Blossoming Tree Bodycare

Playing Catch Up

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:07:00 +0000

About mid-year I planned on taking a couple months off to really get a few things in order and improve my online presence. Well, the two months extended into more and here I am in December still with many projects undone. I must get them all completed before the year is over because there are many more projects to come. The last thing I need to do is pile more on top of what is already on my to-do list. Wish me luck!

The Perfumista Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Here's a nice project for aspiring perfumistas. Hop over to Perfume Shrine and read all about it.

Please Excuse The Dust

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

This blog is being remodeled (again LOL).

One Lovely Blog Award

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:45:00 +0000

A heartfelt thank you goes out to Petergaye S. Kisielewicz of Yaghie Interiors. She has been gracious enough to pass on the One Lovely Blog award to Blossoming Tree's blog. This is especially warming considering I haven't blogged in months. It is greatly appreciated and means a lot to have readers stick with me even while I take extra long breaks. :-) Thank you Petergaye!

The rules of the "One Lovely Blog Award" are as follows:

Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. Now it is my turn to pass it along so here are my 15 choices:

NOTE: I am adding only 5 because as I look through my blog list I notice that many have already been recognized.

1. Hugs Cuddles and Love

2. Inspirations From Nature

3. Made For Me By Oaklie

4. My Mother's Garden

5. Pink Lemonade Stand

If you've already done this or don't feel like passing it on, no worries! It's all in fun. Just know that I heart your blog. ;-)

My Diary 2010 Page

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:28:00 +0000

I'm no graphics artist but I think it came out OK.

Shopping Around For A New Web Host

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:56:00 +0000

I've been working on my website for the past few days. It hasn't been an easy task. I changed templates a gazillion times and still can't get it published. Sooooo...I ended up deleting the whole thing. Now I'm shopping for a new host. I decided that I want a host that is environmentally conscious and uses wind or solar power as a means of energy. I've come across about a dozen companies that seem to have the functionality that I'm looking for at the right price. However, I must do my research as always. Suggestions/recommendations are welcome.

Long Time...

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:35:00 +0000

It has been almost 5 months since I last posted. What's been going on? Over that time I've been trying to rework Blossoming Tree. It's been pretty tough on the sales end so I've decided to make several changes, which includes reducing the number of items I sell. The beginning of August will find the Blossoming Tree website in full swing with soaps and a few other items. The focus however will be on soap. It seems there just isn't interest in my facial care items so those are going to be pulled, at least for now. Same goes for the foot care items. Once they are gone, that's it. At least for now LOL. This will also free up lots of time for me to dig deeper into my perfumery studies, which I am so anxious to do. I hope that you all will really like the change that Blossoming Tree will be making. Please stick around and I'll update as I progress.

Diary 2010 Project

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:51:00 +0000

For the third year Etsian Fantazya is organizing her full year diary project. Diary 2010, like the past 2 years, will be full of date/address/note pages designed by indie artists and crafters. I had the pleasure of participating last year and will do so again this year. If you'd like to learn more about this wonderful opportunity to promote your business please visit Diary 2010 Project.

EAOC Summer Madness Treasure Hunt

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:47:00 +0000

Etsy's Artists of Color street team will be sponsoring a summer themed treasure hunt June 18-21, 2009. There will be lots of great prizes.

Details:

the treasure hunt will run for 4 days (June 18-21) from 12 noon until 12 midnight EDT
visit participating shops and find special letters hidden within product listings (as a product photo)
using the letters that you find form a phrase that pertains to summer
the phrase changes each day
10 winners per day will be selected randomly from correct entries
sorry members of EAOC, you're not allowed to play

An official treasure hunt thread will be posted in the Etsy Promotions forum with all participating shops listed and details on how to submit your unscrambled phrase.

..........................................................................................................

Etsy: teameaoc.etsy.com

Twitter: @eaoc

Facebook: groups.to/etsyartistsofcolor

MySpace: myspace.com/teameaoc

Blog: eaoc.blogspot.com

What's With This Weather?

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:11:00 +0000

I have been patiently waiting to get started on my mini garden but this weather just won't cooperate. We're in the middle of May and we've had frost advisories the past 2 days. On the upside the week's forecast is looking pretty good.

Once again I am looking to start my locavore project. Better planning will allow me to carry on into the winter months. I'm very excited about it because last year's test proved to be a good learning experience for me. I seriously can't wait to hit all the markets and farms I discovered last year, but didn't have the opportunity to visit.

