Merry Christmas

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Payment Methods

Remember back in 2008 when Revolution Money Exchange hit the scene and Etsy was all abuzz about the new way to accept payments? It was billed as an alternative to Paypal, without the transaction fees. I was one of those sellers that utilized RME as a payment option for both buying and selling. My sole transaction as a buyer went well. My few transactions as a seller were smooth. Eventually though RME faded into the background. It is now operated by American Express Travel Related Services Company Inc. and goes by the name Serve, offering no fees on most transactions. 

From the website:

Signing up for Serve is free. FREE? Yep, free. In fact, with Serve all of these features are free:

• Person-to-person money transfers are free
• Transfers to and from subaccounts are free
• Purchasing online and in stores with the Serve card is free
• There are no load fees for funding your account via your checking account
• The first ATM withdrawal each month is free; after that it’s $2.00***

So what isn't free?

After January 1, 2012, there will be fees for:

• Funding your Serve account with a credit card (2.9% of the amount transferred + $0.30 per transfer)
• Getting cash from an ATM (first withdrawal per month is FREE***; after that, it’s $2.00)

Like Paypal, you can add money to your account using a MoneyPak card.

Many crafters who work markets on a regular basis may be familiar with Square. Square is the small card reader that attaches to smartphones and iPads in order to process payments. The app and readers are free. The cost to swipe a card is 2.75% per swipe. The cost to key in information is 3.5% + 15¢. I've read good feedback about Square and although I don't participate in markets at this time I can see this coming in handy.

Another payment option I heard about recently was Dwolla. Dwolla is billed as a cash payment alternative to other online merchant services. The idea is to transfer money bank account to bank account, thus avoiding credit/debit card fees. Money can be sent via email or using a phone number. Facebook connect is also an option. According to the website the fee to receive money is $0.25 per transaction and nothing else. No cost to send money or make withdrawals. You can read an interview with Ben Milne, founder of Dwolla, on Business Insider. Read a breakdown on Drupal.org.

**********

Transfer of funds into linked bank accounts vary from one company to the other. Go to each site, read up on the terms and decide which is best for you.

The Frankincense Trail

I have posted a BBC documentary on frankincense. This one was filmed in, I believe, 2009 and is hosted by Kate Humble. I think an updated one should be made featuring Trygve Harris (and the ice cream). ;-)

http://blossomingtree.blogspot.com/p/frankincense-trail.html

BBC Perfume Series

I moved the videos of the BBC Perfume Series to it's own page. Click on the tab from the navigation bar to view. Since there is no option to comment on pages anyone wishing to do so can post them here. :)

Horse Chestnuts aka Night Eyes

Photo of chestnut on a horse's leg.
Taken from Wikipedia

Horse chestnuts are the knobbly bits or growths found on a horse above the knee area of the front legs and below the hock of the hind legs. They can grow over time and can be soft or dry & brittle. They grow in layers and depending on the texture can be peeled or shaved off (sometimes falling off on their own). Being that chestnuts are growths from the horse's body they carry a bit of the horse's scent in them. Not knowing much about horses I learned recently that horses' scents are individual. I hadn't thought of that before but I guess it makes sense since scents (hahaha did you like that?) can be individual to other living beings. I already had a small chunk that I tinctured a year ago. I wanted more so I put out a request to a group of soapers who are also horse owners. Several said they'd send some to me and yesterday I received an envelope (thank you Shannon) with chestnuts from 4 different horses. I'm really excited about this because just from sniffing the little bags they're in I could tell that each one, while having that horse-y smell, was a bit different in it's scent and odor intensity. 

Chestnut from 24 y/o Appaloosa

Learning this made me wonder how differently the tinctures would come out, how much of the horse-y smell would come through in the alcohol. The chestnuts that I have are from horses that range in age from 8-24 yrs. Whether age or breed  makes a difference I don't know but I'm thrilled to start this experiment and see what comes of it. There's probably someone's findings on this subject somewhere on the web but I like to do some things myself. :^) 

I started working on a white flower accord.  The first sample was just the flower essences. The second had horse chestnut tincture added. What I noticed was that in the first sample jasmine came through very strong. In the second the jasmine was tamed while the michelia alba took over. I also noticed it cut some of the headiness of the florals. I haven't done the skin test with these yet but will update when I do.

Note: The name Horse Chestnut also refers to the nut of the Aesculus hippocastanum tree. To learn more about horse chestnut/night eyes you can search "chestnut & night eyes" or "chestnut & horse anatomy".