One year (back in 2004, I think...) when my husband and I were looking for a creative and affordable Christmas gift idea, we decided to make soap together for our family and friends. At the time, we were young and carefree (but didn't know it), with no children and a dog named Sadie. When making our labels, we tongue-in-cheek came up with "Sadie's The Lady", figuring our gift recipients would get a chuckle. Fast forward almost a decade later, and we have a couple of little girls that Sadie the dog has patiently endured. Sadie, who is now over 10 years old, has had 150 batches of soap made with her name on them.

We've come a long way since that first batch, and so has the soap. It is still made with all natural vegetable ingredients (olive, coconut, palm, canola oils), and is gentle and moisturizing for your skin. The recipes I use create a nice lather and it is always fun to experiment with different scents and colors, especially around the holidays. Each 4 oz. bar is handcut (though the process has gotten smoother thanks to the Christmas gift I got from my brother and his wife last year that we nicknamed the "soap machete"!). The labels I use are printed on 100% recycled paper, and I try to reuse packing and shipping material as much as possible to be eco-friendly.

SInce that first Christmas learning how to make soap, we have happily settled in northern Maine and bought an old farmhouse that requires much of our free time renovating. Then we had two kids... and started a hops farm called Aroostook Hops, www.aroostookhops.com. We now have 4 acres of hops that we sell to homebrewers and breweries, mostly in the northeast. To blend these two interests together, I make a hops soap.

When I am out with my two little girls and I meet people who know of my soap, they say to one of my daughters, "Oh, and you must be Sadie!?". The kids are always confused why the dog gets so much credit... and people are always confused about why a soap would get named after a furry animal. I guess I just didn't check with the right marketing people when we came up with the name!