Post July 4th Story

OK I admit not the picture you were thinking of when you saw the headline but I had to share. This wonderful little dog is all mine and her name is Tinkerbell. Last night when I opened the door for her last time to go out which she loves to do as I have a fenced in backyard she was ready to come right back in. I could not figure it out. I was going to make her go back outside but she flipped herself on her back to plead with me not to go back out. Then I heard the boom boom of the fireworks and then got it. To her it sounded like thunder and she was not going out in with that rumbling going on. FYI if any of you own pets they do advise to keep them in doors if they are scared of loud noises. I was not thinking about the fire works up until that point.

But that whole scenario got me thinking about July 4th which I had not done all day- too many chores I needed to get done on my to do list. So me and Tinkerbell spent some quiet time on the couch and I was remembering past July 4th's. I had always tried to catch the rerun of Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney if it was playing. And there was the barbeque or cookout depending on where you live. And of course the local fireworks display. Great day to relax. But thinking back to what our country went through in 1776 to gain our independence and all the wars and fighting since to stay independent, it gives one allot to think about. We are very lucky to live in such a free country and I hope we all keep this dream alive and appreciate what we have. There are many in this world who are not so lucky.

I hope you all had a great Independence Day and celebrate what a great country we live in!

What July 4th traditions did you grow up with?

OK one more, this was in the 80's when I visited my brother in his family in Staten Island, was driving home with my Mom and my kids on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and  was passing NYC. It was so awesome as the fireworks were going off between the buildings that I guess people were shooting off- I was such a really wonderful beautiful site. Such a celebration!

A Creative Path

This week has been a quiet one which for me has been a long time. My daughter and granddaughter are away and I am spending some needed time with myself. I decided I needed to jump start my creativity and have started to re-read the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. In case you have not heard it is a twelve week program to recover your creativity. I need to get back on the path to my
artistic self. The picture above is the path I want to walk down again as I have been running down the work-stress- drama one and need to break free and go in a different direction. 

One tool she recommends is a weekly artist date. This is for your inner artist child and this is something I think I have been needing for awhile. I am so excited about this! I already have the next 4 weeks planned and I feel like a kid in a candy store giving myself permission to taste and try the things on the glass shelves!

I am going to go to the Farmer's Market this weekend which I have been making excuses that I have this or that to do that is way more important and anyway I can get veggies from the local grocery store. Have you ever told yourself these things and missed out on doing something fun and playful for yourself? I know I have been for awhile. And I am also going on a button hunt- I want to make my granddaughter a purse but need a pink button to complete it so I will visit some fabric and quilt stores to find a match!

I want to follow this in the following weeks with a trip to the mountains, some quilt stores that are a distance away and who knows what else ?

What secret adventures has your artist child wanted to get into and check out? What is your favorite candy from the candy store?

Beer is more than for drinking!

Yes that is beer in the pan in preparation to making a batch of shampoo bar soaps ! I selected a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale from the local grocery store as the bottle appealed to me. From what I have read, I first needed to flatten the beer to get rid of the bubbles as lye and carbonation do not play well together. I added a tablespoon of salt which seemed to help get that process going. After I left it sit out I then boiled out the alcohol so that those sugars would not cause the soap to setup so fast. I decided to go back to an old mold idea for round bars. I have not made these in years and thought they would be a more handy way to use the soaps in the shower! So I went to Home Depot and had a nice gentleman cut in half 2 - 24" lengths of 3" diam. PVC pipe for my molds.

I used duct tape to attach plastic to the end of each length and my molds were made. I could not take more pictures of making the soap as it setup up very very fast. I ended up glopping ( a very technical soapmaking term) it into each of the three molds and pounding the mold on the counter to make sure the soap made its way down to the bottom. One tube  I think I pounded abit too hard as a hole developed in the plastic!  :o(  But I got all them babies filled mostly and put to bed- meaning I wrapped an old towel around them to insulate the batch. Tomorrow I get to uncover the soaps and see how they fared- the scent blend is Rosemary-Lavender-Lemongrass-Patchouli and smells wonderful. The next challenge will be getting the soaps pushed out of the molds and yes I have a plan for that.



I have wanted to try a beer soap as I had heard many good things about using the beer. What I have learned is that since beer is mainly hops, many of this herb's properties and benefits add some good skin cleansing qualities that are also good for your scalp.  Also the old wives tale about washing your hair is beer also pushed me to want to try this. I have been washing my hair with only my shampoo bars for the past 10 years and you will not find a softer head of hair if I do say so myself.

If you are interested in trying a sample of this beer shampoo bar I will be needing some testers and all it would cost would be your time and comments. Always looking for people to try something new. This batch would be ready in about 3 weeks.

SO let me know and and leave a comment below and please share! 



Writing should be as easy as.....

