Search Results for: www.brambleberry.com

Salty Pricing

July 21, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

As requested on the Teach Soap Forum, I put together a generic price breakdown for my bath salts recipe. It will only cost you $4.66 to make 6 bags of fabulously scented, colored and perfectly packaged bath salts! And you could save even more money by buying in larger, bulk sizes!

My Bath Salt Recipe

3 Cups Medium Dead Sea Salt

2 ml diluted Blue Mix Labcolor

10 ml of Yuzu Fragrance Oil
Yields 6 bags of bath Salts

Get everything you need to make this recipe
by clicking on the “Buy It Now” icon below.

Price Break Down

Medium Dead Sea Salt- $2.50 per lb (10 lb size)

LabColor- $0.01 per diluted ml (10 ml)

Fragrance Oil- $1.57 per oz (1 lb size)

Cellophane Bags- $0.01 per bag (box of 1000 online)

Waterproof Labels- $0.10 per label (10 sheets, 10-12 labels per sheet)

Recipe Grand Total $4.66

(that’s just $0.77 per 1/2 cup bag of salt)

To make this entire recipe, it will only cost you $4.66 in materials. And remember that my recipe makes 6 bags of bath salts so divide the total by 6 and it’s only costing you $0.77 per bag of scented, colored and packaged bath salts! Keep in mind that I’m not factoring in my time and effort. You’ll have to decide that on your own. How long does it take you to make these and how much is your time worth? Do you have the equipment to whip out a huge batch? Or are you limited to smaller, individual batches? Answer these questions to add on the final costs to your products. After itemizing your recipe and finding out the exact amount it’s costing you (down to the penny), you can make an informed decision about what price to charge, how much you can afford to spend on packaging and what sort of promotions you can run with this high margin item.

The Impetus for Intrepreneur Day

July 20, 2010 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Intrepreneur: Is a person who has a entrepreneur skill set but works with in an organization, enterprise or venture.

What will you make of sour lemons?

I went to Rite Aid on Saturday morning to run in and grab some sunscreen. I wanted to take a walk outside but had forgotten to put on sunscreen that morning. Being of Norwegian descent, it’s prudent for me to wear sun protection when exposed to anything remotely resembling sun.

I found the sunscreen I wanted. It was on sale for $21.99 if I only signed up for a Rite Aid ‘Wellness Card’. I filled out the form as the line to check out behind me grew. The sunscreen didn’t come up at the right price. The line behind me grew. The clerk left her station to check the price. She instructed me to swipe my credit card and that the price would magically go right. It didn’t. I stepped aside and let a nice man with chocolate milk and a candy bar (breakfast?) check out. The clerk went through a return process so that I could get the printed, advertised price. I left, went to my car to apply the sunscreen and alas, the pump was broken.

I went back into Rite Aid, found that I had purchased the last of that particular sunscreen, grabbed another on-sale $21.99 sunscreen and went to exchange it. Even though I was exchanging one $21.99 sunscreen for another, since I didn’t have my ‘Wellness Card’ on me (left that in the car, natch), the special price for the exchange wasn’t working. I asked for a manager to override the pricing difference. I had been there 3 minutes ago. They remembered me. They knew I had a ‘Wellness Card.’ And, the manager of the entire store came over and said, “Sorry, I don’t have any override capabilities. You’ll have to pay the $8 difference.” “Um, but, they’re both $21.99.” “Right, and you can go out to your car and get your Wellness Card and stand in line again if you want.” “Don’t they give you any power at all? I can’t believe that Rite Aid would rather have an irritated customer than give you the option to fix this here and now.“ “Sorry, I don’t have that authority. But you’re being really nice about the whole thing.” And she’s the store manager. My eyes widened in disbelief. It was like an episode of Seinfeld. Only instead of no soup for me, it was no sunscreen for me!

At that point, I chose to return the broken sunscreen and just go home to put sunscreen on. I left Rite Aid, after 25 total minutes, with no sunscreen in hand, irritated and curious how a store gets so big that they start to put policies in place that do not help the customer. How do you lose so much confidence in your staff that you don’t give them any power? How do you dumb a job down so much that you can hire robots to do the job? Rite Aid appears to be working on the premise that even their store managers aren’t even smart enough to think for themselves.

It makes me think about my business; what choices do I make that are helpful to me that are horrible for the customer? What decision making have I taken away from my front line (my packers and pullers and pourers) because I haven’t trusted them enough. What can I do to change that?

