Dancing Panda Soapworks

The Independent Personal Care Business neighborhood, to be exact.

Earlier this summer I made a posted in my own journal and a few communities concerning the FDA Globalization Act of 2008.

Well, here we go again: Another hearing on the matter will be held this week in Washington, D.C. this Tuesday August 5th.

I again urge everyone who is remotely connected to independent business, be you consumer or creator, to look into this piece of legislation and tell your congressmen and women exactly how you feel about having your choices in body care (among other things) further limited by the government.

Don't delay; the time to act is now.


Some links, for your information:


Information Directly from the Committee on Energy and Commerce


Indie Beauty Network Information on Globalization Act


Anne-Marie Failoa, Owner of Brambleberry Soap Supplies, Blogs on the Issue Here


The Organic Beauty Expert Gives Her Opinion on the Matter


Donna Maria of Indie Beauty Network and Anne-Marie of Brambleberry Challenge You to "Join Us in D.C."


Please, please, PLEASE don't let this continue to fly under the radar. It is a wolf in bloodied sheep's clothing that will further strangle consumer choice in the U.S.A.

Crossposted here, there, and everywhere. Apologies if you see this more than once, but really, can it be talked about enough?

Not in the sales, just in the making of the stuff.

A dear from of mine called me late last week to say that she needed help. She is the payroll manager at her office in Apex, NC, and the lady who keeps track of employee records is leaving for graduate school. Long story short, apparently the filing system is currently in a bit of disarray and my friend needs to find a way to fix it. Enter: Me, the most organized person she knows. :D

To translate, I have taken on a six-month part-time gig in my friend's office to help sort things out in their filing system. It wasn't so much the money that made me take the job as the wanting to help a friend in need. So, this officially means that the Panda is a part-time business for the next six months. In actuality, I think it means that I'm just always going to be working.

Hey, I tried to tell you guys I'm a workaholic. But you didn't believe me. . .

Anyway, so I have not made soap at all this week so far. Today I'm hoping to change that. Household chores first, though, and then soap. Hopefully I can find the camera and take some photos of the actual process, but no promises. :D

Also, photos from our day with Habitat for Humanity are forthcoming, as are pictures of another non-soap project I was working on yesterday. :)

Nothing urgent, I just need some input.

I give up. You win. I am finally caving in: I'm getting a blog on Blogger.

Yes, I know. I'm Holly Come-Late-To-The-Party yet again. STFU. :-P

The question is, what name should I use for the address and the title? Should I stick with ZeeDancingPanda? Dancing Panda Soapworks? Or should I pick something else entirely, like Panda Girl Blog?

Suggestions are needed, because my brain is slush from this weekend's activities. (More on that later.)

Thanks a lot, folks. I appreciate it. :)

You know the drill. ;)

New additions to the "Candles & Bath Salts" and "Soap Bars" sections!

New itmes include:
Coffee & Cocoa Soap Bars
French Vanilla Soy Candles
Lavender Meadow Soy Candles
Cafe Mocha Soy Candles,
and more!

Also, certain items have dropped in price. Check the "Sales" section to see what's been slashed!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade dancingpandasoap.etsy.com

I was in a holding pattern on making soap until today, as I had run out of shea butter. I ordered some last week, and it got here not even an hour ago. This makes me very happy. :)

Currently, I'm not making candles. I'm completely out of soy wax, and I have to wait until I get certain paperwork finished before I can order more. (Don't you just love bureaucratic red tape?) Luckily I still have about two dozen in stock, so it's not like I am backordered. I don't have to go into a pouring frenzy just yet.

Today's soap projects include Dragon's Blood and Ginger Lemon Verbena. I've had more than a few people messaging me with questions about how long it will be until GLV comes back into stock. Patience, my lovlies, patience! It won't be long now. . .

The liquid soap project should be going into it's testing phase shortly. Let me tell you, liquid soap making is quite a different animal than solid soap making. IMO, it takes a lot more patience because it has a few more steps than I'm used to. Hopefully, it will all turn out right in the end, though.

