Lip Balm

I added Lip Balms to the store last night and changed the appearance to reflect upcoming Valentines day. I will be adding the lip balms to Etsy and to Shop Handmade. I used some of my yellow organic Bee's wax, Shea butter, sunflower oil, sweet almond oil, and vitamin E. I will have a variety of flavors to choose from.

Apple Candy, Black Cherry, Bramble berry, Blue Berry Delight, Bubble Gum, Red Licorice, Jolly Rancher, Wild Chery

I Also believe I have perfected my organic foaming facial wash and my foaming antibacterial Hand wash. Both are liquid soaps using potassium hydroxide to produce the liquid soap. I will be offering both of these along with a choice of lotion or creame , lip balm choice and a large bar of soap in my Valentines gift box. I am starting the second phase of the soap so I should have pics of that soon. I hope I am out of my soap rut.

I wanted to thank Anne-Marie for her post of late. They have really been inspiring. I have decided to use the vision board here at home. I may take it also to work with me (They are understand I am quirky). Just the idea of it motivated me some.

I think the holidays for the soap business can be difficult. That is the time you really want to spend with your family and just wind down. Its also for some reason the most emotionally stressful. It is also the most opportune time to take advantage of sales. I didn't prepare this Christmas but I seen all the wonderful soaps and such with all the holiday scents and themes. It all looked so wonderful. I find that most soap makers are artist and that makes for some really fabulous soaps with very unique looks and smells. Every one of you inspire me. I Hope the new year is good to us all.

Very Funny dog

The Best Holiday Fruit Cake Every

Fruit cake recipe

1 cup of water
1 cup of honey
4 large eggs
3 cups flour
2 cups of dried fruits
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
lemon juice
nuts
1 gallon whiskey

Sample whiskey to check for quality.
take a large bowl.
check the whiskey again to be sure it is what you want, checking it twice makes a difference for this recipe.

pour one level cup and drink.
Repeat.
Turn on the electric mixer. beat 1 cup butter.
in a large fluffy bowl.
Add 1 teaspoon sugar and beat again.
Make sure the whiskey is still O.K.
Cry another cup. Turn off mixer.
Break 2 legs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.
Mix on the turner.
If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaters, pry it loose with a drewscriver.
This is Important!!! Sample the whiskey to check for tonsisticity.
Next, sift 2 cups of salt. Or something, who cares, you know what I mean.
Next, Check the whiskey again.
Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or whatever.
What ever you can find, throw it in.
I sweep the floor and add.
Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees.
Dont forget to beat off the turner.
Throw the bowl out the window.
Check the whiskey again.
At this point rename the recipe.... Fruit cake surprise!
Go to bed, If you can find it.
Who the hell likes fruitcake anyway?


Author Unknown ~ I can imagine that you could substitute any alcohol according to your taste.


I have been in a soap rut lately. I have been keeping up with my winery soaps, but have been unable to think up anything else. I do have plans for Valentine gift set and hopefully will start that soon.

NANCY JUDD ~ RECYCLE RUNWAY

Today I met with a couple of wonderful ladies regarding a business I am thinking of opening (not soap). It just happened that one of the ladies really had a very unique business already. Could you imagine a business where people and companies commission you to design VERY UNIQUE clothing and then they never even keep this clothing. IMAGINE.

Her elegant couture garments can be seen on display at various airports throughout the country. Each exhibit is educational and explains our need to recycle. She also is involved in giving numerous presentations and workshops.

I wish I wasn't at the meeting for me, because not only is she a very fascinating woman that I would have loved to interview more than I did she is extremely down to earth and really a little to modest.

Don't believe me take a look at her web site and if your in a area that has one of her displays visit. RECYCLE RUNWAY - http://www.recyclerunway.com/index.htm

Hope she doesn't mind but I thought I would put a little eye candy on this blog to entice you to her site


Now looking at this dress would you say Hmm ... old shower curtian.... and aluminum cans.
Her mission statement says it all.

MISSION

Recycle Runway strives to change the way the world thinks about the environment through innovative educational programs and couture fashions made from trash. Elegant garments created from recycled materials are exhibited in high-traffic airports to grab travelers’ attention and inspire personal action. Community-based presentations and workshops launch young peoples' imaginations while providing information on how to conserve resources on a grassroots level. Recycle Runway partners with businesses, non-profits, governmental agencies, foundations and individuals who actively support environmental conservation.

DEDICATED TO SANTA

I am feeling real guilty because I haven't kept up with my posts, so I think I will dedicate this to Santa. My son (5 Years old) wrote his first letter by his self to Santa this year and I think he did well ( I did notice we need a little practice with the numbers). He did need some help with his spelling but overall I think his writing and reading is really coming along. If you click on the images they will open in a new window and are clearer looking for some reason (mom).

