As I posted last week….
I’m now working for 3 companies (one of them my own!)…..
This week went by extremely fast and I’m glad it’s the weekend…
not that it really matters…..I’m working over the weekend too.

Tuesday kicked my butt.
I was totaly exhausted.

Today, even though I didn’t sleep that well last night (dogs kept wanting to go outside to get the ‘possum that was out there and yes I did see it!) last night I feel ok this morning….

After puppy class tomorrow I’m taking a little time out for myself and getting my hair done…

Then I have approx. 250 soap boxes that still need to be scored, assembled, glued and filled with soap bars.

IF (and that’s a BIG IF) I can get the soap boxes done over the weekend that will leave me next week to work on two different gift boxes for the 3-day show coming up next weekend.

I’m having hubs set up a coffee/caffeine iv drip at this very moment.

If you have any leftover energy please send it my way.
I’m going to need it.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.com

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Those of you who know me know that I’ve been involved with a construction company for the last 25 years. In addition to that I have had Country Meadow Ltd for the last 11 years.

Starting this week, in addition to the above, I am now involved with a medical supply company.

1+1+1=3

I am now involved with three businesses which basically means I will be working 7 days a week…..and then some!

So…
I’m going to have to let go of a few things and get my time management down pat.

In the past I’ve been able to blog just about every day. I tried to stick with themes (Monday=Cool Products), (Wednesday=Recipes) to keep things interesting.

However, with the above schedule I just don’t think I’m going to be able to blog every day. I have September’s blogging all done…everything is sitting in ‘draft’ mode so all I have to do is log in and click ‘update’.

October – December’s blogging will be down to a minimum although I will post a few times a week. Depending on what’s going on I can’t guarantee that I will stick to aforementioned blog themes but I will try to keep it interesting!

We have oodles of fall and holiday soaps curing and have several shows this holiday season.

I can honestly say it will be all I can do to keep my head above water but I’ve been known to be a good swimmer and if I keep my Keurig handy I will make it through with flying colors!

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Tomorrow is the 9th anniversary of 9-11.

Tonight, as I have done every year since then,  will be watching the specials on tv highlighting September 11, 2001.

I still feel its the least I can do to honor and remember those directly affected.

May peace be with you.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

**Tomorrow is my birthday.
I am once again another year older.
My brain says I’m 30.
My body says I’m 55-ish.
My mouth says I’m 40!
Works for me!

**Pit Bulls on Parade
Hubs, Brodie and I went to Pit Bulls on Parade in Kent last Saturday.
Not a whole lot going on when we were there….
A little bit of agility demonstration and weight pulling.
Hubs and I were not impressed with the weight pulling.
It just doesn’t seem right to have this type of dog pulling a sled loaded with weight. Not a good fit. We are sticking with agility!

It WAS  cool to see all of the different bullies. All kinds of body types and colors. When we were there we didn’t see any with Brodie’s coloring (he even got his picture taken!).

There were many bullies there and they ALL were very well behaved! There was not a snarl or growl to be heard at the entire ranch!

**Mutt Strut – Everett
The Everett Mutt Strut is Saturday. I would like to go but it will all depend on the weather. It is supposed to rain so we will have to wait and see.

I have been very busy getting our fall soaps made and will soon be working on the holiday/Christmas ones. I have revamped the Fall Harvest labels but STILL have not had time to get new pics up on the website. I’m taking time off over the Labor Day weekend and that is top on my list of things to get done!!

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

**Last Friday and Saturday we were vendors at the Marysville Homegrown Festival.

Temperatures were in the mid-90′s and business was booming!

Top Sellers were our Sandalwood Vanilla soap and various gift boxes (not on our website yet!). Each gift box is made from recycled content and holds 3 bars of soap, a sample soap and a thank you-discount coupon. I hope to have these up on the website soon!

I was very impressed with Homegrown.

After everyone was emailed their instructions and booth numbers MORE people signed up to be vendors. Instead of limiting the amount of vendors the Homegrown staff simply extended the event further down the street!

