Monday, October 31, 2011

Sharing Ideas: Repurposed Wine Bottle Centerpiece


Most of my loyal followers are aware I have a Blimpy Girl food blog. It's a place where I share my personal weight loss journey and how I continue to maintain that loss. I won't go into all the details at this point, but I will say that the Blimpy Girl site does share some creative ideas (as time permits between soaping stuff).

I'm sharing this particular link because I feel it offers an inexpensive holiday centerpiece from repurposed wine bottles. Most of us are on a budget and recycling items for another purpose is a win-win situation. The household budget wins and you win by receiving  the results of the crafted end product.

I hope you enjoy this idea and share with others.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Fun with Layering Single Bars of Soap


Layering soap whether making a loaf or single bars takes time. Patience is key to making sure that layers are poured during the window period. If you pour too soon, the layers will bleed and migrate together and you won't get nice clean edges as pictured above. If you wait too long to pour the next color, you risk the chance of the layers not adhering together.

I used liquid gel colors in the GoPlanetEarth white soap base for these soaps. I elected to use the Mold Market Groovy Bar mold as it is deeper than most cavity mold types. After seeing the finished soaps, I wish now I would have used the injector tool and filled in the ridged area on the top of the soap in a coordinating color. The red color would have been nice. Oh well, next time!

Colors used for the soap: Red Oxide, Yellow Oxide, Kelly Green and Orange Oxide. If you are wanting deeper colors then use these colors in clear soap base. I wanted softer Fall tones and white base was ideal to achieve that look.

The soap pictured (right) was tilted and poured at varying angles. Experiment and have fun with layers. You can pour the layers in most any direction. You could even layer part of the short ends by tilting the mold slightly and then layer one of the long ends rotating back and forth.

To purchase everything used to make this soap as pictured, order below. Don't worry, you can remove items from the cart should you decide you don't want everything. But at least this BUY NOW button will allow to see all the items needed.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Green Apple Soap from Hemp & Mango Butter Base


This weekend is an intensive soap testing weekend. I like to be certain that all of our soap bases our performing well for customers. The only way to know is to test each base in various applications. Because our Hemp Butter and Mango Butter are very "hard" bases, I was a bit concerned how they would fair in a loaf mold when sliced.

They were awesome. Although both bases crumbled when initially cut from the scored block, once melted in the microwave that all changed. The hardness of the soap makes for low sweating and once the soap set up, it cut easily. The above picture showcases how well both these bases worked.

This soap base was scented in green apple fragrance (my honey man's favorite). I've been promising him some new soap and his grin alone told me how delighted he was when presenting him with the soap slices. It's weird, guys don't like to admit it, but they really do like soap.


The green color is made with hemp butter base colored with lime green and a smidgen of neon green. The white band is the mango butter base, no color added. I give both of these melt and pour soap bases a thumbs up based on my test results from today. Don't let the initial cut into the cubed soap base fool you. Even though the base crumbled somewhat when cubing from the scored block, once I melted in the microwave, it was all I had hoped it would be.

Monday, October 24, 2011

FREE Holiday Gift Boxes with Loaf Mold Purchase

Limited Face Book offer (only 9 sets available) as of today. Order the Mold Market brand square loaf mold and Mold Market will include 10 holiday Christmas gift boxes (includes lids). Each box will easily fit a loaf soap slice (even two). Fill the box with colorful holiday shred, shrink wrap your loaf slice and plop inside the box. Perfect gift, EZ gift giving. Boxes ship flat and assemble easily.

You MUST use the below link to receive this special offer. It is not available on the web site. Once you order, you can continue shopping from our web site for other items you may want to add to the cart.


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Autumn Leaves Soaps by Fields of Ambrosia

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Princess Packers


Meet the Princess Packers: (L to R) Annah, Nichelle and Courtney. We received a shipment of novelty toys that GoPlanet is donating to a local Trunk or Treat event. These princess tiaras were part of that shipment. Just goes to show you, no matter the age, we girls still dream of being a princess.

The girls were kind enough to let me snap a picture. So.... if you had a package ship yesterday, it was courtesy of a "princess".  I would also like to welcome both Nichelle and Annah to the GoPlanet team. Both girls are in training as packers and doing an awesome job. Also a big thank you to Courtney, Kaylee, Chelsea and Kristy who are assisting in the training process.

