Call for Submissions: Operation Geekling Dinosaur Project

So I had this crazy idea. (And this crazy idea is a cross post from our personal blog, by the way.)

It may have a huge turnout, it may flop. But no matter what happens, I think it would be a really cool way to decorate a room.

In this case, I was thinking about the geekling’s room and how to decorate it. Our “theme” is dinosaurs, but we are renting right now so painting is out of the question. That means the décor is dependent on the wall hangings. Last week our friend @katiedoyle mailed us a painting she did of a dinosaur for us to hang in the geekling’s room. (That’s her artwork pictured!) Inspired by this fantastic piece of original artwork made with love, I started to think… wouldn’t it be cool if ALL of our friends and family each made us some kind of dinosaur art for the wall?

I then had this amazing vision of one entire wall of the room covered in dinosaur artwork, all by different people in our lives. And not just one kind of artwork, but dinosaurs made from all different kinds of mediums, too. Some dinosaurs were painted, some were sketches, some were prints, some were done in colored pencils or crayons, and some were dinosaurs composed of fabric shapes.

The wall was covered in this variety of dinosaur artwork, but the pieces weren’t all the same size or orientation, either. Some of the pieces were landscape, some were portrait, some were large and some were small. They were arranged in a fun way like puzzle pieces on the wall, not in straight and perfect rows. Each piece was in the same simple black frame to tie everything together.

It was beautiful, and that’s when Operation Geekling Dinosaur Project was born. And for it to be successful, I need YOUR help.

How can you get involved and help? Make us a dinosaur for the wall! You don’t have to be an “artist” or even feel like you know how to draw to get involved. All forms of art are appreciated and  beautiful! You can use any medium or style you like and feel most comfortable working with, even if it means you print out a dinosaur and color it with your Crayolas. Pick your favorite dinosaur or do a scene of several dinosaurs; it’s all up to you. The only stipulation is that you work in a size that can easily be framed, since I’ll be tasked with trying to get the same style of frame for all of the artwork. The collection together would form a mural of sorts, except this mural would be made up of individual pieces of awesome from awesome individuals.

I may only have 5 people take this on or we may have none, and that’s ok. I’m still going to try! I’d ideally love to have as many people involved as possible. You don’t have to use any fancy paper or canvas or anything like that; plain paper will do. I’ll be throwing it into a frame anyway! I just think it would be amazing to have a wall full of dinosaurs in all different styles to represent all of the different people in our lives. And if you sign your artwork somewhere we’d have a lasting memory of who made each piece to share with the geekling as he gets older.

As artwork comes in (if anyone decides to participate), I plan to photograph it individually and post it to a special Flickr gallery with credit to the artist so that their part of the project can be shared. I’d like to keep a photo journal throughout the project’s progress, including photos of the finished result, too.

And maybe over the years new pieces can be added; I imagine the geekling and I in a few years spending a rainy day with finger paints or crayons making new dinosaurs to add to the wall. But the core… the heart of the project begins with all of you and builds from there. How special and how meaningful would a wall full of dinosaurs made by people we know be?! And your artwork would forever brighten the room of one special little boy, who will grow up surrounded by your original creations and learn from an early age to appreciate art and the value of handmade.

I’m starting to get sappy here, but if you’re interested in donating a piece of dinosaur artwork in any medium, big or small, to our project, we’d love to have it and frame it and hang it and share it with our geekling and the world. Your contribution would be one piece in a unique collection to make the décor in the geekling’s room grand and special. I will personally draw a little something in return and mail it with a thank you note to every single person who contributes, in addition to posting you and your piece in our Flickr gallery and sharing it on Twitter and here on my craft blog for all to see.

