April 30th, 2013 have a laugh

What's Up?

Now you have been mooned by a Panda

Have you hugged your child today?

Have ever said this?

I had to add this one, it immediately made me laugh

Walmart casula - never shared a Walmart joke before

Special Treat featuring author Anita Stewart

Anita Stewart loves to write and has a great imagination.  I love chatting with her on Facebook.  She was born in the USA but now resides in the UK with her husband and children.  She has written an entire series of books.  Here is an excerpt from the first book in the Ancient Breeds series (Black Pyramid: Special Edition).

Summoning the power of the shashaiti, the necklace warmed instantly against his skin. Now he could see through barriers of concrete, steel, and plastic. The camera wasn’t in this room. It was in the man’s room. He saw him in bed, the covers moving.
Letting go of the shashaiti, he didn’t detect the woman behind him until a blinding pain spread across the back of his head.
“What the hell?” He stumbled forward. Touching the back of his skull, he saw blood on his fingertips.
Who had hit him?
Taking in the empty bed he growled with frustration. That’ll teach me to keep my eye on the suspect in the future.
Whirling around as the lights blinked on, he saw her holding a frying pan with a big dent in it. “You hit me with a cooking implement? Who does that these days?”
“Frightened women, now get out!” She held the frying pan like a baseball bat, the sales tag hanging from the hole in the handle.
“I’ll hit you again!”
“Give me the weapon.” He demanded, knowing full well he intimidated her.
“What do you want?” She tightened her grip on the pan, her fingers flexing around the handle.
“I came for your camera.” He rubbed his head. Damn that hurt. Where did the frying pan come from?
“It’s in my purse, just take it! There’s money, you can have it too!” She inched her way to the counter and threw the purse at him.
“The camera is not in there, I checked.” Waving his hand, he snatched the pan from her using telekinesis. It landed on the floor with a dull thud.
“How did you do that?” Her face turned pale.
“Do what?” He stepped around the counter and took hold of her arm.
“You made me drop my pan. How did you do that?”
“Forget the damn pan! The camera is all I am after. If you get it for me, I will let you live.”

If you enjoyed this excerpt, you can purchase an electronic copy of this book for only $1.99.
There is also a short story for this series that you can download for free
Plus in a few weeks she will have another free one available called Atlantis
You can visit her web site which contains a guest book where you can connect to her Twitter feed, leave comments, read her blog, and it even has a chat feature (which probably only connect if she is on chat).

Botanical for Beauty Perfumes

Today I am writing about my "all natural perfumes".  At this time I have perfumes in both roll on and solid styles.  The roll on perfumes are simply essential oils in a base of golden jojoba oil.  The solid perfumes are in a base of olive oil, illipe butter (which is a very hard butter) and a bit of candelilla wax (an all vegetable wax).  This wax is perfect in one way because it has a very high "melting point" it won't melt in the summer heat, however that also means that I have to work with it very quickly as it can solidifies more quickly than the butters that I work with.  I also use this wax for my lip balms.


You will find that most essential oil perfumes are in a base of alcohol regardless of whether they are a roll on or a spray.  For those who prefer to have a light feel on their skin than either of my current roll on or solid perfumes I will be creating a light weight spray perfume in the future.  However, I have discussed this subject with my mentor and she said the best base to use would be either a hydrosol or grape alcohol.  Grape alcohol is difficult to find and as a result when you do find it, it is very expensive.  I found a gallon on the web and it costs $495.00, plus the USPS will not ship alcohol and it can only be shipped via ground.  Hydrosols are the by product (water left over) from the steam distillation process that is done to extract essential oils.

You may read that a hydrosol is the same as a hydrolat, flower waters, floral waters or distillates.  However, this can be confused with floral waters that are actually water with essential oils added and that is definitely not the same.

My perfumes are currently both single notes and a few blends plus some fragrance oils to give a bit of variety to customers who might want it.  I will also be introducing more blends over time.  I am aware that the current trend has been to have 10 or more scents all blended into one, however this is not how perfumery works.  Perfumery has 3 notes.  A top note, a middle note and a bottom note.  The bottom note is the "anchor" so to speak.  You can always add a "tad" of something truly special to your blend in addition to these 3 notes.  But the majority of the blend will be 3 scents, why you may ask?  Well the truth is too many different scents only confuses your nose and professional perfume formulaters call those "muddy" scents.

I currently have 3 blended perfumes.  One was at the request of a group of my friends who wanted a spicy scent and they even suggested which spices to me, so here it is "Exotic Spice".

This one seems to attract a great deal of interest "Romantic Whispers"

I love to hear your thoughts, but be nice.  What's your favorite scents.  Do you love exotic flowers, exotic fruits, do you have a favorite fragrance oil?  I would love to look at feed back and comments.

