Road Trip Part Deux

Shall we call this On the Road Again? Probably not. It sounds just a little cheesy.  But, on the road again is exactly where we were the last Friday of August - the 28th to be exact.  

Our destination? Roebuck, SC - home of +Rustic Escentuals.  RE is one of our favorite suppliers of fragrance oils, colorants, and candle making supplies.  We were happy to meet the generous owner, Amy Coker Pascoe.  Amy and her excellent staff held their first (annual, we hope) open house, complete with a welcoming red carpet. But before we get ahead of ourselves we'll share a few snaps of the drive from NE Georgia up to Roebuck,  SC which is just a few miles SE of Spartanburg.

We started off early with a gloomy and overcast sky.  We headed down, down, down from Habersham County into Stephens County towards I-85 north in Lavonia.

Once we got on 85 it took about 1-1/2 hours (give or take) for us to get there.

Ten minutes after getting on I-85 we crossed Lake Hartwell and popped into SC. 

We buzzed past Anderson then the metro Greenville area, passing the GSP airport, then zooming past the BMW and Michelin plants.  Finally we veered off 85 and cut over to Roebuck, spotting the familiar water tower we remembered from last year.

A few minutes later our excitement built as we pulled up in front of the Rustic Escentuals building.  As you can see in the photo above, the parking lot was full.  Following signs, we drove around back and found beautiful fall decorations and a tent set up by the back door with a red carpet leading into the building. Why we didn't take a picture I'll never know! I think we were just so excited to get there we almost ran in the door. Okay. No almost about it.  We did run through the door.

Once inside the converted shipping area, we found Jennifer manning the welcome table. We signed up for free door prizes (we both won prizes!!),  put on our name tags, and off we went.

When our numbers were called for the door prize there was a generous selection to choose from.  We passed over the T-shirts, wax melting pots, and pouring utensils and chose certificates for a free 8 oz and 16 oz bottle of fragrance oils. We were so thrilled that our numbers had been picked!!!

The first things we noticed - after the cute "Happy Fall Y'all" sign and decorations - were the racks of samples placed everywhere and the encouragement to take what we wanted! As if the door prizes weren't generous enough!

There was an amazing Sniffing Station which included ALL, and we mean ALL, of the fragrance oils they offer. We see the descriptions online and imagine what the scents are like, but it just doesn't compare to be able to actually SMELL them.  No more wondering for us; we were able to sniff everything and chose several new fragrances that we both LOVED.

Another display featured their mica colorants with examples of what all the colors looked like in CP soap (so helpful!). They also had a special deal of 12 sample packs of mica colorants for $12. Yep! You bet we jumped on that and will be using the colors in the near future.

One table featured a Inspiration Station with many items made using Rustic Escentual products. We are happy to say that several Soap Lily Soaps made using RE scents and colors were featured.

Again, why did we not take a picture??

No answer!

One table was full of Flavor oils, used in lipsticks etc., another had packaging items,  and yet another had clearance items for sale at a reduced price.

Still another table had a candle melting pot and examples of wax tarts on display with someone ready to answer questions about how to best create candles and wax tarts.  In fact, no matter what question we had, there was always a Rustic Escentuals representative nearby to point us in the right direction.

At some point while we roamed from area to area we realized that Rustic Escentuals owner Amy Coker Pascoe was close by so we introduced ourselves to her and chatted with her for a few minutes. She was quite the popular lady and a most gracious host.

This is the shipping room that is in the rear of the building. It  had been converted to a showroom/dining/display area for this event.  The tables shown above are where we enjoyed the yummy food and figured out what to order.

The dining area was a wonderful touch because the food was an artistic creation all on its own.  Seriously, we never dreamed the open house would be a catered event! The food was catered by Ribault Catering  and Two Samuels, who by the way did an excellent job!

The most fantastic Rosemary buttermilk biscuits with smoked pork, yes....they were really good - we sampled everything!   

There were scones, mini muffins, cranberry roll up thingies (very tasty), sausage and sage mini quiches,  pumpkin bread with cream cheese drizzle presented in mini mason jars, fresh fruit, and more pastries. It was truly a beautiful display and the presentation was so nice that it surely didn't seem like we were in the shipping department!  

The drinks were lavender flavored pink lemonade, and cucumber water - both were amazing!

