Sixty-four a Day

Sixty-four... what?  Bars of soap?  Sometimes!  Bottles of lotion?  Possibly.  Tubes of lip balm?  Nope.

Sixty-four ounces of water daily.  This is my favorite and easiest fitness trick.  I start with 16 ounces when I take my morning pills - eight for my multivitamin, another eight for my Claritin.  This is a hard goal to reach when it's 35 degrees and cloudy outside.  After all, who wants to put even tap cold water into a body already bundled up against the cold?  However, as the days get warmer and more humid, that 64 ounces is very attainable.

I use water to stave off cravings, too.  My family gave me a scrumptious Andes Mint Cheesecake for Mother's Day, some of which is still in the fridge.  Last night I was thinking, "Hm, a slice of that sure would be good!"  Then I remembered something a friend told me one time:  "Hunger can also be your body's way of telling you you're dehydrated."  That stuck with me, and often when I find myself really wanting a sweet something (like a slice of cheesecake), I instead bypass the fridge and pantry and refill my water cup.  Works almost every time (though I'm not opposed to grabbing a Kiss from the bowl, either).

Question...  What's your favorite and easiest fitness trick?

Home Soapin' Day

My six-year-old daughter was home from school this past Monday, getting over a stomach bug.  I'd given her a soapmaking kit I got at the HSMG Conference the previous week and told her that she could now fly almost-solo in making her first soap.  After the squeals and hugs and "Oh, Mommy, you're the best!"s, she asked, "But not with lye, right?  Because I'm not old enough to do lye soap."  Nope, she's not; she'll start out with melt-and-pour, just as I did.
I cut up the soap block for her and showed her how to melt it in the microwave.  First, she added the color, a gorgeous royal purple.  (Don't ya just LOVE that tiny little pipette?)

Then she added the fragrance, which is a totally scrumptious Passionfruit Rose fragrance oil.  (I later found out that it's also lip safe!  Woohoo!)  This scent reminds me of the rum punch my husband and I enjoyed on a sunset sail on our honeymoon.

Then she stirred it gently.

Then came the pouring.  The pots of colorants and glitter are testimony to her soapmaking ambitions for this day!

And after patiently waiting for them to set up, here's the final result.  The purple one is the one she's making here.  The pink one is the same scent and poured into a mould I've had for a while.

Question:  What's a good sick day activity you've gotten to share with your child?

Soapmaking kit provided by Brambleberry.  The soap and colorant used in the heart soap came from Wholesale Supplies Plus.

What's in Your Cell Phone?

A well-known Viking-heavy credit card commercial asks, "What's in your wallet?"  I ask you, "What's in your cell phone?"  I had the time and extreme boredom required to clean out my cell phone the other day.  There were text messages going back over two years that needed to be deleted or moved.  I did this partially because, with the number of texts I'm sending and receiving lately, it doesn't take long for me to run out of memory, and really, I'd rather have the memory to snap that picture of one of my girls.  Also, I've been eyeing a new phone for a few months now and want to have my "must saves" squared away.

While I was cleaning out my text messages - and yes, that meant reading most of them - I started noticing what a treasure trove of daily life my texts were.

Daily Stuff - Texts from my husband asking if I knew of anything we needed at the grocery store or telling me he'll pick up our daughter from day care.

Romantic Texts - Kisses flying through space to land in my phone.  Simply "I hope your day's going well.  I love you."  Sweet little moments of knowing my husband's thinking of me at that moment during his work day.

Pictures - Pics from friends, one of whom seems to have a fascination with sending multiple camera phone self-portraits.  (Why???)  A picture showing a new haircut.  My aunt enjoying her second-best birthday celebration in recent years.  Christmas breakfast.  Things my husband spots while he's out, like the house that had Halloween and Christmas decorations up at the same time - in early October!  Then there was this, arguably the best treasure of all these pictures, each pixel worth a thousand words and a million memories.

This is my recently departed Grandpa holding my then newborn baby last August.  It's the only picture I have of them together.

Question:  What's in your cell phone?

Chemistry Making Sense

While I was at the HSMG Conference last weekend, I took advantage of the opportunity to sit in on two sessions, both of which were very chemistry-rich.  Let me preface this by saying that just being in these sessions was a matter of extreme self-discipline and personal challenge.  You see, while chemistry is now pretty much my life, I did horrible at it in high school and college, earning C's at both levels.  (I guess I should take some sort of solace in the fact that, while the work got harder, I didn't get dumber.)

The first session was led by Dr. Cindy Jones of SageScript Institute (a Colorado company) and dealt with the Chemistry of Cosmetics.  The second session I attended was led by Dr. Kevin Dunn of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and was an hour-and-a-half on trace, which is one small part of the cold- and hot process soapmaking process.  I learned how emulsifiers work.  I learned the difference between the molecular structure of saturated and unsaturated fats.  I learned what it means when a fatty acid is referred to as an "Omega-3 fatty acid."  And I learned that light trace in soap has a viscosity of 150 centipoise (my new favorite word that I try to find a way to use daily).

I'll expound on these answers (because, really, doesn't everyone want to know them?) this week.  I'm curious, though.  What's the latest thing you've learned that helps make you better at what you do, be it a business or a hobby?

Having a Ball at #SoapConf10!!!

I am having a simply fantastic time at the Handscrafted Soapmakers Guild annual conference in Denver, Colorado!  I'm not sure where to start.  If any of you, my customers, live in Colorado, I must say that it's a simply gorgeous place to visit and the people here are incredibly friendly.  I know you're proud to live here.  This was my first trip to Colorado - shoot, it was my first trip west of the Mississippi River! - and it's been very nice.

The conference is aMaZiNg!!!  I'm learning so many great things about how to do business even better, so be looking for those improvements in the next couple or few months - definitely by summer's end.  Friday was Day 1, and it was mostly soapmaking techniques.  Two of our group went to the session on advanced melt-and-pour soapmaking (and these ladies already make fantastic soaps!), and my friend Ela and I attended a 2-part class on liquid soapmaking, which had been my nemesis.  In the first 15 minutes, I learned where I'd been messing up and in the remaining hour and 45 minutes, I learned how to make a (hopefully) fabulous bottle of homemade liquid soap.  Saturday was Day 2, and the sessions tended to focus primarily on branding, driving your business, eCommerce and so forth.  Today is Day 3, and our sessions cover the legalities of manufacturing and selling, as well as social media.  I return home to my lovely family tomorrow, much, much wiser and with a new great network of friends and colleagues.

I'll be posting pictures when I get home to share on my Facebook fan page.  Not a fan, yet?  No problem!  The link is here.  Join up today.  When I get home, I'll be setting up some great post-conference special just for my FB fans.