Ash and I are in the process of gussying up Serendipity Soap Co…to do this we’ve hired some good people to give us their professional opinions about things like websites, logos, marketing, graphic design, and the kicker…color design.

The professional opinion is that natural companies, like ours, need to reflect that feel in the colors that are used. Therefor, almost all natural companies are swathed in pale yellow, green, blue, grey and taupe. This is to make a connection to natural things like moss, wheat, patchouli, and hemp.

Ashley and I have always seen nature in a different light. This probably has a lot to do with having young kids around, showing us the beauty of everything…even weeds.

Also, the local Farmer’s Market is a source of abundant and vibrant color.

Ash and my gardens also hold a rich supply of inspiration in bright flowers and fresh vegetables.

And even when nature is settling in for a long winters nap, she manages to give us one last display of reds and golds…best explored in a Snow White dress.

My favorite color of nature is the brazen painting of the twighlight Colorado sky! I think this is what’s responsible for the eco-consciousness of Boulder. This kind of beauty is very affecting.

But I also can’t forget the wonderful time spent outdoors on Big Stone Lake, as the guest of Kathy at ‘A View From Here.’ She was a gracious hostess and I fell in love with these beautifully painted cabins…set perfectly in the trees.

As you can see, our experiences with the color of nature are way beyond pastels and taupes. Nature isn’t static, or muted, or bland…how could we use any colors other than the ones that reflect the nature that we know and love so well…whimsical, bright, intense, riotous, exciting, bold, and inspirational. We can’t help but put a little of that feel into our wildly lucky soaps, and we can’t help but put a little of that into our website, logo, and packaging!

I think we’re giving our design team fits but they’ve come around and slowly, slowly we are getting closer to the grand reveal of our exciting imporvements to our website & Serendipity. We’re ready to get this party started!

A couple of mornings ago, I was having a nice cuppa tea and trying to get myself motivated to face the day and my ever-growing why-haven’t-I-done-this list. I was sitting there thinking about how nice the last two weeks had been with my whole family at home (no school, no work) and how much I really just wanted to crawl back into my warm bed and continue to hibernate for a couple more weeks. When I finally decided that This Is THE Day to get my ass motivated to tackle that list, organize the soap-making supplies, whip up a soap batch or two, work on some labels or whatever needed doin’, I looked out my window and saw our friendly neighborhood fox curled up asleep in our backyard. It was so exciting!!! This fox has visited us often and has left his calling card in my herb garden a few times, much to my annoyance. It is always fun to look out in the morning after a snow to see if his little tracks are in our yard. But it is a real treat to get to see the little guy and not just the evidence of his visit.
The kids and I all watched him sleep for a while and were really enjoying his company when we heard a dog bark next door. The sweet fox, now named Tod by my kids, lifted his head, checked out the scene and went right..back…to…bed. I was impressed…it was like he had read my mind! I wanted to go back to bed, too! The dog continued to bark so the fox got annoyed, stood back up, did a few yoga stretches and curled right back up again. This fox was now my hero! I wish that I had the power to ignore annoying little sounds in the morning (like my alarm clock…my kids…my hubby) and drift right back into lala land. The fox stayed a little while longer until he had enough of the racket from the dog and I’m sure from the noise of my kids tapping on the window and yelling “hey Todd!” out the back door. So he got up and went about his day. And I finally did the same.

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Remember when Ashley took me to my first sushi restaurant when we went to Salt Lake City? I haven’t been able to get raw fish off my mind since. I. Love. Sushi. Now, when a special visitor comes into town, like my dad did for the holidays, I always insist they take me to sushi. (Yeah…they take me. I’ve got 3 kids to put through college still!!!). Here is myself, Soapchix Tiff, my dad and my younger and more energetic sister (she doesn’t have kids to put through college yet!!!).

But back to the sushi. I love how fresh and delicious it is. I love how all the flavors combine in each perfect mouthful. I love how you can order it by the slice (is that right? slice? I’m still not down with the lingo) or by the roll. I love how I can eat 30 pieces and not get that overfull stomach feeling that makes me want to take a nap for 10 years. I love how my 3 year old calls it ’soosie’, like, “are we going to eat soosie again?”

I can’t eat with chopsticks yet, and I can’t pronounce all the sushi roll names. But oh, fishies, how I love thee rolled up with rice, cream cheese, tempura shrimp, avocados, and dipped in wasabi soy sauce.

Rest assured that soap is my still #1 passion, though. Whenever I clear my pallet with the sliced ginger I think, “Aaaaah. Tastes just like my ginger soap!” (which I went to find a link to just now and realized it’s one we’ve kept off the website and just sold at our shows…gotta fix that up so you all can enjoy it too!)

–Soachix Tiff

Winter in Colorado is a most spectacular event! First, the weather is rather…fickle…so it’s hard to know what’s going to happen. It always keeps us guessing!

This past week we had a wonderful overnight snowfall, the kind where you go to bed with no snow on the ground and wake up to a winter wonderland.

This particular morning it looked like the snow crystals underwent a science experiment and decided to grow outwards from whatever they landed on. The morning was still and quiet, and the sun had yet to rise and disturb the dainty flakes everywhere.

To me, it looks like a giant stick of rock candy…to my son it looked like ‘fuzzy caterpillars everywhere!’ and my daughters just wanted to play in it, not talk about it!

This same morning we also found fox tracks in the snow outside our house (it looks like he spent some time under our porch!) and an entire host of robins perched in our backyard trees.

Magical, indeed!