So the Call for Submissions is officially open; let me just say thank you in advance to anyone who participates in our project. I truly appreciate the time and effort put in to make something for someone else. Long live handmade and long live art! <3

love,
Lucas, Lesley, and the geekling (Liam)

• Want to Contribute?
• Email us if you need to snag a mailing address

• Common sizes for framing:
• 24 x 36
• 20 x 30
• 18 x 24
• 11 x 17
• 8.5 x 11
• 8 x 10
• 5 x 7
• 4 x 6

Thank you! <3

The Beginning of the Baby Knits & Crochets

I feel like Superwoman. Thanks to all of you, I’ve been making soap constantly to keep up with demand. Thanks for helping me celebrate my soapy anniversary and making it such a success!

But it’s not ALL been soap in my crafting universe this week.

Last week we found out our geekling is going to be a boy, and we are just tickled at the news. The thought of a mini-Lucas makes me so happy I could burst! We’d already had the name Liam picked out for years, so a Liam he will be. It probably won’t come as a surprise to any of you that the very next stop after we left the ultrasound appointment was the yarn store; I had a list all ready of various blue and green yarn I needed to get a head start on knitting and crocheting things for my little boy.

Somehow this week I’ve managed to find time to squeeze in a workout (Hooray for #geekfit!), keep up with soap orders, play a little Rift, (More on that over on my gaming blog) AND work on baby projects each night after getting home from work. Whew! I’m excited to show off my first finished object(s) for Liam.

Crocheted Diaper Covers
Our boy is due at the end of June, and summertime in the midwest can get pretty hot. I have a feeling Liam won’t be wearing much more than onesies or even just a diaper during the hotter parts of the summer, and so I thought these cute little diaper covers would be perfect instead of pants. It helps that they are a super fast crochet project, too. I considered dressing these up a bit with different buttons, like shape buttons or something, but I really liked how the solid wooden ones turned out against the yarns.  The pattern I used is the textured Beanie & Diaper Cover set by Danyel Pink. [Ravelry]

If someone were to ask me what our baby “theme” is, I’d have to say dinosaurs. Mostly because I just mean I plan to decorate the baby room in cute, handmade dinosaur stuff and do some digital scrapbooking with cute dinosaur embellishments and kits. (More on those kits in another post!) Other things on my to-knit or to-crochet list for the geekling include an adorable dinosaur long tail toque for the fall, some dinosaur/monster baby booties, a swaddling blanket, and dinosaur themed knitted burp cloths and bibs that I can’t wait to cast on. Sure a couple of “fancy” knitted cotton bibs and cloths will be something I spend hours making only to have them be thrown up on, but that’s not the point. (And cotton is washable!) I think it’s part of that “nesting” they keep talking about that’s making me yearn for the creation of as much handmade goodness to greet and surround my newborn with as possible. Stay tuned for lots of handmade dinosaur goodness that I plan to share here as we get closer and closer to the third trimester and eventually… baby time :)

Happy Anniversary, GEEKSOAP!

Happy Anniversary, GEEKSOAP!

Technically, the very first bar of GEEKSOAP (Batman) was created in May 2009 for my best friend’s birthday when I was living in Calgary. However, I didn’t get back into making soap and adding it to my Etsy store for purchase until the end of 2009, after I’d moved back to the states and gotten settled in.

Back then, the few varieties of GEEKSOAP bars I made were small and made from expensive, yet not the best quality, soap base. I had a lot to learn. I did my homework, looked into better quality bases, and took tips and advice given to me by the amazing @KyleeLane, who is a magical soapmaker and has become a very dear friend. I was blown away by Kylee’s generosity along the way and am thankful for all of her support and advice, because she helped to make me a better soapmaker. When I set out with GEEKSOAP, my goal was to create one-of-a-kind soaps that you couldn’t find anywhere else before me, and I succeeded with each bar I made. Today I continue to strive to make original soapy creations!

I’ve learned A LOT, and today am proud to make soaps that not only look a million times better, but they’re made from better materials than I used back in the beginning when I first started out, too. All bars are vegan friendly and hypo-allergenic and my custom molded bars (game cartridges, D20s on a Rope, Donkey Kong barrels, etc.) are not only 100% original, but they’re made from 100% all natural ingredients these days also. I’ve changed the way I make, color, and even wrap my soaps to provide a better overall product for my customers, who are the most important part of my business. Even my handmade labels have evolved along with my skills to better showcase the designs and ingredients inside. SO MUCH HAS CHANGED! Those of you who were with me in the very beginning on Etsy know where I started and how much GEEKSOAP has transformed. Thank you for supporting me.

