Sale Is On!

I mentioned yesterday that I was running really low on certain items and I would be having a sale to clear everything out before the end of the year.

well...THE SALE IS ON! I have updated all of the items on sale and marked them 20% off. You don't need a coupon code to enjoy this one! I do have limited inventory for these items and the sale is only for items marked.

Hurry, I have a feeling these won't last long.

All orders placed by Tuesday, December 18th will ship by December 19th. So, barring any natural disasters, your order will get there before Christmas.

New Soaps Available!

We are in the process of putting up a new website, so I'm not adding the new seasonal soaps I made to the old one. But, I wanted to share them with you and give you the opportunity to get yours since they won't last long. If you are interested in any of these, feel free to send me an email at hmwalls (at) honunaturals (dot) com, or message me on facebook.

Pumpkin soaps, made from locally grown pumpkin!

Chocolate Pumpkin soap that smells so good you might just need to lather again. Buy two and store one in the closet until you need it, no need for scented fabric softeners :)

Pumpkin Lager is made with beer and pumpkin (it just seemed appropriate), but it smells delicious. The perfect blend of sweet and spicy and yummy! It even comes with a foamy top, just like your lager!

Pumpkin Spice soap is made with cinnamon, ginger, clove, and a touch of orange.

Christmas Soaps

Reindeer Poop is a special gift from Rudolph to anyone you know that should be on the naughty list or anyone you know that loves great smelling handcrafted soap :) Reindeer Poop smells better than you'd think, it is a sugary blend of spruce and vanilla. It even comes with a special poem on the back.

Coming Soon: Cranberry Fig

All seasonal scents can also be special ordered as fizzy tub treats or wax tarts for candle warmers.

S.O.A.P! Yes, Please

It is that time again! Bramble Berry is looking for their next S.O.A.P peeps and I am trying for it (again). Why do I keep trying? Because I LOVE BB! Plus, it is hard to be upset that I don't get chosen when there are so many talented people all trying. Not the point!

My favorite BB fragrance oil is...Applejack Peel!

Pumpkin Bread

I love pumpkin! I have said that many times. This summer I found a bread machine cookbook and it had a recipe for pumpkin bread! Of course, I couldn't resist. I had to make some adjustments because my first loaf was too fluffy and it made a big mess, though it still tasted delicious.

Here is the recipe I adjusted:
Dry Ingredients:

• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 1/2 cup bread flour
• 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (you can do 1/2 cinnamon and 1/2 ginger, but I like nutmeg too)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp grated orange rind

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

After starting, I keep an eye on the kneading period. I'm still playing around trying to make sure it isn't too dry, but I've noticed that it starts more moist than most bread doughs. I have tried reducing the amount of water and either way, it still comes out tasting amazing!

What is your favorite pumpkin recipe?

Valentine's Day Feelings

Are you one of those people that gets so sick of hearing about Valentine's Day? It is such a big deal! You have to get cards for the kids to take to school (I haven't yet, but its coming) and if you are a teacher...oh, I don't even want to go there. Should you give your sweetheart flowers or is that overdone? Plus, the poor single people, don't they just feel so left out?!? Well...

I'm actually not one of those people. I enjoy Valentine's Day and I always have. Even during my single days! I never looked at it as a time to celebrate the ONE person I loved (or didn't if I was single); instead, it is a time to celebrate love in general. I don't think we can ever have enough love; after all, it is the greatest gift. Enjoy those people in your life that you love. Take an extra moment to tell them that you love them. You can never say it too much!

We like to make a special dinner (I'm hoping for lasagna), turn off all the appliances, light some candles, and just spend the night relaxing and enjoying life. This year, we'll share that with our new little man and that makes me incredibly happy.


Do you have something that you like to do on Valentine's Day for those that you love?

Love Is In the Soap?

I'm already getting ready for Valentine's Day! This year I will offer two special edition scents:

Strawberries and Champagne: A sensuous blend of fragrances that will tickle your nose and get you in the mood for some sweet love. This scent is lightly fruity and bubbly. Available in a bar of soap and 8 oz lotion.

Chocolate covered Strawberries: Sweet, juicy strawberry scent; covered in decadent dark chocolate. Need we say more. Only available in a bar of soap.

If you are interested, get it here!

Heading Home

We are heading to Lubbock tomorrow for Hayden's first Thanksgiving! I'm excited to get a mini vacation and the grandparents are excited to see their grand baby again. We will also be celebrating an early Christmas because Grandma didn't want to miss his first.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Veteran's Day

Today I will take a moment to say THANK YOU to all those who have and are serving our country.

In honor of all my friends and family still with us and in memory of all my friends and family that we've lost.

