A couple weeks back, I was on a short quest to find a book of profound substance at the used book store. I wanted something that would change my way of thinking and challenge everything I’ve known… I didn’t quite find that, but I’ll tell you what I did find.

Everyday Sacred: A Woman’s Journey Home by Sue Bender.

This book, published in 1995, combines thoughts, stories, ideas and hopes that all center around one concept, a begging bowl. Now, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “what’s a begging bowl?”

In my 27 years of attending a church regularly, this concept was never shared, and probably never will. My guess is because the idea is somewhat uncomfortable, but mostly because it describes the practices of a group of monks.   Sue told the story best, so I’ll let her tell it to you.

“EVERYDAY SACRED appeared one day in my mind’s eye, in sure, bold letters, like one of those blinking restaurant signs. I didn’t even know what everyday sacred meant, but I knew it would be the title of my next book.

Two years went by and I didn’t write a word.

Than on a day when I was feeling particularly discouraged, another clear image appeared:

A BEGGING BOWL

Actually, it reappeared.

I had read M. C. Richard’s Centering years before. It was a book about clay and art and life. In it, Richards described Jean Genet, a French playwright, who had said he wanted to roam the countryside like a monk, holding a begging bowl, having filled it with what he needed for the nourishment in his life.

EVERYDAY SACRED and now the BEGGING BOWL.

It was obvious to all who knew me that I wasn’t a monk, and the very idea of begging would make most of us uncomfortable. In spite of that, the image of a begging bowl reached out and grabbed my heart.

The image of the bowl became the image of the book.

All I knew about a begging bowl was that each day a monk goes out with his empty bowl in his hands. Whatever is placed in the bowl will be his nourishment for the day.

I didn’t know whether I was the monk or the bowl or the things that would fill the bowl, or all three, but I trusted the words and the image completely.

At that moment I felt most like the empty bowl, waiting to be filled.”

Excerpt from Everyday Sacred, by Sue Bender. HarperSanFrancisco An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 1995.

As an artist, and a woman, this concept of filling your begging bowl has really hit home with me. Sue mentions that she doesn’t know whether she’s the monk the bowl or the things that fill the bowl, and then leans toward being the empty bowl.

I didn’t see it that way. I feel more like the monk, and the bowl is my everyday life.

Yes, these two ideas are similar, but they are also very different. Sue strives to find herself by filling herself up, like the bowl. I feel like I’m already filled. My faith fills me and gives me hope and peace. Even though days are rough, I know this to be true.

My challenge now, is to accept that I have no control over what’s placed in my bowl everyday, and to be grateful for what is. As the monk, I realize my situation of choice, and now I’m learning to let go of controlling what’s placed in my bowl.

I’ve been working on the design for my soap website. There’s so many options… the sky’s the limit, but it’s hard because I like so many different looks. Some of my favorites are repetitive motifs and florals. I’ve been collecting them to figure out which one I want to use. hmmmm… which one?

I love these old-time suits! I wish women still wore these. There’s something way more sexy about these than today’s [strings+triangles of cloth="why don't you just go naked"] bathing suits. Let’s celebrate feminine modesty, shall we?

A while back my mom-in-law gave me this art calendar that now sits on my coffee table in the living room. It’s the kind where you move to the next page everyday. It features famous works of fine art. I came across one that I love the other day. It’s a photograph by Man Ray from 1924 called Le Violon d’Ingres (first photograph in the bunch). I thought it was so beautiful, so I looked up more work by Man Ray and now he’s one of my favorites!

Man Ray was born with the name Emmanuel Radnitzky. He was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Although he explored many forms of art such as film, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, performance and conceptual art, Man Ray was best known for his avant-garde fashion and portrait photography.

Man Ray (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976)

As I was searching around for vintage ads on soap products, Lux Soap Brand came up a lot and oh, how wonderful it is! I had to share some of these gorgeous ads. How could I resist?

Lux soap was first launched in the UK in 1899 as a flaked version of Sunlight soap. Subsequently it was launched in the US in 1916, and marketed as a laundry soap targeted specifically at ‘delicates’. Lever Brothers encouraged women to home launder their clothes without fear of satins and silks being turned yellow by harsh lyes that were often used in soaps at the time. The flake-type soap allowed the manufacturer some leeway from lye because it did not need to be shaped into traditional cake-shaped loaves as other soaps were. The result was a gentler soap that dissolved more readily and was advertised as suitable for home laundry use. Lux is currently a product of Unilever. The name “Lux” was chosen as the Latin word for “light” and because it was suggestive of “luxury.”

Lux toilet soap was introduced as a bathroom soap in the US in 1925, and in the UK in 1928 as a brand extension of Lux soap flakes. Subsequently Lux soap has been marketed in several forms, including handwash, shower gel and cream bath soap.

Lux soap was launched in India in 1929. The very first advertisement in 1929 featured Leela Chitnis as its brand ambassador. It was branded in India as “the beauty soap of film stars’.

Since the 1930s, many well-known Hollywood actresses have marketed the soap to women as a beauty enhancer. Advertisements have featured Dorothy Lamour, Joan Crawford, Laurette Luez, Judy Garland, Cheryl Ladd, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Taylor, Demi Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rachel Weisz, Anne Hathaway, and Marilyn Monroe, among others. The first male to star in a Lux advertisement was Hollywood actor Paul Newman.

