Coastal Carolina Soap Blog

Over the past almost three years, I’ve created a variety of luscious soaps that incorporated some pretty unusual ingredients for soap – tea, beer, pomegranate juice and wine, to name a few.  For years I’ve heard about salt bars, also known as spa soaps.  They’re counterintuitive in nature; high coconut oil amounts in soap is very drying, and salt, of course, can cause dry skin as well.  Still, after hearing how awesome these soaps are, I just had to try making it.  I mean, seriously, if I can put Everclear in soap, I can put salt.

My first batch was gorgeous!  I colored it light sea blue and scented it with Seaglass fragrance oil, a light, fresh, clean scent.  The soap was thick and hefty, a solid six-ounce bar.  It takes around four weeks for soaps to completely cure and be ready for use, and waiting that long was hard, but finally, the cure period was over and I could use the little sniglet that I’d made.  I was thrilled with the results!  This soap wasn’t drying at all; in fact, it was very moisturizing with a creamy lather.  That little sniglet – maybe as much soap as you’d find in a hotel bar – lasted my husband and me a solid week with daily use.

Since this first batch had been so great, I decided to let that launch off a soap line of spa soaps.  This past weekend, I made another batch, this one a pastel salmon color and scented with a bright orange fragrance.  I’m deliberating on the next batch – light green and Cucumber Aloe fragrance, or yellow and Honeysuckle fragrance.  I only have enough salt right now to make one batch.  Future batches will include pink and Rose, lavender and Lavender and probably something else unisex.  We can’t deprive the fellas of these awesome soaps.

Which soap should I soap next – Cucumber Aloe or Honeysuckle?





With Le Boudoir products for couples, of course!  These high quality products are just what you need to add some sizzle to your Valentine’s Day.  If teasing and tantalization are your avenues to sensual pleasure, take turns dusting each other with Lick Me Off Honey Powder.

Next, a massage might be in order.  How do you prefer it?  Do you like your massages to be relaxing precursors to sleep, or is erotic massage more your thing?  Whichever style you prefer, Rub Me Right… There is just what you need.  This blend of seven premium oils absorbs quickly, gives enough glide for a good massage and is less likely to stain your sheets than other oils.  For those who like their massages to be more relaxing, I recommend unscented or Patchouli.  For couples using massage to explore each other thoroughly, Cherry or Vanilla flavored massage oil may interest you, since it lends itself to mouth explorations, too. 

When your Valentine’s Day heats up even hotter, you might find yourself in need of a little extra moisture.  That’s where Feel Your Bliss comes in.  Feel Your Bliss is a thick lubricating gel that stays where you need it without the stickiness associated with some commercial lubricants.  While Feel Your Bliss will warm things up a little bit, it features a low-heat formula that won’t burn more sensitive areas.

After the bedroom play is done, it’s time to move the fun to the bathroom for a quick – or not – clean-up.  Take it to the shower for a bit more fun, and make sure you get all clean with one of my soaps.  This natural Patchouli soap made with organic aloe vera juice is sure to warm things back up; patchouli has aphrodesiac qualities, just right for preparing for round two (or is it three now?).

Love and romance are in the air.  What tricks will you use to warm up a frosty Valentine’s Day?

Image by jimmywayne via FlickrWhile parts of our country are completely shut down due to insane blizzards dumping snow on top of snow and ice, here in southeast North Carolina, we’re enjoying some gorgeous weather, with highs floating around 70 under blue skies with some pretty nice breezes.  Morning rain sent my husband home from work, and our older daughter declared she wanted her daddy to teach her today.  No problem and see ya!  I got dressed, made a delivery, scooted by the bank and checked on another account.

My customer isn’t having a good day, because her delivery van is broken down and the repairs are high.  As I was driving home, I saw it up on jacks at one of the local repair shops, and it really hit me how many businesses around town are named after people – Brittney’s Blooms and Blossoms (my customer).  Adam’s Car Repair.  Calvin’s Computers.  Harold’s Car Sales.  It’s charming to me, and a business like Sara’s Soaps ‘n Such just seems to fit seamlessly into this nook.

I guess this is one of the reasons I like living in Burgaw, besides the fact that it’s just 30 miles from the ocean.  It’s the kind of town where everyone knows your name, especially if you use it in your business.

