Still going strong. Old favorite scents and some new all natural essential oil blends. I have had fun experimenting with essential oils. Blending scents is an art I am new to, I'm getting better and it is a lot of fun.

It Is The Season

To finish making up those last minute special orders for our customers. The soaps are all made and are finished curing. The next few weeks will be wrapping soap, packing soap, and shipping soap.

I sure I will also make a few batches of soap in between. I get a little twitchy if I go too long without making soap. I am going to try out a few new essential oil scents I have blending.

The Box Has Been Shipped

This is the box I received from Australia. I chose one soap and replaced it with one of mine and sent the box on its way to Spain. Which soap did I choose?

I am so sorry for not having a translator on my blog. Julia has given me the intructions and for some reason I can not get it to work yet. Still working on it. I have been reading Jennifer Young's blog for quite a long time now. I am so excited about her grand opening of her shop and wish her HUGE success! I was so happy her soap was still in the box. I did have to fight for it. My dear daughter was very impressed with Dragon's soap and my mom loved the packaging and scent of Swanee's soap. It is so tough to choose when all the soaps involved are so wonderful.

 This is the soap I put into the box. This is my Sassy Lady soap. It is scented with pink grapefruit, bergamont, lemon and ylang ylang essential oils. I was going for a "in your face scent with a soft feminine side" but as so often happens with citrus it has faded quite a bit.

It has been a wonderful experience and I look forward to more blogging about "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Soap"!

It's Here!!!!!

The long awaited box of soap has arrived!

This box came from Australia. Karen from Kaz's Journey shipped the box to me after picking her soap. These are the 3 soaps that were inside. I have to choose just one.

I took the whole box down to my moms and had her and my sister and my daughter help me decide. It is very hard as all 3 soaps smelled fabulous. The first soap is from Swanee, a solid sugar scrub soap. I just love the box it comes in.

The second soap is from Karen of Dragon's Handmade Soap. Once again I love the wrapping and it smells so good.

The third soap is from Jenora Soaps.I have been reading her blog for a long time and enjoy all the experimenting she does with natural colors.

Which one to choose? Tune in tomorrow to see which soap was chosen and which soap of mine I put into the box. By the way, the box is now on its way to Spain! I want to thank Julie from CocoBong Soaps for allowing me to join in the fun!

I Am So Excited!

I love to browse the net and check out what soap makers around the world are doing. I enjoy reading soap making blogs and the pictures are often works of art. One blog I really enjoy reading is CocoBong. Julia has a way with words. I can almost see and smell the bars of soap she describes. A while ago she came up with a fun idea of an I ternational soap swap. She sent out 3 bars of soap to another soap maker who picked one of the bars and replaced it with one of her soaps, and then sent that package to another soap maker. So far the package has traveled to many soap makers. AND I AM NEXT! I am so excited. Read about the travels of the Traveling Soap here on Julia's blog.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

In my last post I mentioned that my father had been having some medical issues but was on the mend. Since Thanksgiving I have been going down on my days off to help my mom and be there for my dad while he was recuperating in an acute care rehab center. He was getting stronger and learning to walk again after a serious infection and pneumonia. He was able to come home to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us. He was able to celebrate his 60th wedding anniversary to his beautiful bride, my mom.


He came home and was starting to settle into the routine of physical therapy, occupational therapy, dialysis, and the many social workers and nurses that were involved in his home health care.

Then he took a turn for the worse. The struggle and pain was too much and on January 16, 2012 the Lord took my dad up to heaven to live forever. He died quietly in his sleep.

I miss him so much.

There is a hurt in my heart that won't go away.

I am thankful for the time I got to spend with him before he passed.

I am thankful my darling daughter was close to him for her whole 18 years.

I will always remember his smile, his kindness, his honesty, his compassion, his will to live, his ability to always see "the cup half full" instead of half empty.

My father, like so many fathers, was a wonderful man. I have been so blessed to have him in my life. He taught me so many things by his example. I hope to be half the person he was, and then I will be with him forever in heaven.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace Dad! We love you so much.

Happy Holidays

Posts have been far and few. I had a health issue in my immediate family and I was needed more at my folk's home than in the soap shop. I feel so blessed that the people in my life feel that family comes first and I was given time off from work to be with my parents. My dad is on the mend and while I will still be spending my days off with them, I will be making soap. Not as much as usual, but it will have to do for now.

Please have a peaceful and wonderful New Year.