Just saw the new Nicholas Sparks movie and as I was driving home my thoughts were rambling here and there. It was a great movie and yes it was my romance fix for the month but I describe this movie as not just a silly romantic movie as for me it had heart if that makes sense. But back to the topic of writing and specifically about writing this blog entry tonight. For me this sort of writing is hard and I was thinking, I wish that writing for a blog, for something that I am publishing freezes me up. I would like this sort of writing to be as easy as talking with my friends where I feel I can say anything that pops into my head and not worry about what they will think. Because if they look at me a little weird at what I say, we all just laugh about it. Here on this page I feel I need to be more buttoned up and not just write about any old thing that pops into my head as there may be many people that will be reading it and who know what they may think?

And then I thought to myself why not just write like that? All who read my words are family and friends and those who I hope will be friends. And those who think I am weird, well maybe they are right!  :o)   But I am me for better or worse and as long as my hand moves across the page and spills out my words and thoughts and feelings, it is all good!

So here are some meanderings as I was driving home from a great movie. Its about 7PM and most people have eaten dinner and are getting out as it is a warm spring dusk after a week of chilly cold weather. I drove past a Father and daughter walking their bikes after what I assume was a great bike ride. Passed a local park where people were doing laps around a trail. A Mom was sitting on a park bench watching kids plays on a junglejim. A couple were walking their dog. A great time to be outside when things are settling down for the evening, people are relaxing after a long work week. Just a nice time.

I hope your evening passes as easily and lazily and you all have a fantastic weekend!

Being Fine .............

Let me preface this video that it is not the F -bomb in the talk but the word Fine.
I love TED and the great speakers that show up at their conferences. Mel Robbins gives a wonderful talk about getting what you want - what it takes to be more than just "fine".  I know I have said that way more than once in my life to explain how I am feeling when I am not fine. I agree that this is a much over used word that smooths over how we feel about ourselves- our jobs- our relationships- our lives- the world. It is like how the frosting on a cake is used to cover over the cracks and imperfections. It just smooths things over so it looks all uniform and hides the things that are wrong!
I know that I want to be more than just fine in my life- I want it to be great and awesome and fantastic! I want to jump out of bed every morning and be ready for anything that comes up! But first I need to be ready and get up and not push that snooze alarm and go back to sleep. I have found that I push that snooze alarm way too many times as getting up into a cold room and starting another day can be uncomfortable. Like afew posts ago when I wrote about our fears, not of not being good enough but of being awesome and powerful. Those seem to be the places that scare us so we go back and hide under the covers. Feeling that we are more powerful beyond words is scary as then we have no excuses to hide behind and have a great responsibility to live up to our success.

I want to have an influence in this world and make a difference in people's lives. I have this business called Ritual Waters and I want this to be my contribution to the world. I want it to be more than just soap and bath products although they are great if I do say so myself- tooting my own horn I know. :o)  For me they are healthy for your body but also I want them to help the body and spirit calm down when used in the bath for  relaxing. I want people to use them to feed the outside of their body and for my customers to also be selfish by feeding their souls in creating rituals for de-stressing. As one lathers on the soap- you are caring for your body and caring for your self and your spirit. I want them to stop and smell the soaps as one is to stop and smell the roses- stop and take some time out of your quick paced life to just stop and be still. Take some time out of the craziness of their life before it slips away. I want to spread these ideas around and for others to share how they calm down and listen to that still small voice inside that knows what they want and how to get it.

What do you really want ?



Beautiful Gratitude....

I found this beautiful video on youtube by Louie Schwartzberg. I found his work very wondrous and his talk very inspirational. May it lift your heart and your day!

Productive Day

Saturday was a busy day besides being a weekend day and not a day job day!  I made soap in the morning as you can see here. The one on the left is Chamomile Soap with olive oil infused with Chamomile Flowers and swirled with the herbal powder also. I decided to add some of the flowers on the top of the soap and I think it came out pretty well. There is not any essential oil added as it is one of my unscented soaps but after awhile you can smell the appley scent of the Chamomile herb in the soap. The other batch is Rosemary Lemongrass which really fills your senses with a herbal lemongrass scent. I do love making soap and I know that is is great for the skin because of the moisturizing oils that make up the soap recipe.

I choose to use a formula that is heavy on olive oil that is so wonderful for the skin, Shea butter which moisturizes, cocoa butter which is soothing to the skin, avocado oil that is a nutrient for dry skin and coconut oil for its wonderful lather. All these are blended together into a moisture rich bar with pure essential oils for an aromatic way to cleanse your skin.  All good reasons to use handmade soap as opposed to commercial soaps.

I know you have all heard that your skin is the biggest organ of your body and you need to be careful what you put on it as well as what you put in your body. You want to use things that protect it and take care of it and not harsh ingredients that dry it out and irritate it. One more note of information is that in commercial soap, the manufacturers skim off the soap's natural glycerin which is one of the main moisturizing components of the soap process as it draws moisture from the air and onto your skin. This glycerin is then re-sold to cosmetic manufacturers for a profit leaving commercial soaps not as moisturizing and can be and usually are dring to the skin. Handmade soaps have this wonderful ingredient in each bar and on your skin when you use it.

OK getting off my soap box for now. 

Scents are one of my passions as well as taking baths rather than showers.  So, making soap seemed like a natural way for combining these two into a business as well as the art and science that also go hand in hand with the making of soap.

Just wanted to share abit about me and Ritual Waters.....