Party No More

Having missed last year’s Flotilla, we missed the encore of the previous year’s party, missed seeing the people and just missed the whole experience that IS our Flotilla weekend.  Apparently, a lot had changed in two years.  With two little ones, one of which would be ready to go to bed soon after the Flotilla ended, my husband and I decided we’d tag team the party so we’d each get a chance to go.  Since our baby settles easier without her sister in the room, Peter suggested I take our older daughter to the party, socialize a bit, come back and he’d go.  It was a good plan and so she and I set off for the lounge, eager to see our new friends again.

That didn’t last very long.  The Wilmington crew had undergone some pretty interesting changes.  There were a few familiar faces and welcoming smiles, but the tenor of the group had changed significantly.  The old group was warm and friendly, and they drank some, but mainly because it was there.  This new group drank to get drunk (not our thing) and engaged in some behaviors that we’re just not into.  Whereas the old group engaged our daughter in conversation and made her feel welcomed, this group kept saying, “I can’t say what I WANT to say” with a pointed look in the direction of my little girl.  She heard and felt the exclusion; she took her plate to a quiet place to eat, then told me that she was ready to go back to our room.  I’d had enough, so we headed back and my husband went to the party.

It got interesting at that point, and it was while he was there that we discovered the lifestyle preferences of this new group of people.  He had gotten his plate and two ladies – cougars both – approached him to invite him to join them in their room.  I don’t think I need to go into greater detail than that.  He decided at that point he needed to come back to our room.

We’ve decided not to even try to party with this group again.  It would’ve been nice to have the opportunity to enjoy a Christmas flotilla celebration with these folks, but we much prefer the old group.  That was a very baby tradition, so it’s not one we’re going to miss.  It also won’t take away our enjoyment of a great parade of boats or the lovely Inlet Inn.

Image by katiescrapbooklady via FlickrNostalgic Memories

As our weekend began, it dawned on me that the Inlet Inn, which we just started patronizing in 2006, has fit so seamlessly into our tradition.  I do miss the beach house – lots of space, outside shower, beach right outside the door (and over the dunes), the option to cook meals as we wish – but the Inn is very nice and a relaxing escape for us.

My memories took me to the “notable” experiences of our Flotillas.  In 2006, I was sporting a seriously cute pedicure a la my husband to go with the orthopaedic sandal I had to wear as my broken foot continued to heal.  That made navigating through Beaufort a bit of a challenge, but it wasn’t bad.

Two thousand seven was pretty bittersweet.  We were glad to be there, but I’d just found out the week before that I’d miscarried the baby we had conceived, and I was waiting to see if my body would get rid of it naturally; if not, my D&C was scheduled for the Monday right after the Flotilla.  It was hard sharing in my daughter’s excitement, knowing the sibling she wanted was resting dead within me.  That year, though, we discovered a model train exhibit, and my oldest daughter simply loves model trains, having gotten one the year before for Christmas from Santa Claus.

In 2007, we ended up with a room on the third floor.  The Inlet Inn has three floors – the first two have balconies, the third has window seats.  We spent a lot of time sitting in the window seat as a family, sipping decaf coffee flavored with Hershey’s candy cane kisses, and it was that year that something new started that still continues to this day.  Our daughter said, as the three of us sat in the window seat, “I want Kisses.”  So, we gave her kisses – lots of them, but not the chocolate variety.  Every time after that, when she said, “kisses,” we’d give her kisses.  Since a window seat and a smallish window is no way to enjoy the Flotilla, we went up to the Widow’s Walk Lounge to watch the Flotilla.  Imagine our surprise to discover a whole bunch of people up there!  They were sweet folks from Wilmington, and they invited us to join them for their Christmas party – simply pot luck dinner.  We declined because we were still very full from dinner and we didn’t have anything to share.  (I’m a born-and-bred Southern lady; you don’t go empty-handed to a pot-luck meal.)

We made our reservations for 2008 very early and scored a room on the first floor.  The view was good, the balcony was nice and the bittersweetness of the year before was replaced with hope, anticipation and a reason for me to decline the offer of wine or beer at the party.  I remember asking one lady if there were any non-alcoholic drinks available, accompanied with a small rub on my belly.  We went to see the model trains, walked the wonderful downtown area, our daughter talked to Santa and we watched the Flotilla from our balcony, eating homemade macaroons and Toll House cookies as we watched the parade, ending our day with our new acquaintances from Wilmington.

We missed last year’s Flotilla weekend.  It broke my heart having to cancel our reservations, but a new house and a new baby left us strapped for extra spending money.  I made a point, though, of going ahead and booking our reservations for this year’s Flotilla, determined we’d go.  Missing it had left us maudlin with an empty spot in our traditional Advent memories.

