Sweet Soap Porn Saturday

I have been taking photographs for my business' new website (not live yet), and also working on post production, editing each photograph carefully until the crop, light and color was just right for the photographs of Mad Oils' colorants.  As a mica supplier, it is incredibly important to make sure the colors I put up on the screen are identical to the colors we carry.  All month I've been photographing micas, fragrance oils, poppy seeds,  (yes, Facebook viewers, most of you figured out that the "Who Am I?" photo I posted was indeed a gaggle of Spanish Blue Poppies.) 

One of my real passions, however, is photographing soaps.  It's my favorite subject matter and I realized that in 2007, when I started this blog reviewing soaps from around the world.  I do miss reviewing soaps, but at some point after a couple of years, there were a bunch of soap review blogs that popped up out of nowhere, so my soap reviews didn't seem necessary anymore.  Other bloggers were doing a great job reviewing soaps, and because I was getting increasingly busy, I turned the blog into my personal diary and for displaying soap.  I basically handed it over and begin something else:  SOAP PORN.  The only reason I ever started the blog was to expose talented unknown soap makers to the world through photos and positive reviews.  Giving the handcrafted soap world a place to reveal themselves was my goal and I think I was involved in something wonderful.

This weekend, I found fantastic soap blogs with better than dynamite photos of super-stunning soaps. Three women soap makers and bloggers. I share with you, the three artists that I think have incredible talent and need to be further exposed.


SOAPJAM, Philippines

 

soapjam

I love everything about Soap Jam's soap, from the colors she puts together, to the designs she creates all the way to the stamp that's perfectly placed.  The photography is also spot on!  Thank you, Sylvia, for being an inspiration and for sharing your beauties!  I am so happy I stumbled on you this weekend!

   

 INFUSIONS, Maya
 

Infusions... I am breathless.  I wish her About page has more information so I could share that with you and also know myself, more about her background.

___________________________________

SAVONS FANTASIES, Jazz

 savonsfantaisies

Jazz, who writes the Savons Fantasies blog, has a wide range of techniques she uses. I do love the different styles she attempts (and does well!) and it's wonderful to see one soaper try all of them.  Some soap makers can find their groove with one style and then find it hard to expand their horizons by trying new techniques because of their comfort zone.  It seems as if Jazz tries everything and does it with style!

______________________________

This is one of the reasons I run Soap Challenges on Facebook (and here).  Expanding the way we think, look at things and reveal the artist within us all.


To wrap it up, I am sharing a photo from Soap Jam's blog of Sylvia and Maya together!  Sylvia on the left and Maya on the right:

I lift my coffee to you both and to Jazz!  Thank you, soapy ladies.

xoxo Joanna

(Joanna began The Soap Bar blog & now owns Mad Oils, a wholesale supplier of colorful micas, fragrances and more soap supplies)

Favorite Soap Top Photo Challenge on Facebook

One of the reasons I set up these photo challenges, is because I think we can all work on our photography skills.  Even ugly soap can be made beautiful with the right angle, light and focus.  I encourage all of you to step outside your comfort zone and really play, flounder, hone in and improve your own setting-the-stage for your soaps. 

There were some amazing soaps submitted this week.  I am truly floored by some of the talent out there and are inspired by the images... the soap itself.  Again, this wasn't about the most beautiful tops (which there were dozens of amazing ones!), this was about photographing your favorite tops. 

Many of you have created a mood so deep, that it has successfully taken me to another place outside of my room.  As if I experience a few seconds on another plane, in a different time and space and if I were connected to a breathing machine or heart rate monitor, I'm guessing the images actually had a physical impact as well.  Not just creative thought.

Imagine for a moment: an image that you've seen that transformed your mood or gave you relief even for a moment.  Then get behind your camera and move around your subject until you FEEL something and click.  Then stay behind the lens and do it again.  And again.  I took a photography class in college and I was taught to examine images that gave me an emotion or took me to the past or rekindled a memory I had forgotten.  That is special when you can examine, then reexamine why it moved you.  Was it the light, the blurred background, the colors, expressions on faces, the unknown....what wasn't said?  All this works to tell a story.

