Storewide sale- Free Shipping

I am having a Back to School sale.  I am offering free shipping on everything in my Etsy store. http://www.etsy.com/shop/Ziggydo#

Enjoy shopping. This sale lasts only for 1 week ending on August 23.

Use coupon code- Backtoschool. With no spaces.

                                       Happy Shopping!

Going Back To My Roots-Gardening

After giving some long and hard thoughts, well really not that hard, I have decided to go back to my roots.  And that is gardening.  I have a degree in Horticulture and really have never used it, except personally.  So I am going to be using my true love and passion for plants and taking it to the 2 farmers markets that I attend.  I am growing vegetables and flowering plants to sell.  Actually it has really been great to get back outside every day and work in my garden.  Working outside has been the only real stress reliever for me.  I love it.  Right now I have some peppers and tomatoes in the ground and I am about to plant some winter squash.  Sounds funny to plant winter squash right now since in Houston our winter doesn't start until January and only lasts about 2-3 months. In September I will be planting a lot more veges that will do better when our heat isn't at 100 degrees every day.
With this said, I will also be changing up my blog.  I am going to write more about my gardening work and my love to be more eco conscience than about my other businesses.  I will still post when things happen in my soap business since I still love making soap.  But I do plan to update quiet often about how plants are going and planting schedules, bug problems, or anything else that may arise.  I hope you enjoy it.  I do.

New Hooded Bath Towels

 I absolutely love making these hooded bath towels.  These soft towels are some of my favorites and these fluffy towels are really popular at the farmers markets where I sell them.  These towels can be used for children from toddlers all the way up to college kids.  It was funny when I had one boy about to go to A & M University talking his mom into buying my A & M towel.  He loved it.  I really do enjoy watching the kids get something that they can truly call their own.

My latest towels are here.  One is a white towel with Disney Cars themed fabric across the hood and down the sides.  I originally bought this fabric to make a chair cover so my littlest boy could put his coloring book and crayons behind his chair. (My attempt to keep his work area clean.) But it ended up on this towel instead.  It looks great.  And the kids like to pick out their favorite characters on the towel.  Nothing but fun and it reminds them of the movie every time they use their towel.  Honestly I can't tell you how many times we have watched Cars 1.http://www.etsy.com/listing/79135397/cars-hooded-bath-towel-for-toddlers

My other towel is for girls.  It is a hot pink fluffy towel with a zebra stripe ribbon across the hood and going down the sides of the towel.  What can I say?  It is very girly and so soft.  Perfect for cuddling with after a bath. I am stuck with a house full of boys.  So I get to, every once in a while, make stuff for other peoples little girls.  My mom keeps trying to put an order in for a little granddaughter but she is not getting it here.  It will have to come from my brother or sister.  My boys keep me so busy that I am exhausted by the end of the night.  They are wonderful to have in my life but they are energy sucker uppers. http://www.etsy.com/listing/79136247/pink-with-zebra-stripe-hooded-bath-towel

I do have another towel that is green with giraffe print ribbon on the hood and sides but I don't have it listed on etsy yet. Above is the picture for that one. 

Stripe and Floral Half Apron

My newest passion is making aprons.  I love to look at them for some strange reason.  So, since I have been sewing for so long, I have decided to start designing and making some great aprons.  My first apron is a half apron with a chocolate brown background with stripes and floral designs in green, pink, blue, and orange.http://www.etsy.com/listing/78830150/half-apron-in-stripes-floral-blue I have lined the apron in a solid brown fabric.  I have loved this fabric for a while.  The stripes and the floral design goes together so well.  I loved the fabric so much that I even made a purse out of it. 
I am a vendor at 2 farmers markets a week- The LaCenterra Farmers Market in Katy, Texas and The Spring Branch Farmers Market in the Spring Branch area in Texas.  Last week I put the apron on the table and had several people look at it with some interest.  Most everyone enjoyed it, however, almost everyone said that they prefer full length aprons compared to the half aprons. With this said I am going to make lots of aprons that are full length.  Personally I would like a full length apron also.  When I am making my soaps and other bath products I wear a thick canvas one.  It is really for cooking outdoors but I like that it protects my clothes
 from oils spills and splashes.  So here I go diving into a new and exciting product that I have been wanting to try for some time. 

How Ziggydo And Bodylicious Bath & Body Care Started- Part 2

Well I didn't mean for it to take me 3 days to finish my story about how my businesses got their start but my littlest guy turned around and got sick.  So I have been taking care of him, which has turned out to be constant.

