mslegacy

Very pretty Michele! Love the merlot mica!

I second camelot hosting. We have been working directly with Tony for several months and he is wonderful to work with. We have 2 sites we host there, and have never had any issues.

Hi sweetie! Glad you found your way over here! This board is a wealth of info, and there are wonderful people to respond with help if you have questions.

Dharma Trading Co. carries it. That is where I purchase it for dyeing. HTH http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/2174-AA.shtml?lnav=chemicals.html

And to think you didnt even factor in the cost of the supplies...that would mean you would have to sell even more than that....I havent started selling my soaps yet, still playing and testing, but plan on in the future to supplement my income. I already have my own business, and candles and soaps are my fun time now. I dont own a living room anymore. With cutting tables and sewing tables and ironing boards and office supplies, my desk file cabinets etc.... And I have a seperate room to dye my fabric in.... Be prepared for storage! And yes, my kitchen has been taken over by turk n surfs, FO's, candle and soap molds, dyes, containers etc.... Eventually I would like to own my own shop, where I can do production of everything I like....then I would get my house back....but when you have friends and family visit, most understand! Good luck in whatever you decide to do!

I ship fabric to Aussie all the time, and averages about 3-4 weeks ship time by flat rate. I also use padded envelopes, and have never had any issues. HTH.

Very nice site! Congrats!

Starting to look nice with the mals ecommerce cart! Keep working at it, and you will get the site you want to achieve!

Wow, they look amazing! Love the Cantalope lily one!

I agree with everyone about the enter page, but overall, I think it is starting to take shape! I also agree about the picture. I would also suggest getting them closer together, and use better lighting. Or, take individual pics, like what you did with the warmers. I have just recently added melts to my site, and to give you an idea of what I did, http://www.stabandstash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_16&products_id=260 . You may also want to consider a scent description page. Usually the general public wants to smell before they buy, so if they see what the scent description is, they are more likely to buy than with no idea at all. Good luck!

It looks good. My only pet peeve, is your logo that you have in the center of the page, I think you should move to the top. I see it is on the top of the secondary pages, when you click on photos to look at the products, but not on the home page, where it should be the most important. I also dont care for the box of google ads, only because it would make me interested in going to a different store instead of browsing thru yours. Your images are clean, (love cigar box purses!), but I also do not care to have products listed above my logo. The other thing I question is the Manufacturers drop down. Are you planning on providing other items in your store that you did not create? If you are, that is an awesome feature, but if not, I would remove it. I didnt click on all your pages, but you may also want to add to your descriptions the approximate shipping time. What I mean by that, is because it is hand crafted at the time of purchase (like the cigar box purses), you may want to put in there something like "there will be an approximate 2 week shipping time for custom orders" or something like that. Over all, I think it looks nice. Good luck in your ventures!

I agree with Sherl, our site started with the shopping cart, and we changed colors, images, etc...to make it our own look. We use zencart, and my hubby does alot of website design using zencart. There are free templates available that you can use, we just didnt want a basic zencart site. Best part about it is it is free, and there is a wonderful bb avail for support or questions.

You also may want to consider that registering helps your back end with reports, shipping labels, packaging slips etc. All the info is there, and doesnt have to be re-entered all the time. Usually the only time people complain about registering, is there payment records. It is illegal to hold credit card info etc...and most consumers are not aware of this. Zencart does not hold credit card numbers or other payment terms. Credit cards have to be entered everytime they purchase, but they dont have to enter in their addys etc...over and over. And if you have a good privacy policy in effect, most consumers are ok with it. So the registering is good for the consumer by being able to see what is ordered etc..as you stated, but it is also benificial to you. The report side of zencart is awesome, and can track all orders placed, shipping addys, and products purchased among other reports avail. Plus you can keep track store wise as to low products, what are the best sellers, what is the most viewed etc. Just my 2 cents. Yes, zencart is based off of Os Commerce. Most of the Os Commerce developers are the ones who created zencart, to find an easier way to handle shopping carts. Most of the Os Commerce modules are already included into zencart. And if you need a specific module you are looking for, most of the development team will create and code one for you, at expense of course, but it can be done.

I second zencart. And if you have any issues building it, there is a wonderful forum that helps. Feel free to email or pm me if you have any questions.

Good choice of colors! Very clean, and easy to navigate. Images are well done!

Very nice! We also use zencart and find it easy to manage. Easy to load, I didnt look at all of the images, I am not one to page thru pages of images. Ever thought about thumbnails across the page (3 or 4) and down? Love the color bars, and your logo is beautiful. Good job!

No plans to sell this, as I am no where near done testing recipes or anything yet. This was just an experiment, and is for personal use only. I like to just try things. Amazing things happen when you experiment! And I have no idea what this is going to turn out like either. We shall see! I understand the importance of allergies, my very close uncle has severe allergies to milk and eggs. You should see what he has to eat! I used a cardboard box for the mold, so it would be disposable, and the peanut butter side went into regular glass bowls instead of my usual soap making items. Always good to be cautious!

I have been using 20% palm with no issues. I have a lemon that has been curing for a week now and it is amazing! I used 1 oz pp, and I think I could have used much less. It may just depend on the fragrance. I am no expert, but I haven't had any problems with scent loss.

Ok, after doing up six batches of soap, I ventured into the peanut butter soap! I made a 3 pound soap, split it in half, scented 1 with Strawberry Jam from BCN (smells really good!) and colored this with paprika, only because I dont have a red color yet. the other 1 I added 3TBSP of real peanut butter, no color, no fragrance. You can smell the peanut butter very well! When I put the peanut butter in, and stick blended, it went from no trace to custard trace in like 2 min. Very fast. But, then I went to the strawberry, scented and colored, took about 10 minutes to get to med trace. I was afraid the Peanut butter was going to seize or rice, but it didnt. cooperated very well. Poured each in layers, swirled. Now it is resting. I also added 3tsp of salt to the lye water, as I have heard the peanut butter makes the soap soft. So we will see. Will post pics tomorrow!

When I first started making candles, I got a few off ebay from dale8078kids . He is awesome to work with, and I have had many requests for certain scents I had purchased thru him. Throws well in soy!

Well, now I have to debate if I am going to order more. Sales are always good, just dont think I need extra....dilemas.... I will be mad with you...hehee:highfive:

Of course they would be having a sale after I placed a large order a few days ago....:undecided

Well, my living room is filled with my business stuff, but I do have all my testing candles throughout the room. I dont have a kitchen anymore....hehehe My countertops are filled with candle and soap stuff. Havent started the soaps yet, but in one corner I have my turk n surf, and around it all my oils (for soap), scales, dyes, pouring pots, and all the other little things like stirring sticks etc... in the other corner I have all my baby bottles (new baby), and I have a scale over there as well. In my hutch in my kitchen are all my lip balm stuff, steric, wicks, frangrances, aroma beads, jars, and tins as well as my wick centering stuff, etc... My other counter has my glue pot, and candle stuff. On the floor are my boxes of tins and jars. My boxes of wax are in my workshop downstairs, and I have a box also in our covered porch area, as well as several cases of jelly jars..... hmm.... I dont live in my house apparently......

SKS here too!

Just to let you know I tried to open your site using firefox (browser) and it wont open properly because of script errors. thought you should know. Not everyone used IE as their browser.