 
Fifth Anniversary Edition!!! |
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As you may know, Mabel
started out as a hobby 5 years ago. My late husband had
nicknamed me
"Martha White" (after a cooking company) so I used that. I
love to cook and make things. I was sick of buying Yankee Candles
for $20 each, but when I would enter a candle store, I sure wanted
them all. So, when I learned how easy and fast it was to make my
own for some $4 each I started making other kinds of candles. My
kids also loved to help make them. When
I saw how easy that was, I began writing books about it. Making
candles turned into making melt and pour soaps, which turned into making
lip balm, which turned into making natural household cleaners and
everything else that piqued my interest. Customers would ask where to
buy their materials, and even I was
Five years later, I realized it was our Fifth Anniversary and decided to really examine the growing needs of the company. Until this year, I made the company grow with its own profits and and high quality, but small staff. I decided it was time to invest in more shipping staff, consistent product inventory and an expansion of that inventory. This was all done a few weeks ago. We also began focusing on securing better prices for our products by buying in volume. Our total staff agreed on two main things: We would stay interpersonal with our customers and never compromise quality. Those are two major mistakes companies tend to make when they grow. The end result? Truly fast shipping, more strength in our inventory and happier customers. In gearing up for Spring 2005, we have developed one of Mabel's most playful Newsletters. We recently hired Monique Schalk, as a Creative Art Director and Lead Photographer. Monique is an Alumni, along with Deborah, of the Ringling School of Art and Design. We also secured other quality staff to support the ever growing Mabel White Company. Below is just an example of the neat things we added to our line:
Creativity is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to
God." The Best of Mabel
White 2005 by Deborah R. Dolen
The Mabel White House
Table Setting Made Easy by Monique Schalk
The first thing I learned in catering was how to set a table like an architect. I had a little trouble at first, always staring at the table wondering why I had no space for a center piece! So I thought about using a "grid" in order to expand the space I had. Guests always asked me "how could a table be set so perfectly?" Below, using four place settings, the pictures show how easy it is. First, I set out the four place settings. When I am finished with that, I can see just what kind of centerpiece would fit this table, and how high I want that to be. For this small table I set a candle in the middle and used shorter sticks to create another symmetrical design within the centerpiece. I used a few fresh roses to go on each side of the candle. Click thumb nails for a better view.
Have fun partying! ~Monique
Petal Pushovers by Staff
During a
video shoot for Mabel, Erica, a new Mabelette, was asked to prepare
drinks for a table outside. She not only prepared them, she
floored us with what she did.
Erica grabbed the thin bamboo sticks we usually use to grill and skewered edible Impatience petals of all different colors onto the top of the sticks. She then found some pink raffia and tied it around the top of the glass. Total cost? Probably 40 cents but the effect was beyond fun and surprising. So, all being photographers, we threw more petals on the top of the table and all took a photo of the glasses. Yes, a drop of food color was used for effect. Not only can you skew petals, but you can also skew fruit! How cool is that? And you thought these were just for the grill! If you want to get real fancy you can rim the glasses in colored sugar. Caution: Just make sure the petals you use have no pesticides and are in fact edible. Here we used Impatience, our all time favorite plant, but rose petals are great also. Click here for a list of edible flowers. There are just so many things you can do with them. The downside? Use them as last minute decor as they can wilt in the hot sun.
The Best Vacuum on Earth by Deborah R. Dolen
Enter the Eureka Boss SuperLite Bagless Upright Vacuum, 405A. For $36.63 at Wal-mart who can go wrong? When it comes to cleaning, nothing's worse than a heavy vacuum. The Eureka Boss SuperLite weighs less than 8 lbs, cleans beautifully and is fun to use. Strong enough for all jobs, its powerful wide-track brushroll has an electronic on/off that allows you to change from carpets to bare floors with the flick of a switch. This is tiny, cute and powerful.
Cake-Decorate Your Bath Products by Deborah R. Dolen
This not only established that I could use sugar cake decorations for bath bombs, but for even more fun projects, like a bath fizzy recipe to give as a last minute-type gift. To make a bath fizzy gift I would use 1 cup of Epsom salts, 1/2 cup of baking soda, 1/2 cup of citric acid, and a teaspoon of these little sugar cake decorations. Click the thumbnail to see how it worked.
