


Basket o' soap:


The table from the other end:


Thanks to Shawn for helping me set up.

Tomorrow I leave for the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild annual conference. I'm not sure what to expect, though I'm quite sure it will be nothing like the last conference I went to.

First post! EtsyRAIN Spring Craft Show

Welcome to my first blog post. I'll be writing about the business of making and selling soap and other natural body care items. I have a small business called Pepo Park and have been making soap for 10 years.

Yesterday, I participated in the EtsyRAIN Spring Craft Show. It was a show hosted by the Seattle Etsy Street Team. 32 local crafters & artisans participated and lots of people showed up to buy our awesome handmade wares.

I sold a good quantity of stuff and had fun.

Shop homemade, shop local, shop often! :)