Childhood Cancer Awareness

Watch this video! This video has over 12,000 hits already!! This was done by two moms of a listserv that I belong to. Jonathan is the football player in the video. Please email congress by going to www.curesearch.org.
Thank you!!!!!

From the Mouth of Babes

Why Soap For Hope?

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Childhood Cancer Awareness
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I know this is a long read, but please take the time to read or skim this message.

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As most of you know, my oldest son is in his third year of treatment for leukemia(blood cancer). Well, we just got the news that he is now facing some new challenges and has been diagnosed with a debilitating bone disease called avascular necrosis. This has been caused by the large amount of steroids that are used in his treatment protocol. His hips and knees are affected and his knees have fractures and collapse. At the time we don't know exactly what he is facing, but are hopeful they can fix it over time with the least invasive measures.

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My youngest, who is six years old, and has been eavesdropping on conversations asked the other day if Jonathan was going to be ok. He has listened and of course sensed the tension in the home. I told him that the medicine is helping Jonathan get well from the cancer, but that sometimes the medicines that make people better can cause other other parts of the body to get sick. He responded by stating, "Well, I guess the scientists just need to work harder then." Out of the mouths of babes.

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So, I guess the child has explained why we do Soap For Hope. In recent years, the amount of funding for childhood cancer research has been declining. In response to the most recent cutbacks, the National Cancer Institute has decreased funding which severely impacts childhood cancer research. As a result, the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the world’s pre-eminent childhood cancer research organization, has been forced to put 20 new studies on hold and decrease enrollment in new clinical trials by more than 400 children next year. This is outrageous. What can we do? We can write to our congress people, we can tell others to write to their congress people, and we have to raise money ourselves. How can we not? How can we sit idle and not do something to save our children? First and foremost we want cures, and then we want the scientists to figure out how to cure without damaging the children's quality of life.

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Ok, off my soap box..LOL...Soap For Hope is curing and as you can see from above, we have a quartet! We are in the process of naming these beauties, but to make it simple we have: Chocolate Coffee, Chocolate Cinnamon, Chocolate Orange, and Chocolate Cherry Almond! In honor of children of all ages they are all mixed with Chocolate!! We will make these available at the beginning of September because September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. We will continue these through Christmas.

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We will also be bringing back holiday favorites and some new ones as well. If you are not signed up to receive the newsletter, please do so you can get the newest information and releases.

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Upcoming Shows:

October 20 is the Healthy Living Body, Mind and Spirit Show at Lifeways. I will update with further details as it gets closer.

Summer Is Here!

Hello!

It has been some time since I updated this blog. I am so sorry about that. There have been many new things in the works, and new things on the horizon as well. I love summer, and the sometimes lazy days that come with it. With school out, I feel like I have so much more time! I have only one - 6 week music class for kids with special needs to do the whole summer. My new semester doesn't start until fall. I love teaching music and look forward to it, but also need the break. My kids don't have a whole lot going on in the summer, and I love it! When fall starts I know everything will be super busy again with Kindermusik, art and craft shows, and the kids' activities that go along with school. I have been making a lot of skincare products and working on a lot of things with NaKee', but I can do it more at my own pace during the summer months. I can take time to test, experiment, and perfect the products. I also feel like I have time to "reconnect" with my children too. For my own children, I have always taken on the attitude that kids need down time, they need summer to recharge. They have their activities, but not too many. I don't think kids "play" enough, and they need to be bored once in awhile. It is inevitable that the school year will bring much busyness and responsibilities. I think balance is key.

On to NaKee'! It has been over a year now that we have been in business officially, and I am very happy with the developments of the company. We have been wanting to branch into the wholesale market and are very happy to have landed our first wholesale account with a floral and gift shop in Stockbridge. We are hoping the products sell well there, and that we can establish a long time relationship with them. There are a couple more possibilities here in Jackson, and we are getting ready to mail some letters to potential wholesale clients. We want to get the word out about NaKee'. We know how wonderful our products are and want to share them with everyone! We know there are several companies out there just like ours, but we are confident in the products, and we know the care that goes into developing and manufacturing them.

