There was I time, way back, when I wrote blog posts almost every week. I’ve no idea whether many people read them, but I generally enjoyed the process of putting things down in black and white. Writing them served as a good record of what I’d done, and was planning to do. Sadly, in my world, writing is the first thing to be dropped when life gets busy. And life DID get busy. Crazily busy. Or busily crazy. Or, let’s be honest, just crazy.

2020 was the year that the world stopped, they say. Well, nope, not here it didn’t. Having launched the website just before the first lockdown kicked in, I was busier than ever last year, and when homeschooling two primary school children was thrown into the mix, the result was pretty exhausting. “Learn a new skill” they said. “Catch up on your reading” they said. “Get fit” they said. Ha! Between 9-3pm my days were spent homeschooling while Dean worked. My evenings and weekend were spent, without fail, working. But I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t have a boss breathing down my neck, asking me to justify my output, or expecting me to work evenings and weekends because I wasn’t productive enough during the traditional working hours. I was at least able to set my own working hours, even though it meant I missed out on a lot of quality time with the family.

Still, we managed. The business thrived, the children eventually skipped gleefully back to school (we’ll gloss over whether that was down to them missing their friends or a comment on my teaching skills lol) and the new normal kicked in. But still I couldn’t find the time to write. Until now.

Two and a half weeks ago I received a phone call, asking whether I still needed and/or wanted the surgery that I’ve been waiting for for years. In fact, I first saw my GP about my sore, buniony feet about 15 years ago, and many non-invasive treatments were tried – shoe insert, physiotherapy etc. I took a break from the process while the children were small, but about 3.5 years ago I saw a Consultant and it was decided that surgery was the way forward. Of course, the pandemic put paid to all possibility of elective procedures and I just accepted that it wouldn’t happen for a while yet. And then, two and a half weeks ago, my phone rang.

“Hello! Do you still want your surgery?”

“Um, yes please”

“Oh good. Two weeks today then?”

“What?!!”

So. Here I am, four days after bilateral foot surgery, with time to write a blog post about summer soaps – hooray!!

This year’s summer specials were due to drop yesterday, on the 26th June, but once surgery was scheduled there was no way that was going to happen. I’ve closed the website temporarily, and am tentatively hoping to reopen on 1st July. Fingers crossed!

There are four limited edition bars in this summer’s collection:

Coconut and Pineapple need no explanation really. I had initially baulked at the thought of making two fruity specials, but the Pineapple smells so delicious, while the Coconut has been requested by so many people. I couldn’t really NOT make either.

The Traeth Tawel (Calm Beach in Welsh) is so called because it’s the same fragrance as the popular Traeth bar, but without the scrubby bits. Again, this had been requested often, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make one.

The Frangipani? Well, let’s just say that this one was a b**ch to work with lol. You can probably tell from it’s appearance that this wasn’t the most amenable of fragrance oils, but MY OH MY does it smell good!! Fragipani is the fragrance of Plumeria blossom – those exotic flowers that are used to make Hawaiian leis. It’s floral, sweet and just wonderful – if you’re partial to a floral.

That’s it for now folks. I’d love to promise more regular posts in the future, but I’m not going to. I’m just going to quietly try to write a ’round up’ every now and then, just for posterity. I know Future Me will be glad if do.