Happy December Newsletter/Blog Subscribers!
Gosh...I can hardly believe ANOTHER year is nearly gone! For starters, a big THANK YOU to all my wonderful customers! I'm never sure I say it enough, but I appreciate you all, in good times and bad....allowing me to continue to do what I love, serve you in making soap and enchanted art! Holiday time is always special to me in that it is often via a gift, that customers are first introduced to Simply Soap or my art, and then become customers for life; and I seem to meet the NICEST people!
SIMPLY SOAP NEWS:
Reminder: Simply Soap will be closed Dec. 8 - Jan. 1. We'll take orders up until Dec. 8th so that we can get them out in-time for the holidays. Then we close for our year-end much-needed break. HOWEVER!.....this year we will continue to take GIFT CERTIFICATE ORDERS (available at: GIFTS) up till Xmas Eve and deliver them via e-mail! Your gift recipient will receive the e-mail gift certificate in time (and we'll e-mail you to confirm the e-gift certificate delivery!) however when they go on our site to shop online, we will not begin fulfilling orders until after Jan 1., which will be posted there for them to see and know.....and give those handy gift certificates so your giftee will have the chance to choose what they'd like most from our approx. 100 soap varieties! Every year we have customers upset that we are not open 24/7 right up till Christmas, but this will afford you the opportunity to still purchase and give right up to Xmas Eve via GIFT CERTIFICATE--Woo-Hoo!
Our Ancient Alchemy soap line is now available! Come visit! Some of you remember when I first mentioned it and are now saying "It's ABOUT TIME!" The delay was due to a conflict with organizing it between another soap line, and well...life got really busy. I apologize for the delay and to make up for it, I'm offering a 10% off sale on the Ancient Alchemy line up until we close for the end of the year Dec. 8. This discount will be applied on our end an d will not appear on your shopping cart total if you order online. We hope you enjoy this new line and it's ancient roots!
Our Wylde Faerie and Wylde Wytch soap lines continue to be WYLDLY popular! Be sure to keep them in-mind for your gift-giving .....and, to treat yourself! A wonderful way to keep MaGiC alive!
And of course, all of our traditional Holiday Soaps are available....Christmas Tree Farm, Wassail, Orange-Cranberry Seed Scrub, Blizzard Bar, Mocha Truffle and MORE!!
WILD OAKS ART NEWS:
We have a new painting available called "First Snow Fairyphoria", available as prints and cards. It captures the euphoria you feel at the first snow of the season!
ODDS AND ENDS:
Every holiday season I literally have people begging me for these cookies, they're THAT good! Funny enough, the other night we were out and decided to splurge, stopped at a very hoighty-toighty dessert joint and I was not so surprised to see them carrying this very cookie! I'll share the recipe!
DOUBLE CHOCOLATE TREASURES
12 oz. package (2 cups) of semi-sweet chocolate pieces
1/2 cup margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old-fashioned)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsps. baking powder
1/2 cup powder sugar
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In microwave melt 1 cup of the chocolate pieces. Stir until smooth, set aside to cool slightly. Beat together margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs, vanilla, and melted chocolate. Add combined dry ingredients, EXCEPT powdered sugar. Stir in remaining whole chocolate pieces. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in powdered sugar, coating heavily. Place on un-greased cookie sheet, pressing down SLIGHTLY, do not flatten, bake 10-12 minutes. Do not over-bake or the cookies will not be chewy---which is how they are ideally enjoyed! Cool one minute, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Makes about 5 dozen cookies. Store in air-tight container. Chocolate HEAVEN!
Every holiday season I bring out and hang the picture I have framed of this letter, read it, and renew my spirit. I hope it renews yours as well!
Yes, Virgina, there IS a Santa Claus.....
Dear Editor:
I am eight years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, `If you see it in The Sun Newspaper, it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon, 115 West Ninety-Fifth Street, New York, NY
That letter was received by a New York newspaper one day decades ago, but it is a question that eventually all children will ask. It is hard to explain to them such things, concepts of love and giving, of selflessness and charity, of magic and imagination....
The reply to little Virgina's letter became famous, because it spoke of the joys of the human heart, and the expression of love and giving as portrayed by the man in the red suit. Santa Claus has become a cultural icon for the joys of giving. Here is that letter. Please share it with your family this holiday season, and remember it whenever despair threatens to shake YOUR belief.... in Santa Claus.
Virginia, Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that anything can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. lt would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance, to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but this is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and un-seeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
~Francis Pharcellus Church
Best wishes to all for a blessed, safe and inner peace-filled season! As difficult as the past year has been for many, there is much to look forward to, much to be thankful for....and it all starts within. I hope you find yours!
The Elves, Faeries and Good Witches at:
Simply Soap
Wild Oaks Art
Enchantasies
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