Today's Soap

Messy mold, but a good smelling soap. I poured it pretty thick so the top had to be textured again. I haven't thought of a name for the soap yet, but the scent is a fruity floral with notes of Bartlett pear, apricot, white peach, plum blossom, and mimosa. Under the mica colored top is a soap colored with rose kaolin clay. I'm hoping for a nice mauve color. We'll see once it's revealed and cut tomorrow.

Lemon Zen

This is one of the bars I make that I could just sniff and sniff. It's lemon with a wonderful twist. Other fragrance notes in this bar are honey, a light woodsiness, and sweet fresh tea. In the end, it turns out to be a refreshing scent that's fabulous in the shower!

Etsy Store - RedCrowArts

Let me tell you, Etsy is about the best thing in my mind. There is an abundance of talent in all areas of things that can be made by hand. Recently, I received 5 ceramic pendants from RedCrowArts.

Handformed Stoneware Pendant

Teardrop Pottery (I love the simplicity of this piece)

Stoneware Clay Tree of Life
Handformed Stoneware Clay Stoneware Clay Leaf Design

Aren't they fabulous? The last two are my favorites. When I get some jewelry making practice in, I plan on putting these beauties on some necklaces.

The Carrot.

The Carrot... This is Bug's favorite and most abused toy. She often shows off those pink jellybean toes when she's playing with it. She gets on her back and bunny kicks the crap out of it. It's a sturdy toy too. After years of abuse, it's still going strong. I think it has lost maybe 1 feather in its cap since she's has gotten it. If it's near and you start "spanking" her hiny (you know, the cat butt in the air thing), she'll move to The Carrot and rub her chin all over it. I tell you, this girl is not right!!

Ok, it didn't quite work out like I expected.

But, I'm still kind of pleased with the results. Below is a photo of the salt bar disaster cooking in a crockpot. It is a lot smoother than normal cold process soap would be. In fact, though I do rebatch cold process, it can be a bear.

Once I got it in the mold, the top roughened up a bit because this soap starts to harden quickly. This is my first salt bar rebatch and I had to glop it in the mold and spread it out like regular CP. Then, I smoothed it out and put my dividers in.

The finished soap. While she's not beautiful like her sister Amazonia below, she's still a great bar. I washed my hands with her and was very pleased with the lather and feel. I really love salt bars! They are such a nice change from regular soap.

I'm not sure what to name her though. Any ideas? She has a clean scent with soft floral notes. Very spa like. Spa Rocks? ;) I'll have to think about it. Ideas are appreciated.

Amazonia out of the mold. A lady of the jungle whose fragrance reminds one of exotic herbs, rainwater, and floral gardens. She will be ready for sale around February 10.


A little more about salt bars... You'll find that they are very hard, like rocks literally. People assume they are rough and exfoliating, but this is not the case if fine salt is used. Salt bars start becoming like smooth pebbles after the first wash. Depending upon how they are made, they can have a light, thin, creamy lather or a fabulously, bubbly lather that turns more creamy as you wash. If you haven't tried a salt bar (also called spa bars) you should. I highly recommend them!

OH HAI! MAH HUMANZ R BIT BUSY TONITE SO I THOT ID SNEAK IN AN POST FOTO OV BEAUTIFUL ME 4 ALL OV MAH FANZ!

IM VRY SERIOUS KAT, NOT MONSTR LIEK TEH FEMALE WUD MAK ME OUT 2 BE.

C? RITE NEXT 2 ME IN DIS FOTO IZ MAH BABY, EEGONE. I TAEK VRY GUD CARE OV MAH BABY, GIVIN HIM LUV AN BAFS. I ALSO LIEK 2 PUT HIM IN DA WINDOW WIF ME SO HE CAN ENJOY TEH VIEW.

VOTE 4 ME 4... WELL, 4 HEAD OV HAUSHOLD, DAT SOUNDZ GUD. IF U DO, I CUD POST FOTO OV MAH STRAWBERRY CHAWKLIT JELLYBEAN TOEZ. I KNOE HOW MUTCH MAH FANZ LUV TEH KITTEH TOEZ.

LUV,
BUG

A Different Kind of Soap.

