I had a meeting downtown today. I knew my parking meter would expire at 11:00 a.m. At 10:55, I had my quarter out, ready to go stuff the meter. But, the conversation wasn’t at any sort of natural pause so I just hoped that the meter maid wouldn’t be in my area.

After the meeting, when I got to my car, this was on my window. I groaned inwardly and prepared myself for a $10 ticket.

Instead, I found a candy cane and this in place of a ticket.

Notice the $0 amount and the nice message? It was a delightful holiday surprise.

I’m squealing with delight over these wonderful products.

The Squeaky-Clean packaging is professional and appealing. The lip balms are especially swanky with fun fonts and professional printing. I love the Honey and Carmel Latte.

The Sugar & Blueberries soap is already long gone in my shower. It was a hefty bar that appealed to my hubby because of the size and weight in the hand.

I’ve been using the Facial Cleansing Oil at the Gym to wash up after working out. It’s a nice change from foaming cleansers. Though it seems counterintuitive to add oil to your face to clean it, the product works well and my face is left feeling clean, soft but not stripped.

I loved the packaging, the smells, and the uniqueness of the facial cleansing oil.

Mandi, the proprietress, also has an Etsy shop selling these goodies:

She is one creative (and busy!) crafter!

Soap 13 – paws
Originally uploaded by de-kay

These soaps were made by Kay from Russia. The color combinations are striking and filling in the baby pawprints takes a steady hand and extreme patience.

Holiday Soaps

Inspirational Holiday Soaps from HermitFarm Soaptorium. Click here to see all of her photos. She’s a full time artist (with hobbies of calligraphy and dance on the side) and it shows by the detail work on these holiday soaps.

Thank you PJ for sending photos showing what she’s doing with our Ceramic Soap Dishes. She’s selling the Buddha Soap Heads with the Ceramic Soap Dish as a gift set.

That is one great looking gift! Thank you for sharing.

We don’t want to run into any trademark infringement issues so this soap is in honor of the Child Who Shall Remain Nameless.

Isn’t the scar a touch of genius?

Thanks to the reader that submitted the soap photo!

Congratulations to Jen at Healdsburg Soap Company! It’s the grand opening of her new shop today.

I phoned to congratulate her and she was positively ebullient. She said they had been busy all with well-wishers and shoppers. The big hit for the day is the Moroccan Fig and Jen reported that the Champagne Soap were also selling like crazy.

I met Jen two years ago at the National Soap Guild conference. I immediately was taken with her positive attitude, fearless confidence and driven personality. Though I haven’t been to Sonoma County to visit her shop, it is on my to-do list for next year! I’ve been saving up my airline miles and I’ll get to her shop (and maybe a little r & r in Sonoma County, California) next year.

In the meantime, a big positive shout-out to Jen for taking the leap and opening her first shop. We wish you much success and joyous days, making soap and delighting customers every day.

The week was long. Soap seemed like an apt reward for this tired gal. So, I went out and shopped the ‘net for fun and unique bars of soap! Coming in the next few weeks are assorted goodies from:

Patti Flynn Soap Bars from Etsy

Cocoa Pink soap and haircare products
Look for reviews over the next few months.

Gel stage
Originally uploaded by midohana

More of the same soap artist from the photo below. It’s an excellent example of gel phase and deep soap texture.

Assorted Cold Process Soaps
Originally uploaded by midohana

I found this photo on Flickr tonight and immediately went weak in the knees at the luscious deep texture on the cold process soap. The soap artist went through a great deal of patient work to achieve the peaks and valleys in the tops of their soap. Beautiful, aren’t they?