Soap may not tell a story to most, but to us it has a history within ourselves.  Our hard work, our love for science or art, our sweat and tears and sometimes our feelings of worth.  These are our creations and because they are special, we need to deliver all of that information, emotion and love, outside of ourselves and into our image for others to view and experience.

These two are mine, though not thought provoking necessarily, but the first one has a sense of playfulness.

 Joanna Schmidt

SoapTops

Joanna Schmidt

Detox

So, without further ado, here are the photographs that moved me.  Not just beautiful soap, but a mood that captured my attention and took me from my own reality for a few seconds.

Clara Lindberg 

Creamy mohair and goat's milk soap with cinnamon & neroli.

 Kate Boisoneau

Poppet: smoky sweet caramelized sugar, roasted almond, rich cocoa, and airy, creamy marshmallow

 Hajni Kele

Witches Brew

Just because most of these are close-ups, doesn't mean those are the ones that are moving to me.  Lighting and focus have an impact as well.  The one interesting thing about macro shots:  it brings attention to details that are normally overlooked.  Many times it shows the care and beauty that isn't normally seen upfront.  It lures the viewer in and captivates them.

What are your thoughts?  Please share in the comments below...

xoxo Joanna

Me and Stuff

My journey in the soap world has been a wild roller coaster, to say the least.  As some of you know, I started this blog as a way to give soap makers of handmade soap exposure to the world.  I started reviews and it just took off.  At the time, there were no soap blogs doing this that I could find.  A whole world of soap opened up to me and shortly after I began, other soap blogs popped up and handcrafted soap seemed to be everywhere.  I am so happy I tapped into that world, because I soon became part of it. 

My readers...YOU.... encouraged me to try my hand at soaping and when I finally pulled the trigger, the addiction began for me.  I loved it!  Now my business is almost all soap and I'm so happy with the direction my company is taking.  I work tirelessly at making my soaps better, my designs unique and using some of the best ingredients to the table.  It took years before I could say I am truly proud of my final product.  In the beginning, I made good soap, but the years of trial and error and endless researching, I can say I have a solid bar that I am pleased with.

I guess I knew it would take years of learning, doing, failing, loving....

I have let my blog writing fall to the wayside for a while now and I apologize to you all.  I have been focusing my energies elsewhere and I am sorry I have let you down. I want to bring you soap porn, reviews, tutorials, new ideas and business musings.  I'm not sure if my experiences will help anyone else, but perhaps I just need to share them and let you all take what you need and fly with it. 

Please leave comments on this post about what you want to get out of this blog and I will try to address them.  I can not promise I will post all the time, but I can try to be much better about it.  I do need your help.  If you are interested in sharing something here that you think others may be interested in, please email me and let me know you'd be interested in guest blogging.  I am open to any ideas.  This blog gets about 10,000 unique visitors a month, and my guess is that a big percent of those visitors are soap makers looking for inspiration, learning tools and a feeling a sense of community.

I am looking forward to being a part of The Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild annual conference this May in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I will get to meet a bunch of you.  Please seek me out and come introduce yourself.  I will be doing a demo on soap making with milks and I am nervous as heck.  I do not consider myself a public speaker and I loathe being the center of attention, but I want to do this and I know I will grow as a person having done it. 

Thank you for continuing to be a part of this blog, the active group on facebook, and general supporter of my vision.  Thank you.  Let's continue to grow together.  Here...hold my hand.

hugs, jo

Word Cloud Of This Blog For August

you can click for a bigger image

Thanks to Celine of Soaperstar for this great idea. She mentioned on facebook that she created a really cool word cloud on Wordle.net. They create word clouds of your blog.

"The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes"

.... so you can see, we talk soap here! ;)

That was fun!

Now, off to my radio interview for Product Body. O______O

*

I'd Like To Thank The Academy

Caitlin, owner and maker of goodies at Revive Bath and Body has honored The Soap Bar Blog with "The Versatile Blogger" award. The concept behind the Versatile Blogger Award is to follow a few rules and then pass it on to whatever blog you think deserves it.

Does it mean I am so versatile?

