Hello from sunny Palm Springs

It's been a while since my last post and as you can imagine things have just been bubbling around the shop. Right now I am sitting in my hotel room getting ready to head back to New York after a fun filled 3 days at the HSMG annual conference. This year our conference was hosted in Palm Springs California at the Miramonte Resort. What a wonderful place in the middle of the desert. It was 100 degrees most days but there is no humidity so you don't really feel it. The conference brings together once a year a group of soapmakers (yes soapmakers) who don't look at each other as competition, but friends. I look forward every year to spending time with my very good friend Monique Hodgkinson from Stable Solutions and comparing notes on everything from soapmaking to kids. This year I finally got to put a face to the name of some people who have become very good friends through some really cool networking. Cindy Tollen from Sudz N Bubbles is an MP soapmaker like me and makes the cutest and coolest pie soaps. These slices of pie look and smell like the real thing and they even come in a plastic pastry box! Really cool for a summer gift. Another face to a name came 2 days into the conference when FINALLY I found Marla! Marla Bosworth is also an MP (melt and pour) soapmaker and her niche is seashore themes items - she is the creative force behind Backporch Soap in Duxbury Bay, Mass. Marla makes the most gorgeous sea glass soaps you have ever seen - they look so real you would think they were glass! Marla also teaches soapmaking (she has the patience of a saint!) and offers workshops in other business areas. Also here with us is my New York friend Delores Harris from Daisy Mae Natural Soaps who specialized in CP (Cold Process) soaps that are all natural. There were so many others here that I could go on forever! But.......this conference brings together, every year, a group of soapmakers (male and female) who share the same interest, business and yet are so very different.
It took me an entire day to get here from New York. I left JFK at 6am on Tuesday morning after an amazing day on Monday proudly watching my daughter walk across the stage at Radio City to complete her Masters Degree from NYU. She became the first member of our family to reach that level of education. I landed in Salt Lake City and had to run across the airport to catch the connecting flight to Palm Springs. When I got here the conference was well under way and everyone was having lunch on the lawn. Old friends, new friends, veteran soapmakers, novice soapmakers all came together in one place to share, network and just have fun. It was wonderful and I can't wait until next year in Denver!