Etsy Treasury ~ November 11, 2010

Etsy Treasury ~ November 11, 2010
Originally uploaded by Lisa at Serah's

Tressie from briarroseboutique feature my Christmas Reindeer Cupcake Soap in an Etsy treasury called To My Deer with love! Isn't that such a cute name!? She has featured several deer inspired creations from 16 different Etsy artists.

Tressie has some of the cutest outfits in her shop for little girls. My favorite is the Boutique Lady Bug Peasant romper set. Head on over to Etsy to check out this fabulous treasury and many other items for some early holiday shopping!

Etsy Treasury ~ Some Pretty Little Cakes

Etsy Treasury ~ August 21, 2010
Originally uploaded by Lisa at Serah's

Brittany from BabyDeary featured my Chocolate Cupcake Soap in an Etsy treasury called Some Pretty Little Cakes. Brittany's adorable shop has all sorts of items for expecting moms and babies! My favorites from her of course are the cute washcloth cupcakes! Head on over to Etsy and check out BabyDeary, Serahs, and the other pretty little cake creations!

Etsy Treasury ~ Shop Local, Santa Barbara, California

Etsy Treasury - August 2, 2010
Originally uploaded by Lisa at Serah's

One of the things I love about Santa Barbara is the amazing talent you'll find here. If you don't believe me, pay us a visit or save yourself the airfare or the expensive gas costs and check out this Etsy treasury called Shop Local, Santa Barbara created by Sharon from sharonschock. Sharon featured my Chocolate Cupcake Soap in this treasury. Sharon creates incredible oil paintings. My favorite from her shop is The Night Light.

Click here for visit the Etsy treasury and check out this great collection of work from Santa Barbara artists.

Etsy Treasury ~ Sweet Treats

Etsy Treasury - July 30, 2010
Originally uploaded by Lisa at Serah's

My Yellow Cupcake Soap was featured in an Etsy Treasury called Sweet Treats by Tamara of MemoryBeadDesigns. Tamara has craftiness in her genes. She loves to use it to brighten others lives as much as possible and she sure did brighten my life when she informed me that she added my cupcake soap to her delightful Sweet Treats treasury.

Thanks so much Tamara!

Check out my cupcake soap and the other sweet treats creations here.

Etsy Treasury Africa

Etsy Treasury - July 8, 2010
Originally uploaded by Lisa at Serah's

My Africa Soap has been featured in an Etsy treasury. Taryn from OhDanger loves Africa and she has volunteered there in Tanzania. Lucky girl! I haven't had the pleasure of visiting the continent yet but it's a goal of mine. Check out my Africa Soap and the other Africa inspired creations in the treasury here.

The Secret Life of Cupcakes

I had no idea that cupcakes and many other normal everyday things had a secret life until I discovered Bent Objects created by Terry Border in my Popular Photography magazine this past weekend. I love the way Terry makes everyday things come to life in extraordinary ways. I've been going through pages and pages of his blog looking at all his amazing creations and I've been soaking up all the inspiration. I'd like to do a bent objects inspired photo of my cupcake soaps. Then I wondered if Terry had done any photos with cupcakes. I figured that he had to have because everybody loves cupcakes! I scoured his blog and found these cute cupcake bent object creations that I'd like to share with you.




photo courtesy Tim Wilsbach

The Brown Rice Family

I love finding out about new soapmakers especially the ones that have an exciting story that accompanies their work so I would like to also introduce you to The Brown Rice Family.

The Etsy video team has invited experimental and documentary filmmakers to contribute to their original video series, Handmade Portraits, Process and There’s No Place Like Here. The multi-talented photographer Pascal Perich produced this first guest filmmaker episode on soap and music makers, Brown Rice Family.

The Brown Rice Family is a multi-ethnic group that makes soap from Japanese brown rice in Brooklyn, NY. They also create music together!

Click here to watch the full video and read the article on Etsy's Storque blog.