We’re instituting an Intrepreneur Day here at Bramble Berry. This is the chance for our staff to unleash their inner entrepreneur withIN Bramble Berry, to be the boss of their work area for the day. Is there something that’s bugging them? Something they’ve always wanted to fix? This is the chance! We’re giving everyone 1 to 3 days to research, write a mini business plan, present it to me and then implement the plan themselves. The goal is to empower our team to make positive choices for themselves and improve their work environment.

Rite Aid apparently doesn’t trust their employees enough to make simple, $8 decisions. I’m glad I had such a negative experience with them because it was a reminder to me that if we expect people to be brainless automatons, they will be. If I expect my team of BrambleBerrians to do and be more, they will be.

Intrepreneur Day – here we come!

Bramble Berry Team Building…Literally.

July 19, 2010 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

We just had our second all-hands successful quarterly theme meeting of the year to go over our goals, win prizes and participate in team building exercises. If you want to see the post on our first meeting, check it out here. Building bridges is a year long theme and the bridges seem to be getting better (forget ‘seem’ – the winning bridge was a veritable masterpiece of Popsicle bridge building). This quarter’s bridge held 92 pounds and it could have held even more. Since it had already won the competition we decided to hang it on the wall for inspiration (and some harmless, friendly taunting). It’s fun to have the entire staff together in one place for good BBQ, prizes and competition.

The winning team starting on their bridge (sadly, not my team).

I’m doing some final inspections of our design.

Many hands make light (sticky) work.

Can you see the writing on the popsicle sticks (it’s small)? We have a popsicle stick jar for employees to write positive comments and ‘thank yous’ to their fellow Brambleberrians. It’s super fun to read all of the comments. We have a pretty tight-knit group and there were many insider jokes written as well as heart-felt appreciations. Thursday was the weighing ceremony and pizza party courtesy of FedEx (thanks Ross – you ROCK)!

The winning bridge. Solid as a rock! Can you see the ‘road’ is paved with glue?! Brilliant!

Spoiled Watermelon

July 17, 2010 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

I thought it would be fun to share my first attempt at the watermelon soaps. With just a few minor adjustments, the soap turned out way cuter on my second try! I’m sure you agree. On the second batch, I made the rind a little bit smaller, my seeds even and square and switched up my technique a touch. They’re still pretty darn cute, but unfortunately the soaps below took second place. It turns out that trying to cut the seeds in triangles were just not the most winning idea. See the first prize watermelon tutorial HERE if you missed it yesterday.

Bigger rind and uneven seeds.

Here, I filled up the entire half round mold with white soap which made the white part of the rind a little too thick for my liking. My resourceful habits told me to reuse the some of the soap I had cut off the edges. It worked but it’s not pretty. The first prize technique is much quicker and easier (see the juicy beauties below).

These were the winners. Check out the tutorial HERE.

Juicy Watermelon Melt & Pour Soap Tutorial

July 15, 2010 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Have you ever heard the statistic that watermelons are made up of 92% water? Well these watermelons are made up of 100% luxurious soap and mouthwatering watermelon fragrance oil. Put these juicy soaps on the edge of your sink for some extra cute flare.

Ingredients

21 oz Clear Soap Base

3 oz White Soap Base

Liquid Glycerin

Watermelon Fragrance Oil

Silicone Loaf Mold

Glossy Silicone Tray Mold

Liquid Green Colorant

Liquid Black Colorant

Perfect Red Color Block

Red Blue Mica

OR buy all of the ingredients you need just by clicking on the “Buy It Now” icon below.

Note: The liquid red and Half Round Log Mold have been discontinued. They have been replaced with the Perfect Red Color Block and Silicone Loaf Mold. The Silicone Loaf Mold is flexible, so you may need to prop it up with something!

ONE: Prep the watermelon “seeds” by melting 2 ounces of clear soap base and mixing in a couple drops of liquid black. Pour the soap into one side of the glossy tray mold and let cool. Once the soap has cooled, release the soap from the mold and use a ruler and an craft knife to cut thin strips of black. You’ll need five long slivers.

TWO: Now it’s time to make the “rind.” Melt 7 ounce of clear soap base and mix in .7 ounces of liquid glycerin and 6-7 drops of liquid green colorant. Mix well and pour the soap into the tray mold. Spritz with rubbing alcohol to eliminate air bubbles. Let cool.

Hint: The liquid glycerin adds some pliability to the soap so we can bend it with out breaking.

