Holiday Projects

Way too much time has passed since my last blog post, although there have been many times I have wanted to sit down and share some news.  I guess there is always that nagging worry that my posts are not “good enough” to share, so I don’t. 

I do, however, have a few happy events to share, so I will worry less about the quality and just focus on sharing the news.

In the Summer, an opportunity presented itself to me to provide soap, wholesale, to a vintage resale store.  I had been looking for just such an opportunity and jumped at the chance.  Happily, I was one of two soapers chosen to partner with the store.  My soaps were well received and customers quickly developed a few favorites. 

In the months that have passed,  I have filled many orders and recently the owner of the store expressed their intention to have me as the sole provider of soaps for the store.  I am so happy about this … ecstatic!

Should you ever find yourself in the town of Boonton, New Jersey, you should look up this store:  Savannah Hope Vintage.  They sell a wonderfully eclectic mix of antique, vintage, recycled, repurposed and handmade gifts and home décor. Oh, and pick up a couple of my bars of soap too!

You can view their Facebook page here:  SavannahHopeVintage.

Currently, I am working on two projects simultaneously:  I am working on getting together a variety of goodies to sell at the South River Elementary School Holiday Bazaar.  I have done this every year since my kids were students in that school and thoroughly enjoy watching the kids painstakingly choose gifts for their loved ones.  It’s not often that kids get a fistful of Dollars to spend on whatever they choose without the watching eye of Mom or Dad.  If only Mom and Dad could see with what care these kids pick out the gifts, or the excitement in their faces at being able to freely shop, I am sure they would get tears in their eyes.  I usually sell more candles than anything else at this event and also have about twenty different scents from which to pick.  Watching the kids smell – very carefully – each and every scent (sometimes twice) before picking the one they think Mom, or Grandma will like always puts a grin on my face. Precious!  

The other project I am working on is putting together the orders for the candle fundraiser for the L’Anse Creuse High School Winter Guard.  This is also something I have done ever since my daughter was a member of the Winter Guard, even though now she is a sophomore in college.  I like being able to help out. 

And, as always, I have to go make more soap!

Hooray! I fixed it!

I have always enjoyed tinkering around with electrical things - putting things together and making minor repairs.  Maybe it's because I am naturally curious about how things work, or just blissfully unaware of the inherent dangers of electricity gone wrong.

Ever since I can remember I have taken apart plugs to rewire them if the cords frayed, installed new lighting in the ceiling, or other such minor repairs.  I remember getting quite fascinated once with a failed low voltage lamp post in the front yard that no longer worked.  I had to install a new electrical eye for the automatic on-off at dawn-dusk to function.  I can remember the look of disbelief when I asked the salesperson behind the counter of a lighting store for the necessary parts so that I could repair it.  Not only did I manage this by myself, but the lamp worked for many years after that.

Don't get me wrong though, I do have a healthy respect for the electricity that runs through the  breaker box...

Which is why, when one of the circuit breakers tripped then failed during a storm and refused to be reset I did not automatically jump at the task of repairing the circuit.

Because the offending circuit only affected only a small portion of the basement - and only half of my soap and candle kitchen - and because I like to hold on to my hard-earned cash, I was able to ignore the problem for a while.

Ok, so it was over a month and it was starting to wear on my nerves.

I had asked a couple of my (male/engineer) friends for advice and they assured me it was a simple task.  I set about to search the mighty internet for more information and some practical/video advice.  My first search yielded a not-so-informative lesson on what to do - but no video.  My second search found exactly what I was looking for:
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Replace-a-Circuit-Breaker-57208272

I have to say, it really was as easy as it looks in the video.  I took the necessary precautions, had my flashlight handy, and, but for the time it took me to drive to the home improvement store, it took me about 10 minutes total to fix the circuit.

I have power and light in my soap and candle kitchen once more.
But more importantly, I feel empowered.
This is a good thing.    

Creativity and New Designs

I am a lost soul in search of the magic package that will render my soaps irresistible to would be buyers...

Ok that was overly dramatic, but I am still not happy with my packaging.  I have struggled with my current logo - and I have to admit I want to move on to something else.  The logo is difficult to work with and I really want to have something that reflects more of the feeling of country cottage than an actual building.  Packaging is so important.  It is what makes somebody pick an item up to investigate and decide if they want to discover more about the product or not.  I already know that once my customers try my soap they love it.  But they have to love the packaging first!

Today I tried my hand at some shabby chic, grubby, distressed, vintage tags - whatever you want to call the style.  It's not easy for me.  I like order.  This is the polar opposite of orderly.

But, I kind of like it.

So, I have uploaded a picture of the tag I worked on today - if you want, you can let me know what you think.  I need feedback.

Allow me to get up on my soap box (pun intended) for a moment

I love making soap!

More importantly, I love making natural soap.  The old fashioned way, with lye.  There, I said it.  Lye!  Truth be told, you cannot make soap without lye, but unlike the old fashioned days when soap was made with wood ashes and rendered animal fat, we have calculators, and high quality scales that measure down to a single gram, that make sure that every bit of lye is used up, converting high quality oils into gentle, skin-friendly soap. My soaps are calculated with a 7% lye discount which simply means that after all the lye is used up making oils into soap there is 7% of high quality oils left in the bar of soap to condition your skin.

I take great pride in my soap and sometimes have difficulty convincing folks who are used to paying only a couple of bucks for a bar of soap at the grocery store to shell out a few more dollars for my natural soap.
I am told that they love the new "Dove" bar, after all, "it has 1/4 moisture lotion in it", and who can forget the ads that make us fear all the gunk left behind on our skin when we dare to use another's soap?

