Looking forward to the new year!

As we wrapping up our Holiday season, I can't stop thinking about how lucky I am to be able to do what I love and meet so many new and exciting people along the way! I love doing holiday shows and meet Marmalade Hills customers in person. I always remember it as the best time of the year! Thanks to all your love, we had a great season which we finished off with a lavish spa event at one of our exclusive retailers Mills Pharmacy + Apothecary in Birmingham, MI. The team at Mills, always makes you feel welcomed and right at home, that's why we had quite a turn out! Everybody was in good mood, we had festive and sparkling decor, yummy snacks and lots of good times. I put together a quick collage from the event, I hope you enjoy it! 

Holiday Schedule: We will be closed from December 18th through December 27th, if you place an order during this time, it will be shipped out on December 28th. 

Thank you so much to all of our followers, customers and friends for making it an amazing year for us. Marmalade Hills is on a steady growth rate and we are expecting many great changes, updates and exciting news in the new year. Lots of planning, brain storming and hard work is still ahead in the next few months, but I'm very excited and enthusiastic about new possibilities and challenges! 

See you in 2013. 
Liana.

4th of July

Today is the first real Monday after a relaxing couples of weeks.... Relaxation, actually, occurred only on the weekend of 4th of July, other 12 days we were fighting all kinds of summer bugs like herpangina - in my 2.5 year old, and tonsillitis - in my 7 year old. Phewwww, I’m glad it is finally over... I hope. I am way behind on my schedule and will need to step up our Holiday production. Such is life, no complains here.
Anyways, back to the post... I just wanted to share with you some of the beautiful pictures we took during our trip to Michigan’s west coast. We started going to the Grand Haven area a few years ago: conveniently located on beautiful, sandy beaches of Lake Michigan, this gem is only 3 hours away, which is a BIG plus when you travel with small children. We fell in love with it the minute we stepped on the beach. I never knew that lakes could have white sandy beaches! Lake Michigan has many beaches. The region is often referred to as the "Third Coast" of the United States, after those of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The sand is soft and off-white due to its high quartz content.
We have spent most of our time on the beach and browsing downtown Grand Haven. At night we set in our beach chairs and watched musical fountain and fireworks. Kids were ecstatic! As always, we had an amazing time as a family, surrounded by beautiful nature.

Hope your 4th of July break was great. Till next time,
Liana.

Recent update: little did I know, three days after our short vacation was over, my little guys picked up tonsillitis from his older sister. He was miserable for another 5 days. Crazy times!

Holiday SALE

Our Spring line of products has been finalized and it means that it is time to make some room for our new, deliciously smelling inventory! Enjoy the remaining stock of our popular seasonal products at 50% off! We had a great run this Holiday season and have only limited quantities of each product left. Remember, when these are gone they are gone until next Winter!

Second Fan Page Giveaway Results

Big thank you to our active fans for participating in our Second Giveaway! I wish you all could win, but we will only have one winner tonight. As always I have numbered fans' comments as they were posted: 1-Mary Barris, 2-Monica, 3-Kess N and Crystal W, 4-Christine Wilson, 5-Donna Maria. Here we go... drum roll please (not the same without it)


Our winner is Monica! Congratulations Monica, you are getting your gift of choice: Zesty Cranberry Omega 3 Body Lotion! ENJOY!

Wrapping Ideas Holiday Style

After one of our fans gave me an idea to divide our soy melts into a smaller size sets and give them away as Holiday gifts for teachers, I instantly knew how I would do it and here is how:
1. For this project you will need a set of Marmalade Hills’ pure soy melts set, sheet of scrap booking paper or cardstock, ruler, small plastic bags (I got my bags from a craft store in beading supplies aisle), scissors, pencil, stapler, and a gift tag of your choice. I have purchased my custom tags from Sarah. She can make you custom color tags with any text you like.
2. Try to predict the size of the paper panel you will need for your bag. My panel had to be 3” x 3”. Sketch it on paper and don’t forget to put a dividing line right in the middle to assist you in perfectly straight folding.
3. If you need a few of these panels just cut out the first one and trace copies of it right on paper, no need to measure anything multiple times.
4. Fold your panel in half helping yourself with a ruler by placing it right against the dividing line.
5. Put your plastic baggy between folds of the panel. Don’t forget to put your melts inside the bag first (it’s kind of important)!
6. Staple panel and baggy together and attach your tag to the front. Done.