Really slow motion car crash

This Video was taken not far from my house. I lived in Wyoming a good portion on my life, but I am original from New Mexico. This says it all about what a little snow can do to New Mexico drivers.

The car that you watch flip over seems to be in slow mo but its not.

BEE'S WAX WINNER(S)

I decided to give out 4 oz of the Bee's wax 2 oz to Soap Kitten and 2 oz to Enchanted. Actually my son pulled the 2 names out of the hat together. It seemed like karma since they were the only ones to post to the blog. So SoapKitten and Enchanted I will contact you to get your mailing info.

BEE'S WAX GIVEAWAY

I decided to give away 2 oz of my freshly shredded Bee's Wax. All you have to do is comment to this blog, or add me to twitter each consists as an entry. The random winner will be announced Monday evening.

This Bee wax still smells of honey and would make a wonderful all natural lip balm.

BEE'S WAX IS COMPLETE AND BEAUTIFUL

I finished the filtering the Bee's wax and it turned out really bright yellow. Just beautiful. Those little guys are miracle workers. They build such sophisticated homes, take care of all the flowering plants, and providing us such wonderful products such as honey and Bee's wax. Bee's wax is used in numerous products such as:

accordions, archery wax, Balms, baking, basketry, batik, blacksmithing, bronze preservation, candles, candy making, chocolates, soap making and cosmetics to name a few.

I have one bee keeper (Brad's Bees at http://bradsbees.com/) who I buy my wax from and then several small keepers that I trade my products for their wax. Every keeper I deal with does not use any antibiotics or steroids with any of their Bee's. This is important because whatever the bee's come into contact with is going to transmit to their honey and their wax. I love dealing with the local keepers because I know how healthy their bees are and how they render their wax.

I call my bee's wax organic for these reasons. No chemicals, no pesticides, no steroids or antibiotics, just pure organic Bee's wax.

The one thing I found very interesting is depending on what plants the bee's are pollinating also transmit to their honey and wax. Honey will taste differently depending on what pollen was used and the wax will be a different shade. I recently obtained some Bee's wax from brad's bees that was maroon. It is gorgeous. I think I will use it in lip balms with clear tubes.

Here is a picture of my different shades of bee's wax that I recieved from Brads bee's. The one on top is the maroon one that I am really thinking on how to use it (Really leaning towards lip balms).






I have recently rendered my own wax (stuff I receive straight from the hive from my friend bee keepers). It was a messy process but The wax turned out wonderful. A really bright yellow.

Here you can see the un-rendered raw wax. It still had quite a bit of honey in it. You can also see the wonderful wax candles that my friend gave me. I don't think I will ever use them they are just to wonderful to look at.


Here you can see the honey seeping out.







Here is all the wax melted in my large now wax dedicated pot.










Here is the final filtered wax. Its really lovely.
Some of the wax I will shred and offer for sale on www.ABodyNaturalSoap.com

With the wax shred you weigh it just like you would for the wax beads for you formulas.

Soap Saftey and Girls-Are-Meaner Soap Cut

Here is my Girls-Are-Meaner Wine Soap that I made last night. I had to do something different with this batch. With my first Girl-Are-Meaner Wine soap we decided it needed a little more spice. So on the second batch we added some Bay rum Fragrance which must have had some vanilla in it, because the soap turned a ugly tan. So on this batch here I countered the browning by using the room temperature process (as I call it). This is where I let the lye solution and the oils get down under a hundred degrees. Its kind of like making whipped soap, but not whipping it that much. This creates a light soap, so that even when you add color its more of a pastel color than anything else. This process is very time consuming because you have to use a mixer to continuously whip the product so that the heat doesn't brown the soap. I was afraid that this batch would not harden so I added a little salt. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out although I think that I didn't need to add the salt. I finished this batch last night at 9:00 pm and removed it from the mold by 4:30 am. That is pretty quick and I am going to contribute it to the salt.

Last night while I was mixing the soap (Using the mixer, not the stick blender) I noticed little flecks of raw soap would every once in awhile fly out of the pot. Well that should have been my clue to stop and put on my safety goggles. I didn't and a small bit of soap got into my eye. I have to say that I hesitated because I didn't want to leave the soap but the pain started and so I immediately began flushing my eye. My eye feels a little uncomfortable but is fine, thank goodness. The moral of the story is that I became careless and did not put on my normal safety gear. I was feeling inspired and wanted to dive right in. Well I learned a valuable lesson, no matter how experienced you are (or inspired) with your craft, Safety should come first.

It would have taken me less than 5 min to put on my long sleeve shirt, gloves and goggles and i did not do it. It could have been worse. Saving those 5 min. could have cost me a urgent care visit or worse an eye. I pledge to now to take my 5 min and don my safety gear.