Pumpkin Time Again!

One of the reasons I love fall is because I love pumpkins! There is so much you can do with a pumpkin and they just look fun.

What do I do with pumpkins? Let me see. I make pumpkin puree which gets used in soap, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin face masks. I have enough left over in the freezer, it will probably get fed to Hayden when he is older. I roast the seeds. Oh, I love pumpkin seeds, they are so delicious and easy to make. I also love how you can make them any flavor you want, although plain salted is my favorite. Of course, we can't forget that age old tradition of carving pumpkins!

My Honu Pumpkin!

This year I got two pie pumpkins from the farmer's market I participated in. They were perfect! I have so much puree from them (read about making your own here), I don't think I'll have a shortage this next year. We got our carving pumpkins from a local farm that has a petting zoo, pony rides, and other activities for kids. Hayden was much too small to enjoy any of that, but we had fun and we got some cute pictures of him with the pumpkins.

My favorite pumpkin

What do you like to do with pumpkins? Do you have a special recipe that you use?

One Day Late Earth Day Info

I didn't get this done yesterday because we decided to go to Target to get our registry started there and then we went to pick up our little foster kitty who was neutered yesterday. Really, I should have made the time, but I'm just so excited, now that we know we are having a boy we can start really getting ready!

So, here are some of my fun facts for you:

• Biodegradable products are not really biodegradable in a landfill due to the lack of dirt, oxygen, and the little microbes needed to break stuff down.
• Glass bottles take longer to break down in a landfill than plastic bottles.
• Recycling aluminum cans takes less energy than producing new ones from scratch.
• 14 billion pounds of trash are dumped into the ocean every year (we have all heard of those giant garbage floats, haven't we).
• 84% of household trash can be recycled.
• At my school, if every student uses one tray, fork, knife, and cup each day and then puts them in the trash, we will produce 60 pounds of waste each week. This does not include food, paper, or any snacks that the kids bring.

Some of the things we do in my home:

• Buy recycled whenever possible.
• Stay away from individually packaged snacks as much as possible.
• Avoid disposable products as much as possible (yes, this includes our baby registry; my stepmom thinks I'm nuts for wanting to use cloth diapers).
• Use powerstrips for electronics that can then be turned off.
• Recycle as much as we can and I love the fact that our trash service picks it all up in one container.
  
• I reuse boxes and packaging for shipping purposes.
  

This is a short list, but it is just a few ideas. What do you do at your house to help make every day Earth Day?

No Housework Day!!!

We all know that April is well known for wonderful holidays like April Fool's Day (does anyone actually enjoy this) and Easter (which is really not all about eggs and bunnies). However, Easter aside, I think April 7th should be celebrated as the best day in April!

April 7th is...NO HOUSEWORK DAY. Most of us spend too much time worrying about what the house looks like. How many times have you put off something else, like a walk in the fresh air, to clean? I believe that a clean house is important, but we should not spend so much time cleaning or worrying about the state of the house that we forget to enjoy ourselves and the company of others. So, don't do any chores today. Just enjoy yourself.

Kissing Camels

Get ready for Valentine's Day. Find your camel to kiss!

National Kite Flying Day

Today, February 8th is National Kite Flying Day. Does this seem odd to anyone else? I know that it is summer in the southern hemisphere; but as our nation is in the northern hemisphere, I'm a little confused.

Why in the world would we celebrate kite flying during a month that is pretty much cold for everyone? It is snowing today! We can't fly kites in this kind of weather. Even in the south it's still too cold to go hang out outside flying kites.

This is so wrong, I think we need to contact someone about this. Who do you contact to get a national holiday such as Kite Flying Day changed?

Chocolate and Roses Gift Set

This Valentine's Day, do chocolate and roses a little different with Honu Naturals exclusive Chocolate and Roses Gift Set.

We've created a beautiful Rose Petal soap decorated with baby rose petals. Even though we did not scent this soap, it smells lightly of rose. Then we added a heart-shaped cocoa massage bar made with delicious and soothing cocoa butter. This bar is so perfect, it just glides over your skin and melts in for an extraordinary massage. Plus, you get 5 cocoa and rose tub melts. Just drop one of these into your warm bath and it melts in the water spreading cocoa butter to moisturize and rose petals to help you relax.

We are offering two options. The first uses all natural ingredients and is unscented except for the natural scent of cocoa butter and rose. We will also be offering the set in Baby Rose scent; the massage bar and tub melts will be lightly scented with this lovely rose scent. Please note: Baby Rose is an artificial scent, if you do not wish to use an artificial scent, please select "Unscented."

The entire set sells for $17.25, but hurry supplies are limited. Contact us hmwalls (at) honunaturals (dot) com or visit our website www.honunaturals.com.

