Bittersweet and the little soap company

*Photo Shopping and Blog Traveling*

Yesterday after I finished a few more Stuffie's I began photo shopping. I'm taking closer looks at my photo's experimenting with different techniques, graphics, etc. I'm actually learning as I go along. I'm not one of those read directions type girls, so it's hands on for me most of the time.

I have always had an interest in photography, but photography has never had much an interest in me!

I would love to be able to take great photo's but just don't seem to have that knack. So I work with what I have and make the best of it!

Patrick is a great photographer! When he had the paper he was always taking amazing photo's, and seemed to capture the moment in all of them.

Isn't that what makes a good, great photographer?

Someone that can really capture the moment!

Photo editing, I'm finding, takes somewhat of a knack too.

I'm having fun while waiting for print cartridges to arrive so that I can work on some new packaging ideas. 

My Aunt used to have a Antique shop in Southern California, and a couple of year's ago she generously sent me her collection of vintage linens she had in her boutique. Thank you Aunt Vivian!

That's a picture of my Aunt in the top left corner of my blog, along with the little girl grinning and wearing the wedding veil.

This night dress was mixed in with the tablecloths and napkins, along with another gown similar to this one.

I love the detailing on this vintage night gown. I don't know if you can see or not from the photo, but this one has the initial L embroidered in the breast. I tied the satin ribbon in and around the gown. It was made with little notches so that you can weave ribbon in and out, and tie at its waist.

I imagine this gown was hand made. The detailwomanship is beautiful!

I'm fond of muslin or cotton fabrics. Just simple no frills cotton in this creamy ecru thrills me to no end!

It's given me some ideas for some upcoming projects.

I prefer simple over elaborate. Sometimes while creating, it seems easier to add more rather than less. I'm finding there's a fine line between the two when creating.

The past few days I've been visiting other's blogs. I've added a few new blogs to my list of inspirations. One thing I'm seeing, and appreciating while on my travels to these sometime distant locations, is the constant diversity among bloggers/creator's. I love that I can go to this blog, and then go to the next, and experience totally different creations, ideas and perspectives.

Everyone has their own little thing! I love that!

Just think, all I have to do is hit a little button and it takes me to worlds far far away! I get to see first hand how others like myself have the same passion for creating. That's comforting and soulful!

Don't ever let that go and keep up that style that says it's you!

Enjoy caring and sharing days.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)

 

Tagged!

I have been tagged by Sue.  Thanks Sue for the invite.

1. My favorite color is brown! I painted my dining room a rich chocolate brown recently.

2. I went to modeling school when I was young, and modeled for several department stores. For some reason I was always assigned swimming suits to model. I'm guessing because I was very thin.

3. If I hadn't grown up to be a soap maker, I would have been an archaeologist. This field has always interested me, and I would love to research old dinosaur bones, mummy tombs, old battles, Indian sites, and all that other history stuff.

4. I prefer baths over showers. I love soaking in the tub. It helps clear my mind and helps me to create new idea's.

5. I say my prayers every night, specifically to tell GOD that I love him.

Okeedoakie, I'm suppose to tag (5) gals.

I tag, Carol, Leigh Ann, Clarice, Dana , Nikki, only if you want to gals, no obligation!

Enjoy caring and sharing Winter days.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)

   

*Cleansing Winter Thoughts*

Moving on this week from the Bittersweet studio re-do and feeling pretty darn good about the completed week long improvements. I had no idea I was in for the entire weeks worth of cleansing when I began the project, but one day led to the next day and then the next, and before I knew it I had spent the entire week never leaving the house knee deep into the Winter project!

By the time Friday came I was in need of some different scenery and wanting to escape my beautiful, but yet becoming too familiar studio.

What better place to escape but to the grocery store, list in hand, and the drug store down the street, boring huh? While writing out my check for the items I purchased, yes I still write checks too, I couldn't help but notice the woman standing behind me in line, two, one inch in proximity where I could hear her every breath! I simply turned to her pupils extremely enlarged, "I haven't been out of the house all week!" Immediately she withdrew her closeness, and I sensed a bit of uncertainty about her decision to come to the line at that moment!

Don't get me wrong, I love people, I'm a people loving person with a capitol P!

On that note too, I have to tell you, even though I'm a people person, I could also be one of those women that lives deep in the woods that ventures out only occasionally for basic staples and necessity's.

Give me a cabin in the woods with a fireplace, wood stove, sewing machine, plumbing and electricity, and I won't come out till Spring!

I would be completely satisfied, I know I would!

My day would consist of chopping wood, baking breads, crocheting, making soap, feeding chickens, weeding my gardens, saying my prayers, and going to bed!

I would have fields of wild flowers and purple lavender with tall rows of pink foxglove and hollyhock. I would wear long cotton calico dresses adorned with hand made aprons and boots, and be crowned with a straw hat. I would have cats that purred all the time, and build fairy retreats deep inside the woods where I could escape to my own secret garden surrounded by colorful butterflies and beautiful song birds and toadstools and mushrooms, which I would pick and take back to my cabin for dinner.

I would make heavenly strawberry pie from the strawberries I picked at my wild strawberry patch and then set the pie to cool outside my cabin window on the sill just like I remember seeing on the television show, Little House on the Prairie.

I would create lavender wands out of my Summer lavender crop, and make lavender jelly, and cookie's and tea, and package them in old fashioned brown paper to give to my friends and faraway neighbors at Christmas time.

