Artist Feature + Giveaway: Soapdeli

I'm so excited to partner with Rebbeca's Soap Delicatessen for this next giveaway! She sent me some yummy soap and lotion samples and they are really wonderful. I have sensitive skin and have dealt with eczema all my life so I'm very cautious about the products that I use on my skin. I love Rebecca's products so I'm so glad I get to give FOUR of them away to one lucky reader!

Today Rebecca is offering you a bar of her Summer Honeysuckle Soap with matching Summer Honeysuckle Lotion (both pictured below), PLUS a bar of Blue Ridge Rose Soap with matching Blue Ridge Rose Lotion!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your business.
My name is Rebecca and I am currently a single mom of a fourteen year old son who's just discovered the joys of his kissing. I am terrified, naturally, but I'd love to have grandchildren someday so I suppose it all has to start somewhere. I turn 36 this month - the big day is June 10th making me an impossibly unpredictable gemini - and I am still working on figuring out what I want from life and who I want to be. I'm not sure how anyone is expected to know this by the time they graduate college, because every year has been a new adventure for me, and every new decade has made me more self-aware and changed me in some way.

I started Rebecca's Soap Delicatessen in 2001 less than a year after graduating from college with a BA in fine art. Having sensitive skin, I had become a handmade soap addict, and with my crafty background it was natural for me to eventually turn to making my own soap. While my business has evolved over the years, I currently sell a line of shea butter soaps, goat milk lotions and solid shea butter sugar scrubs. I craft all of my handmade soaps using the cold process soapmaking method and always include shea butter, olive oil and rice bran oil in every recipe. My favorite soaps are my luxury soaps which are handcrafted from a recipe I developed several years ago specifically for those who have dry skin.

I recently went solo with my soap shop and have been thrilled with the response so far.

You are an avid blogger who is always updating us with DIY tutorials and recipes. How to stay on top of blogging daily, while always posting fresh and fun posts?
I spend way too much time on the computer. *wink* But seriously, there are days I have free evenings that I just spend time googling things of interest to me to get ideas and bookmarking as I go. However, since I discovered the new site, Pinterest, it has become even easier to find new ideas and keep track of them by categorizing them onto boards where I can see all the pictures in play. Once I have enough material for an article, I'll blog a draft. If I have several ideas for articles at a time, I'll sometimes draft up to 3 or articles in a night and schedule them for publishing later.

You recently created the New Indie Business blog, filled with tips for helping small online businesses grow. Tell us a bit about that.
Basically I had a few - meaning four - good articles I'd originally written for and posted on the etsy forums. I wanted to share these ideas with other small business owners to help them gain both traffic and sales, so I updated the articles for my blog and included links to pertinent information I'd collected that coincided with the articles. I'm still working on coming up with a fifth article - I like to pull from my own personal experience so I can say "hey, this really works" rather than just regurgitating what everyone has said about marketing your business - so I probably won't be posting often there. However, when I do you know it will be something that can 100% work for your small business because I've done it and succeeded at it. I hope that as I find the time I can find other small business owners willing to write guest posts on successes they've had in marketing and what they did to get where they are. I may even include weekly posts that are basically a collective of fresh links on marketing and my take on them. But it's still all new and I haven't quite found my momentum for the blog yet. If you'd like to read my work so far, you can check out Indie Business Blog here. There is a form there for anyone who'd like to pitch an article for inclusion.

To enter to win two soaps and two lotions: (US entries only please)
1. Follow this blog and leave a comment below with your e-mail address.

Extra credit: (leave an additional comment for each for a better chance to win!)
1. Share this giveaway on Twitter/Facebook using the share buttons below.
2. Follow Rebecca's blog.
3. Grab one of my buttons in the left column and share it on your blog.
4. Visit Rebecca's shop and comment here with your favorite item.
5. Like Rebecca's Soap Delicatessen on Facebook.
6. Follow Julie Ann Art on Twitter.

That gives you a total of seven chances to win!

Plus, right now Rebecca is offering 15% off any item(s) in her shop just for Julie Ann Art readers! Simply use the code: JULIEANN.

I will announce the winner here in one week!. Good luck!