Here’s a bit of good news that you can use this holiday season.  According to a recently published study from Wheeling Jesuit University (no, I haven’t heard of it either) adults who were exposed to either the scent or taste of peppermint ate 2,800 fewer calories per week than they would normally consume. Pretty cool, eh? So, I’ve been thinking about this. I tend to gravitate to those wonderfully decadent chocolate fountains at parties where I strain to not put my face in the luscious chocolate waterfall and slurp it all up….potentially embaressing to be sure. So I guess this means that I can just carry around a bar of our Peppy Mint soap and give it a good sniff before heading into a calorically dangerous party situation?! Or I could just lather up with it during my morning shower and be protected all day long from inhaling a bag of Snicker’s minis? I’ll give anything a try (of course it doesn’t hurt that I adore our Peppy Mint soap). Just let me put down my 5 pound bag (darn you, Costco!) of M&Ms and go find some peppermint to inhale.

I keep hearing people say that they can’t believe summer is almost over.  I see it a little differently. It is still a mind-numbing 95 degrees outside in the shade, I permanently smell like chlorine, my garden has gone zucchinni crazy and my kids are still waking up saying, “what fun things are we going to do today, mommy?” Sounds like summer to me. But chlorine-smell aside, I do love summer for many reasons. I was reminded yesterday of one of the reasons I like summer so much…..flowers. Especially peony flowers. A good friend of mine (and wonderful supporter of the Soap Chix) sent me a picture of her prized peony bush just a-bloomin’ in spectacular pink glory. Here’s the pic so that you can enjoy it, too.  I just love, love, love the smell of peony blossoms and was so happy when Tiff and I found a peony fragrance that is the real flowery-deal.  So, if you are one of those glass half-empty folks who are pining over summer’s end, grab a bar of the peony soap and breathe deep (did I mention that we sell soap? We do! ) Or if you are like me, enjoy the peony soap (or sugar scrub, those are really yummy!) while you count the days until you no longer hear, “Mommy, I’m bored…..”

Hi Y’all. One of the things that Tiffani and I have in common is some time spent in the South, and an appreciation for the quirkiness and charm of the area and its people.  I was raised in the South and have many friends and family members back there….and many of them are rather quirky and charming! For whatever reason, summertime out here in Colorado always makes me pretty homesick, pathetically so. This past June was no exception so I packed up the chillun’s (that was my grandmother’s way of saying “kids”) and headed back to South Carolina to soak up some sun, my mom’s amazing cooking, and a wee bit of humidity. My hips and my hair needed none of the latter two items but neither can be avoided when going home.  We spent many long hours breathing in the sea air, drinking gallons of sweet tea, listening to cicadas and smelling honeysuckle, magnolia blossoms, and well, the pluff mud in the marshes around Charleston.  (I think I had enough of mud so we won’t be offering mud masks anytime soon.)

But a visit home would also not be complete without a trip to Rosebank Farm to see Sidi Limehouse’s famous hydrangeas.  Hydrangeas happen to be my favorite flower and June is when they are at their most glorious.  The blooms are almost impossible shades of robin’s egg blue, pale lavender, royal purple and every shade in between.  These flowers are definitely inspirational so don’t be surprised if you see a few purple and blue swirled soaps here soon. If only hydrangeas had a wonderful smell that could be captured, too….. Oh well.

So with a head filled with sweet memories of dear old S.C., I’m back in Colorado dreaming of new ways to add a little bit of southern charm to our products.  And maybe our products can relieve some of my homesickness….the salt scrubs could remind me of days in the salty air. The magnolia and honeysuckle soaps can take me back to lazy afternoons swinging in the hammock. Now if only I could find a decent glass of sweet tea ’round here.

 One of the best perks of having toddlers and young(ish!)  kids at home are the days spent at the park.  After a blur of sundresses, sandals, hats, picnic basket of healthy food (if you are soapchix Ashley), Sonic kids meals (if you are soapchix Tiff), & kids asking if ‘the park is close yet!’, the kids pour out of the car and skip onto swings, slides, and sand. 

These are some of our more productive business meetings…talking while pushing the youngest on the swings or laying on the grass watching everyone run around.  One of our girls will usually bring a fresh picked dandelion to us and cuddle for a minute before running back off to play.  It’s multitasking at its finest!

While looking for a good ‘outdoorsy’ scent for a soap that we wanted to be unisex–great for soapchix and their soapdudes–we looked high and low for the right blend of ‘clean and natural’.  Most were too florally, and some were too woodsy.  But then, we came across a scent that mixed equal parts green grass with clover & a touch of aloe.  Every time we smell it, it brings back these days spent at the park, lounging on the grass with the sun on our faces and the laughter of our kids in our ears. 

It’s just one of the reasons why we love our ‘Lucky Clover’ soap so much! 

Tiff’s posting about purple and yellow and our lovely lavender lemon soap has me inspired! Not only did it remind me to actually whip up some more of it the delightful stuff, but I remembered a photo that I took while Tiff and I went on our adventure into Denver a few weekends back.

I found this stack of chairs on the otherwise unimpressive 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver.  I love the fact that color can bring life into these everyday objects.  But really its all about the soap……purple and yellow will always make me think of our lavender and lemon soap.

Whenever we see yellow and purple together, we think of our Lavender Lemon soap. Which I just realized I don’t have a picture for on the soapsite! Somebody’s a slacker, and it’s not Ashley. While I get that fixed, I’ll put up this picture.

Instead of looking at a bar of our purple lavender soap with lemon yellow chunks in it, feast your eyes on our inspiration for it: happy yellow & purple daisies at Blue Ribbon Farm.