I updated the Etsy store, just for giggles. Kidding! My merchandise is piling up from this work-a-holic streak I've had going, so I slashed some prices on jewelry and soap in hopes of getting it out of my house. You know, before my husband kicks my butt for having more soap than food out on the counter. ;)

I promised you photos, so you're getting photos!

Thanks to icepanthar22's generously lending me her camera, I have been a picture-taking fool these past few days. Yay!




FINALLY managed to get a good, somewhat "artsy" shot of Coffee & Cocoa. About darn time, too, given that the ones took last year seem to have disappeared. . .O.O

( The rest are behind a cut, because I'm polite and stuff. ^_^ )

Story time. Let me tell you what happened to a wonderful lady named RJ Whiggins.

For the unfamiliar, RJ runs a soap supply business out of her home in Georgia. Until recently, her website was www.herbalsoapsbyrj.com. To make a long and complicated story short, someone went behind her back and canceled her webhosting payment on the site, and it was down for nearly two weeks. The webhoster refuses to give her hosting on the old site back, even though it was his fault that his employee did not ask for the right clearances in order to find out the person posing as RJ on the phone was a fake.

As such, she has had to get a new domain name with a different host. This is seriously cutting into her sales, since no one seems to be able to find the new site. In the last month, her sales have dropped 98% due to lack of traffic. If things don't change, she might have to close the store! So, I have taken it upon myself to spread the word that Herbal Soaps & Supplies by RJ is still alive and kicking at the following new address:

http://www.herbalsoapbyrj.com

RJ and her daughters have taken great care of me during my years as a soaper, and that's why I am doing my best to help them by pointing my fellow soapers in her direction. She has a great selection of essential and fragrance oils, as well as base oils and butters and various other supplies. She sells them in small sizes, which is ideal for the crafter, and her minimum order is only $10! So hurry over to Herbal Soaps & Supplies by RJ and get soaping!

crossposted to soapmakers

It is now definite: I will not have a new tent lined up in time to have Dancing Panda make an appearance at the Flea Market tomorrow. *sigh*

Oh, well. Better to go in a good mood and with a new dayshade rather than constantly worrying whether I can set up and break down the darn thing all by myself.

Sorry, friends. Hopefully, I will have the kinks worked out by July 19th, so I can set up shop on July 20th.

*shrugs* The punches come in fast and you gotta roll with them. ;)

At least 'round here it does.

John's eldest nephew, Andrew, is coming to stay with us for a few weeks while he and one of his buddies look for an apartment near UNC-Chapel Hill to stay in for the duration of their graduate studies. This is significant for two reasons.

One, Andrew will be the first of John's nieces and nephews to go to graduate school. Good on ya, Andrew! :)

Two, he will be the first person to stay with us for any length of time over 24 hours.

As I have mentioned in my personal journal, this means the final stages of finishing the spare room must be completed ASAP. So, why am I writing about it here? Well, because that room will serve two functions. The first and foremost use of that room for the time being will be as Andrew's room until he starts school mid-August. The second function of that room will be as my office once Andrew moves into his own apartment.

That's right. After YEARS of calling a small desk cluttered with a desktop computer, speakers, a keyboard and mouse, and a printer in the corner of our bedroom "my office", I will FINALLY have an honest-to-goodness home office. I cannot WAIT! Well, I'll have to wait, obviously, but you know what I mean.

Once it is finished (and Andrew is no longer staying in it), I will take photos and add them to this journal's ScrapBook. Then everyone will be able to see it. Won't that be great?!? *bounces*

John has spent most of today clearing that room of the boxes and furniture that have accumulated there over the last nine or so months, and tomorrow we'll be installing the ceiling panels. (READ: Drywall.) After those are structurally sound, all we'll need to do is install a door and make a few adjustments to the closet, then construction portion will be finished. After that, it is up to me to get all the cosmetic bits finishes, such as painting the ceiling and finally paint the last two walls. (I actually painted 2.3 walls last summer, but then time got away from me and cold weather is NOT good for painting when you don't have central heating.)

We're considering it a refresher course in carpentry for the BIG EVENT next Saturday, which is our first build with Habitat for Humanity. Our shift starts at 8 am and ends at noon, but as someone who has built entire barns before I can tell you that it will be VERY TIRING to say the least.

