SALE on soap at Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap!

I am having a soap sale in my Etsy shop!

Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap

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END OF JANUARY B3GO SALE!!!

Buy any 3 soaps of your choice, and receive a fourth soap FREE! Buy 3, get ONE Free.

Just select my "YOU PICK 3" listing, and include your fourth choice of soap in the Buyers Comment when ordering.

This offer is good through Wednesday.
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B3GO Listing

Farmers Market

The weather was perfect this Saturday at the Rincon Valley Farmers Market. Lots of folks out and about.

Ray and I were able to move one stall over, to the last stall in the barn. What a difference! Now we have a window, and an extra door, and the light streams in! The stall we were in has no window and is like a cave.

Here's a few pics of the new stall







We had a new vendor this week, selling honey



And here's a pic of Kim, our bread maker. She makes wonderful breads, buns, and cookies. Every now and then cream puffs (yum yum)



Under the tent



Some colorful dolls on the artisan side of the barn




Across the street, some desert cows being herded by a guy on a 4-wheeler



Turquoise in shadow and light

Newly Listed Soap, and What's on the Curing Rack

Newly Listed Soap

Creamy Peppermint with Chocolate Swirl Goat Milk Soap. Yeah, Baby!! This is for all you chocolate lovers. A bit of goat milk, a dash of peppermint, and you've got one creamy zippy bar of soap!



What's on the Curing Rack

Soon to be listed, a Chamomile Infusion, using my favorite olive oil/wheat germ oil recipe. The olive oil was infused with chamomile. Scented with Lavender, Cedarwood, and Palmarosa. And a bit of botanical - a dried chamomile flower pressed into the corner of each soap.



Also on the curing rack:

A patchouli infused soap! Scented with Cedarwood, Palmarosa, Clove, Geranium, and Orange. It is a beautiful moss green color.

A Goat Milk soap scented with Sandalwood Vanilla and Bay Rum. Oh boy!

And just poured into the molds, Mint Islands. Once again my favorite olive oil/wheat germ oil recipe, scented with a blend of Peppermint, Lemongrass, and Orange.

Images From the Farmers Market

Here are a few photos that Ray took at this weeks Farmers Market

Newly Listed Soaps - Desert Soap and Blushing Jasmine Confetti

This evening I listed 2 new soaps on Etsy.

The first is Dark Desert Sage , made with olive oil infused with chapperal, aloe vera juice, jojoba oil, agave nector, sage essential oil, rosemary essential oil, everything I could think of that belongs in the desert.



The second, Blushing Jasmine Confetti, is actually a reintroduction.

Full Moon Rising

Saturday's full moon was the largest full moon of the year, meaning it was the closest to the earth that it is going to be all year. So Ray and I went out to the empty lot behind us to watch it rise. It was huge, and it was beautiful!!! Here are some pics that Ray took. He didn't use his tripod, so they are not quite as crisp as he would have liked. But they are still lovely!

The moon is rising over the Tucson Mountains, on the southwest side of town.

(HINT: Click on any image to enlarge)





We need a coyote sitting on the big rock, howling !

I REEK of Patchouli !

I infused some olive oil with patchouli leaves. Now I am in the process of straining the oil. I squeeze every last drop of oil out of the cheesecloth with my hands. Now my hands just reek of patchouli! There's no escaping it! The stuff is clinging to me no matter how many times I wash my hands. I like patchouli ok in small doses, but this is too much!!

I'm going to soap with the oil tomorrow. My olive oil/wheat germ oil recipe. I haven't decided on what essential oils to add.

New Etsy Soap Listings

I have listed two new soaps on Etsy.

Beer Soap with Grapefruit

Need a soap with some gusto? Want a soap that will lather like crazy, and has a wake-me-up scent?

Well, then, this one's for you! Soap made with Sam Adams Black Lager! :)



Lavender & Clove Goat Milk Soap

I made this soap for me, but I don't mind sharing it with my customers! I wanted a goat milk soap in my favorite olive oil/wheat germ oil recipe, scented with a lavender blend. The blend I came up with is a lavender/clove/spruce needle blend, all essential oils, that is green and spicey.

A New Year's Day Hike Thru The Desert

On New Year's Day, Ray and I took a hike through the desert. Our goal .. from our house to the top of Gates Pass.

We live at the base of Golden Gate Mountain in the Tucson Mountain Range. There is a pass, called Gates Pass, that takes one to the other side of the mountain.

Here's a pic of the mountain from our front yard. This was taken during monsoon season. Notice the lightning bolt hitting the right hand side of the mountain??? This is one reason we do not like monsoon season!

(HINT: Click on image to enlarge)



The pass runs between the two peaks that you can see.

We started out about 11:00 in the morning. We just need to go the back of our small 40 house development, go through the gate and we are in Tucson Mountain Park. At this point, we can either hit the trail, go up by the water tower, and continue on to the pass. However, we walked the road into Tucson Estates, a large development where my mom lives, and picked up the trail at the corner of her street and Tucson Estates Parkway. It starts out as a nice easy stroll through the desert.



You can still see the houses from here.

Up a little further, turn around and look at Cat Mountain.



Up a little further, a view of our mountain. We're headed up towards that little rock sticking out on the right hand side.



Getting closer the pass



This one is pretty close to the top of the pass, looking back down onto Tucson Estates. Our development is just to the right hand side, off view of the screen. When Mom and I go for our walks, we walk all the way to the house way to the left hand side of the screen, where we have a lovely view of the pass. It looks like such an easy stroll from there!!



Marching saguaro cactus.



This is about as high as we got. It got too hot, bees were bugging us, and even though it looked like we didn't have far to go to get to the very top, we turned around. This is looking back at Cat Mountain.



Back down near the bottom, looking back up towards the pass



We took the path down to the water tower and over to the gate to our development. It took a total of almost 2 1/2 hours. Course, I'm a slow poke. :)