O.O

It's an award. I'll take recognition and play the game....

The rules are:

1. Make a post and link it back to the person who gave you the award (and include their website address)

2. Share 7 random things about yourself

3. Award 7 recently discovered bloggers with this award and contact them to let them know they have won

7 random things about me:

1. I love real mail.

2. I have a size 9 shoe (US).

3. I am scared of heights.

4. I took sign language classes in NYC & my teacher was completely deaf.

5. I was in love with Michael Jackson when I was 14 years old.

6. I'm scared of bugs.

7. I laugh when people trip. In fact, when someone trips and goes out of sight, I cannot help myself.

So now that I've revealed some things... I nominate the following blogs (trying to nominate ones that haven't yet been nominated):

1. Clear Marie at Artisan Soaps - the woman who brought the world "The Vanilla Files" and wonderful soap creations.

2. Tiggy at Future Primitive Soap - The expert who brings the White Witch and wicked essential oil soap that knock it out of the park every time. She is f-u-n-n-y, too.

3. Amber of Amber's Ambry - One of the most creative women on the block. She soaps, makes garbage into palatial magic, weaves, plays the banjo, gardens with the greenest thumb, knits, mothers... she sees vision where others may not.

4. Kristi of Life Soap Simple - She makes beautiful soaps and her blog is nice and varied. Tutorials, soap photos, life, crafts... go check her stuff out. I've featured her soap in SOAP PORN before because it's so pretty!

5. Kelly of Fresh Cut Soap Co. - This woman makes beautiful soap. I love visiting her blog because she updates frequently, and her soaps are ever changing or, rather, she is constantly creating, I should say. Check it!

6. Lyn of Lynnz Artisan Soaps and Candles - Gorgeous soap. Used in soap porn posts a few times... I just love visiting her blog because it is just packed with soap pictures. I also really like her displays when she goes to market.

7. Misty of Curat Romania - Great soap and a great attitude. I love the ingredients in Misty's soap and in her blog she gives great detail and photos of her soaps and what's inside.

I'm flattered and honored and this post took me so much longer to do than I thought.

Holy cow!

Thank you!

Soaps For Charity Soap Porn + Updates

It feels like no matter what I do, how much I get done, or when I get bad days with my illness, I always feel like I am falling behind. I hate that feeling. I have also been neglecting you, my soap readers, and I have to apologize. But here is what I have planned for this week, so I feel perkier just thinking about it:

1) A soap review of Gabriele Kappes' soap
2) Sharon, of Grumpy Girl Candle & Bath Company will be doing a special secret tutorial for us (She's going to try out her new video camera!). Well, I know what the tutorial is about and I am SUPER excited to be sharing it with you! You will have to wait and see. ;)

And while you wait for the goods, please bring your attention to a few soaps that are new to me:

Luxury Japanese Spring Soap with Shea Butter For Japan Relief, $4.00
Tokyo Factory



Luxury Sweet Soap, Mild Vegan Soap For Japan Relief
Tokyo Factory

A message from Tokyo Factory: "Now we are raising money for relief efforts in Japan. 100% of profits are given to the American Red Cross. Thank you very much for your love & support to my country, Japan.

Kitchen Soap
Sapa Sapa



Rosemary
Sapa Sapa

Sapa Sapa: All net proceeds are donated to AFESIP Cambodia to help victims of human trafficking and sex slavery. (this is a personal project for her)


I have great admiration and respect for independent companies that give 100% of profits to charity.

Have a good night, all.

I'd Like To Say This About That

Amy Warden, of Great Cakes Soapworks, decided to run a Best Handmade Soap Blogs Award and The Soap Bar was nominated for four out of six categories. I am speechless. It is an honor being nominated and it feels amazing to be recognized. I want to share my thanks and tell you that you all have made The Soap Bar what it is, really. I started it and you helped me bring it here.

Thank you.

I urge you to go to Amy's blog and vote, for any of the blogs! All of them are wonderful. You should check them all out. I learned about a few I didn't know existed and I am thrilled to have them on my list of places to go to see talent, new ideas, other people's bursts of creativity and (hee hee) more soap porn material. Yay that! I also don't see this as a competition, really. I feel this more as a bonding with other bloggers and I wish we could all sit around a big breakfast table and have coffee and biscuits and jam and hang out.

