Peace Handmade Soaps, Salt Bars and Beauty Products Are Now Available at A Bit of Sas Salon!

 

After six months producing soap for wholesale distribution and craft fairs only, Peaceare finally has a retail presence once again in Lamar! You can now find all your favorite Peaceare handmade soaps, lotion bars, sugar and salt scrubs and more inside Crystal Starne's Salon, "A Bit of Sas," located at 602 E 12th St., Lamar.

Demand for Peaceacre spa salt bars has been so great that I have developed a whole new range of fragrances to delight the senses. New signature scents include a wonderful cucumber-melon made with French green clay, an exotic Thai Spice, a fresh spring Butterfly Garden, and a "beachy" summer fragrance I've named Sand Castle. Of course, all the best selling classic salt bar formulas remain available, including Moroccan Clay, French Market, Lavender, Beach Party and Nag Chompa.

In addition to the therapeutic French green, Moroccan red and white and pink Kaolin specialty clays you have come to expect from Peaceacre handmade soaps and beauty products, with the new fragrances I have introduced several new exotic clays from Russia - Cambrian blue clay, the rarest cosmetic clay on earth, plus Russian yellow and black clays. I love the Russian clays, and am really excited to be working with these amazing cosmetic ingredients you won't find in products anywhere else. Each Peaceacre spa salt bar is hand made, hand cut, and PH tested to ensure the quality of your spa experience.

Also new is my Spa Facial Set, with a variety of artfully blended botanicals, oatmeal powders and specialty clays designed to smooth, cleanse and purify your skin. I've had fantastic feedback on this set! So come in and check it out!

With questions or comments, please email me at Peaceare@ymail.com. Thanks!

Arts Council Christmas Bazaar!

I've been at the studio every day getting ready for Cecil, but I'm REALLY excited about the Arts Council Christmas Bazaar this year. This is fun! It's really cool turning the upstairs of the Arts Council building into a bunch of cool little shops. Today, Vickie Clark amazed me by turning an otherwise drab corner of the Arts Council main classroom into a stunning jewelry boutique. It's all coming together better than I ever expected. Here's the cool ad we are posting tonight all over the Internet. Check it out!

Arts Council Christmas Bazaar!

The Arts Council Christmas Bazaar opens Saturday, December 4th, 5PM-9PM, UPSTAIRS in the Arts Council building on the NW corner of the Lamar Square. Come visit us after the parade (or even before)! This is not like any ho-hum "Home for the Holidays" Arts Council event you've seen before. It's an all-local, handmade, ultra-cool "mini-mall" with three separate stores to choose from. The Handmade Shop features stunning (and affordable!!!)jewelry by Vickie Clark and Fern Brown, "Mo-Chocolate" gourmet cookie mixes and candy's by Janet Dermott, Queen's Family Farm's fabulous dips, jams, candied nuts, Pam Allen's local honey, plus wreaths, scarves, holiday decor, etc etc etc! Wow! Store #2 is a "re-sell-it" shop featuring high quality, gently used, items. We've got doll house furniture, hand-carved African masks from the Ivory Coast, beautiful framed art, books, movies, clothes, dishes, just tons of amazing stuff and more coming in every day. Last but not least, store #3 is Peaceacre - you all know who that is! Handmade soaps, scrubs, lotion bars, spa salt bars, gift sets, and other natural bath and body care products. Peaceacre has added imported Bohemian cloth purses, lace scarves, and all kinds of new goodies just for this Bazaar! And the best part is, after Saturday, all three stores will be open every Thursday and Friday from Noon to 6PM, and Saturdays from 9AM-2PM though December 18th!

But wait, there's more! The amazing Kristie Boswell of Creatively Designed Photography will be doing Christmas portraits. Visit her Facebook page for details - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100001893811571

There will be frequent drawings for gift baskets, jewelry and other "door prizes." Check back for details!

More info is available on the Arts Council website at http://ACOBC.org.

See you all Saturday!

Upcoming Shows

First, I want to thank everybody for a great farmers market season. I want to acknowledge that Peaceacre kind of fell off the farmers market map there toward the end, but our loyal customers kept telling us we needed to take our show on the road and so we did. The success we had at some of the out of town shows has enabled me to invest in  bigger and better soap making equipment. I had trouble keeping up with demand in the past, making small batches, but with the new equipment, that should change. This is my second year in business, and I am learning as I go. Thanks for your patience! I could not have done any of this without my local loyal customers - Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Enough traveling for now. I am back in the area and will be at three major shows right here at home between now and Christmas.

The first is the annual craft show at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Stockton on Saturday, November 13th.

The second show is Amanda Kenter's fantastic Lamar Handmade Boutique, Saturday, November 20th at Memorial Hall in Lamar.

The third event is very exciting. Beginning during Lamar's "Home for the Holidays" celebration on the Square, December 4th, lots of very cool stuff is going to be going on in the Arts Council building at 206 West 10th Street, on the northwest corner of the Square.  Downstairs in the Gallery, Lamar jewelry artist Joanna Turnbull is hosting an "Artist's Market" featuring the work of a variety of artists from far and wide throughout the four state area. Upstairs, the Arts Council will host a handmade store along the lines of what I did last year when I opened Peaceacre to the public for the holidays, only MUCH expanded and full of surprises. It's going to be really cool, featuring awesome handmade items, demonstrations, even a rummage sale! So, to all you crafty ladies out there, if you are interested in taking part, email me at peaceacre@ymail.com ASAP! It's going to be fun! Visit this website frequently for updates!

