New Lifetime Coupon Code-No Minimum

This will show the new coupon code when you order!

Every order you make, you're reminded of our coupon code for our preferred customers like you! In the past, it required a $25 minimum purchase to use the 10% off. Good news, we've removed the minimum so you can use it ANYTIME on ANY size order! Use on our website or Etsy. See your order for the latest secret coupon code!

-Michelle :)

Open and Moving SALE

MOVING SALE on Etsy!

The NEWSLETTER just went out for September, here's what I said:

I love the crisp sunny days that accompany the entrance into autumn. We've been busy revamping our flavors for the 2015/2016 season. We plan on being open Labor Day to Valentine's Day in the future.

We're happy to announce that sometime in October we'll be phasing in our new labels. Professionally printed, they won't peel off! And we are excited to be moving soon and want to offer a MOVING SALE!

We'll be offering our Moving Sale on our Etsy site ONLY so we can best control inventory. I'll be adding more sale flavors into Sunday evening, there's lots to choose from! Sorry, no bulk/group discounts on sale items. The 3-for-$10 deal will return when the sale is over. LemonLollipop.com will be closed until the sale is over.

Please visit us today at LemonLollipop.com and share our mailing list!

-Michelle :)

CLOSED for the Summer Season

Closed for the summer! We'll see you in September!

NOW OPEN SEPTEMBER THROUGH VALENTINE'S DAY
Executive decision made. We're going to be open September through Valentine's Day. See you soon!

I've put the Etsy shop on vacation, so no products show, nothing can be added to cart. The website will still show our products, but nothing can be added to the cart.

NEWSLETTER WITH COUPONS FOR SEPTEMBER
A newsletter will go out in September with some special deals like previous newsletters. Be sure to SIGN UP (I plan to send coupons once a month).

I'M STILL HERE
I'm still answering emails and Etsy convos, so feel free to contact me. I wanted to give our wonderful customers more notice about this, but the truth is we're living out of boxes and trying to close on a house. I won't be able to make anything for awhile and want to be sure to have inventory to fill orders. It is becoming increasingly difficult to fill orders with life so up in the air.

Thank you so much for allowing us to serve you! Please come back soon!

-Michelle

Limbo Land, Newsletter and Open for a Season

The house we're waiting to move into...someday soon!

It's yellow. The house. We first saw inside this house in early January. We want to buy this house. The happy news is that we are buying this house. The unhappy news is that we no longer have a closing date. Curious? We were supposed to close May 22nd, but escrow had to cancel and reschedule our closing date because a particular important piece of paper wasn't filed correctly. We are now in limbo land waiting for a new closing date. Can't tell you how fun that is(!) It turns out that I'm really grateful for this "land of limbo" because it has provided me with some time to re-evaluate my personal life and business routines (among other things-like packing!).

NEWSLETTER
I was getting bogged down with a monthly newsletter, mostly, because I just don't think it's necessary to advertise that much. You all know where to find our lip balm when you want and need it, it's right there on the label. I suppose I've adopted general marketing advice about generally sending a newsletter to my mailing list generally once a month. But I think I'm going to change things up a bit...in general.

SEPTEMBER THROUGH FEBRUARY
For various reasons, we've been discussing the possibility of NOT staying open year round. I like the idea of opening in September and closing after Valentine's Day (we would of course, still be available for wholesale orders to keep our few vendors supplied as needed throughout the entire year!). The day after Valentine's Day (February 15th) through the end of the February, we'd run a blowout sale for any tubes remaining after the selling season.

We would make our batches in August and try to sell out of every flavor by February. It would be a good fit with our family life as we tend to be more active in the summer and it also allows us to not have to ship our slurpilicious lip balms during the hottest summer months. Just thinking about that idea.

A special thanks to our friend, John Howshall, who graciously gifted us with an illustration of our new home when I asked him to do it for my new house blog. I love his style!

Evaluate, Reformulate, Rename and Discontinue 2015

Time to reformulate, rename and discontinue some flavors.

Everyone needs a new lease on life now and then, Lemon Lollipop included! I've been wanting to reformulate, rename and discontinue some lip balms and summer is the perfect time to do it. I recently took an online course about improving my personal routine and discovered for myself the lost art (to me!) of goal setting. Under the family business category, I listed three things:
1-evaluate the lip balm flavors
2-solve the label problem
3-get ready for the holiday season by Sept 15th

I'm happy to say, with a little encouragement from my husband, we've pushed through with some decision-making about goals 1 & 2. Hooray! I'd like to tell you all about it.

