It's National Chocolate Chip day!

Hooray! Maybe I wiull bake cookies tonight. What will be more likely to happen is that I will go home, eat leftover mac and cheese, and watch Dexter. I'm really exciting. If YOU make cookies, please send some my way.

When I was young, we had to walk to school

I don't know if I have really talked about how when I started Bubbly Creations, running a small business was, well, different.

I put out a paper catalog and had a website, but it wasn't very well structured because my web building skills are, well, developing (still) and I have always felt like my place was in the kitchen making soap rather than behind a computer screen. This didn't seem to matter, folks were okay with the paper catalog. At that point, you needed a street address to be legitamate. If all you had was a website, people thought you were a crook.

Twitter was a newborn. You purchased mailing lists (you did, I didn't) and sent things through the mail. Most sales were done via craft shows or, I hosted an at-home open house to introduce people to my soap and followed up with the catalog. Facebook hadn't been invented. I don't think Etsy had either, or, if it had, it was a tiny infant too.

With the evolution of all these things, a whole new world of marketing was opened up. Suddenly, online craft sales skyrocketed and not only did you need to have a great website or use a service like etsy, you had to stand out. Suddenly, it wasn't enough for me to wrap my soap with a piece of waxed paper and some ribbon, it needed to be picture perfect. And I needed (need) to be a photographer. A professional one with light boxes and vinettes.

Suddenly, I needed to be blogging and tweeting and facebooking EVERY DAY in order to keep my audience. But the old fashioned me still wants to send things in the mail.

Which is why I do. Sure, I twitter, sometimes, but mostly, I want to interract with you, my customers on a personal level so I try not to tweet constantly about what is new in the Soaping world. I would rather let you know that your favorite scent is soon to be replenished or tell you something happy than clog your feed with random facts about stuff you've never heard of. I like to use facebook not just as a vehical for coupons and giveaways, I want you to get to know me and give me the chance to get to know you on a personal level.

My pictures aren't perfect, but I have a good product. My website isn't fancy (although yesterday I added a new banner and I am REALLY proud of it!) but I hope that I am spending the time to get to know you and to develop a product that makes you smile when you use it.  I want you to get as excited about new scents and products as I do. After all, soap is a personal care product and I want my customers to know that I care for them personally.

Happy Sales Person Day!

Today is Sales Person day. It is of note because well, as a small business owner, I am not only the boss but the Sales Team as well. Also, in my job that pays the bills until BC can, I work in the sales department. I'm not a sales person. but without them, I wouldn't have very much to do.

So happy Sales Person Day to all you all in Sales. It's a tough job, it really is.

It's MARCH!!

How did that happen? Do you know what else it is? It's National Crafting Month. I think that in addition to developing that new product line I have up my sleeve, that I will finish plying that yarn and knitting those fingerless gloves this month. BEFORE I start anything else.

What will you be doing?

A lazy little elf

Wow. Here I started out the new year intending to post here at least every week and I fell off within a month. That's ok, I forgive me.

Life gets in the way of our best intentions sometimes. And honestly? I've hit a bit of a creative wall. All I want to do is vacuum and mop the floor. Or at least I did last week. Sunday, I printed 200 pencils. I love playing with the imprinter. And this morning, I woke up with a brilliant idea. I love waking up with brilliant ideas.

It feels good to be excited.

Last week I had a pretty good blow to my momentum (which could explain the whole mopping thing) when my computer crashed. Tonight, I hope to either get it fixed or find out how much it will cost to fix it. My data is saveable. WHEW! I don't want to have to recreate everything!! Again!!

National Hot Tea Month? Why didn't you say so?

In addition to being oatmeal month, January is also National Hot Tea month. I waited until now to mention it so that I didn't steal oatmeal's thunder.

There's few things that I like more than a nice cup of hot tea. I usually drink caffeine free herbal, but I also like green (strait) and black with milk and honey.

During the summer, I can often be found drinking sweet tea, or iced peppermint, or, my favorite herbal over ice.

Are you a tea drinker? How do you like it?

Watch your mailboxes, there are prizes to be had! If you aren't, all you have to do is send me an email at gina.bubblycreations@gmail.com with your information to join in the mailbox fun!

Today is bubble bath day

If I made bubble bath, today would be an excellent day to send everyone some so that you too can take a bubble bath. But alas, liquid soap still scares me. Its an entirely different set of chemicals than what I normally stock. All that PH testing... So much easier to stick with bar soap.

I don't actually take bubble baths. Haven't had one in YEARS. I like bubble baths. They're fun. But I am a bath salt girl.

Why, you ask, don't I offer bath salts? well... um... last time I made them it was a disaster. I don't know if the oil went rancid or what but lemme tell you, it solidified and stuck to EVERYTHING. I had sticky spots all over for DAYS. I took several very hot soapy showers and I STILL came out sticky.

So until I figure it out, I'll get my bath salts elsewhere.

Enjoy your bath tonight!