As soon as I was done digesting soy melts wrapping idea, another one popped into my head. What if I shared with you how I wrap Marmalade Hills’ Soap Stack holiday style?! I love it because it reminds me of a big candy and if you can come up with a way to secure it on your Christmas tree you can turn it into a deliciously smelling ornament!

1. I usually take one tissue sheet and fold it in half. It is important for tissue to be in two layers, extra layer makes it more durable and prevents tears. Put your soap stack in the center of the sheet and fold one side of tissue on top of the stack.
2. Take another half of the tissue paper and put it on top of the first one and secure it with a piece of sticky tape. Make sure that the side with a sticky tape will go on the bottom of your final product.
3. Take two strings of paper raffia or any ribbon that you have handy and tie it in a bow on a distance of 1 ½” to 2” from the stack edges, this will ensure tissue not to be too close to the stack edges and not to tear. (I hope it makes sense)
4. Tie ribbons into bows, attach you tag and if you think that your edges are too floppy just neatly trim them off. Done.

And this is how our final product looks like!

Second Fan Page Giveaway

Our second Fan Page giveaway is here! Anyone who is our fan on Facebook can enroll to win any product from our shop! There are a few rules: to enroll in this giveaway you must be Marmalade Hills’ fan on Facebook; you must be 18 years of age or older; you have to comment on this post and tell us which product you would like to select as your prize and why. If you are submitting your comment as anonymous you will have to leave your first name and last initial at the end of the comment. You cannot choose sets as your possible prize, only one particular item. Giveaway will go on for one week, until 12-12-09, collecting comments from our fans. Only the ones who left comments will participate in giveaway. After one week I will use online Randomizer to choose a winner. Winner will be contacted via Facebook messaging about their shipping information.

Good Luck!

In case you missed it, results for our first Fan Page giveaway are here.



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Elf Shelf 2009

I finally came to my senses after the show. When I applied for this show I had no idea what to expect and I had no idea how big this show was. I just knew that I have to make progress every day and keep moving ahead. What a crazy time that was: taking care of kids, I gave up on cleaning the house, going to the studio to make products, cooking dinner, back to the studio to make more products… Last night before the show, we stayed up till 2:30am finishing labels and got up 3 ½ hrs later to go to the show. That day was really rough, but adrenalin kept me going and I think, I haven’t eaten all day that day, just coffee and water. Thank God I had my friend with me, who was helping me with everything. I am not sure if it is even possible to do shows on your own. Our booth was in the last room, so the foot traffic was kind of light compare to the two main rooms, in the early morning it even looked a bit empty. People started coming in at 9am sharp! We had our first sale 30 min or so after the opening. We burned and crashed with our first credit card order, it was a $40 purchase and the system was BUSY! Why does it always have to go this way? The lady was very nice and gave us a check and made another $30 purchase :) It was a good start and now looking back, we were pretty busy all day: meeting people, telling them about cold process method of making soaps, talking about benefits of using natural skincare products, making orders, refilling shelves with products, making customized gift sets and processing cards. We could hardly catch up on things, because it was a lot of people around our booth at all times and we tried to be helpful and attend to every stopper-by. There were many different people: some were just wondering around and stopped by just to get a chocolate, some went straight to soaps, and some were interested only in facial care. A few of my good friends stopped by to show us their support and make a purchase, it was very important to hear their words of encouragement. So after all, it was a great show with a big turn out of 1,600 guests and us making great sales! If this is how people shop when the economy is bad, then I can hardly wait to find out how they shop when the economy is good! We had 22 people sign up for the raffle which will be held tonight. The winner will get Omega 3 Body Lotion and one Soap of their choice.
Marmalade Hills will be back to Elf Shelf next Holiday season for sure, only bigger and better and in either of two main rooms! This show has taught me so many things and I cannot wait to improve my flaws next year. I will keep trying until I get it perfect!

