Suds and Clay

My beautiful and talented friend, Deb Frew, owner of Stokehole Pottery

The talent and creativity in our area are abundant. On Saturday evening, The Bibbed Wonder and I had the pleasure of attending a talent showcase at Stokehole Pottery in downtown Indiana. Deb and Birch Frew are a great couple and the talent behind Stokehole Pottery. Deb is classically trained and always impresses me with her education, life experience, and travels/studies abroad. She truly is a master at her art. Not to mention, she is a delightful human.

Deb created a soap dish challenge for her students during the month of February. The challenge consisted of choosing one of our soaps for inspiration and creating a soap dish to display the soap. The creativity, ingenuity, and talent on display Saturday were impressive. The creations were beautiful, humorous, and ingenious. Two potters created adorable soap dishes with everyone's favorite Christmas grouch and his cute canine sidekick. There was a stunning and unique soap dish with flowing lines and gorgeous curves for our Vanilla Bean Dream soap. A hilarious but lovely soap dish was created for The Panty Dropper Soap. A soap dish with an adorable goat was made, along with an adorable magnet gifted to us. A beautiful creation of a 3-D pear was made for our Sweet Anjou Pear soap. A lovely maiden is sitting without panties for The Panty Dropper. Deb kept with her theme of beautiful, clean simplicity and created a stunning white dish for our round bars. Each one was truly amazing.

We are so grateful to Deb for thinking of us and using our soaps to inspire this creative challenge. We also appreciate the talented potters who took our soaps to the next level with their beautiful creations. It was a fun night to meet many gifted individuals and see how our creations sparked their creativity. Everyone was so kind and welcoming. I love being part of a creative community of small business owners who support each other. It was an evening filled with laughter, creativity, and community.

Deb offers classes at her original countryside location and her downtown location. To learn how to create pottery, check out Stokehole Pottery's list of courses and workshops. Deb and her studios are hubs of talent and opportunity for our community. There are summer programs for kids and classes/workshops for beginners and advanced potters. Deb provides a stress-free and nurturing environment for her students to learn and create.

On this beautiful spring day, stay safe, be smart, explore the talent in your community, and keep washing your hands.

Tuesday Spotlight: Shampoo Bars

Today, the spotlight is on our shampoo bars. We make three varieties, each with a different purpose in mind. The tea tree bar were created with kids and those with dry, itchy scalps in mind. Tea tree is thought to be a lice deterrent, so that is why I had kids in mind. However, it is also great for dry, itchy scalp. The lavender rosemary variety was created to stimulate hair growth, promote a healthy scalp, and strengthen hair. Lastly is our Milk & Honey shampoo bar. The milk and honey shampoo bar is moisturizing and gentle on the scalp and the hair.

This week, save 25% on all three varieties. No promo code is needed to save; the savings will be applied at checkout. Now is a great time to stock up on a favorite staple, try something new, or purchase an affordable gift. On this lovely spring day, stay safe, be smart, enjoy the savings, and keep washing your hands (and hair).

Disruptions

My day is discombobulated, dear reader. Yesterday, we had a severe storm roll through the area. It left us without power from approximately 2 p.m. yesterday until 8 a.m. this morning. For the first time, I was afraid of Mother Nature. The storm that blew through the area felt ominous and disconcerting. Our phones went off, telling us to seek cover in basements or a room on a lower level without any windows. The Bibbed Wonder cracked the windows because he feared they might shatter due to the winds. Garbage cans went sailing, trees were downed, and the power was lost. It was a long night.

We took The Bean into GramBarb's house so she could shower for school. We stocked up on bottled water and charged our phones. However, we awoke this morning with still no power, downed trees that had not been cleared from roadways, and a two-hour delay for Jordan's school. The two-hour delay eventually led to a complete cancellation of classes for the day. The Bean was thrilled and bounced around like a happy little balloon all day. Having her home disrupted our routine, and lacking power has put me off schedule.

It feels like a Sunday with everyone at home and a lack of routine. I just remembered that I needed to write my blog. If I'm being honest, The Bibbed Wonder messaged me, reminding me to write my blog. So, here I am writing to you at 1:30 in the afternoon. I apologize for the delay and disruption.

I am happy to share that all is well. The goats are safe and sound, the chickens are all doing well, and the geese seem no worse for the wear. A tree was down across our road. I haven't walked the fields yet to see if we have any trees down on the property, but I'm sure there are a few. The storm carried in a cold front I could have done without. The Heavy-B and I will walk the fields a little later, checking for storm damage. It was quite the event in our quiet little lives.

Extended power outages remind me just how reliant we are on electricity. When it was daylight, we sat and played board games for entertainment. I had a houseful of company yesterday, so the time passed quickly. Eric cooked a large turkey in the smoker. Fortunately, I had made all the accompanying dishes before we lost power. However, time crawled once the sun went down, leaving us in the dark. Going into GB's broke up the boredom a bit. However, once we returned home, we went to bed almost immediately. Of course, I awoke at 3 a.m. and could not fall asleep. It was a very long morning.

Before going to bed, we called to check on the outage status. We were informed that power would be restored by 6 a.m. However, upon checking the status at 6 a.m., we were informed that the power would not be restored until 9:30 a.m. I guess the silver lining is that it was not 9:30 p.m. I don't know why the power being out overnight is so inconvenient. Theoretically, it should not bother one when one is sleeping. However, waking up to complete darkness feels foreign, with everything still and silent.

On the plus side, the peeper frogs are peeping their little hearts out. Eric took an unsettling video of worms diving back into the earth, trying to escape the flood of light from the flashlight. I could have gone without seeing that. Lucky for you, he posted it on Facebook and Instagram. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it for a good case of the heebie-jeebies. My chickens are thrilled with the worm buffet. Nature really is an amazing and awe-inspiring force.

So, this Monday afternoon, stay safe, be smart, respect Mother Nature, and keep washing your hands.