It’s tempting this time of year to double down and decide that we’re going to call our mom daily (hi mom!), work out every single day, and never eat sugar again. And this is why most New Year’s resolutions either (a) don’t get started, because why bother failing again? or (b) start out strong for about 13 days and then crash and burn.

The good intentions that propel us to discern what could make our lives more fulfilling also push us over the edge of trying to take on too much. We get excited by the idea of the person we want to become. We see ourselves overcoming our fear of public speaking and getting adulation from the crowd, or finishing the LSAT with really strong numbers. But what we don’t see is the trudge. The ridiculously painful, long, boring day in and day out stuff that actually turns into the foundation, scaffolding and last step of the achievement.

When we make goals or New Years resolutions, we often don’t think of the everyday trudge. But, that’s the foundation to achieving the goal. 

I had just that experience for the last 12 months. I made a ridiculous goal of being able to do the splits. I had some vague notion that it would be hard but not “hard-hard“ and that if I could do the splits, it would mean that I was healthy everywhere else. It was like the splits were my canary in the coal mine (which sounds morbid … but you know what I mean right?) So, I started on my trudge: every night, 15 minutes of hip opening yoga. That wasn’t producing the results I wanted so I bought online courses, but still nothing. I took yoga classes, I went to a rolfer, and did 3 hour yoga intensives.

In about 6 months, I stalled out at like 4 inches off the ground. No progress in the next few months. Nada. Zip. I added in some crazy myofascial torture pain that called itself a massage. The last three months were painful trials of persistence. I kept track of my nightly stretching. My record for the year is 93% consistency of doing stretching for a minimum of 10 minutes. Ninety-three percent. That’s 340 nights this year that I spent stretching for 15 minutes or 3,400 minutes, over business trips, illnesses and lazy weekends. My wallet will never be the same again after the yoga intensives, thai yoga, the rolfer, the online classes, etc. I could have funded a small deep sea exploration submarine for the investment in those hips and my (foolish?) goal.

So did I reach my goal? Is this an inspiring tale of triumph or a fizzle of four inches? Below is a photo that shows some of my progress. The answer is technically … sort of? I did reach my goal (yay, high fives all around) but there’s zero chance I can hit the floor without an hour+ of yoga in a warm room to ensure my muscles are limber and stretchy. So, it’s a draw. When you’re setting goals for this year, start where you’re at and be realistic in your goal-setting.

While I did make some progress, all my stretching and classes did not result in being able to do the splits without an insane amount of prep. 

My goals last year were centered around family time, physical (in this case, the splits), diet (no sugar), daily movement and continual learning (reading). From these yearly goals, came my quarterly goals and monthly goals and then weekly goals and finally daily goals. Goals become the North Star, the guiding light, for your entire year. They affect how you plan your day, your week and your entire life. They affect who you hang out with, how your spend your time and how you spend your money.

Because of this, making goals can feel daunting. Sometimes, it’s easier to figure out where you want to go personally and professionally in 3 to 5 years and then work backwards. For example, do you see yourself married with kids? Do you see yourself leading a team of people doing interesting and inspiring work? Do you see yourself walking across a stage with a diploma in hand? All of those visions mean different goals for 2017.

I categorize my goals into different categories including business goals, personal goals and family goals. 

I’ve thought a lot about what I want to commit to for 2017 versus what is realistic for me to commit to in 2017. I am coalescing around personal goals, work goals and family goals. Some personal goals include:

1. Twenty minutes of uplifting reading and/or planning per day.
2. Three stretch sessions per week.
3. Read 55 books.
4. Actively improve myself by participating in a Mastermind Group of female entrepreneurs worldwide with a formal mentorship program.

Family goals for 2017 include:

1. Two family trips.
2. Continue saving for Lily & Jamisen’s college (note: this will get a specific number once we’re done with family budgets for the year)
3. Research and save for a new (used) car for myself.
4. Research schooling and childcare options for Jamisen and Lily.

Business goals for 2017 include:

1. Run 4 fitness/nutrition challenges with Best Day Ever.
2. Expand the wholesale line for Best Day Ever.
3. Do a face-lift on Bramble Berry’s brand (design new brand, roll it out, upgrade marketing plan)
4. Develop a bulk / large customer program tailored to unique needs of larger businesses

There are more goals for each category, but those are the top four. Each one of them has a purpose that will help get the business, my family and my personal life to the 10 year plans and working them consistently – daily – will help get to that next level of stability and success. It takes planning, but it’s worth it! Are you inspired? Do you feel daunted? Work on your own goals for the year; write them down and post them below. Let’s inspire and accountability ourselves to our best futures.

I’d love to sweeten the planning incentives by picking 3 comments to win some planning & soaping goodies: We have chosen the winners! They are Sherry, Ami and Andrea. Thanks to everyone who entered, we loved reading your goals for 2017.

