ISOCAN Convention

I'm pleased to announce that we've secured a venue for the Aug 11, 2007 ISOCAN (Illinois Soap and Candle) Convention, visit this blog for more details.



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We hope to see all of you there!

Chock Full Of Soaps and Some Ted Drewes Frozen Custard

As I walked in the door tonight, Kerry says: "You've got a package from Nancy Z."... What?? for me? I wasn't expecting anything.

I rushed past everyone and ripped the box open to see what's in the box lol, out came not 1, not 4 but SEVEN full size bars of wonderfully scented handmade cold processed soaps and some samples of her other scents!!! It was like Xmas in June hehee I LOVEEED them, the colors are eye catching and the scents are fresh and yummy, I can't wait to use them.

Here's a list of what I received from Nancy Z. of The Enchanted Bath, located in Godfrey Illinois:

• Carrot Calendula
• Blue Skye
• Lavender Dream
• Tea Tree
• Irish Rose
• Black Raspberry
• White Ginger Tea
• Loofa embedded pink soap
• Rosemary
• Spearmint Lavender

When we met up with Nancy and Bill back in April at the HSMG 4-day conference, we had the pleasure to get to know them and guess what? their hotel room was right next door to ours!! They are such sweet people, gave us a guided tour of St. Louis, MO! Who can visit St. Louis and not have any Ted Drewes frozen custard?? Are you kidding me? of course Nancy took us, they were so so tempting and delicious! I had the Cardinal Sin... the freshest frozen custard I have ever had! They have an off-duty police officer directing traffic in and out of the parking lot AND the lines to get a piece of St. Louis experience was like waiting in line for an amusement park ride! It was some crazy hang out, I love it lol! We also went to the Arch, but I broke my camera and the flash is not working :(. I don't have any arch pictures to post, but I did manage to take these pictures without flash! It was around 11:00 pm when we made it to Ted Drewes and the place was hopping with people!

Thanks Nancy for spoiling us to pieces, I love surprises! I will even share the soaps with Kerry lol.

Kitty

Illinois Soap Conference

Hey all,

Kerry, and I are actively looking for a venue to hold the Illinois Soap Conference, if you know of any place that will hold a small amount of people (30-50?) please let us know! We are aiming for a small conference and will need volunteers to assist with the following areas before and at the gathering, your time and efforts to make this a "go" are greatly appreciated!

• Venue - Find and assist with locating a venue, getting pricing info for the venue (church, rental hall, golf club, park district community room etc)



• Speakers / Demos - Find speakers and demos to be presented for the conference, topics: soaps, lotions, mineral make-up, marketing, packaging and let's not forget candles!



• Attendees check-in table - A couple of people to be at the check-in table the day of the conference
  


• Conference Crews - Our own Illinois Conference Crew the day of the conference, where you will "meet and greet" the attendees and also speakers
  


• Catering - Find caterer, work out the menu and pricing info
  


• Event Scheduler - Schedule speakers and demos



• Goodie bags / Door prizes / Sponsors - Assist by sending out emails and making phone calls to potential companies to donate for the goodie bags, door prizes or be a sponsor for the conference
• Contests - Organzie contests



• Swap - Organize swaps
  


• Photographer - You don't have to be a professional photographer to hold take on this task! However, you do have to be able to take pictures all through out the day, compile the pictures and upload it to a pre-determined section of the site, post comments about the pictures etc. We are looking for 2-3 people to take on this task.

Are you interested in being involved? now is the time to make it count! email me today!

Chicago Conference Cancelled

In case you haven't heard, the Chicago Conference has been cancelled :(

Just a thought... We might still have a small one for those wanted to come, maybe in a different venue. Anyone interested?

http://www.chicagosoapandcandlemakers.com

Chicago Conference

Yeah!!! It's a go :)... Well, almost lol.

Brenda S. the Chicago Conference organizer enlisted me to negotiate the terms of the contract with the general manager of Holiday Inn, just so we don't have to cancel this year's conference...

Actually, it was pretty painless and the general manager at the hotel agreed to extend the guarantee date by a month, we now have until mid June to guarantee attendees!

Although we are half way there, but we still need more people to sign up, if you haven't already please register today to attend the Chicago Conference!! We haven't decided what to give out as a special bonus in the goodie bags yet, what suggestions have you got? ;), post your suggestions in the comments section and we'll definitely consider them.

We hope to see you there!

Ohio Conference 2007

April 22, 2007 Greenville Ohio

We try very hard to bring all that we can to the conferences we attend! After getting ready the weekend before and also packing during the week we still managed to leave things behind! lol ugggh...

Ohio conference is one of our favorites to attend, in addition to being a soap conference, there are tons of people that also knit! At least eight (count with me... 8!!!) knitters on a few tables knitting away and listening to the speakers and watching the demos, I'm telling you, soapers are infamous for their muli-tasking skills ;)

Kay B. (hi Kay!) brought along her famous goat milk fudge! I bought a box from Kay and conveniently "hid" it away from Kerry the chocolatic, but luck would have it that I hid the box of fudge so well that I couldn't even find it myself lol.

Jackie H. (hi Jackie) from North Coast Soaps gave us a bar of her soap called "Outback Blues", it is made with our Australian Washed Blue Clay. The Aussie Blue Clays are derived from weathered volcanic ash, blue clay is rich in mineral nutrients. With great detoxifying properties, this clay is perfect for oily skin, drawing out impurities and resulting in clearer, cleaner pores. Jackie makes the best clay soaps, she has also brought me another bar of soap using the Australian Reef Red clay in previous conferences. She is such a sweet heart! Thanks Jackie!

Talking about being a sweet heart, Jackie surprised a newly wed, Pam B and her hubby by baking a cake for them! It was just soooo yummy.

Although I don't remember meeting Laura Lee at last year's conference, but she passed away last year and Kim C. held a silent auction for Laura Lee with all proceeds going to her family. I bought five tickets trying to win a very cool necklace made by Samantha... but I didn't win it, darn it! It was so touching to see all the responses and donations made to Laura Lee's fund. Kim C. knitting a beautiful shaw to raffle off, it was an amazing shaw!