Back in the end of 2009 when I was selling on Etsy, I was selling my soap alongside my textile handmade goods like crochet Cthulhu hats. My Etsy had always been a bit of a hodge-podge of handmade goods, and has seen a large variety of products over the past 5 years… from purses and pouches that I sewed, to knit products, patterns, and crochet goodies. Then soap. Sales were slow at first, but after several big features of my D20 Soap on a Rope design (including a nod & linkage from the official Wizards of the Coast site!) which made my Etsy explode in early 2010 to the point that I couldn’t keep up because they kept selling out faster than I could relist, I realized that my soap really needed to be separate from my random fibre goods. I needed a new place to sell so that I could really focus and develop all of the geeky soap ideas I had in one place, with a name that made sense. I had been referring to the soap on Etsy as “GEEKSOAP”, so on February 23, 2010 I registered geeksoap.net and began promoting it as its own brand via BigCartel. The rest is history.

Technically GEEKSOAP has been around longer than a year, but I consider today to be its anniversary since I didn’t separate GEEKSOAP from my fibre crafts and recognize it as its own brand in its own store until then, one year ago today. In celebration of this milestone and ALL of the amazing changes that have taken place over the past year to make GEEKSOAP better and better (and still striving to improve all the time!) I want to offer a special promotion code for the week – CELEBRATE used at checkout over on geeksoap.net will take 30% off your entire order!

I can’t thank my customers and supporters enough for EVERYTHING this past year. Lots of love, advice, suggestions, AND constructive feedback has helped me do things better and make better things. I admit I’ve made mistakes (especially when I was first starting out) and I’m not perfect or even close to it, but because of your support I’ve been able to learn from mistakes and create a better product over the past year. We had an astronomically successful holiday sales season with so much positive feedback that I look forward to continuing successes!

While GEEKSOAP has gotten much bigger than I ever dreamed of over the past year, you’ll notice that I’ve declined wholesale and retail opportunities along the way. Why, you ask? Why would I not want to become even bigger? Back during Gen Con I had so many ridiculously amazing wholesale opportunities come up and I wanted to take them all, but I was realistic: I am just one person with a full time teaching job and starting a family was on the horizon, and I was afraid to take on large scale orders in addition to my booming online sales. Afraid? Let me explain. Most of my soaps are made one-at-a-time, and I wanted to ensure that I never spread myself out too thin. The success was so huge this past year that I was worried if I said yes to all of the opportunities that fell into my lap, I’d lose sight of what was important: my customers. My online shop customers come first always. I know with a full time job and a baby on the way that this one girl cannot handle large scale retail orders and I refuse to stress myself out about that. Life’s too short! While it may seem “sad”, I have always been 100% okay with that and accepted that fact way early on, because I am also afraid that if I spread myself out too thin that I’d not be able to keep up the same level of quality for my customers. I don’t do GEEKSOAP to make gobs of money. Sure it’s nice, but I do GEEKSOAP as a labor of love without relying on it as a source of income. Why? Because I enjoy handcrafting something that expresses my geeky interests and makes people happy. That makes ME happy. I’d rather shut down completely than allow GEEKSOAP to become too commercial or let my quality slip because I have to rush to keep afloat. I won’t allow it to get out of control. I learned the importance of saying “no” even when I wanted to take on some of the amazing wholesale opportunities I’ve been offered because I don’t want GEEKSOAP to lose its small, independent handmade business identity… and I know me, if I said “yes” to everything I’ve been offered, I’d not be physically able to give the attention to detail that every bar deserves as well as keep up with online sales. I’m sorry if you’ve queried me about selling my soap in your stores and I’ve turned you down; I want you to understand where I’m coming from to know why. :)

