Recycling Holiday Cards

It's such a delight to look over the holiday cards I received, and it's a tradition in our home to save them to use to decorate presents next year.

It all came about when I was putting my gifts to go to Grandma's and there was no way to pack the gifts together without crushing the bows, Those common bows that made your presents look like cookie-cutter presents without any personality made it impossible to pack all the  presents together without ruining the bows.





So, the idea of decorating presents with used cards was born, and our load of presents we take to Grandmothers now are busting with personality.

It's always fun to decorate packages with my daughter, matching cards to paper, and styles to the recipient's personality; Mom gets traditional or religious cards with regal colored papers, my brother gets world peace themes, my sister always has stars, the kids get Smowmen and Santas, etc. Even photo cards can be reused like this photo of my neice I used on a gift for her cousin, the mittens paper is the perfect background for the pic.


Here are some more of my favorites this year: 

Sparkly pointsettas :o)

This card is a perfect match for this paper.

Winter scene cards are perfect for snowflake paper.

The sled with mitten paper for a child's gift.

My brother is always craching jokes,
so this joker-style stocking is perfect.

and of course, the sailboat is for me!

Merry Christmas, everyone!



A better shaving experience doesn't have to cost a lot of money

It's time to add an offering to my product line to invite the men to be fans of Savon Salon. Why should only women enjoy the benefits of using glycerin soap?

My brother's girlfriend had given him a glycerin soap shave kit with a cup, a brush and a disk of glycerin soap. He found it's so much better than traditional shaving that so many men apply a face full of chemicals to their skin every day! The glycerin is not only better because it moisturizes, but more importantly because of all the junk it doesn't contain. 

It came time that he needed a refill, and it was easy for me to fill the bill! My soaps are vegan-friendly and contain no petrochemicals. They're GMO-free, paraben free, phthalate free, and the emuslifiers and lathering agents used are so gentle, they're used as food flavoring and in toothpaste. I made him a couple of refill disks of my basic glycerin soap with beet root powder to give it a manly deep burgundy brown color. 

I got great feedback, so I'm adding them to my product line. Soon I will have complete shave kits with cups, brushes and holders that will make great gifts for guys on valentine's day. My refill disks are just $6 and if you compare what's in them to the high-end glycerin shave soaps, you know you're getting a good value. 

I'm hoping my product will appeal to the guy that wants a better shaving experience but just doesn't buy into the idea that spending a lot of money on overpriced products is cool. For example, I looked at the products offered by "The Art of Shaving" and it's clear that a lot of great marketing and sales training went into this enterprise, but their 3 oz. disk of glycerin soap is a whopping $30! And what do you get for all that money? You do get some quality ingredients, glycerin and coconut oil, but also contains tocopheryl acetate, a "skin conditioning agent" which has strong evidence as being toxic to the skin and is a cancer concern. Isn't it better to go with a simple, more reasonable, and carefully produced product? I invite you to try it! 

www.SavonSalon.com