We got the house!

The sellers accepted our bid, so now we wait for the home inspection. Considering it was built in 1924, I am expecting him to find some problems. Hopefully, they will not be anything major. I can't wait for the home inspection. It will give us an opportunity to see the house again. I plan to take a ton of pictures and measure the rooms so we can start planing what we will need to buy. Everything has happened so fast. I can't believe that we only started looking at houses on Thursday and are already in contract on a house! So excited, yet so nervous. Ah...let's hope I can stop thinking about the house and get some sleep tonight.

Long time, no blog :(

Well and for good reason. I have been very busy finishing up my research, working on papers for publication, applying for jobs, working on my thesis, and searching for a house. Wowzers...way too much on my mind! Well Dylan and I found an awesome house today and just pit in an offer. We are so excited! We will know tomorrow if they accept or counter offer. We heard there may be another offer going in today so hopefully our offer is good enough. This house is really a gem. It is a beautiful 1920's brick Tudor style home with nice landscaping and a gorgeous slate roof. The owers have really taken such great care of this house and have upgrated the kitchen and bathrooms. I am still a bit shocked that this house was in our price range. Anyways, I have attached some pictures. Wish us luck! Hopefully, they will accept our offer, then I can start thinking about where to set up my soap lab!

Organic Oils---not worth the cost!

After looking at oil prices, it seems that organic is not in my foreseeable future. They are SO expensive. Many are over $200 for a 35lb pail...I think I will stick with conventional oil at this point which is about $50 for 35lb. Maybe when I start making lotions and other leave on products I will use organic oils in them, but for wash off products it is probably not worth it. Thanks for all you helpful comments. :)

Artfire

How many of you have checked out Artfire? I have created a LadybugSoapworks shop there. I have not uploaded any items yet, but it looks like it may be a better place to list than Etsy. I am going to be working on my shop this weekend. Click here to sign up. Right now they have about 2500 stores left that can be opened at a rate of $7 per month. No listing fees or commision fees. Pretty good deal for those who have lots of sales. After the remaining 2500 or so people sign up, the price goes to $20/month. They also have free accounts. Go check it out and if you decide to sign up, click here to give me credit for recommending you or type in LadybugSoapworks when you sign up.

Organic Oils?

I have been thinking about changing all my oils over to organic oils as I run of of my current stock. How many of you currently use organic oils in your soap and other bath/body products? What is the general preference...do you care if your soap is made from organic oils or not? This would require me to raise my prices by probably 50 cents to $1, though I will have to price everything out to make a final decision on that. I would love to hear your opinion on the use of organic oils.

Finally, since it has been sooo long since I last posted pictures I will tease you with some new items that will be listed in my store soon. The first is some Pumpkin Pie Cream Soap. This is the real stuff...real soap not the foaming bath stuff.

This is Lavender Shea soap made with lavender essential oil. I brushed the top with mica so that is has a nice sparkle.

This red hot soap is cinnamon scented.
Lavender bath oil. Made with turkey red castor oil so that your tub does not get slippery. Turkey red castor is a water soluble oil.
Patchouli roll-on perfume.

Price Drop!

I have gone through my ETSY store and decreased prices on many of my soaps. Head over there and check out the great deals!

I will soon be releasing shealoe scrubs and whipped shealoe butter, so keep your eye out at ladybugsoapworks.etsy.com and ladybugsoapworks.net for the new products! I will post some picture very soon...I promise. I know the blog has been lacking lately on pretty picture. Must find a way to get my awesome boyfriend to take some pictures for me! I have had some cinnamon and eucalyptus mint soap waiting for pictures for over 1.5 months!

Exploding Frog Soaps!

I came across these soaps on ETSY at Howards Home and just had to post about them. They are little green glycerin soap froggies that are basically filled with bath bomb materials. The bomb ingredients are dyed red to look like guts! Haha...how fun would these be for little kid bath time. I think I am going to order a couple for myself. Check them out here.