Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my blog; it is an exciting venture for me and I hope this will become a forum for moms and homemakers of all types to share stories, frustrations, and triumphs. There will be recipes, pictures of my latest and greatest soap creations, and anything I think will be interesting to Enthusiastic Homemakers.....

Monday, February 14, 2011

The shoemaker's wife is barefoot...and my husband has no soap!

I love the old Ivory Soap ads...not that I am old enough to remember this particular ad; but I remember the 80's ads for Ivory; they always had the most beautiful pictures, and the cutest babies! Maybe I was always meant to make soap; I've always loved to get a new bar of soap, unwrap it, and display in my bathroom. I remember wanting to keep soap in a pristine condition by not using it; I always loved the designs stamped into the bars, and the "feel" of a brand-new bar of soap....ahhh, but I digress!

The reason for the title of the post is that ever since I've started selling my soap, I have been terribly reluctant to actually use my soap myself! I've gotten such kind compliments from people, and I truly enjoy making something that people enjoy. Meanwhile, I'm looking wistfully at bar after bar of my soap in my drying closet; still working my way through my early attempts, scratch and dents, and slivers of my soap! Although I do always test each batch for gentleness by washing my hands with the trimmings, I must confess there are several varieties I have not used! So tonight, in the spirit of taking care of myself so that I can be the best wife and mother; I took a deep breath; opened my drying closet, and picked out a soap! I have to admit; it was an imperfect soap, one that I was saving for free samples, but I felt like a kid in a candy store! I also used a shampoo bar, and gave my poor husband a pristine, saleable bar of the soap I made with him in mind! Poor thing, he's been using a tiny of sliver of soap for who knows how long; he confessed he was afraid to ask me for soap! I feel terrible! The reason I started making soap in the first place was provide high-quality soap for my family; it seems that I may have lost sight of that a little; I hope to keep balanced in my endeavors and make sure that I'm taking care of my family above all; the rest will take care of itself. I must admit, I feel quite refreshed, after lathering myself up with soap I was pleased with, then slathering myself with mounds of shea butter lotion. I made it after all; I shouldn't be going around with dry skin! What kind of example does that set?  

On a side note; I got so much sewing accomplished last night. I was feeling tired and headachy and grumbling about getting my sewing stuff set up. As soon as I got into the project; I immediately felt energized and wonderful; I truly must remember my love of sewing, and that no matter how tired I may feel, a good project aways gets my creative juices flowing, and it's so worth the effort! I hope to do more sewing after I finish this post; hope all of you have a great evening!

3 comments:

  1. I found this so funny! Your poor husband- with a closet full of soap in the house, no less! I'm glad you used some for yourself. I'm the same way with paper- I want to have it and admire it and keep it nice. That's why it's fun to make paper things for other people- I'm forced to cut it and let it go to be used!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let me just say, I really admire you for everything you do. Have you ever made any shaving soap? I shave with a straight razor and I refuse to use pre-packaged shaving cream. Walmart sells shaving soap, but I would be interested in learning how to make it myself.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stone Age Drifter, yes I make shaving soap; I use my basic soap recipe, handmill it with either beer or water, add either glycerin or betonite clay for razor glide, Bay Rum fragrance or essential oil, use a clean empty orange juice can for a mold, when it hardens I slice it into disks. My husband also uses shaving soap and he says my shaving soap is the BEST! (but he's probably biased). If you want to learn to make soap; I learned from the book "The Complete Soapmaker" by Norma Coney; it's not the best book, as I've figured out that some of the methods she uses are not the recommended methods, and I've adapted my own recipes and methods, but it's a good starting book and the pictures are the best. If you want to see pictures of my shaving soap, it's in the "sold" items in my etsy shop, or I will have new pictures posted when the batch I made yesterday is ready (That was not a veiled attempt to get you to buy my soap, I just think you might be interested in the pictures; besides I'm fresh out of shaving soap). And the cheap stuff is the very devil! DETERGENT! Which is made from PETROLEUM and lots of yuckies. But I'm a complete soap snob now, I would probably turn to stone if exposed to commercially made soap; before I learned more about soap, I blithely used whatever was on sale and suffered no ill effects!

    ReplyDelete