Homemade Vegan Soaps - The Perfect Mother's Day Gifts

 

Handcrafted, vegan soaps pictured above:
Upper left, clockwise:
Patchouli Grapefruit
Lemon Verbena
Coconut & Lime
Amber Romance
Southern Magnolia
French Lilac & Lavender

Order now for Mother's Day.

I have 30+ types and fragrances available.

Buy Any Five or More,
Get Another of your Choice, FREE

All soaps are labeled with an ingredient list
and enclosed in a cello bag with gold seal,
ready for gift giving!

I use only natural colorants, no oxides

No harsh chemicals

No animal products

These large bars of natural soap are 

moisturizing and gentle,

with a great lather.

They're the perfect gift for

anyone who would love their skin to feel

great after a shower or bath!

I almost always have multiples available.

Please Convo me or Email with your request

and I will make a Reserved Listing just for you in

My ETSY Shop.

OR order at my website,

HomemadeSoapnSuch.com

where you can select quantities greater than 1.

 

Join me on Instagram: @cranberrymorning

Hodgepodging for Mother's Day

My lovely mom at 18 years of age
(Right. She wasn't my mom then.)

Join Joyce and the Gang

for

She writes the questions;

we write the answers.

Answer the questions on your own post

and link up!

1. What's a phrase your mother often said to you? If you're a parent, is this something you now say to your own children?

There are two I can think of:

a.  Don't slam the door!
b. Go find something to do or I'll find work for you to do.

And yes, I also said those to our own children, although I know I changed the second one slightly, to: 'Go find something constructive to do.'


2. What is a scent you associate with your mother or your childhood home?

a. Bacon
b. Saturday morning caramel rolls
c. Fresh-mown hay

3. What's an activity you remember always doing with your mother (or someone who was a mother figure in your life)?


I don't actually remember doing many things with my mother. We tended to do our work separately. It was divided up and everyone took care of their own job. I worked in the garden or dusted furniture or set the table or did the dishes. Mom was doing other stuff.

We went to church together, went clothes shopping (which I detested) together, my mom making me try on clothes I hated. I always told her, 'I will know it [item of clothing I want] when I see it.' Unfortunately, I never saw it, but she kept trying. I know it must have been frustrating for her; it certainly was for me. I still hate clothes shopping. And, I will still 'know it when I see it.' I rarely see it.

Oh yes, there was swimming at the lake after the chores were done (milking and haying) on summer evenings. We all loved to go swimming and get a root beer at the root beer stand! Mom also loved picnics, and to this day I love picnics, even if it means just taking a sandwich outdoors on a blanket spread on the yard.

 Oops, not that one.

 Yeah, that's more like it.

4. Flared jeans, maxi dresses, and jumpsuits are 70's fashion trends back this spring. Are you on board? Which trend would you be most inclined to try? For the men...flared corduroys, wide-collared shirts, and floral prints...what say you? 

 This is an absolutely horrid thought. I hope you're not serious.

 My cute dad, left

My cute mom, victim of horrid fashion in clothing and hair

when she was 19

A friend of the family, right

5. May 6th is Teacher Appreciation Day and also Nurse Appreciation Day. Is there a nurse or teacher  you have especially appreciated along the way? Tell us why?

I don't think I appreciated any teacher at the time, but looking back, I appreciate my fifth grade teacher who, at my parents' first parent-teacher conference, gave my mom a set of multiplication flash cards and said, 'Take these home. Make her memorize them.'  She did, and I did. I am so grateful for that teacher.  If that teacher hadn't insisted that I memorize the multiplication tables, I might still be trying to figure out WHY  7x8=56.  Some things just need to be memorized. It makes life a lot easier.

6. If I came by your house, what would I find on your frig door?

You would find a ton of family photos and magnets from various places - and lots of fingerprints.

7. Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana made her royal entrance on Saturday, May 2nd. On a scale of 1-10, how much attention did you give to all the news coverage? 1=Who's Charlotte? 10=sat glued to the telly, cuppa in hand.

My interest was about 9, but my patience is sitting around waiting was 0, so no, I didn't stay glued to the TV.  I still like the name Alexandra better, but they didn't ask me.  Kate looked way too good to have just given birth, but I can forgive her. I guess. Besides, she has handlers. Real people don't.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

My introduction to motherhood
Mr. C., Me, Our Firstborn

(approximately a hundred years ago)

Mr. C. just saw this photo and said,
'What were we, about 14??'