Funnies for April 23, 2013

Just heart warming

There are those times

Just because I laughed when I saw this

Thought this was a cute way to visual the high horse, LOL

This is what I call one determined cat

Just something interesting to ponder

Ending with both funny and sweet

Featuring Mother's day sales

Botanicalsforbeauty would be very happy to refund the shipping charge portion of any purchase over $15 (US first class postage only) from today until May 6th in honor of Mother's day.  I will honor the "free shipping after this date provided that you understand I cannot guarantee receipt prior to Mother's day if your order is placed after May the 6th.  Occasionally the post office has taken up to one entire week to ship an item from Ohio to California.

Hopes and Dreams Studio on Artfire is having a 25% off sale on any purchase thru 05/12/2013. Use code MothersDay2013 at checkout HopesandDreams

SimplyShop323 is having a 15% off sale value thru May 18th.  Simply use coupon code MOM15 at check out.  She has a wide selection of note cards and jewelry at affordable prices.

HandcraftedDelights - Details coming Sunday

The bluestravinacreations at the Craft Cafe is having a 15% off sale thru the end of May.

www.keywestbypalms.com is offering 15% off for their Mother's day special (from now until Mother's day)

juniquegoods is offering 10% off for Mother's day on all of her items, plus a free gift.  I am going to ask her if there is an end date and any other details.  For now this is all that is listed on her store front.

Please bookmark this post as I will continue the hunt for great mother's day sales.

Who is Sewmantra?

This blog post is a look back at a blog post I did last August.  This particular artisan has taken a turn, one that is a happy one for her and may very well be for many others, but to me it is a sad one as I truly loved her work and I can not imagine being able to make any of those fabulous creations no matter how good she is at teaching  others how to make creations.  You can see the old post with the images of her creations by visiting here.

She now has a store where she sells bags, totes and tees with various prints.

Sewmantra's Monarch butterfly

Another printable from Sewmantra

Sewmantra's Daisy

She also does some classes and will soon start some art and creativity coaching on Crafty Link sometime in May.

Sewmantra's Social sites:
pinterest
blogspot
twitter
tumblr
stumbleupon

Nothing Raunchy, warm your heart and have a good belly laugh

You might not understand this if you have good insurance

This maybe hit home better than thou shalt not

Too true and too funny looking

He looks so miserable and uncomfortable too

Something heart warming

Just because I know my friends visit my blog often

Comparing Botancialforbeauty

The purpose of this blog post is to point out the difference between some other beauty web sites and botanicalsforbeauty.  I will not be mentioning the names of any particular company in this post.  You can always do the same research I am doing here and come up with your own conclusions and of course everyone will have their own preferences.  Plus that is what real capitalism is all about (having lots of choices).

I have found some that claim to have ingredients like fresh bananas and fresh avocado and without any preservatives being listed.  How is that possible?  To the best of my knowledge all kinds of little microbes just love vegetable matter.  If you have the answer please feel free to post it in a comment.  I would love to know more about that subject.

You might also see ingredients like limonene (a substance commonly found in the rinds of lemons) and linalool (a naturally occurring substance found in many flower and spice plants)   Just Google them, as they may not be as scary as you think.  It may not be clear whether the ingredient is the synthetic or an extraction, but it is more likely to be the synthetic as synthetics are more widely and cheaply available.  Some of the companies I researched don't sell whipped butters.


Sometimes you will find the first listed ingredient (meaning the predominant ingredient or the ingredient their is the most of) to be water.  The ingredients listed toward the end are usually the preservatives and if the product contains water it is an absolute must that a preservative be added.  This also applies to any product that is to be used in the shower or has the potential for water to end up in the product (such as scrubs).

Some of these big name and very popular and expensive beauty companies sell their products at a cost of $20 per ounce and upwards.  Because some of their products work so well for so many of their customers they happily pay those kind of prices.  I found one product, that was a pure oil selling for $27.00 an ounce.  Plus yes some of them use paraben preservatives which is controversial according to some people, but then others say that the percentage by weight is only 1% (too low to be of any harm).

I didn't find a whipped shea or body butter on either one of the two most popular beauty web sites I know of.  So next I Googled whipped shea.  The prices ranges I found were rather wide but then of course the jar sizes were not all the same and neither were the ingredients listed (2 of them didn't have an ingredients list at all).  All of the information I was able to glean in my 1.5 hour research time is below.


whipped shea/vanilla mandarin 8 oz - 39.15 ($4.89/oz)
believe it or not couldn't find an ingredients list

Whipped shea/rainforest spice 2 oz. $6.49 ($3.24/oz)
unrefined shea was the first on the list but they also added rice bran, cocoa butter, sunflower seed oil, fractionated coconut oil, sweet almond oil, vegetable glycerin, ceteraryl alcohol and a vegetable based emulsifier, wheat germ oil, corn starch, vitamin E and lastly essential oils.