– An Entry to the Best Day Ever January 16 Fitness & Nutrition Challenge + Paper Best Day Ever 42 Day Journal

– Bundle of Best Day Ever planning goodies (Best Day Ever Mug, Notepad – Official Listmaker + Notepad – Daily Scheduler)

– Pink Salt Scrub Kit

The post Set Your Goals for 2017 appeared first on Soap Queen.

We all have a budget. Sometimes it’s difficult to fit hobbies into that budget. Soaping is no exception; with so many fun ingredients and projects, wishlists can add up quickly. If you’re looking for ways to save on your soaping addiction, check out my tips below!

Use a recycled mold
Silicone and wood molds create beautiful, perfect bars. But, if you don’t particularly care about a perfect shape, molds made of recycled materials cut down on cost. I’m a huge fan of using containers like yogurt cups and milk cartons for soap molds. Not only do they work well, they look cute and are eco-friendly. There are a few things to look for when selecting a recycled mold. Plastic containers work particularly well because they are flexible and don’t need to be lined. If choosing a non-plastic container, it will need to be lined in freezer paper. For more tips on using recycled molds, check out this post.

Tutorials with recycled molds:

• Lard & Loofah Cold Process Soap
• Simple & Gentle Cold Process Soap
• Cold Process Beginners Kit How-To
• Eco Chic Soap Tutorial
• Pure Honey Beeswax Candle
• Eco Chic Candles

Use cost effective soaping oils
Some soaping oils are more cost effective than others. When formulating your recipe, consider the cheaper soaping oils. Some of the most cost-effective soaping oils are canola, castor, coconut, olive oil (pomace), palm oil, rice bran oil and sunflower oil. These oils still make a great bar of soap. Just remember to consider how the oil affects the final bar. For example, if you only have coconut oil on hand and don’t want to buy more oils, you’d be better off saving up to splurge on another oil. That’s because 100% coconut oil soap can be drying to skin due to its cleansing properties in soap. Click here to learn more about choosing oils for cold process recipes, and how to substitute them.

Using cost effective soaping oils like canola, rice bran and coconut can save a lot!

Use tested ingredients
It can be tempting to experiment with new ingredients you’ve never used in soap before, and I encourage you to try new things! But if you’re on a tight budget, carefully research how to use the ingredient in soap beforehand. Soapmaking is a science, and “random” ingredients can throw off the entire batch. This is especially true with fragrance oils. Fragrance oils are made up of hundreds of synthetic ingredients. When combined with lye and oils, those ingredients can have negative reactions that may ruin your batch. Fragrances not tested in cold process soap likely won’t work. At Bramble Berry, we test hundreds of fragrance oils every year and only bring in about 5% of those oils. If you find a cheap fragrance oil not tested for soap, it could ruin your entire batch! Always use ingredients tested for soap for consistent results.

Make small test batches
If you’re trying a new product, or using an ingredient that is a little “iffy,” make a small test batch first. That way if you don’t love the way it works, you don’t waste a lot of soaping ingredients. I especially recommend testing new colorants and fragrance blends. I love using the 4″ Silicone Loaf Mold for test batches. It makes approximately one pound of soap, which results in about 4 bars. It’s the perfect amount to try a new recipe, and give a few bars to family or friends for feedback.

Making small test batches first is a great way to find out how you like a recipe before making a huge batch and potentially “wasting” all those ingredients!

Save your soaping fails
We all experience soapy fails on occasion. Don’t get discouraged or beat yourself up about it. Instead, save your batch! There is almost always a way to save a failed batch of soap. Soapy fails are often caused by misbehaving fragrance oils. If a fragrance oil caused problems, check out Soap Behaving Badly Post to learn how to save it. A great example is the Black Cherry Bounces Back post. A mismanufactured fragrance oil caused the entire batch to separate. Luckily, we were able to “hot process hero” the batch and make usable soap. If your soap has less serious cosmetic issues like soda ash or glycerin rivers, the Soapy Mess-Up Quick Guide is full of tips.

Saving a failed batch may not result in the most beautiful bar of soap, but it does make the soap usable. That way, you’re not throwing away all the ingredients and wasting money!

Saving a failed batch of soap means you don’t waste the ingredients. 

Buy in bulk
Once you find the perfect recipe and ingredients, buying in bulk can save a lot. Yes, you have to spend more money upfront, but it saves in the long run! A great example of this is outlined in the How to Calculate the Price of Your Products post. For example, most Bramble Berry fixed oils are sold in 1 pound, 7 pound and 35 pound options. With each size increase, the cost per pound decreases. If you choose to splurge and buy the larger size, I recommend having a plan on how you’re going to use the product. That way, you don’t end up with a bunch of extra on hand. I would also consider how quickly you think you’ll use it, and avoid any products with a short shelf life if you can’t use it up before it goes rancid.

