Peace, Love & Soap...Changing Modes!

Well, It's that time of year again... Our farmer's market has come to an end and we have some shows gearing up for Christmas, but all in all, we are shifting from selling mode to production mode. Thank goodness, our wholesalers & faithful customers keep us selling throughout the winter. However, this is the time when we spend lots of time in the Bubble Factory concocting next seasons wares. It has been an amazing year and we feel so fortunate that Peace, Love & Soap is thriving!

The Bubble Wagon!!!

I cannot express how excited I am about how the Bubble Wagon turned out! This picture was taken right after it was finished of myself & Richie, our friend from Canada who came down to wrap it for us.

Youtube Review!! Peace Love & Soap ~ Handmade Vegan Soap Haul/Review

This is so cool!! I just randomly found this review on youtube!!

2011 HSMG Miami

This year I was lucky enough to be able to do something that I've wanted to do for a few years now...attend the HSMG annual conference. It was held in Miami, which is my hometown, so I felt comfortable venturing out on my own to go. I had the best time and met some of the nicest people ever! It was fun to be around people who find value & excitement in soap like I do. I got to enter my soap in the Soaper's Showcase, which held some of the most amazing soap projects I have ever seen! The speaker's & instructors were so knowledgeable and I felt so Blessed to be there.

This is my friend Lashonda, aka The Soap Coach.

This was at the Essential Wholesale party at the Ft Lauderdale Museum of Science.

I became fast friends with Jackie & Leiann. I hope to see them again one day!

This is Holly. Thank goodness she "accidentally" sat at our lunch table. I was so glad to get to know her. She even bought me a peace sign bracelet because she said it reminded her of me!

This is our keynote speaker Barbara Corcoran signing my copy of her book. She has such an inspiring story. Certain parts of her talk brought me to tears...she is a great speaker.

Below is a short video of the conference including the makeshift limbo game that we started with my walking stick. All in all, it was such a fun time and I am thankful to my husband who took vacation time off to watch our boys so I could go.

Our new Custom Project- Art in Action!

Anyone who knows me very well, knows that I love art, creativity & music. A few years ago when we first moved to Greenville, Mike & I stumbled upon an art festival downtown, called Artisphere. As we walked down into the beautiful Falls Park we heard some rock music blaring and saw this guy with crazy blonde hair dancing around & slinging paint. Even my little boys were mesmerized. As we watched, the life size canvas turned into a painting of Tom Petty! Ever since then, my family has loved the art of Brian Olsen. Every year, we are usually camped out the entire weekend in front of the Art in Action stage, like little groupies! I know it sounds silly, but it's so fun to watch. Take a minute to watch this video and you'll get a glimpse of what his art is like:

With all this being said, I am very excited to announce that Peace, Love & Soap has been working with the Art in Action team and we've come up with a custom "Art in Action" soap bar! It will be sold this year at the merchandise tent of Brian Olsen, Art in Action. The soap is all natural and handmade, of course, and it also has exfoliants in it to help wash paint (or whatever your medium may be) off of those artsy folks hands! So don't miss out on your Peace, Love & Soap, "Art in Action" bar and definitely don't miss out on watching Brain Olsen do his thing!!

Here are some pictures of us enjoying Artisphere through the years...

This was the first time we saw Art in Action

This was the second year. The boys love running around Falls Park in between shows. I love this picture!

I actually won one of Brian's painting in an online contest. So many people pulled together & voted for me to win the painting. I couldn't believe it!

So excited the day it came!

This is the boys with their Art in Action tattoos!

The boys think he's the coolest!!

Peace, Love & Soap's First Saturday Market of 2011!

When I say that the market came in with a bang, I am not even kidding! The Carolina First Saturday Market in downtown Greenville, SC is always such a joy to be a part of. This is our fourth year down there and every year gets better than the last. This Saturday was crazy busy the whole time without a minute to relax, not that I'm complaining ; ). My friends & family that came to visit had to jump in and start bagging, cutting and helping me take money. It was so exciting!

Here are a few pics of the day!

It was chilly in the morning, but warmed up quickly.

This is my sweet hubby! He got to come down with me to help set up before he had to leave for work. We are a team!

Peace, Love & Soap Garden

This year, in an effort to be better organized, I had a jumpstart on my soap stock- which freed up some time to get back to my garden...not to mention I have the perfect spot and can finally stray from my usual container gardening (which has been good to me, don't get me wrong!) This is just the beginning of some peppermint that will eventually be dried and used in our soap. Peppermint is a great thing to grow if you want to start simple. A container is not a bad idea, because it spreads like wild fire.

Here are a few more of our veggie plants we have going. So far, its heirloom tomatoes, red peppers, squash, zucchini & watermelon (for Cameron).

This next little bud is what I am most excited about! I have decided to try & grow my own loofahs for my loofah soap. Many of my farmer friends have given me the confidence to give it a try, so we shall see. I started them from seeds from ones I was given last year. I planted them last week and I will keep the progress updated.

This is the other view of our garden. We hung the lattice for the loofahs to travel up. Hope they like it! : )

Peace, Love & Soap has moved!

Peace, Love & Soap has recently moved into a much bigger area (about twice as big!), and it has not been an easy task. But, it has truly been worth it. I am meeting with my business consultant today to go over my new set up and plans for the next year and I'm so excited! This month I start my festivals & shows, the first one being The Heritage Festival. Last year was a great turnout and this year is supposed to be double! The Carolina First Saturday Market starts in the beginning of May and I can't wait to see my market family and faithful customers again. It means so much that people make a point of coming down to get their soap and then order it through the winter from my website. That's a lot of work to get some soap and I am grateful for them!

