A Gift for the Friend and/or Neighbor

Alright, it took me longer than I had hoped to get my act together with this post.  I've been seeing cute mason jar soap dispensers all over blogland lately and just desperately wanted some for my house.  There are lots of tutorials out there, but this one was my favorite:

Source: theblissfullycontentlife.blogspot.com via Carla on Pinterest

I loved the vintage zinc lids so I found some on ebay that were really affordable. I think I got a lot of 12 old lids for about $6, which is worth it to me to get a much cooler finished product.  I've also seen people spray paint the lids and rings they have on hand a bright, fun color which is really cute, too, if you don't want to bother tracking down the old zinc lids.  Instead of using hot glue to secure the pump in place as the tutorial suggests, I bought a tube of waterproof tub and tile caulk.  I LOVE the way they turned out!  THEN I started seeing this recipe for making your own liquid hand soap out of a bar of "fancy soap" {Mrs. Meyers is fancy to me.  Whatever.}  all over Pinterest.

Source: familyoffarmers.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

This I desperately wanted to try as well.  And so I did.  I was too cheap to pay shipping for the Mrs. Meyers bar soap {it would have been  like $20 for two bars of soap -- dumb} so I bought Dr Bronner's Peppermint soap at Target.  Those are smaller bars so you need to get two for the recipe, but it smells all Christmas-y and fun.  Later I got some Mrs. Myers, basil soap, too when they had a cyber-monday special with free shipping.  That smells delightful, too.  And then I thought, "This would make a really cute gift for {some un-named people on my Christmas list}."  I mean, I had twelve zinc lids after all.  I'm thinking you could just give the cute soap dispenser full of your homemade soap with a little tag that says, "Wishing you a holiday full of Peace, Joy, & Hope SOAP!"  But if you really like someone you could also give them a set of cute dishcloths or handtowels. I already had the hand towels in my bathroom so I made this cute little printable sign to frame and set on the counter next to it.  {We sometimes need a reminder around these parts . . }

That would be a cute little addition to your soapy gift as well.  I couldn't decide what color I liked so I made several options:

You can download these images by clicking on the image to make it full size then right clicking and saving to your computer.  Just print it and pop it in a 5x7 dollar-store frame and you're good to go. I chose the burlap option because it matches my butterfly specimen art that hangs in there, too.  I've also made a tag you can use on your soap dispensers.  Just download the pdf file below and print onto cardstock.
Peace, Joy & Soap
Happy Holidays everyone!