Treasury Tuesday

I made another Treasury. This one was inspired by the weather here the past few weeks...gray, somber, but beautiful.

A Gray Morning


For those that may not be Etsy addicts like me, Treasuries are beautiful collections of Etsy wares that members curate around a certain theme or color scheme. It is just a fun way to share all the beautiful, unique, and wonderful handmade goodies that can be found on Etsy. If you are very new to Etsy, you can check out the Help section for answers to all of your questions (and possibly set up your own account to buy and sell!). Support Handmade!

Hello February

February already and I know that I’ve (or I should say Wylde Ivy) was very quite in January. I’ve been working behind the scenes recovering form the chaos that is the holiday season and gearing up for the spring season. My business was exceptionally busy this holiday season….thank you to all out there! I was actually caught off guard a little and of coarse the holidays wouldn’t be the holidays without me trying to accomplish more then is feasibly possible for a mere mortal. I worked very hard but the holidays this year were magical. How could they not be with two “almost three year olds” in the house.

I took about a week after the holidays to recoup and change gears a little. Since then I’ve been working in the shop, still revamping my work stations to flow better with my work style now. I’ve been really looking hard at how I work and trying to find ways to make better use of my time. This means reorganizing my equipment and supplies, setting up my work stations a little differently, and of coarse purging some clutter that has been in my way. By clutter I mean the dribs and drabs of old packaging that I no longer use, soap mold in sizes that are no longer needed, old paper work and such. That is the thing about owning your own business. You must constantly evolve. Evolving means leaving behind what doesn’t work and reaching for new ideas and inspiration. I leave behind clutter when I evolve. It’s just me. I’ve been working at decluttering for a long time. Actually it was part of my resolutions for 2010 believe it or not. I’ve done really well at decluttering my personal life, but business life if a little harder for me. It is hard for me to admit that supplies I invested in are no longer needed and even harder for me to let them go. Oh I could go on and on about that subject, perhaps I’ll will later on. Right now I just wanted to do a quick catch up for the new year.



I had quite a few custom projects that I worked on in the beginning of the month. They are done and shipped or the soaps are curing and now it is time for me to start planning and getting ready for the upcoming spring season. I love saying that. SPRING! As I type this, we have piles of ice crusted snow on the ground and temps have been in the single digits at night. The sun rarely shines in January here. Our days are gray. This is the time I year I like to start thinking about sparkling fruit scents, dewy florals, and airy breezy scents as I envision lush wildflower meadows and gentle floating butterflies….perhaps even an old wooden swing hung from a giant Oak tree or a majestic Weeping Willow tickling the edge of a pond with it’s long tendrils….a place where everyone carries fresh farm eggs and produce home in wicker baskets and woman where grand floppy brim hats. Yep, that is how I get through the freezing months here, with sun soaked fairy tale like visions and run on sentences. Clearly watching Howards End the other days has not influenced my daydreams in the least.



Ok, out of Edwardian England and back to my workshop where the first order of business is to plan which scents I’ll be retiring next month and which scents will return from the spring and summer season last year. Keep your eye here for the retiring list coming in a few days. Most of the winter and autumn scents will have to be put away to make room for the new season scents. I have a few new scents that are in the works too, but it is just a little too early to be able to talk about that.

Soap is also in the works. I'm restocking my shop and getting ready for the new season of soaps scents! Today, my shop smells like Sandcastles and my beloved Shine soap. I restocked a few soaps today like Violetta, Rhassoul Glow, Sweet Oat, Black Tea Jasmine, and Sweet Alpine.

My First Treasury

I just created my very first treasury on Etsy! I want to get back into the "Treasury Tuesday" routine that I started and abandoned shortly after. It is fitting to start it back up with my own curated treasury list! I've been meaning to put together my own treasuries since I joined Etsy but never gave myself the time to try it. Perhaps I was a little intimidated by the sheer number of gorgeous treasuries out there. I want to make another one now! There are just so many gorgeous and unique (not to mention handmade) items on Etsy. I could loose myself for days just looking around on there.

Organizational Boot Camp and Holiday Preparedness

Day two of my little organizational and preparedness week here at Wylde Ivy is going well. I had some ideas to improve the work flow in my shop and office that I've been meaning to implement forever. My husband's work schedule has changed, drastically, which as thrown a wrench into a well oiled family schedule. I knew it was going to be hard getting used to a new routine, especially when we really liked the second shift hours that he was working. Second shift usually stinks, but for us right now, it worked. His new schedule eats into my shop time even more. I was cramming so much work into an already shortened work week (shortened by choice so I could spend time with my girls). On the bright side I get to spend even more time with the girls now. It is just going to take some time to get a handle on our new routine. Hopefully the changes I'm making now will allow me to be more efficient in both production and packing.