Again, I urge you to look at all the blogs and continue learning and loving and growing and vote because as of 10:15 am, there are only 95 voters and there probably should be more. This is international, baby.

xox

Joanna

My Blogs

Some of you are having trouble remembering how you designed the last holiday soap... "Did I embed it with green stars or were they red...?" Well, a while back I started a blog to keep track of my soaping history. Partly because I didn't take enough pictures of people who are gone and partly because when I look back, I can truly remember each pour and the challenges on that day.

That's what this blog is about:

Soap History - This is actually a great idea for some of you who keep journals in oil stained books (ahem). I set this up for myself to remember the ones I liked. I didn't photograph al of the ones I liked. There was a big batch of time that I totally forgot I even HAD that blog. Oh well. Anyway, If you don't already have a blog just for your soap photos as a soap journal and not your blog blog, you can even send people to it if you get to the point when you are asked to do private label or someone wants to carry your soaps. You can direct them to the soap journal blog and they can see the range.

So get yourself a blog. It is easy and you can upload your work without all that talk. :)

Product Body - Obviously this is where I update folks about my business and announce new offerings or discontinuations.

And then there is this baby... The Soap Bar, which is the MOST fun of all!!

Love you!!

The Heirloom Soapworks Ended Up In Jersey

photo courtesy of Sarah Sapang on bennyville love blog

Sarah won the last giveaway which was the 3 bar soap stack provided by Heirloom Soapworks. Sarah has her own blog: bennyville love blog and posted about the soaps. She loves them and describes and photographs each one. I swiped the photo above from her blog, and gave her credit, of course.

Check out Becky's soap review over there.

Say hi to Sarah for me!

((wave))

*

Rethinking What To Offer

I know I could be bringing more interesting things to the table right now, but with my children being home for the summer and I mean HOME and not in camp, and my life being crazy on top of that, throw a little business on top of that, add a little migraine hell, then just add regular 'ole life, and you've got yourself a boring blog. I haven't had nearly the kind of time or energy to give it.

I've gotten a few lovely guest bloggers to post (thank you!) and I have a couple others scheduled for the near future, but, I have no master plan for this blog for the moment and I know I must be boring you all to tears, have no good resources, eye candy or much else to give you. Thing is, I can't change much about it for about another month, so until the kiddies go back to school and we get into some sort of schedule, and life goes into normal, The Soap Bar may just be providing you with soap porn.

Short of a miracle, the heat will continue to melt me and kill me slowly.
O.o

Delicious Give Away

This is a delicious give away that you are going to L-O-V-E. I received a bottle of the new Delicious Art Eau De Parfum Spray (3.4 oz) from DKNY that is sold out everywhere I've looked. True. It's currently unavailable at DKNYfragrances.com and at Sephora.com. I'm sure there are some places you can find it, but they are going like hot cakes. All the rage, folks.

DKNY Delicious Art Eau De Parfum Spray
Retails at $70.00.

The DKNY apple is transformed into its comic counterpart, filled with ben-day dots and thought bubbles. The limited edition bottle is filled with Be Delicious fragrance. Take a juicy bite of a scent that is innocent, sexy, wholesome, provocative.

What a refreshing, sweet innocent scent! Apple-y without being so sweet my teeth ache and smelling like a teenager in Claire's. I am not big on perfume. It's usually too heavy or heady for me and it usually gives me a headache, but this one is easy to wear. The bottle makes me happy, too, every time I look at it.

OK. There are four ways to get an entry into this give away.

1. Leave a comment along with your email address so I can contact you if you win (if you don't want to leave your email then you must check back after I post that you've won or you forfeit your prize and I will pass the winnings to the next person)
   
2. Twitter about this give away with a link to it, then come back and post that you did just that...(leave your link)
3. Blog about this giveaway and come back and post that you did just that...(leave your link)
4. Facebook. Tell all of your friends there, too. Let me know.
   

