Did you miss....

I had the anniversary giveaway listed for over a week and kept it on the top of the page...you may have missed a few little posts:

The New Freeport Community Market, word is getting out!

Working on some new labels, happy to work with Print Your Party.

Bessie's Farm Goods, over on the other side of town, is open!

Yarmouth Clam Fest 100,00 Visitors!?

Okay, so I have been getting ready for the Yarmouth Clam Festival, which is a massive festival held for 3 days, mid July. I wrote a bit about it here: Clam Fest Application. I have set a very, very big goal for myself. Very big. In order to reach that goal, I need to make soo much soap, it is almost laughable. But, goals are made so you can reach far and prepare and plan. I can do it! I have made charts, I have little boxes to check off, I have ordered supplies, I have begun making soap!

Goal ~ A goal or objective is a projected state of affairs that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.

Here's is a bit on Clam Fest:

YARMOUTH, Maine — On July 16, 17, and 18, the normally quiet New England village of Yarmouth, Maine, will swell to 15 times its size, as over 100,000 visitors flock to the 45th Annual Yarmouth Clam Festival. In 2009, attendees who registered for contests came from 13 countries and 32 of the United States.

Admission to Yarmouth Clam Festival events is free. Proceeds from food booths and parking lots support Yarmouth’s non-profit student, sporting, music, church, and community-service organizations.

And The Winner Is...

I used the handy dandy Random Number Generator to choose the winner of the 4 pack of soap....you can't really see much about the Random Number Generator, but I will blog more on that that.

And the winner is: comment # 18, Andi-Brown Bee Studio

Thank you all for entering and helping me celebrate 3 years in business. I would like to offer all those that participated free shipping on my website. Just enter code, BlogFS. This coupon is good for one month. Thank you all.

Soap Giveway!

To celebrate our 3rd anniversary, we are giving away a 4 pack of YOUR favorite soaps!

It's easy to enter:

Just become a follower of the Casco Bay Soap Co. blog (click "follow", over there on the right). Leave a comment after this post ~ simply tell us that you are now a follower of our blog and let us know what soaps you would like (find them here : http://www.cascobaysoap.com/soaps.html ) if you were to win.

Be sure to include your name and email address, so we can contact you, when entering the giveaway.

The giveaway will run for 1 week, from May 1st to May 9th, with the winner announced on May 10th.

That's it!

Thanks for stopping by and helping us celebrate our anniversary.

The NEW Freeport Community Market

Word about the new Freeport Community Market at the L.L.Bean campus is getting around.

Find it here on the White Cedar Inn Blog: http://whitecedarinn.blogspot.com/2008/04/ll-bean-summer-concert-series-schedule.htmlAnd L.L.Bean has listed it on their website, on the Summer In The Park link:

http://www.llbean.com/shop/retailStores/freeportFlagshipStore/summerParkLander.html?qs=3024054

Opening day is Friday May 28th. The hours are 3:00-7:00. With 35 vendors, there is sure to be something for everyone!

Working On Some New Labels, A Shout Out....

I've been working with some talented women that I found over over favorite creative site, Esty.com. They are making me some new lables for some of my products and I am just loving both the labels and them!

Visit them if you would like over on Esty.com under Print Your Party

Bessie's Farm Goods is OPEN!

Bessie's Farm Goods in Freeport opens Monday, May 3rd!

I met these 2 wonderful women a couple years back. Kathy, while she was part of our summer Farmers Market and spinning and selling her yarn at market. Deede, through a friend. She has a Christmas craft party every year and started selling my soaps at her parties. The two of them have come together and designed and built, Bessie's Farm Goods.

Find them over on Litchfield Road, off of Wolfe Neck Road.

They are carrying all sorts of great items:

Field Grown Perennials

Cut Flowers

Home Baked Goods

Hand Spun Yarns

Exotic Roving

Wooden Bowls and Spoons

Local Maple Syrup & Honey

Handmade Soap

Garden Ornaments

Hand Weaving

They do have a blog, if you want to check out more:

http://bessiesfarmgoods.blogspot.com/

School Fundraising Catalog

I am very very excited to be part of an exciting new local catalog! Those of you that have school age children are familiar with that dreaded time of year, fundraising. Your child comes home with a catalog filled with tins of popcorn or wrapping paper and needs to sell these items to raise money for their school. Wouldn't you like to actually buy something you really want, and support your local businesses? Well I would like to introduce, Close Buy Catalog. A fundraising catalog for Maine Schools

Close Buy has been created by the hardworking talents Masey Kaplan. I met her several months ago while selling my soaps in Falmouth during the Winter Market. She has secured some fantastic products all made from businesses here in Maine. The catalog will come out early November and students from 3 local schools will be taking orders for some very fine products. Just in time for gift giving season, the potential for a high amount of orders is great.

