Wonder Butter™ Beginnings - Part 6 Occupying Wait Time

As I said in Part 5 of Wonder Butter™ Beginnings, often times, we had long wait times (sometimes hours) for a computer with Internet so that I could get online to do my needed research to create my dream skin cream. When the wait times were short, it was actually a plus. That short wait time gave me just the right amount of time to get my two home schoolers started on their school work before I got online. Short wait times worked out very well, but we creatively made good use of our long wait times also.

First of all, there were several tables in the computer lab, surrounded by chairs. These tables and chairs were for people to sit at while they waited for their turn at a computer. You could grab a book and read while you waited (the non-fiction books were just to the left of the computer lab) or you could work one of the many, fun puzzles that were sitting in the middle of each table. Most of the time, I got the kids started on their school work, then grabbed a skin care type book off of the shelf and studied also, while I waited for my computer turn. But every now and then, we opted to let the studies go for an hour or so and have some quality time working a puzzle together!

No, I wasn't letting my kids skip out on their school time to play. Working puzzles are a great mind building tool (not to mention a great bonding activity as well, for my adopted kids and I) and I don't know about you, but all through my school years, I have worked many a puzzle while at school, so I felt no guilt about letting them take a bit of occasional time off from their studies to work a puzzle. Working those puzzles was so much fun, that the wait time for a computer passed quickly and the kids were in a better mood as they got back to task on their school work.

Other times, we spent our long wait times searching for books to check out to take home. My research into skin care and skin cream development didn't stop with just the little bit of online computer time I could get at the library. I also checked out countless books and took them home, where I spent countless hours every day reading, taking notes and studying in anticipation of creating a natural skin cream for my own skin needs. We also searched for, and checked out, great books for the kids' home school studies, as well as fun books that I could read them bedtime stories from. Little Brother wasn't always so enthused about our book searching adventures, so Sister, at times, kept very busy trying to keep little brother quiet and still (it was a library, remember) while I looked for our needed books. She was such a great help!

So you see, we never wasted a moment of our "wait time", be it long or short, when a computer wasn't immediately available upon our arrival at the library.

Stay Tuned for Part 7 of Wonder Butter™ Beginnings! Thank you for reading and have a FANTASTIC day!

Wonder Butter™ Beginnings - Part 5 - Getting Computer Time

After pushing through all the obstacles and hurdles to finally make it to the library each and every time, we still had another challenge to face . . . . getting computer time! Each person that visited the library (and had a valid Muskogee Public Library card), was allowed two (2) one-hour sessions on the computers, per day. There were only a small handful of computers available to the public, and several of those were usually out-of-service on  any given day. Other home school students, college students, researchers, genealogists, etc, seemed to always have all the computers already occupied each time we arrived.

Once in awhile we would get lucky and get a computer immediately. We usually; however, had to go with the other option .... advance sign up for the next available computer. Sometimes that meant a wait of maybe only a few minutes, but other times, it meant a much longer wait, such as two hours!

That didn't mean you always got the computer you signed up for for both one hour sessions, either.  Sometimes you could register for the same computer for both sessions, but usually you had to sign up on one computer for one session, then another for the next session. Each one hour session was signed up for separately and the computer system assigned the computer numbers (each computer was numbered). This meant that after you got your notebooks, books, pens, pencils, and all your research supplies all spread out and was going really good by the end of that first hour, you had to scoop it all up when the timer on your computer ran out, get up, and move to another computer where you had to try to remember where you were at and start all over. You had to move your belongings and materials quickly, because someone else was usually waiting for the computer that your time just ran out on.  All this while also trying to contain two hyper, special needs, home-schooled children in a quiet library and keep them on task with their school work..  But I was determined. None of those hassles were going to stop me from getting my research done so that I could develop my first skin cream.

Thank you for stopping in and Stay Tuned for Part 6 where I discuss how we occupied our time during those long waits for a computer session.  Have a great day!

Wonder Butter™ Beginnings - Part 1

The construction of our new Bath and Body kitchen is coming along nicely. In projects like this, though, something always comes along to slow things down, but we are still progressing and I can hardly wait for it to be finished! I look forward to getting all of my great Wonder Butter™products back on the shelves and in our online stores.

While we are constructing our new kitchen, I am going to take the opportunity to tell the story of the beginning of  Wonder Butter™ . . . . .  why I created this wonderful, natural skin loving butter and how Wonder Butter™ grew into an entire, very large, product line. Here we go . . . . .



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It was early in the year of 2003. After more than 20 years of marriage, I had just gone through a very long, extremely emotional, super high stress, exhausting beyond words divorce. The emotional strain, extreme lack of sleep, and off the charts stress took a huge tole on my skin. People tend to forget that our skin is our largest organ and all of these factors have a huge effect on it. We really should be much kinder to our skin throughout all of our life, not wait until we start seeing the tell tale signs.

I began noticing that small lines were starting to form at the outer corners of my eyes, across my cheeks, forehead, and here and there all around my face. I also noticed that my skin on my face had become very course and rough. This horrified me! I was barely 40, starting life over as a single mom, and I suddenly felt like I looked like an old lady!  So what did I do?

The next time I was in town running errands, I purchased my first jar of . . . . anti-wrinkle cream! I could hardly wait to get home with that new little jar of  "magic". Once home, I sat right down with my new skin cream that I had high hopes for, carefully read the instructions, eagerly opened the jar and applied it all over my face, exactly as the instructions stated. I was excited and had such high expectations for that little jar of skin cream.



In just a matter of minutes my face began to feel strange . . . . . . then my face began to burn . . . . the burning grew and grew . . . . . then hard pain set into my face. I ran to look in the mirror and my face was so red and swollen it looked like it would begin bleeding at any moment! Did I apply it incorrectly? What did I do wrong?

