Well, it’s actually 2010. I remember when Vancouver won the olympic bid for 2010 several years ago and I thought to myself what ages my kids would be that time. It was hard to imagine Alison at 20 and Devon nearly 18, but here we are! Time sure flies.

Looking forward to seeing what 2010 brings. Devon is graduating this year which is amazing to me. It’s hard to believe the school years are nearly done for us. Can’t imagine what he’ll be doing after that but I sure hope he comes up with something soon. What couldn’t my kids be the type that had their futures all planned out? Well, I can’t complain too much since I was exactly the same at their ages. I didn’t figure out that I wanted to go back to school until I was around 20. I spent a few years making low wages and working much too hard for it before I realized I was the only one who could change that.

I hope to find lots of opportunities to grow my soap business this year. Right now I’m working on soaps and other products  for Valentines Day. I’ve rented a cart to sell at Semiahmoo Centre in White Rock from Feb 7th – 14th. My challenge is to have enough product to fill the cart and make an attractive display, but not so much that I have tons left over when I’m finished. There’s just no way to guess how much I’ll sell, so I’m thinking I’ll plan for enough product to at least triple my costs.

A few ideas I’m working on for Valentines Day Gift Packs:

Triple Delight: A Bar each of ‘Bouquet of Roses’, ‘Box of Chocolates’ and ‘Bottle of Wine’ soaps, wrapped elegantly with a handmade wooden soap dish. The soap scents I’ll be using are English Rose, Expresso Chocolate and White Zinfandel. I’ve already made a couple batches of the Roses and Chocolate soaps– they smell fantastic!

Then for the men, I’m planning a ‘Six Pack of Suds’, which will be a package of six different half-size bars of Beer Soap.  Jon gets the credit for the name- I love it! Here’s a shot of one of my current beer soaps, made with Labatt’s Pilsenser:

Of course, I’ll bring all the rest of my soaps and products along for sale. I’m also thinking of doing some sort of Chocoholics Gift Pack, including a soap, an edible body massage butter, lip balm and bath bomb.  I’ve ordered some new fragrances to try out as well: Extremely Sexy For Men, Love Spell, Lick Me All Over, Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Back Raspberry Vanilla. They all sound incredible. I’m planning some coordinated gift packs of different products with the same scent too. Makes it easy when it’s all wrapped up together.

Off to get started on some more soap!