HOW ABOUT YOU?

New Soap Added To Etsy

Today I spent a little time with my new Camera. Oh it makes taking pictures so easy.
I added a few items to Etsy also. I plan on adding them to the web site soon.




















In The Pink Citrus (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18004911)
















Himalayan Sea Salt Spa Bar (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18008966)













Lavender Scrub (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18024594)

Hope Everyone Had a Really Great Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I had a really nice one with my Little Man, My Sweetie, and my little brother (Although he's not that little). Christmas also came early for most of us too. My brother stayed home with my son while my sweetie and I went black Friday shopping. We got some great deals on camera's. We got home and gave my brother one right away. He really seemed to be happy. Now I wish we had picked up 5 more. They are really great camera's. In fact I was actually about ready to take it back when I seen the great quality pic's it took.

My sweetie decided to take me shopping today again. To my surprise it was to get a new camera. I guess he seen how much I liked the one we bought my brother.

Ohh I love this little camera. So much better than my old one. Right out of the box I took a picture of my soda can and it was so vibrant and clear. The other pics are of the reflections in a puddle of water in a parking lot. It was starting to get dark and that made me even more impressed. I guess 12 MP can do that. At this point I would recommed the kodak Easy Share Camera Z1285 to anyone. I will spend all tomorrow taking pictures of my soap and updating my site.

Another wonderful thing happened I recieved my first Etsy customer. She purchased 4 of my Blue Draccar soaps. THANK YOU whiteweberjm for being my Number one Customer.

Gassner Custom soaps is having a Give away

Woo Hoo Take a look at the loot over at Gassner Custom Soap Blog. It really is a good one.

Cut into the Blue Lagoon

I feel a little better about my soap now. But not that much though, because the waves are missing (I guess its the calm blue lagoon). I really expected the center to be a bit more consistent like it was with my Strawberry cream soap. Oh well can't win them all. The soap is still pretty wet. I added the amount of water I would for a regular batch and then at trace I added in the oat milk. I should have subtracted the water. It will take this soap a bit longer to cure. I think this is the perfect candidate for my Fan experiment. I will weigh each bar and half I will leave to dry normally and the other half I will put in front of a large fan. I will weigh them each day and see what difference there might be.

THE BLUE LAGOON

Ok I took my boy's eczema soap out of the mold today. It is still to soft to cut so I am not sure how the insides are going to look but I am a little confused at the overall look. It is not quite all that I was going for. I really wanted a ocean kind of look but the waves seem to have disappeared and now I am not sure if it can be the blue lagoon. It smells real good. Since this is for a boy not quite yet a teenager I went with the Drakkar scent from Brambleberry, but added some almond to tone down the mature scent. It turned out great. Its kind of like a preteen cologne scent now.

I just hope the soap redeams itself once its cut. Stay tuned.

I have also added My Strawberry Days Cream soap to my Store.

Both of these soaps are great for extremely dry, itchy skin. Both were made specially for friends that had eczema. They are light on lather creamy on the skin. Neither will strip your skin but will moisturize and sooth. The most active ingredients are Cocoa butter, Shea butter, and Oat Milk.

Finaly out of my slump and Having a sale

I have updated my shop online so it looks more in line with the holidays. Let me know how you like it. Also 10% off all sales from today till Black Friday.

Remember if you have something in particular in mind I can work with you in making it. I specialize in making wine soaps. They are made with actual wine and scented and colored for that wine.


I feel like lately I have been in a slump. Not only with my soaps but also with my house. This weekend I decided to do some changes. I painted the far wall of the master bath using a lime washing technique. I really like how it turned out. It really lifted my spirits and it did not take long. Now the bathroom looks so much fresher.

I then decided to work on the lights for the workshop outside. We looked everywhere but could not find any lights that we liked with out spending a fortune. Then we seen these lights on sale at Lowes 2 for 19.99. I liked the glass but the rim of it looked like cheap plastic. While my baby was getting spray paint to touch up his rims I noticed this spray paint that looked like hammered cooper. Perfect. So I painted the lights and I think it turned out great. Felt like some of my creativity has came back.
Didn't the lights turn out really good. They now look like quality lights and I didn't have to spend a fortune.

Soap For Excema

I mentioned in the post before this one that a friend asked me to make soap for her niece. This soap was made specifically to be gentle for sensitive skin and excema. I scented it with my winnings from Bramble Berry. The scent is a lavender Strawberry mix and it really is fit for a little girl (or a big girl for that matter). Well the soap was a hit and now I have an order for a soap just like it, but for a boy. I am thinking Blueberry or something similar. Any Ideas?

