Handmade Aqua Soap

We searched out the College of the Desert Street Fair yesterday at the behest of a close relative who was excited to know we were in the Palm Springs area, home of her favorite soap!

This is a huge fair and has everything from Farmers' Market products to handmade clothing, crafts, and then your carny-type vendors with their unlicensed designer-brand knockoffs, plus a huge food area with everything from tamales to falafel. The only thing missing was Vince, the Sham-Wow guy.

We found the Aqua Soap display without much trouble. I am not one for spending a lot of money on fancy soaps, but his chunks of glycerine-based soaps were very generous in size for $5.00 each, 5 for $20, or 12 for $40.

I was sent to get patchouli, blue patchouli, grapefruit, and lavender bars. I had to ask the fellow for the grapefruit, which was, of course, right in front of me. He turned out to be Larry, the creator, owner, and maker of each bar he sells.

We started chatting with him and found out he is very proud of his soap and loves what he does (full points for him on the Universal Principles of happiness and well-being!) And, of course, great to know that you are bringing that great energy into your home!

He uses 60% coconut oil, makes a clear or colored base, uses gorgeous scents from varying sources, then throws in small chunks and curly-Qs of opaque colors of soap, which end up being suspended in the clear glycerine, so the resulting bars are each one unique and a work of art.

I ended up getting 12 out of the over 100 different fragrances, then he said he was going to give me a baker's dozen and that he wanted me to pick something out just for me, so I got a bar of the opaque-colored goats' milk soap in cucumber lime. Hmmmm!

He makes these all in his home in an industrial-sized kitchen, and his friends help him wrap the bars in cellophane and attach a sticker because "my hands give out." He makes tens of thousands of bars a year. It was great to support this guy and I'm so glad we found his soaps!

Larry's website: http://www.aquabathandbody.com

Just another day in paradise...

It's 5:30 p.m., 22 degrees C., and we are ready to hit the pool and hot tub, watching the hummingbirds zooming around the surrounding hedges of thick, bright orange lipstick flowers as the dusky pink sky darkens into nightfall and the tall palm trees stand sentinel over all.

And yes, that was all one sentence, perfectly punctuated.

Indio, California (Palm Springs)

Back in sunny California again.  It's a little warmer now than it was when we left on January 2nd this year.  We arrived at the start of a 2-day heat wave with temperatures around 105 degrees F.  Lucky for us that the RV park has 3 pools and 2 spas, and lucky for the dogs that the RV has air conditioning!

There are a lot of Canadians staying in this park.  We really miss Texas.  People just aren't as friendly as they are there.  And there's no Texas BBQ here either.  Am I whining?  Get used to it...

A guy just pulled in that we met in Roswell at the park we were staying at.  He had said his wife had some golf tournaments here in La Quinta the first week of April, so we told him about this park, and here he is!  Kind of cool to see someone further down the road again!

The citrus trees here had more fruit on them in December than they do now, and there were more hummngbirds flitting about, so I guess some of them have started to move a bit northward.  Even though we kind of know that once we start moving northward in a week or so, the weather isn't going to be summer-like anymore, we are still going to be in denial til we get into it!  We will be in Oregon around April 18th, and back in Canada at the beginning of May. 

Time to go lounge by the pool, then barbecue some chicken for supper.  I'll add some photos to this later :)  Meanwhile, check out the Photorama and Random Observations pages for photos from Texas and Arizona...