ASCA....and Ye Shall Receive

Sometimes it's hard to know where you belong.  But when you're with the right people, you just instinctively know it.  That's what happens every June when we head down to Prattville, AL for the annual Alabama Soap & Candle Association (ASCA) meeting.  Surrounded by Soapers, we spend 2 full days immersed in all things soap and attempt to soak up every moment we have with this amazingly diverse, yet unified, group of talented Makers.  

The weekend is always full of scheduled presentations, demonstrations, and talks while leaving adequate time for browsing the sale tables, sniffing fragrances, and just chatting it up with friends.  This year we had the privilege of being asked to give one of the presentations and of course we immediately thought of talking about shaving!  Friday afternoon was a blast as we gave our talk entitled "Boys and Their B.L.A.D.E.S." to a room full of over 100 people.  (I'll clue everyone in on what B.L.A.D.E.S. stands for in some future blog posts.)  I don't really care to be in the spotlight, so Darren handled most of the presentation (the B-D parts), leaving me to address the E & S sections.  We spent weeks preparing for this presentation and felt like we really knew our information.  The one thing that we neglected, though, was to actually rehearse how it would all go down.  So imagine my surprise as Darren broke out into song not once, but twice, during the talk. A teensy-weensy little bit of a shock there :).

We had amazing Speakers this year (some pretty big name ones!), great vendors, fabulous food, encouraging fellowship and we received jam-packed swag bags to take home, but one of the factors that made this weekend so special for us is that we were able to bring our 3 daughters along with us.  What a joy to share them with our soaping family and for them to see first hand that their parents are not the only crazy people who regularly have conversations that include phrases such as sap value, PPO, and vendor TATs.

As so it's now time to get back into the swing of things here, re-energized by time spent with our Prattville peeps.  And honestly?  We've already marked our calendars for next year.

If you're a soapmaker (or interested in learning about making soap), we'd love to have you join us June 10 & 11, 2016.  Shoot us an email if you have any questions or comment below.  We can pretty much promise you'll have a blast.