Mission?…Possible.

Taking Catie Beth from a fundraising endeavor to a for-profit business was like hitting the ground running.  Once our adoption was complete, people kept asking for soap.  So, what could I do but keep making soap?  I would have been making it anyway because it’s such a fulfilling hobby for me, but if I could turn it into a business, then awesome!  Since adoption is near and dear to my heart, it made sense to continue using the business as a fundraiser to benefit another family.

Now that the business is off the ground (even if only by inches), I needed to take some steps back and do some planning.  If Catie Beth is to succeed, then it needs a road map; a mission and a vision.  So, that’s what I worked on over the weekend, and I wanted to share it with you.

The Catie Beth Bath and Body Mission

Our mission is two-fold:

1. To be a successful bath and body company by providing customers with unique, nourishing and natural bath and body products and with a high level of customer satisfaction.

2. To provide aid to orphans by donating to an adopting family or by donating to Hannah’s Hope Orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Our Six Core Values are:

1. Giving back

2. Keeping products as natural as possible

3. Providing exceptional customer service

4. Building relationships

5. Listening

6. Entrepreneurial spirit

The Catie Beth Bath and Body Vision

Our vision is for “Catie Beth Bath and Body” to be the best in providing natural skin care and customer service. We want customers to trust that our products are natural, beneficial and nourishing for their skin. We want to be trend-setters; being unique, experimental and sincere in what we offer our customers. It is also our vision that we become a well-known fund-raising resource for families who are approved for adoption and are in need of financial aid.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

There are so many wonderful goodies to smell and eat this time of year.  I love the smell of warm gingerbread on a chilly day, and even though it was 75 degrees outside today, I was in the mood for some warm gingerbread!  I firmly believe that if a food is a “bread” or a “muffin”, it really wants to be a cupcake.  So, with gingerbread in mind, I searched for gingerbread cupcakes and found a good-looking recipe.  The original recipe called for lemon cream cheese frosting, but I thought orange was a better pair with ginger, so that’s what I did. You can find the original recipe here.  Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cups self-rising  flour
• 1 tablespoon dark chocolate cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 valencia orange, squeezed

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter or line with paper liners a 12-cup muffin tin.
2. Cream 5 tablespoons of the butter with the white sugar. Add the molasses, the egg, the egg yolk and milk.
3. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until just combined. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared tin.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 minutes or until slightly springy to the touch. Allow to cool a few minutes in the pan and remove to a rack to cool.
5. To Make Frosting: Cream the 4 tablespoons butter and the cream cheese together. Beat in the confectioners' sugar until fluffy. Add the orange juice and beat. When the cupcakes are cool, frost the tops with the frosting and serve.

*Note, I was only able to frost 10 cupcakes, but I like a lot of frosting! 

Sponsor a Child in Haiti

Long before a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, World Vision has been providing Haitians with basic necessities and orphan care.  AIDS is a serious epidemic in Haiti that has orphaned 380,000 children.  You can help one of these children by being a sponsor.  Click here to learn how.

Learning as I Go and a Warning

Having an Ethiopian baby presented one challenge for this White gal….what to do with his hair!?  At the orphanage in Addis Ababa, the special mothers used baby oil in the infants’ hair to keep it moisturized.  When I got back to the states with him, my African American friends confirmed that baby oil was good to use in his hair.  So that’s what we did for the first few months.
It turned out, however, that baby oil was NOT good for MY skin and, in general, poses a health risk to infants and toddlers.
Whenever Abraham is sitting on my lap, I love to kiss the sweet curls on top of his head.  All this skin-to-baby-oil contact caused me to break out with big, ugly pimples on my chin!  When I did some research into baby oil (which is pure mineral oil), I found that mineral oil can, indeed, cause contact dermatitis.  (Read here). As I researched further into baby oil, I found that baby oil can cause severe respiratory problems and even death in infants! (Read here).
Wait, what?  This product that is marketed and sold as a product to use on infants and that sits carelessly around a nursery room without a single warning label on it can cause DEATH?!  Some cases of death were from ingesting it, but other cases were caused by inhaling baby oil that was near the infant’s mouth and nose.  The inhaled oil coated the lungs and the toddler suffocated to death.
That was it!  The baby oil went in the trash.  My dermatitis cleared up, but what to do about Abraham’s sweet curls?  I looked up some all-natural hair milks that were made exclusively for African Americans and found that most of the ingredients were what I used in my lotions.  In fact, the hair milks were lotion with smaller amounts of thickening agent.
With a list of natural ingredients and an idea of the results I wanted, I went to work creating my own lotion for Abraham.  The lotion I use on his skin is the same lotion I use in his hair, and he gets a lot of compliments about both!  Now, his curls are moisturized and defined (and they smell great, too!)  I know exactly what is in his lotion because I put it in there!  My favorite ingredients to use in his lotions are Aloe Vera Liquid, Pistachio Butter, Cocoa Butter, Vitamin E Oil, Avocado Oil, and Sweet Almond Oil  I don’t use them all in the same lotion; just various combinations.  And, my chin looks great!  Bonus! 
Here are some before and after pictures of Abraham’s hair. 
Abraham has beautiful curls that are typical of the Amhara people in Ethiopia, but without hair lotion, they look fuzzy and matted.


Now, for mom’s remedy.  I wet his hair a little first and then slather on the lotion.  I use a wide-toothed comb to comb the lotion through and remove any knots in his hair.

Now, his sweet curls are shiny, moisturized and defined!

And the winner is…

A BIG “Thank you!” to everyone who entered the Soap Giveaway Contest by giving a shout out for Catie Beth Bath and Body!  I enlisted the help of my lovely daughter, Caitlyn, for drawing the winner.   Here, she’s holding the bag filled with contestants’ names.

                          Reaching in for a name!  Oh, the suspense!

                                She’s got a name!  Who will it be???!

                                              Congratulations!!

Thanks again to everyone who entered!  I had so much fun with this and will definitely be having more giveaways!

Christmas shopping? Keep these folks in mind.

I love to browse on etsy.com.  I get so much inspiration just seeing what other crafty people are doing.   If you’re not familiar with etsy, then now’s the time!  Etsy is a website that lets people sell their handmade items.  I used to have a “shop” on etsy before I created my own website.  Etsy is a great place to find unique items for Christmas while supporting small, craft businesses.
There are actually a lot of people using etsy to sell their handmade products in an effort to raise money for theirs or someone else’s adoption.  That’s how I got started on there!  To find these sellers, you can do a search for “adoption” and many items being sold to fundraise will come up.  To help you out, I’ve posted some that I found.  Click on the picture and it will take you to the etsy store. 

Christmas Gifts are Here!

As promised, Christmas soaps and Gift Boxes are here!  Premade Gift Boxes are very limited, only THREE in stock!  You can choose the Mint collection, Ginger collection or Cranberry collection.

You  also have the option of creating your own gift box of soaps.  Each gift box can hold up to three soaps!  After you order a Make-Your-Own Christmas Gift Box, you can send me a message at check out telling me which three soaps you want in your gift box.  I’ll take care of the rest!

Don’t forget to check my blog regularly for Discount Codes I’ll randomly post between now and Christmas!  They’ll be good for one time, one day only.  Catch one if you can!