Bee
Pollen Oil Benefits
Courage
is fear, holding on a minute longer. The Best Light Bulbs by Deborah R. Dolen
New EOs & Absolutes & Blends! by Leane Ketcherside Our new Essential Oils and Absolutes are so fantastic, I wish I could make the Internet Scratch-and-Sniff-able! Hormone Balancer by Leane Ketcherside
I dug into research and hit on some Herbal and Essential Oil remedies, but I really hit the jackpot when I discovered Vitex Essential Oil. Steam distilled in Croatia from the leaves and twigs of the Vitex Agnus Castus plant, Vitex EO is believed to balance women's hormones. It's so powerfully balancing to women that men found that they can't even be near enough to do the distillations or even bottling without suffering from headaches, nausea and dizziness. HA! Makes me wonder how they'd handle menopause!! After exhaustive research, I came up with my Hormonal SOS EO blend. Formulated to be used in a bath before bed, this blend has helped me tremendously, as well as every "Hormonal" woman I know. A combination of Vitex, cooling Peppermint, calming & balancing Clary Sage and Bulgarian Lavender Essential Oils create a powerful synergy, and is carried in a base of Fractionated Coconut oil to an exacting dilution ratio. All it takes is 5 drops per bath, and a 10 ml bottle lasts 31 days. The only other thing I take is a Tincture of Vitex, 40 drops in a glass of water first thing in the morning. That's it. I no longer wake up in the night drenched with sweat, my cycle is finally normal again, PMS is much improved, and my mood is, well, fine by me! I still keep the thermostat low, but that's it. No hormones or fistfuls of herbs to choke down. You can find Vitex Tincture in your Health Food store, but I make my own because I like to control the strength as well as what goes in it. It's easy to do: Just take 1 cup of Vitex (AKA, Chaste Tree Berries) and run them through a food processor to nick the berries. Place this in a glass Quart jar and fill with high-proof Vodka. Seal well and allow it to set for 2 to 4 weeks, and shake it every day. Then just strain out the berries and store in a dark glass bottle. We do have choices, after all!
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challenged with finding quality
vendors. So, Mabel started selling materials a few years ago to
make the neat products I write about, at the best prices I could offer
back then, and my three daughters at the time were around to help with
shipping. Our main target was making the lives of busy working
professionals easier, fun, affordable and interesting. Our customers loved it.
As of last month it also appears we will have our own magazine soon and
have renamed to the Mabel White DIYCorporation. 
Back
to how we grew. The
company started skyrocketing just about the time my helping hands went
off to college. At that time I realized I had better not use the name
"Martha" and after a brain storming session where "Mabel" was born. The
more the company grew, the fewer support systems I had locally to me. Mabel
does have a strong editorial and creative staff--but they are spread
across the country. They help with customer questions, researching
quality manufacturers, and a myriad of other tasks.
We
did determine since fragrance oils are the nucleus of almost any
home project, to expand our line and work with only one true
manufacturer. We also determined to pick almost break even price
points of $14.99 although some people think paying $24.95 must be
better quality which is quite the opposite in many circumstances.
When dealing with the actual manufacturer, there are time delays,
but we now have just about everything in stock. The
new "Mabelettes" have come up with some astounding blends and when I
walk into shipping I am like "What is that scent? It is awesome!"
They replied Lime and Rose. Thus, our newest refreshing scent
is called "Lime and Roses."
Okay,
that Archives page. Many customers do ask where they "read this"
or "read that." The fact is, we wrote so much material over a five
year period even we have a tough time locating an article if we want to
use the idea. For Mabel's Fifth Anniversary, we created two
main structural pages: one that indexes all of our articles by
area of interest known as
When
Deborah found out I had a background in catering, she asked me what
stood out as the most interesting aspect. I told her it was the
way I used bamboo sticks to perfectly engineer my space. Then she asked me to write
about that, so here it is:
Until
now, vacuuming had to be the most despised chore in the house. One
reason is that the vacuum typically weighs more than the consumer.
My children hated it so much they figured if they broke the vacuum, they
would not have to vacuum. It is very easy to say "Mom, the belt
broke" or "it's not working" for mysterious reasons, and then split the
home scene. This left me with two problems. A dirty carpet
and an allegedly broken vacuum. 
How do
you improve upon perfection? Make it smell good. We have
heard so many raves about our bee pollen infused oil, we decided to add
the scent of honey. Many nurses swear by our oil, and many people have
told us it heals minor wounds so fast you can almost see the skin healing.
Establishments such as tattoo studios report healing of superficial
wounds taking about 1/2 the time to heal using this oil. Nurses love our
bee pollen oil for its moisturizing capabilities as they report chronically dry hands, a form of contact dermatitis, from
wearing gloves all of the time. Bee Pollen oil
lotion is about the
only lotion I made during my first few years. I did not
feel I ever needed preservatives as bee pollen is naturally
antibacterial and antimicrobial. I was in for a shock when I found
I needed to use preservatives for other types of lotion making.
For anyone suffering with chronically dry skin, I challenge them to use
this oil and I guarantee it helps. Unless, of course, you are allergic
to pollens and bee products. Click here for the
We
have all heard of "planned obsolesce" and we have also heard light bulbs
could be made permanent, but then would result in less profits.
Living near an airport once, we were always changing bulbs until we
started purchasing the same ones the airports use. These days I
just buy the ones for garage doors, called "heavy service" and
they last a very long time in the home. Garage doors can shake
more than a plane going over a house. Garage door bulbs come in
various wattages and it is important to use the wattage recommended for
whatever light source you are using. But buying heavy service
bulbs is very much worth the time it takes to find them. I hardly
have to buy a light bulb. It is almost a foreign word to me now.
Many women begin having
menopausal symptoms as early as their thirties! I know I did, and I
thought I was losing my mind! My doctor told me I was experiencing
"Peri-Menopause", and that it could last 10 years or so before
actual Menopause! And now that I'm forty-something, the spit was
hitting the fan around the Ketcherside homestead. My poor family walked
around in sweaters all summer because I kept the thermostat set at 69,
and still got the night sweats. I decided that any more of this
was flat-out UNACCEPTABLE!