Nearly finished with this slavery!

Market went very well and I am there for at least the next 5 weeks. Turns out last weekend is the traditional worst weekend of the year. People get paid early for xmas and then have to wait 6 weeks etc. Tho I had not considered that since I get paid mid month anyway and so does M. Anyway had best takings ever and if thats the worst weekend of the year I should be able to make this work. Ginger and Lime soap looking good but have yet to pH test etc and will expect it to be ready sometime mid February. Intending to make a citrous - not sure yet but Lime, lemon, orange and possibly grapefruit but may miss out grapefruit since apparently grapefuit essential oil is unreliable quality wise from one year to the next. Also have yet to make this francinsence & myhrr soap I have been planning for ages. Having time to make new as well as make stock is proving difficult! Thats as well as experimenting with lip balms. They are finally sorted and now also have fizzy bath melts tho doesnt look to hopeful with selling them. Or there was no interest last week. That could be a presentation thing tho and this weeks are like little cakes in petit four cases. Last weeks were ( and still are since didnt sell any!) half hearts. I am also doing heart shaped bath bombs which have turned out to be a complete nightmare to make but seem to sell really fast. So I have a problem here. I originally intended just to do these for valentines and mothers day but if they really are best sellers maybe they will end up having to stay. I am only doing 4 flavours of them - all with flowers. We will see. Maybe they are selling cos folk are starting to think of valentines day. I had a go at solid perfumes this morning. Nowadays I get up at 5am and do a few hours before going to boring day job ( 2 weeks till give in notice now so only 6 weeks left there!). Means I get to do some experiments. If I try to do at night have serious problems with making dinner etc and since M does shifts it simply doesnt work! Causes arguements and have to say he does have a point when he has to eat dinner at 8pm and go to work at 9pm so have had to stop doing that ( dogs dont like having to wait for dinner either!) and so I now do early in mornings instead. Anyway back to solid perfume experiment - by the smell of it there is no perfume left. Must have volatilized when putting into the hot oils/waxes. What a pain this is. have to work out how to get perfume into the hot wax/oils before they cool and go solid. I need to do aromatherapy by the looks of it as well to learn how to combine fragrance types and also need to do lots of experiments with perfumes. Well should be fun but its going to cost in both time and essential oils by the looks of it. I also want to have a go at making vegan milk bathsalts or bombs. No idea if this is going to work but nothing ventured etc...........have never seen anyone else making these either. Must do an internet search infact. Other than that I have actually blogged, honest but cant publish it yet cos of possible inductrial tribunal and it might end up stopping me from winning. They decided not to pay me. That was on Tuesday and gave me 5 days to apeal. I am going to but they obviously think because I have not yet gone back that I am not going to. They dont know I have a very interesting document in my possession. Will wait and see what the union tell me to do tho. Anyway market tomorrow and I am really believing now that this is really going to work. If it does then its a thank you to Sandy Maine for her book about making your own natural products bodycare business http://http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Herbal-Bodycare-Business-naturally/dp/1580170943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233308728&sr=1-1 cos thats what inspired me to go from a hobbyist cosmetics maker to a manufacturer albeit a small one.

If you want to do this you can do much worse than reading this. It doesnt give yopu business plans, it doesnt give you help in anyway really it just gives you inspiration and the belief to have a go and make it happen!

Well I think this weekend I will find out if I can survive doing this and if I can then slavery for me is about to end.............................................

markets

Spent this weekend exploring possible markets and have decided to start with Wellingborough market( Northampton). Its busy but not too busy so I should be able to handle it. Also it is possible to become a perm reasonably quickly. There is no one selling my kind of products there either. I am also interested in Donnington market which is one of the biggest in the Midlands but to do that one I will need to buy a stall which is a minimum of £135 and really I also will need a van not a tiny Fiesta!. I cant wait now till next saturday so we can get going. Will be needing to buy some thermals tho by the looks of things. This really could be the beggining of my new life. my main problem discovered from my only other local village market is I cant add up! I really need to find or buy a new calculator. I have several but no idea if I will find them in time. Anyway got to sort this one by saturday to avoid the embarrassment. I am still waiting for my stock to be delivered too and have a backlog of orders for bath bombs which I cant fulfill. Luckilly the guy who placed the order will wait a little longer but its a right pain. I dont really want to change supplier after the last time when the ingredients were second rate and I ended up throwing loads of stock out cos that is just expensive. I have a real problem with this tho. If the order doesnt come by thursday we are going to be very short of my very popular mini bath bombs.
Tonight I have my last website lesson. I have to decide whether or not to do the second bit. I am very keen to do so but what if it runs on a market day. Assuming this gets seriously going by February ( as in I will be able to quit my boring hateful job!)I may end up not completing the second bit and that will be waste of money. On the other hand if I do complete it I will be in a much better position regarding building my own website from scratch which will save me hundreds or possibly even thousand of pounds which I dont have! I have actually managed to put a web page up. Its a bit rubbish really but has a link to my ooffoo advert. Atleast now if anyone goes there they will know where to go to buy my soaps!