Pro-Soup Propaganda

Weekend Soap Sale! Get An Extra 10% Off!

I am having a soap sale! THIS WEEKEND ONLY get 10% off my already crazy cheap soap prices with discount code SOAPPAL at checkout! I'm house-sitting at this house for only two more weeks and I would looove to have a lot less soap to pack out with me when I leave, so why not help me out a bit? :o)

Soap is currently finishing up curing and will be shipping next weekend! Time to stock up!!

I'm No Longer Making Soap

Yup, you read that title right. I have been doing a lot of thinking and I have decided that I'm no longer going to be making soap. It's been a nice ride. I thought it would be a good way to make some side money, but, unfortunately, if you don't sell much soap then you don't really make much side money. I have tried advertising, blogging, coupons, sales, giveaways, and all sorts of stuff, but you can't make people buy soap from you. My friends don't buy much soap. I don't sell much soap on Etsy. I haven't sold any soap on Big Cartel. I'm just tired of beating a dead horse. I do enjoy making soap and I do think I have an awesome product, but there are so many other soap makers and things to contend with that I'm okay with this decision. I have really enjoyed making soap. I like knowing what's in what I'm using on my body. It made me feel good knowing I was supplying a product that supported my beliefs. But now I've been making it for almost two years and have had some ups and downs. I'm okay with my decision. I tried it and it didn't work. Not everything one tries is going to work, but I know I put effort into it and gave it my best.

So what does that mean? I'm going to be selling my backstock at $5 a bar until I have no more soap. I'll keep some for myself, of course, and I might make some for myself since I do really like my product. I think I'm at a good place to quit. (What does that even mean?) I'll try and sell my ingredients to maybe other soap makers? (What DOES one do with a 25lb block of high temp coconut oil? Several gallons of olive oil?) I'm not worrying about it. Things will happen in time. It was really nice while it lasted but, like my last post, I'm ready to move forward in life! That doesn't include worrying about how many views I'm getting on Etsy, how many sales I'm making, how much time I'm putting into hoping I get something out of it.

And now this means that I *still* will be selling soap as it happens. I'm not going to pursue further advertising. Nothing comes out of it that I am putting into it. I still have ads that will run until the end of the year but after that we'll see what happens. Maybe all of my friends will be getting soap for Christmas. ;o) I'm just looking forward to trying something else. I am positive about the whole experience. It was great!

Big, huge, awesome thanks to everyone who did buy soap from me! It was really appreciated and I am still putting any money toward my travel fund, because I still got trips to pay for! Holiday time is coming up, so you know, any sales that I make will go toward those! If you want to check out my $5 soaps, there's links all along the right side of the page. You'll be my hero. ;o)

Discontinued Soaps on Sale

What I've Been Working On - The Wrap-up!

I'm Still Alive! (Just Really Busy)

Soap Giveaway!

Fiddleheads and Corvids

Fiddleheads are the curled-up parts of young ferns. They are only around a short amount of time, sometimes only a few weeks, before they uncurl into mature ferns. One of my favorite parts about hiking in the woods in early spring is seeing fiddleheads because it means summer is coming!

Springtime freshness leads me into the next part: mojitos! Made with fresh mint or spearmint (and extra lime, please!), these yummy drinks are the perfect quencher for hot days. The scent of this soap reminds me of sunshine and playing outside!"

So yummy, right?

I also made two more batches of Corvidae, my charcoal soap. It has been selling like wildfire, which is great!

I just need to make two more batches of my Beer and Honey Shampoo bar and then I'll be totally stocked up for awhile. Ahhh...soap, I love you.

Soap of the Month!

