Sunday, November 30, 2008

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)

Saturday, November 29, 2008

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.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

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.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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.

Monday, November 24, 2008

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.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

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.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

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.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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.

Monday, November 10, 2008

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.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

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.