And, my spring cleaning is in full swing...carpet cleaning and all. Hopefully I can finish up by this weekend.

Back to work...

Mama Bear Awakens From Hibernation

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Yes, mama bear would be me. It's been a few months since my last post and I figured it was time to start up again (so I won't lose you beautiful visitors to my blog). I've had several personal issues to tend to, along with my business issues, but it looks like things may be looking up on all fronts. The weather here in Michigan has been CRAZY! Warm one day and snowing the next. I've been blessed enough to not have gotten sick through it all. I can't say the same for the husband and kids (poor babies). I started seeds for my very ambitious attempt at a vegetable/herb/flower garden in a very limited space. I have green beans, sugar snap peas, yellow squash & zucchini all waiting to go out. My jasmine tobacco, indian peace pipe, fragrant delight & evening primrose have sprouted. But, alas, the weather won't cooperate. Soon, though, soon. ;-)

Time to go shake the cobwebs from the space between my ears and get back to business hee hee.

Where Is Spring?

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:23:00 +0000

Let me just say I'm not complaining about the weather. Not even about the 1-3 inches of snow we're supposed to get. I live in Michigan. 1-3 inches is nothing to me. However my lack of patience is showing today. I'm working on my plans for my herb garden and I'm feeling a bit anxious to plant seeds. I'm also feeling a bit anxious to go shopping at the nursery. This year I'm buying as many Lemon Verbena plants as I can. And I won't care if the clerk comments on me taking all that they have (like she did last year). I mean, you are in business to sell right? I have plans for green beans, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, strawberries. Rosemary, basil, dill, chamomile, catnip, mint, mint, and more mint! Sage and so much more, including several flowers.

OK, I'm going to stop. This is just feeding into my impatience lol.

Blossoming Tree Bodycare & Callidora's

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:50:00 +0000

I am pleased to announce that Blossoming Tree Bodycare will now be offering gift sets. The first will be skin care sets of facial cleansers, masks and moisturizing creams, using organic oils, hydrosols and essential oils for a fresh, clean and smooth face and neck. And each set will be packaged in a cosmetic bag handmade by Terri Collins of Callidora's.

See the sidebar for links to where you can purchase Blossoming Tree Bodycare products.

Find Callidora online at:

callidoras.com

callidora.etsy.com

callidora.artfire.com

The Artisan Craft Trades Association

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:37:00 +0000

The Artisan Craft Trades Association (ACTA) is an organization that represents the innovators, the entrepreneurs, the unique small businesses that seek to uphold the highest quality standards in the works they create, to preserve traditional crafts for future generations and to blaze new trails with their forward thinking ideas and their elegant artisan products.

We are concerned and poised to take action to defeat the acts of the US Energy and Commerce Committee (ECC) that will shut our businesses down.

Immediate issues, CPSIA & the soon to be revived FDA Globalization Act. Please join the Yahoo group and volunteer to help protect YOUR business.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/acta-us

US Energy and Commerce Committee to US Artisans: Drop Dead

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:20:00 +0000

An open letter to NPG group by Anya McCoy. Posted with permission.

Got your attention? Too bad we all weren't paying attention to the US Energy and Commerce Committee.

This Special Notice is being sent to you by me, Anya, your list mom because it is very disturbing how one Committee in the US Governmentis aiming to shut down the independent American Artisan. Please pass this on to any artisan associations you know and have them contact me. Read on to find out why:

Sell handmade toys, children's clothing or any child-oriented item in your shop?

Have some handmade children's toys, clothing or bath or body product you want to donate to a shelter?

Perhaps you want to give some handmade cradle or bassinet away to your best friend.

Forget it.

Come February 10th, you have to:

Empty your shop of the toys, forget about donations, and don't give them away - you might as well send them to the dump. The landfills across America should be full of handmade children's products in thecoming months.

Why?

The U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee, the same group that attempted to pass the small-business-killing FDA Globalization Act last year, passed the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act in August. Quietly, sneakily, this bill was passed into law and is just now becoming evident for what it is - the death knell for any handmade artisan product for children.

We're in the early stages of launching a website that will be the home of artisan associations united to fight this Draconian Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and the coming revival of the FDA Globalization Act. Membership will be free, and open to all American artisan associations, bringing under our umbrella those who craft bread, chocolate, beer, toys, clothing, wine, bath and body products, cheese - well, you get the idea. I believe we have some innovative and powerful campaigns planned, and I will post more here when we move forward.

