Ramaroa

It's truly amazing we all speak the same language, yet call the same items different things. Here's a rather long link to what the lady needs to convert the voltage and where she can buy one in Aussie: http://dseau.resultspage.com/search.php?p=UK&srid=S2%2d2&lbc=dseau&ts=p2&pw=power%20converters&pu=1499&uid=789193954&&sessionid=46a466aa047914962742c0a87f9c0736&isort=score&w=240v%20110v%20transformer&rk=1 She will be sure know Dick Smith Electronics anyway, but I'm sure once she realises the cheapest one is 60 bucks, she'll not bother unless she's desperate.

Di-in-AZ is exactly right, there are basicly two standards for voltage and frequency in the world, one being the North American standard of 110-120 volts at 60 Hz and the other being the European standard of 220-240 volts at 50 Hz. Australia and new Zealand are on the European standard, so any electrical appliances from USA will require a transformer to convert the voltage and frequency, as well as a new plug. The voltage of the appliance, cable, or where it is made are irrelevant; it is to do with the power supply at the wall socket. I imagine the cost of the transformer will outweigh the cost of the warmer.

Thank you, those are 1.67 inch size.

After much messing around I gave up having wasted, so much time, ink, labels and purchased the label printing software from http://www.worldlabel.com/Pages/software.htm They have templates for the exact sizes and they printed like a dream, all perfectly lovely and spot on within seconds and no messing about. Don't believe the rubbish about 15 day free trial though - what a crock, as anything you print will have a watermark across it, but well worth a try to see how your labels line up and more to the point print. So at least you can try before you buy and see if it works for you. I'm very happy with the results and $25 well spent, in my opinion.

I'm revisiting Votives with wick pins after not having had much success with them in the past, I abandoned any further attempts at making them after I washed the last lot of molds and made them rusty. :rolleyes2 Got myself a shiny new lot of molds, some new wax to try and a big heap of renewed enthusiasm. I did one batch Friday night which don't look too bad, but todays efforts at Orange and Ginger look like they are destined to go back in the pot.

I had a peek at your site and you do have some lovely photos, Jennifer. I especially like the soaps; gorgeous handmade soaps are just so photogenic.

Products are indeed gorgeous and yes I would get more of them on your front page. It is very hard to see the wood for the trees when you are frantically trying to get stuff loaded, but you really should take some quiet time to have a really good read and iron out the typos. I didn't have time to read much, but picked quite a few things out: In your soap ingredients page: Rice Bran oil is highis antioxidant Shea Butter: Is extremely therapeutic, helping to heal cracked, aged and damaged skin as well as help to protect the skin against the damaging effects of the sun while repairing cellular degeneration. I would re-work this rather long sentence and either break it up or add some punctuation. I'd also change help to helping and while to whilst. Sweet Almond Oil: A great emollient for softening and conditioning the skin. It is well suited for eczema, psoriasis, and itchy, dry and irritated skin You need to lose one of the ands - perhaps change the second and to or. Also you dont need the comma after psoriasis. I think I'll stop now, but this one needs some work too: After this 24 hours the process is completed there is no lye left in the soap. Okay, sorry one more: Olive Oil Glycerin Soap ingredients: Made with 20% kosher grade A extra virgin olive oil. Olive oil is known for it's moisturizing properties and produces a great lather. Due to the high amount of of olive oil, a light attractive pale yellow color may be noticeable which will darken slightly in time. Ingredients: Olive Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan Oleate (emulsifier), Soybean Protein and (conditioner). Keep at it, you will get there!

I think it's a pretty futile task for small businesses to try to get worthwhile page rankings, people have to wade through so many pages of sites before they find you and it's well known that very few people read past the first or second page of a search. There are just too many people with similar sites, with the same search criteria etc making it's almost impossible to get ahead of the crowd without spending $$s on sponsored links or pay per click advertising. My advice would be to work hard at getting your name on the free listings and try to keep it more local. If you and get onto local sites that list shopping, gifts, weddings or whatever market you are aiming for, these can generate a lot of hits, rather than trying to attract the attention of the whole WWW. You could also try doing some link swaps with other sites, usually for free, as long as you reciprocate with a link back to them.

It matters because I am anal and like having things in neat tidy boxes, with no mess on the floor. :tiptoe: Sadly there aren't any fairies that come to my house at night to clean up my mess.

I keep 50lb box in the garage and 'decant' (nice word) it into a big plastic rub (with a lid) which holds about 10lbs, because it's easier for me to carry it back and forth to the kitchen. Also I always make a big mess when getting wax straight rom the box, with more flakes on the floor than anywhwere else. I guess that's not an issue if you are using slabs.

Definitely giving me girly 'sparkly' vibes, of something, precious, glamorous or chic. Just some words thats come to mind: Kathy - Krystal The Crystal Chandler (Chandalier) Crystal Lane Facets Bohemian Crystaltips Crystalwicks

They all look so delicious and I love the girly pink colour you chose for the site. Congratulations and all the best with your new venture. :highfive:

Nice one, hope it all goes very well for you!

