National Adoption Awareness Month

On January 24, 2010 we were united with our son, Abraham.  We had waited 18 months and traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to get him, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for all the world. I love my sweet, little boy!  I tell people that it wasn’t just our work and effort that brought him home, it was the generosity of friends and family that helped make it possible.  He’s our son and part of our family, but he’s also part of a larger family and community of people who prayed for us, helped organize our garage sale, donated items for us to sell, gave money, and who bought A LOT of soap. 

November  is National Adoption Awareness Month.  I read a statistic once that said, if just 1% of self-professed Christians adopted a child, there would be no more orphans.  Wow!  There are currently about 145 MILLION orphans world-wide (UNICEF 2008).  That number does NOT include abandonment or sold/trafficked children (which is estimated to be in the millions). 
We may not all be called to help solve the orphan crisis by adopting a child, but we can certainly help in other ways.  Throughout November,  I’m going to post something you can do to help orphans.  I hope you’ll take some time to be a voice for the voiceless.                                 Abraham on his 1st Birthday!

Welcome to de Islands, Mon!

Remember the days when we used sunscreen OIL at the beach?  Hawaiian Tropic SPF 2?  This big jar of Island Coconut fragrance oil reminds me of a warm, sunny day on the beach.  By February, I’m usually missing the sunshine and warmth something fierce, so I thought I’d be prepared by making some soaps and lotions that bring to mind warmer days. 

I’ve already decided on one fragrance combination: Coconut and Lemongrass.  What are some fragrance combinations with Island Coconut you’d like to smell?

Time to Make the Lotion

My lotion supplies came today from Bramble Berry!  Yay!  I’ll spend the weekend making lotions that are chock-full of moisturizing goodness: Cocoa Butter, Sweet Almond Oil, Avocado Oil, and Vitamin E Oil.  Then, I’ll fragrance them to match some of the Christmas gift baskets that will be ready soon: Cranberry Fig, Ginger Orange, Peppermint….Mmmmmm.  I can’t wait!

Handmade Soap Giveaway!!

 Okay, I’m not sure how I feel about not being able to give my soap away for free.  ;)  But, because I LOVE this soap and the fragrance and I know you will, too, I’m going to run this giveaway again.  Please don’t miss your chance to win a big ol’ bar of Almond Biscotti Soap AND an organza bag filled with your choice of three soap samples!
Entering to win is super easy!  Here’s all you need to do:
1. Blog, Tweet (@catiebethbath), Facebook, Shout from the Rooftops (Okay, maybe not that one if you like your neighbors) about Catie Beth Bath and Body.  Essentially, I’m asking for your help to spread the word about my website: www.catiebeth.com and encourage folks to BUY SOME SOAP! 
Also, November is National Adoption Awareness month and I give 75% of my profits to a family who is in the process of adopting.  Buying Catie Beth soap is an easy way to help unite a child with its forever family.
2. Post a comment here telling me how you spread the word.  It would help if you posted a link to your blog post or some other way for me to see how you helped spread the word. Also, if you comment as "Anonymous", please include your name and email address in the post.
3.  That’s it!  The more times you give me a shout out, the more times you enter the contest!  Pretty cool, eh?
4.  The deadline is Friday, November 5th.

Good Luck!

Minty Meadow Unmolded

I love to unmold my soaps.  It’s like opening a Christmas present.  I do what I can to create the soap I’ve pictured in my head, but the unmolding phase is when I can see if my creation came to fruition. For Minty Meadow, I envisioned standing in a green field beneath a summer, blue sky and being surrounded with fragrant herbs. I think it turned out just right.  :)

November 7, 2010 is Orphan Sunday

How will you answer their cries?

Why Love Orphans? from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Give Peace a Chance

Peace Handmade Soap is loaded with essential oils of Lavender, Orange and Patchouli and is oh, so pretty!   Best of all,  it’s on sale at Catiebeth.com now through Thanksgiving!  Have some peace this Christmas by shopping early.

I love to SWIRL!

My friend, Rose, gave me some Bergamot infused Olive Oil that she made herself with Bergamot grown in her garden.  How awesome!  I combined it with Lavender EO, Basil EO and Peppermint EO and am calling it “Minty Meadow”.  It smells so lovely!  I used equal parts Bergamot infused Olive Oil, Palm Oil and Coconut Oil with 5% Mango Butter.  Here it is in the mold.  Can’t wait for the unmolding!

Essential Oil Blends

As much as I love all the Christmas fragrances, my nose wants to take a break for a while. Today, I decided to pull out my essential oils to see what blends I could come up with. I’m often asked how I determine what fragrances to use in my soaps. A lot of the time, I use a pre-blended fragrance oil, but sometimes, I like to create my own blends using natural, essential oils.

I try to let nature be my guide. If it’s a scent that smells good together in nature, then it will probably smell good together in a soap. If I’m not sure what essential oils pair well together, I Google the essential oil I want to work with and find other essential oils that blend well with it. Then, I take it from there.

