5 Neat Things about Georgia Spring Fling

Yesterday, I posted about my daughter being with me on Friday and the fun time we had here. Today, I want to go through 5 neat things about Georgia Spring Fling.

1. The Spring blooms in Georgia! – Sometimes we get busy with our lives and we forget to just enjoy the blooms on the trees! My  iPhone mapped me through the old part of Conyers instead of the short right off the highway route. I found that shorter route on my way home. If it hadn’t gone the long way, I would have missed the beauty of the blooming dogwoods and azaleas that the city of trees, Atlanta, is known for.
2. Practical demonstrations and pre-buys – Soapmakers are a resourceful bunch. You’d be amazed at the ordinary household items that can become time saving tools in the midst of soap production! I’ll just leave it at that.  As for pre-buys, several of these were organized with the meeting.  Each member of the buy was able to purchase needed ingredients at a much lower shipping cost because Sindy had access to have all our orders shipped to a warehouse and then moved those items to the gathering for us all to load up in our cars and go home. It is because of this wonderful buy, that I was able to make a switch in my own products. You will see Dr. Flower’s handmade soap with a larger percentage of Organic oils. Yippee! I’m a bit excited!  I hope you will be too!
3. Meeting with Vendors – As great as technology is for helping us all connect with our vendors, customers, etc., many times face to face contact means more.  In the case where you’ve connected via technology and then meet, it has one meaning.  If you’ve connected face to face and then use technology to stay connected in means another.  I’ve had the privilege and honor to have met vendors in both scenarios. It really does mean something when you run into trouble with an experiment that went differently than you hoped and you are able to pick up the phone, twitter, email, etc all the while, feeling comfortable to ask for help. There is not a vendor at this meeting that I didn’t enjoy connecting with.
4. Meeting new fellow soapmakers – Connections sometimes pick you rather than the other way around. One soapmaker I sat with knows a family that my husband works with and she keeps bees! If you’ve been paying attention to my twitter stream, I’m a big proponent of local honey for health.  Another soapmaker was a friend on twitter and it turns out I went to high school with her sister.  Life is funny, connected, and the patterns are here for a reason.  I’ll save the spiritual part of all that for another kind of blog but I wanted to point out the holistic aspects of our journeys that can intersect in life if we allow them to.
5. Swaps and Contests – This was my first year to participate in swaps and contests. I found out about the meeting last year too late to sign up for these.  As it turned out, that worked out for the best. It gave me a chance to watch and learn how they go.  I participated in the Best Eco-Friendly Design Swap and also the Veronica Brickman Memorial Candle swap.  A little side note, Veronica was scheduled to do a candle demonstration at the meeting this year but died suddenly in March.  She will be missed without a doubt and I was honored to be a part of the swap.  With all of the preparation of the products that went toward the swap, I just added an extra of each product to go toward the contests for these same categories.  To my complete surprise, I won Best Eco-Friendly Design!!  I was talking away with a new soapmaker friend and almost missed the next announcement until they called my name again! I won Best in Show for that same entry!  I can’t tell you the excitement! I’ll blog about my entry in the contest tomorrow.

In conclusion, if you are a soapmaker, I hope I’ve peaked your interest at coming to one of these gatherings in the future. If you aren’t a soapmaker, I hope you’ll come away knowing that this industry is more than just about products. It’s about people coming together in celebration of soap and candle making. Traditional methods have been used for centuries in our world and its many cultures.

Happy Washing!

~Regina