THREE: For the white layer of the rind, melt 3 ounces of white soap base and mix in .3 ounces of liquid glycerin. Let the white soap cool to 125-130 degrees, spritz the cooled green layer of soap and pour the white soap down the middle of your mold.

Tip: I wanted the white section of the rind to be super thin. Three ounces of soap isn’t quite enough to cover the entire bottom of the mold so make sure you pour the soap down the middle of the mold. It’s ok if the sides are not covered in white.

FOUR: It’s show time. Release the green and white soap from the mold, bend it down the middle and place it into the half round log mold. Make sure that the white soap is even on both sides. Scoot the soap to one end of the mold and press it down firmly. Seal the other end with plastic wrap. You can wrap some of the plastic underneath the soap if needed.

Tip: See how my mold is tipping a little bit? You’ll need to find something to prop up the mold. I used two small matching bowls.

FIVE: To make the sweet, inside of the watermelon, melt 12 ounces of clear soap base and mix in .5 ounces of watermelon fragrance oil. For the fantastic pink color, I combined shavings of the Perfect Red Color Block with red blue mica. Mix well and let the soap cool to about 130 degrees and have some plastic wrap on hand to cover the soap to keep it warm between pours.

SIX: Spritz 1 long black sliver of soap and the white soap layer in the mold. Then pour about 1/3 of the pink soap. Place the long black strip of soap into the wet soap. Spritz with rubbing alcohol to get rid of any air bubbles. Then cover the remaining pink soap with plastic wrap to keep it warm. Let this layer cool for about three minutes and repeat this step two more times. On the second pour add two of the black slivers (one on each side of the original) and on the third pour add the last two black slivers (again on the outsides of the previous pour).

SEVEN: Once the juicy soap has cooled, unmold the soap and carefully slice off the long, green edges with a knife (and put it in your scrap soap bin). Then slice the watermelon in to guest size wedges.

The Highs and Lows of Mint Chocolate Chip

July 14, 2010 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Here’s a peek of my Mint Chocolate Chip swirls from yesterday. See the blog post HERE if you missed it. The soap is pretty soft at this point (Olive Oil, 5% superfat, no gel phase) but they were still easy to unmold from the ‘World’s Best’ Baltic Birchwood Mold. These “sweet” soaps will be ready to use in 4-6 weeks!

On a painfully sad note, there was a casualty during the unmolding process. I was so giddy and excited about my swirls that the soap just bobbled out of my hand. I guess this will be the “tester” soap. Sigh…poor little guy. He didn’t deserve this!

We’re having the Bramble Berry Bridge Building Contest today + BBQ Fundsday! I can’t wait to have a rematch and hopefully redeem myself (and my popsicle stick bridge building abilities).

A TestaMINT to Mint Chocolate Chip

July 13, 2010 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Yesterday was a whirlwind afternoon. I tested 8 new fragrances for Spring 2011 and I tested the new Mint Chocolate Chip Fragrance Oil in a 5 pound batch of cold process. The results are in and I’m pleased to announce the Mint Chocolate Chip behaved beautifully! The scent holds up nicely and it didn’t accelerate trace in the slightest. I used a swirling technique using ketchup and mustard squirt bottles to layer in some thin lines of green (mint) and brown (chocolate). Originally I was going for a chocolatey-minty-icecreamy swirl but ended up with a camouflaged army motif. Since there was such a high percentage of olive oil in my recipe, the base color turned out a little more yellow than I had planned. But the soap still turned out great. I’ll be sure to keep you updated after the unmolding ceremony.

Below are the potential Spring 2011 fragrances that I’m testing. There are so many promising fragrances but they have a long way to go to get into the Bramble Berry line of fragrances. Only one fragrance seemed to separate a little bit but the rest are looking promising (holding back an exited girly scream). I’m in LOVE with these scents and can’t wait to release them!

Then some unexpected visitors. My brother, Erik, brought the “kids” over to say ‘Hi‘ to their favorite auntie. Sammy on the left and Toby on the right…my little angels!

Oh and if you’re looking for a super cute Mint Chocolate Chip melt and pour project and missed my re-post on Friday, learn how to make these sweet soaps (below) on The Soap King blog.

Cherry Cupcake Melt and Pour Soap Tutorial

July 12, 2010 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Bramble Berry’s new cupcake mold makes it easier than ever to whip out a batch of soapy cupcakes from scratch! You’ll be sweetly showering with cupcake goodness in no time.

Learn how to make these adorable melt and pour soap cupcakes! Great project for beginners.

