From The Cave

Well folks, I spent a lot of time creating this weekend and got some really great inspiration from a trip to Wegmans (a giant and incredible grocery store). Am I the only person who gets inspiration from grocery stores??

Well, this weekend I made a new bath tea and three new herbal teas! Once my new herbs arrive I will also begin infusing some new oils for future creams and lotions. I got a request from a fan of my Facebook to make some foot soaking salts as well, so those are rattling about in my brain as well.

Take a moment to check out my new products!

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=367285

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=367278

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=367274

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=367270

I'm still working on my packaging which is not coming along smoothly at all. I got some really great designs and logos from a fellow Etsy seller but none of them are large enough to use on my packaging and my lovely new sticker/laminator machine is hard to master. So, hopefully she can create a couple of label options for me this week and I will have my new packaging ready by the SWAG BAG giveaway :) Can't wait to see who wins!

Mini-Vacation, Upcoming Products, And Announcements

As many of you know I will be leaving the area on Thursday morning and returning Sunday morning. I am traveling to Massachusetts to attend my little sister's wedding and secure some of my own wedding items for next May. During this time I will NOT be closing down shop but I may not be able to check it as often as I'd like. Please note that I will attack any purchases the moment I get home and finish crashing.

Some fun products I have just finished researching and will be attempting this week, for hopeful posting by Wednesday night:

Anxie-Tea

A great new herbal tea made of some, what else, organic herbs that help reduce tension and stress in the body! I'm going a little light on the Valerian root since I don't want you all falling asleep. hahaha

Cleanse-Happy Tea

Another great tea that protects, cleans out, and otherwise makes your little liver very, very happy! Not bad to have around after a few months of binging or alcohol consumption, etc. Hmmm, better get this baby out before the holidays .

Breath Easy Herbal Bath Salt

Along with Pink Himilayan Salt and Epsom salt I'll be combining some great aromatic herbs and essential oils (only 100% therapeutic grade, of course) for a bath designed to help stimulate the lungs and airways. Perfect for those who suffer from fall allergies or tend to get those nasty bronchial bugs each year.

Also, big announcement, I have decided it is time to break up my shop a bit. While I love my tarot readings and will continue to do them I will be segregating the little buggers to another shop of mine which I opened years ago as a Buyer shop and had grand intentions of using some day. I will let you all know when I do this but expect to see my listings deminish as I move the spiritual store out of TheOmIntention and into BohemianChick.

Blog Giveaway!!!!

That's right kids, I'm giving stuff away!

I am going to randomly choose one of the followers on my blog on August 20th and they will receive a mini gift package. In that gift package will include a 1 ounce tin of my new Chocolate Covered Cherry Cream, a 2 ounce jar of one of my new Dead Sea Mud Masks, a few samples of my tea, a bag of bath salts, and a gift certificate for a free tarot reading!

Thats right, but you have to be a blog follower! So, go ahead and join, get your friends to join and split the loot! Spread the word, the random selection will be done (by the method of names in a hat) on August 20th at 9pm and the notice of the winner will follow!

Working for the Weekend

Yay! I know it's only Thursday but that means the weekend is almost here. While I am slightly saddened that my honey will be leaving Saturday morning for a week in Tokyo, I am happy to have the place to myself so I can lock myself in my little herb dungeon and mix some fun stuff! The only down side is that she is taking our digital camera with her. Ack! Luckily I have a photographer friend who has about a dozen different cameras and I might be able to convince him to lend me his. Fingers crossed!!

So, things I will be working on this weekend:

- 3 new herbal teas (man, that rooibos tea I got is phenominal!)

- 3 new herbal bath teas (I get to try them out! woohoo!)

- 1 or two new tarot card readings

- 1 prayer shawl which may be done by next weekend

- Creating my brand, logo, and trying to get my printer to work right, urg!

In fact, I have a little cash in my PayPal account so I may make another purchase or five. Stop me, I'm mad about herbs!

