
Sindy also sent me a care package and in my excitement to try and the staff frenzy of ‘I want that! I want that!’, I found myself without any samples to actually photograph.
Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Filed Under: Business Musings
As you move forward on your journey from where you are to where you want to be, you are going to have to confront some of your fears. Fear is a just a natural part of living.
Whenever you start a new project, take on a new venture, or put yourself out there, there’s usually some fear involved. Unfortunately, most people let fear stop them from taking the necessary steps to achieve their dreams.
Confronting your fears is a very necessary step in achieving success.
There is simply no other way.
Fear can be a helpful emotion, as it tells you when you need to be extra careful, keenly aware, and cautious. Fear is not an emotion that is telling you to stop. In fact, it’s telling you just the opposite!
Acknowledging your feelings of fear helps you know when you are stepping out of your comfort zone. It points your awareness to areas where you could improve and grow.
Successful people also feel fear. Yet they don’t let it get in the way of anything they want to do–or have to do. They understand that fear is something to be acknowledged, experienced, and taken along for the ride. They have learned, as author Susan Jeffers suggests in her must-read book, to “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway®.”
Fear is more of a signal that we should stay alert and cautious. We can feel fear, but we can still move forward anyway.
Think of fear as a 2-year-old child who doesn’t want to go grocery shopping with you. Because you must buy groceries, you’ll just have to take the two year old with you. Fear is no different. In other words, acknowledge that fear exists but don’t let it keep you from doing important tasks.
Also realize that so many of our fears are self-created. We might frighten ourselves by fantasizing negative outcomes to any activity we might peruse or experience. Luckily, because we are the ones doing the fantasizing, we are also the ones who can stop the fear and bring ourselves into a state of clarity and peace by facing the actual facts, rather than giving in to our imaginations.
If a fear is too great for you to overcome, try breaking it down into smaller challenges.
Try starting out by doing the parts of the project that don’t scare you so much. You need to give a speech in front of a large group? Try giving your speech in front of a small group of people who care for you. Work your way up until you are able to feel the fear but still move forward. As you do you will build your confidence and eventually you won’t feel fear surrounding those issues because you’ll have done them enough to count it as a skill.
As you move toward your goal, don’t attach yourself so much to the outcomes.
Keep moving toward your dream doing everything you can to create what you want, then let it go and see what shows up. Sometimes the universe will have a better idea in mind for you and present a better opportunity when you were expecting something completely different. Don’t let fear keep you from moving forward. Even if the horrible outcome that you imagined happens, the universe will always provide for you another way to succeed. So be on the look out!
Trust that no matter what occurs, you are smart enough and strong enough to keep looking for, and attracting, opportunities.
If you are willing to try new experiences in spite of your fears, then more new experiences will present themselves for you to try. And the more you try, the more you are likely to succeed!
Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com
Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap
Hooray! It’s the newest edition of Soap Queen TV.
Soap Queen TV Episode 4: Embedding from Soap Queen on Vimeo.
In this episode, I embed one of our super cute, painfully adorable penguin erasers in a bar of soap AND I show you the secrets to embedding soap. . . in soap with a quick and easy loaf project. It’s 2 for 1 day at Soap Queen TV!
Ingredients for making the ‘Penelope’ Penguin Soap:
Clear soap base
Blue Mix Labcolor
Pearberry fragrance
Penguin eraser
Aqua Labcolor
Iridescent glitter
Basic shapes four in one mold
For the soap loaf:
2 pounds white soap
loaf mold
Pearberry fragrance
1/2 to 1 pound of soap pieces
ours are made with Ultramarine blue, Chrome green oxide, and clear soap base.
Tools you will need:
Rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle
Heat-safe containers
Spoon
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Green Matcha Tea Powder has been used since the 16th century. It exploded onto the trendy scene when Starbucks came out with their delicious Green Matcha Tea latte in early 2007 and everyone jumped on the antioxidant bandwagon of this powdered tea. True story – Matcha is an expensive powdered green tea that is made from the finest shade-grown tea buds, dried and then ground. It can take upwards of one hour to grind just one ounce of matcha.