The coffee bar was loaded with yummy (almost fragrance worthy titles) Pumpkin Spice Latte, Chai Tea, Iced Coffee, and Hot Coffee.

When we had finished the tasty food and had our order narrowed down to something manageable, we were able to go into the stock room and with the help of Viktoriya we pulled our own order. That was such fun!

This picture above shows one of the two sides FILLLLLED with fragrances, and when we say FILLED you have no idea.

This is the other side of the warehouse; offices are toward the front of the building.  This side had lots and lots of candle making supplies, mica colorants, and a packing area.

This is the aisle where the glitter, mica and colorants are located.  

It was almost sensory overload!

We do make candles, though not a lot of them, so we loved seeing all the candle making supplies. They have EVERYTHING you could possibly need to make a candle, trust us, EVERYTHING!

Once our order was complete, we decided to go back to the fragrance samples one more time, re-sniffed several, and decided to add them to our order. Tracy was kind enough to help us pull the last few items added to our order.

Finally, Allie, the event coordinator from Launch Something Events, helped us finalize our order.

When it was time to leave we picked up our free door prizes - (1) 16 ounce bottle of Essence of Jesus fragrance oil and (1) 8 ounce bottle of Vanilla Oak fragrance oil - and said thank you and good bye.

We just didn't feel like we could thank everyone enough for a great job and fun experience. It was obviously a group effort that turned out very nicely.

Job well done Amy and your whole staff!!!

The photo above is one we snapped as we drove away, see you next year!

Our day didn't end there, though. Next we were off to our favorite place to eat in Spartanburg  (thanks again Kathy for the recommendation last year).

The one, the only, Willy Taco

located at 930 E Main St, Spartanburg, SC.

We keep hoping we will get one closer to home (hint, hint)

Even the guacamole choices were hard....

Holy Guacamole!
It was outstanding, seriously.....excellent and noticeably fresh.

Then it was decision time....what to order, believe us, it's a tough decision!

Our choices this year....honestly they were all wonderful, we split each in half which was just enough. 

This is Jordan, who kept up the tradition of excellent service (with a big smile) and yes, he did have photo approval of this shot.

After lunch we chatted a little with Jordan, said goodbye and headed home.

As we left SC behind and crossed over Lake Hartwell into GA we squinted and way, way in the distance you can see the faint shadow of the mountains close to us.

One last L-O-N-G hill then we are back in Hollywood

(which is a suburb - in the loosest sense of the word - of Clarkesville)

Five minutes later we were home.

Another fun, fun road trip for the Soap Lily girls.

Again, a huge thank you to +Rustic Escentuals, Amy, Kathy, Jennifer, Christine 

and all the sweet ladies on the staff for a job well done (and then some). 

Really nice work ladies! THANK YOU!

There was only one tiny blip during our road trip, and it was one that most everyone encounters - computer issues.

Much to their dismay, and we believe it bothered the kind folks at RE much more than it bothered us, the computer server decided to conk out the during the open house.  So all their great plans of processing our orders and having us take them home with us fell apart because they couldn't process the orders without the Internet server.  Ever gracious, Rustic Escentuals said they would offer free shipping once the computer issues were resolved. We really felt bad for them that after all of their generosity during the open house, they would also be providing free shipping. We did appreciate it, though. 

When our RE order arrived the following Tuesday, it was like Christmas.  We were so excited we decided to do a video while we unpacked, here is our loot.....

One final note in the It's a Small World segment of this blog:

  Yesterday (Saturday September 5th), we set up a booth at the 2015 Crush Fest held at +Yonah Mountain Vineyards.

It is a beautiful spot to sell our soap.

At some point during the afternoon a woman walked into the booth and we started chatting. She makes soap, we make soap.  She makes candles, so do we - you get the idea.  

We began swapping supplier notes and low and behold we both buy from Rustic!! Even crazier - this particular young lady, Paige Bowser +Breezy Quarters  (of BreezyQuarters.com) had been at the open house at the same time we were there.  No, we didn't realize it at the time.  

While we were chatting and comparing notes about how much we like doing business with RE I mentioned that we had done a blog about our trip last year, and she had seen it! How fun that was for us! I promised I'd mention this crazy coincidence, so a shout out to Paige!!!