Ingredients

16 oz White Soap Base

ELF Cupcake Mold

(Note: This mold has been discontinued.

It has been substituted with the Round (cupcake) Silicone Mold.)

Black Cherry Fragrance Oil

Bright Cherry LabColor
Canary Labcolor

OR Get everything you need by clicking on the “Buy It Now” button below.

ONE: Melt 16 ounces of white soap base in the microwave and mix in ½ ounce of Cherry Pop Fragrance Oil.

Note: The ELF Cupcake Mold has been discontinued. It has been substituted with the Round (cupcake) Silicone Mold. To create a two tone cupcake, make soap in the Round (cupcake) Silicone Mold, then top it with this Foaming Bath Whip Frosting.

TWO: Separate the scented soap evenly into two containers or mugs. Add the canary colorant to one container of soap and the cherry colorant to the other. Just a couple of drops of undiluted color will do the trick. Mix both well.

THREE: Fill up two cupcake cavities with the yellow soap and the other 2 cupcake cavities with the pink soap. Spritz with rubbing alcohol to eliminate air bubbles and let the soaps cool for about 2-4 hours.

FOUR: Once the soaps have cooled, remove them from the mold and carefully cut off the frosting parts of each cupcake. Then cut the yellow frosting tops into small chunks and melt the soap back down in the microwave. Repeat with the pink soap.

SIX: While the pink and yellow soaps are in the microwave, place all of the cupcake bottoms back into the mold and firmly press them down.

SEVEN: Once the pink and yellow soap is melted and isn’t so hot that it’s steaming (don’t want it to melt the cuppy base), spray the cupcake bottoms with rubbing alcohol (to ensure that the layers stick together) and fill up the frosting part of each cavity mixing and matching colors. Pink cupcake bottoms get yellow frosting and yellow cupcake bottoms get pink frosting. Give the soaps a final spritz with rubbing alcohol to eliminate air bubbles and let cool. Pop out after a thorough cool down (usually 6 to 8 hours).

Check out other popular cupcake projects like Whipped Soap Cupcakes, Cold Process Cupcakes and Bath Bomb Cupcakes

Cherry Cupcake Melt and Pour Soap Tutorial

These cherry cupcake soaps are made with a cupcake shaped mold, making the project perfect for beginners.

Author: Soap Queen

Ingredients

16 oz White Soap Base
Round (cupcake) Silicone Mold
Black Cherry Fragrance Oil
Bright Cherry LabColor
Canary Labcolor

Instructions

Melt 16 ounces of white soap base in the microwave and mix in ½ ounce of Cherry Pop Fragrance Oil.
Separate the scented soap evenly into two containers or mugs. Add the canary colorant to one container of soap and the cherry colorant to the other. Just a couple of drops of undiluted color will do the trick. Mix both well. (Note: The ELF Cupcake Mold has been discontinued. It has been substituted with the Round (cupcake) Silicone Mold. To create a two tone cupcake, make soap in the Round (cupcake) Silicone Mold then top it with the Foaming Bath Whip Frosting.)
Fill up two cupcake cavities with the yellow soap and the other 2 cupcake cavities with the pink soap. Spritz with rubbing alcohol to eliminate air bubbles and let the soaps cool for about 2-4 hours.
Once the soaps have cooled, remove them from the mold and carefully cut off the frosting parts of each cupcake. Then cut the yellow frosting tops into small chunks and melt the soap back down in the microwave. Repeat with the pink soap.
While the pink and yellow soaps are in the microwave, place all of the cupcake bottoms back into the mold and firmly press them down.
Once the pink and yellow soap is melted and isn’t so hot that it’s steaming (don’t want it to melt the cuppy base), spray the cupcake bottoms with rubbing alcohol (to ensure that the layers stick together) and fill up the frosting part of each cavity mixing and matching colors. Pink cupcake bottoms get yellow frosting and yellow cupcake bottoms get pink frosting. Give the soaps a final spritz with rubbing alcohol to eliminate air bubbles and let cool. Pop out after a thorough cool down (usually 6 to 8 hours).

S’Mores, Hot Dogs & Slugs

July 11, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

As I write this on Sunday morning, I am feeling somewhat sluggish and slow. My brain isn’t quite functioning at lightning speed and I am tired. None of this is my normal state and is vaguely unfamiliar, like putting on someone else’s clothes. It all feels slightly off.

