Hestia toots her trumpet for Kismet's Companion

Click on image to visit Viv's shop!

It's nearly Christmas and if you are anything like me you've not given it much thought.....

Oh right.

Just me then.....

ANYWAY - I just wanted to draw your attention to my good friend Viv's Folksy shop where she sells the most lovely soap.

I've bought LOADS of this lady's soap and now Tartarus won't use anything else.


And he's a big butch Engineer with a motorbike and a beer belly.




What can I tell you about the soaps?

They are veritable slices of loveliness, that's what they are.  They lather up beautifully, with small bubbles (a mark of quality ingredients, I believe) and the scent off them is divine.

Yes, she is my friend and yes, I'm biased, but I can assure you that if they were not good soaps,  I would not be recommending them here.

They are perfect to buy in now as a wee reserve of surprise Christmas gifts - we all get that moment when someone tips up with a pressie for you and you've bought them NOTHING!!!!  Instead of guddling around in a panic upstairs in the bedroom, you can elegantly hand them a beautifully packaged soap, made in the UK by a wonderful craftswoman.  No sweat.

Take this one, for example:  Rajah's Soap.  It is scented with rose and sandalwood - DIVINE, yes?!

There are all sorts of scents available - some designed specially for the Christmas season (wouldn't they make fab pressies to give to a hostess instead of a tired old box of chocolates?!).  You can have anything from warm exotics to florals and airy, beachy scents.

This one is Babuska - scented with Lilac and Violet  *droooooools*  Just had a thought, this would be PERFECT if you've got an EMO teen or Goth to buy for!   I think it looks utterly decadent.

The packaging is simple, but effective. This means that you can happily hand over a soap as a gift to a man in your life too.

And you can always e-mail her if you needed some kind of special gift pack made up - she's very obliging.

Oh yeah, and she knits the most divine stuff (am owner of a gorgeous shawl that she knitted for me) - so again, if you wanted a really special, hand-knitted item - but you just can't manage it yourself *cough*, get in touch with her.

My shawl - gorgeous!

This is soooooo fine that you could pass it through a wedding ring.  If I had one.  And that's a story for another day......

So I'm not prepared for Christmas, it would help me out NO END if you could suggest friends of YOURS (or even yourself!!) who make gorgeous stuff that we could all take a look at and maybe support in these lean times!