Farmer's Market Season Begins - ETC...

The 10th Street Farmer's Market opened today, with lots of bedding plants, along with fresh breads, spring onions, spinach, lettuce - and, of course, Peaceacre! We met a lot of cool out-of-towners today, and we had a lot of people ask how they can find Peacecare products when they go home. I am working on getting more of my market items into the Peaceacre-Artfire online store. One that IS currently listed is the herbal healing balm, which I sold out of at the market this morning (I have more for on line sales). This is one of the most popular products that I make. I'll be making more for local sale soon. We've had really good feedback on this balm. Other new items this year include Spa Salt Bars with French clay, Orange Cream Whipped Lotion in a tin, Pure & Natural Laundry Soap bars, and tea rose scented and "healing hands" herbal lotion bars. Last year's favorites are back, too, of course, inlcuding all the varieties of soap you've come to expect from Peaceacre. I have plenty of surprises planned for this year's Farmer's Market season, so expect good things to come.

Since Peaceacre is really NOT all about commerce, please note that we WILL NOT be at the market every weekend. In May, we will be there the 1st, 8th and 22nd. If we add more dates, we'll let you know.

In other news... I'm working on a number of projects for the Arts Council, including, this month, a FREE kids class for Earth Day on making art from recycled materials. You can find more info on that class in the "peacecare art" section of this website, and also at acobc.org. I am also planning adult classes soon at Peaceacre studio on making herbal balms, herbal teas, and maybe needle felting, too, so watch this space for announcements.

Thanks everybody for a great first day at the Market, and a lot of positive commentary. We look forward to a great season!

Make It a Handmade Valentine's Day!

I finally took the "Handmade Pledge," though we've been trying to move toward as total a handmade lifestyle as possible for a long time now. From what we've seen on the web, a lot of people seem to be moving in this direction. We didn't do as good a job of sticking to the pledge at Christmas as we would have liked to, but we did buy handmade Christmas cards off Etsy, and put together some wonderful gift packages for out of town relatives with a variety of handmade and local products. My husband and I also made our gifts to each other. It's the kids that sent us into a  panic. It's hard to buy (or even make) handmade gifts for an eight year old boy. I don't know how to make LEGOs... yet...

But, everyone please note that Valentine's Day is on the horizon, and that's pretty much a grownup gift giving holiday. So this would be a great opportunity for all of us who have vowed to do better on our pledge to go 100% handmade! Start now, and build up you stamina toward next Christmas!

Here's a great start for handmade Valentine's Day gifts. My new friend Heather at "My Curly Red" makes amazing handcrafted jewelry, and here's a sample gallery of some of her work:

I bought a pair of earings for my daughter for Christmas from Heather, and I can personally attest to the beauty and quality of Heather's work. Her store, again, is located at http://www.etsy.com/shop/mycurlyred. She also has a blog at http://curlyreds.blogspot.com/. And thanks, Heather, for spreading the word about Peaceacre down there in Arkansas!

Local Honey at the Peaceacre Store!

This week, local beekeeper Pam Allen, owner of Natural Creations (NaturalCreations.org), added her fresh local honey, honey candy, handmade beeswax candles, natural laundry soap, wildflower bookmarks, soy candles, and other items to the "Peaceacre and Friends" holiday store.
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Also new this week, I have added loose leaf China black tea, cinnamon orange spice loose leaf tea, and other bulk herbs for brewing into specialty teas or to make into tinctures. I still have lots of beautiful hand-knitted scarves and other cool stuff left -- but this is the last week I will be officially open before Christmas!I will be open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Noon to 6:00. If you have a specialty order, or you need to get in touch with me, you can email me any time at Peaceacre@ymail.com.

Peaceacre and Friends - More pictures of the Store!

As promised, more pictures of the Peaceacre store! New stuff includes hand-knitted scarves, hand-painted floor cloths, homemade candy, vintage jewelry and other unique items. Some bulk herbs are also available. Muslin bags, wooden soap dishes, all kinds of cool stuff!

I have extended my hours to Tuesdays, Thursday and now Fridays, Noon to 6:00 PM. Thanks again for supporting handmade, and the Arts Council of Barton County, too.  I don't want to sound like a used car salesman, but the soaps are selling quicker than I thought, so if you are interested, you'd better find your way to the store soon!

I also want to let everybody know that I will be teaching a FREE clas for kids, ages 6 to 12, called "Making Christmas Ornaments form Natural Materials" on Saturday, December 12th. For a preview of the kinds of cool ornaments kids can make in this class, click here.

Wrapping Up the Farmers Market Season

Saturday, November 21st will be the final Saturday for this Farmers market season. We said in an earlier post that we were moving indoors a few weeks ago, but the weather improved, it's the last day to see our market buddies, so we'll be there on Saturday. Think Christmas! We'll have Peaceacre gift bags and baskets, cool stocking stuffers, etc. We'll also have some wonderful handcrafted datebooks and calendars and a really cool recipe box created by Gayla Miller from Liberal. Come see us!