I do it just to indulge myself more than anything, so that I can make something new. I sell a core range of just 12 fragrances, but then do a special each month, usually with a seasonal slant. Since I live in an up-side down part of the world, we're in mid-winter at present. As odd as it might seem, people here (myself included), like to have a mid-winter Christmas. When it is really Christmas in December it is warm and sunny and we have BBQs and go to the beach, so my special at the moment is a 'Fireside' Fragranced Jar Candle. We had 'Christmas' dinner last night with some friends; presents, Christmas Crackers and everything, and today I have a pot of mulled wine on the go.

Also those 'perforated' Business Cards aren't like you imagine. The edges aren't bumpy at all, they are very clean cut and once you take them apart you honestly would not notice that they had previously been joined together.

Kia kaha, Natty! Kia kaha - Maori for 'stand strong'. I feel your pain. It's only human to want to please everybody, but you know yourself that you can't please all of the people all of the time. You have to take a step back for a minute, your business is not 'you'. You run it, it doesn't run you. Now you've taken that step back, think of your business in the third person, it has a life of its own, it has it's own money (or lack of) and has to be responsible for every action it takes as 'a person' in it's own right. Now this 'business/ person' is your friend and you can't spend any money that this person doesn't have. Okay! Everytime you spend that money, think about whether the business can afford it and will you make money from it - if it can't then you do not do it. This person has to get into the habit that it does nothing for free, maybe it's not in your nature, but this person is a really mean and ruthless mother who does absolutely nothing without considering the possibility that it can make money from any single action. Everytime you make a financial decision it has to be in your favour and has to be profitable, you can't possibly carry on pouring money away like that. If you are not able to sell your candles to cover the costs than you really don't stand a chance. It's fine to invest in stock that you will sell at a later date, but to go out of your way and buy things you know you will not use or sell in the future is a recipe for disaster. Stop being so bloomin nice and if you can't do something and turn a profit from it, apologise nicely and walk away :tiptoe: , it really doesn't hurt and you can focus on the things you can do and do them well. You know you're halfway there already in recognising the problem, you already know you have to change somethings, so acceptance will be the next phase and I'm sure you will continue to grow and prosper.

I know it's not easy Chauntelle, but is there any way you could carry on working until you have something built enough to warrant giving up the day job and make it a longer term process? At least if you can start to get things underway whilst you still have regular income, doing whatever preparation you can to set yourself up ready for when orders start coming in. Perhaps you could aim for a target a launch date a few months down the line, because the first few months you will be spending money like water and your candle work won't start to come in overnight. You can take your hobby through to a business, if you can do a few business orientated tasks each day and work upto it slowly and steadily, it can be quite painless. You will be restricted by how much business 'work' you can do depending on the available funds and orders won't come flying in the door in immediately, so really it is just a transitional process and you may as well carry on working if you can. Unless you have loads of spare cash to give you a kickstart, you will be reliant on a few dribs and drabs of sales in the early days. My one piece of advice is to really work out, what products you are going to sell and how much this will cost you and stick to your plan and budget. Only spend hard cash on the things you need for 'your' business - it is so easy to get sidetracked by new ideas and spend lots of money on the nice to have things.

That's very true, I'm also a big 'changer' of things and always think I can make things better, but sometimes you really do have to stand still and say 'enough already'. Your name is 'out there' as it is and changing your name means you are starting out all over, trying to get customers to know who you are from scratch. So, yes to small enhancements and tinkering, but say no to making any major changes that may affect your current standing. You can change things gradually, new 'improved' labelling, colours whatever, but you can't change the whole look and feel of your business in one go, or you will lose all the hard work you have put into your current identity.

Congratulations! Keep on dancin'.

It's a battle, but I try! I'm always trying to make time, if anyone has the recipe for that I'd pay good money for it. I don't know that I ever actually save any time but I try to have things available to 'grab and go' for those days when you just have too much to do. If I have to do one of something I'd rather do several at the same time, so for example if I have to make up a packing box I do several, so next time I want one, there's one ready for me. I also stick my return address label on the box, so it's one less thing to think of. I also do things like stick wicks in jars in advance, so here's one I prepared earlier. I have my labels already printed and kept in a folder in alphabetical order, so I can easily find the one I want, address label, fragrance labels, warning labels. Packing is my biggest bug bear, and time waster, the place where it's so easy for all your hard work to turn to chaos and for things to go wrong. So I make a big effort to make sure that everything there is where it should be, scissors, pens, labels, bags, tape etc. My greatest investment was a proper packing tape dispenser. Woohoo, it saves me heaps of time looking for the end of the tape - give me that gun baby and I'll stick anything.

If you UK ladies are searching for 'Candy' Thermometers, you're possibly searching for the wrong thing. You need to look for a sugar, or confectionery thermometer, or try anywhere that has Jam Making equipment. I would think Lakeland Plastics must have them. A quick search came up with these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastrad-Meat-Maestro-Digital-Thermometer/dp/B00008S0UI] http://thecookskitchen.com/browse_10577 http://www.cakecraftshop.co.uk/shop/2/360/index.htm There's plenty more if you hunt around.

I love it when my parcels arrive from US. Boxes are ripped open and have to have a good sit down to sniff all the bottles, even if I have had the same ones loads of times before. :tiptoe: It is a good idea to get sample or 4oz sizes to try before committing to 16oz sizes. That way for same postage as two x 16 ozs you can try 8 fragrances. It may save you money in the long run from buying big sizes of fragrances that you just hate and will never use.

Nice job and they suit your beautiful jars perfectly.