Here are some pics (not very good of the soap)


I have determined that there is a fabulous artist in my midst. My Son. They are studying the letter C at school and so he was supposed to draw something beginning with the letter C and then tell a story about it. Well I let him do it on his own and what he did was amazing. He drew a cat on white paper and colored it and then he colored a yellow piece of construction paper and glued the cat on it. Well above what I sure the teacher required. He just finished testing and is real excited that he will be moving on to the 1st grade next year. He amazes me always.

Wow busy week - Fighting lazyness

So its been a week since I posted last. That is too long. I have been really busy making soap for the wineries. The one thing about soap making is that you have to stay 4 weeks ahead of possible orders. Since I am having to shrink rap the soaps for the Wineries I want the soaps to be as dry as possible, so I stole my sweeties huge fan. I am not sure if it helps and maybe with the new batch I make tonight I will run an experiment. I will weigh some of the slices and leave half in front of the fan, and when its time for wrapping I will weigh them again. I figure the ones in front of the fan should have lost more weight, but will see.


On another note, I made some soap for a friend that has a niece with excema. I really hope this helps. For people with excema its important for them to find what triggers it, and alot of times the triggers are chemical. Over the counter soaps have a lot of detergents in them and I found with my son that the chemicals in the grocery store soaps triggers his excema, among other things. To me its like a skin allergy. My son had excema and so does his dad. Some of his outbreaks were pretty bad and the doctor prescribed a cream. After a little research I found out that almost all the creams contained steriods and some even caused cancer. This was not what I wanted for my son, but I also didn't want his poor skin to crack and be so irratated and sometimes painfull. That is when I started makeing natural products for him such as soap and creams. So far He hasn't had an out break in over a year. The other thing I had to understand about his excema is not to over wash him. Over cleaning can strip the skin of healthy oils and cause skin to become irratated and therefore cause an out break.

For the excema soap I use minimal palm kernel oil and no coconut. I also use olive oil and canola, and grapeseed. I add in honey and oatmilk. I call it oatmilk because I am not sure what else to call it. It is the milky water that comes when you boil oatmill in water. After boiling the oatmeal in water (about 5 min) I strain it for the oatmilk.

Tonight I may post pics of the soap. This last week I seem to be having ambition problems. The lack of it anyways.

Christmas Card Box Tutorial

I wanted to share with everyone this wonderful Tutorial I found through MySweetThrees Blog. This is a wonderful tutorial on using up all the left over Christmas cards. I think these would made wonderful packaging for soap.

Follow the Link http://mysweetthree-kristin.blogspot.com/2008/11/make-something-monday.html

She also has a wonderful Blog.

Craft Fair

Wow the craft fair turned out really great. As usual I took my camera and did not take any pics of my table. I keep meaning to do this but I always forget.

This was my most favorite craft fair ever. It was the smallest as for number of vendors (and price) but the flow of people was steady all day. I sold the most at this fair than I ever have. The Bee Magic Cream was a hit ( I will be putting this in my shop real soon). I guess because winter can really dry your skin. I thought it was my last craft fair of the year, but I was invited to another this next weekend. This one was so great that I am really thinking about it.

I have got to say thank you to all the vendors and people of Los Alamos. It was also a very fun time. All of the vendors were so great. I came away with some of the best earings , necklace and the most cozy shawl ever. Ya, I spent money there too.

Craft Show Today

Well I have been really busy the last few days getting ready for this craft show. It will be the last of the year and I am glad for that. I figured I would post a few pics of the stuff I am taking before I jump in the shower.


Here is one of my San Juan Winery soaps ready to go to the craft fair.


This is my Bee Magic Cream. I love it. I use it at night to remove my make-up and as a cold cream and for keeping my feet and elbows nice and soft.Straglers

The pic above are soaps I am getting ready for the Black Mesa Winery. In the back ground you can see all the wonderful eggs I collected this morning. The Hens have been busy.


Here are some of the soap dishes I made for the show.




Here is how I make my tags. I print them out on mailing labels and then stick them to heavy scrap book paper (decorative card stock). I then use decorative scissors to cut them out.

Here is some of the soaps packaged and ready to go.

I WON!!!!

I Won the most fabulous items and all I had to do is go to one of my most favorite sites and comment on one of their posts.

If your a soaper even as a hobby then you know Bramble Berry and you know who the Soap Queen is. If your new to soaping and you want to find the best supplier on the net then head over to Bramble Berry other wise you should check out her Blog The Soap Queen and Teach soap for some really cool ideas and recipes. Anne Marie is (AKA The Soap Queen) is always coming up with cool ideas.

Here is what I won and I am so excited because Bramble Berry's stuff is always the highest quality. I started out soaping using her fragrances.