The winner will be chosen on Friday afternoon, August 21st (3 days!).

1.2.3...go!

***
;) Teresa....

Truly Touched By You

I want to thank all of you who took the time (and courage, I know for some of you) to come out of your comfortable place and tell me what you want from this blog. From me. I was beyond blown away by the things that were said. I have to admit to you I wasn't really prepared for the emotions that surfaced. Perhaps I am a bit more emotional at this point in my life, or this time of the month or this time of the year or whatever... I've put more of myself into this blog than I realized... Maybe I need this more than I care to admit to and that actually seeing that people are really reading this blog kind of stuns me even though google analytics tells me so. Those analytics are numbers... Comments are real. And so were the heart felt emails I received from people that were inspiring, life changing, incredible stories they shared with me that I am so honored to have been even part of their soap and life journeys that they are on. It brings me more joy than you know.

So as a part of my life is pivoting so is my blog and I am pleased to have you with me as we move together and I don't feel alone doing this. I absolutely love this and as long as I do, I will keep doing it so no worries about me stopping. Really, the point of me asking was to make sure I was touching the wants and needs of all of you.

Soap Porn
I think I hear you. We definitely need to keep the soap dope going. Porn is a good thing. We all love to look at the pretty soaps people are making and I love to gather it for hours every time and share it with you so it works out really well that it's my job.

check!

Reviews. Yes. It has been very rare lately and I will tell you why. For a long time I was getting loads of soap to test and review and it was going great. I was doing reviews all the time. Remember those days? Well. Life became busy, work, life, you know...reviews slowed down and so did deliveries of soap. Then I received a number of soap packages that I couldn't review. Didn't like the soap. This really stinks when this happens because I really do not want to make anyone sad and tell them I couldn't use their soap or review it. My policy is that if I don't like it, I won't review it. Period. I just won't bash soaps and their soap makers. Unfortunately, during the move into the new soap shop I lost 2 or 3 small soap packages and now no one knows whose soaps were lost or if theirs were rejected by me. Typically, I have an organized list and a soap cabinet where I have things labeled but when we moved the list went missing as well. My memory is like a sieve so all I can do is fess up right now and tell you that if you sent me soap and I have not reviewed it, please don't just assume I hated it. Get in touch with me, pleeeeease.

We will work it out.

So reviews will be back up very soon. That being said, I do need soap to review if you want your soap to be reviewed, this may be a good time. I will be taking a vacation from this Florida place for one week starting on Monday August 3rd and returning on August 10th. After the 10th I can receive soaps at my shop.

I need to start fresh.

Techniques and Tutorials
These are all thanks to guest bloggers which I try to get periodically because we need flavor over here. FLAVA! We all need to learn new things, teach new things, try new things. We have so many talented people among us, we have to dip into the vat of goodness, dont you think?

So, thank you to all of the tutorial makers of the past, and I urge any of you who would like to create tutorials for the future for The Soap Bar. It is good for all of us. Think about it, then get in touch with me.

I keep telling you: I don't bite.


Contests
Contests and Give-Aways... I haven't had those in awhile, it's true. I had some good ones, though, didn't I? My favorite one was the cereal challenge. :P Did you play that? It was more fun putting it together than playing scrabble. My kids had too much fun trying to stump you all with picking the cereals, too. I guess with postage going up and business costs increasing I just got cheap. Lame, I know. I will spice it up and do one soon. I'll try to think of something fun while I am on my road trip relaxing and unwinding....

• Business Tips, balancing home/work. Great topic. I hadn't thought about that. Should really talk about that. Didn't think anyone would be interested in me rambling, really. Just SOAP SOAP SOAP.
• My hair? OK, I will post a picture of me soon. Not crazy about my hair right now.
• oil properties: I can list those.... list more resources and guides...

I have a lot to do here with you. For you. But I think I have been going in the right direction and I am so glad that you have spoken your mind. I urge you to continue to comment and tell me what you'd like and what you want to share, whether it be your experiences, thoughts, pjhotos or soaps.

This is not just my blog. To me, you are my community. You.

And thanks for making me cry.