I wouldn’t be feeling this way if I had made better choices this weekend. It’s the first sunny weekend of the summer and all we’ve been doing is relaxing, having friends over, and having bonfire after bonfire, complete with s’mores, ice cream, Doritos, hot dogs. After three weeks of eating no sugar, no wheat and no dairy, this weekend has been a study in contrasts. And, I’m none the better for it.

Our brains are little machines. They need optimum fuel to function at their best level. I just gave my body low grade fuel and continued to expect it to function optimally. That’s simply not going to happen with the c**p I gave it this weekend. Sure, I rationalized it: “It’s the weekend. I should be having fun. Packing all my healthy food out to the lake is a PIA. It’s just a few days. What can it hurt?” And, as I sit here, lethargic and stupid, it turns out the bad eating hurt in ways I wouldn’t have predicted.

When you are your business, when you depend on you functioning perfectly all the time to make money, to feed your family and to live, even two short days not treating your body right is detrimental.

Wherever you are in your nutrition habits, strive this week to be just a little better – eat one more serving of fruit, turn down that one extra serving of ice cream and most of all, remember how what you put in your body matters. If you want that extra energy to stay up that one extra hour to fill that one extra order, fuel your body with the nutrients and foods it needs to function at its best.

On a fun note, I hung out with my nephew Toby all weekend. In fact, I’m dogsitting him now. He’s the sweetest dog on the planet and even though I’m still feeling sluggish, I’m happy just having him here to laugh at. I also started and finished an incredible book. If you are looking for a new book club book, ‘The Incredible Sadness of Lemon Cake’ (Amazon affiliate link) is incredible. I would highly recommend it.

S’minty Fun Soaps

July 9, 2010 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Guest blog post by the fabulous Kat from Otion (Bramble Berry’s retail outlet). You can see all of Kat and Erik’s post at our brother blog, The Soap King.

Is the heat getting you down? Cool off with this refreshing new fragrance at Otion: Mint Chocolate Chip. Enjoy the scent of Pure Cane Sugar, Whipped Cream, Chocolate Truffle, Crème de Menthe, Peppermint Candy and Vanilla Brulee. It’s all rounded out with Tonka Bean, Musk and a hint of Butterscotch. Close your eyes and delight in the sweet chocolate and energizing mint!

Simply blend one drop each of lime and brilliant blue Labcolors in an opaque melt-and-pour soap base for the perfect minty green. I made a basic rectangle with black oxide pigment and chopped it up for the chips. It worked great! For the actual bars, I used a variety of Soapy Love scalloped shapes molds.

Use 4ml of fragrance per pound of melt-and-pour soap. Let the green cool and thicken slightly, but not too much to where you can’t pour it. Add a couple cubes of white soap to help the cooling process go faster. If you put your chips into too hot of soap (generally above 125 or higher), the color will bleed out of them and make a gray mess and the chips will melt away.
Sprinkle a few of the chips on the bottom of the mold before pouring the green so that you can see them on the top of the bar, and be sure to spray, spray, spray with rubbing alcohol so everything sticks together.

Top it off with a thin light green or white layer to make the colors pop. Don’t cover over the chips completely– we want to see those! Put them in the freezer for up to 20 minutes and you’re done. Now try not to eat them.

— from Kat at Otion

How to Make Cupcake Bath Bombs on Soap Queen TV

July 8, 2010 Filed Under: Bath Fizzies

I posted my first bath bomb cupcake tutorial in 2007, check it out here. I sure have learned to take better pictures since then (embarrassed grin). Last year I posted my revised recipe (with much better photos) here. This tutorial is still incredibly popular, so I thought it would be fun to show how to do it in an episode of Soap Queen TV. Enjoy!

You can purchase our Bath Bomb Cupcake kit here, and get everything you need to make 6 cupcakes. (Please note that the frosting recipe I use in the video makes closer to 12. So the kit recipe is slightly smaller than the one I demonstrate. Just be sure to use the recipe instructions that come with the kit.)

Or you can get the ingredients separately:

Bath Bombs:
1 cup Citric Acid
2 cups Baking Soda
Orange Sherbet Fragrance Oil
Coral LaBomb Colorant
Cupcake Liners
Cupcake Mold

Frosting:
1 1/2 cups Meringue Powder
1/2 cup warm water
8 tablespoons Jojoba Oil
2 cups Powdered Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
1 3/4 cups Sodium Laurel Sulfate (SLS)
Vanilla Fragrance Oil
Vanilla Color Stabilizer
Tropical Pink LabColor
Jojoba Beads or Glitter (optional)
Dust Mask

Persnickety Pelican…Dream in Whimsy

July 7, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

I have a treat for you today: a quick interview with mother-daughter craft team, Pam and Tara from Persnickety Pelican. I bought one of their felted soaps and was blown away by the detail. I’m so glad they agreed to participate in a quick-fire Soap Queen interview. Thanks Gals!

