soap dish

I really don't like liquid soap.  The pump bottles it comes in are wasteful, it's often full of yucky chemicals, and I prefer rolling something around in my hands rather than having a little plastic bird beak regurgitate suds into my palm.  Plus, it's so maddening when they clog and then squirt unpredictable arcs out beyond the sink and into the room.  

Bars of soap are the best!  Unless they get soggy... then they're no good at all.  And soap dishes pooled  with goopy soap sludge are really unappealing, too.  And it's no good having a soap dish that's too slippery, either... You need something with stability and traction, excellent drainage, and breathe-a-bility.  Little wooden soap dishes with drainage slats look nice and work well, and then I'd like to introduce another kind of soap dish I'm finding to be good... all you need is a pretty bowl and several rocks.  There's only one rule:  make sure the rocks are bigger than the drain hole.  Prior to this set-up, I had my bowl filled with smaller rocks.  I loved the way they looked, but after a couple months, I had to ask poor Daniel to take apart the pipes under the sink to get out all the little rocks that had made their way down the drain.

I especially like this bar of soap - a gift from one of my watercolor students (who isn't really a 'student' at all, but a very accomplished painter).  It looks like a lovely time-worn piece of marble, and I especially like it with the rocks!