As if that wasn’t sappy enough for you, I also wanted to express my most sincere gratitude to ALL of you for your love and support the past few weeks. A lot of you know my husband spent a week in the hospital, and the unknown and then waiting for answers was hard! You guys were there for us when it was scary, and you were still there to celebrate with us when they figured out what was wrong. You’ve still been there for us as he’s been recovering, and we can’t thank you enough. Really. This week has  been magical; Lucas is finally on the mend AND we found out our geekling on the way is a BOY! The outpouring of love and congratulations we received was jaw dropping. Not that this pregnant geek needs more reason to be emotional, but just know that your support has been so appreciated. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Sorry for all of the sappiness, but I truly look back to this past year and the growth and the support I’ve experienced, and I’m overwhelmed with love and appreciation for you all. I have a hard time fathoming your awesomeness. I’ve met so many of you via Twitter and Facebook and in person at conventions like Gen Con and Dragon Con, too; I’ve even made some of the most amazing friends because of it, who I hold very dear to my heart. I am so thankful! Thanks for making GEEKSOAP’s anniversary (and everything else going on in my life these days!) something to celebrate. #happy

Don’t forget: use CELEBRATE all week long at geeksoap.net for 30% off your entire order! <3

Buy a Soap, Save Boobies!

Back in December, my boss asked me about breast cancer awareness soap and whether I could make her some that she could order to give to the team members of their annual Race for the Cure team that supports her mom, Ginny. I found a suitable mold from my supplier and made a few bars as an example. The team’s motto became “Clean Up for a Cure” with soapy inspiration.

This week I registered to join Ginny’s Crew and help Clean Up for a Cure. Me and my 7 month pregnant belly will be proudly walking in the Komen Indy Race for the Cure in downtown Indianapolis on April 16, 2011. I’m doing all I can to help raise money for breast cancer research and education by inviting my friends and family to walk with us, and encouraging donations towards my personal sponsorship that goes towards the overall team goal for Ginny.

Want to Help?
Starting this week I’m making the breast cancer awareness soaps available for sale at geeksoap.net, and you can buy one (or more!) between now and April 15, 2011. Purchasing a bar is a 100% direct donation towards our team fundraising goal just in time for the Race for the Cure.

Follow our progress on my personal page at the Komen Indy Race for the Cure fundraising site.

When you add a Clean Up for a Cure soap to your cart, you have the option to make your donation anonymous OR you can choose to include your name with the donation. When these soaps are ordered, I will personally go and donate 100% of the soap purchase (all $10!) right to my Race for the Cure fundraising page, and either list your name as the donor (if specified) or list your donation anonymously – however you chose when checking out. And if you choose to have your name included, I will go by the default name on your Paypal account, though you can specify a Twitter handle or nickname in the notes to seller when checking out if you’d rather use that instead. You’ll be able to start seeing donor contributions listed on my Race for the Cure site within 24 hours of purchase.

The best part? 75% of the money raised stays in Indiana for breast cancer education and research. The other 25% goes towards national breast cancer research and advocacy. Which means 100% of your donations are helping to end breast cancer forever!

Please help me reach my personal goal, which helps Ginny’s Crew reach their team goal, which means more help in the battle against breast cancer. You can purchase a Clean Up for a Cure soap OR sponsor the team & I directly in the Race for the Cure this April if you’d like to specify a different amount. No donation amount is too small, and every penny counts! And if you’re local, why not register to come walk with us? We’d love to have you.

The Clean Up for a Cure soaps are made from 100% all natural, vegan friendly ingredients. They weigh roughly 5oz, and are approximately 3″ x 2.5″. Each bar of soap smells of soothing, comforting lavender.

Two Ways to Donate, Three Ways to Support!
Buy Clean Up for a Cure Soaps – 100% of the soap purchase price ($10/each) is immediately put towards my fundraising goal.

Sponsor me directly via my Race for the Cure fundraising page to specify a different donation dollar amount. Remember, no amount is too small, and every penny helps and is appreciated!

