MEMORIAL DAY

We walked among the crossesWhere our fallen soldiers lay.And listened to the bugleAs TAPS began to play.The Chaplin led a prayerWe stood with heads bowed low.And I thought of fallen comradesI had known so long ago.They came from every cityAcross this fertile land.That we might live in freedom.They lie here 'neath the sand.I felt a little guiltyMy sacrifice was small.I only lost a little timeBut these men lost their all.Now the services are overFor this Memorial Day.To the names upon these crossesI just want to say,Thanks for what you've givenNo one could ask for more.May you rest with God in heavenFrom now through evermore.

-CW JOHNSON

Poem contest update!!!

I have had a few ladies say that they are not able to leave thier poem entries on our "Poem contest " spot, so please add your poems here. Dead line is midnight tomorrow!!!!! Good luck and thanks to all that have taken the time to enter!=]]]BIG HUGS XOXO , Winners will be anounced JUNE 1ST!!!!!!

NEW, Blueberry Champagne!

A new LIMITED EDITION to Ariel's Secret Garden, what a great bar of soap to use after a day at the beach, champagne and ripe sweet plump blueberries!=]

Fresh Summer Salad!

Fruit salad of orange, strawberry, apple, grapes and peaches, sprinkled with shaved coconut. Smoothe buttercream, with base notes of creamy vanilla topping. Fresh and fruity!!!

Fountain of Youth cut bars!

This is an AMAZING soap, so clean and fresh. Made with full goats milk and a saponified blend of Olive oil!

Pocket Positives

All that we are is a result of what we have thought, it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.

Budda, c. 563-483 Indian religious teacher and founder of Buddhism

Fountain of Youth!

A new luxury spa type scent. Take pleasure in the fresh, salubrious aroma of the Fountain of Youth. Where the body experiences organic health and the mind achieves pure contentment. A true caring blend of sparkling freshness, Fountain of Youth begins with fresh air notes and a hint of Japanese grapefruit. Middle notes of spring melons, rose, lotus blossoms, and lily of the valley follow. This spectacular fragrance sits on base notes of bamboo and white musk. Ponce de Leon himself would be enticed!

A new scent to our soap garden, a textured top dusted with pearl mica. My box mold lid touched the top of this soap batch so it made kind of a ruff spot along the soap log top, but you can still see what I was shooting for with the texture and swirl top. This is a delightful scent, fresh, clean and uplifting!

Kit the cat, "Hoops for Troops!

What an inspiration, please check out this little kitty and his mom supporting our troops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpJ0N9bPH2o

Operation Gratitude!

Operation Gratitude strives to include several personal letters in every package that they send. Help ensure that a Soldier, Sailor, Marine or Airman knows that you are thinking of them by writing cards or letters. It will only take 5 minutes out of your day to write a letter, but it will bring joy to our troops that will last a lifetime.

What to Write About: Keep your message upbeat and positive Be thankful ~~ share a little bit of yourself Ask questions; however, do not discuss death or killing Avoid politics completely and religion in excess It’s all about appreciation and respectAsk yourself: “Will this letter bring a smile to someone’s face?”More Helpful Information Sample salutations: Dear Hero, Dear Brave One Include your own mail or email so recipients can choose to reply No stamps or envelopes are needed Hand Written letters or cards are most appreciated. All letters will be screened—please do not seal envelopesSend multiple letters together in one large mailing envelope or box If you do not receive a reply, do not be discouraged. Remember: Our troops are busy!
Operation Gratitude accepts letters all year. Email OpGrat@gmail.com

Divine Strawberry Wine cut bars!

The aroma of fruity dry pink wine with undertones of red raspberries, currents, strawberries and rose petals with a light alcoholic background. A wonderful aroma of zinfandel wine & Strawberries. This soap bar has a cocoa swirl made with real Hershey's cocoa, and will darken to brown as it cures.LIMITED EDITION to Ariels Secret Garden!

"Kiss in the rain" cut bars!

A refreshing ozony aroma with hints of lily of the valley, fresh hyacinth, with a top note of wisteria.

Nantucket Briar cut bars!

This is an "IN THE POT SWIRL" with a light dusting of gold mica on top. I had first been introduced to this scent from "Crabtree & Evelyn" at our outdoor mall in Indio Ca. so I knew when I had found this scent from our fragrance supplier we just had to have it. Nantucket Briar is very femanine and floral and makes a lovely ladies shave soap. A Crabtree and Evelyn duplication. Very clean! A fresh clean amber light musk accord with subtle floral undertones of bergamot, rose and fresh greenery. !

