Only 5 days till Christmas! This is the week where I start getting really anxious because I never have all my shopping done.  We are having Christmas dinner here for the extended family, so the house needs to be cleaned, food (and booze!)  shopping needs to be done, presents wrapped….and probably a million other things. I’m working today and then overnight tomorrow, so my time is getting really crunched. Hopefully I can motivate my men to help me get things ready. So, just need to work a night shift tomorrow and then it’s full-on Christmas prep!

Every year, we do a big Christmas breakfast to eat after we open our gifts. I do an egg strata the night before that goes straight into the oven in the morning, and overnight french toast for Devon. Maybe I can actually get all my gift wrapping done before Christmas Eve this year. I hate that late-night frantic wrapping and tagging!

In other news, I’m waiting to hear back from a leasing agent about renting a selling cart space at Semiahmoo Centre during the week leading up to Valentines Day to sell my soaps. There’s a Body Shop in the mall though, so I had to submit a letter describing my products and how they differ from The Body Shop’s stuff and we’re waiting to hear back from the mall administration. No word this week- hopefully Monday! If it’s yes, then I’ve got lots of soap to make by then. Of course I have no way of knowing how much I will sell, so it’s really guess work knowing how much to prepare, and which products to include. I’m planning to focus on my soap though.

Here’s a pic I took of part of my soap display at my last pre-Christmas craft fair. I loved how my soaps looked on this. I made it out of scrap styrofoam packing materials!

Here’s my most recent batch right after cutting. It’s scented with Pineapple Cilantro but I think it smells just like fresh pineapple. I added some coconut shreds for scrubbiness too. This one will be ready for sale on Jan 13th.

I got my first 2 sales from my Juicybath Etsy shop this week! Out of the blue– a Rosemary Mint bar, and then later the same day, a Licorice scented Lump of Coal. I was so excited. I actually found a couple of local buyers to purchase the rest of my batch of Lump Of Coal Soaps. I was so glad because I did a lot of work to get the packaging and the tags just right.  I think they turned out really well.

In case it’s not readable in the photo, the gift tag says:

You’ve Been Naughty

Here’s Your Lump Of Coal

Handcrafted Soap

Licorice Scented