Anyway, now I'm rambling. I have soap to make, soap to cut, and photos to take. Back to it! :)

Today did not go exactly as planned. Neither did yesterday, come to think of it. No change there, really. *grin*

Tea Tree Oil soap got moved to today instead of yesterday, because after I measured out all the oils I found that all my thermometers were broken or missing. This includes the nifty infrared digital readout one that John got me last summer. Weird, that.

Anyway, so I wound up doing website updates last night instead. Most of the soap listings that were missing photos are now fixed, except for Ginger Lemon Verbena and Coffee & Cocoa. I searched through three hard drives and two jump drives, and even though I am POSITIVE that we took photos of those two soaps, they were nowhere to be found. Lucky for me, a good friend of mine (icepanthar22 to be precise) is allowing me to use her camera from now until Saturday, so this can be remedied.

It's funny. I look at my website every darned day (sometimes multiple times) and I did not notice until last night that certain pictures are in the wrong place or missing altogether. For example, if you look closely at candle page you can see that the photos for Sage & Pomegranate and Red Clover are identical. I totally missed it before now, and I helped design the darn thing!

Also, Pearberry has been missing a photo in it's listing for nearly a year now. How could I have missed that big, glaring hole in the candle page? Random amnesia, perhaps? I have no clue.

Missing one photo on the Bath Salts page, so that's not terrible. I need to make a batch of said bath salt for the flea market on Sunday, anyhow, so that will be an easy fix. I'm thinking of taking down the lip butter and gift basket pages for a while, at least until I get better pictures, because the current listings are just dreadful.

Well, 'tis my own fault, really. Resting on one's laurels does nothing but leave read welts on your. . .well, you get the idea. For now, though, it is nearly bed time. I will retire to the living room to watch the season premiere of Burn Notice with my ever-patient husband and a bowl of organic Graham Bumpers (think Golden Grahams, only better).

Pictures tomorrow or Saturday of the newest Tea Tree batch! Tomorrow will be home-improvement projects and (hopefully) a batch of French Lavender. Later days. ;)

Tonight is website upkeep night. (It happens to coincide with Clean Sheet Day. Coincidence? I think not!)

I don't much like doing upkeep like this. It isn't that such activity bores me. I don't much like this because while I am not a computer novice, I am by no means an expert, either. I've heard stories of other business people accidentally "nuking" their entire servers because they did not know what they were doing. The very idea scares the ever-loving snot out of me.

The Panda and I have come too far to be thwarted by my own ineptitude. So, I wait until John gets home from work before I do web-related chores, since he can usually fix anything I screw up. Besides, his laptop is the only computer in the house that can run Adobe Contribute and the latest edition of Photoshop. Can't really do web chores without those programs.

So, while most of you are blogging, or shopping, or tucking your younglings into bed, I shall manipulate code and crop photographs with a glass of sangria in one hand and a computer mouse in the other. Here's hoping I can avoid any drunken typos.

Goodnight. :)

So, I buy a lot of my soapmaking odds and ends from Bramble Berry Soap Supplies out of Bellingham, WA. I've been a customer of theirs since the beginning of my obsession with career in soapmaking. The lovely lady who owns the place, Anne-Marie Faiola, is such an awesome person that I swear I want to be her when I grow up. Only brunette instead of blond. *grin*

Anyway, I am such a fan of hers that I regularly read her blog and chime in with comments. I also regularly email her asking questions on the subject of soapmaking, because hey, I may be the local expert in my circle of friends, but I am by no means the expert on soap. Ya dig?

Well, imagine my surprise when I cruise over to Anne-Marie's blog today only to see that a photo I sent her in passing was the subject of her first post of the day! (She's a huge fan of everything cupcake, so I saw that bag on Ebay UK and HAD to send it to her.)

A nod to me, by name, and a link to my website, right there in the daily musings of someone I don't know personally. I'm so excited I am about to BURST!

Had to share. Now, back to the lab!

*hee!*

Normally my work day runs from 2 pm to 7 pm, unless it is a busy season. (Namely, Christmas and/or Valentine's Day.) However, today it will be noon to 5 pm because John had to be at work earlier than usual, thus our gym session had to be moved to this evening rather than early this morning.