As of June 2009 Lux is sold in over 100 countries.

[information in this post found on wikipedia]

… I’m a SOAPMAKER! Yes, I can now say that I officially make soap.

A couple days ago, I made my first batch and it turned out AMAZING and smells delicious!  My first batch of soap is full of hops (ground and whole) and smells sweet like cocoa butter. I took pictures of the whole thing, so get ready. Introducing (drum roll please) … HOP SOAP!

I would like to send a HUGE thank you to The Nova Studio for providing the instructions, worksheet, and knowledge that I needed to pull it all off. If your interested in learning how to make soap, check out Lori’s site. She constantly has classes going to learn soapmaking and more. I took her Soap Making Boot Camp and LOVED IT!!! So, thanks Lori – this one’s for you

This is me in my kitchen, ready to begin. Steve took pictures for me.

I made soap the Cold Process way this time. I want to try the Hot Process way next (using a slow cooker).

Before I started anything, I made sure my mold was lined and ready to go. I used lined freezer paper. Cool stuff, but it was seriously hard to find. I think I visited about six different places before finally finding it at a little grocery store.

You can’t make Hop Soap without HOPS!! I made a trip to my local beer making supply shop and picked up a 4oz. package of  Cascade hops in pellet form. Then I ground them up into a powder.

I then got all my other additives measured out and ready to go. I have 1/3cup whole copped hops, 3tbs. ground/powdered hops and 3tbs. French Green clay colorant.

Next, I put on my safety glasses and gloves and gathered my distilled water and lye together.

First, I measured out my distilled water…

… then measured the amount of lye in a separate container and placed the distilled water in the sink by the open window (always being careful when working with lye!)

After the lye was measured, I carefully added it to the distilled water and stirred to make sure it all dissolved. The reaction between the two will cause the mixture to get super hot. I stuck the thermometer in the bowl to monitor it while I moved onto melting the oils together.

As the lye/water mixture sat in the sink (with the dog and cat safely locked in the bedroom, of course) I dug 16oz. of palm oil and then another 16oz. of coconut oil out of their boxes and weighed them out in my stainless steel pot on the scale.

I also added 4oz. cocoa butter oil to the mix and melted them all together at a low temperature on the stove.

Next, I measured out 26oz. liquid olive oil and 2oz. liquid jojoba oil and added them to the other oils after they melted. After I added the liquid oils, it reduced the temperature close to 110 degrees. My lye/water mixture was also about that temperature at this time so now we can make soap! I poured the lye/water mixture into my oils and began stirring to mix them together (the pictures are far and few between from here on out… Steve was helping me, so didn’t take many).

I used my stick blender to speed up the process. Soon, I saw the soap coming to a light trace (when it looks like a runny pudding). I added my clay colorant and powdered hops at this time and mixed them in well. As the trace thickened a bit, I added the whole chopped hops and mixed them in to finish it off.

I already had my towels spread out on the table with my mold lined and ready to go so poured it in and smoothed out the top (I don’t have pictures of this part, but trust me… it looked awesome!)

I covered the mold with plastic wrap and then wrapped the entire mold in towels to insulate it as it heats up over the next couple of days.

Two days later… it’s time to take the soap out of the mold and cut it!! Oh, I was so excited – giddy even. I separated the freezer paper from the mold and pulled the whole sheet of soap out in one piece. You can see the color and texture of the soap in this shot. It set up a few shades darker than when I poured it in.

I removed the paper fully and then put the sheet of soap back into the mold to cut it. (This mold is GREAT! Thank you to David at Mission Peak Soap for making the mold).

Once the soap was back in the mold, I used a trowl to cut the soap (Well, Steve did because he’s the one with the muscle).

Then I pulled them out of the mold and set them upright (turning them every couple days) to set up and continue saponifying fully over the next 6 weeks.

So that’s my first experience making soap. I absolutely love it! It’s interesting and totally useful. I’m all for making something from scratch vs. purchasing it. Throw in a little art, a little chemistry, and a lot of hands-on love and TADA… homemade soap!

I’m a complete freak when it comes to organizing and storage! I love it and it loves me… a match made in heaven. So, naturally, before I can venture into making soap full-time, I have to get all my supplies and ingredients organized.

Now, I live in a 800 square foot manufactured home (a modern mobile home), so space is not a luxury for me, but I think it should make due just fine till I get famous.

From one organization freak to another… I’m LOVING my ‘Resource Binder’ too.

I’m almost ready to start making. I should finally have everything I need this week. Steve’s been helping me plan my first batch and what to put in it. We decided to try a hop soap for all those beer lovers out there. It’s gonna be great.

Life’s full of bumps. I just wrote this huge paragraph venting about how… well, in a nut shell, we should cherish the bumps and not consider them a detour from our ultimate goal of success, but decided to start back at square one to just say – Life is the bumps and I’m intrigued to see where they take me.

This all to say, the financial struggle of our time has turned us in a new direction. Sometimes I think I’m exempt to stuff happening around me, then SMACK! it hits me in the face and I’m force to change my tune. Change is good!

I got some pink peonies at TJ’s a couple days ago. Peonies are my absolute favorite flower! They’re huge and complex and smell delicious. I took some pictures to share. Embrace the day and make it count.