Saponification Sunday...The Bramble Berry Mellencamp Week.?

It's been one of those weeks. And then the clouds lift and the smiling face of your favorite postal lady shows up at your kitchen door bearing FREE STUFF!  And the week turns good.

Lets start at the beginning. Anne-Marie Faoila , The Soap Queen herself, emailed me a few weeks ago. If you are a serious soaper you know Anne Marie, founder (at age 20!) of her company Bramble Berry which supplies soapers with all the materials they need to make fabulous soap.

She told me she'd been following my blog (ah shucks) and wondered if I'd like to sample some of her products and then share my findings on my blog. Well after a lengthy review of the pros and cons such as FREE STUFF! vs FREE STUFF! (I never could find a con) and looking deep into my motivation for accepting the offer (FREE STUFF !) I decided to reflect further (I ate another Hostess Glow Ball) , emailed her back and accepted the challenge.

And before you get all high and mighty about me, an organic farmer, eating the above nuclear waste laden snacks, the dang things were left over when we hosted the GK's Girl Scout troupe last week for a farm tour. If I didn't eat them then who would? It's not like I can feed them to our certified organic pigs now can I ?!?!?! Throw them in the garbage and possible pollute our water supply? I think not. Sometimes, sacrifices must be made

Mellencamp ? Hang on, I'll get to him. What are you? Three?

So, Anne-Marie, a woman of her word sent me a boat load of  soap related freebies as illustrated below.

Please note how she selected items very specific to the highly unique individual that maketh up me; Celtic soap molds, (Can you spell O'Shaughnessy? Well that's OK, neither could I till I was 14)  plant based colorants and journals to keep track of my infusion work and  Moonlight Pomegranate Fragrance Oil. Yeah, I was impressed. And she didn't send any rinky dinky tiny samples either. She sent some pretty big packages of Spirulina Powder, Annatto Seeds and Alkanet Powder. Check them out:

I told you they were big. Almost didn't fit on my blog did they?   Oh crud, I forgot the Oil. Be right back.

Here it is.

She also sent this very generously sized bottle of Sweet Almond Oil.  Now that she has kept her part of the agreement I will move forward with my part.  This next week, I will make soap and scent soap and color soap. I will mold soap and infuse soap and then blog about the soap. To see the results come back next Saponification Sunday. In the meantime you need to know this:

As my SPECIAL readers of this blog you have access to an elite savings code to be used DURING the month of NOVEMBER only.  (Don't worry, I'll mention it every Saponification Sunday in October as a reminder)  For any of my readers who uses the code when placing an order with Bramble Berry during November or "Givember" as Anne-Marie Likes to call it, you will be entered into a drawing for a $50 Bramble Berry Gift Certificate.  The code is GIVEMBER50.


OK, you've waited long enough (or you signed off this blog hours ago as any sane person would). Here is my Mellencamp story. Awhile back a neighbor bought some soap of mine. He gave it to his new mother-in-law who happens to live in LA. She then ordered more from me which I sent. She then gifted one of these soap bars to none other than...John Mellencamp...a friend of hers. Which means that every time I hear that little didy about Jack and Diane...I wonder about....

Never mind.