We have both a PR and legislative contact campaign planned for both the short term and long term goals - to fight this committee, and any other that attempts to put small businesses into bankruptcy. The CPSIA will be a hard battle, since it's already law. Just think about it -no more crocheted hats from the local store for your baby, no more wooden toys from the woodmaker on that country road. They'll be outlawed February 10, 2009, and any business selling them will be closed down.

It's a horrifying state of Big Brother and we have to take this into our own hands at a grassroots level and organize and fight.

Here's some more information, originally published by Forbes magazine.

January 16 -- "Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act is now shapingup as a calamity for businesses and an epic failure of regulation"

"Congress passed CPSIA in a frenzy of self-congratulation following last year's overblown panic over Chinese toys with lead paint. Washington's consumer and environmentalist lobbies used the occasion to tack on some other long-sought legislative goals, including a ban on phthalates used to soften plastic.

"A group called Handmade Toy Alliance is calling attention to the law's burdens in that area. Booksellers are mobilizing. Yet prominent consumer groups have continued to defend even the law's more extreme applications, and their spokespersons are dismissive of public outrage. 'I haven't heard a single legitimate concern yet,' Public Citizen's David Arkush wrote last month.

"Instead they must put a sample item from each lot of goods through testing after complete assembly, and the testing must be applied to each component. For a given hand-knitted sweater, for example, one might have to pay not just, say, $150 for the first test, but added-on charges for each component beyond the first: a button or snap, yarn of a second color, a care label, maybe a ribbon or stitching--with each color of stitching thread having to be tested separately.

"Suddenly the bill is more like $1,000--and that's just to test theone style and size. The same sweater in a larger size, or with a different button or clasp, would need a new round of tests--not juston the button or clasp, but on the whole garment. The maker of a kids' telescope (with no suspected problems) was quoted a $24,000 testing estimate, on a product with only $32,000 in annual sales."

-----------

End of the Forbes excerpt. Any members of artisan associations readingthis, please contact me via the form on my website.

I've written extensively in the past about the business-killing measures that IFRA, the EU and Global Harmonization pose to the Natural Perfumers Guild and small businesses that produce bath and body products. The new organization will work to push back the rising tide of government regulations that threaten to destroy our small,independent businesses.

Anya's Garden Perfumes
http://anyasagarden.com
Online perfume course starts March 6, 2009
http://anyasgarden.com/classes.htm

US Energy and Commerce Committee to US Artisans: Drop Dead

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:21:00 +0000

Solutions from the Green Economy

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:03:00 +0000

Page: www.coopamerica.org/about/newsroom/editorials/solutions.cfm

Everyone now understands that the economy is broken.

While many name the mortgage and credit-default-swap crises as culprits, they are only the most recent indicators of an economy with fatal design flaws. Our economy has long been based on what economist Herman Daly calls “uneconomic growth” where increases in the GDP come at an expense in resources and well-being that is worth more than the goods and services provided. When GNP growth exacerbates social and environmental problems—from sweatshop labor to manufacturing toxic chemicals—every dollar of GNP growth reduces well-being for people and the planet, and we’re all worse off.

Our fatally flawed economy creates economic injustice, poverty, and environmental crises. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can create a green economy: one that serves people and the planet and offers antidotes to the current breakdown.

Here are six green-economy solutions to today’s economic mess.

1. Green Energy—Green Jobs

A crucial starting place to rejuvenate our economy is to focus on energy. It’s time to call in the superheroes of the green energy revolution—energy efficiency, solar and wind power, and plug-in hybrids—and put their synergies to work with rapid, large-scale deployment. This is a powerful way to jumpstart the economy, spur job creation (with jobs that can’t be outsourced), declare energy independence, and claim victory over the climate crisis.

2. Clean Energy Victory Bonds

How are we going to pay for this green energy revolution? We at Green America propose Clean Energy Victory Bonds. Modeled after victory bonds in World War II, Americans would buy these bonds from the federal government to invest in large-scale deployment of green energy projects, with particular emphasis in low-income communities hardest hit by the broken economy. These would be long-term bonds, paying an annual interest rate, based in part on the energy and energy savings that the bonds generate. During WWII, 85 million Americans bought over $185 billion in bonds—that would be almost $2 trillion in today’s dollars.