***

You As My Rock

I love to write this blog. I really do. It gives me great pleasure and every time a comment is left, I get excited, like when I was a kid finding presents under the tree with my name on it.

Well under 1% of you leave comments on a regular basis and the rest of you are just readers, and that's ok. I read a lot of blogs that I don't leave comments on. I will, say, however, that I am wondering if I am continuing to interest you, finding interesting topics, keeping it real enough, providing enough soap porn...etc. I would LOVE to get feedback on what you might love, like, would rather see less of, more of, none of....

This blog is not about me. It is about the soap community and bringing us together and there is, of course, some personal ramblings and funny finds that make me giggle. I really just can't help myself with that. It comes with the territory.

Anyway, I would love to address topics that are important, discuss new techniques you may want to share, places you think the community should know about. Send me the name of a great new handmade artisan that you think is awesome. I love to find new soap artists! There are so many things that can be talked about, brought up, shown, shared, done. Open my mind to the world of soap!

Really.

You might be sitting back and lurking and I get it. You don't have to get involved, but I would love it if you could share 3 or 4 words.

Just a comment. ... .. .. ..

Plug For The Man

As some of you know, my husband, Brad, writes Bone In The Fan and recently wrote a funny post about the Quizno's pizza commercials. If you are not easily offended hop over and go have a read. I mentioned it on Twitter, so some of you have already had a read.

:)

DIY Gift Basket :: Twig + Thistle

I visited the Twig + Thistle blog and found this oh-so-cute DIY gift basket which looks so teeth aching sweet as an Easter basket filled with handmade marshmallow PEEPS (oh yeah, really)
and a handcrafted bunny.

How can Kathleen (of Twig + Thistle) be so good at so many things? And the Peeps? They are so much nicer than the originals!

But if you look passed the niceness of the holiday swag, you might see that this gift basket could be a great way to present your soaps or whatever handmade goodies you make. There are an endless sea of neat design fabrics that you can use, patterns and adornments that can be added to make these baskets part of any gift giving set.

There is a whole process in making them and you need an exacto knife and tape and other stuff and you need to be able to follow instructions (just a heads up), but Kathleen makes the process a breeze because she even has a button for you to press so you can download a template! Easy peezy, lemon squeezy. So here are some photos I snatched, with permission of course, to give you a sense of the steps, but you need to visit her blog to get the whole step by step instructions. It's WAY cool and if I find myself alone with an exacto knife for more than 10 minutes, I might be able to swing this project.

Force Curing/Hardening After The Fact (help!)

I know I write this soap blog, I make soap, I review soap and I especially admire soap. Yesssss, I almost drool. One of the things I am not, however, is a person with a vast sea of knowledge regarding soap tricks and short cuts. I have been asked a lot of advice in recent weeks from people around the world. My first words are, "Wow, I am honored you are asking, but you should really ask Anne-Marie at Teach Soap or Brambleberry. If they don't know....they'll find out for you. (Maybe too much pressure for the Brambleberrians :P, but they know soap! What can I say?)

I got an email recently:

I made a soap with butters and olive oil a few weeks ago. I have a market fair upcoming and want much to sell my wares there, but the soap is still I think a little soft like hard cheese. I know it's safe, but is there ways to speed up the hardening part? Perhaps a soap vacation in the oven to dry them out? I don't want to ruin them. They are so beautiful, but I don't think I can sell them as they are.

It would be awesome if anyone with experience speeding up the "curing" process or hardening up bars could leave their tricks for her in the comments section. If we get a lot of comments and solutions, I'll have to post them as a seperate topic! I bet there are a lot of people who might benefit from solutions if there are any...

The Year Of Incredible Growth

I'm not a big New Year's Eve crazed individual, but all this talk about "this year in review" on the radio, tv and on blogs all over got me thinking about accomplishments I've made in 2008.

Do you remember this?



That was only in March of THIS YEAR! I have been researching and reading and working really hard to make a good bar of soap. I have my whole lifetime to get better, but with the 18 months of reviewing other soapmaker's soaps, I have really been critically thinking with every shower... doing research daily. Who would think doing homework while getting clean was even healthy? I guess everyone does it where they need to. Some, while doing their daily workout, others during their commute, and then others not at all.