Essential oil is more expensive than fragrance oil, so I don’t want to mix them together without first knowing that I’ll like the result. So, I do a “smell test.” I cut a Q-Tip in half and then dip each half in an essential oil I want to use. I then place my Q-Tip halves in a zip-lock bag, label it and seal it. Over the course of a couple of days, I check on the scent. If I like the blend, then I’ll use it. If not, then I haven’t wasted much essential oil.

Right now, I’m smell testing six essential oil blends. After I choose the ones I like comes the fun part: deciding how the soap will look.

Costume Making 101

Today, I sewed my first costume! My son, Jacob, wants to be Harry Potter for Halloween, but when I saw how much Potter costumes were going for (including wand, glasses and tie), I thought I would have to nix the idea. Instead, I did some research online and found a website that showed me, step-by-step, how to sew the robe. I found a Griffindor iron-on patch, Potter glasses, wand and tie all on Amazon. I saved good money by piecing it together myself.

Out of curiousity, I googled “soap costumes” to see what would come up. Check out this adorable bath-time costume! I might have to talk one of the kids into doing this for Halloween next year! ;)

New Arrivals!

Do you remember that spearmint-colored, sparkly, swirly soap I posted a month ago?  It’s now ready and in my online shop!!  Wintergreen is a sweet, sparkly soap that smells of apples, oranges, peppermint and cloves.  It’s a bright, winter scent!  You can find it here.

 

Also new in the shop is Almond Biscotti.  It smells just like a mellowed Almond Extract.  This is a BIG bar of soap…almost 5 ounces!  It’s a pretty soap with brown, beige, pink and purples hues.  You can find it here.

More great soaps AND lotions to come!

Winter Wonderland Soap Contest!

I haven’t worked with Melt and Pour soap in a while, so I jumped at the opportunity to  enter a soap contest.  The contest is to create a “Winter Wonderland” soap and the winner receives a $100 gift certificate from Bramble Berry Soap Supplies (I buy most all of my soap supplies from them!).  I had to create the soap specifically for the contest, so I couldn’t use any of the soaps I’ve already created.  Also, I didn’t want to make a new batch of soaps just to enter one soap.  I wanted this one to be special. 

I asked myself, “What is a winter wonderland?”.  The answer…Alaska!  This time of year, the aurora borealis is on full display. I can remember quiet nights when it lit up the sky with its changing stream of colors.   The snow literally glistened beneath its glow.  I wanted to capture those sensations in my one bar of soap.

I had to tread in completely unknown territory to create this bar.  I knew I would have to work in layers to get the desired effect, so I drew each layer on three pieces of vellum.  Then I set to work creating each layer.  The first layer consisted of the trees and the aurora.  Next came the snow-covered hills.  Then, the dark night sky.  Finally, a hint of glitter on the snow to capture the reflection of the aurora on the snow.

The bar of soap weighs 3.5 oz and is scented with Peppermint eo.  Peppermint is a strong, nose-clearing scent that reminds me of the brisk, freezing cold nights in Fairbanks, Alaska when it was almost too cold to breathe.

You’ll have the chance to vote for my bar of soap to win starting November 16.  I’ll post more information about how to vote when that date gets closer!

On the Rack

I can’t wait until these Christmas soaps are ready for sale! They should be ready by the second week in November. Each scrumptious bar of soap is only $4.00. They’ll make great stocking stuffers, teacher’s gifts, hostess gifts, secret Santa gifts…you get the idea! Also, look for cute Christmas gift sets to hit the website in November. Each gift set will include a bar of soap, a 4 oz jar of lotion and a votive candle for just $15.00.

Cocoa Mint

Sweet Cranberry

Gingerbread

Giveaway to include...

... a cute organza bag of soap samples!
Okay, so I felt I wasn't be generous enough to anyone who takes the time to give a shout out about Catie Beth Bath and Body. So, in addition to a BIG bar of Almond Biscotti soap, the winner will also receive a cute organza bag filled with three soap samples of their choice (they have to be in stock).

So, what are you waiting for?! Read the previous blog for giveaway details and good luck!

Almond Biscotti Soap Giveaway!!

 

Check out this gorgeous bar of Almond Biscotti soap!  It hasn’t even hit the website yet, but you can be the first to have one of these deliciously-scented, generously-sized soaps if you enter the Catie Beth Bath and Body Almond Biscotti Soap Giveaway!  Here are the ways you can enter the contest:

1.  Blog about Catie Beth Bath and Body.  Provide a link on your blog and then post a comment on here, along with a link to  your blog post, to let me know you entered the contest.  Every time you blog about Catie Beth and let me know about it, you receive another entry in the contest.

2. If you follow Catie Beth Bath and Body on  Facebook, suggest to all of your friends that they like Catie Beth, too!  Then post a comment on this blog to let me know you suggested that your friends like Catie Beth.

3. Twitter about Catie Beth Bath and Body.  Post a comment on here to let me know you Twittered about us!  Include #catiebethbath in your Twitter so I receive it.

4.Visit www.catiebeth.com and sign the guestbook.  Suggest to your friends that they do the same and to tell me that YOU sent them.  For every friend who mentions you in my guestbook, you’ll be entered in the giveaway.

The Giveaway ends Sunday, October 17th!  Good luck!