Thankful Thursdays

I am such a slacker...no new blog posts since last Thursday! Yikes. I guess it's time for me to step up to the plate and get some worthy reading up! On the LJ community I am part of, each week we do a post called Thankful Thursdays. I'm going to bring that over here today :)

Today I am thankful for:

• My 6 year old little heathen, even if he does try my patience and throw head-spinning, pea soup spitting fits. Wait...isn't that most 6 year olds?

• I have a nice house to move into at the end of August when I go home to Michigan that will have plenty of space for my supplies.

• Heathen's Hearth surpassed 1,400 sales this week!

• Coffee!!!!!!!

Speaking of coffee (you know it's one of my favorite things in the entire world, rating somewhere between my son and my honey on the"I love" scale and between breathing and sleeping on the "must-have" scale), so it's no wonder we have an array of these deliciously tempting, "too much blood in my caffeine system items!"


Orange Mocha Soap
With added cocoa and shea butter, we blended double brewed coffee, coffee grounds for light exfoliation, sweet orange essential oil and chocolate fragrance oil for a mouth-watering aroma that you will be hard-pressed (coffee pun fully intended) to resist!
















Cafe Latte Lip Balm
The delicious taste of a smooth Cafe Late in a smooth, moisturizing balm for your lips.




















The Jupita Caramel Macchiato Soap
The aroma of fresh-brewed cappuccino, filled with heavy cream, and sweetened with sugary caramel over ice! Sweet, smooth and cool...just like it's namesake.




















Cafe Mocha Goat's Milk Soap
Just like your favorite coffee shop mocha, this soap is perfect a way to start your day. Made with real coffee bean for a burst of caffeine for your skin! Caffeine isn't just for your morning pick-me-up any more. Its also been shown to have excellent restorative affects on your skin as well!





















Cafe Mocha Sugar Scrub
Our Cafe Mocha Sugar Scrub contains real coffee grounds for extra exfoliation. It also contains caffeine which has been shown to have excellent restorative affects on your skin as well!















Orange Vanilla Latte Soap
The heavenly scent of robust coffee blended with creamy vanilla and orange, with added coffee ground for light exfoliation...makes absolutely dreamy bathing experience!
















We've also introduced some new products in our shop that are summer must-haves!

Pest Repellent Spray
A unique blend of natural essential oils in a base of witch hazel and organic aloe juice. This is a synergistic blend of mother nature's best defense against little biting pests!



















Pest Repellent Soap
This soap contains a unique blend of therapeutic grade essential oils that have been shown to be repellent to a number of bugs and pests including: mosquitoes, flies, gnats, ticks and fleas. Each essential oil was chosen both for its bug repellent qualities *and* for the clean and uplifting scents they leave behind.
















Soothing After Sun Spray
Aloe juice will soothe and help to moisturize your skin while our blend of essential oils are known to help speed the healing of sunburned and dry skin...and the added peppermint will leave you feeling cool and refreshed.





















We are always adding new Cold & Hot Process Soaps and make sure you check out our Facial Care Section for some great soaps and masks....and be on the lookout for Facial Toners soon!

FREE SHIPPING!

Yes, we love you. And because of that, we are giving you free shipping on everything in our shop http://heathenshearth.etsy.com (for US and Canadian destinations)!

Whether you spend $2.00 or $200.00 (c'mon, you know you wanna spend $200), you won't pay anything to have your fantabulous smell goods shipped directly to your door!

Been eyeing some goat's milk soap or glycerin soap? Been scoping out the sugar scrubs? Licking your lips in anticipation of our lip balms? Brooding over the Body Oils? Panting over the new perfume oils? Now's the time to get it all!

Take advantage of it now...the length of the sale is yet to be determined!

All shipping charges will be refunded immediately via paypal.

Don't forget to check out our other shop http://littleheathens.etsy.com for more free shipping!

The Holidays are winding down.

Ok, so we haven't made it to Christmas yet, but as far as retail goes, the holiday season is coming to a close. Especially for online retailers.

Today is the last day to order from our shop and still have orders out by December 20th, which is the last day the post office says it will take packages and get them there in time for Christmas. We've had a couple wind up taking 8-10 days to get to their destinations. Everyone cross your fingers for us that our packages get to their destinations, in tact and in time for gift giving.

We were swarmed this year. Hopefully we'll be better prepared next year. But given the economy's recent troubles, the fact that we were a new shop (only active since August 1st), and we were relying almost solely on word of mouth, I don't think we really expected to be this busy. Merry Christmas to us. LOL.

So the calender is turning, as it is apt to do in retail life. Your landmarks are the Holidays. Christmas holiday is more or less finished. Next comes Valentines Day, then St. Patricks Day, then Easter, then Summer break...the dead zone of retail. Then we start the calender over again.

The tricky part of this I think, is that unlike other niche businesses, there are only so many holidays where bath and body products are good gifts. Christmas and Valentines day being the 2 big commercial ones (though anniversaries are spread through out the year). The rest of the year its all about matching the scents to the seasons. Trying to stay ahead of what people want, and giving them something new to try about every 2 months or so to try to keep things fresh.

So there will still be some playing with the other minor holidays, to see if we can find a niche market.... (maybe some beer soap for St. Patty's day?), but for the most part, I think our next move after Valentines day will be working out whether we want to continue changing our line up each season, or create a line of specialty signature scents that are ours and ours alone to keep our customers coming back - with periodic new product lines, and special short term scents to round it all out.

So what are your business plans for the new year? Are you still developing your brand? Do you know what your goals are for your business?