I read everything on the jar again, over and over and over ..... no, I had done everything correctly. Over the next week, I tried that anti-wrinkle cream a couple of more times, each time getting the same, horrific results, except that it was worse each and every time. I started to research to see what the problem might be. Everything I came up with seemed to suggest that the reaction I was getting was fairly common among anti-wrinkle creams. COMMON?!?!?!? No way! That just couldn't be right. Turned out, as I understood from my research, that many of the commercial anti-wrinkle creams on the market work by sloughing off, burning off, etc, the old, the damaged and the dead skin cells on your skin/face to get down to the fresh, new skin underneath. Oh, my . . . . there just had to be a better way. And so, my journey to find that better way began.

Stay tuned for "Part 2" of Wonder Butter™ Beginnings 

Thanks for stopping in!

Kitchen Update and our Newest Wonder Butter™ Product

Hello, Everybody! We do hope that life has been treating you well! I wanted to make sure I took a moment to check in and give a bit of an update on our progress here.

Work is continuing on the new bath and body kitchen we are building to improve production and efficiency for making our great Wonder Butter™ products. Progress was slowed way down when the scorching heat hit and dragged on for so long, but the temperatures have finally dropped a bit and we are back on it hard and heavy. It is still really hot, but not nearly so bad. I can hardly wait to get the kitchen finished! It will make it so much easier to get ALL of my Wonder Butter™ products back into production and back out there for you.

Through all of the moving we continued to make a few of our Wonder Butter™ products on request by our regular customers, but it just wasn't possible to keep every product in our Wonder Butter™ line made up. As some of you know, we have over 20 products, now in our Wonder Butter™ line! I can hardly wait to get them all back into production. Me, personally, I have especially been missing my Lotion Bars.

No matter how busy I seem to get, though, the creativity in me just never stops. I am 54 and really beginning to feel the effects of aging starting on my skin. From being outside most of the day around the farm, my face, arms, hands..... everything exposed, has really started feeling weathered. All of this inspired me to create yet another member of our Wonder Butter™ family.

All of our Wonder Butter™ products are fantastic! But I decided it was time to make one specifically for my weathered skin... one that was light enough that I could apply it several times a day if I wanted to, yet would also work great if you only applied it once a day if you were going to be indoors all day.  After countless hours, days, weeks of yet more research and development, I finally came up with my newest formula for the latest member of our Wonder Butter™ product line. We are now in the testing stages and will update and let you know how it is going and when it will be ready for sale. So far.... we are both absolutely loving it! My poison ivy covered body has been especially finding it soothing.

Thanks for reading and have a Happy Day! ! ! !

BRAND vs PRODUCT

I need to take a moment to explain the difference between the name of my product line and the name of each, individual product, to clear up a little confusion some people have had.

Wonder Butter™ is my BRAND name. Wonder Butter™ is the name given to my entire line of products. Within my Wonder Butter™ brand name are many product names/types such as, Original Skin Cream, Wonder Butter "Extra", Wonder Butter "Blue", Wonder
Butter "Vapor", Lip Butter, Lip Balm, Lotion Candle, Lotion Bar, a variety of soaps, and the list goes on, along with new products that are always in the works. 

As with  many other brands, one starts out with one product and grows from there. Often times that first product is what people instantly think of when they hear mention of your brand name, thus considering the brand name, the product name. Each person develops their favorite product with that product line and often times, when they hear the brand name, their favorite product comes to mind, associating only that product with the brand name and forgetting there are other products in the line. This is a common occurrence. One great example would be Clorox. Clorox is a brand name with many products under that brand name. Yet when most people hear the word Clorox, they instantly think of bleach. But bleach is simply one of a host of fantastic products carried under the brand name of Clorox.

So once again, Wonder Butter™ is my BRAND name, with a large array of natural products listed under my Wonder Butter™ brand name, most of which are Bath & Beauty products. I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Wonder Butter™ Qualifications

   As many of my regular customers can tell you, I make an array of products from soaps, to lotions, to candles, to knits, and so much more. So what qualifies one of my products to make it into my Wonder Butter™ line, you might ask?

   All of my Wonder Butter™ products have one common denominator, Unrefined Shea Butter. Shea Butter, in its UNREFINED state, is said to contain a multitude of healing properties and antioxidants. I have been so impressed by this natural substance that I decided that I had to include it in all of my Wonder Butter™ products. It is said that when Shea Butter has been  processed and refined, it loses much of it's beneficial properties, while often absorbing and holding traces of the chemicals used in its refining process. Just the thought of the possibility makes me want to run from the processed version.  Only all Natural,  Unrefined Shea Butter will be found in my Wonder Butter™ products.

Of course, other top quality, natural ingredients are also included in my Wonder Butter™ formulas. Most of my formulas also include Extra Virgin Cold Pressed Olive Oil, which is wonderful on skin. The majority of my Wonder Butter™ products are 100% natural.  On a rare occasion I might make one that is approximately only 90% natural, but it will be well marked and will still live up the the quality of the Wonder Butter™ name.  The only thing that might occasionally be added that would break from my 100% natural formulas would be flavoring, fragrance or color. Occasionally a customer may request fragrances, flavors, or even coloring, that are not completely natural. Then if that requested product catches on or generates enough interest, I will leave it in my line to keep all of my customers happy. But the base of my formulas will always be COMPLETELY natural, because we feel that all Natural makes our skin the happiest!

If you see the Wonder Butter™ label on any of my products, you can be certain that you will find natural unrefined Shea Butter in the ingredient list.
Thanks for reading and may you have a healthy, happy day!