Congratulations, Rebecca!

Big congratulations are in order for Rebecca, who won two bars of soap in my recent giveaway! Here were her choices:

Snozberry:


Anise Musk:


I still have these and other bars available in my Etsy shop for my 50% off clearance sale, they are almost sold out so get them while you can :)

Clearance Sale Giveaway!!

I am celebrating my 50% off Clearance Sale with a fun giveaway! The winner will receive two bars of soap of THEIR choice! The giveaway will end at 11:59 pm on 11/14/09, I will then do a random drawing and notify the winner! Here are the ways you can enter:

1) Go to my Etsy shop: http://KellesKitchen.etsy.com and tell me which TWO bars of soap you want me to send if you win. You MUST leave me a way to get in touch with you so I can let you know if you win! (1 entry)
2) Make a purchase from my Etsy shop, then come back here and leave a comment letting me know you did! (3 entries)

Good luck!!

UPDATE:
My Clearance sale has been going much better than I could have ever anticipated! So much so that I've actually "sold out" of a few kinds of soap and there have been multiple times per day that you will find my shop rather bare until I can find the time to relist things. I did set aside one bar of every type of soap I had in stock at the beginning of the giveaway, though, so here are the available options from which to choose:

Damask Rose
Lavender and Vanilla
Valencia Musk
Sonoran Sunshine
Sweet Birch
Rosemary and Oatmeal
Neroli Lemon
Snozberry
Naked
Soothe-Me Chamomile Tea
Anise Musk

If you don't see those listed in my shop, please check out their descriptions in the sold area of my shop! Thanks and good luck to everyone!

I'm back for a limited time only for a 50% off Clearance!

It has been a long time...but I have returned to selling soaps for a limited time only! Life has been busy, work has been busy! Of note, Collier and I are now married and we live in an awesome home that we purchased in July! We are loving Phoenix and are seriously considering staying here when I am done with my residency.

It is not humanly possible for Collier and I to use all of the soaps that I still have from when Kelle's Kitchen was in high force, so I am clearancing them out at 50% off! You can see my whole selection at my shop!

I still plan to restart my soap business under a new name that I have registered, but will wait at least until my intern year is done as I already feel like Collier and the pets get the short end of the stick with me being gone as much as I am. Collier's returning to school next semester so I will have to see how things are when that happens!

New Listings, a treasury, and the big MOVE!

A big newsy update tonight...and then I will take a bit of time off as life will be very busy for the next week or so!

First off, I listed two new bars in the last week or so! I never formally introduced these bars (I promise...once life settles down a bit I will work on it!), but they are available for sale and they are WONDERFUL!

Lavender and Vanilla Soap Bar



Snozberry Soap Bar

My Naked Soap bar was also featured in an absolutely lovely (and rather sexy!) treasury this week:

ALL THIS ENTAILS by mooshoopork

And finally a general update - my Kelle's Kitchen Etsy Shop will be closing by Friday, May 15 at some point, and won't reopen for about a week while we move to Phoenix. I don't want to sacrifice customer service and need to focus on getting life settled again so I can come back full force.

My next update will come from sunny Phoenix :) I can't wait to get there!

Just Listed - Valencia Musk

It's finally here! You can get your very own bar of Valencia Musk in my Etsy shop :)

Kelle's Kitchen on Vacation 5/14/09-5/20/09

Our big move to Phoenix is rapidly approaching and during the busy time of graduation and packing/moving I will be temporarily closing my Etsy shop for a week! I will close it down sometime on 5/14/09 and will reopen once we arrive in Phoenix, likely on 5/20/09 or perhaps the 21st. Until the time I close my shop for vacation I will be shipping orders out the same or next day, so make sure to get those orders in soon for all your soapy needs! :)

Just Listed - Sonoran Sunshine

It's finally here! If YOU need a little citrus in your life, you can now purchase Sonoran Sunshine in my Etsy shop!

Mom's Picks for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is rapidly approaching and it's not too late to purchase her a bar of handmade, cold process, soap from my Etsy shop! I will be able to ship orders the next day this week, so orders placed today and possibly tomorrow should get there in time if you live in the U.S.!

Here are some of MY mom's favorites!