Get Ready for the New Year

I know that 2009 was a rough year for several of us for many different reasons. We all had one thing or another to overcome, but we have survived for another year and are still moving forward. I have started setting some of my goals for this next year and I took something from teaching to do this.

Usually my goals are simple and so vague they are awesome. I will get in shape, I will lose weight, I will focus on growing my business. Great! Now, how do I do this. When setting our yearly goals for teaching (see I really am not a novice at this) we have to make SMART goals. This stands for:

S = Specific

M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Time-based

I'm sure many of you have heard this before, but it is important. If you are going to set a goal, you need to meet all of these. I can't just say I want to lose weight. Answer these 5 questions and you have a goal that you are more likely to meet. How much weight (realistic is part of this), what will you do to achieve this, and when will you be done. Time is one of the most important elements (in my opinion). Give yourself a deadline. If you don't, you will put it off.

So, I took one of my goals, I will grow my business, and I made it more specific. I broke this goal into certain things I want to accomplish. I want to have 2 wholesale customers, gross $____ in monthly revenue, have 10 more subscribers to my blog, and the list goes on. But, each was specific, it has a number, so I can measure what I'm doing and I made my goals attainable. Would I like more than 2 wholesale customers? Absolutely, I would love it, but I don't even have a wholesale price list made, so let's be realistic. I also set dates when I would like to have each goal accomplished and "by the end of the year" is not a good date. Give yourself too much time and you'll forget or procrastinate.

The next thing I did was look at each of my goals and write the steps I need to take to reach each one. If I'm going to wholesale, I think a wholesale price list is going to be necessary. I also set a deadline for each of my steps to lead me up to meeting my goals. By doing this, I have broken this huge task up into manageable pieces and I can focus on what I need to do. I won't just be floundering around and accomplishing nothing. I can now set my monthly, weekly, and daily goals (guess what I do every Sunday) and I will be focused and I will be proactive in my business and personal life.

Good Luck to everyone in the coming year. I would like to know what some of your goals are and how you went about making them SMART goals.

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope everyone gets to spend the day with family and friends. May all your lives be filled with joy and love.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I won't get on here tomorrow, so I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving early. I am truly thankful for everything in my life. I have great family and friends. I have a job and my business. Things are not perfect, but they rarely are. What is important is that we take time to see the good things around us; instead of focusing on the bad.

I'll be busy tomorrow making cornbread stuffing, ham, pecan pie, cranberry sauce, and black eyed peas. I don't really like turkey, green bean casserole, or sweet potatoes, so that is off the menu! What are your favorite holiday treats?

National Pizza With The Works Except Anchovies Day

Apparently Nov 12th is a day meant to exclude anchovies from our diet. I really love pizza, I know we shouldn't because it is usually swimming in fat and grease, but YUM! I really don't like lots of veggies on my pizza, mainly because I don't like mushy veggies, so I wouldn't want the works to begin with. BUT, why must we exclude anchovies?! I once got a pizza with anchovies on it by mistake and it was absolutely the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted, but I still don't see why they need to be excluded. There are plenty of people out there that DO like anchovies, I don't know any personally, but they must exist because anchovies are an option. If nobody ever ordered them, they wouldn't be offered! So, I think we need to take a moment to recognize the fact that anchovies are being picked on and that could have a profound impact on the anchovy industry.

If you love pizza and would like to try making your own, here is my favorite recipe for BBQ chicken pizza:
Pizza crust mix (I like Jiffy cause its cheap and easy)
BBQ sauce
Shredded cheese
Chicken (cubed and cooked)
Artichokes (canned hearts)
Spinach (fresh)

Prepare crust as directed. Spread a thin layer of bbq sauce over crust. Sprinkle with cheese (save calories, go easy on the cheesy). Add toppings and bake as directed.

I've also done an alfredo pizza (not at all healthy) and pineapple and canadian bacon. Be creative and have fun with it.

If you have a really good one, let me know, I'm always looking for something new to try!

National Feel Your Booies Week

Oct 9-16th, 2009-Share with a friend, you might save their life!

☥Vamptastic Halloween Scent Event!☾-Blue Moon Candles

I have to post this because it is just too cool! Blue Moon Candles has some new Halloween fragrances which sound amazing, but its the packaging that really gets me. I just can't get tell you how creative I think it is. I know plenty of people do caskets for Halloween, but I've honestly never seen it used for packaging like this.

Check it at: http://bluemooncandles.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/%E2%98%A5vamptastic-halloween-scent-event%E2%98%BE/

They are having a contest too, if you are interested. I am completely interested, so good luck to me!