My third batch was a disaster. I didn't even know what a lye calculator was. How did I figure out the recipe? :P



This year has been quite a ride. I feel so incredibly lucky to have started this blog because I have met so many incredible people along the way. I really never realized there were people who were so encouraging and helpful. And look what happened. I have found that soapmakers are some of the nicest group of folks I have come across. So generous! Generous with knowledge and time, especially and I only hope that I can give myself back to them... YOU...as much as I can for this coming year again and more.

Let's keep going. Give me feedback. I love to hear it. I'd love to know where you'd like to go, what you'd like to see, who you'd like to hear from, any particular tutorials you'd like to see.... I am also looking for guest bloggers, so if you have some interesting content or a tutorial you want to share, please get in touch with me.

Love in the New Year, all!!

xo
Jo

I Owe You

I have been sent soaps by amazing soap maker artists and I have not been sharing OR posted any soap reviews for some time now. The holidays do not normally throw me into a state of I-have-no-time-to-do-anything-for-myself, but this year with building the lab/shop for Product, I have stretched myself so thin, I haven't given the soaps the time and attention they really DESERVE.

It's not that I do not LOVE them. It's not that I do not ADORE your lovely notes and soapy goodies and creations. It's not that I do not COMPLETELY appreciate you reading this very sentence and sending your friends to read the blog, too. It will get exciting again in January. I PROMISE.

I have plans of writing frequently again and I will be looking for unique approaches and techniques. I am eager to share your video or photographic tutorials with the world (yes, we have a lot of people all over this globe that read this blog, so come be part of it!). I love your comments, emails and additions. You are the reasons I got into the soaping world to begin with so I owe you. I owe you lots of good blog content and my deep gratitude.

You guys rock.

Blood Like Syrup

I've gotten into making more and more soap and I thought last night as I was whipping up a nice hefty batch of soap how important it would be for me to commit to making one loaf of soap per day until Thanksgiving. It makes sense. Cold process soap making takes T-I-M-E and if you want to plan for Christmas sales on Etsy or your shop or load up for personal gift giving, you'd better start thinking about things in October while you are picking out your pumpkins.

So my "I'm-going-to-make-a-loaf-of-soap-a-day" pep talk I had with myself last night must have been influenced by some caffeine I had early early that morning because tonight I think my body is under an invisible fat man having a rest on top of me. I think my body must be fighting a cold because I've been on the verge of being narcoleptic for the past 2-3 days, my blood feels a little like syrup, my throat hurts a little bit - but luckily only when I swallow a few hundred times an hour.

I do have to say that my sickness luck in Florida has been pretty strange. When I lived in NY, I got sick every other month with a bad cold or cough. Since I've moved here five years ago, I have been sick four times (or was it three?). I just don't get sick! Weird right? Now if I have jinxed myself by saying it "out loud" I will be very upset should I get sick now.

No soap loaves today. I am just TOO TIRED. I'll try to soap again tomorrow and we'll see how that goes.

I have a few upcoming reviews for you folks soon. I haven't done one in a while. I have been doing a lot of sharing soap porn and talking about me and my soaps. I continue to read every comment and love all the feedback from you. Thanks for being a part of it all here with me!

More tomorrow!

November Is Blog Your Brain Empty Month

Actually, it is called, "National Blog Posting Month" over at nablopomo.com.

"National Blog Posting Month is the epicenter of daily blogging! People who want to set the habit of blogging by doing it every day for a month, including weekends, can come here for moral support, inspiration, and the camaraderie that only marathon blogging can provide."

If you are a member of Ning, then you don't have to join, but you need to sign up if you think you want to try blogging every day. Prizes are part of the deal. Apparently, once November is over, bloggers get randomly chosen, and when it's confirmed that they have blogged every day for the whole month, they win prizes! The many prizes donated will be divied out to the various blogger winners.

Now if you are not a blogger and want to get involved, you can get involved by donated your crafty wares.

Sound fun to you? Then join me and try it out for one month. I might bore the heck out of you, but you'll get a piece of me, no doubt!