Register to participate (walk, run, or sleep!) in the Komen Indy Race for the Cure on April 16, 2011.

Thank You!
Thank you for supporting breast cancer research and our Clean Up for a Cure team – especially Ginny!

#DKContest Winners!

Congratulations to the two random winners of my #DKContest to win a FREE bar(rel) of my newest soap creation, the Clean of Kong!

After starting the contest on Monday, I kept track of all those who entered via Twitter as well as who commented on the contest blog entry. I used a random number generator to pick the winners, and one random winner was pulled from the tweets while one random winner was pulled from the blog comments. (Numerically, in order they were tweeted/posted starting with 1 for the first tweet/post.) Thank you to all who entered… and now… drum roll please!

Twitter winner: @robocake33!

Blog winner: Melissa!

Congratulations to both winners; you will be contacted shortly (via Twitter or email you gave when you commented on the blog post, so watch your email, Melissa!) with a notification and request for your mailing address so that I can ship your Donkey Kong soap out ASAP!

Thanks to all who participated :) Having a contest was so much fun – I’ll be sure to get back into the swing of more regular giveaways soon because giving goodies away was a blast! <3 Until next time… keep clean!

New Clean of Kong Soap & Contest!

After several long months, I’m finally able to share a new geeky soap… Clean of Kong: A Fistful of Bubbles! This Donkey Kong inspired soap has been on my mind since last fall when my dad sent me a link he thought would give me some new soap ideas. It was a list of classic games and how they’ve stood the test of time, and I saw Donkey Kong on the list. I was immediately transported back in time where I was a kid playing Donkey Kong on the Atari at my grandma’s house. The first thing that popped in my mind when I thought of DK and soap was… a barrel! Of course! Barrels are the hallmark of the Donkey Kong game series, and I could picture this beautiful soap in my mind.

Fast forward to the present, and I finally am unveiling the Donkey Kong inspired barrel soap in all its glory. I am really proud! It took me several mold attempts to get it just right, and I’m finally happy with how my vision turned out. When I was trying to decide which scent to use, the only thing that made sense (scents?) was banana. Those of you that know me know that I don’t exactly like bananas. In fact, I loathe  bananas. The taste, the consistency… everything. But considering how much a role bananas play in the Donkey Kong series, it seemed like the best choice, and nothing else seemed like a better fit. I went with a banana coconut fragrance oil, and the final result came together so well that I think you’re really going to love it.

CONTEST TO WIN A FREE BAR OF CLEAN OF KONG GEEKSOAP

With the holiday season being so busy, it feels like it’s been AGES since I’ve given away some FREE soap! Time to remedy that. There are TWO ways to enter:

1. Comment on this blog post and tell me your favorite classic video game of all time.
2. Tweet this message on Twitter:

I am entering to win @geeksoap’s new Donkey Kong soap: Clean of Kong! http://tinyurl.com/4o5y2ft #geek #DKcontest

It’s important that you include the URL and the #DKcontest tag so that I can collect all entries easily. You may enter each method once a day all week; I will choose one winner from both the Twitter entries and the blog comment entries to give away two bars of the Clean of Kong soap. I’ll run the contest for a couple days and see how it goes, closing by week’s end. Contest open to U.S. residents only, sorry!

Tell your friends! RT like crazy! Comment away! Spread the love <3 Good luck :)

And special love & thanks to @CapSteveRogers for his help & inspiration with the final finishing touches of this project <3

Clean of Kong: A Fistful of Bubbles GEEKSOAP Geek Soap

Introducing a new GEEKSOAP original! Clean of Kong: A Fistful of Bubbles!

Donkey Kong is one of the legendary classics in the video game world. Forget Billy Mitchell or Steve Wiebe… now YOU can beat the record high score for cleanliness and go down in history forever as the Clean of Kong!

This fabulous soap is an iconic homage to an arcade classic, based on the token barrels found throughout the entire game series. It was custom designed and created by me, so you can be sure your soap is lovingly handmade and one-of-a-kind!

