Casco Bay Soap @ Freeport Historic Society Auction

I donated my soap (sort-of, read more...) to be part of the Freeport Historic Society Spring Auction.

I just love history. And I love the Historic Society. My husband and I are members and we enjoy an event or two each year. This past October, we went on a super cool haunted tour of Freeport. Complete with 2 tour guides, 1 in a flowing white costume (very ghosts of Christmas past, with flowing gauzy fabric and a pale white face) and a lantern in hand. The other tour guide was a local medium! Sent with us to contact any spirits in the old Freeport buildings. Another event we attended was Maritime music. Old style sea shanty were sung by men with big bushy beards. What fun!

I was contacted by the Historic Society to see if I would like to donate soap to their auction. After discussing with my contact the ups and downs, ins and outs of soap, we decided on something very different, that I think is very very cool.

The auction items is.....design your own soap bar! The winner would work with me to design their own soap bar. I would give them a list of fragrances, stir in's like oatmeal, poppy seeds, seaweed and they create their own signature, personal bar of soap! But they don't get just one bar, the will received 14 bars, a full 1/2 batch of soap. This signature batch of theirs will easily last them a full year. They could give it away to friends or keep it all to themselves.

This idea was such a hit and well received, I am considering offering it as an option to you! Would you like to create your own soap?

My Feathered Friends

Look at this fat little cutie that was waiting patiently for his (or her) turn at my feeder the other day! I was trying to snap a few quick pictures of the Goldfinch that have come to feed at the thistle feeder, but they were shy when I was around.

Mermaid Buttons

You may have noticed a little mermaid button on the top corner of my business card attached to the soap gift package in my last post. Maybe you didn't notice it, here it is again.

I had these great little 1" buttons made by a crafter on Esty.com She did a fantastic job! Including the best part of my logo, the beautiful dark haired mermaid and the shipwreck in the background. On the bottom rim of the button, she included Casco Bay Soap Co. ~ Maine. Made by Heather Is Crafty in just a short week, she sent me 100 of these beautiful buttons.

Thanks Heather! You did a great job!

Girls Night "In"

I made up these cute little soap gift bags for a recent event at Simply Divine Brownies. Simply Divine held a girls night of pampering complete with chair massage, tarot card reading, glasses of champagne, brownie decorating and more. Each guest also went home with a goody bag full of great local type of items. I donated my soaps as part of the gift bag. I was very happy to donate to this fun event!

Sea of Soap

A sea of soaps....awaiting their delivery date.

New Market Location In Freeport For 2010

I am very happy to announce that the Cumberland Farmers Market Association, that I am part of, has a new fantastic location for the 2010 market season in Freeport.

L.L.Bean has offered the Cumberland Farmers Market Association the use of Discovery Park and an adjacent parking lot on the L.L.Bean campus for a farmers Market this year.

Have you been to Freeport, during the summer? On a Friday night? Have you seen the space? I will paint a quick picture.....often beautiful, historically preserved (Abercrombie & Fitch is located in the old Library, for example) Main St. Freeport is backed up with traffic as folks head into town for a weekend stay at the local B&B's. Freeport is all about shopping. There are tons of outlets (over 200 upscale outlets, FREEPORT USA.com), people come to this town to shop. I'm not kidding. They are here to spend money, on stuff. Discovery Park is located right off of Main St. and smack in between the L.L.Bean Home Store, The L.L.Bean Hunting and Fishing Store and the L.L.Bean Flagship store. There is an average of 9,000 shoppers at L.L.Bean druing the summer on a Friday. Last year, Bill Murray and Dr. Oz were shopping in Freeport with their families, and those are only the celebrities that I know about, who knows who else came through. I spoke with Dr. Oz, he smelled my soap. He bought corn and blueberries at the market. It was very very cool. This new market is going to offer me an opportunity to get my soaps in the hands of all sorts of travelers from all sorts of great places.

CFMA will raise the tents for the Freeport Community Market on May 28th at 3pm, that market would run through 7pm. The season runs every Friday, 3-7, through Oct 8th.

I will be working on special soaps as well as showcase my Maine themed soaps.

Hope to see some of you there!