We have our first products in our Wee NaKee' line, and our Team NaKee' lines. We have the Twinkle soap(pictured above) and our Healing Sport Soap. We plan to expand these lines with moisturizers, powders, etc.

We are also working on some neat ideas for Soap For Hope. We plan to keep the cafe' mocha scent, but to also add to that some other chocolate mixes and have 4 scents to choose from at a time. We will be giving to CureSearch again because the government has cut funding for cancer research, and the first to go will be children's cancer research, especiallly the more rare cancers. At a time when we are on the horizon of breakthroughs, they are cutting funding. Very sad! We need to keep advocating for the population that cannot speak for themselves...our children, our future. I am forever grateful for the research that has taken place in the past. My son would not be here today if it weren't for that research. We need to keep it going because children are still suffering and dying because of the awful beast of cancer. Our son has a projected end of treatment date of December 20 of this year. We are hoping and praying this will be the end of it and he can go on with his life!

Even though we want the summer to last, we are excited and getting prepared for the fall and holiday season testing new scents and bringing back some of last year's popular holiday fragrances. We are planning to bring back Autumn Earth, Ginger Twist, Epiphany, Spiced Plum, Caramel Taffy Apple and Citrus Balsam.

Enjoy your summer. Beauty is all around us in nature and our family and friends.

Candy

I Have a PINK CRUSH on You!

Hello!!

Wow, the weather has finally screamed "Winter"!! It is freezing cold in this neck of the woods. Thankfully we were one of the lucky few who's power didn't go out. I am so thankful for that. I have been making so much soap lately trying to restock after the Christmas.

Here is what is new and on the curing rack at this very moment:

• Perfect Pear-A lovely true pear scent.
• Pink Aloe-This is a specialty spa bar made with pink clay which gently draws the toxins from the skin without stripping the oils; aloe which soothes the skin; and rose geranium essential oil which has a heavenly rosey scent and is such a great face oil.
• Wooded Olive-This is a man's bar that women love too. This has a wooded olive blossom scent that is sure to please anyone who likes a clean woodsy scent. This is also packed with french green clay which exfoliates and draws dirt and toxins from the skin.
• Rhassoul Mud Glow(this may be the name, still working on it)-Now, this is a special bar! Rhassoul clay is mined deep within the Atlas mountains in Eastern Morocco. It has been used for over 1400 years as a soap, shampoo and skin conditioner. Rhassoul contains higher percentages of silica and magnesium along with potassium and calcium, than other clays.Rhassoul clay's most impressive properties in skin improvement are its capacity of absorption and adsorption due to its high level of ion exchange. Clinical studies have been conducted by two different research laboratories in the United States to evaluate Rhassoul use for skin conditions. The results of this single use Rhassoul study produced pretty good results including reducing dryness and flakiness, improving skin clarity, elasticity and texture, removing surface oil and dead skin layers. This bar also has a blend of essential oils that not only scent the bar beautifully, but are skin loving too!
• Tropical Frusion(not sure of the name, still working on it)-This is a yummy bar smelling of fresh tropical fruit slices.
• The Super Natural-This is a step beyond the regular The Natural. This is for babies and super sensitive skin and those allergic to butters. This has rice bran oil and avocado oil...that's it.

And we can't forget the Valentine Soap! This is so cool. I made several heart shaped tubes and imbedded them in the loaf of soap. There is a heart in every bar. I actually used the Pink Grapefruit scent that some of you have tried, and it is called PINK CRUSH.

There are many more scents and ideas in the works. I have new gift packaging. Ialso have new ideas including gift sets. I will be adding rose geranium to the lotion bars.

I am working on improving the Light Oil Body Spray labels to make them waterproof. They have gummed up after a few uses.

I am working on a baby collection called, "Wee NaKee'"(cute, huh!?!)

Oh, and if you like a product, please go to that product and write a review.

Thank you for your business, and let me know what I can do to improve!

Candy