These unique barrel shaped soaps stand approximately 2.75″ tall and are nearly 3″ across at their widest point, weighing in at a whopping 7 oz each! They smell of plump banana bunches with a hint of sweet coconut, and you’ll love that every bar is made from 100% all natural ingredients. As always, GEEKSOAP bars are also vegan friendly!

This is just one design of many in my GEEKSOAP line. Check out the Soap category for more. My fun soaps are available for purchase at http://www.geeksoap.net

Family Life 2010 Scrapbook Complete

Amongst all of the soap news and designs, you (and I) may have forgotten that I also spend a fair amount of time digital scrapbooking, too! For each of the past 3 years I have created a big, single digital scrapbook that encompasses the entire year in its pages. I’m excited to have finished album #3 this weekend! Family Life 2010 is finally complete. Below are a few example pages, check out the full album on Flickr.

Previous years: Family Life 2009 | Family Life 2008

The Family Life albums are each between 40 and 50 pages of digital scrapbooking goodness, showing off major milestones and events that took place throughout the year. In addition to the Family Life albums, I have also created scrapbooks for other things; my nephew’s first year, my wedding, and other family albums for gifts and in memory sentiments. Not ALL of them are online, but you can find a few other completed albums over on my family Flickr account… such as our Wedding Album, the album I made as a wedding gift for Lucas, and our Christmas 2007 album; my first digital scrapbook ever.

So what on earth do I use to digital scrapbook? For those of you new to my craft blog in the past year or so with the rise of GEEKSOAP fame, you may be wondering. For those of you that have been around for several years, you know how much I am in love with My Memories Suite, the greatest digital scrapbooking software of all time. Literally. As a quick backstory, I learned of My Memories Suite back in 2007; I had moved to Canada and was waiting (patiently) on my immigration status and then finding a job. This meant I was home during the day a lot, and one day in October, I got sucked into an infomercial for this amazing new digital scrapbooking software. I’m normally pretty skeptical of infomercials, but My  Memories Suite looked like the real deal. It just so happened that I had been physically scrapbooking for years prior, and was currently in the middle of scrapbooking my Canadian adventures since moving to the great white north. The problem was that I’d run out of supplies or glue or cute embellishments or paper and just hadn’t gotten around to buying more. I had taken over an entire cabinet of drawers in our basement in Calgary with scraps of papers and various scrapbooking supplies and it was a mess. The idea of digital scrapbooking and using digital products that I could design myself or download from others was intriguing. By the end of the infomercial I had already ordered. The only problem then was that My Memories Suite was new and only available in the U.S. No worries; we were planning to visit my family in Indiana for Christmas. I had My Memories Suite shipped to my parents and patiently awaited for December so that I could get my hands on it.

The rest is history; I fell in love with My Memories Suite at Christmas of 2007 the minute I got my hands on it, and was able to quickly and elegantly scrap our Christmas trip home with family. When we got back to Canada, I got caught up and busy with a teaching job, so MMS took a backseat for a few months. But then I began working on a 2008 Family Life album with the software, determined to leave physical scrapbooking behind from that point forward. The only problem I had was that there wasn’t a lot of info out there on the software; even with the huge wealth of info on the Internet, My Memories Suite was so new of a product that there just wasn’t any good resources out there for it; no tutorials, no tips & tricks, and no additional info on usage. I decided in May of 2008 to write my personal review of the My Memories Suite software after using it for several months, and then I began creating my own My Memories Suite video tutorials on how to get the most out of the software. Over the years, I have made 5 video tutorials for My Memories Suite, which have been recognized by the company itself with great praise. (I even had the president and CEO email me over this past winter holiday as I was putting the finishing touches on a gift album I was making.)

