Do you love Inky Quills soap? Do you love supporting good causes with your purchases? If yes, please take note of our upcoming promotion to support a very special horse currently in the care of a remarkable rescue facility located in Olalla, WA. 

 

 

This lovely girl is Belles and she has quite a story. In December of 2014, Pony Up Rescue for Equines in Olalla, WA, took in Belles from the feedlot. This beautiful horse had somehow found her way there and was doomed to slaughter unless someone decided to give her a chance. Pony Up gave her that chance and, in this case, rescued two horses from that fate of slaughter. Belles, as they named her for the holiday season, was very pregnant and expected to foal in the next few months.

It was quickly discovered that Belles had received little to no prior handling, was not halter broke, and was extremely scared of humans. This made things much more complicated for the Pony Up folks. Minimizing stress during pregnancy is very important, but basic handling skills would need to be taught also in order to allow assistance should there be labor and birthing difficulties and to allow for the necessary veterinarian visits and examinations. Pony Up took on the challenge regardless and slowly began to win the frightened Belle’s trust. On April 26, 2015, Belles gave birth to a beautiful filly the rescue named Wynn. Wynn helped bridge the gap between Belles and her rescuers even more with her friendly curiosity.

Almost a year later, Wynn is now a very independent filly, weaned, and happy to be turned out to graze without her mother. The maturity of her filly has benefited Belles as well as the focus can now be turned to her basic training and handling skills. Belles is now very affectionate and more trusting. However, in order to get her on her way to finding a new home, Belles requires time with a personal trainer. Pony Up is currently raising funds to support this effort and find Belles the loving home she always deserved.

Inky Quills is assisting Pony Up in this effort. For every bar of soap bought in April 2016 be it online or at one of our farmer’s market booths, $1.00 will be donated to the cause for Belles. Any soap bar you buy will contribute to this cause.

If your favorites happen to be one of the following scents, the total value of your purchase will be sent to helping Belles with her training.

Lilac

Lemongrass

Lavender

Rosemary Mint

 

Let’s help Belles find her forever home! If you want to give even more aside from your purchase of soap or just want to donate directly to Belles and forego the soap, a GoFundMe has been created at https://www.gofundme.com/9avsz9uc.

 

Pony Up Rescue for Equines is a small scale horse rescue facility in Olalla, WA. No profits are received and no salaries are paid by Pony Up. The facility is maintained by unpaid volunteers. To learn more about this rescue or to donate towards their cause, please visit their website at: http://www.ponyuprescue.com/

An April "Frost"

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.

You know how it is with an April day.

When the sun is out and the wind is still,

You're one month on in the middle of May.

But if you so much as dare to speak,

a cloud come over the sunlit arch,

And wind comes off a frozen peak,

And you're two months back in the middle of March."

~ Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time, 1926

 

It is April!  And just to avoid confusion with the dreaded April 1^st holiday, we decided to delay the blog a bit in order to make sure you know that there is absolutely no fooling going on. 

March, and the first half of April have been fantastic.  Our booth at the Port Orchard Public Market has been well received, and we have enjoyed seeing so many of you there.  But as the year blooms, so do our other locations!

Our booths at the various farmers’ markets are coming into season, and we’d like to remind you where, and when, you can see us!

 

·         Bremerton Farmer’s Market – Every Thursday from 4pm-7pm, from May 7^th through October 15^th at Evergreen Park, in Bremerton

·         Poulsbo Farmer’s Market – Every Saturday from 9am-2pm, from April through December in the parking lot of the Poulsbo Village Medical/Dental Center (Corner of NE Iverson St & 7^th Ave NE in Poulsbo)

·         Port Orchard Public Market – Every day from 11am-7pm

 

In addition to our regularly scheduled market days, we also participate in special events.  Here’s what we have coming up:

·         Port Orchard Public Market’s Oysterfest– Saturday, April 18^th from 11am to 4pm

·         Rhododendron Arts & Crafts Fair – Saturday & Sunday, May 9^th-10^th, from 10am to 5pm (Madison St & Water St – Downtown Port Townsend)

 

Stay tuned for further announcements on market openings and special events!

And finally, as we received such a great response on our last blog for the secret code-word; we’ve decided to do it again!  This time, in honor of Robert Frosts’ poem ‘Two Tramps in Mud Time,” we’ve decided that if you mention the name “Robert Frost,” at either the Poulsbo Market or the Port Orchard Market at any visit through the end of April, that we will give you a 10% discount on your purchase.

It’s our way of thanking you, our loyal customers for supporting our business, and taking the time to read these blogs.  We really appreciate it, and you.

2015 plans, a Grand Opening...and a discount!

Wow, nearly a year from our last on-site blog-update!  Unfortunately with the hustle and bustle of 2014-2015, this blog slipped through the cracks, while we continued to update our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/inkyquills ).  We’re very sorry, but we’ve arranged to have at least monthly updates here for folks who do not follow social media.