I wanted to share with you some of the pictures from the show, please keep in mind that I had only 3 ½ hrs of sleep that night :) So have mercy!
Early Morning: setting up (next year I will have a huge banner behind my booth to cover up any ugly doors or walls)
Side View with soap rack, body mists and soy melts.
Display with raffle sign up sheet, my MICE poster and Specials Menu.


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Thank You!

Last few days before the show have been very busy. But everything seems to be coming together. I have set my mind to not let anything spoil this fun experience. So I am not nervous at all…yet. I am sure it’ll get to me more on Friday. Since I have never done a show before I have no idea what to expect. I will be just happy to meet new people, establish new contacts, see my old friends and family, but picking up one or two wholesale accounts won’t hurt either! I cannot wait to practice my sales skills, polish up my knowledge about Marmalade Hills’ products and become more organized and prepared to take my business to the next level, because I do have an idea on where I want to be the following week after the show. I would like to get my first retail location where my products will be offered with full shopping experience. This show will definitely put things like my price point, feedbacks, presentation, in perspective for me. I will not be posting much to my Fan Page up until Monday. I will need to retreat and enjoy whatever will be left of my Thanksgiving with my family. On Tuesday, we will have a raffle that would be held at the show and hopefully we will pick up some new fans out there as well and maybe even have another Fan Page giveaway back to back! And then I have a few fun Holiday ideas up my sleeve inspired by one of our fans, Christine Wilson. So stay tuned and hope to see you at the show and in our shop!

Hope you have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thank You for supporting Marmalade Hills!

Liana.


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Featured Product - Omega 3 Body Lotion

This post will be the beginning of the series called “Featured Product”. I have to start with one of my favorite items “Omega 3 Body Lotion”. It is a replacement and upgrade from our original Gentle Body Lotions line that some of you have been introduced to before. The first time I have tried this lotion, I fell in love with its texture and the after-feel of it. Cold weather is already upon us and everyone needs an extra nourishing and extra emollient lotion in their arsenal. The texture of this lotion is on a thick side, but it sinks into the skin momentarily, leaving your skin feeling soft, supple and moist. It leaves absolutely no greasy or oily residue and because it has no silicone-by or petroleum-by ingredients it feels like your skin can breathe after application. You know how sometimes, after using a lotion, it feels like you just dipped your hands into a sticky, heavy clay mixture? With Omega 3 Lotions you will feel absolutely none of it! In case of a body/hand lotion, it is important for it to be free of “dirty words” like parabens, phthalates and such because it is a leave-on product and most of the ingredients will be absorbed by skin and transferred into the blood stream. Our Omega 3 Body Lotions are made of pure botanical and plant derived ingredients. We are using Grapeseed, Hemp, Sweet Almond and Sunflower oils that are cold pressed to retain their minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids. Omega 3 is found in Hemp oil. With its healthy essential fatty acid composition of Linoleic and Linolenic acids in the perfect ratio of 3:1, it also contains the relatively rare Gamma-Linolenic fatty acid that the body needs. They are called "essential" because our body is not able to reproduce them, and because they help to nourish and maintain a healthy skin on cellular level. Omega 3 has been found to assist in correcting problematic skin; typically, psoriasis, acne, and eczema. Additional properties from Shea Butter, Japanese Green Tea, Chamomile, Aloe Vera and Vitamin E, makes this a great skin rejuvenator. To guarantee fungus-free and bacteria-free lotions we do have to protect our water in oil emulsions (this is what lotions are) by adding gentle, paraben-free preservative at the ratio of 0.003% of net weight of the product. We offer Essential Oil scented lotions in Tea Tree Blossom and Lavender, and Fragrance Oil scented lotions in Zesty Cranberry, Gingersnap, Sea Foam and Sugar Fig. Our Essential Oil Lotions are a bit more expensive due to usage of pure, therapeutic Essential Oils. Omega 3 Body Lotion can make a thoughtful gift this season for special people in your life.

