Gillian DeConto, right, receiving her Certification in Burlington, Vermont, April, 2008, Marie Gale, president (Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild) on the left.

One look at her wildly-coloured hair, funky clothes and loud rock and roll blasting from her "Bubble Wagon" as it thumps down the street and you might not think of Gillian DeConto as your typical, "Little House on the Prairie" pioneer gal. But as Gillian herself would say, she doesn't give a (likely homegrown) fig what you think. Living way up in the middle of British Columbia on a little bitty ranch known as - oddly enough - the Little Bitty Ranch, a gal's gotta know how to take care of herself. And this fun-loving and funky mama can tan a hide, milk a goat, hunt and fish, grow her own veggies, can and preserve enough food to survive the apocalypse, bake better pies than your grandma, knit, sew, tool leather and even birth a lamb - and have a blast doing it all.

But more than anything else, Gillian makes a mean bar of soap.

Gillian DeConto is the only Certified Soapmaker in all of British Columbia, and only one of two in the entire nation of Canada. She knows soap, she loves soap, she lives and breathes soap - she even keeps a favourite bar or two on her desk to feel and smell. And no, she has not sought psychiatric help for this.

All kidding aside, Gillian takes her soap seriously. She considers herself more  than a soapmaker; she's a soap artist - a talent she perfected after stumbling into a homemade soapmaking session a decade ago and walking out with a new passion. She loves the smells, the textures and the creative high of combining essential oils and natural ingredients to make beautiful, hand-crafted soaps so yummy and delicious you want to (but really shouldn't) eat them. And she continues to push the soap envelope with new scents, textures, colours and design, along with body products including lip balm, lotions, bath soaks and a new, not-yet-released line of premium products made with Dead Sea Products.

In addition to her soap empire, Gillian shares the Little Bitty Ranch with one husband, four kids and a menagerie of sheep, goats, pigs, turkeys, ducks, chickens, rabbits, dogs and a cat.

All of whom are very clean and smell really, really good.