Today, I have been totally into making soap. My favorite soaps to make and use are salt bars. These are fabulous bars of soap that contain some form of salt like sea salt. They make hard, luxurious, creamy lathering bars of soap. I also get the satisfaction of unmolding them much, much sooner than a regular cold process soap.

My first batch of salt bars turned out perfectly! Here she is, lying in her mold, waiting to be cut into perfect, gorgeously fragranced soaps. I can't wait to try this one out. Her name is Amazonia. She'll be ready for sale in about 4 weeks.


My next batch was a terrifying mess! But, I have managed to save her and I'm thrilled about it because this soap has a fabulous scent also. If you can't tell, I am a lover of fragrance...

The particular fragrance I used cause what is known as acceleration. This is where your soap (which is a liquid consistency before being molded) turns very hard while still in the pot. It makes it nearly impossible to get in the mold. This being a salt bar, it just became very crumbly.

Not a good thing... This soap will fall apart if I don't do somthing about it. So, I'm throwing it in the crockpot to cook (which is more of a hot process for soaping).

I'll cook this for a few hours to complete the saponification process and then put it in the mold. The color may change a bit, but not much. Since the process is sped up by the heat, I expect this soap to be ready in about 2 weeks. I'll post the finished soaps in my next blog update.

I love my kitty, but....

today I just wanted to strangle her!














Yes, she appears deceivingly adorable in this photo, but she's is a little devil.

This morning, Bug the Monster (as she will be called today) continuously meowed and walked all over the bed as I was trying to sleep in. *sigh*

I'd reach over and pet her, tried to put her under the covers, etc. That didn't help one bit. Now that I'm awake, she's probably back in the bedroom hogging the bed with my husband. I think she does it purposely to get me out of bed so she can take over.

What a sneaky little booger!

Well, since I'm up, I need to get prepared for my soap-making spree! I hope to have a lot on hand in the next month or so.


And here she is right before I left to soap... Yes, I believe she had an ulterior motive.

Un Jour Miserable

What a chilling, depressing day it has been. In the wee morning hours, my husband mumbled to me, "The power has gone out." That's when I noticed it was raining. I figured that I was warm enough under the covers and decided to wait out the power failure in the Land of Nod. If we had no power by daylight, I'd call the power company to report the outage.

Fast forward to 7 am. Rain is still pouring, though there was no thunder or lightening to be seen or heard. That's a rare thing in this area. Usually any rain is accompanied by flashes and booms. So, I extract myself from the luxury of my warm bed and look for the phone book. My eyes are hardly opened so it's very difficult to read the numbers in dawn's early light. Finally, I manage to decipher the power company's number and dial it on my cell phone. Outage is reported...

I call my grandmother who lives next door. She's on a different power source; her power runs down one road, while mine runs down another. I wanted to see if the outage was limited to my street. It wasn't. Her power was out too. Now, this is a lady who freezes at 80F and since it was around 20-25F outside I knew the cold would be getting to her.

I asked if she wanted to go with me to my other grandmother's house while I did some work over there. I wanted her to stay warm. She refused. I found this strange because she's very anti-cold. 70F weather has her wearing an overcoat to go out. So, I told her to put on extra clothes, add more blankets to the bed, and hide in it until the power returns. I still had to go out.

No shower... Ugh...

I throw on some jeans and a shirt, grab a change of clothes and head to my other grandmother's house. First thing I do there is shower and bask in the heat of the House with Electricity. I take care of some of the things I need to do, check my email, surf the Soap Dish forums, then call my grandmother at home. It's now noon.

Oh wait, let me backtrack a bit. When I was leaving my house, I realize the WHOLE AREA was without power. The two local post offices were both closed (so I was unable to mail my soap and it will now have to go out Tuesday) and at the highway, there were numerous power trucks working in the rain. Yay! Electricity and water!!

Anyway, by noon, the rain had stopped and power at home was restored. Still, the sky was grey and the air was chilly. We haven't had much real cold weather this year and I have to say that I'm spoiled. I think it will be like this for a few days. I'm even hearing rumors of snow.

The Etsy Soap Dish Team!

I'm happy to say that I am a proud member of the Soap Dish's Etsy Team - The Etsy Soap Dish. I know all of my disher sisters are thrilled as well!

A link to The Etsy Soap Dish blog is here. Check out the talent of my fellow dishers! They are fabulous!