End of the Year Thanks and Thoughts

I am so bad about blogging.  Holidays are crazy enough with family from out of town but my school finals also fell on the same week so it was just double trouble.  OY!

I wanted to say 'thank you' to everyone who placed an order with us this holiday season.  Well, and this whole year really, because this has been my biggest selling year so far and I owe it all to you guys!  (( hugs ))
In this off time between class terms, I've been working behind the scenes to get more organized and to hone my business skills a bit better - including blogging on a normal schedule and bringing you quality items that are fun and functional.

So what's up with this coming year?  We've been testing some Sore Muscle Jelly on 3 lupus patients (myself included) to see if it helps relieve any of their joint aches and soreness.  If it helps us, it can help anyone!  lol  It's this lovely rosemary scented (but oddly orange colored) medicinal jelly that goes on cool and warms up, sort of like Icy Hot but not so flaming hot that you think your skin is peeling off.  It's almost all organic, which is a big appeal to people like me who are allergic to everything under the sun and who also hate not knowing what you're putting ON or IN your body.  So far, that testing is going nicely but everyone still has about half a jar to go.  Little goes a long way!

DMCA Issues

Being a seller on Etsy has moments where you absolutely want to pull out your hair, close up shop and cancel your account.  I was at that point twice this past week due to Etsy's Legal department.  Apparently Just Born, Inc. (who owns the Peep candy line), hired a trademark company to troll Etsy's listings and file complaints on users using the word "Peep" and two of our listings were removed for "trademark infringement" for using the word "peep" in our title.  Etsy's lovely Legal department fired me off a form letter providing the said troll company's information to contact them further regarding the infringement as Etsy is basically "hands off" once they receive a formal DMCA complaint.

New Spring Scent Arrivals

I think I mentioned earlier, that I have been waiting for months for my vendors to release some new Spring themed scents but I haven't seen any yet that stood out to me.  So, I went through their existing inventories and picked a few new scents that would round out my scent line up here at Blue Moon Bubbles.  Half of them arrived the other day and while I'm still waiting on the others, the ones I received so far have been downright dreamy and perfect for ushering in warmer weather.

I'm much pleased with my new Rio Glow, which is, you might notice, a duplication of a Bath & Body Works scent.  I've been in such a "vacation/travel" mind-set as of late, scouring Pinterest for all sort of destination pictures so this fit in perfectly with my mood.  Rio Glow is a juicy blend of tropical fruits (mango, papaya and guava.  So refreshing and mouth watering!  Not quite sure if it wasn't a big seller for them or what but Bath & Body Works only has Rio Glow in candle and Wallflower versions now.  So if you were a Rio lover, get your fix here!

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has definitely come to the Hudson Valley here in New York!  Yesterday, after months of gray skies and freezing cold, the sky turned a beautiful shade of blue and the sun made his appearance finally!  It was actually 57 degrees so my husband and I spent some time down by the docks, just watching clumps of geese bobbing along in the water happily.  It was a bit windy but it was great; we even left our coats in the car and I even kicked off my shoes to let my toes stretch a bit.

With the sun finally making his grand appearance and the dirty snow piles slowly melting away, I've been on a bit of a spring cleaning frenzy, albeit, soap shop style.  I've been digging through some molds that I never use and will be selling them cheaply on Etsy in the next coming days.  Last week I went through all my fragrances and tossed out the old and expired so I could restock and revamp my collection for the spring/summer season.  We even went so far to purchase new shelving for my ever growing collection of soap bases and boxes of molds.  I feel so organized and energized it isn't even funny!

Lime in the Coconut Soaps (tutorial)

I don't know about where you are but up north here in New York, I'm so tired of the cold weather and snow!  It's half melted, dirty snow; the sun just hasn't been warm enough to melt it away yet.  I've looking at my friend's Facebook page where she's vacationing in Hawaii and I'm just going totally green with envy.  Hawaii, warm sun, sand, beach, coconuts, sun tan lotion....it got me thinking about a soap project I had seen on one of my vendor's page.