Some Soapy Highlights

So what have I been up to these past 9+ months?  It's been a whirlwind! But some highlights on the soapy side of things:

I was elected manager of a farmer's market last winter.  With the responsibilities have come some unique opportunities.  In February I was included in a front page article on the market in my local newspaper, including a picture of me making soap.  I'm not used to soaping for an audience, much less for a photographer snapping pictures like I was a big deal.  But thanks to a reliable recipe (and no on-the-fly experimentation for once!) everything went perfectly.

Not exactly typical of my soaping sessions.... I'm obsessive about wearing safety glasses.  And I'd like to think my hair usually looks better. ;)

A few months later I was asked (or more specifically, told, prodded, cajoled, dang-near forced) to be on a local radio station's community events program.  I arrived feeling decently prepared, I thought, with a half dozen or so points and pieces of news that I wanted to convey about the farmer's market.  Any smidgen of confidence I may have felt dissolved when I discovered it was a 30 minute program and I was the only guest.  I knew I would have to resort to topics like How to Store a Kohlrabi and 27 Ways to Eat Jerusalem Artichokes and wind up babbling incoherently by the end. ("Nothing new there!" my Mister would say....)

It wasn't so bad after all.  I can't say the time flew, because I watched nearly every second on the timer tick down, but the hostess was so at ease that it was a smooth conversation.  We discussed my soap business more than I expected to and on my way home I realized that I didn't even get to plug the market's new Facebook page.  I guess I'll have to do that on my next visit scheduled for this fall....ahem...

The results of the publicity have been positive.  It was my intention and responsibility to promote the market, but I ended up with a lot of attention, which benefits the whole market.  I am frequently referred to as "that soap lady on the radio/in the paper."  And with that kind of notoriety, could life get any better?  Well, yes.  I can now go into the hardware store and buy all the lye I want and nobody gives me a second look.  And even better, I think they keep more in stock than they used to.  Before, I'd braced myself for the day when a sales clerk would pull me aside and recommend a plumber for my obviously rampant drain issues.  Or perhaps someone would suspect that my lye needs were of another kind, one that would also land me an article on the front page, in an orange ensemble that just doesn't flatter my figure, not that I've ever been fitted for one.

Besides those incidents, I've had an incredibly, insanely busy market season, with two markets every week. And lots and lots of soap.  But more on the market later....