Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Duane & Bernadette at Hedgeway Cottage.

One more craft show

Thinking of Spring, this soap cake smells so beautiful-too bad I can't remember  how I created the scent.

I don't usually make melt and pour soaps but these were fun to make. 

More melt and pour, scented with Monkey Farts fragrance. These are for a little girls birthday party

We were done with craft shows for the year and I started cleaning my house and started to organize all the things that found a home on my counters, on top of dressers, any flat surface that you can lay something on. I got about  2 days into it and my Mom called to say some relatives were interested in buying soaps for holiday gifts. So I decided to have a soap sale in my living room for my family and friends. I really don't have that much room and pushed all the furniture over to set up the tables. Today I spent all day making cookies, brownies, dips, etc. for my guests who will be coming tomorrow. For me it's not about selling the soaps, it's about sitting with that cup of coffee or tea, eating a cookie and enjoying my Mom, sisters, and friends.Hopefully they wont notice that I'm not finished cleaning.
While I was cleaning the other day, a lady called and asked us if we would be interested in their craft show next Friday, the 16th. So of course we said yes and are looking forward to another last show of the year which will be at the Williamslake Church of the Nazarene in Waterford on Airport Rd. (you'll have to google it- I don't have the info in front of me). It will be from 6pm-9pm so if you're looking for that  unique gift to give that co-worker or teacher, come and get it at the last show of the year( for us).
Talk with you soon. Hopefully I can start my Christmas shopping before it's Christmas eve!
I need to hire some elves!lol

Not Your Mommas' Gingerbread

This soap cake is called "Not your Mommas' Gingerbread" soap. It smells of gingerbread with a little added spice.

You can't tell how pretty Santa Cake soap really is in this picture. Smells so  good!

I love the look of this soap. I haven't named it yet.

Christmas Tree soaps ready for their bows.

Relax me Lavender cupcake soaps-just what the stressed- out holiday shopper needs!

LOVE these little favor boxes (I got them on clearance) and am using them for my lotion bars.

Pure Luxury Solid Lotion Bar-so moisturizing on dry skin!

Small sized solid lotion bar.

Well, finally I have all my soaps wrapped and we're winding down for the last 2 shows! This first year of doing craft shows and selling has been both stressful and wonderful. Stressful in a good way (not knowing how much product to have ready so you don't run out). I always over make. I do it with food when I have family over and I am doing it with soaps. I'd rather have too much than too little.And it is so wonderful to make something that people love and appreciate.
I hope tomorrows' weather that is calling for snow will not keep the shoppers away for the Grosse Pointe Holiday Tree lighting and market. I hope you can make it tomorrow or for our last show on December 3rd at Parcells middle school in Grosse Pointe. If not, drop me an email, say HI- keep in touch. If there is something you'd like to order from us, please email me and we will deliver it to you by mail or in person.Thank you for being such great customers!!! Bernadette

Great Holiday craft shows

My husband, Duane. This man puts up with a lot from me. When I get worried, mad, sad , anxious- I take it out on him ( I don't mean to). I could not do any of these shows or farmers markets without him. He has always been supportive and loving  in whatever I wanted to do. I used to drag him to craft shows all the time when I was the buyer (before soap making) and he would follow me and carry the bags for me. I miss those days. Now he lugs in our tables and the soaps, etc. and sets everything up. And instead of talking football and hanging with the guys, he's talking soap and how moisturizing it is to women. Isn't life funny?! I just want him to know that I love and appreciate everything he does even when my horns start to show.

This is a picture of our set up at Eisenhower High school. We really liked working the show and everyone was wonderful and the students were great with helping us unload and load our things for the show. We hope to work it next year. Thank you to all of our customers who followed us to this show.We appreciate your business and loyalty. We met a lot of great people and new customers that I hope will become part of our Hedgeway Cottage family. I am still waiting for confirmation for the Troy High school show we were invited to. I will post on hedgewaycottagesoaps on facebook as soon as I know for sure.
 I hope everyone controls themselves on  Black Friday!You couldn't pay me to go shopping that day. I think it has gotten ridiculous- my husband works for Target and has to go to work on Thanksgiving at 11pm because they have decided to open their doors at midnight.It's getting out of hand and they just keep getting more greedy. Let's remember the" reason" for the season. I think a lot of people have forgotten like the decision makers who don't care if people make plans with their families.Have a great Thanksgiving and a safe holiday!