2 parts Matcha Green Tea
2 parts Plumeria
1 part Vanilla Vanilla
2 parts Matcha Green Tea
2 parts Blackberry Spice (Discontinued)
1 part Peach
2 parts Matcha Green Tea
2 parts Lilac
1 part English Rose
2 parts Matcha Green Tea
2 parts Sleeping Angels
1 part Vanilla Vanilla
2 parts Matcha Green Tea
1 part Spiced Mahogany
1 part Mayan Gold
1 part Neroli
2 parts Matcha Green Tea
2 parts China Rain (Discontinued)
1 part Ocean Rain
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Sign up for the LAST two spots for the Otion Soapmaking Intensive Weekend 2009 here.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
This is the perfect opportunity to add an authentic, handmade soap to your product offering without having to deal with the hassle of Lye and the 6 week waiting time for the soap to cure. Create an entire gift ensemble or coordinated product line including lotion, liquid soap, a bath bomb and real, handmade soap.
Ladies and gentleman…It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for…It’s time to win some soap! (Applaud)
Leave a comment and let me know what fragrance and color you would like to see us carry in the next line of finished cold process soaps. On May 29th, I’ll choose a winner (or 2) at random to win 5 fabulous bars of handmade soaps from this new line or a full loaf of one of the fragrances. So I ask the question again: are you feeling lucky?
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
The Budget Ecoistis a web site dedicated to living green on a budget. Let’s face it, we could all use some budgeting advice right now. The site covers topics like reusing and recycling, organic products and reviews, eco fashion and of course, where you can get the best coupons and deals.
“Why make your own soap? For the cost of one kit (kits range in price, the one we tested out retails for $19.75 and makes 12 soaps) you can make a bevvy of soaps at a cost far less than you would pay for these individual, unique soaps in stores. When you’re done, you can purchase additional mica, and any other needed materials, to continue to make soaps at an even cheaper cost.”
Read the full article here
Read more about being green on a budget on The Budget Ecoist and join their green forum here to share your eco friendly tips!
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
This just came across my email box today from Help A Reporter. If you’d like the email address of the reporter, please just email me at info (at) brambleberry (dot) com and I’ll email to you.
Query:If you’re a woman who has recently been inspired to take up crafty hobby
that you’ve never tried before–and have found it to be so
stress-relieving, therapeutic or lucrative that you’ve stuck with it–I
want to hear from you! Jewelry-making, knitting, canning, pickling,
candy-making, scrap-booking, candle-making, baking–whatever home art is
that you’ve taken up, let me know a little about what inspired you to start
and how it’s been benefiting you (relieving stress, sharpening your skills,
bringing you closer to a family member or friend, earning you money,
etc.) Please put the words HOME ARTS in the subject line. I’ll be in
touch with the name of the magazine if I’d like to move forward.
Thanks!
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Filed Under: Business Musings
Don’t be a time manager, be a priority manager. Cut your major goals into bite-sized pieces. Each small priority or requirement on the way to ultimate goal become a mini goal in itself.
–Denis Waitley
If you missed my post last year about breaking down your goals, click here to review it.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Cold Process Soap
Ingredients:
300 gram Coconut Oil (30%)
250 gram Olive Oil (use light) (25%)
250 gram Rice Bran Oil (25%)
150 gram Palm Oil (15%)
50 gram Shea Butter (I used refined) (5%)
142 gram Caustic Soda (sodium hydroxide) – approx 5% superfat.
270 gram* Filtered Water, plus 1/4 cup aloe vera juice (added to oils)
(Total liquid content is discounted by approx 5% from full amount – I found when soaping at a higher discount – about 15% – that the FO accelerated trace somewhat)
20 gram/ml Brambleberry’s Sweet Pea Fragrance Oil
Tussah Silk Fibre (optional) – about a small cotton ball sized wad – a little goes a long way.
Colours:
Pink & Blue Ultramarine Oxides dispersed in liquid glycerin; Titanium Dioxide powder 1/2 tsp.
Method:
Add silk fibre to water and sprinkle caustic soda on top of silk carefully! Follow all safety procedures for mixing lye solution. Silk will dissolve as the lye dissolves; stir occasionally. Allow to cool to 30 degrees.
Add TD (titanium dioxide) powder to either oils or aloe juice depending on whether it is liquid or oil dispersible. Bring oils to 30 degrees. I soaped a little cooler to help slow trace down a bit. I add my aloe juice to my oils before mixing in the lye solution (just a personal preference, and may help keep the batter a lighter tone in the finished product).
Follow instructions for an ITP swirl. I used about 1 cupful of batter for each of my two colours – colouring one 15 drops pink and the other with 15 drops pink and 5 drops blue .
I used a Nizzy 12 bar divider mould and after pouring in the soap batter I waited until it had reached a thick trace then swirled top of soap with a chopstick to get the texture in the pic. Then place dividers and cover for gel.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News