P.S. if you have missed our previous healthy tips you can find them here:
Clean Truth about Antibacterial Soap
10 Foods that are healthier than you think
Healthy Nails Tips
Healthy Hair Tips
When to buy Organic and when it's ok not to
Benefits of Green Tea
Beauty Sleep
Fish Oil or Omega 3 & 6
How to add years to your life

New products are coming your way!

New soaps are finally all dry! I usually wait for 6 weeks before offering them to customers. From the moment of mixing a fresh batch and until 6 weeks have passed you really don't know how the finished bar of soap will look like (and it is one of the most exciting parts of making cold process soap!). When soap is still in a pot it looks totally different than after 48 hours in the mold... and as it dries it keeps changing color due to water evaporation and air exposure. Here is how fresh Gingersnap looks like (here) and compare it to what it looks like now The Gingersnap turned light brown after it came out of the mold and as it was drying it got darker and darker. It is completely naturally inherited color from Goat Milk and Fragrance Oil: in two words, all goat milk soaps are usually brownish and any fragrance that has Vanilla notes in it will turn soap brown. So in this case it turned double brown! But it still smells scrumptious!

I will be uploading new soaps and products to my shop every day. Until then here is a little preview of a few things that are coming up!
Of course all this and more you will be able to see for yourself at the Holiday Gift Show this year!

Stay tuned!



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Save The Date

When I was a kid my favorite time of the year had always being Winter because of the Holidays and Summer because each summer we went to our summer apartment on Black Sea. Waiting for the Holidays and for summer seemed like torture to a little kid. Ahh, what a wonderful time childhood was... And now I don't know where time goes! I don't think I had a chance to enjoy Summer this year. It seemed like: "Okay, one more week of remodeling and we can start enjoying our summer..." days went by, weeks went by... and it's already November! Now my schedule is planned out by hours! It also means that it is time to invite everybody to meet us in person at the Elf Shelf Holiday Gift show in Troy, MI. I have decided to take on only one show this year and test the waters. It is all my family can handle at this time. But we all are extremely excited and everybody has stepped up their game - everybody! Even my 10 month-old, who had to learn to feed himself and it's a big job for the little guy =)
So please come to say Hi! You will be able to enjoy our Holiday Specials, enter to win Holiday Gift Set from Marmalade Hills, and see for yourself all of our delicious natural products!

Location: Troy High School, 4777 Northfield Parkway in Troy, Michigan. Elf Shelf show is a juried show which will include over 100 Artisans! So come on out to support your local artisans and bring your friends and family, I am sure that everyone will find something that their heart desires.

See you there!



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Full Steam Ahead

I have been making soaps like madwoman in a last few weeks. What seems like madwoman to me, however may look more like slow moving snail to somebody else :) Juggling kids, every day chores, house keeping and business is NOT an easy task. Unfortunately, most of the times business gets lowest priority. But I know that I just have to keep moving and make continuous small or even micro steps forward, whether making a new product, blogging, researching or making labels - whatever I have time for. And I have made some progress, one small task at a time. I have added a new soap book to my soap-making book collection and it is by Soapylove It is so inspirational, fun and quite unique. Melt and Pour soaps are not exactly up my alley but I love all the techniques, designs, clever ideas that Debbie has to offer. I had a little time to experiment with some of her ideas and the first one was Soap Balls! Before I have been rebatching my old soap by Hot Processing it and then together with my 5 year old rolled soap balls for embedding…it could have taken up to two month to make those soap balls. Now I have successfully made batch of 28 red and yellow Cold Process soap balls using ice cube mold recommended by Debbie, and all it took is 24 hrs. I’ll let them sit on my drying rack for few more days and they’ll be ready to go into my Zesty-Cranberry soap. Yippee!
I just have to brag about my new Gingersnap Milk and Honey soap! I made it yesterday night! It smells delicious and looks even better! Pardon my lighting, it was late night outside. It is made of fresh, creamy goat milk, local honey, oats and the most amazing smelling Gingersnap fragrance! The scent will make you want to sink your teeth into it. I bet it will be a crowd pleaser at the Holiday Gift Show this year!



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