Art Festival Coming Up
Zeleny Art Fair
Don’t forget, Saturday, April 28th, Farmers Apothecary will be set up from 9am to 4pm at the Zeleny Art Fair in Parkville, Missouri. Come visit with us, sniff some great soaps, and check out all the other awesome offerings from quality artisans and crafters. We’ll be right outside the Heartland Center, just look for the banner!
I’m planning to bring lots of my new varieties, plus the old favorites. Lip balms, bath bombs, lotions, candles – all my awesome products will be on hand for shoppers to peruse.
We hope to see you there!
Forays Into Wholesale
Poison Apple Cobbler Soap
This year, it is one of my biggest goals to expand my business into the realm of wholesale. If I am going to grow my business like I’d like, this is a logical step in the right direction. I have been pounding the pavement locally in person, as well as sending emails, and cold calling, but without much success. I’ve recently begun to send out information packets via snail mail to businesses I think my products would be a good fit with. I’ve got a master list of places I plan to contact (we’re up to 110 at the moment) and it grows daily.
It is discouraging to be turned down by shop owner after shop owner in your own hometown, but I can’t let it get to me, I can’t let it scare me out of continuing to try. I know I have an awesome product. I know I make wonderful things that people enjoy. I know my brand is sound. So, even though I have my days… yup, I do have my days… I HAVE to keep trying. For my sanity, and as a way to get out from under working for someone else for the rest of my life, I have to keep trying.
I offer low wholesale minimums, private labeling, custom fragrances, and many other great options. So, if you are interested in carrying Farmers Apothecary products in your shop or know of a location that might be interested in hearing from me, I would love to hear from you! I gladly welcome wholesale inquiries, so please feel free to contact me for all the details!
Slimming Down
Dixie the Wonder Dog
I’ve been working on slimming down my online activities. The first to go were all my “Fanlistings”, mini-fan sites devoted to some of my favorite things. They’d become more of a thorn in my side than anything else, and I just didn’t have the time or drive to devote to them any longer. They were outdated, and all needed updating and more in the way of fresh content, and I just didn’t have it in me. So they’re all gone. If you’ve come here searching for one, it has been closed, the old member’s list is gone, the content is gone, zip, zilch – gone. I also had neither the patience or the desire to “adopt” them out to new owners and mess with all that goes along with that – finding a new owner, sending them the member’s list, transferring content, blah blah blah – nope.
Next on the ax-list was Comic Candy, my comic book gallery website, a shining, online beacon for spammers and attempted hackings. It took all morning to delete all the files I had uploaded there. It now contains nothing but a simple link to Farmers Apothecary. Soon Wallpaper Junkie will close as well (so if you want to snag wallpaper, I suggest you do it right directly), and it will redirect to Farmers Apothecary as well.
I feel lighter already.
I Love Making Soap
Witches Brew Soap from Farmers Apothecary
I love making soap. I truly adore the whole process – figuring out what ingredients I want to use, selecting or blending the fragrance, plotting the colors and design, mixing and making, pouring and molding, cutting… creating a label… I can be artistic or practical, colorful, plain… I love it. It sates my urge to create. And countless people enjoy using my creations. It’s wonderful.
Soap Batches from Monday
I never thought I would enjoy it so much. I never thought it would become this obsession. This thing I talked endlessly about to anyone who will hold still long enough. This thing I hope to eventually make into my sole source of income. I mean, I was a tomboy growing up, playing by the creek in the woods, wishing I could grow up to be Indiana Jones, and now I make soap.
I took a vacation day from work Monday and made this soap. Four pretty batches, all cut and curing.
(Back row: Victorian Rose; Brandied Pear; South Pacific In Front: Witches Brew) Look for these in about a month at Farmers Apothecary!
Frankenmonkey and Other Exciting Craftyness
Frankenmonkey!
I got a sewing machine for Christmas. Because I am going to sew things. Super awesome things.
My previous experience with a sewing machine is this: one time when I was like 8, I sewed together two pieces of fabric and made a little cat shaped pillow (which I still have, thankyouverymuch). After I attempted to thread the sewing machine for an hour, using the instruction booklet (complete with illustrations) and several choice curse words, I gave up and called my mom. She came over and helped me figure out what the smack I was doing, and then there was no stopping this craft train baby.
The very first thing I planned to make was a sock monkey of sheer spectacularness.
Aaaand I made this. He’s made from a pair of outgrown little kid socks, so he’s a mini-monkey…. and yeah, he’s sort of creepy looking, especially with that square Frankenmonkey head he’s got goin’ on. But I made him, and he’s awesome.