Strawberry Fields (Forever)



The Garden



Spa Clean (currently sold out but don't worry, I'll have more mid-June!)




Oatmeal, Milk, & 'Honey'

This week's Etsy Features!

I have been lucky to have been featured in a few Etsy Treasuries this week, all very beautiful and inspiring!

Purple Passion by vbarton24



A Bit of Spring Color by littlecoastergnome



CHOCOLATE and... by voscoleccion




ROCKIN' BNR BNR BNR BNR by ErinJade

An update on Goals!

I wrote this post on Friday about my goal of reaching 100 sales by the time I put my shop on vacation for our big move...and I am so proud (and AMAZED!) to day that it's happened already! I can't believe it. I must give credit to a fellow EtsyVeg team member who read my blog post and really got the ball rolling for me! She said the had been planning to try some of my soaps and now seemed the perfect time! It's funny how that works, I have been planning to buy an item from her as well..my perfect time is yet to come, though as we need to pinch every penny right now!

I am a lucky gal and so grateful to my first 100 customers!! May their skin be soft and smelling fabulous!!

Sneak Peek - Sweet Birch!

I am SO excited to tell you about this bar as it is my absolute favorite! I am usually tolerant and like almost all scents to some degree which is great because we use each and every one...but this one really speaks to me.


I call this the soap of many colors, I created swirls in the soap with rosemary powder, the result was quite shocking to me, actually, as I anticipated dark green swirls but when the batch had gone through gel it came out with a lovely dark brown swirl on top! When I cut into the bar the inside swirl was green! It reminded me so much of a birch tree when you peel the bark back and the sweet woodsy scent of the bar make it my perfect birch bar - created as an ode to my home!


The bar has cured with a dark brown swirl which I think is so lovely! And, of course, it's a bar that I can't help but sniff when I walk by the curing rack...talk about addicting! It keeps me on my toes as well! I was cutting one of the bars into sample sizes the other day and the color inside was still green. It was so beautiful that I had to take a photo :) With time and proper ventilation the swirl will be a dark brown throughout, but until then I'll always know this bar has a green soul!


Sweet birch will be available in my Etsy shop starting the second week of May :)

A personal goal

I gave myself a challenge last night. A few months back I was thinking about my goals and decided arbitrarily that I would like to make 100 sales by the time we leave for Phoenix. It seemed impossible at the time - I was making a sale a week if that and I believe I was close to 50 sales, but I have been doing my best!

Last night I was at 91 sales with two weeks to go until I put my shop on vacation for graduation/the move. 9 sales in 2 weeks didn't sound impossible but I knew it was going to be a stretch!! I started to think that it may not happen...but then thought, no, I still have to try! This morning I'm up to 92 sales! 8 more to go, with 13 days to do it...

On the EtsyVeg forum we have been discussing methods of advertising and hiring an ad vs. renewing as a strategy. We are blessed with having one of the top sellers in the knit category, Celeste of CricketsCreations, as a very active member of the team and she is a proponent for more active renewing, she said it has about a 90% return for her! I decided that for the next week I will renew more actively as a test to see the expense vs. return (which will be made easier, of course, because I just paid my Etsy Bill for last month!).

So I will combine more frequent renewing with time on the Etsy forums to reach my goal. I certainly think posting my 5 new bars the last week of my challenge will help if I am close by that point - they are terribly delicious! I will NOT put my soaps on sale as a whole...that would be an easy fix but I'm trying to see what promoting alone will do for me! I'll keep you posted :)

This Week's Etsy Features!

I was lucky enough to have been featured in two treasuries this week, both were created by my fellow wonderful EtsyVeg members in order to promote our Earthly Riches Giveaway!

The first was created by Lisa of PandaWithCookie, featuring spring favorites!

The second was created by Julie of Julie Webb Photography + Design, it was a Hidden Treasure Treasury :)

The Earthly Riches giveaway is, sadly, now over. But now we get to the fun part of picking prizes - the grand prize winner will be notified tomorrow! I can't wait for them to find out!

Happy Birthday to Zazu!

