Thank you

I'd like to thank everyone for such an overwhelmingly wonderful "grand opening" of Bath Cake Boutique. It was amazing to see this go so much better this time.

I have a super short version of how this came to be under "about" on this site. Here's the slightly extended version ... after the part of my story about Walmart, I did a bunch of research online. I found recipes that got me started at a wonderful little site called Mablewhite. Debra of Mablewhite writes extensively, and while many of her recipes didn't quite work out for me, I was able to use them as a guide to create my own. She also has a great amount of research information on both carrier oils and essential oils on her site. With that information in hand, I took off running to do my own further research. I was able to quickly heal up my oldest son's eczema. His two younger brothers also have it but to a lesser extent. My then fiance, now very wonderful husband, had roseca. In my very first try, I created a lotion that cleared his face inside of 7 days. It was amazing. Before I start coming across as some kind of master chemist ... I must admit here that was the single time I was able to make that lotion. Unfortunately in those early days of product development I did not take notes as well as I should have. I have since created lotions my husband finds helpful but none like that first one. Next came a dear friend who's home had been blown away by Katrina. We offered him refuge and he lived with us for close to a year. We live in CT. He had spend most of his life in Mississippi. The climates are a tad different! It wasn't long before the brutal New England winter took its toll on his skin used to humidity all year ... he developed large, painful cracks all over his skin. I made a balm for him. In 48 hours he was all but healed. With three small miracles under my belt I felt I *must* be able to produce things to sell, people would love this stuff. I endeavored to create my own website from scratch. This process was more overwhelming that nearly anything I've tried to pick up on my own. After months of nerve wracking web development I introduced blissfulskin to the world. It had its up moments and its down moments and really never did all that well. In October of 2006, as a 36 year old mother of 3 young sons, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Ladies, DO YOUR EXAMS!!! I found my own cancer. I would not have had a mammogram for another 4 years and probably wouldn't have lived that long. Anyway, with cancer to add to a life full of children, homeschooling, being a professional tax accountant (I recently saved one gentleman $136,000)(yes, really), being an active member of my local fire department, and teaching CCD weekly ... well, something had to give. Blissful Skin was given. So was CCD actually, but for the most part I continued to do everything else. My first love is cooking and baking. If I could open a bakery I would have done it in a heartbeat. I have a friend in PA who runs a wonderful cake business out of her home because in PA they will certify home kitchens. Unfortunately in CT they do not. While Blissful Skin was running, despite my affection for Mablewhite, I had to look for other suppliers as her shipping wasn't always reliable. I stumbled upon Brambleberry, simply through Google, I believe. I ordered some of their products and enjoyed consistency of both shipping and product quality. As my cancer treatments came to an end, I was due for major surgery. Very major surgery. Which got a whole lot more major due to countless complications. A hospital stay that was supposed to be 3 days turned into 8 days. A recovery of 6 weeks turned into 4 months. As I got progressively better I needed something to do. I decided to put together my love of baking with my new love of making bath and beauty products. I adore Lush's bubble bars. I wanted to make a similar product. I found a few recipes from a few different resources, none looking really like they'd do it. So I ordered some from Lush and started playing with it. I stuck my own creation in a loaf pan and cut it up. I got bubble crumbles .... disappointed, I noticed a silicone muffin pan in my cabinet. I grabbed it, some "metal" muffin papers and whipped up a new batch. This time I molded them as small flat "cupcakes". They were cute but not pretty. They needed frosting. But frosting that wouldn't take away from the bubble-ness. Melt & pour soap! A skim coat of that on top with some decor and the bubble cake was born. It was right about this time that I discovered that Anne Marie of Brambleberry had a blog. Not only did she have a blog but she showed how to put a "frosting" onto a bath bomb. Oh my...... these two products together ... and suddenly a new line of products/vision of the company came to me. This time creating the web site was practically effortless. All of it just came to me, almost as fast as I could type the look and feel of the site became Bath Cake.

So here I am. Almost cancer free, still a mommy of 3 young boys, homeschooling half a week, being a tax accountant half a week, working with the fire department, remaining a substitute CCD teacher for now and now with Bath Cake Boutique just opening and starting to blossom. In the week or so its been open, it has already had at least as many orders as Blissful Skin ever did in its approximately year of existence.

Thank you for helping my dream along.