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?

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]

To be frank, blogging sucks! I find myself going in and out of wanting to do it at all. I don’t know what my inspiration should be and among many others, I’ve struggled with knowing what to write about. No one wants to hear about this stuff. A lot of the time, I end up writing about what I think others want to read about. I know, that’s bad you say. You should write about things that make you happy, you say. blah blah blah. Ya, your right. What if I just started taking pictures of my life, my house, my pets, my habits, my stuff and wrote about that? What if this blog had no other purpose in this world than to show everyone reading who I am?

Seems kinda narcissistic. Ok, I’m over it.

It’s cherry season! If you have a minute, go get some. A cute neighbor girl came to our door last night and sold us a bag for $3. I put them in my vintage strawberry pattern bowl today and have been chomping them off their cute little stems! There’s a bit of my life today whether you wanted to read about it or not.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved stuff that has been handcrafted, made from things of the past. Growing up, I would raid my Grandpa’s junk yard for materials that I could fix up or include in some latest art venture. Ok, I admit, I still do this. Last weekend, I took home an old wooden frame that I found on his back porch. This look has become crazy popular lately. Everything is made to look old-fashioned, worn, antique… the older the better it seems.

Since starting this blog, I’ve been doing a bit more web surfing that normal and have discovered that this handcrafted, independent type of art, whether visual, music, fashion or film carries the label “indie” as of late. I think it’s somewhat ironic that this has become the staple look, sound and feel of everything commercial when in it’s very nature “indie” means to be independent, made by hand and self-sufficient. That’s America for you.

Anyway, back to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I mentioned that I visited last weekend. I always knew they had collected old stuff throughout the years, but never fully realized how incredibly sweet it all is. I took some pictures to share. I love that years before “indie” anything became popular, my grandparents were just being completely authentic with what they liked.

Stevie and I bought an organ at the thrift store the other day. It’s a Kimball Aquarius “The Entertainer”. It definitely has been entertaining us the last few days. It reminds me of Church growing up. Stevie plans to record with it.