10th ave. soapworks

In the words of the good old doctor (Seuss)--"That is not all. Oh, no. That is not all."  This, my bloggy friends, is my afternoon, ahem,"diversion" today. This picture represents the one mere 24-hour period of garden abundance that I could lug home in the bowls I took to the garden.  (I'm no dummy; I left the bushel baskets in the garage for a reason.)  This, of course, does not include the pots of tomato sauce currently on the stove.  And this, dear readers, is what happens when you look at your garden plot in the spring and say "Let's put tomatoes in this general area" as you sweep your arm in a wide circle and then after filling the "general area" you count 50 tomato plants. This is why I have no new soap pictures to share with you, although I've been madly soaping during those moments when I pretend I don't have tomatoes ripening hourly.  And this is why there are little tomato jui...

.....If I only had a sale for every time I've been asked this question! How would you respond?  Here are a few options: A)  "Love.  In every single bar."  (includes a complimentary upchuck bag) B)  Launch into a crash course in the science of soapmaking to wow/overwhelm him with my knowledge. C) Offer a personal introduction to every bar in my lineup and its unique ingredients. OK, maybe not.  When I first began selling my soaps, I floundered on this question until one customer--bless her lil ol' heart--followed the question with another.  "Do you use goat's milk?"  And that's the real question my customers had been asking. In my area, goat's milk soaps have an excellent reputation (as they should!) and it seems assumed that handmade soaps of any respectable quality should contain goat's milk.  I wonder if this is a common customer concern or just prevalent in my area?  Anyway, ...

I thrive on creative challenges--most of the time.  However, I tend to greet display decisions with the same enthusiasm that I muster to organize income taxes or to go to the doctor. But on the spur of the moment, in utter desperation, I came up with a way to display a wide array of soaps so they are easy to see. I dug through the Mister's scrap piles and found 5 chunks of wood that were vaguely similar.  I stacked them and wrapped a piece of fabric around the lumber. Voila.  Instant display.  It has proven so handy that I'm still using it for the farmer's market this summer.  I screwed the stacks together so it's easy to tote around.  I'm not looking at it as a long-term display, just until I get a fancy one, once I decide exactly what I want.  That means I'll probably be using it for years. Is this an original idea for a quick display?  It probably isn't, but I thought it was a touch of gen...

It appears the pendulum swung the other way recently.  I dearly love my naturally colored, unscented soaps.  But sometimes you gotta get foofy. First came a whole bunch of curls..... Then a lot of glitter.... All combined into peachy-colored, fruit salsa-scented chunks of goat milk bubbliness.         Natural, smatural. This post can also be found on Fill Those Jars Friday .

So...have you been waiting impatiently to hear about my farmer's market experience this week?  What predicaments could possibly top last week's? Well, it was all rather anticlimatic.  The repaired tent didn't budge a bit, the temperature didn't climb higher than 95 and I had my largest sales of the entire summer.  So sorry to disappoint you all.  There was one incident, however, that made the day memorable.  A woman carrying a gorgeous iced latte topped with whipped cream had a sad accident while trying to juggle it, her wallet, and some lotion. The puddle of latte missed all my soaps and products, but still made a substantial mess.  Had I been any decent sort of salesman, I would have snatched up a bar of laundry soap and started a sales pitch for them as the handiest, dandiest stain sticks ever.  But since I'm not and didn't even think of it until hours later, I just assured her...