The New Blog

Welcome back to the Garden. It took six long months for us to come back to our house and finally I feel like I'm home. The blog has a new look to match my new website to be launched early this fall. I have begun restocking all the soap, trying to head into the holiday season with full shelves. During my hiatus I started with a few new scents, White Gardenia and Wisteria to name a few. I also created a very special bar for the men & women who kept my family safe. I found a wonderful smoky scent to honor firefighters, police and all people who protect and serve. The bar is called Hero and for each bar sold a $1.00 donation goes back to Madison Fire Department. The old favorites are still here too including Grandpa's Lilac, Madison Rose and Blue Hydrangea. One of my favorite new addition is the Drunken Goat Bar, a lovely goat shaped champagne scented bar, wonderful in the shower! I have concentrated on making mostly the 8 ounces bottles of lotions, available in several fragrances as well as special orders. The 5 ounces jars can still be purchased on the website, secretgardensoapofmadison.com Milk bath fizzees eggs have been reworked as well and now have honey & shea butter...a perfect bath after a day in the pool. Available in 1/2 dozen cartons for just $10.00 I have also created a lovely spa line using only essential oils. This line includes a sea salt milk bath, available in a quart size glass milk bottle. The salt bar, each batch has two pounds of European sea salt, uplifting bar and calming bar and lastly the cleansing bar with honey & nutmeg. Along with this collection is the new bath teas with goat milk, just pop the whole bag right in the bath for a fragrant soak. The teas are available in three blends, soothing, pampering, and healing...especially good during cold & flu season. The gift basket collection has grown the most. There are now nine different baskets to choose from ranging from the basic basket with a single bar and bath bag to the garden basket with a sampling of everything here at the garden along with two sweet little bird guest soaps. For the fall I will have pumpkin apple butter, cranberry, chestnut brown sugar and harvest. These fragrances will be available in 4.5 ounce bars as well as leaf guest soaps, five leaves to an organza bag. It's time to milk the goats! I will keep the blog updated with all the news an events here at the garden. Hope to see you soon.

Fire Diary

First and foremost a very special thank you to the firefighters and police who responded so quickly and handled things so well. Second a special thank you to Chubb for being kind and responsive. Third a special thank you to IRS (Insurance Restoration Specialists) they came and did an inventory, cleaned and got us ready for the next step. They also listened to a sometimes overly emotional woman and her crazy rantings. Lastly to all of you, your calls, prayers, meals, and yes even gift cards are overwhelmingly generous. I can't imagine such kindness exists in this world. I'm renewed with a hope for our future. My cup overflows.

Now highlights of my crazy life. Goats and chickens seem unaffected by the fire. They are checked on 3 times a day, and visited often by whatever workers are at the house that day. This will continue for the unforeseeable future.

We have taken up residence at my in-laws house in Chatham Township. Let me explain that my in-laws house is huge, my house is not. You would think that this would be a treat, not so. Two seniors in a perfectly clean house full to the brim with stuff is NOT the place for a very large family who "live" in their surrounds. I think there is going to be a whole lot of screaming going on. Not a complaint, I'm lucky to have a place to live, just an observation.

Highlights of the week...

Myself, Joe, a firefighter we are friendly with, and my brother in law. Brother-in-law to firefighter "So could you list exactly everything Tracee did wrong?" Really?

Phone rings as I'm driving to my house to feed the animals, Joe frantically explains Christians teeth are bleeding and he thinks his gums are swollen into his braces. Long story short double root canal with another one pending. Really?

Lovely woman calls to bring dinner over, catches me at a low point, sobbing into the phone I tell her to come whenever she wants, she feels so bad she brings me chocolate cake. I like her!

Jim the gentleman in charge of clean up at my house calls me into the living room and wants to know who the pretty blonde women is in the wedding photo? Well that's Joe's first wife she's so darn pretty I keep the picture up. Really? To hell with new mattresses I'm getting plastic surgery.

I keep saying that everything happens for a reason, sometimes the reasons are not clear at the time. I've come up with a theory. I wanted balance and simplicity. Here is an opportunity to be very realistic about what a person really needs to be happy. It will be like starting from scratch in a way. The house will be spotlessly clean. We will go through all the clothes that we have and be smart about what we keep and donate the rest. All of you have taught me how much an act of kindness can mean to someone. The meals you provided brought my family together around a table with excellent food and allowed us to be "normal" in very abnormal times. You kept us warm with coats and clothes. You brought me to tears too many times to count, I feel so blessed to be apart of this community. Your prayers and kind words at just the right time to keep me going. I will never be able to thank you enough, but I do promise to always help when I can and give what I have to anyone in need. Thank you for renewing my faith in people.

My soap is quiet for the moment, but as usual I have BIG plans. I'm hoping to set up shop here at my temporary residence in the garage. I have a new soap mold in the works, a lovely little 3-D bird I'm going to call Zippiddee. He will be available in Blue Hydrangea scent to start with.I had ordered a new tree display with little nests for Zippiddee to perch in right before things went to hell in a handbag, it arrived this past Thursday and is beautiful. I'm creating a special fragrance in honor of all of you called HERO, it has a nice smoky scent...kidding about the smoke, it will smell "heroic". I'm also thinking about a powdered milk bath in glass pint size milk bottles enriched with European and Dead Sea Salts.

A lot of plans, I know, I have to plan to keep from going crazy. Soap is my therapy, gives me something to get ready for so I don't dwell on this mess.

A final thank you, you can never know what everything you've done has meant to me and my family. My sincerest thanks.