Hello, friends! I'm trying something new this month. I'm going to start having a Soap of the Month, where one soap is discounted all month long, but when it's gone, it's gone! It won't be back until the next month. I thought it would be fun to do this because I want to do a Soap of the Month subscription, where  you (or a friend!) can have three, six, or twelve month's worth of yummy soap sent to you automatically! That plan is not quite done yet, so in the meantime please enjoy this first soap: Snappy Rockfish! This is my super scented lemongrass ginger soap. It'll wake you up and get you going in the morning! Soaps are limited, so get yours at $5 for the rest of the month or until I run out. :o)

Spending Fast: Day 4

New Soaps!

Well, not *really* new, mind you. I haven't had these soaps in the shop for several months now, but I finally had some time to make them earlier this week, which makes me happy!

(I need to update the photos, too. This will also happen.)

Small Business Saturday!

It's Small Business Saturday, a day to go out and support the small businesses of your community. I try and do as much of my shopping at independent, local businesses because I feel it's important! This weekend is a huge consumer holiday for Americans, so if you're going to do your holiday shopping, support local!

I am having a Black Friday through Cyber Monday sale in my soap shop, so if you feel like picking up a few bars it really helps support my income, which is appreciated as I am only working very part time right now. Use code CYBER at checkout to get 20% off your soap order at Snappy Rockfish Soap, good through Monday evening.

So Excited For New Soaps!

Less than a week before my first batch of soaps made upon returning to Portland are DONE! Whoo hoo!


I have all this curing right now. What I'm super excited for is my two new soaps to be done!

About this time every year I usually start searching on Etsy for candy cane scented bath products. I LOVE the smell of peppermint and vanilla together and so I'm really excited that this year I was able to make my own soap! I find the smell really energizing in the morning. It's so happy! I hope other people love it, too. Check it out here!

My other new soap that I'm really excited about is my Hairy Sasquatch Shave Bar. I have been wanting to make a shave bar forever and now I've got one! I used the same recipe as the shampoo bar (without the beer, sorry!) so I know it will be super lathery. I also added bentonite clay to make it slippery and give you a good shave. I'm also glad to offer a shave bar because it replaces a bottle or tube of shave cream and you don't have to worry about recycling it!

Soap Stuff! New Scent Ideas

I've been doing some brainstorming about different types of scents I want to do for some upcoming soaps and wanted to run some ideas by people.

*Stargazer lily
*Rose
*Mixed berry
*Pink Sugar (like the perfume)
*Ginger Peach
*Birthday cake
*Nag Champa

Is there anything people would like for me to make sometime? These scents are all scents I personally want to use, but is there anything else?

P.S. Still having my pre-order sale in the Etsy shop! Coupon code "PREORDER" gets you 10% off! I can't order any more fun fragrance oils until I make some more sales, so c'mon! ;o)

Busy, Busy: Getting Rid of Stuff, A New Job, and A Soap Sale!

Whew! Is all I have to say. The past couple of days have been really busy! Jonathan went back to work yesterday, which meant it was time for me to buckle down and get back to work myself. I am about 90% done putting my Alaska things away, but some of that being put away is contingent upon other things getting cleaned up. Now that I'm back I've begun my project of going through things and finding things to get rid of. I was able to clear out a good chunk of my closet and also a good part of my dresser in the spare bedroom.

Oh, the spare bedroom.

We have been using it for storage since we moved here. It has gone through many changes. As of now, our goal is to turn part of the space into a workroom for me, so I can get a work table and have space to do soap stuff and art projects. Unfortunately, this is what the room looks like right now:




The entire room is completely full. For Jonathan's sake, he had started the process of going through his stuff (his part of the room project) before I came back from Alaska. He hasn't had much of a chance in the past few days to work on his stuff, but since I have been home yesterday and today I've managed to go through a lot of my stuff. I got rid of one tote completely and I just have one more long tote of stuff to go through and then that will be a big chunk of my stuff in here. I'm not sure what our plan is when we're done with going through things. I'm not even sure WHEN we'll be done going through things. It might be kinda nice to have some shelving set up and all of the stuff we've decided to keep can go in that, but we don't know how much will even decide to be kept, you know?

