10th ave. soapworks

Life's taken some unexpected turns and I've found myself a soaper with a new place to hang my stick blender. Gone are the days of having an entire studio apartment in my house that functioned as a soap studio, with a full kitchen and cabinets full of supplies, ingredients, and curing soap. We took advantage of the booming housing market to sell our much-too-big house this summer, an idea that's been rolling around in our heads for the past year.  My Etsy shop is closed temporarily until I set up a new area as soap headquarters in our rental home, get a printer set up, and all those little things that I took for granted. All my local shop accounts were stocked this summer and some will need restocking in the near future so thank you all (and keep an eye out for new scents.) I also want to give a heads up to all of you that read my blog posts via email. The email service will no longer be operational after July 31st so you can sign up for my email newsletters (the link is at ...

 Hello all!  Just a quick post to let you know of my latest soaps. I haven't stocked any of my stores with them yet, so you have the chance to snag them first! Anyway, here's the link to my Etsy store, 10th Ave Shop.  and as always, orders over $35 ship free.   Rhubarb Pie Lime Vibes Lilac Blossom Asian Pear Lily Peony White Tea Lemon Blossom I also wanted to give you a heads up that I've been contemplating some changes after 12 years of my little soap business and I hope to implement them this fall. I'm still working on the details but I'll likely be discontinuing a number of fragrances, so get them while you can. Thanks and stay tuned for more soaps and fragrances this summer!

...also known as A Loose Idea of How I Imagine the Year Will Go. (Because who actually has things go as predicted? Not this girl.) I started selling at the Monroe farmer's market way back in 2012. That first year I was at the market every Wednesday afternoon. By the next year I was going both days a week--Wednesday and Saturday--and continued to be a "full-time" vendor for several years. In 2018, I decided to slow down. I had to, actually, because I had so many "life" things that needed my attention as well as a number of family commitments that fell during market hours. For someone that once rarely missed a day in a 50+ market season, vending even once a month became hard to fit in. After a lot of recent thought, I've decided not to stretch myself as far as I've done these last few years. I know for sure I won't be vending at any of the indoor market dates through April. But beyond that, all my markets and show dates for 2019 are to be dete...

So what are the odds that two girls from the same high school church youth group would grow up and each start a business selling soap? Well, that's what happened to me and my friend Vanessa. I moved to the other side of the midwest after graduation and we lost contact for several years during those dark solitary days before Facebook. She was off and running with her soap venture when we met up years later and I was between my first soap business experience and my current 10th Ave. Soap business. Fast forward a decade and here I am. Still. I never thought I would be making soap for so long. My little business has evolved and changed over time, as it should. But I'm still here on 10th Ave. churning soap out and making the long-suffering UPS man lug 50# blocks of fat and bulky boxes of lye to my front door regularly. Vanessa contacted me last year and told me that she was thinking of hanging up her goggles and rubber gloves. However, she had a few fantastic products that her c...

Now that we're well into the second week of April, I think it's about time I step back and see what happened during the last month...whew. I didn't do any markets or shows this month, so things were pretty quiet on the soap front. I worked on updating the rest of my soap labels and started re-designing the labels for the rest of my products. March is my birthday month and we usually celebrate it with an adventure of some kind. We decided to go a little over the top this year, and instead of an overnight getaway trip in the area, we left our midwest winter that looked like this-- and traveled to Texas, as far south as we could go without a passport. Folks, it was warm down there. Balmy, even. It felt good after a long winter. So close! The rock on the left side of the Rio Grande River is Mexico. This little roadrunner acted as my tour guide, leading the way down the path to the river.  "Sing ho for the open highway! Sing ho for...

For the past year or so, I've been mulling over some changes and a new direction for this little soap biz of mine.  Then a few odd little happenings last fall cemented my decision to switch things up a bit. After 9 years, I've decided that I need to take time off from doing shows and markets.  It's not an easy business, packing up and schlepping here and there to peddle my wares every week in the rain, wind, and even snow. So you will not see me at the Indoor Market in Monroe this winter.  However, you will continue to find my soaps and things in all the usual places.  I'll also be focusing more on my online shop, which is right here .  And of course, if you live locally and don't want to be bothered with shipping charges, I'm more than willing to venture out of my cozy warm house to coordinate a rendezvous with you and some lovely little soaps. So, my new plans? In addition to changing up and expanding my online shop, I'll be blogging more here.  S...