Etsy Treasury Cupcake Dreams

Etsy Treasury Cupcake Dreams
Originally uploaded by serahsonline

My Mini Purple Cupcake Soap has been featured in an Etsy Treasury called Cupcake Dreams! I told you everybody loves cupcakes! Check out other cute cupcake creations from the other artists such as the cupcake washclothes, cupcake tags, cupcake necklaces, and those absolutely cute felt cupcake favors!

The mini cupcake soaps make great favors for birthday parties. Serah's Mini Purple Cupcake Soap is available in my Etsy shop and at SerahsOnline.com for the low price of $3.50.

Etsy Treasury For a Good Cause

Etsy Treasury For a Good Cause
Originally uploaded by serahsonline

My Black and Brown Africa Soap has been featured in an Etsy treasury called For a Good Cause...BNR by socialbug69. I am so honored to be featured among the other talented Etsy artists that have decided to donate all or part of their proceeds to a good cause.

Every year I donate to The Global Fund for AIDS awareness. I was inspired by JoinRed to create my Africa Soap to also benefit AIDS awareness. I carved the model and make my own molds for the Africa Soap. The Africa Soap comes in Black and Brown and Red and White and both can be found in my Etsy shop. $1 from the sale of each of these soaps goes towards a donation to The Global Fund which I make in December.

Some of the other causes supported and mentioned in this treasury are Autism, Breast Cancer Research, Ethiopian, Korean, and African adoptions, the education of impoverished girls in India, the Layla Grace fundraiser, the Kevin Maher Memorial Scholarship, the future of Tanzania, HospiceCare, and Haiti relief efforts. Please visit the treasury, leave comments, and support good people donating to good causes.

Featured on Santa Barbara Female Entrepreneurs Blog

I have the absolute pleasure of being involved with the Santa Barbara Female Entrepreneurs (SBFE) and being featured on the SBFE Blog!  Santa Barbara Female Entrepreneurs are innovators who actively participate in the creation, operation and management of their businesses.

I would like to personally thank Jennifer Bragg for being the founder of this amazing group and all of her hard work from arranging our gatherings, maintaining our blog, tweeting about our group, and all of the extra behind the scenes things she does that makes this group so great!

Check out my feature on the SBFE blog and please, please, pretty please leave comments.  It would be such a nice gesture from you that would be met with such heart-felt gratitude from me if you'd leave a comment on the SBFE blog to let us know you've read our features.

Are Serah's soaps sold in stores?

Why, absolutely!

I love shopping online to avoid the crowds and long lines in stores but sometimes, there are times when I need last-minute birthday gifts, Easter gifts, or Christmas gifts and I can't wait for it to be shipped to me. Therefore, I can completely relate to some of my customers who run into this dilemma. In those times, I go to the website I am interested in to see where I can find the company's items online.

At Serah's, you can do that very same thing. Visit our Retailers page to see where Serah's cupcake soaps are sold in a store near you. If you visit a retailer and they don't carry the exact Serah's soap you are looking for, just request it and I'm sure the store will be happy to meet your needs. If Serah's soaps are not sold in your neck of the woods, I'd love for you to offer a suggestion to a retailer in your town or leave a suggestion for me in the comments.

Head on over to Serah's now to find out where you can find Serah's cupcake soaps.

Easter Sale 2010 - Save 15%

Bunny Corn Cupcake Soap
Originally uploaded by serahsonline

Serah's Easter Sale is going on now until April 5th. Save 15% off select items. No coupon is necessary.  Check out our specials now and Serah's.

The Craft Revolution Continues at the Pink Parlour Festival

The Pink Parlour Festival was my first event of the year and I knew since last year that I was submitting my application again to participate in 2010. As I expected, I had a great time at the Pink Parlour Festival this year! It was held at the beautiful Santa Anita Park on the same day as a race which is an added bonus (especially for the hubbies and horse lovers). It was such a beautiful day and the traffic was not at all bad on my drive down to Arcadia. When I arrived, I set up my table as usual and was lucky enough to find an electrical outlet because I have started using a more technological approach to taking sales at shows.