Peace, Love & Soap gets a couple shout outs!

This is My Good friend Becca, talking about her awesome shop in the Pendleton Arts District. She has the best trendy clothes & jewelry in Greenville, check out Style by Becca. Make sure you watch the whole video until the end!

Peace, Love & Soap in the new Raleigh, NC Whole Foods Market!!

We were so excited to be asked to be part of the grand opening of the Raleigh, NC Whole Foods Market!! The store will open in early March and you can find Peace, Love & Soap products there!

Lately I have been very busy filling wholesale orders and figuring out how to transition into bigger equipment in order to ramp up production. I am excited to say that we will be working on new pictures for the website in the next couple months, and boy do we need them. Tax time is upon us and that is never fun, especially since bookkeeping is not my forte. However, I finished up my part of it yesterday and will be glad to have that behind me for another year. It was actually pretty exciting to see that Peace, Love & Soap is growing in all of the ways that it should be. I am not a numbers girl and really don't pay much attention to that unless I have to, so it was a good checkpoint for the year.

Today is a beautiful sunny day and as soon as I finish my coffee I will dress the boys and head out to the shop to make soap. I love my setup because they can play while I watch them & work. I also have a little couch out there so Cameron can sit & practice his reading.

Peace, Love & Soap Happenings!

It's starting to get busy around here once again! For some reason I had anticipated a few months of no soap activity, but much to my surprise, it was more like a couple of weeks! I'm not complaining because I have to admit I was getting a little antsy and already subconsciously setting goals for the upcoming year and market season. Things seem to be constantly changing here at Peace, Love & Soap which I think is great because it's a sign of growth. Our retail packaging is about to get a makeover and I can't wait to reveal our new look. In the last 3 days I have made 29 batches of soap and mixed almost my weight in bath salts. I'm trying to stay ahead of the game as much as possible this year to free up some fun time during market season. A major goal I have is to have all of the soap made before the market starts in May. Day before yesterday I took a little road trip to Charlotte, NC to pick up my new workbench. I am so happy for this because I have been working off of two 8 ft. plastic tables and they are shot!! This is a major deal for me.

Peace, Love & Soap has had the opportunity to be a sponsor in a race taking place on February 5, 2011 called A Hero's 5K. It is in memory of Geoffrey Whitsitt and other Upstate soldiers who have fought, lived and died for our country. I have offered that anyone who signs up to run with the Peace, Love & Soap team gets a free bar of soap. We have 2 signed up so far and I hope we get lots more! C'mon, I'm itching to give some soap away! You can sign up here:

www.aheros5k.com

In fact, if you mention this blogpost to me, I'll throw in a lip balm as well!

24/7 with Peace, Love & Soap in SKIRT! Magazine

I know most Greenville folks have picked up skirt! magazine at some time or another. I love flipping through each month to see what is new and fresh around town, which is why I was so excited when they called me and asked for an interview for the new "24/7" segment.

The funniest thing is that my family went to Whole Foods for a bite to eat a couple days after Christmas. I knew that the article was coming out in January and wasn't at all expecting to see it when I breezed past the stack of mags, grabbing one on my way to our booth. My husband casually said to me, "Are you gonna look for your article?" I looked down and saw that it WAS the January issue. I about died when I flipped to the page and saw it! I know it may not be a major deal to most people, but it was so fun to see and my boys thought it was cool seeing mommy in a magazine!

Check it out, just click on the link below...

http://greenville.skirt.com/247/meet-katie-williams

Free Coffee Day...let's give back!

This year as I looked around at all that we have and hurt for the people who are suffering with this struggling economy or whatever else, I had the strongest urge to give back in some way. I wasn't sure what I would be able to do and as I was thinking about it, I stumbled on "Free Coffee Day" which was put together by Drew Horton, to serve Greenville's Homeless community as the cold weather kicked in. I wanted to be an example to my children of how to have compassion, understanding & the importance of serving others before yourself. I had lots of friends contribute blankets, coats & long johns...and we packed up soap. I know it's not a major life or death necessity, but I thought it might be nice to be able to wash up and feel clean & fresh.

It was amazing to me to see how much the people appreciated the gifts that were given to them. Their eyes lit up to a new pair of socks or a long john shirt. I think the ladies particularly enjoyed the soap, but there were a lot of men who were very happy to have it as well.

My kids warmed up to the people right away and would pick out the ones who they hadn't yet given soap to. The men & women loved the kids and you could see their faces warm up to the extended hand of a child. I felt like it was because children are innocent and nonjudgmental.

Those gifts were all specific requests of the homeless people of Greenville who had gone to the previous Free Coffee Day. It was very interesting to me so see what the people had asked for. It was everything from socks to a Bible to a basketball. Each individual had a different treasure.

Christian loves to be a part of everything we do and I loved that this was such a simple act with such a big lesson.

This is Cameron packing baggies of soap for the people who would be down at the shelter.

The biggest lesson I learned is that these people who received these items are the same as anyone else. Some of them had been homeless for many years and some for many months. Some of them looked homeless, and some of them didn't. Each person was once somebody's child and were loved greatly or not loved enough. Some were there because of a life of poor choices, but some were victims of circumstance. There were so many men who were dying for work, but couldn't find a job, therefore couldn't pay for housing. It made me realize that this is real. And for those of us who have so much, we need to give back to those of us who are having a hard time, without judgement.