Tuesday, December 15, 2015

When life gives you lemons, make soap.


I had a boyfriend in college who said his life was sort of like inertia. He just moved from one thing to another.

Inertia, fate, happenstance, it all runs together. I am a believer in you make your own luck. It's important to manage your spending to your income. A big one is preparing for retirement.

There is a price for everything including being practical.

There are things out of your control such as health, wealth, opportunity, love. So maybe you don't make all of your luck.

So I believe you make the best of what you have.

You'll be happier.

My cousin Kim recently turned 50. She has become physically fit and taken up rock climbing. She goes caving most weekends with pals. She divorced about a year ago. Their kids left the nest, and they turned around and had nothing in common. I was prepared to talk trash about his girlfriend; but, my cousin was interested in having an amical divorce. She did not see the need to argue it out.

Kim is a remarkable person in that she can sell almost anything. Where she lives, tourism is a big part of the economy. She has had antique and used item stores. One big maxim is that objects that sell need to fit in a car of a vacationer.

She has been making home-made soap and now has a store selling her products. She also sells soaping supplies to people who love to make soap. My mom has made soap which people liked. It is great for those with skin problems because the soap truly was chemical free.

Kim also has a YouTube channel with many soaping instructions and tips. You'll need to look it over to get an idea what you are interested in. There is more than soap-making discussed.

Kim's YouTube Channel          Kim's website that sells soaps and some supplies for making soap



Surprised at the activity in the soaping world, I am proud of her efforts. But I don't want to do any rock climbing or crawling through any caves.

7 comments:

  1. Heard of soap making, know a few bloggers who do it and it really is nice indeed. As for luck, pffft just a made up word by humans to explain things in life where no meaning is right at hand. That or it takes the place of hard work. Someone works their butt off to get where they are and another doesn't and gets nowhere, what do they say? That person is so lucky. Pffft yeah, they go off their butt. If that's luck, I'm really a rhyming cat.

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    1. I have mixed feelings about all the soap making. It is so convenient to buy it at the store. Plus, I remember my mom cleaning the fat to make soap. It is a mess. One time one of our dogs opened a can of bacon grease and ate it. Kim's soap making is all sophisticated. Not like the big tub and our backyard affair when I was a kid.

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  2. It sounds like Kim started life anew and with gusto! Wish I was nimble enough to try rock climbing, but I'm a klutz with no sense of balance.

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    1. The pictures of her on a cliff or rappelling from a bridge make me a little queasy. She has always had a lot of guts. I would flunk in the balance department in addition to the confidence department.

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  3. I've received some homemade soap as gifts and given it though I didn't make it myself. Glad your cousin found a new happiness at age 50. She sounds like an interesting person.

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    1. Kim is a force to reckoned with. I bought a lot of handmade soap in Hawaii for different people. When I got home, I did wonder why I thought the $8 a bar was so special. It is good soap. Kim makes good soap. But the soap at the grocery store is pretty good too.

      When people have specific skin problems and sometimes fungus on the nails, specialty soap does help. My mother made plain lye soap, and when she was moving from her house, a great aunt got every bar we found. We kept unearthing boxes of soap that had been made.

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  4. My late husband and his son and business partner were involved in making shampoo bars. Same process as soap. It was pretty interesting. They gave that up and got into something else and good thing. Huge success! Good for your cousin. She sounds like a real go-getter.

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