If you were to look at the website rightnow, you would see that we are low or out of DARN NEAR EVERYTHING. Apparently little luxuries like specialty soap and candles are affordable enough that people will still buy them even during an "economic downturn." (I only put that in quotations because so many media outlets and commentators are arguing over whether to call it a downturn or a full-blown recession. *sigh*)

I am COMPLETELY OUT of lotion, but for some reason those changes to the website didn't take. Must fix that. *scribblescribble* Lotion can be made in between batches of soap, so all is good.

Today's goal is to make about 8 pounds of Sunny Disposition and probably 12 pounds of Dragon's Blood bar soap. Tomorrow will most likely be Tea Tree Oil and French Lavender. Somewhere in there I'll make Bear Olive, but I've done that formula so many times I can practically do it in my sleep.

Still putting together the first Scrub Club testing kits. I am so excited over this I can barely contain myself. Soon, my darlings. Soon. . .*wink*

At some point I will be doing a massive photo post, but I want to have all my ducks in a row first. For example, I need to find batteries for the camera since the charger has been MIA since the wedding in June. GAH! Never ends, does it?

Later days. ;)

Just a few announcements. Housekeeping, mostly, but important nonetheless.

#1--Dancing Panda will be at the NC State Fairgrounds Flea Market again this weekend. Sunday July 13th, from 9 am to 4 pm should the weather cooperate.

#2--John and I will be participating in a home build with Habitat for Humanity of Orange County on Saturday July 19th, 2008. Due to our absence, Dancing Panda will be closed that weekend. We'll resume normal operations on Monday July 21st, 2008.

#3--Guess what? I've got a new product in the pipeline! Scrub Club members, be on alert for correspondence from me in the next few weeks for this product to hit Phase 3 testing. :)

#4--My Rosewood & Amber soap has been discontinued for the season. Rosewood oil is currently hard to come by, but I will keep looking for a new and reputable source of the stuff in order to keep this sought-after item in the catalog. :)

That's it for now. Later days. :)

And interesting question came across my desk this morning, and I thought I'd share both it and the answer.

I wrote about my work schedule a little bit in my personal journal this morning, and the following comment was made by an online friend of mine:

"Wait a minute, your workday has a start? I thought you worked for yourself?"

Firstly, this gave me a chuckle, because when I first went into business for myself I thought about it in the same way! I figured, "Hey, I'm the boss now, so I can work when and how I feel like it for as long as I deem necessary. How great is that?!?"

Boy, did that change pretty darn quickly! When you're the boss, you have to be the motivating force behind your employees, and they usually take care of your bottom line for you by doing the jobs you hired them to do. However, when you're the sole owner, operator, and employee of a business, you have to be the driving force behind everything AND find a way to get those things done. Marketing, pricing, product quality, research and development, Web presence, productivity, sales, deposits, accounting. ALL. OF. IT.

Does that look overwhelming to you? If it doesn't, you are much braver than I. Once I got the full scope of what I had gotten myself into, I gave serious thought to voluntarily committing myself to the psyche ward of UNC Hospital for observation. Oh, and having my head examined. Thoroughly.

I'm kidding. Well, mostly.

Once the initial shock wore off, I had to think long and hard about how I was going to pull this off. I tried winging it and letting my creative side do the driving, but my productivity suffered due to the artist in me nit-picking over every little detail. I tried hiring a personal assistant to plan my days in exchange for free product, but it turns out that some people don't take bartering as serious payment. Thus, it didn't pan out.

After rooting around inside my brain for a while, I realized something: I've been fighting my own nature for most of my life. My creative side doesn't like structure, but the business woman in me craves it. The artist likes wearing jeans and t-shirts to work; the business woman prefers heels and skirts. The artist likes "letting things come to her,"; the business woman prefers to search for answers. The artist likes free-form down time; the business woman doens't know the meaning of the word "relax."

I realized that while I am a very imaginative, I am pretty much pre-disposed to like order for two reasons:

1--I was born a Capricorn.
2--I have military parents, thus the highly structured nature of the military strongly influenced my upbringing.