Favorite Places on the Web

Other than Etsy, my e-mail accounts, and the occasional meander over to Amazon.com, I have a few places I like to go and play when I have some down-time. Most are craft-sites, many are sites for herbs and oils, and a few are shops where I like to get ideas...whether I have time to work on them is another matter entirely!

Here are some of my favorite sites!

http://www.rishitea.com/

I really enjoy looking through Rishi Tea's web-site. It's nice to see companies that are really built around fair-trade, organic, and sustainable products. They have such unique products, such lovely teas, that it makes me want a whole room I can dedicate to it.

http://www.scarletquince.com/

I'm a big-time cross-stitcher and I love looking at the amazing patterns that you can create at Scarlet's site. Lucky for my I got a gift certificate from the site for Christmas one year and have already spent it. Now, have I actually had any time to make any of the designs I bought? Hell no!

But I know one day, maybe when I no longer work...ah to dream!

http://www.europeanxs.com

The European Cross Stitch Company is another one of those craft sites that makes my mouth water. The amazingly complex designs, the mandalas, the traditional European looks. Of course, even working on something like that for a few hours a day it would take me years to complete it. What do you charge for something like that? $700, $1,000?

http://www.save-on-crafts.com

This place is the mecca of all things crafty and cheap...expense-wise, not quality-wise. Where else can you find decorative bird-cages, LED battery operated candles, flower arrangement supplies, beads, ribbon, glassware, sheppard hooks, paper lanterns, and immensley more in one place for really reasonable prices? No, really, I want to know. If you know of a place please share it!

Finally Back!

Back from the land of Swine Flu, aka New York. Met the entire group of in-laws in one fell swoop. Whew! They are all very nice, very Italian, very stereotypical, but nice.

We also saw the musical Mary Poppins. It was very nice. I grew up on the Disney movie so it was a little different, but still nice. The dancing was great, singing was great, the acting was great...the kids were ok. Not too shabby, but when all is said and done no one can do it better than Julie Andrews in my opinion.

The ride home was nasty, rainy, cold, dark, and we didn't get home until very late. Our cat sitter forgot to come that day completely so our poor kitties were almost knocking down the door. I was glad we forgot to get the sitter a present from NYC like we had planned.

Now to catch up on everything else. My honey is going away this weekend to Japan and is miserable about it. The only good thing is that it means I have the place to myself and can shut myself away and meditate, do readings, make teas, take a bath...oh, maybe make some bath teas! Hmmmmm.

Supplies!!!

They are on their way! Woohoo!

So, I didn't wait like I had planned in order to buy some supplies for my next set of products. I just couldn't. So I decided to start small and work my way up, depending on how well they sell. Not a bad idea in and of itself, right? If they don't sell then I've only spent half what I would have. If they sell I'll have enough to buy more supplies! So I've decided to move forward with my bath teas but I think, considering how few people actually take baths these days, to market them as foot bath teas (and if someone wants to use them in a bath more power to them). After all, there are two lesser known Chakras in the sole of each foot.

What I'll be making is a foot bath tea using Dead Sea Salt (which is amazingly nutritive and soothing) and organic herbs specifically blended to help heal and balance certain Chakras. I also plan to start working on creating some teas that do the same...the trick is getting the teas to taste good even with all those herbs in them. The tea could work miracles but if it doesn't taste good no one will drink it.

I've also wanted to start working more with essential oils but as I have cats who get into everything I may not be able to. Essential oils are toxic to cats as they can't process it in their liver, even just smelling it is toxic...so I try to keep them as far away from my oils as possible. I can't NOT use EOs, they are just too wonderful, so I have to be incredibly careful. I wish I had a separate space from my cats where I could mix them...perhaps once I reach my goal and have my own office.