The Tradition Begins

This article begins a multi-part series on our trip to Beaufort, NC to see the Crystal Coast Christmas Flotilla.  This is an annual tradition for our family, and this year in particular brought back a wave of memories and quite a bit of nostalgia.

Beaufort (pronounced bo’ – fort — long “o”) is a charming port town along the North Carolina coast, pretty much the farthest point north in that section known as the Crystal Coast.  There’s a rather large historic district containing numerous old homes, some private residences, some bed and breakfasts; and the historic district culminates at Front Street, which runs parallel to the Intercoastal Waterway and features numerous shops, antique stores and restaurants.  Along Front Street is the Inlet Inn, our choice of accomodations for the weekend, with its balconies overlooking the water and prime viewing space for watching the Flotilla.

As we arrived for our weekend away, I remembered the beginning of what would become this Christmas tradition.  The year was 1996, and my now-husband and I had just started dating not even two months before.  I told him I needed a topper for the 4-foot tall tree in my apartment, and he started telling me about this shop at Atlantic Beach that has a whole room of tree toppers.  I looked at him and said, “Christmas By The Sea?”  He was surprised I knew the shop, and we discovered that our families had been vacationing on the same island for pretty much our entire lives.  We got up early on Saturday and struck out, excited about our day trip.  While we were there, we discovered to our surprise that the Flotilla was going on that night, so we hung around, browsed the shops in Morehead City and Beaufort, and watched the Flotilla in both towns, hauling it the three miles from Morehead to Beaufort, arriving just in time to find a parking spot and stake out our spaces along the boardwalk where we could see the boats.

The next several years, we stayed at his parents’ beach house at Emerald Isle, always making the trek between Beaufort and Morehead to catch both Flotillas, enjoying the shops, sometimes picnicking as the weather permitted, and I enjoyed some of my most deeply spiritual moments and meaningful encounters with God while standing on the end of my in-laws’ dock overlooking the beach late at night.  Yeah, I still miss those moments of simply God, the ocean, and me.

In 2005, my in-laws sold their beach house.  I was unemployed for most of the year, and by the time I’d gotten a job, we figured it was too late to try to get reservations, so we missed that year.  The following year, I made reservations at the Inlet Inn, excited because, while I loved the beach house, I’d also rather envied those who would sit on their balconies sipping wine while watching the Flotilla from the floors of the bed and breakfast.  We’ve been pleased with our stay here year after year and already have reservations for next year.

Stay tuned for more posts about our weekend and my reflections on it.  I’ve also got a video of the Flotilla itself.

I’d like to announce a fantastic new game for the month of November!  This game will be taking place at my Facebook page and will be my own version of “Name That Tune.”  Here’s how we’ll play…

Every week in November up until Thanksgiving, I’m going to post a snippet from a Christmas song on my Facebook page.  It’ll start easy – 5 notes – then gradually get harder.  I’ll choose Christmas music of all kinds – traditional, contemporary, carols and secular, but I won’t use obscure songs.  Your challenge is to name that tune!  The winner each week will receive a coupon good for $10.00 off an order at Sara’s Soaps ‘n Such.  You can only win one time, but don’t let that keep you from playing.  There’s only one little catch:  You must “like” my Facebook page.  But really, how hard is that?  (And I promise, it’s not all “buy my products”; there’s actually very little of that.)

So, cruise on over to Facebook and get ready for some fun and the opportunity to WIN!  Contest starts Tuesday with the first snippet.

Related articles

• Popular Merry Christmas Songs (rock-kool-dadie.blogspot.com)

Image via WikipediaThis recipe featured in the CoastViews Magazine Blog and was brought to my attention by Monique, a Facebook friend.  I tried it for the first time last week and, while it didn’t hit the palate as we were anticipating (more on that in a bit), it’s still a very delicious soup.

You’ll need:
3 tablespoons butter
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
4 medium carrots, chopped
3 medium ribs celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Dash fresh ground black pepper2 tablespoons fresh parsley, or 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
3 cups mashed pumpkin, fresh if possible
2 cups half-and-half or 1 1/2 cups milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream
Parsley or chives for garnish (optional)

Directions:
In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat.  Saute’ chopped vegetables until just tender.  Add garlic and vegetable broth and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add curry powder, salt, pepper, parsley and pumpkin.  Stir cream until well blended.  Working in batches, blend until smooth and pour back into the saucepan.  Heat through; add more salt and curry powder as needed.  Garnish with chopped parsley or a few roasted, seasoned pumpkin seeds.