It's actually a triple-whammy if you count the fact that both my parents are Caps, too. ;)

The only way this was going to work was if the business woman and the artist were handcuffed together, each keeping the other from straying too far from the center of balance. They don't like it very much, but they both realize that they will not accomplish anything fighting each other for dominance. As such, they have a grudging respect for the function the other performs.

In short, while my creative side is a free spirit, the business woman in me is not. Since this is the case, I (usually) have a scheduled chunk of time I call my "workday," but in reality I don't think I ever stop working.

'Tis the nature of the beast, and I am the lion tamer.

So today Dancing Panda had a booth set up at the NC State Fairgrounds Flea Market from 9 am to 3 pm. It was a fairly good day, all things considered. And by all things considered, I mean that it was a comedy of errors, but for once not because of me! :D

For the first time in a long time, I had the truck completely packed and ready to go THE NIGHT BEFORE I was supposed to be somewhere. This was accomplished even after a quick run to Raleigh to meet up with the never-to-be-overlooked navyangel and her friends at the Flying Saucer. It was an evening of firsts for my husband John and I, as we had never been to the Saucer nor had we ever met navyangel in person. It was a great night all-around, even though it was cut short due to my having to be up early for the flea market the next morning and because NavyAngel and her buddies had to haul butt up to the Bud Light Downtown Live performance of Blind Melon and Carbon Leaf. (Yes, Blind Melon really does still exist. Who knew?) As an aside, for a beer pub that place makes the best cosmopolitan I have EVER. HAD. It was so smooth had to have John test it to make sure there was really vodka in there. Turns out they used Grey Goose. Not bad for a draught house, huh? :)

But, I digress.

So, we got home around 9:40 pm and with John's help the truck was packed by 11:30. We were in bed and ready to sack out by midnight. I have gotten SO good at this. :D

Six o'clock dawned bright and way too early this morning, and I was caffeinated, fed, showered, dressed and out the door by seven. The drive from Pittsboro to Raleigh went on without incident. It was when I arrived at the flea market that things sort of. . .hiccuped.

When you work the flea market here, you have to go up to the manager's office and get assigned a space for the day. I did so, as I have done many times over the last two years, and went off to set up at my space. I was assigned spot 237, and I was PSYCHED! 237 was a PRIMO spot not far from Gate 11, which is considered the "main gate" for the flea market. In all the time I have been setting up shop there, I have NEVER been on the Main Drag. This was going to be GREAT!


But, much to my shock and dismay, several someone's were already set up in that spot. Confused and mildly peeved, I flagged down one of the market employees and asked him to see if there had been a mix-up. He radioed back to the manager who said, no, that space really should have been unoccupied.

As it turns out, this particular Hispanic family had been coming in and setting up without checking in with the market manager for THREE WEEKS RUNNING. I'm sorry, but there are rules for a reason. Even I called ahead of time to find out the rules and expectations before I ever set foot in that flea market when I first started. And in my opinion, the flea market manager should have thrown them out or made them move for continually violating market policy.

Rather than cause a fuss, I just asked to be assigned a new space. I got the one directly across from them. 'Okay', I thought. 'No big deal. . .this spot is just as good.'

That's what I thought, anyway, until two trucks with trailers pulled in and parked on either side of me.

That's right, folks: You couldn't see me and my little dayshade for the huge honking hauling trailers that set up next to me. I'm pretty sure this cut my sales by half today. But, I kept my cool and just put my sign out a little further past the end of the trailer to my right hand side so people could see that I was there. And on the bright side, I had plenty of shade on a 95+ degree day.

Then a guy set up diagonally across from me starts ranting to the guy in the red trailer to my left that my sign was out of bounds. "This place doesn't have standards anymore. When I first started working here, they'd have fined that lady for having her sign out too far from her booth. This is bullshit!"

By that time, I had had just about enough of this nonsense. I stepped out of my booth to give him an earful (and for standing RIGHT IN FRONT of my booth and causing customers to scurry away in fear), when the older gentleman in the red trailer said, "Now Fred, stop picking on the poor girl. It's not like she's going to steal any of your sales today. Well, she might, considering she's a might bit prettier and smells a whole lot better than you!"