Something interesting to note is how my albums have gotten better over the years. I’ve been using My Memories Suite since December 2007, and every year I use it to scrap my life I get better and better and there’s more and more awesome digital scrapbooking resources out there to use with the software. DigiFree, which I talked about in my review back in 2008, has since moved to Craft Crave, but they are still out there and full of awesome downloadable digital scrapping freebies every day that you can use with My Memories Suite. Not to mention, My Memories Suite itself has designers that create beautiful new kits and templates that you can purchase via the online store. I’ve got a few bookmarked in my wish list until next month when we find out whether we’re having a boy or girl so I can get started working on my baby book.

Speaking of expecting our first child, that’s what’s inspired me lately to get moving on finishing my Family Life 2010 album so that I could begin work on baby stuff. Call it nesting, call it me being organized and/or OCD, but I can’t wait to include the geekling in our Family Life 2011 album and create a separate brag book album for my family to celebrate the birth of our first child. I’ve fallen in love with dinosaurs as a “theme” (boy or girl!) and found some really fantastic scrap kits out there last night that I purchased to use with My Memories Suite. I can’t wait to start working on those layouts!

Interested in My Memories Suite? Read my review and then go and purchase it – due to my affiliation and recognition from the company for my tutorials (and I literally help a handful of people daily via email with MMS questions!), I’ve been given the ability to offer a discount if you are interested in purchasing the software! What are you waiting for? Time to get scrapping!

Hockey Geek Regulation Puck GEEKSOAP Geek Soap

“Oh! The good old hockey game,
Is the best game you can name;
And the best game you can name,
Is the good old hockey game!”

While not the first of its kind, Hockey Geek puck soap was something that I had created privately to give to family and friends this holiday season, and it was met with so much enthusiasm that I’ve decided to make it available to the general public for a limited run. Get yours while hockey season lasts!

Soap has official hockey puck regulation dimensions and weighs approximately 4.2oz. Vegan friendly and made from 100% all natural ingredients! Scented with a subtle yet rugged scent that reminds me of the crisp air in the Canadian Rockies.

Available at geeksoap.net during hockey season!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, readers!

It’s been so busy around here at The Pink Toque the last few months! If you recall, back in October I officially opened a second storefront for my crochet wares – specifically, my crochet Cthulhu accessories. Since then, it seemed the holidays snuck up on me, and I was busy working my tail off with GEEKSOAP Christmas orders and cranking out as many crochet Cthulhu toques and scarves as my fingers could handle in between soap pours. The result? GEEKSOAP and The Pink Toque as a whole had an ASTRONOMICALLY successful holiday sales season! I was literally working two full time jobs the last two months in preparation for Christmas; my normal teaching job by day, and then soap and crochet queen by night. There were nights I worked around the clock to keep up with orders and do my best to get everything out ASAP. A HUGE thank you to all of my customers and supporters; I’ve received nothing but praise and super awesome emails from you all as you received your orders and/or as your recipients received the geeky gifts that you purchased for them from one of my stores. It’s made my holiday very special indeed, and all of your love has really warmed my heart. <3

The stores both “closed” on December 21 and will re-open on January 3; I’m finally taking a well deserved break and recuperating from the madness of the holiday rush so that I can restock all of my supplies and products for both stores.  I’m also using this break to focus on creating some new geeky soap designs that I think you’ll like a lot when I release them in early January. :) Thank you so much for making this season so amazingly successful!

On a personal note, you may have heard that my husband and I are expecting our first child in June. We could not be happier to finally be starting a family! Thanks for all of the well wishes we’ve received since we made our announcement public on December 1; this is going to be one geeky baby! We’re expecting the geekling to arrive sometime at the end of June and you can keep up with all of the baby details over on our personal blog. We’ve also put together a baby page on our personal site that we can update along the way to keep our friends and family in the loop with info. We’re really looking forward to the adventure of becoming parents for the first time!

So that’s it around here! So much good stuff on both my small business(es) and personal fronts that I can’t help but be thankful for all of the people who have supported me along the way. I am truly blessed! *love* Look for some new goodies coming to GEEKSOAP in January and thanks for all of your holiday orders. Hope you and yours had an a wonderful Christmas full of awesome and win. Happy New Year!