For The Love of Suds GIVE AWAY!!

Meet my good friend Lorie! 

She makes the best soaps money can buy!

She has graciously offered to do a giveaway for my blog!

You can visit her website 

Here

Lorie began making her own household products because she did not like the harsh chemicals in most manufacturer products. She made her own dish detergents, laundry detergents and most everything else.

 She began making soaps for her own family and gave a few away as gifts.

 Everyone loved them so much they kept wanting her to make more.

 So, her business was born.

Here are some of her newest products made just for the gardener...

 bug spray, body scrub, lotion stick (for dry heels, hands, elbows), 


a loofa soap(great for feet) 


and a bar of gardners soap.  

Lorie has really done her homework on these products. 

She uses all natural ingredients in everything she makes.

I just love this photo! 

Wouldn't you love to have a bar of soap 

like this to cut off of at your house?

She even makes her own Lip Balms...

and scrubs...

Okay now for the giveaway...
Perfect for Campers!


1 Rover Soap
(great for campers and their pup. Keeps the bugs away)
1 Shampoo Bar
(perfect for campers, no bottles to spill)
and 
2 Lip Balms
(great for anyone)


Here's how to Enter...
First become a follower of this blog if you aren't already.
 Click on "Join This Site" and follow the promptings.
Second...
Leave a comment below. 
That's all it takes.


Good Luck!!

Be sure and like  "For The Love of Suds"  on Facebook!

Give away ends Sunday @ Midnight

Our Camping Story...

Our stories start off very differently.

I grew up camping with my family and we had such fun. I loved those memories so much that I wanted my kids to have those same kind of wonderful memories.

My husband, on the other hand, never really experienced our kind of camping as a family.

His experience was more of the backyard tent camping with his buddies and so-called "camping" with the military...not so many wonderful memories.
To be perfectly honest, it took some salesmanship on my part to get him to even consider going camping with our kids.

Our first camping experience as a family began with us borrowing my mom's "Minnie Winnie" which looked just like this one...
tiny, but fun.

We had so much fun in that little camper.

Then she later upgraded to one like this...

Even more fun!

After venturing out in mom's campers and enjoying some really good experiences, 
my husband was ready for us to make our first camper purchase.

The first camper was a Viking pop-up.

(Please forgive the horrible photo. It is the only one we have of that camper)


After realizing that I am not a pop-up kind of gal, we moved on up to a Hybrid camper. 
 It looked just like this one.

I found that in order for me to have fun too, I really needed to have a kitchen and bathroom...plus, we have 3 girls...'nuff said. 
We loved this camper, but very quickly realized that we wanted and needed more space to fully enjoy the camping experience.


We traded for that camper within 6 months to this one..

I loved this camper and we kept it for 3 years. It was perfect when the kids were younger because of the bunk beds and pack-n-play for the all the "stuff".




Once again and as the kids grew, we decided we needed more living space. Instead of bunk bed space, we knew what we really wanted and needed, so we traded for this camper...

I love this camper! 
It meets all of our needs and most of our wants.


So there you have it, our camping story. 
It's not super exciting but it's ours!


I thank God for the opportunity to have such a fun hobby!

Full Timers and Forums

A few weeks ago, I was searching the internet for other camping blogs. I found a few abandoned ones. It feels so lonely when you go to visit a blog and you realize it hasn't been updated in 2 years...
kind of like a ghost town. 

(image by Adventuresonly.com)
While searching through those sad blogs I discovered something really cool, "Camping Forums".
For those of you who don't understand "forums" here is a very basic description...
It is an interactive website that you can post comments and questions
 to others about a decided topic.  You register to become a member in order to be able to post or comment. 


Here is the first one that I found...

RV Dreamers

I was very surprised to see that they are focused on Full Time campers. I knew there where a few out there but I had no idea how many!

Then, after searching a little more I found this site...
Irv2 
 These sites are full of useful information and some really nice people.

We will never be a full time camper (I love my home too much), but we do plan to take some long trips when our kids are grown and out on their own. 
These forums are great resources, even if you are just a week-end warrior like us.

We Are Over Run By Cicada Bugs

These have to be the ugliest bugs on the planet and they are all over my yard!

They are call the the Periodical Cicada and they emerge from the ground once every 17 years.


They have taken over my flower gardens and left their nasty shells all over my plants and driveway!
(here is what their shells look like)

You can learn more about them here...
National Geographic Webpage


I remember hiking to Abram Falls in the Smokey Mountains years ago and hearing a very loud sound. We stopped to ask a park ranger and he told us it was Cicadas. I didn't see any that day, just heard them. They can be heard up to mile away.


 So if you are camping this year and 
see or hear these bugs, there is no need to worry. 
They are harmless, 
just ugly and loud.