Peru Medical Mission Feb. 2010

I'm back from Peru and hope to get some good pix up soon of this great adventure.

This journey started on Feb. 6, 2010. It was one of those cold, gray, and damp February days that just set your teeth to rattle. My roomie Rachel and I boarded the bus at the Brat Stop in Kenosha and made our way to O'Hare International
where we would meet up with the rest of the gang. From Chicago, we flew to Miami, then on to Lima.

The top picture is Lima center in the evening obviously. It was interesting that we were told by others not to bother with the town as there is nothing there. That wasn't our experience at all. Our docs hired a private tour for us and we found it to be quite beautiful. We believe that the poor information was about 10 years out of date when Lima was experiencing difficult times in it's history.

There were nine of us that flew first to Lima and then to Pucallpa. Lima is a lovely sea coast town with moderate weather. Ah, such a joy after the cold Wisconsin winter.

It was late when we arrived at our hotel and believe me, a drink was on the agenda after the long flights. Many of us worked together during the day and because of this, we had a nodding knowledge of each other. We were firmly cemented in this great adventure during that cocktail hour the first night.

Pictured here from left to right: me, Rachel, and Dr. Markian.

Sexy Soap

The latest addition to my soap line is "SEXY".

I have to tell you what a sleeper this fragrance was in the bottle. I took a whiff and thought, "Oh that's nice." I wasn't rocked by it though.

This is a fragrance from my favorite supplier, Lezlee Williams at Simple Soothings. She consistently has the best fragrances and this one was always highly praised so figured it was time to give it a try.

I make the soap, cut it the next day and put it on the drying rack to cure. I pretty much forget about it for a couple of weeks then revisit it to see and smell the progress. In cold process soaps, fragrances do change. Early conclusions can be invalid.

After four weeks it is time to test and trim and do the final prep for sale. What a huge surprise this soap turned out to be. First, it changed color to this lovely rich tan. Then the aroma hit me and I was amazed. What was wimpy in the bottle developed into this rich, deep, haunting, and very sexy fragrance.

Love my morning shower!!

Discover Wisconsin

The Kenosha Harbor Marketplace was filmed for the Discover Wisconsin TV show last Saturday. Maybe our market managers knew about this in advance, but I was taken by surprise.

Stephanie Klett is a regular contributor to the show. I was thrilled when she came by my booth and had her team do extensive photo shoots of my product.

Why? It turns out that Capitol Brewery is a sponsor of the show. And of course I use their beer in my two beer soaps. Why choose this beer you may ask? I love it and I'm a stock holder in the company.

The wheat is grown on Washington Island Door County, WI for this beer. That makes this soap truly a home grown Wisconsin product.

Beer Soap

Patti's Potions Island Wheat and Wisconsin Amber beer soaps have been selling like crazy at the Kenosha Harbor Marketplace this summer.

Beer is not just for breakfast anymore. You can bathe with it.

new items

We have some fun, new, handcrafted, soap decks at Patti's Potions.

As you can see, they range from very light to quite dark to compliment any bathroom decor.
All are made of oak for long lasting quality. Each soap deck features grooves so that your handmade soap dries rapidly.

Why a soap deck? A wet soap bar or soap ball has more surface tension than a dry one. The desire is to create less surface tension with your soap container. Wet soap will melt away much sooner than one that is allowed to dry out between uses. This saves money in your wallet and means that less product is wasted.

Clematis

Clematis from a rainy day.

Pansy

I recently purchased a new camera and have been having a blast getting to know it.

This is my first trip into the SLR photography.

Recently we had a baby shower and these pretty girls were given as gifts to the guests. I kept the ones from the flat that looked sad and plunked them in an available pot. They seem pretty happy now.

That lone fella is one that managed to reseed himself from last year. He's living in a crack in the pavement.