This gave me enough of a grin where I turned right back around and sat down to watch Fred scowl, throw his cigarette to the pavement, and stomp back to his booth.

For the rest of the day, Red Trailer Guy was my buddy. We talked occasionally in between customers, and it was generally pleasant.

There's just one problem setting up a tent between two trailers: You can't see much of the sky at all.

A little before three o'clock, Red Trailer Guy said, "Hey, sweetheart. . .you think you might want to get concerned about that big ole angry-looking cloud over there?"

I quickly exited the front of my dayshade and looked to where he was pointing. Much to my dismay (yet again), there was a huge dark thunder cloud descending quickly upon Dorton Arena and the surrounding area. Meaning, US. It became a mad scramble to pack up the merchandise and move as many of my displays to the center of the space as possible before the sky opened up on us.

Sure enough, as soon as I came back from the parking lot with the truck, water cascaded down from the sky, and it came down with such vengeance that all four edges of my boothspace pooled with water.

Long story short, by the time 3:45 rolled around and I had spent the better part of an hour dodging raindrops to pack the truck, the rain stopped. *sigh*

I packed up my wet tent and drove home. I stopped to get a chocolate milkshake along the way, so all was good in the end.

Today's profits were okay, definitely better than my darkest days in the beginning, so it wasn't a total wash. *slaps self* Bad panda, no punning!

*grin*

What is the Panda Scrub Club, you ask? It's this idea I have been kicking around in my head for nearly a year, that's what.

I need to come up with a network of testers from different regions of the country and/or world who can try out new products for me. It would be free of charge to participants, and the guidelines would be as follows:

--You must be 18+ years of age to participate.

--You must submit a list to me of allergies and sensitivities you have to ensure that I don't send you something to test that you can't use. (Or even be in the same room with, for that matter.)

--You would be required to fill out a survey regarding your thoughts, feelings, and findings regarding the item tested. (Whether this would be electronic or paper-based has yet to be determined.)


And very probably but not sure yet:

--You will sign an insurance waiver and a non-disclosure agreement saying that you won't share the products you are sent with anyone outside your household and that if you are injured while using the products you won't sue. (**That's just to keep the lawyer happy. If you have a bad reaction to something I send you, please know that I would absolutely take steps to make things right again. You can, of course, talk about the products with members of your household, and you can discuss products that we currently have for public sale with anyone you wish. Just keep the testing items under wraps until we decide to release it to the public.)

Now, if you are part of the Scrub Club Testing Network, you would be receiving products that are in Phase 3 of testing. This means that they would be items that have first been tested in my soap lab to ensure they are made to exact specifications and safety standards (READ: double-checking the neutrality of soap, the correct amounts of anti-microbial agents in lotion, etc.) and then tested on myself and my own family. I would NOT send out anything that didn't pass Phases 1 and 2 of testing to anyone outside of my house.


So. . .would any of you be interested in such a thing? Free products in exchange for me picking your brains? Comment here if you're game.

Have you guys seen this? I'm going to look into this further, because this is NUTS.



Essentially, if we don't do something about this, independent beauty business is DEAD.

That simply will NOT do.

While going through my inventory, I found eight seven bars of Tea Tree Oil and four bars of Aloe & Vitamin E soap that need to be cleared out. They aren't going bad or anything, but they're color has changed a little bit, which means they need to be purchased and used before Christmas 2008.

So, I'm offering a special for my LiveJournal readers: You can get these soaps for $3 each while supplies last! First come first serve. Just comment here to purchase, with your email address so I can set up payment and shipping information.

Thanks!

ETA 6/25: Sold one! Still have some left, but no guarantees for how long. . .

Tomorrow is my wedding reception, so things are definitely far from quiet around here today. I am at my parents' place on the North Carolina coast, busily finishing welcome bags full of goodies and fielding more phone calls in one hour than I do in an entire WEEK back home or in the lab. It's worth it, though, because this is going to be one heck of a shindig. ;)

Speaking of which, I figured I would announce here that Dancing Panda will be closed from Friday June 13th through Sunday June 15th for the matrimonial celebration. We'll reopen for regular business activites on Monday June 16th 2008.

Phone's ringing again. Pictures will come later, because off I go again.

Wish us luck! :D