We are so obsessed with llamas around here we have added to our fun line of bath and body treats, LLama soaps, Llama sugar scrubs and to seal the deal, Llama body butter.
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It's July 2017 and even though we are sitting in 90 degree sunny days, it marks the official start of the handmade holiday season, at least for makers and Etsy shop owners. This year will mark my 10th Etsy Christmas season at Sunbasilgarden Soap. And as I prepare for Christmas 2017, I thought it would be the perfect time to share with fellow makers my top 10 tips on how to prepare for your best Holiday season ahead. These tips are rather basic but have served me well over the years and with fingers crossed and a lot of old fashioned hard work, I am looking to cross into 30,000 Etsy sales this season. Hope you find something helpful in these tips and best wishes for the most magical making time of the year.
Thanks for reading and please feel free to share with your fellow makers! I would love to hear down below in the comments your best Holiday selling tips.
]]>Here are a few other favorites we recently made up for other businesses we adore!
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We are happy to ship directly to Mom's front door. Just include her address at shipping and a little note from you to her in the comments. And we will gift wrap and take care of the rest.
Some of our personal new favorites are our Rosebud Lips and Lemon Lavender bath bombs. Draw a tub, pour a glass of wine and escape the everyday. All our bath bombs are made to not only fizz but bubble and loaded with natural oils including shea butter to leave Mom's skin silky smooth.
Visit both our shops with your coupon code,
and
www.sunbasilgardensoap.etsy.com
And as always, thank you so much for supporting handmade!!
]]>Like most makers, it is our hobby that leads us to our business in the first place. I started making soap 8 years ago simply as a way to be creative while staying home raising my babies. Soap making was that little bit of me time I could fit in between feedings, playing and cleaning. Not to mention everyone in my house is male, including the cats, so I tend to fancy some girl time and play with glitter and rainbows. An online business allowed me to work from home, focus first on my family. and grow Sunbasilgarden.etsy to a full time job closing in on 25,000 Etsy sales. I also extended our line to wholesale and branched out on my own website. PS. Thank you for visiting me here.
But this September, something really exciting happened to take my business to a new level. You can now find Sunbasilgarden soaps in 3 large retail malls including the very popular King of Prussia. I am so excited to be working with a retail bath company, Bath Fusion and their support of handmade means the world to me. So for those folks in New Jersey and Philadelphia, be on the lookout while doing your holiday shopping this year. I am including some behind the scenes pictures and so happy to say the order was completed on time.
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Makers of handmade. Has this become your new normal?
It goes something like this...
I need to check my Facebook ad converstions, what's my click per ad ration, where is my pixel and what the heck is a pixel anyways, are my listings coming up in Etsy searches, "gift for her", "gift for him", "gift for mom", "gift for them" why did I just loose Instagram followers, did I answer that comment, are they seeing this on Pinterest, are my Pins buyable?, did I hashtag that?, did I over hashtag....
Okay makers... It's time to chill out! Just a bit.
All these social media messages are weighing too heavily in my mind and I needed to remind myself as makers and buyers alike we are worth so much more. Sure our stats and likes are important gages of our business and heck they can even make you feel good but enough is enough sometimes. We are real people, with real families and holiday time is the best time to keep it in perspective. If your making and selling something you put your heart into, you are already awesome. Keep up the good work, keeping making and sharing your passions. And do something nice for yourself today that has nothing to do with social media. IE: go outside and play!
]]>We are crazy bonkers over our brand new 2015 Holiday Pinecone Soaps. Aren't they as cute as a button? Handmade with our all natural glycerin and dusted in sparkle of the season. They come in 4 different colors and scents: Candy Cane, Mistletoe, Hot Chocolate and Jack Frost.
These are all available currently here at Sunbasilgarden.com. Just let us know if you need a bunch. I am thinking automatic gifts for teachers, coaches, babysitters, co workers, neighbors, hairdresser...and a special way to dress up those gift cards. Watch out people in my life, your all getting these this year!
PS: A little trivia. The word Pine Cone is both an open compound word and closed Pinecone compound word. Who knew?
]]>But this time, I got their full attention with my all new Cement Sugar Scrub Soap. A big healthy 10 oz Jar of handmade soap that they can use to get super clean in those long teenage boy showers with or without washcloth. My guys downed 5 jars of Cement in less than a month. And best of all, the thick clouds of Axe overload in the morning are a thing of the past in our house. Cement smells manly and musky with notes of cedar wood, sandalwood and amber. And Dad can certainly borrow this big jar.
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