I met with Masey and we decided on some lovely gift sets for her catalog. I will offer a 4 pack of soaps and a 2 pack. My laundry detergent will also be available in the gift catalog.

Thanks Masey for choosing me to be part of your catalog! Now, I'm off to make soap....

Hello Summer Market!

(Early Saturday Morning, before the customers arrive, the set up begins in Cumberland)

Here we go! Getting ready for a super Spring and Summer Framers Market season. I will be participating in 2 outdoor markets this year. You can find me selling my soaps....

Wednesdays

Falmouth, Walmart Plaza

12:00-4:00

OPENING DAY MAY 5

Fridays

Freeport, L.L.Bean Campus

3:00-7:00

OPENING DAY MAY 28

I have organized my car to hold all my market "stuff". I have been spoiled selling at the Winter Market in Brunswick. We were able to leave out tables set up, our tablecloths on, display merchandise and our banners hung up. It's not as easy to sell during the summer. My car needs to hold a tent, tent tie downs (in the form of 5 gallon buckets full of cement), 3 tables, a chair, sandwich board (that announces my market specials), soap display buckets, tablecloths, and of course all the SOAP I can possible bring. When I purchased my car a couple of years ago, much of the decision toward this vechile or that, was made depending on if I could fit all this stuff in it.

Setting up for a market is not any small task. The vendors arrive up to 1 hour before market to pop up the tents and tie them down (high winds are not fun), snap on the tablecloths, and display their wares. When the market ends, we take it all down and pack it all back up in the cars for the next market. Now just think that some vendors (mostly the farmers) do this 5 or 6 days a week! We have so many options for selling at a Farmers Market here in Maine, you can, if you want sell 7 days a week. But really, when would you make soap, collect the eggs, plant, harvest, knit, sew, bake, milk the cow, catch the fish, make cheese or (WOW) spend time with your family? Remember how hard your local farmer, artist, craftsmen, baker works to bring these items to the market for you. Thank them for being there and making it soo easy for you to shop local and support your local community!

I look forward to seeing you all!

Goodbye Winter Market...

(Just one small corner of the Winter Market inside Ft. Andross)

The Winter Market in Brunswick has ended for the season. All the vendors that were selling at the Market, will now head out to their own individual community markets. Interesting tidbit (I think) is that there were only 6 Winter Markets in Maine this past season. Due to that little fact, the Brunwick Winter Market had vendors from all over the state selling their goods and wares. I met a fantastic and eclectic group of artists, farmers, woodworkers, crafters and bakers, and it was wonderful spending my Saturday mornings selling alongside them. But off we go, back to our own communities. During the warmer months, many many towns across Maine hold there own outdoor markets.

We all hope to be back next year, same place, same day, same time. Crossing our fingers that the space will still be available for us to rent. I would think that we are some super awesome tenants. We are there only 1 day a week, for only about 6 hours on that one day, and for 6 straight months!

Good luck to all my fellow Winter Market vendors! May the Spring and Summer months be wonderful for you!

Mermaids Garden Soap

(Mermaids Garden )

My signature soaps, Mermaids Garden, has been super popular lately. It smells very clean and has some green fragrance to it. I stir in real seaweed, Maine sea salt and clay, for gentle exfoliation and polishing your skin. I like to think that maybe this is what a Mermaid might put in her bar of soap.

Head over to the website if you would like to purchase a bar or two of your own :

CASCO BAY SOAP ~ Mermaids Garden

Soap Factory Over Seas

My friend Paula is visiting Syria right now and she is chronicling her vacation on her blog with post and pictures. To my surprise just the other day she posted that she stopped by and visited a soap factory! How neat! I included 2 of her pictures here and a little bit of her post.

The soap cave! Look at all the curing bars of soap!

So, I'm thinking that these barrels maybe hold the oils for the soaps?

This is what she said:

"Handmade olive oil soap is one of the locally made products that Syria is famous for. Actually, you might not realize but outside the cities there are many Olive orchards…. It was interesting to see this “factory” as by no means is it what you would think when you say factory back home. The soap making is done in the winter, cured during the spring/summer and sold in market during the fall. When we were there, the factory was in the curing phase, so I didn’t get to see it fully operational. What I found intriguing was that they lay paper on the floor that has been divided by metal railings/guides. They pump the liquid soap up to the second floor and spread the liquid into the divided sections. Once hard enough they cut the soap BY HAND and stack BY HAND. Now I think you can get an idea from my pictures how much soap is there. That is a lot of manual labor to do that. The soap is cured to different levels".

Wow! How cool that she saw such a massive production of soap. I make only 8 pounds at a time, each batch yielding 28 bars of soap. My technique is similar to theirs, as I pour the liquid soap into molds, once "hard" I cut the soap by hand and stack it by hand to cure. I will have to ask her how much a bar of soap cost, if they have different fragrances and is it a locally embraced product (do they use it) or is it all for export.

Thanks Paula! Cool stuff!