How much would you pay for a toilet seat?

I'm not sure people know how much toilet seats go for these days. Forget simple white ones. Those can range from as little as $8 to $100! ( don't believe me? check out a Kohler!) Wooden toilet seats are now around $25-40. Depending on what you are after, of coarse. But those are just the plain ones. Lets add a cover with matching rug. $14-$56. Depending on the style and design. Everyone has their own style and design ideas. So what would you rather have in your bathroom?


Just a note: the cover on the left costs more than my entire seat! That's not including shipping.

How how about those nifty resin ones? you know..the clear ones with stuff imbedded in them? You decide.

Some new seats!

I'm taking some of Cheryl's advice to shake things up a bit and carve up some designs I normally would not do. Namely, simple contemporary designs. Stylized owls, birds, squirrels, etc. So I worked on a couple of new designs last night to see how they might fair on Etsy. I must admit. Cheryl sold the other stylized owl before she was even finished with the new store. I'm hoping to attract the "younger" crowd. She has picked out some "dud" designs before. I hope they won't have to eventually be put on the burn pile. So with the new found time I was able to attempt a couple of origami puzzles. One is the squid and the other is the flying crane. Normal cranes can't fly, but this design can and actually did three times! ( current weight: 268)

Health benefits of toilet seats

Think All toilet seats are disgusting incubators for germs and bacteria? Do you use one of those little paper covers to "protect yourself" from all the unknown diseases that are thought to be on seats? Well think again! Your seat doesn't really need protecting. All those paper covers do is mentally separate your backside from the countless bums that have occupied the same space. Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, let's listen to a few medical resources:

"To my knowledge, no one has ever acquired an STD on the toilet seat -- unless they were having sex on the toilet seat!" according to Dr. Abigail Salyers, president of the American Society for Microbiology, quoted on WebMD. But wait...there's more!

As Columbia University's Health Promotion Program sums up: "Because toilet seats are not major culprits in spreading disease, paper or plastic seat covers offer little more than peace of mind." In fact, you have more to fear from bathroom door handles and faucets than from commodes.
And while we're on the topic, you might consider something to cover that phone receiver. A University of Arizona microbiology team tested a dozen office surfaces including the bathroom. The scientists found that phone receivers had 25,000 bacteria per square inch, while toilet seats had only 49 bacteria per square inch. Talk about calling in sick!

So you see, Toilet seats actually are safer and healthier than phones, doorknobs, or faucets. They actually PREVENT germ growth! So take my advice: Replace your phone, faucets, and doorknobs with toilet seats! It's the only logical solution. ( I do not, however, think toilet seats should be used for protection against STD's, That's just plain weird!)

Friday soapmaking

So Cheryl and I made soap after our normal Friday activities. I think we are getting better at it. We got our fragrances finally in the mail, along with our long awaited boxes. We had almost two weeks worth of stuff to ship out! By the time we got home, we wanted to make a nice easy batch of soap for the new shop. I'm also going to have to start carving up some new designs once again. I have to figure out what is hot and what is trendy all over again.
A fox squirrel came to our window sill today and the cats had a fun time staring at him. He didn't stay long when I opened the window though. But I did manage to get this nice close up shot of him. The red squirrel is just too fast! It inspired me to try an easy origami squirrel. It looks a little too basic for me. But I think it turned out well considdering I am out of foil paper. It seems the basic designs work well with normal paper

CURRENT WIEGHT: 270

New Year, New shop!

So, as mentioned before, we are starting over on several fronts. Tonight, Cheryl killed the ebay shop! It was going to happen anyway, so why prolong our agony. Now we have the new Allenbritebath shop. In addition to seats, the plan is to put soaps in there as well. So tonight I carved up a very old design, and a new one. Cardinals used to sell very well, but I'm sure it has been over a year since we have sold one. The designs were old and the pictures were crappy at best. I liked this picture Cheryl had for a pillow, So perhaps with a new design, the sales will start once again.

So Red ( the shop cat) got outside and decided to climb his favorite tree. I snapped this picture in the dark. He looks like an owl!