3# Soap logs!

New soaps just out of thier log molds, here is what they look like before they are cut into bars. From left to right, Divine Strawberry wine, Kiss in the rain and Nantucket Briar shave soap!

Poem contest update!

Don't forget to enter your poem entry on our "POEM CONTEST" the deadline is midnight on May 31, 2010. Look under our older posts to find it!=]

Pocket Positives

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

Anais Nin, 1903-1977 French Novelist

Nantucket Briar shave soap!

Shaving soap with Bentonite Clay
What is it? Bentonite, also referred to as Montmorillonite, is one of the most effective and powerful healing clays used to treat both internal and external maladies. Bentonite can be used externally as a clay poultice, mud pack or in the bath and, in skin care recipes. A good quality Bentonite should be a grey/cream color and anything bordering "pure white" is suspect. It has a very fine, velveteen feel and is odorless and non-staining.
How does it work? Bentonite is very unusual in the fact that once it becomes hydrated, the electrical and molecular components of the clay rapidly change and produce an "electrical charge". Its highest power lies in the ability to absorb toxins, impurities, heavy metals and other internal contaminants. Bentonite clay's structure assists it in attracting and soaking up poisons on its exterior wall and then slowly draw them into the interior center of the clay where it is held in a sort of repository. To state it another way… "Bentonite is a swelling clay. When it becomes mixed with water it rapidly swells open like a highly porous sponge. From here the toxins are drawn into the sponge through electrical attraction and once there, they are bound.

Banana milk?

Banana Nutrition Facts:
A banana contains Vitamin C, potassium and dietary fiber.
Bananas do not contain sodium, fat or cholesterol.
The Vitamin C, which is found in bananas, helps the body to defend and heal against infections. This vitamin also proves valuable in the synthesis of the connective tissue, absorption of iron and the formation of blood.
Not only are bananas rich in vitamin C, they also contain potassium. Potassium is a mineral that helps in the building of muscles and protein synthesis. This is done as potassium stimulates nerve impulses for muscle contraction.
A diet rich in potassium is said to reduce the risk of hypertension and stroke. As bananas are free from sodium and very rich in potassium, they can be included in the diet to reduce the risk of high blood pressure.
Bananas contain three natural sugars, sucrose, fructose and glucose along with fiber. A banana thus gives an instant and substantial boost of energy.
A banana contains Vitamin B6, which helps in the synthesis of antibodies in the immune system apart from red blood formation, protein metabolism and functioning of the central nervous system.
No other fruit contain more digestible carbohydrates than bananas. This is advantageous because, the body burns off calories from carbohydrate more easily and quickly than calories from fat or protein.

Princess and Freckles both love bananas, yes peels and all. Bananas are a great natural treat full of Vitamins. Stickers on the banana peels are removed or else they get gobbled down in 2.5 secounds along with the banana!=]]]

Divine Strawberry Wine!

Look who's back, It's our Divine Strawberry Wine goats milk soap. I bought a new strawberry mold so keep your fingers crossed for us that it works out as a soap mold!=]]]

Lunch time!

Princess and Freckles having a bit of Bermuda grass for lunch!

Cut bars from yesturday!

Tea for two and Candy girl, both these bars will darken up alot after they are cured!

Pocket Positives

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is the place and time that the tide will turn,

Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896 American Auther and Social Reformer

Goat's milk is naturally homogenized. We only use fresh goat's milk in our homemade soaps. Many goat's milk skin care products utilize powdered milk which is stable and far easier to store. However I believe the high heat used in the dehydration process changes the structure of the milk, and that using fresh goats milk produces a superior bar of soap that is better on the skin.

Tea for two in the mold

I sure wish you all could smell this.....yummmmie soap, not to worry we will have plenty of samples to send out with orders=]. Organic green tea leaves have been added throughout the soap and sprinkled on top!

Got a bit of time on our hands today so we are soapin up a storm. Here is a batch of "Tea for two" that we are getting ready to make. A very complex scent Our Tea for two fragrance begins with top notes of spicy cinnamon bark and nutmeg, followed with a body of fresh green tea, finished off with the aroma of creamy soy milk. We use real Organic green tea in this soap and a blend of Olive oil, full goats milk and Mountain sage blossom honey. The scent is to die for if you love a sweet warm milky cup of tea like we do!=]

Soaping a new batch of "Candy Girl" our Pink Sugar Type. A fruity blend of cotton candy, lemon drops, caramel and raspberry jam on a dry down of musks. Super yummie, as this soap cures it will darken to brown. Made with an Olive oil blend and full goats milk!