Upcoming craft shows this week

   This soap cake is the result of too much left over soap and I had to use it up in a hurry. I was messing around with different decorator tips because there are quite a few of them that I don't know what they do. I was also practicing with making soap roses. Those are irritating to do when you have gloves on and it takes a lot of patience and re-doing, re-doing! I still don't have them  perfect yet. But I will. Couldn't you see this soap cake at a bridal shower or a tea party? Give a slice to each guest to take home and wrap it up in pretty paper. This size cake will  yield eight good sized slices.

We will be at Beacon Tree Elementary school this Friday. It is on Schoenherr rd. between 25 and 26 mile rds.  starting at 5:30 to 9:30pm. Then on Saturday, we have Eisenhower High school which is a big one. It is located on 25 mile rd. I hope to see you there. I have been getting all my holiday soaps ready for it! I'm also kind of nervous about the Eisenhower one because I know how busy it gets. I hope I get a good spot.  Have a great day!

A special soap cake for a 4 year old that loves Lush

She's only 4 years old but when you talk to her, you feel like she is older in years and she  has a wisdom and intelligence that shows through her personality. Her name is Bella and she is so beautiful and sweet. She is my nephews' daughter. She loves the finer things in life. She loves nice restaurants, she has a certain ice cream place she goes to that knows her by name. She likes going to Sommerset Mall and going to her favorite store LUSH to smell all the soaps and such. She invited me to her birthday party on Sunday and I made her a special soap cake and mini cupcake soaps for her special day. I mixed up a special fragrance just for her ( it smells like a mixture of fruity scents). I am also making her a lotion, etc. and naming it Dolce Bella which means Sweet Bella in Italian. I hope she likes it. I hope the fragrance is sophisticated enough for her! I'll let you know what she thinks. Have a great weekend. And say a special prayer for all our veterans who risk their lives to protect us. Bernadette

Hedgeway Cottage Soaps

Hedgeway Cottage Soaps

Christmas soaps

I love the scent of Bayberry spice. It catures the smells of the Holidays

Christmas Splendor scent- I am so happy with the way these turned out.

Christmas soap cake

Beautiful Christmas spice scented cupcake soaps

Balsam Fir soap cake

Fireside soap cake smells like red hot cinnamon candies

Tropical Twilight smells fruity and is a nice small size for a stocking stuffer for your tween or teen

Large Christmas soap cake. Very big slices

Cedarwood & Amber soap slices

Beautiful swirled soap

Frosty red & green cupcake soaps

Bayberry spice cupcake soaps

I have been working on some Christmas soaps and here they are, or at least some of them. All of them are made from scratch with the cold process method which is with a variety of oils mixed with lye. The xmas tree soaps are made with a new recipe I made  which turned out wonderful. It allowed me a lot of time to pipe these without it hardening up on me. It was a two day process. I bought the Wilton silicone christmas tree molds and made up a batch of soap. Poured the soap in the molds, unmolded them the next day. Made a new batch of soap, dipped the trees in the soap then let it thicken to be able to pipe the "branches" on them. The white ones were made the same way with a different look. Packaging is the most time consuming. I have a lot to do.

Check out our schedule of craft shows on the contact me page on our website:hedgewaycottagesoaps.net and come see these beautiful soaps in person. Well, it's raining pretty hard so it's a great time to get a lot of things done around here. Have a great day!

Church luncheon

My son Nathan. He will be 13 in November and is making his confirmation this year which means he has to  put service hours in and the class had to be servers at the ladies salad luncheon at St. Cyril & Methodius in Sterling Hts. (You can tell by the white shirt which he never would normally wear that he's doing something special)

From left is my sister Cathy, my Mother, MaryJane who is checking her raffle tickets for the baskets in the background, and my daughter Janelle

And guess what I won- just what I need- the Death by Chocolate basket!! Just enough to fatten me up for this winters hibernation!

