3rd Quarter Update

Doesn’t time go by fast?  I figured I had better write something, so here’s the update and what’s been going on at MoSoap.

I just came back yet again from North Carolina where we finally sold my grandmother’s house.  There were so many problems with the sale, my mother asked me to come with her as the buyer was working on the house without her approval….excuse me??  Let’s say I wouldn’t recommend Tarheel Realty and am forever grateful to Mr. John Massey, the attorney my mom hired to help us through the closing.  Mr. Massey is a true Southern gentleman and fantastic real estate lawyer. I was a legal secretary long ago so I know lawyers and he had my mother’s back.

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The shop was hit with a summer  storm damage while I was gone.  The appraiser comes out hopefully tomorrow or Friday to check out the roof and ceilings.  Our garage doors were actually pushed in 6 inches from the wind and I can’t open them…so I’m luckily the postal service picks up from the shop so I don’t have to drive.

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I’m catching up on orders so most everything will go out this afternoon!  Some of you might have seen where the store would be closed from July 3rd to the 10th.  Since I went to go to North Carolina earlier at the last moment, I figured I better cancel my trip to Denver.  Today, July 6th I was suppose to be in Denver were I was to be sworn in to the Daughters of the American Revolution…but MoSoap comes first.  I’m actually a member of the Smokey Hills Chapter in Colorado  and not Missouri.

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This week I hope to have some new soaps up.  The first one will be the Oatmeal and Honey Soap that people have been asking forever …. it’s funny but I was inspired by honey bees swarming our trees last month and figured it was a sign to make some!  I’ll post pictures later this week.

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Also I am in the process of finalizing our new parent store MoHerbs.  All of the products and brands I work under will be listed there.  I don’t have  MoSoap products there yet, but they are on their way.  For those of you that have asked about the little buttons and pocket mirrors you find in your orders at times, that’s me too – I make them all myself with flowers from the woods and that business is called The Round Workshop.

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Well I think that’s about all the news for the moment – as always thank you all so much for your patience while I take care of family.  I’m trying to be faster at shipping.

Thanks again!!!  Happy Summer

Store closed until May 1st.

I need to close the store until May 1st or so in order to catch up with orders and making soap.  For the last 3 months MoSoap has been busier than ever – in fact this April has surpassed Christmas.  I’m out of soap!!  There’s soap drying but it needs another week before I can release it to sell as it take 4 weeks to cure.

There’s been friends and family helping me the last few months but sometimes that has made things a bit worst.  You know the saying “too many cooks in the kitchen”?  Well when I was gone, other people wanted to do things they way they thought things should be run….needless to stay some of you ended up with other people’s orders plus yours, phone calls were not returned and some boxes just flat out disappeared.  I had to replace over 15 orders and some orders weren’t small either!

So by taking a few days off, I can organize the paperwork so the state of Missouri is happy, organize the shop and figure out how much soap to make and order supplies.  If you are looking for your order – all the orders as of 4/27 will ship by Tuesday (tomorrow) unless you paid by check and I am wanting for it to clear.

Thanks for your patience!

debra

Moving our blog

I decided to move our blog over to mosoap.wordpress.com !  There’s more features and it will be easier for you to comment and leave suggestions for me.  I also have someone redesigning it to make MoSoap look more like I want it to – that’s a challenge for anyone.

So stop back and check us out later in April for our new look.

Thanks,

debra

Lil’ Bits Soap and story

When I was around 4, I had a best friend named Mary Elizabeth.  The only problem was….I couldn’t say Elizabeth very well and when I said it, it came out Mary Lil’bits.  That name stuck with her for many years as we went to school and she was none too pleased with me.

Forward to 2009 and people always ask “What’s your favorite soap?” I have to say I don’t use any that you see on-line.  Maybe I’m cheap, but I make my own soap using the end cuts of the bars you see on-line and test out new fragrances.  My customers have the fancy bars!  But the other day one of my friends came over and saw a confetti looking soap in my bathroom and told me to make a soap like that to sell. That set me to thinking what my MoSoap customers might like the most.

Our most popular soaps are by far the white lye and pine tar soaps that are unscented, so the choice was pretty easy.  But what should I call the new soap?  I’m not terribly clever with fancy soap names like some soapmakers. What’s in the soap is the name usually.  Well this new soap as little bits of unscented pine tar soap in a base of our gentle Traditional Lye Soap.  And that sent me back to think of my friend, Mary Lil’ Bits.  I figure I owe a tribute to that poor girl after all the hassle she had in school because I couldn’t say Elizabeth!

So without delay….. our newest pine tar lye soap – Lil’ Bits Lye Soap

 

 

 

 

Website updated & new products

After many requests, I have finally been able to adding some new soaps!  Now when you go to the on-line store, you find unscented pine tar soaps (Swedish Pine Tar), 100% Olive Oil Soap (Pure Olive Oil Soap) and new 4.5 ounce Castile Soaps.  For those that like the Garage soap but not the rough apricot kernels in it, I have made an Orange Spice with the same essential oil blend.

I’m going to be adding more to the new Questions & Article section too.  The feedback on the How to use section has been really helpful a lot of people on how to use the laundry soap.  You can find my grandmother’s recipe for making her laundry soap there.

Thanks again to everyone that have been so patience this month with orders.  After I came back late from helping my mother in North Carolina, I came down with the flu.  My husband had to actually take me to a hospital and they put me on IV’s for three days.  I never become sick and if I am, I treat it with herbal / holistic measures, but this time around Colin thought I was a goner.  I guess 3 weeks trapped with my mother in stressful conditions broke my immune system down. : )   Thanks for all the kind words from everyone!!

