Simple

Ah, it's that time of year!  The time when things start rolling in around here, and it feels like it's all starting to hum like a finely tuned machine, and I get to sit back and look at it all and think about where it's all going and how else I'd like to manage it.  There's a lot of managing in this job.  Those of you who also homestead know that as well as I do.  And there are plenty of things I have decided about future management that I'll share at some time. 

But not today.

Today is a day for simple.  You know what's simple?  Soap.  Soap is oil and lye and water, and this and that, and BAM!  Pretty and usable things come out of it.  I love making soap.  It is relaxing and fun and kinda frustrating too.  It's a good mix that keeps me on my toes.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I make soap to sell at a local shop.  I did a spring "line", and now I'm up to summer, and it's been going like hotcakes.  I just finished up the summer soaps, and I thought I'd share them with you before they go out the door and are never seen again.  (Don't mind the little edges and such--I'm still cleaning up the bars.)

First up, Blueberry Verbena.  It's pretty straightforward, I just love the colors of it.  So pretty!

Then, Hibiscus.  I just really wanted to do PINK.

 

Golden Honeysuckle.

White Ginger and Amber.  I tried to make it look like beach glass and a beachball.  It worked pretty well.

I also did a few batches for my brother and his fiancée.  They are:

Citrus Basil

Sparkling Mojito (and I think I found a new way to make pretty inside swirls)

Stormy Seas

 

Pink Pepperberry.  Again with the whole pink thing. I think it must be this room. 

 

And for my husband?  Bay Rum.  And no pink.

 

 

Yep, that was pretty fun.  It was a whole flurry of soapmaking craziness for a few days.  Now the nicest part is that my sewing office smells nice, and there's quite a bit of beautiful soap floating around.

However, while I was working on this, I realized "Hey, I have goat milk", so yep, I'm going to do some goat milk soaps.  But I have decided to do it with essential oils and natural herbs and colorings.  Colored soap is beautiful, but there's a lot of beauty in the simple, herbal soaps too.  I might even say that I like them more (but don't tell the other soap--I wouldn't want it to feel bad). 

Today is the last day of school, and the day before Lilly's due date.  It will be a busy one, I think.  Enjoy your summer solstice, everyone.  Remember to keep it simple!

Where HAVE I Been????

Good question.

I've been cleaning, working, trying to put a dent in my humungo to-do list, filling orders for gift baskets, and trying to get my -ahem-stuff together.

Some days it works, some days it doesn't.

In the meantime, I am prepping for a craft fair next weekend, so there's soap all over the place again, as well as crafts and baskets and a whole lotta lotta.  See?


Cotton Candle Mats--yep, I made them!

Bath-to-go: a soap and a hand crocheted cotton washcloth

Finally figured out liquid hand soap.  WOOHOO!

Almond Poundcake soap.  I want to eat it, it smells SO good!

Candy Cane

Cranberry and Fig

So busy, busy, busy.   And next week is my birthday!  And my daughter's, too.  Did I never tell you that she was born 2 days after my birthday?  I did now!  So I haven't really had a birthday in 11 years.  But that's ok.

I will be back more often, I promise.  I just need the dust to settle a little bit more.

Take care!

When Bad FO's Happen to Good Soap

Without mentioning names, I'm going to say that there are some soap supply companies that I trust more than others.  This time, I took a chance on one I don't really trust, and it proved me right.

Exhibit 1:  The first time I've had a fragrance oil rice on me

EEEEWWWW!!!!

YUCKY!!!!

GA-ROSS!!!!

 

It's a tested recipe, tested temps, the whole nine.  I didn't miss a step, and it traced beautifully until I put the FO in.  It was the fragrance oil, plain and simple.

I have a big ol' pot of yuck right now.  I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.  Smells pretty, but it's totally unusable. 

UGH!!!

Well, Hello There!

I'm back!  It seems like I missed a ton of stuff while I was away, so I know I'm going to spend the next few days catching up on all of your news!  Yeay!  I'm looking forward to it.

I thought I'd fill you in on how the Harvest Festival went on Saturday, since I spent weeks prepping for it.  Overall, it went well.  The truth is, most people weren't really buying--anything.  Those we saw walk past us had food and nothing else.  However, those who did buy, came to us for the most part.  We did pretty well.  I am pleased.  In a crowd that wasn't really spending, surrounded by almost entirely commercial items, we were pretty good.  Want some pictures?  I know I do!

First, I will start with my helpers.  My son, my daughter, and my daughter's bestest bestest bestest friend.  They are like peas in a pod, those two.  My son was very helpful all day long.  My daughter and her friend were most helpful when they went away.  :)  He he.  10 year old girls.  What are you going to do? 

