It official!!!

Wow what started off as a blog to talk about Maine has birthed a new blog to talk about the wonderful world of handcrafted soap. I am too excited. I have become consumed with handcrafted soap and all aspects of it. I am grateful to God for allowing me to discover the joy of soap making at this period of my life. I have been a homemaker for the last 15years by choice to raise our children who are now freshman and sophomore in high school. They need me less for there physical needs now. I have more time to devote to my personal interest which is soap making. Thanks to the Internet I can read or watch information about soap any time of day.

When I think about the 1st time I discovered soap making as a hobby I was living in Maryland. A friend of mines moved from Baltimore to a farmland community in Pennsylvania. Her and her husband begin organic farming, canning, composting and soap making. They had a desire to live more naturally in all aspects of their life. When she shared with me that she was making her own soap, I just could not understand why she would want to labor to make soap when she could buy all the soap she wanted at a store. One day she gave me some of her homemade soap and a body butter. I loved it. I still have the jar she gave me that contained the body butter. Ive always had somewhat sensitive skin so I felt the difference immediately It was wonderful. I was smitten with using this on a regular basis. So she was generous and would give me soaps and butters when she made it. Since I did not know about the process I did not know why she could only do it when her children were sleeping.

My husband got a new job and we relocated from Maryland to Tennessee. I lost contact with my friend and started to use store bought soap again but I was drawn to glycerin bars at the store. I bought a couple of books on soap making and said that I should do this.

My kids were in a elementary school that only went up to the 4th grade. I was not comfortable with the assigned middle school which housed grades 4-8. So I began to home school them when they finished the third grade.  My goal was to home school them up to 8th grade and then send them to the local highschool.  Obviously homeschooling was very time consuming but also priceless. I put my soap making ideas on hold. I did start a new hobby of estate sale shopping. I loved it. We furnished our home with beautiful well made furniture, develop a wonderful collection of art books and collected a significant soap making book at one sale.

Well time moved on and so did we. We left Tennessee 6years later due to my husband's new promotion and moved way up to the state of Maine. I would have never imagined myself living in Maine. I grew up in Michigan so I am familiar with cold winters. Since I knew it was smaller state with a lot of parks and undeveloped land I expected it to be different and a adjustment. It is and it has been.

 I prepared myself for the move with prayer and trust in God. God has more than met our needs. We found a great community to live in, a great Church to attend. We have met some Amainzingly friendly people. I can honestly say that 99% of the people are nice.

Once the kids were settled in school I begin to pray about what I should do at this new season of my life. I noticed in my trips to town the galleries and art. I noticed a lot of crafters when attending the farmers market. During a time of prayer one day God reminded of my desire to make soap. That moment I begin to read thru the soap books I had collected over the years. I went to the library and checked out as many soap making books as I could. Then I begin to watch videos on YouTube that had any aspect of soap making. I knew what I was to do now. Make soap.

So that is my journey. My plan along with showing the soaps on this blog is to write about all things pertaining to handcrafted soap. From vendors to makers. I plan to ride this Amainezing journey for a long season. The fun of learning, soaping and sharing has just begun.