Failed box attempt

Yesterday I attempted to cut out and assemble a box. I have to rethink the process. I worked on it for three hours yesterday and never even got to the assembly phase! I know I could blame my tools or lack there of. but its the whole "exact cut, straight line" thing that gives me trouble. I have not given up on it yet. But tonight I have to carve seats, and probably will not have the time or patients for another stab at it. Maybe next time I will use my router for the cuts instead of the scroll saw.

New Year, New Goals!

Happy new year everyone! And to Bring in the new year I want to announce that our new website is finally up! It's called http://www.allenbrite.com/index.html We plan on making it a hub and integrating all our products so you can find it all. And it will be packed with information about our seats, purses, soaps, carvings, and so much more! We will be building it over the next month. Our goal is to be off eBay completely by Feb 1st.

Another goal is to increase sales. Not sure how we are going to do it, but we have relied on EBay for too long and this last year has just been the last straw. In addition to our sales over all being down from previous years, EBay and our suppliers had consistently been raising their fees and prices while "encouraging" us to offer free shipping and sales! ( If you have been on EBay this year, you will know what "encourage" means) You don't have to be on EBay to figure out that this effects your bottom line and ours has been very thin. So for 2009 we are going to take our business back and do things the way we want. I feel confident that with a little brain storming and a lot of persistence, we can make things happen.

And last, I will join the millions of other Americans in the journey to lose weight. I stepped on the scale today and discovered I had gained a little more than I wanted ( OK a lot!) Cheryl and I have attempted to lose weight before, but always fall off shortly after we start. The one time we lost a LOT of weight and KEPT it off for over a year and a half, was when we joined weight watchers. The only thing they did that was different from Our plan was they offered accountability. (We had incentive not to gain before the next weigh in) So, in the spirit of Weight Watchers, I will post my weigh ins here on my blog. This is an honor system on my part, But I will strive to be honest and vigilant in my records. Today is the first. My starting weight is 276! I would like to get down to 230, possibly less! We do not have a very good full length mirror, so I have not taken a "before" picture yet. Besides, who wants to see a chubby guy in his underwear! ( even I don't, and it's ME!) So let the melting begin!

Elongated or Standard seat

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is whether The seats are standard round or the elongated. In some cases, even the customer does not know what type he/ she has. So I wanted to write a little entry to try to show some of the differences in measurements and looks. As you can see from the pictures, the elongated are longer when measured from the hinge to the tip of the seat. The length is approximately 18.5 to 19 inches. On round seats the length is 16.5 to 17 inches.
The elongated sets are obviously shaped a little different from the round. A side by side comparison helps shows this.
The Big problem comes when people do not know their size and order the wrong one. Since each seat is custom, ( that is right, we carve them up as you order them) there is a certain amount of time and effort put into each one. More than just pulling it off a shelf and packing it up for shipment. Another problem is that the elongated seats cost more, and are not as readily available as the standard round. It may take as much as an additional week to send the order. For this reason, we do not offer elongated seats anymore in our normal listings. We do, however, reserve the right for special circumstances.

Oh boxes, where art thou?

Boxes did not come yet today, and Cheryl finally got the shipping E-mail that told her they should be delivered Jan 2! Ah the holidays landing in the middle of the week have proven to be quite a pain in the shipping department. It does not matter too much for me as I now have several days to "fine tune" my carving. As it was I was short one seat today. No matter! I have till Friday to get them all out. I only hope that the customers will realize that shipping has been screwed up these last two weeks and is slightly more patient. In other news, I was able to take pictures of some of Cheryl's new items for her shop. I think they will be a big hit. These new found days will also allow me to take better pictures of my seats. Most of the time I just pack them up straight from the shop. With the new website and image we are planning for the new year, we also wanted to take new pictures and perhaps, rethink some older designs for the seats. The new camera takes pictures four times better. I think you can tell the difference.

The two days of 50-60 degrees took most of the snow away. However, it is snowing now and we have regained about 2 inches. I would not mind it remaining mostly green for the rest of the winter. I'm rather fond of "global warming" if it means less snow and a longer growing time. But Michigan has a habit of dumping snow on ya at least several times each winter. Hopefully not as bad as last week.

More Carving

I finished catching up the seats. Mostly elongateds. I have now been put in charge of answering emails now. So I have to tell people that we don't offer elongateds anymore. I also added the video in case people wanted to see it. This post is a little short. But the holidays have been messing up my internal clock lately. I can't wait to get back to normal.