Yeah, it's scary, isn't it!


Happy Mother's Day
 to all the wonderful moms out there!

***

Check out my handcrafted, vegan soaps!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

'Southern Magnolia'

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop 

Motherhood Hodgepodge Wednesday

Hoping to repeat the family reunion this August

We have two additional family members to join us.

Click on the button below if you'd like to join Joyce and the rest of us for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. Share something you appreciate (or something you appreciated as you were growing up) about your mother.

One of my favorite pics of my mom and dad

Both are now with the Lord.

One thing I learned to appreciate about my mom was that she always made good food and made it look so pretty on the table. She also made sure we got to go swimming at the lake after chores, something that I suspect was her idea, rather than my dad's. Although he was a lot of fun and had a great sense of humor, he would probably have been happy to stay home and read - or watch a western on TV.


2.  A quote most commonly ascribed to Plato reads "Necessity is the mother of invention." When did this last play out in your own experience?


I can't tell you how many times this plays out in my life. I have a knack for using things for tasks for which they never were designed. Don't ask me what right now, because I can't think of a single example at the moment, but no kidding.  Sometimes it's just the lazy route. AND, both Mr. Cranberry and I are cursed with the ability to look at almost anything and think, 'Hey! This would make a great...!"


  3. Share one of the earliest memories you have from childhood.


One of my earliest memories is of the dark and stormy night when I woke up from a nap because I heard someone call my name, like a few times in a row. I don't know where my parents or brothers were, probably in the barn, but I've never forgotten that scary moment.   I had already learned about Samuel in the Bible, so I was kinda expecting something more Biblical than simply my brothers coming back to the house and the mysterious moment evaporating.

4. When did you last 'hit the mother lode'? What was it?


I'd say it was recently when Mr. Cranberry brought home a box of dishes he'd found on an abandoned demo site. I'm thinking he should load the mother load into the truck and take it to the landfill. Actually, I did keep a few, but not everything is a treasure, trust me. And it's not like Mother Hubbard's Cupboard is bare!

And I might not be so ungrateful if he'd not tossed three rubber rats at me - that he also found there. Scared me to DEATH!

  5. What is/was your favorite dish mom made? Do you make that dish for your family/friends now that you're all grown up?


My mom made a chicken/broccoli casserole that I loved. And I used to make it a lot too, until I realized that the poison in the cream of chicken or nacho cheese soup was giving me fierce headaches. It had those crunchy fried onion rings in it too. Yummy, yummy poison. OH, and she also made caramel rolls every Saturday morning. I think some people call them 'sticky buns.' They were SO delicious. I definitely had my share. And I'm pretty sure the whole batch was gone by evening, or at least by Sunday evening. With six of us in the house, I don't think they lasted long.

6. Mother May I? was at one time a popular children's game. It required no equipment or parts to play. What was your favorite childhood game where you could just turn up and play-no gear needed?


I'm thinking it was 'starlight moonlight,' which we played at night, obviously. Unless I have this confused with another game, it was like hide and seek, only you played it in the  backyard at night with the yard light pole as 'goal.'

'Starlight, moonlight

First star I see tonight

I wish I may

I wish I might

Have the wish I wish tonight.'

Hmmm. That doesn't sound like a hide and seek game, does it. Oh well. Okay, let's go with 

Red Rover Red Rover Let Judy Come Over

That was a great game. Lots of fun, lots of exercise, very physical, and probably is outlawed today.

7. Which TV mom (past or present) is your favorite, and why?

 

 Margaretta Scott

1912-2005

I don't think George Gently, Endeavour Morse, Hercule Poirot or Albert Campion ever had a mother, so I'll go with Lord Peter Wimsey's mother. Loved her in that role and also in the role of Mrs. Pomfrey in 'All Creatures Great and Small.' If you don't know her, you need to become acquainted with her movies.  (I couldn't think of any TV moms I liked when I was a kid. I didn't like moms. I liked cowboys.)

  8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Motherhood - it's totally worth it.

But there are moments.

THE GRANDS


I thank God for our children AND our grandchildren every day.

***

Have a great Wednesday!