Monday, October 03, 2011

Sleeping With The Enemy Might Be A Good Thing

Sleeping with Your Business Enemy Might Be a Good Thing
My grandson likes to play with small action figures. His favorite play station is my bedroom because it is a quiet retreat from his siblings. He uses my bed as the backdrop for his battleground drama. When passing by my bedroom door, I often hear a "kish", pooooff!, "coo!" sound or a shout of "man down, man down as he imitates noises and phrases heard in action movies. It has been amusing until recently.

On this particular night I was burning the midnight oil and working late in my home office. I finally called it a night and crept into my bedroom anticipating the luxury of my comfy bed. I threw back the covers, positioned myself and suddenly discovered I was sleeping with the enemy. Not just one or two, but the entire army. My grandson’s ‘bad guy” army had built a fortress under my bed covers.

In one sweeping motion I knocked the action figures into a crippled heap on the bedroom floor. I can assure you visions of sugarplums were not dancing in my head. As little character heads and arms went flying and all I could envision were action figures preparing to do battle on the woman who attacked them on neutral ground because she believed they were invading her territory.

Isn't that so like us in the business world? We believe that taking out opponents invading our territory will allow us to be the dominator. In the online business world this isn't the case. Pairing up with the competition (or so called enemy) may just help us win in the end. Sleeping with the enemy might be a good thing.

In the past, territorial boundaries in business have been well defined. We find ourselves competing to be better than the other guys and willing to succeed at all costs. The fact that two people can do the same thing and do it without conflict is inconceivable. And then along comes social media and networking. This shared community concept has turned everything upside down. Just like the farming community in which I live, information, equipment, knowledge and tools are being shared to allow everyone to succeed. Companies and individuals are joining hands and embracing the idea that survival in the small business arena means collaboration.

The days of working in isolation are long gone. The new age business concept has evolved into a “team spirit” mind set. It’s an environment that expresses, “tell me what you know and I’ll tell you what I know so we can both grow our companies and make a living”. The Evil Empire concept has been crushed. We are finding it necessary to merge with our competitors. We are coming to understand that our perceived (business) enemies are well informed and decent people who might possibly be able to help us.

As business owners, we need to grow through multiplication instead of division and turn our competitors into our best allies. It’s time to take a look and determine if sleeping with the enemy might be a good business move. As we begin to understand the product differences with our competitors, we can also begin to improve our own product and make it stand out.

Certainly there will be competitors that we do not wish to share information. Those would be the “bad guys”; the guys I wiped off my bed without thought or care of their outcome. In no way am I suggesting you wipe out your enemy or competition. What I am suggesting is coming to the realization that some competitors may actually help you in collaborating a new market or product in this ever changing online business world. Take a chance. Sleep with the enemy. Engage in a relationship with your perceived Evil Empire. You might be surprised at where it takes you.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

The Journal: My Future Legacy

I celebrated a birthday this week and this is one of the wonderful gifts I received from my daughter. She wrote the first entry in "The Journal" and I cried. What an honor to have someone speak this kindly about you. Especially someone who has lived with you and has seen not just good stuff about you, but also the bad and ugly things that we try to hide from the world.

This will be the one and only time that I share "The Journal" with you. It will now become a very private part of my daily life. It will be my legacy in writings for my daughter and grand children.

I am committed to writing in the journal in my own handwriting which is not exactly neat. Thankfully, The Journal has lined pages. I plan to make my first entry tonight. I already know what I want to share.

Life is an incredible adventure. When I lost my Dad a few years back, I wish there had been a journal that allowed me to remember his life... in his own words...in his own handwriting. With all the electronic devices on the market, we have lost sight of how much a handwritten page, thank you, poem, or journal entry can mean. It's our personal postage stamp on life. We write, we scribble out things, we have misspelled words, but it makes us human. It makes the reader believe what we have written. They become engaged in our thoughts and feelings at that particular moment because there is no "send" or "delete" button. Call me old-fashioned, but I like that.



The first two quotes listed in The Journal read:



"There are two lasting bequests we can give our children; One is roots. The other is wings."- Hodding Charter, Jr.

"There is a point at which you aren't as much mom and daughter as you are adults and friends."- Jamie Lee Curtis
I've have always told my daughter, "If you weren't my daughter, I would want you for a friend." Lucky me to have both a daughter and friend. It was a good birthday. Not only because I was gifted this wonderful journal, but because so many other family and friends extended well wishes and made me feel that my life is important to them. I think that's all any of us can ask for. We want to know that we matter, that our life, our work, our talents, our efforts count for something. As the owner of GoPlanetEarth, I would like each and every one of my customers to know that you count and you're important.