I've begun listing things on CraigsList and have a Flickr collection set up of photos of things I'm getting rid of, so if you see something in there you like it's yours! Some stuff I will list on eBay this weekend. I wish I could have a garage sale because there is some "good" stuff that I think is worth something, but we aren't allowed to have garage sales in our apartment complex.

In awesome news, I am now contracted by a local company to make soap for them twenty hours a week! I will probably start sometime next week, but tomorrow I am meeting up with a person from the company to go shopping for supplies. In personal news, I am busting out a ton of soap! In addition to all the cleaning and organizing, I am making as much soap as I can because the holiday season is coming up! It would be cool next year to do holiday shows, but because I did the Alaska thing this year I am kinda behind. Next year I can plan for it, though!

Speaking of soap, I am having a pre-order sale in my Etsy shop because I have so much soap available, but not really "done" until the end of November. Use the code "PREORDER" at checkout to get 10% off your order and have some soap to look forward to! Here's the link to my shop.

This is what I'm working on this week, soap-wise:
PRE-ORDER - Super Yummy Handmade Beer and Honey Shampoo Bar
PRE-ORDER - Corvidae Charcoal and Green Tea Facial Bar
PRE-ORDER - Hairy Sasquatch Shave Bar 
PRE-ORDER - Malaspina Peppermint Vanilla Handmade Vegan Soap
PRE-ORDER - Chinook - Grapefruit Orange Handmade Vegan Soap
PRE-ORDER - Fireweed - Lavender Geranium Handmade Soap

I hope everyone is having a great week! Tomorrow is ~Friday!~

Funny How It Is

You know, sometimes we set up intentions and goals and things still just turn out how they will. I had the plan to make the Chinook and Rain-Dogg today, but that didn't end up happening. I did make two nice batches of Midnight Sun and Renai's Pinecone, though.


What's always interesting to me is that as the soap cools, it goes through a color transformation. I don't usually peek at my soap, because you want to let it cool as slowly as possible with cold process soap, but I just went and took a photo to show you how things go sometimes. The middle is the warmest part, which looks terribly unappetizing in the photos above. Who would want to use that in the tub? But I know by tomorrow it will look pretty, just as it usually does! The house smells like the Scotch pine essential oil in the Renai's Pinecone. Very fresh and clean!

This is a photo of how my last batch of KAKOW! managed to turn out. How did I do that?! When I cut into the first piece I squealed a little bit. It's so cool-looking! Too bad I have zero clue how to replicate it. Maybe I'll sell these pieces for twice as much as collector's items. ;o)

And, in going with the "not doing what I had intentionally planned to do today" theme, we didn't end up going kayaking, either! My friends were beat and my soap was taking longer to make today than usual, so it didn't end up happening. I did end up finishing "Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim," though, so now I can return it to my friend. I also discovered two new blogs I am quite fond of and spent some time reading through older posts - Itty Bitty Impact and RowdyKitten. I love them! Maybe you will love them, too?

In health news, some of you may remember my pre-cancerous cervical cell issue I was dealing with last year? Well, my first pap came back negative and I just got the call that it's time for me to get my second one. If this one if negative it means I can go back to getting yearly paps AND it might mean (this one I am crossing fingers for!!) that I can have normal private insurance and not have to be on the high risk list anymore. :o( To be turned away from insurance twice because I had the LEEP surgery done within the past year totally sucks, even though the first pap turned out negative and I am a pretty healthy person that usually takes care of her body. So send positive thoughts my way on Tuesday when I call to schedule my pap! I also have to now get a hold of the insurance company because I #1. never received anything from them in the mail and #2. have to cancel my credit card they use to automatically bill me every month because the number was stolen (good times). Gah. Tuesday morning is going to be sooo fun for me.

But! I am keeping my chin up. There is nothing to stress about because everything works out. I just wish I could take care of it tomorrow vs having to wait an extra day, but it will be fine. Life is good!

