Happy 4th of July! Today is Independence Day for the United States! We hope you have a wonderful holiday with your friends and family. If you need to travel, please travel safely. My travels in China keep me from the USA this year, but my spirit celebrates the birth of the USA. […]
1 Yesterday I made the Emergency Lotion for Dry Skin. I really liked it, but it took some work to rub into the skin. Perfect for when you want a massage, but I also wanted a lotion that was similar but more fluid, without the required time to rub it into […]
Emergency Lotion for Dry Skin Day 2
I am now back home and quite happy to see friends, pets, and familiar sights. I have also experienced an extreme change in relative humidity, and my skin is protesting. I have just seen a difference of 83% in relative humidity. Yikes! I climb in the shower and I don’t […]
Emergency Lotion for Dry Skin
Two days ago I offered a challenge for all our readers to name the strange, usually discarded item I brought back from China. I’ll review these great guesses and give you the answer. Connie said “I think you brought home soap and tea.” While I did bring home tea, lots […]
Strange Item to return from China
2 One of the first things I have planned after recovering from my trip to China is a lip balm party with all of my girl friends. I am so excited to spend an afternoon with them talking about my trip, our summer plans and everything that has changed while I […]
Lip Balm Party – Cocktail Hour
The trip to China was incredible. Incredible! The food was amazing and plentiful. We had Peking duck and fell in love. We could not believe the price of such a thing! The whole bird was about $ 8 at a restaurant near our hotel. We had a great time ordering […]
Wow! We’re back!
Yesterday I promised that we would share some of our favorite childhood scents. I will begin with my list of favorite childhood scents and what fragrances I think match those memories. My parents kept honeybees when I was a child. I got to help with the harvesting of the honey […]
A Walk Down Memory Lane
Recently at a late dim sum luncheon in Guangzhou, one of the dishes was a dumpling with a rice wrapper and vegetables inside. After taking a bite, I found that the dumpling had some herbs in it that tasted soapy to me. In the discussion that followed, we couldn’t decide […]
Flavors, Scents and Memories
>I am loving China. We have had some things get stuck between what we ask for and what we get. You could call it getting stuck in the translation. Only two individuals in our group can speak Chinese. Jerry, for whom Chinese is his first language, and me, but my […]
Getting stuck in the translation
Do you have family phrases that take on special meanings that are not related to the actual meaning? I think most people do. Families are a mesh of many experiences which make up who they are. We soap makers have our own phrases and our families have started to adopt […]
Hysterical Confusion
Roses play a big part in a Chinese wedding. There is a large spray of red roses placed on the hood of the lead car which carries the bride and groom. Each subsequent car holds the important family members, in order of importance, and the caravan parade begins. Flashers are […]
Roses on Parade
Beijing China has a lot of different views, odors and sounds. As we travel about the city there are many things I recognize and also things I don’t. The Chinese people value natural soaps and lotions. We gave wedding favors to all the guests of soaps and lip balms. The […]