Buy ingredients you can use in more than one recipe
Most ingredients can be swapped for others in soap and other bath and beauty recipes. To save money, purchase ingredients that you can use in more than one project or recipe. For example, lightweight liquid oils can be used in so many ways. Oils like avocado, sweet almond and sunflower can be used to disperse colorants and create a variety of products like soap, lip balm, lotion and more. Mica colorants can be used in melt and pour, lotions, bath fizzies, and sometimes cold process soap and lip balms as well. Always be sure to thoroughly read the product description to see how ingredients perform in various applications.

Use ingredients from your kitchen
Sometimes, you can save a little by using ingredients you may already have in your kitchen. Ingredients like paprika and cocoa powder give soap lovely colors. Oatmeal and used coffee grounds can be added to soap for texture and exfoliation. If you have leftover fruits and vegetables, they can be puréed and added to your soap at trace. Click here to learn more about adding purees to cold process soap. Have leftover beer, wine or champagne? That can be used for soap too! Click here to learn how.

Don’t let leftover fruits and veggies go to waste – use them in your soap!

Store ingredients and products properly
Most bath and body product ingredients have a shelf life. Shelf life refers to the length of time that a product can be stored without it becoming unfit for use. How you store the products can cause the shelf life to decrease, which will cause the products to become rancid faster. Most ingredients should be stored in a cool, dark and dry place. If you’d like to learn more about shelf life and rancidity, click here. Then, click here to learn how to store your products correctly.

Plan your shopping lists along with your recipes
Rather than buying a bunch of random ingredients, plan your orders around your recipes. Then, add the “fun extras” after the essentials. That way, you won’t place an order and forget an essential item and need to place another. This saves on shipping! Shopping for essentials first also avoid having extra ingredients on hand that could go rancid.

Don’t miss out on sales – sign up for the Bramble Berry newsletter!
Looking for a coupon code, or a heads up on upcoming sales? Sign up for the Bramble Berry newsletter! We never spam your inbox, and also send out exclusive recipes and tutorials.

Do you have any tips for saving money on your soaping addiction? I’d love to hear how you stretch your soaping budget! 

The post How to Save on Soapmaking: Tips for creating soap on a budget! appeared first on Soap Queen.

There were so many excellent goals that it was a difficult decision to choose just three. I loved how thought out many of them were – and the balance between personal, family and business goals. My inner cheerleader is rooting for you all! I hope that just writing the goals in S.M.A.R.T. format was helpful for everyone, and I look forward to hearing about everyone’s progress throughout the year (yes, expect more S.M.A.R.T. Goals posts — we’re all in this together!)

After reading your goals through several times, I was finally able to select a few winners (but man oh man, it was hard! You guys had some amazing goals). The goals below were chosen because they fit the S.M.A.R.T. format and/or tugged at a place in my heart. Please keep in mind that there are hundreds (yes, hundreds!) of fantastic goals, and  I encourage everyone to revisit the original post and read through all of the ambitious goals listed. Hopefully it will give you motivation to push through any slumps!

Winners are in no particular order, and some of these goals were quite lengthy so I’ve posted abbreviated versions here. Click the person’s name to return to the original post and read their goals in full. Also, something about a “Public Declaration” really helps me reach my goals so I hope that Jakob, Alena & Timmi feel the same way because here are their goals, excerpted for all to read. Go team!

Winner #1: Jakob M.
Jakob’s soapy Facebook page, Triple Spiral

“By September 1, 2015 I’ll weigh 215 pounds (which is down 60 pounds from my current weight, which is 6 pounds a month).

How I will reach that goal:
– Improving my diet.
– Increase my physicality.
– Work on my mental health

Nutrition goal: I will improve my diet by eliminating junk.
How I will reach that goal-
1. Eliminate soda from my diet completely.
2. Limit fast food to once a week until February 1, then every other week until May 1, then once a month.
3. When craving sweets, I’ll limit it to one snack a day, anything more than that will be substituted with fruit.”

Winner #2: Timmi
Ivy Coreen Bath & Body

“Personal:

1) I’m not dieting this year! I have battled with my weight since childhood and I’ve decided that this year I’m not setting myself up for the same failure. Instead I’ve decided to change my outlook on food. It’s gonna be a work in progress but it’s time to take the leap.

2) I’m going to spend more time with my kids. For anyone who knows me personally that may sound nuts. I homeschool my kids and work from home so there is very little time when I’m not “with” them. But I often forget to make time to just be their mom. I want that back in my life. My four little girls will be all grown up before I know it.

3) I’m going to get back into yoga at least 3 times a week. Even if it’s only for 15 minutes I’ve gotta start somewhere.

4) I am vowing to organize my house. Running a business and a school from your home can make for some serious clutter. It drives me nuts. So I’m going to get it under control.”

The post S.M.A.R.T. Goals Winners + coupon appeared first on Soap Queen.