Recent Handmade Purchases- Rings, Calendars, and yes, More Soap!

Time to invite you guys to be super-nosy and see what else I've bought on Etsy lately! My previous posts can be found here.  Read them! They're fun!  Let's dig in....

My ring fetish is back in full swing again.  I'm a writer in my other-other life, and I need to constantly remind myself that writing = rewriting, so I bought myself another sterling silver stacking ring from Tiny Tokens.  I know what you're thinking...you make jewelry, why are you buying from someone else?  It's because I don't work with sterling silver and sometimes I like to treat myself to something different than what I make day-in and day-out. :)

Hand Stamped Ringlet

I really wanted to get a set of rings with my kitty cats initials on them, so I bought 2 of these little cuties from Kathryn Reichert.  Aren't they adorable?

Stackable Letter Ring

And to further support my author-alter-ego, I bought some cool custom pencils from The Carbon Crusader.

I Write, Therefore I Am Pencils

Next, I bought a small chipboard calendar to keep track of marketing events for my shop.  I absolutely love it!!

2013 Chipboard Plain Desktop Calendar

And finally, I gave in to my soap addiction with some new whipped soap in a jar from Anderson Soap Company!  I tried a new scent called Infinite Romance, and O.M.G. this scent is perfection if you favor fruity scents over floral.  I adore it!!

And a little peppermint, too. I love the tingle!!

Hope you enjoyed this peek behind my curtain!! 

~Lori

Trick or Treating and Some Real Good Eating

One of my best friends has a birthday on Halloween (Oct. 31st). I thought I'd take a spin around Etsy and see what nifty Halloween party finds I could discover!

Chocolate Spiced Apple Cider Butter Caramels, Fusion Sweets, $10

12 Black Cat Halloween Party Invites, Le French Circus, $15

Tiny Pumpkins 3 Dozen Cookies, Cookie Rush, $13.50

Halloween Paper Cake with Spider, imeon design, $20

Lime Frankenstein Soap Bar, Love Lee Soaps, $4.50

Custom Cupcake Toppers, Amanda Black Designs, $20

Assorted French Nougats in 8 Flavors, Kettle Confections, $14

6 Foot Hand Cut Fabric Garland, Halloween, Paisley Handmade, $12

Witch Hat and Broom Halloween Edible Fondant Cup Cake Topper, Artisan Cake Company, $4

Witch Halloween Favor Tags, set of 12, Dawn Correspondence, $8

All righty then! I hope you enjoyed this boo-tiful collection and are officially ready to party!

~Lori

Why is there soap in my mailbox? Confessions of a soap-porn girl...

Well, if you follow this blog you know that I love handmade and I LOVE soap and lotion. Seriously, good smelling soap/lotion can change my entire mood. I think I'm a poster child for the success of aromatherapy. I like fruity scents... the tangy and more tart the better. I'm partial to lime, cranberry, pomegranate, and orange. I burn lime oil when I'm in a bad mood because it always seems to pick me back up. So, imagine how happy I was (and a little confused at first) when I opened by mailbox the other day and saw a package from Soap that Makes Scents. Confused because I haunt tons of soap shops on Etsy every day, [I like soap!porn, I guess] but I try like hell to refrain from buying. Why? Because of this...

This is my soap stash. And I can promise you that there's more than this; I've probably stashed it somewhere else. So back to the story...

I saw the package and my first thought was, "Oh #$^%, I went sleep-shopping again! Dang it!" assuming that I'd been surfing the soap at 2 a.m. when my resistance is low. When I opened the package, I got even more confused because this is what was in it:

Citrus Splash Handmade Body Souffle Whipped Soap, $5.75

I knew I'd been lusting after this soap about a week prior. And there was only one other person who knew I was lusting after it...my friend, Paula, of Picard Creative:

Yes, it's true, sometimes I don't surf the soap!porn circuit alone. I blame Skype for that. So the soap was a surprise gift from my friend and I'm really enjoying it. Not only does it make me smell fabulous; it made the whole bathroom smell fabulous for the rest of the day! I keep wanting to get back in the shower, lol.

So, thumbs up for this soap! (And for Paula, lol.)

~Lori

Buy This So I Won't-Volume 5 - Handmade Soap

Yikes, I think I'm a bit tardy with this issue, but the New Year can be quite the whirlwind, can't it? This week's candidate for Buy This So I Won't is actually a class of products from different sellers all hailing from Artfire and is a vain attempt to address one of my most expensive Achille's heels. I have absolutely, positively no ability to resist handmade soap. I have a handmade soap addiction that's fed by the ridiculous buzz I get from aromatherapy or something. Seriously, if I'm having a really bad day, all I have to do is go pick up a bar of soap from the stack that's just waiting to be used, sniff it and WHAM, I feel better. (I will neither confirm not deny that I keep a soap sample in my purse for aroma therapeutic 911 emergencies.)

Now, some of you who pass through my world, may know that I like to make bracelets out of food to entertain myself, but I'm not nearly as skilled as these soap makers who keep making bath & body products that look better than my mother's banana bread. Honestly, do I really need to feel hungry when I'm taking a shower? No, I don't. If I made it to the shower without going near the fridge in the first place, I don't need to be rewarded with a bar of soap that looks like the neopolitan ice cream I just successfully resisted. So, dear readers, your mission this week is to BUY THESE SO I WON'T and don't eat them by accident...

Coconut Cream Pie with Shea Butter by soapdeli $5.00

Snicker Doodle Sugar Bubbles by the soap seduction $10.00

(anyone seen my fork?)

Pumpkin Crunch Cake Body Soap Design Series (Vegan Friendly) by SimplyTemptedBathandBody $6.00

(Is your tummy growlin' now?)
Lemon Sugar Cake Mini Bundt Cake Soap by Adoration $4.00

(One of these days, I'm going to accidentally take a bath with a Hershey Bar or a Reese Cup.)
Peanut Butter Cookie Whipped Goat's Milk Cold Processed Soap by Hendrick's Hearth $4.25

*Whew.* I made it through this entire post without buying any soap. Omg, that means there's a light at the end of my bubble bath. hee hee

Until next week, Lori