REFORMULATE
We have a few flavors, though good sellers, that are too weak in my opinion and I always cringe when they get ordered. So there are three flavors going under the reformulation knife in hopes we can find a supplier with stronger flavor oils soon:
-Chocolate Mint
-Morning Coffee
-Rich Chocolate

RENAME
This is almost comical, but for a range of completely crazy reasons, we are planning on renaming two lip balms. Both these flavor names have been hotly debated over the kitchen table by all team members for quite some time. But after nearly a year in the line-up, we are seeing things more clearly and thus, the name change (back).
-Sugared Lemondrop will be named Lemon Lollipop as it should be
-Grape Lollipop will return to the title Grape Soda

A note about the lip balm flavor Lemon Lollipop...we also have a perfume called Lemon Lollipop, which is why we've gone back and forth about the name of the lip balm (which doesn't exactly match the fragrance). I thought we would launch (relaunch) the fragrance Lemon Lollipop in the spring, but we didn't do it. I don't know if it will be done in the next year, either. So I'm okay with the lip balm brandishing the name it rightly deserves...until I change my mind again!

DISCONTINUE
Some flavors I don't find worth reformulating for various reasons and these will be discontinued soon. I will post sale prices soon. The sale prices will only be good on Etsy as I can better control the inventory there and won't oversell these flavors. These flavors will be removed from the website soon. Some of them MAY return at a later date, for example, the Chocolate flavors, depending on if our new Chocolate flavor oil is strong enough.
-Chocolate Caramel
-Chocolate Coffee
-Chocolate Lavender
-Chocolate Mint
-Hot Vanilla Chai
-Lavender Rose
-Root Beer Float
-Moonberry
-Morning Coffee
-Rich Chocolate

EVALUATE
Another issue we've had is the labels peeling off the tubes. I did not have this problem in 2009, but we have it now for some reason. After trying to unsuccessfully find a resolution ourselves, we've decided to pursue having someone else print our labels. We're waiting for samples and look forward to introducing our new labels as we replenish batches. We hope customer experience will improve with this change!

YouTube Channel Found

My old YouTube channel!

This is an absolute scream!!!

Here's how it started...I wanted to add the LinkWithin.com widget because I like how it prompts my readers to click on other blog posts. But when I added it, it populated the blog with all my archived posts going back to 2009!

I decided to delete all those old posts (and remove all the images from PicasaWeb.com), but I did read the original first post. It contained a video from 2008! This took me to YouTube, where I found my old channel. Crazy! This was PRE-Google YouTube, so it asked me if I wanted to claim my old channel (which has a custom URL from the old days-yay!). Sure, why not!?

Three videos reside on this YouTube channel...and I'm going to keep them because they are like "vintage" Lemon Lollipop from so long ago!

I always feel weird about stuff I did years ago because I personally have gone through an internal and spiritual transformation over the past couple years. There really is the "old me" and the "new me" now. I have regrets about some things I did online before the "new me", I'm not doing those things anymore.

I wanted to embed the video, but I pasted over the code-duh! I'll have to figure that out later. Here's the link to my very first video...kinda makes me excited for making some more!

https://youtu.be/sWJWJNW8sM0

What would you like to see on the Lemon Lollipop YouTube Channel?

Strawberry Rhubarb Treasury

Thank you to the Curator:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PaperDahlsLLC

Treasury Link:
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/NzAyODd8MjcyNzU3MzQzMg/strawberry-rhubarb

Tuesday Finds Treasury

Thank you to the Curator:
https://www.etsy.com/people/GabriellesCreations

Treasury Link:
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/Njk5NjY0N3wyNzI3NDEzODM4/tuesday-finds

Inspiration Fascination Treasury

Thank you to the Curator:
https://www.etsy.com/people/Renray71

Treasury Link:
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/Nzg3MTQ4NHwyNzI3NDEyNDM4/inspiration-facination

Be Kind to Your Tootsies Treasury

Thank you to the Curator:
https://www.etsy.com/people/BambleVintage

Treasury Link:
https://www.etsy.com/treasury/MzA5NzI4NzF8MjcyNzQxMjAzNg/be-kind-to-your-tootsies

Cute Soaps

I've been experimenting with making Goat's Milk Soap and I LOVE the scallop edge on this mold! Such a sweet size and adorable designs! Maybe more to come?

