It was definitely a learning experience. I have to be honest and say my confidence is a bit shaken after having two shows in a row turn out less than I was hoping. I’m not saying it was a total bust. There were some really nice women who bought from me, and every single one of them gave me her email address and joined my Preferred Customer list. One of them had already found my website through the Haute Market website and signed up before the event. Another person already had a Great Cakes Soapworks lip butter that she pulled out of her pocket!

So now I’m focusing my efforts on the Olathe Medical Center’s Holiday Craft Show coming up this Friday. This was a great show last year, so hopefully I will do better there.

I’ve had my ups and downs with these over the past few days, but I’ve made enough to take with me to the Haute Market tomorrow night. Out of three batches, the first batch turned out the best. The second batch I had to completely throw out because the new cocoa butter that I opened had a chemical smell to it that didn’t go away. Ugh, that was not what I needed. I ended up using kokum butter for the third batch. It’s similar in texture to cocoa butter and those worked out ok, except that the batter cooled too fast and got hard before I could get it all into the molds! I tried sticking the mixture in the microwave on half power for about a minute. It softened up, but then after I got them into the molds, some of the citric acid started fizzing. I was able to salvage about half of that batch.

As you can see, in addition to the seashells, I also made some squares. I wrapped them all in candy foils and started putting them in my cute cello bags that I told you about, but the bags were so big, they held about 10 truffles! So I used the smaller plain bags that I used to wrap my bath bombs in, added some chocolate brown paper shreds, and tied them off with pink and silver ribbons. I put three seashells or five squares in each bag. Cute, cute, cute!

So tomorrow night is the Haute Market. I’m going to be working hard tomorrow to get everything ready, but it’s going to be great! I’ll try to take some pictures. RahRah will be there to help me sell my stuff – I’m so excited! All my Preferred Customers will receive a 10% discount!

If there are any left over after Thursday night, I will put them on my website and bring them to the Holiday Craft Show at the Olathe Medical Center on October 17. Shucks, I might even make more!

Of course, I’m also going to contribute this fabulous Hazelnut Cappuccino soap to the goodie bags. Oh my, does it smell delish! Get your coffee buzz without drinking a single drop. And this isn’t even its best feature! Coffee soaps are wonderful to keep by the kitchen sink because they remove odors from your hands, including garlic, onion, fish, and even jalapeno.

(Just a little disclaimer: the actual size of the samples is about the size of a hotel soap, 1/4 of these regular sized bars.)