Hope on the horizon.....

Been wishing you could see NEW stamp designs in the shop? Believe me, I am dying to carve some, but I've had to exercise some major self-control as I wait patiently for my favorite medium to become available again.

As many of you know, my online supplier for the carving medium I love has been having issues with production for the last several months. The company she was puchasing her supply from ended up filing for bankruptcy and decided to sell the business, ..........so...she bought it. She has been working very closely with the crew to solve the production issues and get the carving medium back on the market again. I make it a point to check in with her on a pretty regular basis hoping that she'll give me the thumbs up and I can place a massive order for carving medium since I've nearly used up all my back stock and am having to resort to "the pink stuff" (which is decent, but not quite the quality I prefer).

You can imagine my excitement last night when I clicked over to her store and read that she is very close to resolving the issues with production and that in the meantime has created a new material that is very similar. I wanted shout "Hallelujah!" but it was after midnight so I thought twice as I didn't want to wake up the rest of my sleeping family. Being the skeptic that I sometimes am though, I only ordered a tester sized piece of the new material to see if it really is as good as she says. I'm stuck with quite a bit of other carving medium (from a different supplier) that is really just horrible quality and I can't do anything with it that I would even consider selling! From now on I have decided to test them first. If it is good quality, according to MY picky standards, then you could finally be seeing some wonderful new designs in the shop soon.

In the meantime, I just finished making these handy Soap Savers that I'll be listing this week a few at a time.

I have some extras left over from my first batch of handmade, cold-processed soap that I made as Christmas gifts. I was thinking of cutting the bars in half and packaging them as a bonus/sample for anyone who ordered one of the Soap Savers. What do you think? The soap is oatmeal honey scented and smells delicious. I have to confess, I am trying to decide whether I will get into the handmade soap arena or not. I really enjoyed making it. While I'm considering the cost of adding soapmaking to my crafty belt, why don't you go ahead and order up one of those Soap Savers? ......and I would love some feedback on the soap sample.

Have a wonderful day!
Bless you,