Seriously, though, they were troopers.  We got there at 7 in the morning to set up until 9.  We didn't take down until after 3.  It was a long day, and they were great.  My son wanted to do the money, and he did, for most of the day.  When he wasn't doing that, he was handing out business cards to everyone who went past.  He did a good job.

This is the produce table, which was the front table.  We didn't have much, as it's gotten really cold here at night, and everything is slowing down, but we did sell quite a bit.  We had tomatoes, peppers and butternut squash.  We also had our eggs, which went well. 

In front of that, we had our informational sign, which told all about what we do.  I thought it looked pretty good.

 

Then on one side, we had the rockstar of the day, Philip Johnny Bob.  I'd like to say we educated the town about Angora rabbits on Saturday.  Certainly a million people seemed to come by and scritch him and ooh and aah. 

 

He is certainly a handsome devil, and very personable.  Kids and adults alike wanted to see him.

He was part of a contest we held.  Not too much participation there, but that's ok.  Certainly he enjoyed all of the attention no matter what.  He was very tired at the end of the day.

 

On the other table, which was open to the crowd, we had the "cheater soaps"--melt and pour.  I made quite a few, thinking they were cheap, which they were, and they appealed to kids, so they would sell, and they really didn't.  You just can't tell what a crowd wants, right?

Above them were the garden soaps--super scrubby.  These went moderately well.

Overall, though, the ones that sold were the cold process-thank goodness.

I got lots of comments that they were too pretty to use, and we sold plenty. 

I also got 4 invitations to various craft fairs, so that's good.

Overall, a good day.  Our neighbors for the day were Pampered Chef, Avon, the local phone company, a booth with store items (like signs and clocks), a booth with a bunch of shirts (premade, not handmade), cheap toys (not handmade) and some other commercial items.  There were very few handmade items overall.  I wonder where all the crafters are?  Back when I was a kid, our school district used to hold a craft fair every year in November.  It was HUGE, and it was almost entirely handmade.  After I was first married, there was a similar school district that did the same.  Now if I go to a craft fair, it's full of people reselling mass-made crafts.  It's so sad.  As a people, we no longer seem to DO anything.  So, we are making our lives easier with all this technology for what?  To free up our time to watch TV?

I don't get it. 

Anyway, getting off my soapbox, man, was I tired when it was over!  I was still tired yesterday.  Today I go out into the garden to pick and then clean up, because things are done, and it needs a good cleaning.

I hope you all had a great weekend!  Happy Monday!

The Soap For the Festival--Part 2

Hello again!

I thought I'd show you how the Lime/Pineapple soap came out after cutting and curing a little while.  Here it is:

There's little soda ash on top I've got to get off, but not too bad.  The delineation in the colors came out really well, I forgot to take a picture.

To add to the pack, this is Lavender and Pearls.  It's a lavender soap, swirled and dropped with white, and then topped with some glitter for shine.

Then, because I like to stripe, too, I made a bar of Earl Grey Tea with Lemon.  This one smells fabulous, like Meyer Lemons and a hint of tea.  So nice!

This one was cool before being cut, too.  Wanna see?

 Neat-o

This nubbly one is Vanilla Sugar.  The sugar is on the top, which is why it's so bumply.

And last, but not least, a straight-up no fragrance, no color Castille bar.  'Cause you just never know.

And that's the line for the festival.  Now it's time to wrap them up and get them ready to go!

As Requested!

I hate to add to the already huge info-stream on cold process soapmaking, but you asked, and I like sharing.  So here is a little tutorial on how to make soap, Jocelyn-style.

Last year, I took a class to learn to make soap.  The ladies who taught the class were very nice, but they were really "by the book" and afraid to experiment.  Though I admit to a healthy dose of worry in my experimenting (the ingredients are not cheap, and I hate to ruin them), I have gotten a little brave and have learned how far I can push things.  So some of the things you see are not "by the book".  It's just how I do it.

1.  Get your stuff together.  Most of my stuff is from the dollar store.  I have spatulas, a thermometer, an old pot, and a whole bunch of dollar store pouring containers.

2.  With the recipe I make, the soap behaves better (ie; lets me play with it more) if I put everything together at a low temperature.  So, I do my lye solution first.

3.  For this, I need two pouring containers, lye, water, and the lye spatula.

The purple container will hold the lye, in solid form.  The clear container will hold the water.

4.  I pour out the correct amount of both lye and water into their respective containers, using my scale.

 5.  Then I put on my gloves, and pour the lye INTO the water.  Not the other way around.  I use my lye spatula to mix.

Ok, this stuff gets hot and is caustic and stinks a little.  Do I need to say don't breathe it in?  Or get it on you?  I didn't think so.  You are smart enough to know that. 