We had a nice time  and there were tons of salads to choose from ( and yes, my plate was overflowing). And I enjoyed every bite!
I was shocked that I won that basket full of chocolate because I usually don't win anything. Then my daughter, Janelle won this huge bottle of wine basket with cookies. My Mom won an apron and a beautiful hand knitted afghan too. My sister Cathy didn't win anything but she is very lucky at the casino.
When I got home, my hubby, and sons Nick & Nathan tore into that chocolate, each claiming "this is mine". I guess I don't have to worry about my fat-eating winter hibernation food. It will be gone before Halloween.(OH NO Halloween candy!)
Have a great week and don't forget to pick up your candy for the trick or treaters.
Bernadette

Shower favors

These are not shower favors. They remind me of something you'd see in Who ville from the Grinch.They are mini cupcake soaps with a plastic xmas light on top and scented with vanilla & blueberry cobbler

These cute mini cupcake soaps are for a baby shower. The father is a Lions' football fan and wanted their colors. The added football bead gives it  an extra sporty touch.

These bird in the nest soaps are the only melt & pour favors that I have done. They are for a baby shower for a girl. These took a very long time to make and I had problems with the brown coloring rubbing off and had to make them lighter. They came out very cute  and make a really nice shower favor.

This beautiful cupcake soap is a prototype for a bridal tea that will be in the Spring at a Victorian tea house.

This is a prototype for another bridal shower that wanted mini cupcake soaps.

I'm waiting on the packaging go-ahead approval on two of the above orders. I 'll be quite busy with all this packaging and getting ready for the craft shows. After the Holidays, maybe in January or February I will try my hand at making some soap making videos if anyone is interested.
 Do you have your pumpkins yet? This looks like a nice fall day to go to the cider mill, get some apples, cider, pumpkins to put out for Halloween and bake those pumpkin seeds. My kids love the pumpkin seeds. You can season them with garlic and sea salt, so many other combinations  of seasonings that make them awesome to munch on. So enjoy your day now before winter hits.
Bernadette

Hedgeway Cottage Soaps

Hedgeway Cottage Soaps

Taking a break

Our soap display at the Clarkston High craft show
So many people think it's real cupcakes and sweets

Trying to get Bear to look at the camera before his walk
He just wanted to get going!

Bear walks pretty good. He doesn't pull and try to go on
the lawns. He doesn't pay attention to other people although
he attracts attention. My husband thinks he's a "babe magnet"
and wishes he had a dog like that when he was single. But he's
a great watch dog. If you come to our house, he will bark and growl
until we tell him it's o.k. and he patrols the house at night.

Bear is about 90lbs and has about another 80 lbs to go. I ordered
him a grim reaper that rides on his back costume for halloween.
He's going to look so funny.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We were at the Clarkston High school craft show on Saturday & Sunday. It was a nice show with a lot of great things to buy. I had to control myself. I remember when I used to shop at the craft shows and I never thought I would be a vendor at one. After a long weekend, I thought about the busy week ahead and I just looked at my bored puppy who is 7 months old,( his name is Bear and he's a Great Pyrenees) and he looked so lonely. It is such a beautiful day today -lets go for a nice walk! It's windy and my eyes watered a little but it was so nice to take time away from working all the time and enjoy lifes simple pleasures. I have to make a habit out of this (but I don't know about the freezing winter). My son, Nathan enjoyed the walk also(he took the pictures). Bear has gotten so big and he has a lot more growing to do. We haven't taken any pictures of him since he was little. I think we'll go for another walk after dinner. Have a great day!

Hedgeway Cottage Soaps: Cupcake soap size

Hedgeway Cottage Soaps: Cupcake soap size

Cupcake soap size

These black cherry cupcakes are smaller than the average that I make. The mini is on the left (I bet you figured that out)

This is a regular size cupcake soap. It fills the palm of you hand.

These mini cupcakes are on the small side too.

This lilac soap cake slice is an average slice and fits in the palm of your hand too.

Three different sizes of soap cake. The smallest is on the left

You can see the height  difference

This is the small cake slice and is not that much more than the mini cupcake soap

I just wanted to give everyone an idea of the size difference in the mini and regular cupcake soaps and the soap cake slices. I have been getting more orders for the mini cupcakes. They make a cute favor and yes, they are small. The small soap cake slice above is a little bit bigger and would be about.75 cents more than the mini cupcakes. And if you want to give your guests that WOW reaction, the larger cupcake and soap cake slice will do the trick. Whether big or small, I can make them look amazing for you shower, wedding, or any event because I put my heart into everything I make. And when I make something, it has to measure up to my standards or I'll re-make it until I think it is worthy to give as a gift.So if you're interested in something small, the mini cupcake isn't your only option. Email me or call and we can come up with something wonderful for you and your guests.

Everyday is a gift from God- Treasure it- make it count- make a difference- bring a little joy to someone
 Bernadette