New Excitingness is Afoot!

Kiiind of excited about life lately. (I know, I know, you are saying, "When are you not excited about life?!" Work with me here! ;o)

Jonathan and I have decided that when I go back to Portland I will be looking for a part time job so that I can spend the other time trying to get more done on my soap. I'd love to be able to just make soap for a living, but that would be a long ways away. ;o) This would also free up my time when I start school again in January. I need to take a statistics class and do my senior project and then I'm done with my Bachelor's of Anthropology. Booyeah! I have always worked full time and gone to school full time, but I am looking forward to my time being used in a different manner. What an adventure it will be! I'm looking forward to not having as set of a schedule as I usually do and having a bit more free time to do the little projects I want to do will be awesome. So, Portlanders, if you know of anyone that needs someone part time, please let me (or them!) know. I'm energetic, love selling things, like working outside, etc. I am flexible! I love tackling new projects. I'll be back in Portland in mid-October, so it also is just in time for temporary, seasonal jobs. Who knows what my new job will be??

I've started to set up more online shops for my soap. They're pretty basic right now, because I haven't had time lately to make more soap, but that is going to change. I have a bunch of new essential oils from one of my favorite Portland shops, Mr. Green Beans, and I'm ready to get busy! Once I have a bunch of soaps made I'll be able to advertise on blogs, which I've been wanting to do for awhile. I also have had plans for a shaving soap and facial bar that I have supplies for but haven't put into effect yet.

One of the things that has been keeping me busy lately is that I've been working another new job! Yes, that is four jobs in Ketchikan right now. I now work at a downtown tourist shop on one of my two days off from the coffee shop and in the afternoons on a couple of other days. I am so, so excited at all of the money that I've been able to put into our joint savings account and my personal savings account. The only money I've really spent lately is on food and going out with friends every once in awhile. Everything else gets funneled into savings.

So this is why I haven't been blogging much lately. Just working a lot and then spending time with friends. Today I'm going to make some Chinook and Rain-Dogg soaps (no link to Rain-Dogg because I've actually only made it once and haven't had a chance to make it again - it is made with Rainier beer and smells like oranges! It's yummy stuff!) and then hopefully go kayaking!

I hope everyone has been having a great weekend!

Eco-Friendly Finds: Minimizing My Beauty Products

Sorry for the lack of giveaway yesterday and the update that there will not be another giveaway until next week, I promise!

Today I'd like to talk about a little bit of downsizing I've been doing that I'm really pretty excited about! I have been downsizing other things, as you may know. I'm working on using and needing/wanting less and (hopefully?) saving more, or at least having less "stuff." Today I thought I'd update on my beauty products that I'm working on replacing with better things and not needing!


When I have run out of lotion I am going to start using organic coconut oil as a moisturizer (for both my face and body), which is something I buy by the gallon, because I make soap with it! It's always around and it smells awesome! I was inspired by my friend Amy's post about how much she loves it. I have read other people's good reviews of it, but since I actually know Amy it gave her word a little bit more oomph for me.

I'm not sure how I'll like it for my face in the mornings, though. It IS very oily at first, so I'm thinking maybe if I just use a tiny bit it will work then dab my face to get any excess off before I put my powder on for the day.

I'm super duper excited to announce that my shampoo bars are DONE and I have listed them in my Etsy shop! They smell SO GOOD. I used Deschutes' Black Butte Porter, honey, organic coconut oil, sunflower oil, and many other good-for-you ingredients. I want to eat this bar. Seriously.

So now I'm using my shampoo bars, which is awesome because it cuts down on bottle waste and packaging. I've been using other people's shampoo bars for several months now, so it makes me feel awesome that I can finally use my own!