Homegrown is promoted as being a strictly handcrafted event – meaning ALL things being sold MUST be handcrafted. This is the ONLY festival that I know of that keeps to this strict standard! There are no Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, Imported Bean Bag Animals, or any other commercial products or businesses!

I had a great time, sold a lot and even made it to a few other booths and made a few purchases. I fully plan on being a vendor next year!

**I have had this on my calendar for several weeks and am excited to go.

Saturday is the Bullseye Dog Rescue Pit Bulls On Parade at the Reber Ranch in Kent.

They are offering (free for any ‘pit bulls’) CGC (Canine Good Citizenship) testing and Bullseye gets $150.00 for every ‘pit’ that passes. Even though Brodie is only 6 months old I am considering letting him take the test.

From Bullseye:

The event will feature demonstrations on:
WEIGHT PULL
AGILITY
FLYBALL
FUN CONFORMATION COMPETITION
RALLY OBEDIENCE
Prizes for each category in the conformation competition and Best in Show!
And a chance for you and your dog to even try some of these sports yourself!

All shelters and rescue organizations are welcomed with their adoptable pit bulls and pit bull mixes.

So come check them out.
You never know….
You may come home with a new friend!

K.I.S.S.I.N.G.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Country Meadow will be closed from Thursday, August 12, 2010 through Sunday, August 15, 2010.

We will be vending at the Marysville Homegrown Festival!

Located at:
Third Street from State Street East

Hours:
Friday, August 13 – 10:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, August 14 – 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Come by and say Hello!

Oh Yea….
It’s supposed to be in the 90′s all weekend….
Someone Bring Me Ice Cream!!!

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

The Week In Review:

**Hersheys Dark Chocolate Syrup is way better than the normal chocolate

**Even though hubs said we have enough firewood left over from last year we are now on the quest for more (just love our log splitter!!). I think we are lined up to get some over the weekend. I am hoping for an actual winter this year…with snow!

**Signed Brodie up for yet another obedience class. We’ve been through Puppy Preschool, Puppy Fundamentals and now we are on to Basic Behavior & Obedience!

**We went to the local Harley shop last weekend as hubs wanted to look at accessories for his bike. I was unexpectedly hit sideways and fell in love with the new 2011 Cross Bones bike. So much so that I even had to sit on it.

Now I have a bike (anniversary edition 2003 Dyna Low Rider) and it fits like a glove and is totaly paid for. However, I am still drooling over the Cross Bones. At this very moment in time I will be happy with my Dyna….

However…

I reserve the right, next spring, to possibly trade it in for the Cross Bones!

**I have been working very hard updating our blog with advanced posts. I have the entire month of August already blogged and sitting in ‘draft’ mode. So now all I have to do is click on Publish each morning!

**Over the years I have realized that a person needs to stick to what they do best. For me it’s formulating/manufacturing body products. I’m not very good at creating websites or marketing material so I have outsourced those. I am in ‘talks’ with a graphic designer and she is in the process of creating a marketing brochure that will match our company theme. Now I have to get in gear and retake a few collection photos!

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Misc. Tidbits:

*Tomorrow is the last day of Brodie’s puppy class. He doesn’t start again until September. Nice break for us! I am still amazed at how quickly he learns stuff.

*Hot Hot Hot
Going to be at least mid-80′s over the next several days. I hope to have time over the weekend to take Brodie to a local lake. He loves the water and I’m curious to see what he does.

*A couple of weeks ago our 11 year old huge projection tv went kaput. Seems to me something like that should last a bit longer but what do I know! Hubs bought a bigger led/lcd (whatever!) hgtv flat screen….

And I LOVE it!!!!

Since it is a flat screen and I didn’t want to mount it on the wall we had to order a tv stand. I didn’t like any locally so we ordered from Hayneedle. We got the Hampton White Oak one. At this very moment it is still in the box. Hubs will assemble it this weekend! The tv has been on our coffee table for the last two weeks and it will be nice to have that back!

