The Iowan magazine's 2009 Holiday Gift Guide

{image credit: Bobbie Russie-The Iowan}
Thanks to The Iowan magazine for including my soap in their 2009 Holiday Gift Guide.

New soaps

Fall 2009 Events

I'm taking on a few more events this year. Here's my show/event schedule for the rest of the year:

Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market (I'm usually at 2nd & Court)
October 24, 31st (7am-noon)

Artist's Open House (newly added)
814 7th Street
Ames, IA 50010 US
Friday, November 13, from 7-10,
Saturday the 14th from 2-10pm
Sunday the 15th from 3-6 pm.

Des Moines Green Gifts Fair
Sunday, November 15th (10am-4pm)
Des Moines Social Club, 1408 Locust St.

Harvest Market
Friday, November 20th (11am-2pm)
Saturday, November 21st (9am-1pm)
Capitol Square/Nollen Plaza 400 Locust St.

Market Day-Black Friday edition
Friday, November 27th (8am-6pm)
Market Street Media Foundry. 118 SE 4th St., Des Moines

Holiday Open House
776 SE Williams, Waukee
Friday-Sunday
10am-10pm

Winter Market
Capital Square/Nollen Plaza 400 Locust St.
Friday, December 18th (11am-2pm)
Saturday, December 19th (9am-1pm)

Closing up shop...

After much thought I decided to close my retail shop. My last day was Friday the 16th.

I've moved everything home and am really enjoying working out of my house again-plus the commute is great! I didn't have the space to make any products at the shop and had trouble finding the time as well. I've made several batches of soap already this week and am loving the full curing racks!

I'm going to work on reorganizing my soap "studio" this week and will try to remember to post some new photos soon. This was my office in the shop.

Roadtrip to see U2!

{image credit: U2.com}
Friday afternoon, Jordan & I took a roadtrip to Chicago to see U2 in concert. It was the first show of the U.S. leg of the tour. I've been a fan (ok,well fanatic!) since 1983 when I first heard Sunday Bloody Sunday on the radio. This was my first time (as well as Jordan's) to see them live. It was the best concert ever! I stood most of the time because I couldn't bear to miss anything. We had pretty good seats-though we faced the back right side of the stage. We could see Larry, and The Edge most of the time. Bono & the rest of the band would occasionally come around to the back of the stage The stage design & effects were phenomenal.
I'm no writer so it's hard to describe the experience, but you can get a taste here:
I would've loved to stay another night & see the 2nd show, but school for Jordan & work for me awaits...

We did have time to take side trips to IKEA and the Museum of Contemporary Art. We only had about 45 minutes to walk the museum before it closed but spent another 45 minutes or so in their delightful gift shop. All in all, it was a great trip. We'll have to do it again Jordan!

Oh my...

{ image credit: fiestawarecollectors.com}

I started collecting fiestaware two years ago or so after using white dishes for years. My collection isn't valuable. I just picked out the new & vintage colors that make me happy. Some came from department stores and the rest came from thrift stores, garage sales, & Craigslist.

I'm still on the lookout for something in Lilac and the large Chartreuse water pitcher, but I thought I was done.

I just discovered that the new color, Lemongrass has been out for a couple of months. Isn't it gorgeous? It would look fantastic with the Navy and the Cream.

The fiestaware people have also come out with a cool square collection. I love those square mugs. I have several of the coffee cups but no mugs yet... Ok, time to make more soap now so I can continue indulging in my Fiesta obsession!

New soaps

I have several new soaps on the curing racks right now. My Des Moines & Norwalk customers had a chance to purchase a few of these during the July farmer's markets but I just made small batches and they flew off the shelves.

Above is one I'm calling Code Noir, and is based on Armani's Code Black cologne. One of my male customers suggested I offer more "manly man" scents-so this one's for you Ray! I'll try to get a few more out this fall. Any suggestions?

Other new scents include:

Pink Champagne: Several people note you can actually smell the bubbles!

Violet: This is a gorgeous scent & soap and I don't usually like floral scents.

Lemongrass: By popular request

Back in Stock:

Lemon Sugar

White Tea & Ginger

Clean-formerly named Riverwalk.

Bar None: Unscented & Uncolored

I'll have these photographed, labelled & ready for sale by Friday.

UPDATE: The Code Noir & Pink Champagne sold out again before I had a chance to put them up on the web. If you'd like to reserve some, just contact me.

I'm in love!

Poppytalk just blogged about the new Amy Butler Rugs. I'm sure they are out of my price range, but a girl can dream, right?

Have you tried my Margarita soap yet? I was thrilled to see it pictured on the front page of Etsy yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't get a screen shot of it before it disappeared, but here's a photo of the soap. It's such a refreshing scent with lime and a hint of salt.

New packaging...

My friends are always teasing me about the number of times I've changed my soap packaging over the past 10 years--personally I've lost count, but here it is! I have a love affair with pretty paper and stationary so have gone back to using it in my soap packaging. It's so fun poking around paper stores and choosing a paper to match each scent.

I've also changed my scrub and body butter packaging slightly.

Bad, bad blogger!

I'm such a slacker when it comes to blogging-but I have a good excuse. I've been super busy and opened a "brick and mortar" store recently. I held the grand opening on May 9th.

My shop is in Norwalk, Iowa-about a 15 minute drive from downtown Des Moines. I share a retail space, so i'm not there the entire time we're open. We're located at 1017 Main Street,

Suite 3. My building sign is not up yet, but I'm in the same suite as Bailey's.

The hours are:

• Monday-Thursday 7:00 am-7:00pm
• Friday 7:00 am-6:00 pm
• Saturday 9:00 am-12:00 pm

Stop by & see me!

Jennifer

2009 Downtown Des Moines Famer's Market Dates

May 23rd, 30th
June 13th
July 4th, 17th, 25th
August 1st, 29th
September 12th
October 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st