Handcrafted, cold process soaps, lip balms, bath and body goodies, soy candles, and who knows what else!
You may notice the the blog is once again looking rather messy. We’re in the middle of installing a new shopping cart, and integrating it with the blog. The end result will be much more seamless, easier to navigate, and easier to maintain.
The old shopping cart is still fully functional, though, and will be until we are able to propagate the new one. Feel free to use either of them! ^_^
Martinsville Emporium now has a Facebook page! ^_^ Be sure to add us!
If you’ve been browsing the store in the past few weeks, you may have noticed some, um, Viagra ads. I have been extremely busy this summer with personal stuff, and I was just able to sit down today and go through the site to make sure everything was fine, and that’s when I discovered them. I am pretty sure that I have removed all of them for now, but if you see any, please drop me a line!
Please know that all of your customer information is secure! Things like this are the main reason why I use PayPal to process payments – because then none of your credit card information is stored on the Martinsville Emporium website. Sadly, in this day and age, no website is totally secure, and fraudulent people are always finding ways to steal your information. Someday I’ll blog about Christmas 2007, when someone used my debit card to buy a $1600 laptop on Overstock.com, two days before Christmas, right when I was out trying to buy one of those giant Craftsman cabinets for the Husband.
The problems with the site have sent me into looking into different options for the shopping cart. While I love ZenCart and have been using it for a while, it is very clunky because I have so many options when it comes to fragrances and flavors. Trying to update it when a new fragrance arrives, or an old one is out of stock, is just horrific.
So for now, I’m going to be playing with some different options – one of which is ArtFire’s Rapid Cart:
Please let me know what you think! ^_^
Namaste,
H.
Vanilla Cupcake cold process soap, originally uploaded by Martinsville.
My gosh but it’s cold here in Martinsville! It hasn’t been over 10 degrees Fahrenheit for a few days now, so we’re all hunkered down inside just waiting for the cold spell to pass. Lucky for us all, the soaps out in the barn don’t mind the cold as much as I do!
One of our newest soaps is (yet another) food fragrance – Vanilla Cupcake! This is one of our lighter fragrances, since the caustic nature of the raw soap tends to eat up those luscious, fleeting super – sweet notes that are some of my personal favorites these days. What we’ve ended up with, however, is a delightful vanilla cake fragrance with hints of buttercream frosting. The fragrance of these bars really blossoms once you use it, so please give it a try and remember – handmade soap is a renewable resource! ^_^
After the Husband was off for a week of vacation, even I am a bit bummed about this Monday.
But cheer up! I’m having a sale!
From now until December 5, US customers can get free shipping on all orders over $25 by using the coupon code twitter at checkout.
International folks, I have not forgotten you either! You can use the coupon code 2twitter to receive 20% off your order! (US residents can use it too, so be sure to check out which one saves you more money!)
These coupon codes can only be used at our main Martinsville Emporium website, and not Etsy or ArtFire.
Life sometimes gets in the way here in Martinsville, and blogging isn’t always at the top of my list of things to do. So, then, how to keep track of what we’re doing here?
Twitter is my new favorite toy – I keep it up most of the time in my side bar.
You can also follow me over on Flickr.
And of course, if you ever have a question about any of our products, our contact form is right here!
I just haven’t been happy with the way the blog looks lately, so today I’m trying out a few new templates. So please pardon the dust. ^_^
Happy Halloween, everyone! ^_^
The garage and barn, originally uploaded by Martinsville.
I didn’t start out on the second floor of that two story barn. Like most home-based businesses in my area, I started out in the kitchen, making soap by day, and dinner by night.
Until the (in)famous Rose Flavored Mashed Potato Incident. It was the fall of 2002, and it seems I must have been making rose soap that fateful day, and spilled some of the fragrance oil on the only real work surface I have in my tiny 10′ x 10′ kitchen, a little 3′ wide wooden microwave cart.
Wood is really porous, you know. Tends to soak up just about any oil that falls on it, and then transfer it to whatever you put on it.
So there we are, happily eating dinner, and the Husband takes a bite of his mashed potatoes, puts his fork down, and says, “Maybe it’s time to clean out the garage and move your soapmaking things out there”.
Oops?
I outgrew the garage in about a year. And actually, the plans for the barn were already in the works for his woodworking shop – I just handily noted that adding a second story would add very little cost to the barn itself, and I could work with the sloped ceilings whereas he could not.
So now the garage is used for storing finished products (except in the winter, when the lotions and sprays have to come inside so they don’t freeze) and I have a lovely but very disorganized workshop dedicated to things that one really shouldn’t eat. ^_^
We are pleased as punch to announce that Martinsville Emporium is opening a candle shop on LolliShops!
Quoting from their main page:
LolliShops is a juried, online selling venue for talented artists, collectors of vintage and art supply vendors. LolliShops will appeal to those who love…
… artists will enjoy setting up their own, customizable store fronts while LolliShops patrons enjoy feeling like a kid in a Candy Store!
At this time, they are planning to open at the end of November. So far, from the previews I’ve seen, the site looks very clean and elegant.
Being that I am a huge fan of the Japanese Lolita style, applying for LolliShops was a given. Beneath this crayon-drawn exterior is a girl with a serious sweet tooth! ^_^ We hope you’ll visit us there!
