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?