My Zazu kitty turned 8 yesterday! He had a great day, first off because he's at his Grandma and Grandpa's where he's always spoiled rotten! Secondly because he did have a few special birthday treats. I had to run errands yesterday and go to the post office so went to the pet store to find him a special toy/treat. And, once again, I realized how difficult it is to buy something for a cat that needs nothing! I did find the cute magenta chicken and got that for him, he thought it was quite fun! So did Shenzi. And like all of their other catnip toys, it will eventually go in the basket and be ignored :) He also had just a bit of cake to celebrate his day. And of course LOTS of snuggles with mama!


Zazu also wanted to remind you that it is the last day to enter the EtsyVeg Earthly Riches Giveaway! The contest ends at 11:59 PM tonight. If you don't have time today to search for all the hidden earth images you can also enter via the extra entries - a $25 purchase from a participating shop (mine included!) earns FIVE extra entries to the grand prize, and a $10 purchase earns FIVE extra entries into the first prize drawing.

Sneak Peek - Valencia Musk

Time for another sneak peek! Valencia Musk has a very peaceful, zen aroma - it's scented with a combination of Orange, Eucalyptus, Patchouli, and Ylang ylang. Now, before you Patchouli lovers get all excited (I know you're out there...), the patchouli note in this bar is not discernable and just offers a nice deep base to the scent. So, for those of you like me who don't care for the smell of patchouli, not to worry! The scent has got some high notes of citrus with a great musk aroma. It's just lovely!

I added some ground egyptian chamomile to this bar, the "in the mold" photo looks a bit yellow but that was due to the lighting (I made this batch on a rainy day with no nice natural light, sigh) - it's a creamy ivory color with flecks of brown from the chamomile now that it's had almost a week to cure. All in all I'm extremely pleased with the outcome!

Valencia Musk will make it's grand appearance on my Etsy site during the second week of May!

Happy Bunday!!

"Hi, my name is Panda! My mama is Kelle from Kelle's Kitchen! I am taking over this blog for the day, I figured I was entitled it being Bunday and all."

"So, she's been telling me about this EtsyVeg Earthly Riches Giveaway. She said, 'Panda, you won't believe it! There are 8 prizes, and the grand prize is worth over $100!' I don't know what dollars are, but she told me it's a LOT of carrots."

"And I like carrots."

"Anyway, I thought I'd remind you that you should enter the giveaway! It's pretty fun - you get to go to all of these shops and find the hidden earths! Kind of like the game we play at home except I hide the little poopies and Mama gets to find them later! She doesn't like that game. I think she said the giveaway ends April 28 so you'd better hop to it and enter! Well, back to my hay!"

Sneak Peek - Sonoran Sunshine

I've been a busy soaper this week - I made 5 new batches and another batch of my most popular creation, Spa Clean!! I'll have more sneak peeks coming this week, but for now here is the first new batch I created!



I used a lovely bergamot and grapefruit blend of essential oils that is perfect for summer! I also added calendula and orange peel powder into the soap for a bit of yellow-orange color! I was just going to call this one "Bergamot and Grapefruit" but when I poured it in the mold I thought it looked a bit like desert sands! So, I created more of a sand facade to the top of the bars and it earned the name Sonoran Sunshine as a tribute to where we're going :)


Look for this bar in my Etsy Shop the 2nd week of May!

Treasuries I created recently

One of the best parts about vacation is that when I'm not halfway across the country house-hunting or frantically trying to unpack a few things in our sublet so it feels a teeny bit homey, I am pretty much always available when the Treasury opens on Etsy!

I made two treasuries last week, one this week, and yes, I've got another ready to go on Poster Sketch :)

Arizona, Here I Come!


This is the second treasury I created in excitement over moving to AZ :) Plus, it's not every day that you see a cactus treasury!!

Good House Karma


I created this treasury the day I found out that the primary offer for the house we have a back-up offer in on was going to the bank (where it would either be approved or denied). Nerves were skyrocketing and I felt the need to do something to create positive energy around the situation. Enter my "spanish style house" treasury.