Soap Queen: Tell me about the chemistry of the mother-daughter craft team.

Tara and Pam: We both have whimsical ideas and work off of each other. What one doesn’t think of the other does.

SQ: What’s your favorite product to make?

T&P: We each love to make our different favorite soaps. Tara likes to do owl scenes and Pam likes to do the dachshunds. We input on each other’s soaps too.

This is the soap that’s sitting on my desk right now. It’s too cute!

SQ: Where do you get your whimsical inspiration?

T&P: Our whimsical inspiration just seems to be there at all times. We have 2 mini doxes and they are so sweet and energetic that we try to capture them in our designs. We don’t sketch anything out, just sit in front of a soap we have needle felted with wool roving, and looking at all the marvelous colors of wool, come up with our designs. The more whimsical the better. We create what we like to see in our shop, and hope that our customers love it as much as we do.

SQ: I was so impressed with the detail in the felted soap that I purchased. How long does it take you to felt your persnickety soaps?

T&P:Our felted soaps can take anywhere from an hour to two hours to completely felt. We can’t keep too many in stock on our shop, but try to get new ones on when we can. We also do custom orders and love to come up with new ideas. We use the dry needle felting process. The needle is a special one with barbs on the end, (very sharp) and when poked through the wool roving onto the soap meshes together to create the design. This allows the design to remain on the soap and just shrinks up as the soap is used. A felted soap will last a lot longer than a naked one.

SQ: What’s the best business advice you can give our readers who want to start their own business?

T&P: The best advice we can give someone who wants to start their own business is to do something you love. Be prepared to work really hard, and put in long hours. You’ve got to come up with fresh ideas to keep the public interested.

SQ: Final thoughts to share with the Soap Queen readers?

T&P: We take pride in making quality products; ones that we would want to buy for ourselves, hence our name Persnickety Pelican.

Be sure to take a whimsical break in your day and check out the Persnickety Pelican Etsy shop. You won’t regret it!

Listening as an Act of Love

July 6, 2010 Filed Under: Business Musings

Listen to your heart
Originally uploaded by Ana Luiza Santana

One of my challenges as a leader is listening. Listening has all kinds of benefits within an organization – engenders respect, helps solve problems faster, makes the team member feel valued, encourages active participation, helps with accuracy. This is clearly a skill I want to improve at.

I’m a fast talker and my brain pings from thing to thing more quickly than a parakeeet on caffeine. This often leads to me finishing other peoples’ sentances (of course I know what they’re going to say!), talking over others or not completely listening because I’m forming my next thought while they’re still talking.

None of this is good if you’re a wife, a friend, a daughter or a boss. I’ve been working with a business coach (Shandel Slaten from True Life Coaching) on improving my listening skills with small baby steps because WOW change happens with small, incremental movement daily. One of my personal goals for the month is to use the phrase, “Tell me more....” at least once per day (and then, to be quiet!).

Want to become a better listener? Join me in this! 30 days of saying “Tell me more…” at least once per day to improve our listening skills and by default, all of our relationships.

PS – If you’re reading this in your email or through a reader, click through to check out our summery updated Soap Queen header. It’s short-sleeve season!

Happy 4th of July!

July 4, 2010 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

I hope everyone is enjoying their long holiday weekend like I am with friends, family, food and um, liquid sunshine! Here’s some soapy eye candy (from Etsy) for you to “snack on” in celebration of the Declaration of Independence. Enjoy!

Row one from left to right

Caramel Candy Apple Soap by Sunbasilgarden,

Hand Painted Primitive Americana Flag Soap by a stroke of jeanne-ius

Stars and Stripes Acai Berry Soap by A Slice of Delight

Row two from left to right

Patriotic Cupcake Vegan Soap by Sunday Morning Soaps

Stars and Stripes Peppermint Soap by KBShimmer

Bath Blaster Soapy Pop by Soapylove

Row three from left to right

American Flag Soap by Pure Heart Soap

Cocoa Butter American Patriot Soap by Swan Mountain Soaps

Patriotic Gift Basket by Kittredge Candles of New England