Lavender Essential oil whipped shea 3.2  oz. $12.99 now  $9.99 (regular $4.06/oz) sale $3.12/oz
no ingredients list, claim is that it is 100% lavender essential oil whipped shea butter but from the research I have done 20% oil really needs to be added in order to be able to really whip the butter.

Unscented whipped shea - 4 oz $17.99 ($4.50/oz)
also available as pomegranate, sweet vanilla and lavender.  1st ingred. unrefined shea, rice bran oil, fractionated coconut oil, vegetable glycerin, ceteraryl alcohol, a sugar based emulsifier, cocoa seed butter, sweet almond oil, corn starch, Vitamin E panthenol (a form of vitamin B5 used as a moisturizer which can be of plant or animal origin).

Whipped shea/lemongrass 1.2 oz. $8.00 (6.67/oz)
organic raw and unrefined shea, organic coconut oil, cornstarch, lemongrass essential oil


Botanicalsforbeauty's current price is $5.25 for 1.5 oz.  (will be going up to $6.75 this summer)
My ingredients:  Fair trade (Burkina Faso) shea butter, apricot kernel oil, Vitamin E
That's a current price of $3.50/oz that will be going up to $4.50/oz this summer 
PLEASE REMEMBER my shea has no fillers, no thickners, no water, no emulsifiers and I will soon be listing a few choices of fragrance oils and a few essential oils as well.

Oscar's story and Simply Purple

 My dearest and best friend, Judy of AussenWolf Designs curated a collection on Artfire.com that she called
 Mom loves purple which is featured on the Sunday April 7th Artfire Artisan News letter.  So if your mom loves purple, you should check this collection out for some awesome and affordable gifts.  Don't forget that Mother's day is May 12th this year.  To see the collection, click on the link (Mom loves purple) on this post, then you will be taken to the news letter and you will see a black box on the left side of the news letter and if you click on the white letters that say "Mom Loves Purple curated by .... that will take you to the collection.

Please note you will not be able to comment or vote on the collection unless you are registered user and log into Artfire.  However, if you would like to purchase one of the items in the collection, you simply click on the item image and it will take you to the shop with that item so you may make a purchase.  Artfire has one of the simplest and easiest purchase systems on the web.  Happy Mother's Day shopping.

About a week and a half ago, Judy's precious dog (Oscar, picture below) had a crisis.   Sweet Oscar had a pancreatits attack and ended up spending two nights at the vet's.  They did some x-rays, had him on IV fluids the entire time, gave him antibiotics, pain medications, and now he is on a very special (and a bit pricey) diet for the rest of his life.  She loves Oscar so much that she has expressed that he is worth every cent.  If you would love to give a help paw to Oscar and Judy, please visit aussenwolfdesigns@artfire.com
At her shop you will find a variety of  wire wrapping, bead stringing, bead embroidery, pearl knotting, semi-precious stones.  You will also find that one of the reasons we are such good friends is that we have integrity in common.  We both believe in giving quality at a reasonable price.  You will not find your ears itching or your fingers turning green from her jewelry.  She will tell you if it's only gold plated, where as some other less scrupulous people will claim their jewelry to be gold filled.  For Example she has a beautiful emerald pendant and right in the title in parenthesis is the fact that it is synthetic.

Would mom like this? only $45.00

Perhaps she would prefer a set that is delicate

Or something simple and inexpensive (only $10)

Just another Tuesday

Did you know that there is a scam out there, where you receive an email saying that you won a lottery but you must send them XXX amount of dollars to collect your winnings and many people fall for that, don't you be one of them.  I swear, this one is in my local post office.

Maybe just a bit too heavy on the meat, HUH?

If you are yourself than most likely you are weird, LOL

Just too cute not to share

wine, candles, bubbles all of the classical beauty bath items, LOL

Men never seem to have a line, do they?

April contest winner(s) announcement

Well the contest did end up in a tie.  There were two entrants determined to win, so they pinned every pin possible.  So there are two winners and they have both been notified by email.

So a big CONGRATULATIONS and THANKS for your participation  to both Amanda Martin and Lana Khnkoyan (these are their names according to their pininterest accounts).

Announcing April 2013 contest

First things first, what everyone always wants to know:  What is the prize?  Well it's winner's choice of either one of my jars of whipped body butter or whipped shea.