Our Earthly Riches


This may be surprising (or not) but this one actually took me so much longer than a normal treasury does to create, even though I was pulling from a list of people! I wanted this treasury to be extra special as it was geared toward raising awareness of our EtsyVeg Earthly Riches Giveaway which started on Earth day 4/22/09 and runs through 4/28/09. It's a collection of items from sellers/team members that made donations. I wanted to showcase all the talent and amazing creations that people could win! I think it turned out rather nicely :)

Earth Day Fun!

To celebrate Earth Day yesterday, Kermit and I took a walk in the woods across the street from my parents house. Well, I walked - Kermit bounded and leaped and sprinted! He was SO ecstatic to be in the woods, it was adorable.


I took my camera with me and snapped a lot of photos - some of places that have been special to me since I was quite young, some of interesting finds in the woods and some just of "nature". I was lucky enough to grow up immersed in the natural surroundings and "the woods" was one of our favorite places to be. We played there for hours every day. "The Stream" was a big draw, we had "Table rock" and we were always cautious to avoid "the ant hill" which is really a giant mound of rocks that red ants took over and built a fortress in. I will never forget the day that my brother and I went on the ant hill and ran back to the house with hundreds of ants crawling all over us and biting us...it was not pleasant.


One of our finds was a deer skull. Well, I found it - Kermit was lost in scent land and walked right by it! But after I found it, he found it. I posted more photos on my Flickr page, including the slightly disturbing, "Kermit discovers the skull" photos :)

EtsyVeg Earthly Riches Giveaway - April 22-April 28!!

I am one of the shops participating in the EtsyVeg Earthly Riches giveaway! There are 20 prizes in 5 prize categories, with multiple chances to win. You will find one hidden Earth image in 20 shops, including mine - if you find them all you can earn an entry for the grand prize, worth over $100! You can also earn FIVE entries for the grand prize by spending $25 in this shop, and FIVE entries for the first prize for spending $10 (please see rules for details)!

For complete rules and details on how to enter, including a list of shops participating and prizes, please see the EtsyVeg blog. The giveaway runs from April 22-28.


Not sure you want to check it out? The prize I donated is FOUR bars of soap of the winner's choice!! And that's just ONE prize, the winner of the grand prize wins SIX prizes of their choice!! What are you waiting for?! Get over to the EtsyVeg blog :)

Waxing Nostalgic

One of my jobs while I'm at my parents house is to go through several boxes of "my stuff" that has accrued from the time I was born. I must admit, it's been quite the trip down memory lane. One thing I've learned is that I will find a place to save some of my kids' artwork! It was the artwork I'd made and a few of the stories I'd written that got put in the save piles. I looked at some of the artwork I made in middle school and thought, "Hey, this isn't half bad!" so some of it may make appearances in our future home :) One of my favorite finds is my Furby! I bought him the first CRAZY retail Christmas he came out, I was lucky enough to work at a large retailer and snagged one the day we got an order in! To say that Kermit didn't like him would be an understatement.



After dropping off a few orders this afternoon, Kermit and I went for a walk at a local park that I LOVED exploring as a child. It's always so nice to go to a place filled with memories. One of my fondest from this park was when I was maybe 3 or 4 and it came time to leave the park and my brother refused. My mom threatened to drive away and when she actually started doing it I started sobbing hysterically and screaming, "No, you can't LEAVE him here, I LOVE him!!" As it turns out she was just going to drive around the parking lot to scare him. Eh, live and learn!


I have decided that the thing I'm going to miss most about Wisconsin's ecosystem is the trees. I LOVE the trees. I will not, however, miss the weather! The photo above looks wet because it was SNOWING today. It's almost May. And it's still snowing.

This Week's Etsy Features!

My "The Garden" soap bar was featured this week in an EtsyVeg team treasury curated by fellow team member Yvonne! She's got three wonderful shops, her bath and body shop is Karramandi, she sells handmade journals at JuniperJournals, and she also sells awesome dog collars at CollarMeGorgeous. Be sure to check out her shops - amazing stuff, and all vegan :)

Lets Hear it for the Greens by JuniperJournals

Just Listed: Oatmeal, Milk, and 'Honey'

I just listed my Oatmeal, Milk, and 'Honey' bar at my Etsy Shop, stop on over and check it out!

