Thursday, July 31, 2008

my first soap in the new studio (with mom)


Good news and bad news...Let's start with the good news first. My dream became a reality last Tuesday when I finally made my first batch of soap in my new studio (while also training my mother). We've both worked so hard preparing the new space, and I forgot for a split second how grueling the process can be (wait, I'm not done with the good news yet). We made 800 bars of soap, learned life lessons, laughed, and didn't kill each other. Yeah! Okay, the bad news is that it almost killed us! We learned we need more outlets because the breaker kept blowing! This is especially terrible when it is really hot outside, you're oily all over, and someone has to run with slippery shoes to flip the switch. We learned paper towels and garbage cans need to be at every corner, the winch needed a handle, humidity makes the soap thicken faster, the area isn't laid out just right, and mom learned that lye burns!!! Yikes, but all-in-all we had a victorious day! Hopefully this inside look at our lives will make you re-consider when you excitedly ask, "When can I come watch you make soap?" Ha! I will put you to work!

Monday, July 7, 2008

My Sexy New Winch


I was walking my mother through the soap making process recently, and realized we need man power to lift the heavy oils and molds. A good man is hard to find, but winches aren't! Ha! My gears started churning and I sketched out a horizontal monorail system with a winch lift system. Within a week I had a full team of experts who stopped what they were doing to pitch in on my endeavor. My grandfather, Millard Vincent, used to own Vincent Machine Shop in Athens, TN, and was the real implementing force on this project. My grandfather and I have built many things together and we both get really excited about stuff like this. So he called his old competitor and good friend, Donald Powers of Powers Machine Shop in Athens to get the job done right. Don shut down his shop, came and took measurements, and then built the coolest (and sexiest) monorail system ever!! I am so incredibly Blessed to have people who love and believe in me. Here is a photo of the crew installing it. I'll post more photos soon!