At 11 am, the patrons started arriving and I was immediately back into the fun loving activity of being a vendor at a craft show. The people at Pink Parlour, the vendors and the audience, just seem to exude this amazing energy that is so contagious that you can't help but to catch it yourself. I must say that I was definitely feeling the love as vendors and customers stopped by and said to me, "I saw you here last year and I thought your soaps were so cute and unique!" or "I saw you here last year and I bought a soap from you and loved it!" It was great to catch up with other vendors that I haven't seen in a while and meet new vendors...all with some amazing products themselves.

Other than good people, there's nothing better than having good music and good food at an event. Since the Pink Parlour Festival is held on the same day as a race, the food court is open which has some delicious food. I had the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and it was delish! The DJ is definitely rocking and I must admit, had me rocking too! She played Michael Jackson and James Brown back to back and I've got to love her for that!



There was a fashion show that was held at the event and unfortunately, I missed it but I'm hoping to catch some pictures of it on the internet. The day ended at 7 pm and I was in my car by 7:20. That's one other good thing I love about the Pink Parlour, move in and move out is just as easy as blinking.

There are always a few moments that I remember from Pink Parlour that will hopefully stick with me forever. Well, they're going to now because I'm writing them on the blog.

The first one was "Miss Pink." "Miss Pink" was this little girl around 7-8 years old with one of the cutest, sassiest, charming personality of a little girl could have. She came over to my table and said, "Oh those are cupcakes?" And I said, "They're soap cupcakes." And she said, "They smell really good." And I said, "Thank you." And she said, "I think I want one of the pink ones. Which one has some pink?" I then pointed out the Neapolitan Cupcake Soap to her and she said, "Ok, it has a little bit of pink. Pink's my color, you know?" I said, "I see," as I admired her cute little outfit in pink and black. Then she said, "Can't you tell? Look at my eyes." As I leaned in closer to notice her pink eyeshadow, she batted her little eyelashes.

The second one was Anna from Dulce De Tamarindo who reads my blog! She's the second person who has approached me at a show and told me that she reads my blog. I was so happy. I kept saying to myself as she left my booth, "She reads my blog! She reads my blog!"

The third one was when I did the interview for Indiespot.tv. I will be adding that to the blog in the next few weeks.

Well, that's my recap of the Pink Parlour Festival that was held this year. You can take a look at the rest of my photos in my Flickr album.

Event: The Pink Parlour March 14, 2010

What: The Pink Parlour Festival
When: March 14, 2010 from 11 am - 7 pm
Where: Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, CA

Serah's will be at the Pink Parlour Festival for the 2nd year in a row! I'll be there selling cupcake soaps, of course! The Pink Parlour Festival is a unique one-of-a-kind event that completely caters to women of all ages. They anticipate that 2010’s festival will more than double the attendance reached last year. A fashion show hosting young, new, hot designers has been added to the list of activities. The Pink Parlour is a festival celebrating the creativity of women. Their objective is to unite women and collaborate talent, bringing together unique hand crafted items and art, at affordable prices. It’s girl power at its best with female fronted bands and djs entertaining all day. Goody bags filled with samples, treats and coupons will be given out to the first 200 attendees. So ladies, come join the craft revolution!


Tickets are $8 for General Admission
Event Ticket will be available at the door for $12
Kids under 12 get in FREE with parent or guardian

Santa Anita Park is located at 285 W Huntington Drive, Arcadia, CA 91007.  Click HERE for directions.

Serah's Anniversary Sale - 25% OFF

We're celebrating Serah's 2nd anniversary and we would like you to thank and share with you, our valued customer!  Save 25% off everything at Serah's.  Sale ends March 13, 2010.  No coupon necessary.  Browse through our selection of famous cupcake soaps and artistic soaps.  Shop for birthday gifts, Easter gifts and basket stuffers, or thank you gifts.  Serah's has something for every occasion.  Visit Serah's now.