The Soy Candle Seduction

We used to make scented soy candles-sorry this item is not available.

What IS it with me and soy candles?! I.love.them! They seduce me with their creamy insides and heavenly scents!

I don't care so much about burning them, actually. I go crazy for the making and creating and all the math involved in designing the batches. I GAVE AWAY ALL my candle making supplies when we moved two years ago. It was a good thing, sadly.

But last week, I ordered a case of soy wax. It was innocent enough. My family l.o.v.e.s. my handmade unscented soy tealights. I've been receiving hints for some time now, that a gift box of tealights is in order. When I closed a few years ago, I pretty much agreed with myself that I'd never pour another candle-ever. Well, I just broke that agreement when the 50 pound box arrived the other day!

I poured 500 tealights yesterday for Christmas gifts (shhh, don't tell!) That is just a ridiculously huge endeavor without a candle studio!

Waking up to 500 delicious little tealight morsels all set upon the counter made me happy. It also made me want to MAKE.A.SOY.CANDLE. Oh boy. It didn't take any time at all to figure out a new line of soy candles for Lemon Lollipop...I wouldn't want all the wax to sit around unused, you know.

So now it is out in the open. Candles. Soy candles. On the brain. And maybe coming to a shopping cart near you soon. Maybe.

December 2014 Newsletter

New Flavor for December Only-Gingersnap Cookie

My goal is to actually send out the newsletter on or near the first of the month! We tell you about new or featured products, offer a freebie or deal and always offer a nice coupon code for the month. You WANT to sign up for our deals-CLICK HERE!

Creamy Goat's Milk Soap by Lemon Lollipop

A long time ago, in an Etsy shop far, far away...

I have Star Wars on the brain...did I mention that this week is STAR WARS WEEK at our house? We are watching the Star Wars movies in galaxy chronological order and I'm LOVING it! I feel like I'm finally getting the big picture watching them in order! When 'Star Wars: A New Hope' debuted in 1977, I saw it in the theater...Darth Vader was so scary! But now, knowing that he's the little boy Anakin Skywalker from 'The Phantom Menace', I just look at him differently. I like that I'm watching the same movie but experiencing it in a whole new way!

But, I digress...SOAP is also on my mind. What I started to say is that LONG AGO, we offered Goat's Milk Soap in our Four Seasons Fragrance scents (see photo above)...which got me thinking.

To put it simply, there's essentially two ways to offer soap...we can make our own soap from scratch using the cold-process method or we can use a melt & pour base. Making soap from scratch is a big commitment, we would need some equipment like exclusive pots and pans and molds, etc. Using lye demands special precautions. After making a batch of soap and pouring it into a mold, the soap must be cut and cured for about a month. I've done this in the past and may do it again in the future, but for now, we're going to offer our FAVORITE, rich and creamy, melt & pour soap. This involves melting the base, mixing in the fragrance and pouring into a mold. The soap can be completely hard within about an hour. In the past, we received rave reviews about our Creamy Goat's Milk Soap and I think it would be a great addition to our line.

All that thinking has led to a little buying and we are going to have soap soon! If you've ever used goat's milk soap, you know that it can get mushy if you don't protect it. One must keep it from sitting in water on an adequate soap dish. Just thinking about this soap gets me really excited to make some and take photos and launch it on our site!

What scents should I offer first? I was thinking about Unscented and Lavender and Peach! Leave your comments and requests below!

Free Pumpkin Cheesecake Lip Balm in Out of the Box Sampler November Box

On Tuesday, in an effort to do some advertising, we decided to donate 100 free lip balms to the Out of the Box Sampler. It's great advertising for us and I've worked with Michelle in the past. She does a fantastic job getting out 100+ boxes of handmade samples each month and we have perfect timing to make the October 20th deadline to get into the November box.

This is our first time working with a deadline and making 100 lip balms all at once!

Wednesday: Daniel and I are becoming a good team in pouring the lip balm and we were very efficient! Sarah opened the printable label files, printed and prepared the labels and did all the trimming with very little oversight. 100 labels is a big job!

Thursday: Dan peeled labels, I applied them to the tubes, Sarah put on the shrink bands and she and I operated the heat guns.