Pocket Positives

Some men see things as they are and say "Why?" I dream things that never were and say "Why not?'

George Bernard Shaw. 1856-1950 Irish Dramatist, Essayist and Critic

"Poem Contest"

A poem for the soap based off its scent discription, there will be a FIRST PLACE, SECOUND PLACE & THIRD PLACE. First place gets 3 bars, Secound place gets 2 bars and Third place gets 1 bar! I may even use the winning poem in our Etsy add for the new Vampire Kisses soap. The contest opens from now May 26-2010 to May 31-2010 at midnight. The soap bars will be from this test batch and shipped to you ASAP, store soap in a cool dry place away from moisture for 5-6 weeks before you use it as it will still need to cure when you get it.

Here is the scent discription: VAMPIRE KISSES begins with top notes of peach, apricot, and blackberries, middle notes of mandarin, cinnamon, and rose, and nicely balanced with just a hint of woodsy musk. Sexy and alluring like a Vampire!

Contest begins now, happy poem wrighting!=]]]

Pocket Positives

I could not at any age, be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. The fatal thing is rejection. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962 First Lady of The United States of America, Wrighter and Diplomat

Well....I did say test batch!

This soap clearly wanted to gel and was not aloud to gel on the top wich left a funky colored ring near the top, although this is just a cosmetic flaw the soap itself is perfectly fine. I'll let the next test batch gel all the way so as to not get a gel ring in it. So that means Ariel and I have about 9 bars of Vampire kisses to use up in 6 weeks when it's ready wich we are both quite giddy about lol!

Pocket Positives

If you are not getting as much from life as you want to, then examine the state of your enthusiasm.

Norman Vincent Peale, 1898-1993 American Writer and Minister

Finished top!

Cut pic's coming soon!=]

In the mold!

Swirled with Grape pop mica and light pearl mica!

Vampire Kisses Test batch!

Just soaped Vampire Kisses, this sexy scent begins with top notes of peach, apricot, and blackberries; middle notes of mandarin, cinnamon, and rose, and nicely balanced with just a hint of woodsy musk. Alluring and sexy, this is our homage to Twilight the movie!

Candles!

Just a few star shapped candles we sent out today, the cream color candle is Oakmoss, the purple is Vampire Kisses and the blue is Lick me all over. Although we don't do many candle orders because of the soaps and other goodies we make we still get a few requests from time to time!

Sweet honey!

Not only does honey taste good it also has many health benefits for both inside and out. Honey's ability to absorb and retain moisture make it an ideal ingredient in a lot of our homemade soaps as it helps keep skin hydrated and fresh and prevents drying. It is known that ancient beauties regularly applied a mixture of honey and milk to the face to keep the skin young-looking, radiant, and smooth. We mostly use local Wild Flower honey in our soaps but have resently added local Mountain Sage blossom honey and local Orange blossom honey!

Pocket Positives

You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. Enthusiasmis the yeast that makes your hopes rise to the stars. Enthusiasm is the spark in your eye, the swing in your gait, the grip of your hand, the irresistable surge of your will and energy to execute your ideass...

Enthusiasm is at the bottom of all progress!!!

Henry Ford, 1863-1947 American Car Manufacturer

Lick me all over soap bars!

We just made a fresh batch of this yummie scented goats milk soap. We have not seen this soap bar since last year so we thought we had better double batch it and give it a secound round of appluase. A Best Seller! We have had so many customers ask for this scent....now we have it back! A wonderful exotic fragrance with base notes of raspberry, cantaloupe, and watermelon, middle notes of jasmine and violet, and fresh top notes of grapefruit and kumquat.

Cupcake soapies!

We love making cupcake soaps, these are Cold Process soaps. Ariel makes the lace topped cupcakes while I make the smoothed round rolled tops. We have been asked many times how to use a cupcake soap, well thats up to the user. Everyones style is different, we use the whole cupcake. Some people preffer to cut thiers up into slices, either way there is no wrong way to... lol bathe with a cupcake. Thats what makes washing with a cupcake so fun, the sky is the limit!