Casco Bay Soap Co. on Facebook

In case you forgot or didn't already know, you can become a fan of Casco Bay Soap Co. on Face Book. This will give you up to date information regarding new soaps being made, blog post updates and (sadly) last minute cancellations at Farmers Markets (which may happen if we have a rainy summer, like last year).

Click here for direct access to the Face Book page:

CASCO BAY SOAP ON FACE BOOK

Dining Out In Portland

Captain and I went out to eat the other night in Portland with some friends from out of town. They choose Street & Co. Wonderful, delicious food in a casual, cool atmosphere. Being the foodie that I am, of course I am going to try to create these dishes at home. Captain and I started with Braised Mushrooms and Gruyere. For a main dish I choose Scallops in Pernod (Anise flavored liquor, which adds just a touch of flavor) and cream, served with Grano* and sauteed broccoli. Captain choose Clams with white sauce (super light, nice and garlicky, great sauce/broth for sopping up with bread). We split the flour less chocolate cake served up warm in a ramekin with fresh whipped cream. All of it was out of this world good. Scallops cooked perfectly and the Pernod and cream sauce, so different and delicious! I loved the Grano. We did have to call over the waiter and ask what it was, as all of us had never seen/eaten this grain before. I mixed mine with my Pernod and cream sauce for a yummy combination.

Portland has some fantastic restaurants, if you get the chance, have a meal at one or two of them.

* Grano ~ Grano, which means "grain" in Italian, is made from specially selected durum wheat. Renowned for its al dente ("to the tooth" in Italian) texture when prepared, Grano has a firm, yet chewy consistency. It tastes like pasta but is more nutritious because in the minimal processing, only a small amount of the outer bran is removed. It is high in fiber, protein and minerals for this same reason.

More Grano info. here: http://sunnylandmills.com/grano_ancient_grain.shtml

Japanese Masking Tape

Wow! Super cool patterned masking tape! It's the newest cool thing in crafting. Perfect for decorating gift bags, homemade cards, scrapbooking and soo much more.

Find it here: HAPPY TAPE and their blog here: HAPPY TAPE BLOG full of ideas for crafting with the tape.

Now, what color(s) should I buy, and what am I going to do with it.....

My Soaps Are Headed To Portland!

I am very excited to announce that my soaps will now be available in a fantastic new store in the big city of Portland, MAINE!

Lisa Marie, of Lisa Marie's Made In Maine located in Bath, is opening another Made In Maine store on Exchange St. in Portland. While it hasn't opened yet, she is shooting for an opening date of April 1. She has purchased many soaps from me to fill her shelves. In addition to the soaps, she purchased some of the cute Soap Sampler packs and a new product that I introduced her to (I haven't shown it to you yet, I will soon).

This is a great opportunity for me and I am very excited to be part of it. Her store will carry all sorts of fantastic items made in Maine. She has jewelry, toys, woodwork, pottery, food items, glassware, chocolates, artwork, aprons....and so much more. The Portland location will certainly put my soap in the hands of many out of town travelers, as the city swells in the summer time with tourist.

Thank you Lisa Marie for including me in you new location.

Lisa Marie's Made In Maine
35 Exchange St.

Portland, ME

OPENING APRIL 1st

Guest Soap Delivery

Fresh guest size soaps delivered to The James Place Inn B&B here in Freeport. Guest at the Inn lather up with my mini Peppermint Oatmeal soaps. Mmmmmmm!

THE JAMES PLACE INN B&B

Gearing Up For The New Market Season....

The market that I am part of is made up of some super fantastic people. I'm not kidding....all sorts of vendors, from bakers specializing in Gluten Free baked goods, to local vegetable farmers, an Alpaca farmer (I've been to her farm, it's AWESOME), specialty food items such as Afghanistan prepared foods to my artisan handmade soaps. It's a fantastic group!

Here is what we are:

We hail from 19 towns in 6 counties Cumberland, York, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Lincoln and Oxford.

We will impact the lives of 125,000 Maine residents with our markets in (5) five Maine communities with on location markets in those communities.

We will indirectly impact the Maine residents in an additional 14 communities numbering another 125,000 residents giving CFMA an impact, direct or indirect of nearly 250,000 Mainer residents or approximately 1/4 the population of Maine.