Market Update

Time is slipping by and I find myself running around with a hundred
things to do before Niche on the weekend.
But all is not lost as I received the last of my ingredients last Friday and have been busily batching away ever since.
The candles are all done (Tick!), the lotions and body polishes (Tick! Tick!) and I have only two more batches to finish off the the soaps are done too (Yay!).
With a limit on time and a 2 day market to get ready for, I have forgone my usual moulded soaps with the coloured paper wrap and gone for the log style that I can slice into 100g bars. The reduced 'fiddling' makes all the difference!

This is my organic honey and poppyseed log -such a simple soap, but really lovely to use. The other types I have done this time around are: frankincense & rose, lavender & sandalwood, vanilla & blackcurrant, skin sense (with geranium, orange, carrotseed and cedarwood oils), moroccan rhassoul (cinnamon, nutmeg and orange) and spearmint and rosemary. It has been really good to get back into working with my oils, clay and such. It is still as much fun as always! I just hope folks like what I do down here!
I was excited to recieve Cathy's (http://www.pegandkate.com.au/) parcel today - she has been kind enough to let me have some of her brilliant goodies for my stall at Niche.

New is this awesome lunch bag - I have already picked mine out! They are lined with wool so have great insulation and you can use them with an iceblock or frozen popper to keep everything cool. Love it! She also sent some of her great pencil rolls and some made up sets with the Lyra pencils and pens in them already. I am looking forward to introducing Tassie to her wares!

Introducing..... Ruby Pear!

Thought I might finally get to give everyone a sneak peak at a beautiful store that has just opened its doors here in Lonnie.

It's is banded as an 'Eco Savvy' store with everything handmade and a good percentage of the stock by local designers and crafties. It is housed in an amazing little space that has just been waiting for a shop like this to come along.

In there you can find everything from jewellery, to handmade cards, childrens clothing, leather purses, organic cotton rugs to candles and everything in between!

It is run by Rachael who makes the above mentioned leather purses (amongst other things), who lives very close by and often has visits from her hubby and children throughout the day with cups of tea and snacks! That's the life!

Thanks go to Gemma (of Loz and Dinny fame) and Rachael (of Ruby Pear fame) who's blogs I sneakily pilfered these great photos from!

Finding my ..... Niche`

This is an upcoming 2 day market event. A percentage of everyones proceeds go to St Giles school (always a good thing as this is a school for children with disabilities) and there promises to be a great range of handmade goodies to be had.
It's on the 2nd and 3rd May (Mothers Day weekend) and will be held at The Academy of Arts Gallery at UTAS at Inveresk. The nice thing is that it is not far from our home, so I won't have far to sneak off to for a cuppa! Check out the blog for this markets all organised by the lovely Selina! http://www.nicheallwrappedup.blogspot.com/

New packaging

Have just finished batching up some hand and body lotions ready for an upcoming 2 day Market here in Lonnie (Niche - but more on this later). I have been having trouble with purchasing the great little bottles I had been using (and were really happy with) and so have gone a different route with the good old amber 'boston rounds'. Still playing with what I will do for labelling, but these guys should get me out of mischief for now.

At this point I have done up batches of Lavender and Rosewood (yum), Frankincense and Rose (deep and heady) and Vanilla and Marshmallow Extract (very soft and feminine). The pictures aren't showing the colours at their best, but the Vanilla and Marshmallow is at the bottom and is a really lovely soft pink - very marshmallowey though that's not what the extract is! The Frank and Rose is in the middle and has come out an almost light ochre from the natural pink clay I have added.

At the top is the Lavender and Rosewood and with adding ivory clay, the colour has gone to a very slight off white. Still debating what else I might make up or if I will leave it as just these three. Thinking of making up my Chocolate and Fig body scrub perhaps. Hmmm....we'll see.

Am still waiting on the rest of my ingredient orders so I can finish the candles and the soaps I have planned. I am actually closer to most of my suppliers then when we were in Brisbane, but it takes just that little longer! How funny.

New red bamboo email address

I meant to do this earlier, just didn't seem to remember it whenever I was logged on, but with the move to Tassie - we found that Optus doesn't service here for internet (yay) so we have had to go with Telstra.
Of course all my lovely business cards and products lists I gave out last year all have the old email on it, but what can you do?
Anyway, my new email is: redbamboohandmade@gmail.com, if any one needs.
Ciao!

red bamboo rides again!

Today was the first time since we moved to Tassie, that I really got into some product creation. I mentioned a handmade shop opening in town a few posts ago, and we are gearing up to open this Saturday! I don't have a lot of ingredients here (sold most of them off before packing up our house in Brisbane), but I have been able to get some soaps batched up and curing (Lavender & Sandalwood, Organic Honey & Poppyseed, Moroccan Rhassoul with Nutmeg, Cinnamon and Orange in it), and spent the rest of the day playing with soy wax making candles.
I am using a new wax, fragrances and also these great frosted containers. I did look at doing the colourful mosaic containers as well as the stainless steel tins that I have used in the past - but I thought these would look stylish and fit any decor. I am playing with dyes as well, but am didn't use them with this first lot as I am still learning concentration ratio's and such.
I made up five different candles with fragrances of: Jasmine, Magnolia, Lemon Verbena, White Tea & Ginger and Vanilla, Pomegranate and Black Currant (my new favourite!). I was happy with how the labels came out and I just hope that they sell well in the shop. Tomorrow it's more soap and into the body lotions time permitting!
Ciao!

Sunday Drives in Tassie....

Thought would put a few words down to go with some photos hubby has taken on one of our Sunday Drives. We like to pick a direction and just see where we end up. Kind of hard to find an 'ugly spot' down here.

I will apologise now, as I probably won't be able to tell you where they are all from. They are just some great buildings and structures.

We are very much enjoying our time here as you can see.

The bridge here is in a lovely little town called Ross. The whole town is very quaint with the obvious tourism ramifications that go with it. An old Police colleague of hubby's dad owns the post office (below), so we took a photo to send to him - complete with crocheted lap rugs for sale out the front!

This beautiful church is on the highway between Launceston and the turn off to Ross - a very cute spot called Campbelltown. We're not sure if it is still in use, but it is such a glorious building anyway.