*Remodel
Ugh!
We have lived in this house for over 20-something years and the only thing we have ever done was paint and install carpet. The carpet was ripped up over a month ago (it was old and yucky) and I am sick of the pink and blue country-type theme our house presents.

So we decided to start re-doing the inside of our house. I have been taking pictures so I have before and after comparisons as well as a video here and there.

This will be a time consuming and long process as we both (hubs and I) don’t have a lot of spare time (we are doing this ourselves). Because we have suspected there were ‘issues’ with the smaller bathroom (since day one) hubs decided he best start there.

Good Thing.

Long story short:
Since before we moved in there was water leakage I assume from the bathtub/shower. Hubs said it looked like it was fixed once or twice but never properly. Needless to say there is a lot of rot…so much so that the entire outside wall is….gone (hubs had to remove everything-even the outside siding of the house). We have a sheet of plywood up so we can still use the bathroom without baring ourselves to our neighbors!

Half the floor has been removed so hubs can get under there and repair some of the pipe. Nothing specifically wrong with the pipe but he wants to fix it with plastic NOW while everything is open.

To fix the above mentioned pipe he will need to remove the toilet and sink.

*Panic*

We have recently gone from a two person household to a 5 person household during the week and a 7 person household during the weekends!

I have already warned everyone that we will be down to one bathroom at least for this weekend. I am keeping my fingers crossed that hubs can do the repairs quickly so at least we can get the new toilet back up and working.

Worse case scenario…
There is a park across the street that has bathrooms.
**snicker**

That’s it for now.
I have been busy keeping up with the spring/summer soap making, revamping our Fall Harvest labels, experimenting with a few new scents, getting ready to start making our fall soaps, putting together free samples for Confessions Hair Studio to hand out with every hair cut (our soaps are available at the salon).

I still as of this very moment have NOT had time to weed the flower beds. Total neglect. Looks like crap. But what do you do??
I figure if I wait long enough maybe I will just have to do it once before fall sets in.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

I finally have had time to update the website with our newest soap!

In our Spirits Collection we have our current Cola Float (everyone who smells this LOVES it!)

Now added:
Gin Martini

Shaken or Stirred???

This unique fragrance begins with aldehydic bubbly top notes of club soda with warm citrus enhancements followed by middle notes of fresh rosemary, balsam fir needles, and crushed ginger, all embraced by bottom notes of crisp cedar.

In the testing phase: Southern Comfort!

Gin Martini Soap

We are in the process of developing a soap line promoting the use of industrial hemp. The current ‘hemp’ soaps available now do not contain hemp oil as we are simply testing out the fragrances first. Once we nail down the fragrance line we will modify the formula to include hemp oil.

Each hemp soap is handstamped with the hemp image and decorated with hemp cord and charm.

Currently available:
Hemp Flower

Shimmering green fern and cannabis notes reveal a rich floral mix of violet and gardenia in this whimsical scent. A warm blend of cashmere wood surrounds the floral notes while sensual undertones of musk and golden amber soften the scent.

Two more hemp soaps will be added to this line.

Hemp Flower Soap

And last but not least…

Pear

Why Pear? All I can say is sometimes things get out of hand.
Seriously.
I had no intention of adding a scent collection consisting of one type of scent…let alone a fruit one!

We started out with Melissa Pear and it has been such a good hit I decided to find two other similar pear-type fragrances.

What can I say?

Now available:

Melissa Pear

A sweet fresh blend of fruity pear and a note of melissa enhanced with a splash of verbena.

A sassy strong scent with a touch of sweetness!

Two more pear-type soaps will be added to this collection!

Melissa Pear Soap

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

Come and join us at the Sultan Shindig!

We have a booth space reserved and will be available during these hours:

July 9, 10 & 11, 2010
Sultan Shindig

Friday, July 9 – 4 pm til dusk
Saturday, July 10 – 9 am til dusk
(fireworks at 10 pm)
Sunday, July 11 – 9 am to 4 pm

Stop by and say hello!

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com