Well, dear reader, we are moving on up! Insert the theme song from The Jeffersons. Finally, we are adequately prepared to roll out our new body wash. For filling the bottles of our foaming hand soap, my ingenious husband created a gravity flow “pump” from a large jug, tubing, and a precarious setup above the cabinets in the soap studio. It’s a bit rustic, but it works. However, the thought of filling sixteen-ounce bottles of body wash in various scents using his innovative yet rustic filling contraption didn’t seem very efficient. We decided to purchase a small pump to safely and efficiently fill the body wash bottles.
One bib overall wearing wonder buns could not wait for the pump to arrive. It arrived on Tuesday evening, and one would have sworn we found gold. He danced around the studio, fist-pumping, hip thrusting, and making guttural sounds of excitement and success. The Bean and I just shook our heads and laughed. The poor girl who helps us in the evenings looked like she wanted to flee. Seeing Eric do a happy dance is a sight to behold.
It has been a mad rush all week to get our required bar soap batches done so we can focus on our body wash. Today is the big day, dear reader. Unable to sleep because of excitement, The Bibbed Wonder worked diligently all evening to create our first master batch of Manly Man body wash. Once mixed, we must allow the body wash to sit for several hours or overnight for the suds to deflate. Once my blog is written, I will go to the soap studio, and we will begin the bottle filling process with our new pump. As I sit writing to you, The Bibbed Wonder is prancing around like an overly excited little kid. Sigh.
Our hope is that next week we will launch our body wash. I am pushing for various scents, including a few of the seasonals. Of course, The Bibbed Wonder and I are locking horns. He is the more conservative of the two and probably the most practical. However, conservative and practical isn’t necessarily fun. If I have to hear one more time, “Slow and steady wins the race,” I may have a meltdown. Although it pains me to admit it, he is probably right. The thing is, I have a vision and a goal. My patience for achieving this goal is wearing a bit thin.
Sit with me a spell while I share my vision with you, dear reader. Picture it, if you will, entire collections of scents. In my mind’s eye, I see bar soap, body wash, hand soap, and moisturizer of each of our fragrances. I envision a new building complete with retail space, an education center for soap-making classes, and glass-plated walls so one can observe the soap-making process. In the retail space, I envision walls with shelves lined with our entire collection of products. Everything will be “rustically elegant” in a simple black and white color palate. Sigh. Isn’t it lovely? I even have my new building picked out. Sigh.
The new pump is the beginning of realizing this dream…in my simple mind. The Bibbed Wonder and I are hoping the body wash is well received by our soap family, and we are able to grow our little business and our dream. A lot is riding on this little pump. Someday, we hope to require an automated filling machine that can fill thirty bottles simultaneously. Until then, dear reader, we are happy with our little pump that can fill a sixteen-ounce bottle in under a minute. It’s slow, but it’s progress. Insert The Jeffersons theme song again and try to envision The Bibbed Wonder doing his happy dance.
As always, dear reader, stay safe, be smart; I hope you too have dreams you can’t wait to fulfill, and of course, keep washing your hands.