This is how Ziggydo got started and got its name.  I really have been sewing for a little over 20 years now.  I love it so much.   I love the idea of being able to turn a piece of fabric into something useful or something beautiful to look at.  I don't make a lot of clothes.  Maybe every once in a while I will make some pajamas for my boys or something like that.  But my true love it art quilts.  There are some extremely talented men and women out there that can make pictures with fabric that are amazing.  For over 13 years now I have been going to the International Quilt Festival here in Houston with my mom, who is a great art quilter.  You would be so impressed with all of the wonderful quilts that are on display.  Unfortunately, many of my favorite quilts on display tend to be the ones that we are not allowed to take pictures of.

My Ziggydo shop is really just a way for me to shop for and play with fabrics.  I love to shop for new fabrics.  I generally make bags of all kinds, hooded bath towels (where I add some of my great fabrics to), pillowcases, and aprons.  I have been thinking about adding some chair covers to my line.  They will be for kids to put over their chairs and they will have pockets on the back of them for the youngsters to put their crayons and books in when they are not using them.  Kind of like a little storage place.  They will be made to go onto any size chairs.  I have been thinking about making these for some time now.  I got the idea when my son's teacher asked me to make them for the class.  If I decide to do this, I will post pictures of my different fabrics.
So far my hooded bath towels have been my biggest success.  I do sell them online at my esty shop.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Ziggydo?section_id=10077096
I do sell them at 2 different farmers markets that I attend during the week.  It is really fun watching all the kids faces light up when their parents or grandparents buy them a towel.  I love it.
I got the name ZiggyDo after our dog.  Last year, we lost both of our dogs within a 2 month time span.  One of the dogs we have had for 16 years and the other one  was 11.   That was probably one of the hardest times in my life.  At the time we adopted another dog very soon after our 11 year old died.  It was one of the best things that we could have done.  It did take away some of the grief that could have been there.  We also thought it would be good for our boys to help them deal with the other dogs deaths.  We named our new dog who is now 1, Ziggy.  He is a good dog but still gets himself into trouble.  I think once the puppy stage wears off then he will be a great dog.  But I decided to name my business after him because he symbolized hope and new beginnings.  And new beginnings are a really good thing.

How Ziggydo And Bodylicious Bath & Body Care Started- Part 1

I decided it was probably a little interesting how I started Ziggydo and Bodylicious Bath & Body Care.
It really started when one of my mother's friends was starting her own bath & body company here in Houston.  She wanted to save money by getting her handmade soaps locally and at the time I needed a part time job.  So I spent at least 5 hours a day for about 2 months learning how to make soaps.  It was the only thing that I thought about.  I would wake up in the middle of the night and think about soaps.  I finally made a batch of soap and it failed horribly.  At the time I had no idea that one of the best tools to use when making soaps is to use a stick blender to stir your soap mixture rather than to stir by hand. Things got much better when I used the stick blender the next time.  Ever since then I have been making at least 4-5 batches of soap a week.  I absolutely love making soap and I had no idea that I had a knack for soap making.  Since then I have expanded my shop to making lotions, bath fizzies (also called bath bombs), sugar scrubs, foot soaks, and wonderful body sprays.  The sprays are some of my favorite items that I make.  I attend 2 different farmers markets a week where I get to meet my customers face to face.  I have some of the best customers.  They are honest with me and let me know what they wish I would add to my line of products.  They get great products with some of their favorite fragrances.  One of my favorite things about making products is getting new fragrances in the mail.  It seems that there is always something new to try out.  I love it.
The newest products that are soon to be added to my line is mud masks.  I am in the testing phase with them right now but should be done soon.  Can't wait to get them out for everyone to try.

Tomorrow I will talk about how ZiggyDo got started.

The Tree Wizard

I have to say that there has been one shop on etsy that I really enjoy looking at.  It is The Tree Wizard Shop.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/treewiz?section_id=6599807

Gary Burns is the Tree Wizard.  He carves elves, fish, spirits, hearts, and wonderful wizard faces out of maple burl, walnut burl, redwood burl, myrtle wood, pine knots, and many other woods. He carves in his home studio in Grants Pass, Oregon.  He started carving in 1971 and started selling his works in 1978. His prices range from $30 all the way up to $3,000.   His work is absolutely wonderful.