Author's note: I'm writing this while surrounded by an ever-increasing layer of fresh snow, so it doesn't feel much like Spring. However, I realize that many of you are in warmer climes and you should definitely feel smug about it. To that end, I'm writing this for you, you lucky...
When we meet people outside of Outlaw circles, sometimes people ask us what we do. From years of experience, I have learned that "My husband and I have a small handmade soap company," is the un-catalyst for an interesting conversation. Probably second to "I'm a professional quilter," people just do...
Blazing Saddles Soap is a handmade soap unlike any other. It smells like the essence of the Wild West, at its core. The people who like it are adventurous, excited about life, and real participants.
It smells like leather, gunpowder, sandalwood, and sagebrush, which is pretty much what we imagine any great Western movie smells like.
I had a great need for Wild West Quotes for some packaging, and found a bunch that I thought were charming enough to save:
"Conflict follows wrongdoing as surely as flies...
One of the highlights of this Summer has been our travel adventures.
When the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada (home of the world famous Cowboy Poetry Gathering) wrote us about carrying our soaps, I was beside myself with excitement. Here was this place that I had been fantasizing about going to... and they wanted our products!! It was one of those celebrity moments.
It also happened to be around the Perseid Meteor Shower, so, with multiple kinds of stars in our eyes, we decided to set out across the fair state of Nevada and make our way to Elko.
It has been forever since I wrote in the blog, and for that I am truly sorry.
Not for you, but for me. Recording the epic journey of this business is one of my great therapeutic joys, and I have missed it.
There's no way I can update you on everything, so I will give you the highlight reel (shared with my Kiva Loan Funders and shared with you here):
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... to us, at least.
This is a big update, so buckle in.
We are delighted to announce that The Connor Hotel in Jerome, Arizona, now carries Outlaw Soaps!
On my long and mostly (unfortunately) undocumented trip through the Southwest, I stopped in Jerome, Arizona.
Jerome is famous because...
It's no secret that we're HUGE fans of Bravo Farms, a roadside attraction both off the 99 in Traver, and off the I-5 in Kettleman City. Not only are they delightfully rustic, with a mix of new stuff and very cool antiques, but they also have a shooting gallery (bonus), goats (EXTRA bonus), chickens (HOLY SHITBONUS), and ridiculously good Bar-b-que.
Yeah, it's pretty much the best place ever.
I take a lot of risks in my life. I risk financial security, career stability, stability of my heart and mind, and a stability of living situation.
To me, life is messy and unstable.
Whenever I have made decisions based on what is the most stable, I have always reflected on that as a bad decision in hindsight.
Note: Ugh. I've gone back and forth about this post and whether I should even write it. I mean, how frazzlin' arrogant to call myself "a person of adventure." But Russ told me he was reflecting on how he saw me before we hooked up, and, he said I was kind of legendary to him.
I've never been legendary to me. From my perspective, it's just one disconnected adventure and then a completely separate adventure. It's just stuff I do.
But anyways, the truth is that I've gotten a reputation as a person of adventure. And here's how that started out.
My childhood wasn't normal....
“What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” - Jack Kerouak, On the Road
Whether you're assembling it for your own use or giving it to someone else, a well-assembled Men's Grooming Kit (aka Dopp Kit) is absolutely essential.
