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Wow.
Look at this place. Super boring and fresh out of content. Luckily for you I have a mile-long list of ideas to keep me busy and keep you all reading for (hopefully) a long time. Like, seriously, my creative juices are flowing and I'm so happy that you are all here to listen!
But before I get too carried away I need to properly introduce myself.
My name is Elizabeth Smith and I'm from Skiatook, OK. I don't live in a town though, I live out in the country in the middle of Osage County on thirty acres that we really only live on five of (that's a WHOLE other story that I'll save for another post). We are out in the woods somewhere in between Barnsdall, Skiatook and Avant.
I've lived in this area pretty much my ENTIRE life minus a few years. My parents bought the land in 1987 and we moved out here from east Tulsa shortly after. I was 4 years old. I lived here, in the same early 1970's-model mobile home, until 2005 after my first son was born. I moved to Skiatook for some time just to move right back home a few short years later.
I now live back on this beautiful property with my husband, Phillip, and two teenage sons, Skylar and Seth. We absolutely love it here and wouldn't have it any other way. Our family property gives us the space and freedom to do all sorts of things like hiking, 4-wheeling, hunting, gardening, shooting guns and fishing in the pond.
We are also lucky enough to have my dad's permission to use a portion of his shop for my soaping studio! I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have a separate work space away from my home that is so close by and still on the same property.
Now I have no idea exactly how, or when, or why I decided to start making soap. I do remember watching a very overly-explained video on Amazon Prime about how to make old-fashioned lard soap and after that I knew I just HAD to make some on my own. I mean, I'm the craftiest person I know in the entire world next to my mom and when I saw the soap deal I knew I would be great at it.
I made my first batch of soap on June 8th, 2018 using straight lard and a homemade Lego mold. The soap itself turned out great. The quick setup prevented me from mixing the liquid food color in completely but other than that it ended up being a wonderful first soap. I still have a few bars from this tiny first batch. I may frame one. :)
I was so excited about my first couple batches of Lego soap that I talked my husband into building me some inexpensive molds to make my job a bit easier. I said, "Just keep it cheap. It doesn't need to be anything expensive!" Really, I didn't need them to be anything expensive. Because really, they were just going to be used to hold soap in a square shape and they would probably get all nasty and dirty and I hate cleaning so, ya know. Simple. Cheap.
Well whad'ya know if he didn't go off and spend good money on expensive craft wood, hardwood stain and linseed oil to create the most beautiful pieces of work I've ever seen:
He has since made me one other mold that is double length and I use it basically EVERY time I make soap. And believe it or not, these were his first real wood projects that he's ever done. I think he even surprised himself on this one. :)
Once I got my molds made I just went to town on the soap. I had recently signed up to have a table at my kid's school for their annual Fall Carnival so I was super busy getting soaps made and cured in time for the event. It ended up going great and I made more sales than I ever expected for my first show.
Since then I have sold hundreds of bars of soap, displayed my products in three local shops, set up at several local festivals and expanded out of my home kitchen and into my separate soaping work shop. I have continued to come up with fun, new designs and recipes and I'm always learning more about my craft. I have such a blast while I'm in my studio and I hope I always enjoy what I do. But I know that as soon as it isn't fun anymore, the party's over
. . . . but not anytime soon. ;)
Well, that's a quick lowdown of my life and how I got where I am now. It's been a quick journey and I know I left out a lot of details but I'm just so ready to get this over with and get to the good posts and I'm being lazy so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I plan to cover many topics so I am probably going to answer most of them eventually, anyway.
I'm really excited to get down to writing for you all! I have some amazing ideas, topics, rants and contests in mind so ya'll come back now! And use coupon code JULY10OFF to get 10% off your order for the remainder of the month! Enjoy! <3
-Liz