My Interview With New Orleans Rising

Hey y'all! I was just looking back through a few of my saved files, and I came across my very first spotlight article.  This was written by New Orleans Rising, and I swear, I was sooo excited!!!  Take a look, leave a comment, and tell me what y'all think.

My wife Leann had a dilemma. She wanted some good bath soaps for her daily "I love me time". She wanted to do this while supporting a local New Orleans business. She didn't want to go to Bath & Body Works. Great as it may be, it's not local. She looked online and found Herb'n Development.com. We were blown away at what an amazing product line they have and the quality was superb. I looked into it a little further and loved what I found. This wonderful litlle online bath boutique was locally grown and made. The owner Tedra has been doing this for over 3 years. She is a native of New Orleans and still is proud to call it home. She explained to me it all started when she was tired of the national chain of natural hair care products. She said to herself "How do I know it's all natural? Because of a label?" I thought to myself you know she makes sense. It does, how do you know that your "natural" products are truely natural? I couldn't tell you that but, what I can tell you is that Tedra uses 100% natural products straight from Whole Foods. It started with hair products for neighbors and friends. Tedra's business blossomed from the neighborhood store to the online buisness you see today.


Her product line includes shampoos, haircare products, sugar scrubs and whipped soaps that look like Willy Wonka made them. Don't be fooled by thinking that this is all Tedra does. She also is married(12 years) and has 3 beautiful daughters. If that isn't enough she also protects and serves with the New Orleans Police Department. Trust me, if you ever see her out on the beat you'll know she's one of the good girls. If you think Tedra only cares about turning a profit think again. In 2010 after Haiti's devasting earthquake Tedra sprung into action. Herb'n Development with the help of contributions from the NOPD hosted "Soaper Saturday". This is where Tedra along with 40 volunteers made soap for Haitian victims. In total they made over 1000 bars of soap for the earthquake victims.

If your worried about having to call the bank for access to you IRA account to buy their products don't. Most everything you see in her store site runs between 4 to 15 dollars. Whether your her next door neighbor or ordering online from across the country Tedra's number one goal is you. Herb'n Development's number one goal is for you to have a down home southern experience infused with hospitality , a superior product, and a positive personal buying experience. When you walk away with their product you will not only walk away with a great experience, you'll also step out of the bathroom feeling great as well . Herb'n Development's product can be found in Fleurty Girl shops in the New Orleans area and at French Address in Slidell.





Herb'n Development





Fleurty Girl


http://fleurdislisfaithful.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html

Love Suds: Oliveira Bags

The Herb'n Mixtress is constantly on the look out for fresh, hip, and funky businesses, especially where conscience living, and sustainability are concerned. These are the types of folks that I like to shout out and give props to for their contribution to the green movement in my Love Suds collection.

So without further adieu... The Herb'n Mixtress is giving a big soapy, sudsy shout out to Oliveira Bags!!!  I recently came across her cute little shop while perusing Etsy, and when I saw this  MY BAG, I knew I just had to get it-- it called out to me. The "my name is Tedra, and i'm an impulse buyer" post will come a bit later :p  Back to the bag, it's the perfect go-to for on the go girls (and guys) like moi, especially for use during Farmer's Markets and festivals.  Aside from making reusable shopping bags, you can also find reusable sandwich bags (awesome right!) and haute designer, and most importantly, multi-purpose Gourds.  And the perk of course is, the more I use it in lieu of the plastics, the smaller my "footprint" becomes, and let's face it, I can look that much more interesting (okay, maybe not).  But never the less, I feel more and more like i'm doing my part.  You can too!!! Find her and her bags @ Oliveira Bags

Worth It Wednesday!!! Class Is In Session!!!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I take education very seriously. If and when I felt my little Herb'n Village didn't have enough homework, much to their dismay, I'd crawl the Internet looking for age/grade/potential appropriate assignments to supplement their schoolwork. And, when it comes to me, I will read just about anything I can get my hands on, just to learn something... anything.... new. With that being said, I've been giving a lot of thought lately to my business savvy, making sure to target my strengths and weaknesses. This self assessment led me to discover one of my biggest hinderances --my lack of education (dunh dunh duhnnnhhhh) sans the cornball sound effects.

I'm a self taught soap maker, whose made great strides in my business life. But here lies the problem: I have no formal education in the business arena. Now even though my Mama taught me that "anything is possible," and gave me a million "if I believe it, I can achieve it" speeches, I knew that my soap making skills would only take me so far. I needed some type of business background, if I intended to actually make it in this biz. So with that in mind, I recently decided to return to school, now majoring in Business Entrepreneurship. Today was my first day of summer school, online classes-- YIKES!!! I'm a bit nervous, but, I moreso excited to be embarking on this new course in my journey! My goal is to emerge as the young business woman and entrepreneur that I see myself as already, with the knowledge to back all of my soapy smarts up! I know it won't be easy, but, I'm confident that I'm up for the challenge. Because after all, "if I believe it, I can achieve it," right Mom ;)