I made this in my Dutch oven, just to make sure it all fit in one pot.  I added an additional teaspoon of curry, which was a bit much.  I’ve found that ground clove balances the curry without making the soup taste too much like pumpkin pie.  I’d recommend starting with 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves for the whole batch and adjusting to taste from there.  This soup is awesome for cool Autumn nights, and I trimmed a bit more fat by using 1% milk, as opposed to the cream or half-and-half.  It doesn’t taste as rich as it might, but it’s still very tasty.

The flavor threw us a bit at first, because we’re all used to a butternut harvest soup I make as often as possible in the Fall and Winter.  That soup contains sweet potato and apple, among other goodies, and I season it with allspice, cumin, cinnamon and nutmeg, so it’s got a bit of a sweeter spicy taste.  I think all of us were looking at the soup, noticing the color and texture and expecting it to taste the same.
I hope your family and you enjoy this treat!

I whipped up another batch of pumpkin doozies today; after all, I had to find something to do with the leftover cream cheese frosting.  I made the original batch with whole wheat flour, since that’s what we have in the canister.  They were a gorgeous brown and had a rich flavor as the nuttiness of the flour accented the pumpkin.

We’re running low on whole wheat flour and I didn’t feel like a run to the store, so I decided to use self-rising flour, which only comes in white in our house. This batch was significantly lighter colored, doesn’t have quite the same flavor but tastes a bit like pumpkin shortbread. Mmmmm mm! I haven’t tried one of the sandwiches in this batch, yet, but my daughter did. Her verdict? “They’re good, but next time, use store-bought frosting.” I wonder if she realizes it’s the same batch of frosting she enjoyed so much in the last batch of cookies?
 I got the recipe off of Allrecipes, so I can’t claim credit for it.  It’s very easy to make, so whip some up and enjoy!
You’ll need:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1 cup of sugar
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground clove
1.  Preheat oven to 350 deg F.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2.  Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add  pumpkin, egg and vanilla; mix well.
3.  Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  (If you use self-rising flour, omit the baking soda, baking powder and salt.)
4.  Drop onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 12-14 minutes and let sit for 1 minute before transferring to wire cooling racks to cool.
 
Cream Cheese Frosting (also from Allrecipes.com)
You’ll need:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy.  Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar.  Store in the refrigerator after use.

Image via CrunchBaseAlright.  It’s taken me a while, but I simply have to confess, I’m sucking at this blogging thing lately.  What is it?  Time?  Maybe.  Lack of things to talk about?  Yeah, more than likely.  I’d say that both of these are hindered by my laptop being out of commission.  It’s like this:  I’m the world’s worst for not turning it off.  I’m homeschooling my older daughter all day, squeezing in some soapmaking after school’s over, darting into the office to update my Facebook or Twitter streams or, on occasion, fixing or upgrading something on my website.  Do y’all really want to hear about that stuff?  Probably not.

Back to the whole “not turning it off” thing.  I love my laptop and our home’s wifi connection because they enable me to watch my shows in the evenings and still get some of my computer work done.  They can also allow me to work on blogs and so forth while I sit in the living room as my daughter works.  Unfortunately, until I can get a new cord for my laptop, neither of those things is happening.  Soon!  Hopefully soon!

Besides my lack of blogs lately, what has been keeping me busy?  I’ve created a new blog for Moms of all sorts, colors, professions, in-home, out-of-home and even manly moms (aka, Dads).  It’s for us and it affirms that we as parents are God‘s masterpieces, and those children we’re raising, nurturing and loving are themselves masterpieces that God created and is still using us to fine tune.

I have a fabulous new private label customer in Elissa, owner and lead stylist at Salon E in Kinston.  Elissa and I met in April at Bee Fest in Kinston and the girls and I had the pleasure of taking a little road trip up to visit with her and discuss her spa collection needs.  How fabulous was that!  It was awesome seeing her again, and I’m so excited about the fantastic products I’m making especially for her.  When her shelves are stocked, I’ll post it so you can buy my wonderful soaps and spa treats from her.

Elissa requested two soaps that I didn’t have in stock.  Well, I have one of them in stock, but it’s a clearanced item.  Her requests were for soaps that get you going in the mornings, and I recommended peppermint and Crystal Coast Morning.  Peppermint simply uses redistilled Peppermint essential oil for an in-your-face, tingle-your-senses bathing experience.  Crystal Coast Morning packs the punch of waking up at the beach on a brisk Winter morning where the only sounds you hear are the waves kissing the sand, birds calling to one another and “ahhhh”- the sound of your first sip of coffee.  You’ll be able to get these delectable goodies from Elissa as well.