Handmade Beauty Connection
May 13, 2002
Happy Mother's Day!! (Yeah, I know it was yesterday, but I decided to enjoy it for an extra day! Besides, every woman is the mother of SOMETHING (including cats, dogs, businesses, gardens, ideas) and/or SOMEONE(s), so happy mother's day to all of you lady subscribers!
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This Week's Sponsor:
The Handmade Beauty Network

HBN is the established, respected voice of the handmade toiletries industry. Our membership benefits harness the shared energy and vitality of HBN members to address issues of consumer education, regulation, marketing and public relations, freeing HBN members to concentrate on achieving their business goals.

...OK, that's the fancy way to say it. But the bottom line is this:

HBN wants your company to join us! We ROCK for small business!

To join, click here!

1. HBN Update: Welcome New Members & HBN Members On The Move!!
2. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win a sample of one of my wonderful new facial oils!
3. Create The Life You Love™: On Being A Mom & A Business Woman ... tips to help you survive both!!
4. New At MakeYourCosmetics.com: Lavender Lemon Facial Toner
5. Handmade Beauty Product Review: by Donna Maria

~ Welcome New HBN Members!

Sublime Escentials, Inc. | Lauren R. Ramy | Connecticut
* customized eye shadows, bronzing powders, eyeliners, blushes and lipsticks made with natural minerals

KARE Handcrafted Soap | Karilee Valeriano | Montana
* Soap blended with natural base oils, essential oils, spices, powders, shea butter and quality fragrance oils

Boozelle Botanicals | Michele Beachman | California
* aromatherapy, botanical and herbal based products with no synthetic fragrances

TurtleWoman Herbs, LLC | Barb Porlides | Connecticut
* facial creams, scrubs, lip balms, salves, etc., made by hand in small batches from the finest ingredients

Lebermuth  | Alan S. Brown | Indiana
* the best in essential and fragrance oils for nearly a century, custom blending available

~ HBN Members On The Move!

HBN member Vanessa Nixon Klein of Herbs Of Grace reports that her Pregnancy Care Gift Set is featured in the spring edition of Eziba catalog featuring handmade products from around the world, and on their Web site. The featured "Soothing Expectant Mother's Collection" includes Herbs of Grace Pregnancy Massage Oil, Calendula Chamomile Soap and Blossoming Belly and Baby Bottom Butter. Congratulations Vanessa!!

Learn more about our members and their exciting activities by visiting their Web sites through HBN's Online Member Directory, now with 4 ways to search: (1) by state/country; (2) by member business name; (3) by keyword search; or (4) using our new alphabetical listings!

Last Week's Question: Who is credited with penning this lovely poem featuring fragrant herbs?

Balm brings you sympathy and Marjoram joy
Sage is long life ... Sweet Wooduff augurs well for health ~
A blessing richer far than wealth.
While Lavender means deep devotion,
Herb of sweet omen, Rosemary conveys
Affection and remembrance all your days.
May Heaven and Earth and Man combine
To keep these blessings ever thine.

Last Week's Answer: Rachel Page Elliot

This Week's Question: It means "similar suffering." What is it?

Be the first to submit the correct answer and win a sample of one of my wonderful new facial oils!

Please read the contest rules here before submitting your entry.

While time does not permit me to respond personally to all entrants, the winner will be notified by email and their name posted at HBN's home page.

Last week's article was the first in a 3-part series on the art of being a mommy and a business woman. In it, I described the first of 3 things I do regularly to achieve and maintain balance in my life as a mom and a business owner: Making The Glass Full. If you missed that article, you can read it here. This week, in Part II of the series, I focus on Surrendering To The Moment!

2. Surrender To The Moment

In the short time I have been a mom, just over 6 months now, I have learned one thing faster and more definitively than anything else. That is, if I fight against the tidal wave that my sweet daughter sometimes is, I always lose. Isn't it the same in business sometimes? There are moments when, as happy as we are to get that big order, it's a huge job to get it done on time and in accordance with our customer's expectations. And of course, there are always those unexpected things to contend with as a small business owner ... running out of jars, fussing with a broken printer, needing just a smidgeon more lavender oil than you have to re-create your scent blend exactly as the customer liked it, and - of course - having our wee ones interrupt a *very* important business call! So how do we respond? Fight it, kick back, get mad and resist? Hopefully not, since those futile responses are a total waste of time!! So what do we do? We just go with the flow ... surrender to the moment and go with it to get the job done.

“Surrender” is a term we are more used to hearing in the context of a war, as in surrendering to the enemy, or even in the context of love, as in surrendering to a sweet moment with our partner or spouse. But today, I’m talking about surrendering to the moment – the sometimes crazed moment – that is my precious little girl.

Right now, if I begin to try to accomplish a business related task, and I am alone with my daughter, I simply no longer expect to finish that task. I surrender to that ahead of time so I'm not disappointed. There was a time when I expected somehow that I would get everything done just as I always had. (I hear all you veteran moms laughing at me in cyber-land!!) Back then, I would grow very angry when some need of Vanessa's arose that required that I leave my task undone. I had to go and take care of her need, and come back to accomplish my task later … maybe. It could be later that morning, later that day or later that week ... sometimes never! Whatever the case, before I surrendered to that reality, I was indeed a basket case … and balance or anything close to it was nowhere in sight. So I quickly learned to surrender to the moment, whatever it is. If I know I simply must get something done and I am on a time frame that has no room, I find someone to help me with my wee one so I can accomplish my goal.

Of course surrendering is easier said than done, but when done while simultaneously making the glass full, I can literally feel myself calm down, moving closer to that thing I call balance. As I make the glass full, appreciate the moment and surrender to it, I become more aware of the tenderness I am privileged to experience when my daughter needs me. Sometimes she’s wet. She could also be hungry. Other times, she just wants my attention and no one else’s attention will satisfy her. Sometimes, she doesn’t want to go to sleep, so she cries because she thinks she can "get over" on me. Then again, sometimes, she just feels like crying. After all, she is a girl and she comes with that "drama thing"! Woe! How many of us just feel better after a good cry? We may not know what we’re crying about, or how long it may last, but after it’s done, we feel better. So, when she’s just crying for no reason at all, I surrender to that moment too, take her in my arms and see if I can enjoy the fact that, at that time in my life … at that precise second of all the seconds I will live  … another human being was crying and I was the only person who could help her feel better. What an honor that is, and I surrender to it completely.

And then, if it's still the work day, I get back to work ... I surrender to that too!

So, I surrender! I make the glass full and enjoy the sense of peace, harmony and satisfaction that comes only from knowing that, whatever the moment, I am doing at that precise time the one thing that I am supposed to be doing. There is no peace quite like that peace!

Next Week: Be Flexible Yet Decisive Based On Pre-Determined Priorities

Lavender Lemon Facial Toner is a must as we approach the summer months. Green yet citrus-y, this is suitable for any skin type and smells fabulous due to the lavender, lemon myrtle, geranium, lemon and ylang ylang blend. Yum!! 

When you visit MakeYourCosmetics.com, it's easy to buy the ingredients you need to make your goodies by clicking on our Partner links:

Essential Wholesale: natural unscented cosmetic bases, pure essential oils, absolutes, carrier oils such as avocado, virgin coconut, sweet almond, jojoba, shea butter and specialty packaging supplies!

Bramble Berry, Inc.: over 80 different, fully tested fragrance oils (including the exclusive "Relaxing" and "Energy" blends), over 250 soap molds, essential oils and unscented bases.