What's with the 'Honey'?
Traditional Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey soap is made with cow's milk and honey (and oatmeal, of course!) but I make completely vegan soaps and want to keep it that way! I've long wanted to make an Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey soap but thought, "What's the point," without the soothing milk and honey it would just be another scented oatmeal bar. Collier actually gave me the idea for this soap after I mentioned how I'd like to make an Horchata soap one evening over Mexican dinner - and he said, "Oh, yeah, that would be nice. You could put Rice Milk in it." He understands more about soap than he realizes I think! I asked around the soaping community and a few people had soaped with rice milk and/or soy milk and said it turned out fine, so I decided to go for it! I figured if I'm substituting the milk with a vegan alternative I may as well do the same for the honey so I used agave nectar instead!


This was a fun batch to make. I didn't get any great photos but after adding the rice milk and the agave nectar the batch turned blood red. I panicked thinking Oatmeal, Milk and Honey soap should NOT be red! It faded, shortly, to an orange color, then to a pleasant orange cream look. I figured I could deal with that and hoped it would cure to a tan, which, of course, it did!


We've been using this bar for the past week at our house and I LOVE it! The bar is super skin-loving and the scent is to die for. The only thing I don't like about this bar is that I can't stop using it in the shower - I will wash the same part several times before I can get myself to stop!

Happy THIRD birthday to my Kermit!!

It's Kermit's third birthday and it's been fairly eventful as far as dog birthday's go! He's passed out cold on the floor right now so I think he would agree that it was a good one. We are staying at my parents' house for a week and a half and it's just heaven for our city dog. They live on an acre lot and he spends half the day outside (there are days at home where he only gets outside to go potty, so it's a BIG deal for him to spend a large quantity of time relaxing outside :)). They have also been taking him on their morning walks every morning - while I sleep in he's out exploring the world! Could it get any better?

Kermit's Big Day
Kermit's birthday (for me) started when I woke up on his exuberant entry into the room I'm staying in after getting back from his walk. I actually forgot it was his birthday and was going about normal business, getting a soap order ready when I bent over and felt something sharp "poke" me by my waistline on my back. I looked and saw something smallish and black and brushed it off. No biggie. Shenzi was on the bed and got the "hunt" look so I checked out the bed and there was a tick on it! Not just any tick...a deer tick (the kind that transmit lyme disease). So...normal morning became panicked morning. We forgot to put frontline on Kermit at the beginning of the month and the cats haven't had it for years as they're indoor only and we're (usually!) SO religious about keeping it on Kerm. And, of course, the Frontline we have is NOT here! So, I started calling all over trying to locate someplace local to get a month supply for Kermit, Zazu, and Shenzi.


I was able to find it at Petco but they were out of Kerm's size - LUCKILY, though, they had a Vet visiting for an immunization clinic and they were nice enough to sell me exactly what I was looking for (one 25-44 lb dog dose, two cat doses!). And, of course, as I was filling out the form and entering his birthday I realized, "Oh my gosh, that's today!" Then I realized, "Oh, crap! I'm in a pet store!" And then I had a sense of doom, ha ha. I have a hard enough time not buying EVERYTHING available for our pets to begin with. Combine that impulse with a birthday...and...well...my wallet took a bit of a hit :)


Kerm got all sorts of new treats and toys! I bought him a new Wubba - his all time favorite toy. He has a blue one that he chewed up that only has 2 "legs" left...he's got an outdoor floaty Wubba, too, that he loves. But the squeaky indoor one is a go-to must so he needed a new model! I LOVE the sock monkey - it squeaks as well and Kerm adores it. he loves running around with its "tail" in his mouth :) He also got a dental dingo and some treats from the treat bar to enjoy over the next week.


He spent much of the day outside and enjoyed a second walk with me later this afternoon. He will sleep well tonight :)

Want to win THREE bars of my soap?!?

I am one of 4 members of the EtsyVeg team whose items have been included in this week's Weekly Wednesday Giveaway! You could win three bars of my soap (Anise Musk, Mom's Holiday Kitchen, and A Pineapple Under the Sea), along with a set of notecards from team member marywibis, a stoneware pendant from claynfiber, and an awesome light switch plate cover from SweetWolf!


To enter the giveaway go here.