You probably don't know this but pumpkin butter gives you incredibly soft skin

I know everyone is more familar with shea, but shea is also part of my body butter

So here is what you need to do to earn entries.  Repin any pin from any of the below listed urls pin boards. Each repin is worth one entry.

http://pinterest.com/botanicalbeauty/handmade-indie-skin-care/
http://pinterest.com/botanicalbeauty/perfumes-from-mother-nature/
http://pinterest.com/botanicalbeauty/lip-gloss-heaven/
http://pinterest.com/botanicalbeauty/bath-products/

HERE ARE THE RULES:
SORRY DUE TO THE HIGH SHIPPING COSTS US Residents Only can participate.
Contest Ends: Monday morning around 8 am ET US
NOTICES OF PINS - I know I don't always receive these so here is what you need to do to make sure you get the credit for your pins:  Leave a comment on this blog with the url of where the pins are and your email address.  BUT PLEASE ALSO come back and check Monday night for the winner announcement as I have had winners who never received the emails I sent them.  Whoever does the most repins is the winner and in case of a tie, the winner will be decided in a random drawing using Random.org.  However, if the tie is between only 2 people I will declare two winners.l

THANKS EVERYONE, HAVE FUN!!!   SORRY FOLKS THIS WAS A QUICK ONE AND WINNERS HAVE ALREADY BEEN DECLARED.

A Newer venue FleaBids featuring Droxy's

When I was about 6 years old, which makes me way older than I care to admit, my mother taught me how to knit and my grandmother taught me how to crochet. We started with simple things, knitted scarves, crocheted lace for towels and pillowcases. I was excited as soon as I finished my first piece, to think that I had created something beautiful with my hands and a bit of yarn or thread. That was the start of my life as an artisan over 45 years ago.

It wasn't much later, probably around age 9 or so, that my mother bought me my first beading loom. Fortunately it came with instructions as my mother had no idea how to use it. I learned quickly how to make beautiful bracelets, necklaces and more with that loom and started creating my own patterns.

Somewhere along the way both Mom and Grandma also taught me how to sew. Mom used to make us matching outfits, so I thought it was just great that I could do the same. It also came in handy much later in life when I was raising my children. Most of the clothes they wore back then were handmade and they just loved them. They could choose the fabric and I would turn it into clothes for them.

We didn't have a lot of money then either, being a single mother of 3, so I started using my skills to earn some extra money. It wasn't long before I had built up a small clientele of women that needed clothes for work, so I quickly turned a room of my home into a sewing room. That room was my savior on many days as I found myself escaping there when I was stressed and working on some sewing.

As time went on and I mainly used my crafts to make gifts, I realized that I was beginning to get quite a large collection of things I had made that hadn't found a home, so I began selling some of them. First I went to craft fairs and fundraisers, until I was introduced to the wonderful world of online selling. One of my friends showed me how to do a listing on one of the major auction sites and that was it for me.

Even though I worked full time, I used the evenings to work on my creations and put them up for sale online. I gradually expanded by adding supplies to my line as well and had a pretty good little business going. I joined a couple of other artisan sites over the years and was able to sell even more of my creations.

I hadn't done much beading over the years and focused mainly on my sewing, knitting and crocheting, until my mother took me shopping to a bead store one day. When I saw all the amazing beads there it started a fire to get back to that, and so I did. I found some great patterns created by other people and used those as ideas to create my own jewelry. I was never sure why, but I seemed to be attracted more to the Native style of beading and soon had store owners asking if they could buy it to put in their stores. Of course I was honored, so I was able to put several items in a couple of stores.

After many years of online sales and shopping, I found that I wasn't making as much profit as I would like, even though I didn't depend on my crafts for income. I also met many other artisans along the way that had the same problem. Artisan items take not just money for materials, but also time and in some cases a lot of it. While there were plenty of people that appreciated that and were willing to pay a bit more for handmade, there was also a large chunk of the profit taken out by the sites that I was selling them on. When it finally got to be more than 50% of my profits I decided to do something about it.

I had taken a partner into my business and added resale items to our line. We also had a friend who was an IT specialist and webhost. My thought was that with our experience and skills we could create a place where artisans and resellers could offer their products for sale and keep most of the profit in their own pockets. That was the birth of Fleabids.com.

We put our heads together and worked many long hours to create a safe shopping and selling community for anyone with something to sell. It makes me most happy to see other artisans, who put love and time into their creations, able to sell them for reasonable prices and not have to give a large portion to someone else for the privilege of selling it. Even though I don't have much time for my own crafts anymore, it gives me great pleasure to be able to help other artisans along the way. Most of all I cherish the friendships I am making with members of our site and look forward to many more years as we grow and change.