Small Business Saturday, Holiday Open House, and December Studio Hours

I hope you and yours had a quiet and relaxed Thanksgiving Day! At my home, a great grandma met her four month old great grandson for the first time, so it was indeed a day filled with gratitude.

On this day of BIG BOX business, I wanted to make sure you knew about Small Business Saturday. It was started several years ago as an alternative to Black Friday, as a way to encourage shoppers to support their local, independently owned retailers. Throughout the country, small businesses will be open on Saturday to welcome you to their store and share their expertise with you.  Many stores are running special deals. Most of the businesses in downtown Saint Albans are celebrating the day, and we will be open, too, 10-4.  Please buy local this holiday season and support your neighbors, wherever you may live!

We also wanted to announce our annual Holiday Open House will run December 3rd through December 9th.  Now that we have a retail space, our Open House will be held at the Studio as well as online in our webstore.  As a small token of appreciation for your support, we are offering 15% off your entire purchase during this time*.  If you are shopping online, just enter BUBBLE in the promotion box during checkout to receive the discount.  If you are coming to the Studio, just let us know you follow our blog, and we will apply the discount.

During the week of our Holiday Open House, we will be open every day at the Studio, as follows:

Wednesday the 3rd - Friday the 5th, 10-5
Saturday the 6th, 10-4
Sunday the 7th, 11-4
Monday 8th - Tuesday the 9th, 10-5

Then, throughout the rest of December until Christmas, our regular hours will be
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 10-5,
Sundays 11-4,
and by appointment other days and times.
We will be at the Burlington Winter Farmer's Market the first three Saturdays in December, 10-2 at Memorial Auditorium, Burlington.

 *And the fine print on the discount: Discount offer is valid Dec. 3rd through 11:59 Dec. 9th, online or at the Studio, only.  Discount applies to regularly priced items. Please email for more information.

Holiday Soaps, Meta Strick, and Craft Vermont

Last night we had our first little snowfall.  The ground is barely covered this morning. It's certainly not enough to get all excited about, but it does signal that we are ending stick season and moving into winter when we can expect (hope for!) less gray and lots more sparkle. Yay!

Our winter holiday seasonal bar soaps are here! We just placed them in our online store: Cranberry Balsam, O' Christmas Tree, Orange Winter Spice, Peppermint Frost, and Frankincense & Myrrh.
And speaking of the Frankincense & Myrrh soap, we are really excited to share the new wrapper painted for us by Vermont artist Meta Strick.

I've known Meta for many years, and am fascinated with her work, particularly her take on the human face. I am lucky enough to own a couple of her creations, and when we decided to change the focus of the Frankincense wrapper from a traditional silver and gold, three wise men theme to a more goddess oriented one, I knew Meta was the right person to create the design. I was delighted when she agreed!

Meta is a life-long artist whose primary focus is the human face, figure, and experience.  Meta spent a career working in human services, and I'm sure all of those experiences with so many different individuals has informed her work.  (Can you imagine the stories she could tell?!) Her art is a result of a combination of many materials and processes.  She paints, carves, draws, sees, drills, weaves, prints, glues and hammers her way toward mixed media paintings, dolls, and decorative items. Much of her work is created on wood. For our wrapper, Meta did her magic on paper, and then we added our logo and the fragrance name band.  

Here it is.  I hope you like it as much as we do!

It's almost time for Craft Vermont, the annual fine craft and art show of the Vermont Hand Crafters.  We are in high gear around here wrapping up lots of soaps, including our holiday line, and getting our bins loaded with all our other goodies.

Please join us if you are in the Vermont area! It's a fantastic show and all members are Vermont residents, juried in their respective mediums. I buy most of my holiday gifts at this show--beautiful, well crafted, unique items for everyone on my list made by my neighbors. Perfect!

Meta and I will both be there. I'm in booth #2 on the main level, and Meta, along with all her great art, will be upstairs. If you make it to the show, please stop by and say hello!

The show will be held at the Sheraton Conference Center in Burlington, November 21-23. Hours are Friday 10-8, Saturday 10-6, and Sunday 10-5.  Please visit the Vermont Hand Crafters site for more details.

For more info on Meta and to see some of her other work, click here.