Oh, I have a request for all of you who read this blog. Please pray for me as I have been having real trouble meditating lately. I used to be able to meditate and really focus, but lately when I meditate I fall asleep! That's fine when I meditate to relax, but when I meditate to contact my guides and try to talk to spirits about readings or people's troubles, it is not helpful in the least! It doesn't seem to be affecting my readings any, as I pray for quite some time before doing each reading, but it's getting a little annoying. I could use a little help, and apparently more sleep.

Thinking Positive....UGH!

Well, in the non-metaphysical world this little gal is but a humble Office Administrator. I basically manage the office without having to handle the finance side or the bulk of the personnel side. I ALWAYS have plenty to do. Unfortunately I have the tendency to open my mouth.

My boss mentioned over a year ago, in fact he mentioned it when they hired me, that they needed someone to pour through all their documents and help them get organized. Well, the task fell to me and its quite a large task. It involves creating a document strategy, policies, and then going back and physically pouring through 25 years worth of reports, contracts, notes, etc. I've been working on it a year and have made significant progress.

Well, last week my boss came to me and the Marketing Manager and asked us to find a way to reorganize their electronic Marketing folder so that things were easier to find. I looked at the MM and said "You realize this will open up a can of worms and eventually this will leak into all our other electronic folders, right?" Sure enough, today just that happened and guess who is now in charge of completely reorganizing their electronic file system as well as performing an enormous data migration and configuration? That's right!

UGH! Can you say massive raise and/or promotion better be coming soon?

But enough about that, I'm trying to think optimistically. As of tomorrow I have a nice 3 day weekend. Our new couch is junk and the store we bought it from is sending out a "couch guy" to fix it. He already called and said he can't fix it but he'll come out and fill out the paperwork so we can "reselect" our furniture. So I have to be home for that. Good news is that it gives me loads of time to work on fun Etsy projects! I'm hoping this weekend I can put out some necklaces, maybe a talisman or two. Fingers crossed.

I've decided that my next investment will be in bath tea supplies. I love taking baths and I've found a fabulous seller of bulk organic herbs to add to the incredible Dead Sea Salt I found. Now its just a matter of figuring out how to package it all up nicely.

Oh, and keep me in your thoughts tomorrow as I receive my first Reiki attunement!

To Bath Tea or Not To Bath Tea

I've been trying to think of things I can make for my Etsy store that will give me a lot of enjoyment and that people may enjoy. As a novice herbalist I am enthralled with the amazing powers of natural products, herbs, spices, etc. and would love to use them in so much more ways. One way I was contemplating was in teas and bath teas. My only concern was that it takes a good chunk of money to purchase the products as I'd want to purchase them in bulk to save money.

I know where I can find the product I'll need and at reasonable prices, but I see a lot of other sellers on Etsy and in looking at how much they are selling their products for I'm not sure it would be worth it financially. Also, in my creative fervor I would need to make the packaging as cute as possible, and to do that would take even more of an investment.

So I'm putting this question out to the two people who apparently read my blog (and neither is my mother as she'd have a heart-attack if she knew her daughter was giving tarot readings). Here goes...and feel free to leave comments!

Bath Tea: Using Dead Sea Salt and various organic and fair-trade herbs I will make incredibly healing and yummy smelling Bath Teas (Bath Salts). Included with the tea itself will be a reusable unbleached muslin bag with drawstring. The tea will come in a cute 4 oz. aluminum tin with a label on top relating the tea/salt to a vibrant classic painting, along with instructions on the bottom of the tin for use, storage, etc. The 4 oz. of tea/salt is enough to make 8 luxurious baths. The teas/salts will all be made with the purpose and ingredient base of healing various ailments from insomnia, eczema, headaches, infertility, depression, etc and would be very relaxing or invigorating depending on your need. Now, in order to sell this and make enough profit to pay for supplies to replace it and possibly half the supplies for a second, I would have to charge about $9. That would break down to a little more than $1 a bath.

Now the big question....is this something that you would buy?