Serah's Cupcake Soaps at Local Collection

Serah's Cupcake Soaps - Local Collection
Originally uploaded by serahsonline

Have you heard? Serah's cupcake soaps are now sold at Local Collection in the Glendale Galleria in Glendale, California. Local Collection sells bath and body products, apparel, accessories, and jewelry from emerging local designers. The boutique is located across from Nordstrom in the Glendale Galleria. Stop by Local Collection to check out Serah's cupcake soaps.

The More You Know: Henna Tattoos

My Black Henna Tattoo

A beautiful henna tattoo...I had always wanted to get one. For years, I had been indecisive about getting one, mostly because I could never choose the perfect design for me. I tried to get one in New York, Los Angeles, and my chance finally came a few weeks ago when I was in Costa Maya. My sister and I got beautiful henna tattoos and we were so excited to show them off! A few days later, my sister called me and asked if I was experiencing itching on my tattoo which I wasn't but almost a week later, as the tattoo started to fade, I noticed very tiny bumps appearing on areas where the tattoo was! That's when I was shocked! My sister seems to be allergic to anything but me, I'm allergic to virtually nothing!

So then I decided to do some research to see what the cause of the bumps were and found a very informative article on iVillage. The article states that "Black henna tattoos contain a chemical called para-phenylenediamine (PPD) that can cause serious skin reactions, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) warns."

PPD is commonly used in hair dyes and is also added to henna tattoos to increase the longevity of the tattoo. The US Food and Drug Administration prohibits the application of PPD directly on the skin because of its known health risks. Reactions to this chemical can range from mild eczema to permanent scarring. Each skin exposure to PPD increases your chances of a lifelong allergic reaction. The most alarming thing I read in the article is that the number of children receiving black henna tattoos is growing and most parents have no idea of the side effects.

The take away from this little lesson is "If you want to get a henna tattoo, make sure that it's only vegetable henna, not PPD-adulterated henna." Follow this link to read more.

I have learned my lesson and will be asking more questions about henna tattoos from now on.

Valentine's 2010 Sale at Serah's

Cupid Corn Cupcake Soap
Originally uploaded by serahsonline

Serah's Cupid Corn Cupcake Soap is now on sale for $11 at Serah's. The Mini Cupid Corn Cupcake Soap sells for $3.50. This cupcake soap is one of my best sellers! These cute cupcake soaps are perfect for Valentine's day. The soap is lightly scented with Pink Jasmine Musk and made from glycerin and shea butter soap. Give a unique gift this Valentine's day!

Etsy Treasury for Haiti

I have been featured in an Etsy treasury called Together for Haiti. Each artist is giving a portion of their proceeds to benefit the people of Haiti.  My donation will go to the American Red Cross.

Cupcake Soaps for Haiti

My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to the people in Haiti and their family members around the world. I have been watching the coverage on CNN daily. Today, I personally donated to the American Red Cross.
	Serah's will be donating 10% of sales from our Red Velvet Cupcake Soaps
	from January 17th to January 31st to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief.
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can. ~Sydney Smith To find ways to donate directly to specific charities, please visit CNN - Impact Your World.

Serah's New Look for the New Year

As Serah's marches forward, several changes have been made most notably my brand new design for my online boutique. I am proud to say that these enhancements will benefit existing and future customers. Please check out my new design at SerahsOnline.com and let me know what you think!

Last year, Serah’s cupcake line became the focal point of the company being featured on several websites, publications, and at local events. Being pleased with their reception, Serah’s cupcakes will remain in the foreground this year as I look forward to creating new cupcake design and fragrance combinations based upon customer comments.

Serah’s is also planning to bring our cupcake soap product line to stores near you.

As always, as James Brown said “on the good foot” is where Serah’s is starting this new year. I couldn’t have gotten this far without the loyalty and support of my customers and the encouragement of my fans and other business owners.