I love my face scrub. I do. But it is expensive and I have read about the benefits of using a face brush for light exfoliation, so I found one for all of like $3 or something and love it! I have actually had it since the beginning of this year sometime, but since my face scrub is almost out, I do not plan on buying more and just plan on brushing my face. It's free and endlessly renewable! (Obviously except for when the brushes wear out. But, hey, $3!)

Why do I have two toners? I finally was able to empty my giant bottle of toner into an empty smaller bottle, but I still have another bottle of the original toner in the smaller bottle. Why two? This is still a mystery to me. I'd love to not have a bottle of toner around, but I do like having something to wipe my face off with that isn't a full on cleanser for the times when I have just gotten done working out or riding my bike or whatnot. Any thoughts?

So this is what I've been working on! I'd love to hear other people's ideas about what you are doing to minimize your beauty products and beauty routine! I find it funny that I have as much "girl stuff" like this because I'm not even a product person. I don't usually have a bunch of extra products or bags full of makeup, etc, sitting around, but I do have my little bit that I want to work on. :o)

Soap Sale!

I'm having a soap sale from now through the end of tomorrow night! Use code HORIZONT at Snappy Rockfish Soap to get 10% off your soap order! I've been making a whole bunch of soap lately, so check it out!

P.S. I was saving up for a Horizont camera and needed to sell 24 bars of soap to earn the money for it and I have sold that much! Yay! But the sale is still going on until I go to bed on Monday night, so enjoy my little soapie gift!

Life Update

As you know (if you are a usual reader of this blog), I have been house-sitting at a house out on North Tongass. Well, the owner of the house wanted the house back, so instead of having a "base" place for me to live for the summer when I was not house-sitting for other people, I now don't have that. It's a disappointment for me, but I'm trying to see the best of it. Now it basically means every two weeks or so I will have to load up my entire life in Ketchikan into my car and go somewhere else. I'm at a house that has all sorts of fun stuff right now, like a hot tub and not just one but TWO dishwashers (!), so I'm really enjoying being here. After I'm done house-sitting for these friends I'll be going out to Myurgen's house for a week and a half until my next house-sitting job starts again. I am so thankful Myurgen said I could stay with them when I don't have anywhere else to go!

I am pretty happy about these pictures coming up. I have been wanting to take more exciting photos of my soaps, so before I left to visit my mom I took all of the soaps that I had around the house that weren't wrapped outside to take new pictures of them and I'm really happy how they turned out!





Eventually I'll take new pictures of all the soaps and better pictures of the soaps in their super cute wrapping (although you can see many pictures of them on the fan page), but that will happen in time. I'm at least happy to get this far! I was super productive last night and managed to make two double batches of soap! I managed to get two loaves each of the Chinook and the Snappy Rockfish. Also, I now have the oils to make shampoo bars with! They'll be made with Deschutes' Black Butte Porter, honey, sunflower oil, and other yummy stuff. The recipe sounds good enough to eat!

Something I need to get back into doing is cooking better meals for myself again. Now that I'll have more fridge space than a dorm-size fridge I need to start making more quality meals. I feel like I've just been kinda half-assing it and I'm tired of it. I miss cooking! But I am also super tired when I get home from working all day, so I'm not sure where the line is drawn. I'm still eating mostly healthy, but I think I'm eating more processed food than I'm used to and I'm not getting enough of my beloved vegetables right now. Anyway, just something that's been on my mind lately!

That's all I got right now. I have jumped right in back to work and moving my stuff around since I got back into town on Friday and I am pooped! I hope everyone has a great week!!

Kayak Racks, Soap, and Water Problems: Wednesday Night's Shenanigans

Whew, I can already tell this week is going to be a doozy! Steve went out of town yesterday, leaving the coffee shop in the capable hands of Heidi and I, but it's going to be a busy week, I'm sure!

Yesterday I ended up ordering my new base rack for my car and then the kayak rack for that. The kayak I'm going to buy from my friend is really going to happen!!

I ordered this rack from Backcountry (via Amazon):