Friday: Put together the sample baggies with the Pumpkin Cheesecake lip balm, lemon lollipop, business card and coupon. Put 101 sampler baggies into a flat rate box and took it to the post office! We did it!

Now I'm eager to see how if this coupon attracts any sales or additional newsletter subscribers. I love marketing!

Four Seasons Fragrance Perfume Oils

Back in 2007, I launched an Etsy shop called Four Seasons Fragrance. The other night, I took a look at the Etsy Stats for the shop and was pretty surprised that it was still getting some attention, even without any listings (the shop is on vacation mode) and being away for a few years.

Anyways, I've been ruminating on how we can get more activity on Lemon Lollipop (the website and Etsy shop) so for the past week, I've been considering with my other business partners what we might do. I'd like to extend our reach...right now we are getting found (by very few) on searches for lip balm and colors and flavors. If we added goat's milk soap or more perfume oils, we could extend how we turn up in search. So what could we do that won't tax our daily lives IF things turn out to get busy (busiER would be a great first step to busy).

And that got me thinking about Four Seasons Fragrance (among other things). So I wrote up a few sheets on the costs of getting it up and going...that looks pretty good. Ran the profit numbers, excellent. Thought about materials and how long it would take to get them...looks good. Could we make it ahead of time and then fill orders, yep (the soap would have to be made to order but perfume oil can be made ahead). Are there enough (or too many) products to add to the website and Etsy shop...in fact, with a full size perfume oil along with the sample vials, we're talking about 24 additional products plus some sets and gift ideas. That's a sizable amount to upload to the site and Etsy, but the benefit is that I could list one a day for a month and beef up the online shopping. SOOOO, when we have some "extra cash flow" (uh huh), then we can do it! It was fun to take the kids through this process with me so they could see what things I consider and how I do the math (numbers have a way of exposing the truth).

In the meantime, I can work up product listings and get the labels designed and help the kids see what it means to prepare items again for sale. Oh the agony! (I LOVE DOING THE LABELS-yeehaw!!!) So maybe by the time we want to launch "Four Seasons of Fragrance" (new name!), I'll have some of the support work done! A new photo shoot would be in order, now that's fun to think about! I'd like to stage each scent with props or fresh flowers...hmmmmm. I'm really excited for bringing the kids into more and more, so another launch will be really good for them.

2008 Throwback for No-Ick Heel Stick!

Well, recently I became totally entranced by Etsy Stats! I decided to look at some of my old shops. I can't believe the views they are STILL getting! Wow! So I started to look at some of the incoming links and I found this from when our No-Ick Heel Stick was called "Healing Heel Stick" and sold under the weeLUXURIES brand. Geesh, that was SIX years ago!

Jen Wallace at Indie Fixx did a "Best of Bath & Body" (this is dated October 2008) where handmade artisans sent in their product for judging. I had totally forgotten about it, but our No-Ick Heel Stick was a winner for "Specialty Product". I pieced together the website to highlight our Heel Stick (since was under a few other products and wouldn't probably show up on my screen here). Here's the link. What a fun surprise to stumble across this tonight!

Pretty Bar Soaps Treasury

I curated an Etsy Treasury this evening. Tonight I felt inspired about soap, so here you go!

Etsy Pretty Bar Soaps Treasury

What's new, New, NEW?

Well, truth be told (please!) one of my favorite parts of business is designing new products. It's addictive! I love thinking about new collections of new products, new labels, new color combinations, new SCENTS!

Last night I scribbled a new perfume oil collection on a sheet of paper and then tossed it. My husband had a great idea to store the ideas in a three ring binder so we can keep creating without starting over each time. My idea factory is working, but we're really not ready to launch something new just yet.

In the past, I've wanted to wave a magic wand and have it all appear now, but I'm learning that it's good to take the necessary steps and go slow enough to get all the labels completed and products made ahead of time! This can be a process!

I'm really excited about launching our signature scent, Lemon Lollipop, I haven't had any for myself in a long time! I'm also working on bringing back some of my beloved "Scents of Spring" from Seattle Scents to create a new line of perfume oils for Lemon Lollipop. Lilac, Lily of the Valley, Violet, Magnolia, and Peony top the list! YUM!  Stay tuned!

October 2014 Newsletter

This newsletter is intended to go out only once a month but it's already October! We offered you awesome subscribers a great deal for October! You WANT to sign up for our deals-CLICK HERE!