Party Season

Tokens of appreciation

It's a busy time of year for most people and there are usually plenty of events to attend in the lead up to Christmas.  Work functions, barbeques, family reunions (eek!) and, if you're brave, you throw your own party!

Attending this whirl of activity can get expensive, new clothes, the food, the wine but it is often the gift that causes the most anxiety.  A small token of appreciation is an appropriate way to thank your host and wish them all the best for the season, but it's picking out something a little different and a little easier on the waistline, that can be a challenge for some.  

Here at Shanghai Lil and The Scarlet Fez, you have a vast range of all natural, vegan soaps, hand-crafted right here in Adelaide, to select from if you are looking for an inexpensive gift.  Take a look here:

There are 19 soaps to choose from!  Each soap comes packaged in a lovely box, ready to gift, and only $7.50 per bar!  This is good value when you consider the luxurious oils used to make the soaps, designed to cleanse your skin without making you as dry as a biscuit.  Each bar is scented with essential oils - oils extracted from flowers, leaves and fruits - which provide you with an authentic, natural sensory experience without being bowled over by tenacious synthetic fragrances.

Visit the shop by clicking the button above.  Have fun and let me know if you have any queries.

One Fine Summer - Remix

A tweaking of a favourite soap

Having sold out of the first batch of One Fine Summer, I quickly whipped up a new batch.  I have kept the same oil content as the first batch, as this is a wonderful, creamy soap and I wanted to keep it that way.  I have, however, switched the green to mica and added a splash of rose red (a mix of French pink clay and red oxide).  

One Fine Summer still has that glorious scent - so hard to describe but it's like a citrusy floral, green and sweet.  Here is a snap of the soap just poured into its mould.  The colours will be be more subdued in the cured soap, of course, but how promising!  Four long weeks to wait for this one, but let me know if you want to reserve a bar or two as this one gets snapped up quickly!

Of Worthy Advice and Bad Art

Book finds

While being a lovely sunny day, there is always time to pop into second-hand bookshops and dig up some treasures from dark and dusty shelves.

My recent finds include "The Practical Way to Keep Fit" (ha!) by Harry Roberts and "How to Write, Think and Speak Correctly" (I know what you're thinking, reader) by C.E.M. Joad.  Both are part of Odhams Press Ltd's quaint range of self-improvement books for the Everyman, probably from the 1920s and both have the same lovely endpapers. 

Knowing how to write, think and speak correctly is all very worthy (an' all that), but the guide to keeping fit is my favourite of the two, mainly for its illustrations.  The text is ponderous and preachy and reminds me of being trapped at a party by a perfectly lovely but deadly dull guest.  The illustrations, however, are a bit of a hoot.  They range in quality, staying on the dark side of mediocre for the most part, but some are really very bad!  Some have quite funny captions and others are just, well, inexplicable.

 

You're telling me it does!

Well, that's all very well for him!

 Not even trying.