Hmmm...

Without getting too technical, lotions are waters, oils and emulsifiers.  Emulifiers are needed because oil and water do not want to mix all by themselves.  However, if you were to put lotion into a pot making soap, the emulsified lotion would simply break down into its parts (oil and water) and becomes part of the soap making process.  So, technically, any bar of soap could claim to have lotion added.  Even mine.

However, one has to wonder about the quality of that "lotion" Dove claims to add to their soap.  One of the main ingredients listed is Sodium Tallowate - that is a scientific way of saying saponified beef fat, or, rendered beef fat made into soap with lye!  Doesn't sound so yummy after all, does it?

Need I mention that my soap is made with high quality, food grade, vegan oils such as olive, coconut, soybean, palm, castor, avocado, jojoba, shea butter and mango butter?  All are selected for their unique properties in making a high quality bar of soap that is good for your skin.

Of course using the term soap for what is sold in the grocery stores is a misnomer - most commercial soaps are really what is called a syndet, or synthetic detergent.  The term soap is used loosely because it cleans.  Further, most commercial soaps remove the glycerin, a natural byproduct of soapmaking, and a natural humectant, found in their soap.  They then resell the glycerin for other uses, leaving behind an inferior bar of soap.

I hope this clears things up a bit.

When baking and soaping mix

How fun it is to have time to indulge in experimentations!

Today  I created a soap I have been planning for some time, but never had the opportunity to try out.

I  have yet to name this soap - either "Insomniac Soap" or "Mocha Java".  Either way, it is meant as a scrubbing kitchen soap - the coffee and coffee grounds help remove cooking odors from one's hands.  However, the delicious aroma of chocolate and coffee might send you back to the kitchen to make brownies or other delectable chocolate treats!

The soap recipe reads more like a baking recipe and here is why:  I started out with extra, extra strength brewed coffee and created a cocoa butter heavy recipe - that in itself will make the soap smell like chocolate.  Added to my recipe came a healthy heaping of cocoa powder, and another heaping of freshly ground coffee, mixed with ground cloves and ground cinnamon.  I topped this off with a fragrance that smells just like a cup of Mocha - really delicious!

The soap turned out to be a really deep, almost black brown.  It looks like the most decadent chocolate fudge brownie!  I will posts some pictures - hopefully by tomorrow.

New recipes are always exciting

Hmmm... Quite some time has passed since my last post, and while I had good intentions to keep my blog fresh, I see that once again time simply slips away.  Good intentions give way to either mad dashes of creativity or the need to fulfill other mundane, yet necessary, tasks such as cooking and cleaning.

This week I have taken some time off for myself.  Having recently cleaned and reorganized my soap and candle kitchen, and having taken careful stock of all the fragrances and essential oils I have, I am freshly motivated to finally put on my apron and make all the creations that have been rumbling around in my head.

Today I made a castille soap I had been thinking about making for a while:  A mild baby soap made with olive oil that has been infused with chamomile blossoms.  Chamomile has wonderful skin healing properties and is very mild - perfect for baby's tender skin!  The soap is currently curing - it already has a wonderful mild chamomile fragrance and a delicate yellow color.  I am excited to see how it turns out.

For those of you who are not quite into soap as I am, a castile soap traditionally is made with only olive oil.  The problem with this is that while the soap is very mild, it does not suds much, is very soft, and has a tendency to develop the "dreaded orange spots".  It's really only a cosmetic blemish, but I know that most people would not want to risk bathing their babies with an "orange spotted soap".  One of the ways to combat  a purely olive oil soap's deficiencies is to add coconut oil.  Coconut oil adds hardness and suds - but add too much and you can't call it "Castile" any more.

 Much time was spent agonizing over the correct balance of olive oil and coconut oil, when I stumbled upon the holy grail of soap calculators.  I have used various soap calculators in the past, checking results from one calculator to another to ensure my results were accurate.  This soap calculator provided me with instant feedback on the properties of my newly formulated recipe.  I am truly impressed!  I feel confident my new recipe will be wonderful!

Overcoming Inertia

Looking  back at my first post I see now the wisdom of my own words in that I probably would not have the time to spend blogging instead of making soap and candles for the busiest time of the year.  But, much time has passed since that busy time, and I had sunk into a level of inertia - I prefer to call it "contemplation".

It occurred to me that I had kind of fallen into a rut - same soaps, same candles, same look.  I wanted to create something new and different.

One of the things that I wanted to work on was the presentation of my product.  I want to create labels that are more interesting, yet not so fussy.  While searching the web for suitable backgrounds for my labels, it occurred to me that I was looking for something I already had in mind... and (duh!) I have an undergraduate degree in fine arts... I should create my own!

Out came my trusty art bin, still lovingly stocked with an assortment of artsy stuff but, most importantly, my watercolors.  I spent some time re-acquainting myself with the paints and my brushes, enjoying the play of color and lines and the flow of paint on the paper.  This in itself is really relaxing - everybody should try this.

It took me a while to muster the courage to finally "make the background" for my new Peppermint soap.  But the time had come - the soap had cured and was ready to go up on the website for sale.  I just needed to design the label.  

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed making the background!  Technology has come so far - having made my background, it was a snap scanning the picture and inserting it into my label background.  I remember how excruciating it was back in the "old days" - trying to take decent photos of one's work, then having to send the film off to be developed into slides for presentations.

I am inspired to create new labels for all my soaps.