I have a ton of new soaps ready to go. I have almost all of them trimmed and packaged. I do have a few brand new soaps that I have to come up with names for, take pictures, do label design. More on those when I nail down names. Hopefully tomorrow I can post the full list.

In the meantime, here's a little peek of a brand new soap. Can anyone guess what scent it is? I'll give you a hint....it is a scent from my current scent list. Leave me a comment below with your guess. Please just guess once here on the blog, but you can make an additional guesses on my facebook page and via twitter! I'll throw all the correct guesses into a drawing and the winner will receive a coupon for a free bar (of you choice) with your next order. I'll come back on the 26th to announce the scent.

Finding my footing and making some decisions....

This post was a long time in the making. Seriously, I stopped and restarted this thing at least seven times.

Lately, I've been feeling a bit lost...sort of off balance. I've been trying to find my footing for quite some time. It seems that Wylde Ivy took off without me and I'm just constantly running to keep up. It is time for me to finally make some decisions.

Ok, I don't want to scare anyone. Don't worry, Wylde Ivy isn't going anywhere! I love Wylde Ivy. I love my job. I love all of you. I love all of my little scent creations. I just feel like it is time to regroup a little. There has been this little nagging thing inside of me that has been growing bigger and louder lately and I think it is pushing me to shake things up a little bit.

I tend to loose my focus easily, especially when I am busy. I sit and look at the business and wonder how it all happened. My line got too big too fast (even though I did cut it drastically after I returned from my maternity leave). Somehow things are getting a little out of my control again.

First order of business is to downsize my scent offering a bit more. I feel overwhelmed, honestly. Keeping track of everything that needs to be instock, all those bottle staring down at me from the shelves...it is intimidating. I hate cutting scents. I am way to over analytical when it comes to decision making for starters. I also have this huge fear of cutting someone's beloved scent. It is time though. It is necessary.

I am very proud to use small businesses for most of my supplies. I'm happy to support fellow sole proprietorship businesses, family owned operations, and just love the ideals of small business workings. This had one very clear disadvantage however. Over the last few years I have lost quite a few of my suppliers when they closed or cut products from their offerings. In my scent library right now, I have at least a dozen scents (probably more) that have numbered days as I can no longer get a scent note that I used in the blend. This has stressed me out more then you can imagine. I pined over it, worried about it. Then one day I realized how much I love creating.

When I worked on Indigo Moon for the first ever customer commissioned scent, I was so happy. I live for creating scents. I love the creativity, the challenge, the whole process really. There are quite a few scents in my currant catalog that have been with me from the very start. I think it is time to let some of the old Wylde Ivy go so that I can be free to move on. Change is good. I have to keep telling myself that. I have always had both a love and a fear of change.

I want Wylde Ivy to be fresh and new. I love creating collections like my Water Collection from this past spring or my Monsters in Love collection from last Halloween. The It's my Party perfumes were particularly fun to create.

If I am removing a scent that you simply can't live without (don't worry, I've been there myself many times) don't panic just yet. When I cut a scent, I still keep the formula. I have many, many scents from Wylde Ivy past. I just lock them away in their own room so I don't have to feel them looking at me. If the components of the blend are available to me (sadly more and more are not), I can make it for you. All you have to do is ask.

So, I am adding more scents to the cut list. Other scents will be added to a seasonal rotation list. I have a few scents that I know I want to bring back next spring and I have indicated them. There are others that I'm thinking about but I don't want to commit just yet. I want to keep my options open. These scent will be available on my website as usual until through October 31st. After that date, they will be removed and will only be available by special request as long as my supply lasts.

African Vanilla Bean
Azure
Bamboo Leaves
Banana Cake
Blackberry Cotton Candy
Black Raspberry Crush
Black Tea Jasmine
Creamy Coconut (seasonal)
Crush
Crystal Amber
Dragonfly Blue
Dreaming of Violets
Floating Lily
Forgotten Rose
Island Beauty (seasonal)
Juicy
Lemon-tine
Love Puff
Love for Fluff
Muse
Pale Vanilla
Petals
PomAcai
Queen Bee
She Sells Sea Shells (seasonal)
Sweet Cairo
Sweet Cream
Sweet Earth
Sweet Haze
Sweetgrass
Tahitian Vanilla Cream
Teak
Wood Nymph

Also, the Body Mist will also be going away (on the 31st as well) for the winter so I can bring back the Solid Scrub Bars....yay!

So now I can breathe a little easier and get back to doing what I love to do...create!