About Susan
Susan's Photo
I am a soapmaker, entrepreneur, afficionado of aromatherapy, wife, mother and homemaker. I wear many hats and although sometimes things get hectic and frustrating, I enjoy them all. Just as though you may put on a different fashion hat (or shirt or shoes or whatever) to reflect your mood or your personality, the different “hats” in my work and my life allow me to express the many facets of my personality and who I am.
I have been making soap for about 9 years now, have run several different small business over the years for probably a total of 14 years, a wife for almost 17 years and a mom for over 15. Making a home means different things to different people and for me I have been making a “home” for me and/or my family ever since I left the home my mother made for us.
My home currently is in a log house out in the country on about 5 acres. We have a dog, two cats and four chickens. There are some fruit trees and a very small garden that I enjoy “putting up” from — jams, chutneys, pickles, etc.
I wanted to give you a little insight into where I come from and where I am at. I hope you find some things of interest on this blog and that you come back to visit often.
Susan thanks for sharing something of yourself. Do you have any photos of your log house? There are a few around here and I find them facinating. I just realized as I read your post we started to make soap around the same time. My first batch was made on November 16, 2000. I so wish I had kept one of my first bars. I do have some of my first labels though. Your photo above of your soaps is very attractive. Take care and enjoy life and your soaping,
with kind regards,
Sr.Cathleen
Sr. Cathleen,
Thanks so much for writing. I appreciate your interest in our log house and will try to get some photos up soon. That’s cool that we began making soap at the same time. It’s been quite a journey but something I am glad I started. I am not sure I have any of my first labels but maybe photos of them.
Please do stay in touch and watch for those log photos.
Susan
PS. We have chickens too and am hoping to do a video of them soon as well.
I BOUGHT SOME OF YOUR SOAPS AT CANTON FROM A BOOTH FO HANSFORD AND HALEY. MY HUSBAND AND I GETTING READY TO RETIRE AND WE NEED SOMETHING TO DO TO MAKE EXTRA MONEY… THSI IS SOMEHTING I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO I BUY ALOT OF NATURAL SOAPS WHEN I CAN FIND THEM. HOW DO WE GET A ORDER STARTED WITH YOU? THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION. BRENDA WHITE IN WINDOM,TEXAS
Thanks so much for your inquiry and for being a customer of our products! Our wholesale requirements are very simple. Initially you just need a business name and sales tax resale number so we don’t have to charge you sales tax. Once you have those you can set up an account on our website, making sure to fill in those areas on the sign-up page and then once logged in you can visit our wholesale FAQ page for more information. In addition, the prices shown will be wholesale. Here’s the link to our wholesale page on our general website: Wholesale Information
Or you can always just email me your business information and I will be happy to email you back a copy of our wholesale price list and brochure.
Thanks again for your interest in becoming one of our retailers. We look forward to working with you.
All my best,
Susan
I just post some photos of our log house and few more from around our place. Hope you enjoy them.
A very nice personal touch! I’d like to see some of your products displayed. Do you have a website where you can market what you’re making. If not you should consider it.
Thanks for the compliment. Actually we do have a website at http://susansoaps.com and we have it listed on our blog roll. (Your comment made me realize that the blog roll was not showing. That has now been corrected.) You can also reach our website from our blog by clicking on the product photo in the upper right corner.
Your mention of product photos however, is spurring me to make that picture a rotating product picture to show more photos as well as possibly add a flicker badge or feed of some sort to show even more product pics on my blog as well. Any additional comments on this anybody?
You might want to consider a Javascript solution called “light box” which sets up a gallery in an automatically resizeable “window” pane. Its easier to show than describe, so here’s a link that shows how it works and where you can get the files needed. This can be added to your web site – I’m not sure if it’ll works within the blog itself.
Thanks for the suggestion. What area of my website or blog do you think would be most enhanced by setting up such a gallery? I am always interested in improving my site and blog for viewers.
Your line looks great, Susan. Does anyone in Phoenix carry it?
Thanks for the compliment and no we don’t have anyone in Phoenix retailing our products. Are you interested? Love to hear from you if you are.
Dear Susan,
we just wachted “Inside the Soap Shop” (Part I + II + III) on YT. What a great “little garage” you have! Loved it. And your cutter!
We have been making soap for us and friends about 3 years now (actually they are extraordinary little presents and we give more of the soaps away, than we use ourselves). But we only make small batches – and do’t have a cutter…
You inspired us to our next project: a goat’s milk soap!
With love,
Natacha
PS: By the way, as you are a woman , in theory, you are an afficionad”a”, the feminine form. An afficionad”o” ist the masculine form.
It’s like Latina and Latino…
So glad you enjoyed the video. And yes, I understand what you’re saying about the feminine form versus the masculine form of nouns. However, here in the USA nouns such as that don’t normally have gender. So, even though the word aficionado is Spanish in origin I am using the masculine form in a non gender specific way. Thanks for the comment. Let me know how your goat’s milk soap turns out!