I would have a community Summer garden where my friends and relatives could come and pick there fill of fresh vegetables while sipping on lemonade and listening to Jeff sing his folk songs and play his guitar.

Oh yes, Summer concerts under the moonlight and bon fires glistening in the distance.

Everyone would bring tents and camp out in my back yard, and late at night I would look out my cabin window to see the flicker of the lanterns lighting each tent with a warm glow, and lightening bugs that seem to be choreographed with the very same rhythm of the lantern light's, effortlessly offering a glorious warm Summer night show, while crickets chirp and frogs croak adding a lovely background orchestra.

Enjoy caring and sharing days..

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than none)

   

*Sweet Nostalgia*

Another day of displaying, clearing the clutter, and using what I have!

I've been focusing on soap wrappings and creative ways to package Bittersweet.

I remember when Mom was alive and how she would take home twenty or so bars of soap and deliver them back to me beautifully wrapped and adorned using only what she had available in her home. I was amazed with her creativeness and ability to make my soap shine and I miss her doing that!

Sometimes I experience blocks on how to package my products. Uniformity always seems to be the practical way to go, but the artsy creative side of me continually plays a good game of tug of war with the practical, after all who wants to be boring practical? "Not I!"

Over the past ten years, I have wrapped my soap in about every form of packaging  imaginable and beyond. Well, I guess I'm exaggerating a bit, but yes, I have done my share of packaging, only to find things come and they go with me. There's been that special packaging that I've really been fond of and there's been the not so special packaging that never made it to the shop or home with customers.

It's a  genuinely special feeling to unwrap and open a bar of hand made soap. The soap undressed, truly a unique gift knowing it was soulfully made, but the wrappings too, offer a sweet nostalgic feel unlike any other artisan creation, and give you a sense of warmness and comfort as you disassemble its wrappings.

When I stock our bathroom with soap, I simply travel downstairs and grab some unwrapped patchouli. But every once in awhile, instead of grabbing an unwrapped bar, I go for a bar of wrapped, simply because I like the way it makes me feel to unwrap it! I miss that sometimes!

Yesterday while organizing the studio, I browsed through my collection of vintage handkerchiefs. I thought to myself, "perfect soap packaging!" I'm adding it to the "Sweet Vintage" line of Bittersweet products. I folded the handkerchief with an origami fold similar to the way I fold the paper pouches and then ironed and starched in place. I adorn each handkerchief with vintage millinery forget me nots. I believe they are truly "Sweet Vintage!"

More shots of the Saturday Studio with some tweaking from the day before..

   

Oh and I made a heartfelt Valentine courtesy of February's Country Living magazine. They're easy and fun to make, and I am going to make more but add some glitter and vintage pieces!

Enjoy caring and sharing Winter day.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than one)

Beautiful Fabric and Pretty Graphics Everywhere You Look

Yesterday afternoon I ran over to the fabric store to pick up some items I ordered bulk from the corporate office. Did you know you could do that? Sometimes rather than purchase something wholesale and buy hundreds of that item, I'll just pay retail if I'm only ordering fifty or so. Keep that in mind if your ever working on project's that requires more product then what the store stocks. It saves you time from calling all the different stores searching for that one thing.

I hadn't been to the fabric store for a couple of weeks, which by the way is a long time for this girl! I really didn't see any fabric that blew me away, but I did stop by the book section and noticed they had a large selection of craft books. While I was gazing through all the books, I noticed these.  

They had a large collection of clip art graphic books on the book shelves. I have always purchased my graphics from here. I've been noticing the clip art books are in most book stores. I did not ever think I'd say this, but the books don't seem as special as they did before when they were harder to find. 

Nowadays, the sky's the limit on all the choices of textile's,  yarn's, graphics, paper's, embellishment's, etc. I still have an occasion when I think of something that I need to finish a project or add too, and can't find it in the stores, but most of the time, a couple of stops to the craft stores, or browsing the Internet,  and I'll find what I was looking for.

I remember when I first began making soap there were only one or two books on the subject. Now there are tons! It almost seems overwhelming at times that there are so many  books to choose from. It's that way with all crafts too. I kind of liked it better when there weren't so many choices. It seemed as though less choices forced you to be more creative rather than running to the craft store to purchase one more thing.

Maybe I'm looking at it all wrong.

Is it better that we have so many crafty supplies to choose from? I've blogged about how I prefer to use the stuff I already own to make things. It's a soulful satisfying thing for me to do.

Growing up, my Mother was a master at making things out of the stuff she already had, and my Grandmother the same. My Grandmother had a little area in her bedroom where she kept her oil paints, fabric, sewing machine, etc. I don't remember it being an entire room filled with tons of crafty supplies. I never remember her needing to run out to get something to complete a hooked rug or oil painting.

I make over one-hundred different things, does that mean I need over one-hundred crafty gadgets, accessories? I am constantly tempted by the modern craft worlds newest creations!

As I look around my own studio I see all of my crafty supplies. Some I use everyday, some I use occasionally, some rarely. I do however, consider each one of these items a must have, but am I wrong in thinking that way?

Something for me to think about.

The end of September is fast approaching and the Bittersweet September Giveaway will soon be ending.

Enjoy caring and sharing Autumn days.

Happily,

Jill 00 (Two hugs are better than none)