After it's mixed, I put this aside.  Lye, in this recipe with this ratio, tends to jump up to about 170 degrees.  I want it at 110 degrees.  So I put it away and ignore it and do whatever else needs to be done.

6.  In this case, the next thing I want to do is get my colors together.

Today I am doing a tropical lime/pineappple mix, with a turquoise squiggle down the middle.  Down the middle, you say?  Yes, that's because I'm going to divide my mold in two, so one half is pineapple, and one half is lime.  Never! you say.  That's impossible!  You're a crazy talker!

Well maybe.  I know it seems that way.  But I'm magical, so just go with me on this.  It works.

7.  After I get my colors together, I mix the powdered ones with a little oil.  The green is pre-mixed, so I do nothing.

This is the yellow/s mixed with oil, wisked with my dollar store mini-wisk.

 
And this is the blue, mixed in a fancy high-tech old dishwashing liquid bottle.  Why?  Because I need it to make a beautiful, straight line, and this bottle has the right tip.  You'll see...

8.  Then I've done that, so I prep my mold.

This mold is top-notch.  Made from a piece of discarded trim and a couple of slats from a pallet, I went all out on it's construction.  Woowee!  Only the best.

Seriously, though, pre-made molds are expensive.  And this one I made to make bars with, specifically with this recipe.  Works like a charm.

To prep it, I line it with waxed paper.  All the molds I use (even the brownie pan, the highest tech one of all) get lined with wax paper.  Works just fine and is inexpensive.

Here it is, all lined.  But didn't I say it would be a half and half soap?  I did!  So I need this:

OOHHH!  Fancy!  A piece of cardboard.  Wait and see...

9.  Ok, now it's time for the oils.  I take my solid and semi-solid oils, put them in the old pot and put them on the stove to melt over med-low.

10.  When they've melted, I put the liquid oils in with them and stir it all together.  Then I take its temperature

And here I see that it's around 100 degrees, which is good, but the lye is still too hot.  So I give it an icewater bath.

It sits in this bath until it reaches about 110 degrees, which makes me happy.

Could I just wait for the temperature to go down?  Yep.  The ladies who taught the class I took said we should just wait.  But that's SO boring, and I'm SO impatient.  So I don't.  It's made no difference to the soap.

11.  Once everyone's temp is where I like it, I put the lye INTO the oils slowly so it doesn't splash and I don't get too many air bubbles.



Sideways, as you can see.  Stupid blogger.



12.  Then I mix it with my spatula for a minute.

13.  Then I give up on that, because it's too slow, and go right for the stick blender, which is much more fun.

And I stick-blenderize it until it's in a very light trace.

14.  Then I pour half of it into the green, and the other half of it into the yellow.  And a tiny bit into the blue in the dish detergent bottle.

 And yes, I stick-blenderize that too, just to mix the color in.  I also now add the fragrance.  The lime to the green and the pineapple to the yellow.  Nothing is added to the blue, because it is so little soap it doesn't matter.  Plus, I don't want anything to speed up trace and make it gloppy.  It needs to be smooth as silk.

15.  Now time for the magic! 



This is a two handed pour.  After I righted the cardboard divider, I poured the yellow with my right hand and the green with my left at the same time, at the same rate.

16.  Magic!  Obviously, I could take a picture during pouring, but here it is with the divider,

Note the sloppy left hand pour.

And here it is after I carefully, but quickly ease the divider out.

Yeay!!!

17.  Now I squeeze out the blue line from the detergent bottle.

18.  Stick a chopstick in it,

and swirl!

 Whee!! 

And voila!!

19.  Then, when it's solidified a bit, I put a piece of cardboard on top of it, and wrap it up to insulate it.

It should be ready to cut tomorrow or the day after that. 

Yeay!

So that's how I do it.  I am very careful with my measurments of ingredients, but I do fly by the seat of my pants a little when it comes to other things, like temps and colorants.  It's that right side of the brain thing, you know!  And safety is important!  Gloves all the time, and goggles when you play with lye.  You only have one pair of eyes.  And if you do get anything on you, rinse in cold water for a long time.  White vinegar also can help neutralize the lye solution and the raw soap.  But be careful! 

If you need more information, I would recommend Soapqueen.com or watching anything to do with cp soap on YouTube.  Or just google it.  There is a ridiculous amount of information out there.  There are some good books, too, if you need them.  When I think of what they are, I'll be sure to mention them.

I hope that helped a bit!  Have fun soaping!

Edited to add:  The results of this soap can be found here