What a year!  Thanks to you, our Inky Quills customers, we have made gigantic strides in our little home-grown business!  Over the course of this past year we’ve:

Updated and streamlined the Inkyquillsllc.com website, including pictures for (nearly) all of our products.

·         Branched out into the local Kitsap farmers markets, covering Port Orchard, Poulsbo, and Bremerton on a weekly basis.

·         We’ve attended our first ever Lavender festival, as well as SCA’s Junefaire.

·         Gained several wholesale clients.

·         Added several new products, as well as have gone through an entire year cycle of seasonal products.

And that’s not all!  Inky Quills is proud to announce that we have acquired a lease at the Port Orchard Public Market for a permanent shop location as of March 1^st, 2015.   We’re open 7 days a week, from 11am through 7pm. That’s right; you now can get our soaps at the same place any day of the week!

But don’t worry Farmer’s Market fans; Inky Quills still plans to have our weekly booths open at the Poulsbo and Bremerton Farmer’s Markets on our usual days; and we’re also looking at a busy year of festivals and craft shows.  Stay tuned for more information there!

To celebrate our opening, if you come on down to our new Port Orchard location and tell us the phrase “Leaves of Grass,” we’ll give you a $0.50 discount on every bar you purchase.  This is only for the week of our grand opening (Sunday 3/1/15 – Saturday, 3/7/15); so don’t wait to get your discount!

Stay tuned for our next blog post, where we will have new and exciting stuff to tell you.  And if you want more Inky Quills news, make sure to visit us at our Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/inkyquills )!

First market, what we currently offer, and what's to come...

Yesterday, April 5, Inky Quills had its debut at the Poulsbo Farmer's Market. It was a blast. There were so many things about it that I enjoyed, but top of the list would be having the opportunity to talk with people about something I am so happy and passionate about. Natural health and body care ranks really high on my list of things I love and have deep seeded interest in. Soap is just the beginning, but its a great start.

I had several people ask for advice for what would work with their skin type or any particular skin condition they may have or what would work for someone they knew that was dealing with a particular skin condition. There are plenty of really good soaps out there that have wonderful all natural ingredients, but I am a big believer in Hempseed Oil and I really loved having the opportunity to share that with my new customers yesterday. Just having people interested is thrilling enough, but having an atmosphere that welcomes and encourages that kind of contact is fabulous. I have this information posted in my booth, but I think its might be better suited on the blog as well. I admit to having been extremely lax in my blogging on this site. I will make a conscious effort to do more blogging as the business grows.

The soaps I currently make consist of three different bases. Here's the listed benefits and information on each. You can also find this posted on the website at www.inkyquillsllc.com.

Inky Quills LLC soap is made with all natural ingredients using the cold process method. We make the soap with oils that cater to several skin conditions.

Please note: All of our soaps are made with sustainable and responsibly harvested palm oil to provide a hard, moisturizing bar and coconut oil which provides a skin nourishing, thick lather.

Hempseed Oil 
Our soaps made with a hempseed oil base are best suited for troubled to sensitive skin types. If you have always found bar soaps make you itch, this is the soap for you. Hempseed oil is rich with moisturizing agents and fatty acids that aid in retaining moisture to the skin and contains Gamma-Linoleic Acid (GLA)which plays the role of an antioxidant assisting in troubled skin conditions. We use only natural, unrefined hempseed oil which has its own lovely scent and a rich green color which you will commonly see in our hempseed oil soaps.

Avocado Oil
Our soaps made with avocado oil are best suited to sensitive to normal skin types. High in moisturizing properties and rich with vitamins which absorb easily into the skin, this lovely oil is a golden color and so our soaps made with this base tend to color either to the essential oil or fragrance oil incorporated or is a pale gold color.

Olive Oil
Our olive oil soaps are perfect for normal skin types. Rich and nourishing, olive oil produces a long lasting bar that can be very versatile. We use Pomace Olive Oil in our soaps which is the first, unfiltered press of the fruit rich with the many lovely properties this favorite oil can offer. This olive oil is also present in our hempseed and avocado oil soaps as well, though at a much lower percentage. We do not keep as many batches of olive oil soap on hand due to high demand of the hempseed and avocado based soaps, but can custom make any batch requested if we do not have it currently available. Just ask us!

So...those of you who may have visited us yesterday at the booth may be wondering...what might you be doing in the future? Here's an idea of what is to come in the future for Inky Quills LLC. The soaps we offer are the Signature collection and they will always be available. I'm currently playing with recipes for medicial soaps targeting specific skin conditions, such as eczema, psoriasis, etc. I'll also be adding some salves to the mix and perhaps lotions, liquid soaps (in the same scents we currently have), milled soaps, and lip balms. I'm excited about all the possibilities and yesterday's interest in the soaps I currently make just made me even more excited. I can't describe the feeling of seeing this hobby, interest, small obsession of mine become something I can actually share with people who are interested. I learn more and more each time I start a new project or experiment and I can't wait to get started on more.