3. Reduce, Reuse, Rethink

Living lightly on the Earth, saving resources and money, and sharing (jobs, property, ideas, and opportunities) are crucial principles for restructuring our economy. This economic breakdown is, in part, due to living beyond our means—as a nation and as individuals. With the enormous national and consumer debt weighing us down, we won’t be able to spend our way out of this economic problem. Ultimately, we need an economy that’s not dependent on unsustainable growth and consumerism. So it’s time to rethink our over-consumptive lifestyles, and turn to the principles of elegant simplicity, such as planting gardens, conserving energy, and working cooperatively with our neighbors to share resources and build resilient communities.

4. Go Green and Local

When we do buy, it is essential that those purchases benefit the green and local economy—so that every dollar helps solve social and environmental problems, not create them. Our spending choices matter. We can support our local communities by moving dollars away from conventional agribusiness and big-box stores and toward supporting local workers, businesses, and organic farmers.

5. Community Investing

All over the country, community investing banks, credit unions, and loan funds that serve hard-hit communities are strong, while the biggest banks required bailouts. The basic principles of community investing keep such institutions strong: Lenders and borrowers know each other. Lenders invest in the success of their borrowers—with training and technical assistance along with loans. And the people who provide the capital to the lenders expect reasonable, not speculative, returns. If all banks followed these principles, the economy wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in today.

6. Shareowner Activism

When you own stock, you have the right and responsibility to advise management to clean up its act. Had GM listened to shareholders warning that relying on SUVs would be its downfall, it would have invested in greener technologies, and would not have needed a bailout. Had CitiGroup listened to its shareowners, it would have avoided the faulty mortgage practices that brought it to its knees. Engaged shareholders are key to reforming conventional companies for the transition to this new economy – the green economy that we are building together.

It’s time to move from greed to green.

--Alisa Gravitz

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Please contact Todd Larsen by email
or by phone at 202-872-5307.

EAOC Gift Guide Showcase & Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:10:00 +0000

This month the Etsy Artists of Color began a new challenge. As a way to spark creativity we are picking themes each month and creating an item around it. Each challenge item will be featured weekly in our new Gift Guide & Showcase on the team blog. Please visit the link below to see featured artist Akua Designs and read the latest interview by member Native Talisman Art.

Etsy's Artists of Color team blog:

http://eaoc.blogspot.com

The Lemonade Award

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:45:00 +0000

I want to give a great big thank you to Stormee and Carmen for giving me the Lemonade Award. I'm going to write a bit more about this later today but wanted to say thanks to these wonderful and talented ladies right now.

I Still Have You Linked

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:55:00 +0000

I just moved the list to the new spot. :-)

A Change Is Coming

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:07:00 +0000

No this isn't about President-elect Obama. It's nothing that grand. The change I am speaking of is the link to this blog. The name will reflect more of the atmosphere of this blog. On Jan 16 (one week) the new link (and name) for this blog will be thesisterhoodstudio.blogspot.com . That will be the only difference. You can bookmark it now so you'll have it handy on the 16th. The blossomingtree link will still be live (so keep this one too) but will be business related only. I hope that you stick with me and like the new relaxed "feel" of the blog (the template will be the same). Grab a cup of coffee or tea, kick your feet up and chat. :-)

How Rude :-)

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:25:00 +0000

I say Happy New Year to you all then disappear for a few days. :-) No worries! I still luv ya! I have been working on a few business matters, getting my shops in order and trying my hardest to take halfway decent pictures lol. I'll be launching my website soon also. Finally, since I've only been holding the domain for, what, 2 years?

Besides that:

I am the new team leader for Etsy's Artists of Color street team. Yay me! Those not familiar with EAOC, it is a team of minority Etsy sellers from all over the world. Not only is the US represented, we have members from the UK, Canada, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Barbados and Spain. I know this will be a challenge but I'm up for it. Looks like I'll be putting my new schedule to test.

Etsy Artists of Color on Ning

New Years Cheer

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:01:00 +0000

To all my blogging friends, may you be blessed

with lots of love, good health and prosperity

in 2009! Be safe and enjoy your festivities!

Why Wait?

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:09:00 +0000

I have been in a funk for far too long. There are so many things I need to do but come up with an excuse not to do them because I "just don't feel like it." It really is ridiculous. Really. I have several unfinished projects waiting for my attention. Why wait to make a New Year's resolution? I don't keep them anyway. It has to be done now. This is my pledge and you all are witnesses (did I say that out loud?). Besides, it's time I got up off my rear anyway.

Now, who's seen that to-do list?

Congratulations...

noreply@blogger.com (BlossomingTree) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 12:10:00 +0000

Bunny B

You were selected winner of the Winter Solstice giveaway!

Thank you to all participants!