Orders now shipping

Thanks to all the customers that ordered while the store was closed.  I should have everyones orders out that placed them during Oct 13 – 31st.  For those that were patience and kind, I added either free shipping or an additional 10% off on top of the 10% original discount.  For those that cursed me out via email…..well since you took the 10% delay discount (which meant you knew there would be a delay) and then swore at me, I canceled your orders and refunded your money. 

Here’s a secret…. If I never make another bar of soap, I’ll survive and still have money in the bank - so please don’t think I am deseperate for your money to indure your tirade - I don’t tolerate in my family and I am not about to with strangers.  It’s fine if you want to tell me that I should have shipped sooner and that you are disappointed, I can live with that – it took a long time I understand.  But don’t swear over the phone or via email to me and expect me to jump – my world doesn’t work that way.  People are nice to each other in my little world. 

Store closed for a bit

Once again happy MoSoap shoppers I have to close up the shop to take care of family.  I’ll be back around the 31st of October.  You can still order and there’s another coupon code for 10% off your order because of the delay.  Use the code of OCTOBER8 at checkout.  The coupon is good until Oct. 31st 2008.

Family Calling

Call it a “family discount” but from now until July 14th you can take 10% off your order because I am in Statesville North Carolina working on my grandfather’s house.  Use the coupon code of STATESVILLE at checkout or write it in the comment box and when I return, I’ll take 10% off.  If you have any other current coupons, use those first and then write in Statesville and you’ll receive more of a discount.  No orders will ship until the 14th of July and then in the order received.

My grandmother, who taught me soapmaking, is needing to sell the house her and my grandfather owned.  My mother convinced me that if I drove her out over the 4th of July weekend we could paint and lay flooring and I would be back by Monday.  Well we all know how those things go, so I can’t leave her here by herself.  So I am a house painting, laminate floor laying fool at this point.  This project has been going on over a year and a half because exactly last year at this time I had to close down MoSoap to come here and work on the house.  I made my mom promise if I stayed, the house would be finished and a sale sign in the yard when we leave……I can only hope.

My family is from Iredell County in NC and their history there goes back quite far.  One of the reasons I named business MoSoap was because of the family name of Morrison.  It’s not just that currently MoSoap is in Missouri (MO) but it’s for my family too.  The photo is one of my favorites of the clan.  I use the desk that my great, great grandfather Morrison (he’s in the center with the bow tie) used when he founded the Star Milling Company in Statesville.  I like to think some of his smarts might rub off when I do paperwork.  I keep hoping….

Flood waters along the Mississippi

As some of you know, the actual shop for MoSoap is located in Winfield, Missouri where I make everything.  And as some of you may know, Winfield MO is having a little bit of a water problem to say the least.  While CNN and all the news channels have some really exciting photos of the flood waters in my little town, I thought I would post some that I took yesterday.

While the shop or my house is not effected because we live high up on a hill, much of the low laying farm land and homes are impacted.  I volunteered to help sandbag this week along with help move some of the people we know that are down low.  So if you order didn’t ship quite as fast as normal, I put my neighbors before money.  I didn’t think to bring my camera when I first went down there to help, picture taking wasn’t on the agenda.  But yesterday I went down and snapped some photos.  I couldn’t get as close because I was just a looky-lou at this point as most of the Guards had the roads blocked.

The oddest thing is getting use to seeing large military trucks and National Guard everywhere – thank goodness for them though!!!  This is the Winfield High School with some of the trucks infront.

Here’s one of the local corn and soy bean farms that is flooded out.  The water should be on the otherside of the farthest tree line.  You usually can not see the river.

 

 

 

 

 

  Most everyone had time to move their personal items, but as you can see, the homes are damaged. In 1993 the water was over the railroad tracks in this section of Winfield.  Most of the area is farm land, but some of the animals were effected too.  The Humane Society set up a base at the high school earlier in the week to take care of traumatized pets and live stock.  Most people living down here knew it was coming last weekend and prepared.  After you saw the mess in Iowa, everyone knew it was coming our way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a small local quarry that really took a hit when the last levee broke. I’ll be donating 10% of our June Sales to the flood relief fund in our town.  So now you know all your purchases are helping!

Thanks again to everyone that understood the delay – I really appreciate it. 

Bad blogger

Ok, I’ll just come out and say it – I have been a bad blogger.  I have tried to keep the “What’s New” at MoSoap up to date, but the blog…..well with finding pictures, and writing even more, I just haven’t done it.  Instead I tried to get orders out as fast as possible for the holidays.  Then 2008 started and it’s been a ride since.

I won’t go into a long post but basically car accidents, nearly losing my fingers in a blender blade, rain damage, wind damage, cut phone lines, cut gas lines, damaged computers because of rain and now today…..sandbagging our little town of Winfield.  The Mississippi is rising and while the shop and my home are not effected, our little town and friends are. I have been volunteering to sandbag along HWY 79 to help stop some of the raising water. 

Hopefully, by blogging I will stop the flow of drama….how’s that for wishful thinking?  I didn’t have time to post during Mother’s Day or Father’s Day because, thankfully, I had so many orders!  Yeah.  I posted a picture of my little Shamrock plant.  I thought I had lost it during the rain damage that ruined the shop but it’s on it’s way back after freezing.  I figured it made it through the storm, so could I. 

 Thank you so much to everyone that was patient while there was so many delays!! I know I have the absolute best customers because your emails and phone calls many times made my day, heck week.  I truly appreciate all the kind words and humor.

debra