Small Business Saturday is comig

Small Business Saturday is coming this Saturday, November 30.  Have you ever heard of Small Business Saturday?  Small Business Saturday is a day that falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It's a reminder for the consumers that are busy focusing on their Christmas shopping to check out local small businesses for unique items that you wouldn't find in a big box store.

Personally for the past couple years I've enjoyed Christmas shopping through Etsy and other small market places online.  I've been able to find unique items for my family that I would never have found at Walmart or a shopping mall.  To give you some examples I've purchased homespun naturally dyed yarn for my daughter and necklaces that fit both my daughters personalities so well. I can't tell you what I've purchase for this year(some of my readers are my family) but I can tell you so far I've purchased eight items from small business artisans. These items were purchased from people that have a hobby they enjoy enough to sell what they make.  These artisans give special time and energy to their unique and/or handmade products..they want to be proud of what they produce.  That's so special....and personal.  When you buy from a small business you are encouraging someones dream.  Your investing in someones gifts or talents.  You are blessing some of the hardest working people in the work force.

I encourage you to give it a try this year.  Find a small business in your town or online and support them with you business on November 30....and beyond.

Check out Aunt B's shop.  There's plenty there for the holidays.  I have more inventory then what the shop shows.  So, message me if you need more items then what the 'in stock' number shows.  Also, if you are close to Mount Airy, Maryland you can message me your order and we will skip the shipping cost...and work out a pick up or delivery.

Fun day at the Christmas Farmers Market Nov. 16, 2013

It was a fun festive day at the Carroll County Farmers Christmas Market.  It was great to do a little bit of people watching.  You could tell the wheels were turning with ideas for Christmas gift purchases.  The girls and I were ready.  We were given a one table spot so our set up was a bit limited...but we had lots under the table to replenish the items being sold. Check out the hand drawn gift tags on our little tree--all from the creativity of Stephanie.

We sold several gift bag sets as well as our crocheted washcloth and soap sets.  Lots of people took time to stop and smell the soap bars.  We sold out of our Lavender Vanilla Oatmeal.  The single-serve solid sugar scrubs were good sellers as well as our holiday molded soaps.

Check back on Monday as I start to list our holiday items in the Aunt B's shop.

                                                                                     

               

Preparing for Market

It's been a busy day preparing for the Carroll County Farmers Market tomorrow.  The living room has been taken over with soap boxes and candles.  Not pictured on the other side of the room is some new items: jars of bath salts and bags of milk bath. The kitchen table is full of our new solid sugar scrubs still needing to be labeled.
It seems ideas hit just before we head to a sale.  This time I figure what I don't have enough time to get ready for tomorrow will go to market with us on December 14.
Once I finish up with the market tomorrow I'll be sure to get more items listed in the shop.  We have great items ready for last minute Christmas gifts.
Stay tuned !

Preparing for the Christmas Market

Ready or not...tis the season!  The elves at Aunt B's are busy, busy busy getting ready for the Christmas Market at the Carroll County Farmers Market this coming Saturday, November 16 from 8am -2pm.
I'm pretty sure I have all the soap made that I'll need to take so now we're working on the 'extras'.

Stephanie is working on hand drawn Christmas gift tags.  We're also working on gift sets.  Whether it be a crocheted wash cloth and a bar of soap....or a bar of soap and a lotion bar...we'll have solid sugar scrubs as well as jars of bath salts.

We're sure there will be something there you might like to buy and give as gifts.  Come on out and visit the Farmers Market there are lots of talented vendors there with their handmade goods.  Hope to see you there.

Flea Market fun

We had a successful day at the Carroll County Indoor Flea Market.  Britney and I went Friday afternoon to find our spot and to get our tables
set up. Later Friday evening I finished labeling some
last minute soap and lotion tins.  Then up at
5am Saturday morning to load our boxes of
soap into the van and we were on the road
by 6am.
Early morning in the flea market building is
busy with vendor vehicles as all the vendors are
getting set up.  We unloaded the soap and
got busy designing our booth.  Seasonal soap
on the left and regular soap on the right.  Candles
and lotions on the back table.
Shoppers crowded outside the doors.  The
doors were open at 8am.  Ready or not the
selling began.
There was a nice flow of people in and out of our booth...some buying...some just smelling the scents...some chatting about ingredients.  It was a good day.
Now, its time to prepare for the November 16 Carroll County Farmers Market.  We will have all of our regular soap there as well as all of our Christmas soap.

Packed and Ready

We are all packed up and ready for the Carroll County Autumn Indoor Flea Market.
We have several new items that will be going with us which include:
two kinds of Patchouli soap (due to the high price of patchouli essential oil the patchouli bars will be
$6.50..still a good deal) we'll also have a couple gifts sets of crocheted washcloths and a bar of soap, our fall hand care kit which consists of a salt bar, lotion bar and night time gloves will be there.  All of our regular scented and unscented bars will be with us as well as several seasonally scented soaps such as: apple spice, harvest, barn wood, creamy nutmeg, and pumpkin swirl.

If you can't make it to the flea market we have soap listed here on the web site...you can order anytime.

Selling locally this week

Aunt B's Simply Homemade will be setting up shop Saturday, Nov. 2 from 8am-1pm at the Carroll County Autumn Indoor Flea Market in the Shipley Arena of the grounds of the Carroll County Ag Center near Westminster, Maryland.

I'll be bringing seasonally scented soap as well as most of my regular
bar soap inventory.  Remember with the holidays on the way homemade soap makes a really nice gift.

Just in case you can't make it to the flea market we'll be in the same location (different building) for the
Carroll County Farmers Market on Saturday, November 16 from 8am -2pm.