I was clueless when I made my first fragrance and essential oil purchases. I was not able to read a manufacturer supplied description and get any REAL sense of what a fragrance would be like. Top note? Middle? Wha? While I still rely on fragrance samples, understanding fragrance notes guide my decisions on which samples I will order. Notes also guide my decision as to which product types the fragrances will be used in. If you’re new to working with fragrances, the articles listed below will give you a good, basic understanding of fragrance notes and fragrance families.

How to Describe a Fragrance

A Guide to Fragrance Families

Wikipedia: Perfume

I’m thinking these will look great on my patio next summer.

Visit Zuzu Top to see more.

Due to health reasons, Linda from Soapier.com is selling her business. It’s sad when things like this happens, but I’m hoping someone can help her out. If you or someone you know would like to purchase a well established business, please pass this info along.

—————————————–

The Bath Project posted these FANTABOULOUS Wedding Favor soaps. These have literally left me speechless. Amazing.

———————————————-

Birch Bark Soap posted about creating your own Essential Oil Perfume.

———————————————-

AllBusiness.com posted about finding all the Small Business Forms you’ll ever need.

———————————————-

And finally – DIY Life wrote a great post on the many ways to package your soap.

Hopefully you’ll find these posts as helpful or as interesting as I did.
Enjoy your weekend!

We’re all trying to save money and green up our businesses so I was happy to find Chica and Jo’s blog post on removing labels from boxes. As soapers, we often receive more boxes than we know what to do with. Some we put to good use in storage, but there are plenty of others lying about that need a job and having a shipping label plastered across the top immediately disqualifies them. Chica and Joe give step by step instructions on removing those unwanted labels so our boxes can finally getoff ofthe bread line and get back to work.

I ran across this VERY cool tool on the Lifehacker Blog. YourFonts.com will turn your handwriting into a font to use in anything you’d like to add a personal touch to. I have horrible handwriting after many years of computer use, but those of you with the goods should give it a try!

Yourfonts.com

——————————————–

Georgia Spring Fling Gathering `09

April showers bring May flowers and SPRING! In and around Atlanta,
the beautiful flowers of cherry blossom and dogwood trees fill our
streets with color. The azaleas and jonquils are in bloom, blanketing
the ground with their beauty. Mama birds are busy making their nest
to house their young, while the goats and sheep watch their babies
running and playing in the pasture, all letting us know, without a
doubt, that spring has arrived.

Thinking of spring also brings to mind the Georgia Spring Fling
Gathering held in Conyers, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. The
Georgia Spring Fling Gathering is a Soap-N-Candle gathering where
soapers and chandlers from all over the country come together to
share their knowledge, give demos, and just have fun.

You too can witness the beauty of spring and enjoy a day of learning
when you attend the Georgia Spring Fling. Please visit our website
at: http://www.gaspringflinggathering.com/ for more information about
vendor and attendee signups. Check our advertising rates for our
fabulous keepsake booklet and view the list of our wonderful
sponsors, prizes, swaps and contest.

Our Keynote Speaker this year is Donna Maria Coles Johnson of Indie Beauty.

Today, January 6, 2009, is the official announcement of the Georgia
Spring Fling! If you’re not already a member, please join our Yahoo
group for the latest information, updates, and to join in on money
saving co-ops! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GeorgiaSpringFling/

If you only attend ONE gathering this spring, THIS is the one to
attend! See you there in April!

Sindy Anderson

Gathering Chair

www.gaspringflinggathering.com

If I could play music to set the mood here it would be the Hallelujah Chorus because this morning when I woke up, the first article listed in my RSS feed was E-Commerce – Understanding Your Sales Tax Obligations by Allbusiness.com. The article, in conjunction with another article from Business.gov (a site managed by the US Small Business Administration),  lays it out clearly with plenty of links to verify their findings. The Business.gov article cites “a 1992 Supreme Court ruling (Quill v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298, (1992)) in which the justices ruled that states cannot require mail-order businesses, and by extension, online retailers to collect sales tax unless they have a physical presence in the state. The Court reasoned that forcing sellers to comply with over 7,500 tax jurisdictions was too complex for sellers to manage, and would put a strain on interstate commerce.” AMEN to that!

To find out more, including what qualifies as a physical presence in a state, you can read the full articles posted below.

E-Commerce-Understanding Your Sales Tax Obligations

Collecting Sales Taxes over the Internet

**While these guidelines will be helpful to you, please continue to consult your local and state authorities for clarification.

Yup – it’s almost that time again. In a few short weeks Americans will be packing up the Christmas decorations and turning their attention to taxes.  I ran across a great article on AllBusiness.com titled Tax Deduction 101 and thought I would share it with you. If  this is your first year in business you’ll find it extremely helpful. If you’re an old pro – it may be time to re-evaluate what you are deducting. More Importantly what you are not deducting and should be.

Tax Deduction 101

How useful would some of these be in your workshop? They’re great for ribbons but would work well for many things including pre-made warning labels that candlemakers use. If you’d like to learn how to make them visit the Junk Mail Gems blog.