So many new stuff & things.....

Summer is slipping away.....

Who stole my Summer?  I'd like it back...it is either too hot to do much outside or it is raining.  I want to be outside to enjoy the Summer days before it is too late!!  But instead I've been stuck inside.  Don't get me wrong it has been nice and I've got a bunch done, but we are all a bit stir crazy.

Pictures are easier to describe my last couple of weeks....

 Here is a second batch of Jewelweed Tea brewing on our Frigidaire Custom Imperial Flair gem from the late '60's.

Dried Calendula flowers from our garden.  I'm plucking the bright yellow petals off to infuse in some oil.

And here is the jar of oil that I'll let sit for a bit and I'll shake every time I walk past.

Two different batches of soap...the same but different.  Each is made with exactly the same ingredients and the same recipe, just used different style methods.

All of my shaved 'bits' for my latest batch of Bits & Bobs soap

Just time for a few pictures

Oh shame on me...

I have neglected you blog!  I'm sorry please don't take it personally, I've been super busy!!!

I recently had TWO patterns on Ravelry's 'HOT RIGHT NOW' tab...yep, two!  I was freakin out with excitement....(perhaps you have to be a knitter to totally understand the joy).  I attached a snap of the screen shot just to prove it...not that I was thinking you had any doubts.

I was #5 and #8...out of 250,564!!!  

AND...I've been making SOAP!

I had two orders for Baby Showers and have been putting the finishing touches on the batches, labels, etc and making a bunch of other batches.....pictures always tell a better story than me trying to describe them...plus who doesn't like pictures of soap???

 Rose Clay & Charcoal (updated version)

Green Tea & Nettle (on left) Alkanet Root infused oil & Rose Clay (on right)

 Green Tea & Nettle 

Close up of Alkanet Root infused soap embedded in Nettle before the last pour

And the finished soap.... used alkanet root infused oil embeds in Nettle..yellow is turmeric infused oil

 

Soap patiently curing.....4-6 weeks 

I love all of the colors...all natural, nothing artificial, synthetic, dyes or otherwise harmful in anyway.  I think most of the colorants I used you could probably eat!  Most..not all, but please don't munch on the soap. 

Natural Colorants in Soap -- and a CONTEST!

It was a bit hectic and I'm not sure I'd recommend it or even attempt it again, but I made four batches of soap at once.  My husband was kind enough to watch the kids while I worked in the kitchen.  I thought it would be about the same amount of time as one batch, but no ...much longer! (duh, of course it was...what was I thinking?)  It was worth it since I was doing embeds and not exactly sure how much soap mixture I needed per mold (because of the size of embeds) so I was able to use the extra mixture from three batches to make a fourth.  I simply swirled the left over paprika infused soap, indigo infused soap and sea kelp together.

 Here are the four bars waiting patiently to be cut.  

And here they are cut.......

Red Wine & Chocolate at Sunset

(the brown balls are made with red wine, I coated them in cocoa powder and embedded 

these balls in a paprika infused soap base)

Tomato & Sea Kelp --

Misbehaving Stripes

(made with tomato soap embedded in naturally colored  Indigo soap base)

'The yet to be named soap'

(a mixture of Sea Kelp, Paprika infused & Indigo Soap -- swirled)

As a matter of fact, I think I may do a little contest.  Leave a comment under this blog post for your chance to win a small gift from me.  Please tell me what you think I should name the above soap ('The yet to be named soap')....do this by February 24, 2013.  I will use a random number generator to chose the lucky winner for the small gift and will then read all of the comments and pick my favorite for the name of the soap.   Also please include your contact information so I can email the lucky winner.  Thanks and GOOD LUCK!!!

(one entry per person please!)

Shaken not Stirred...

I've been thinking and experimenting with the hopes of getting a reddish color naturally in soap.  It has been my quest for a few days and wahwahwah....not a chance with what I've tried or how I tried it.

First was just a total jump right in approach with boiling some red wine to remove the alcohol and then freezing it to eliminate the volcano effect.  I mixed the red wine ice cubes with the lye with no extra water.  It smelled horrible and turned a dark maroon brown color....looked kind of yuck.  I swirled this raw soap mixture in the mold with another batch colored with Rose Clay...calling it Wine & Roses Soap.  The red wine soap turned brown after a gel.  Days after being cut it still looks the same...no color change.  Still a brown.  It isn't an ugly brown color, just brown.  No smell remains...purely unscented.

Wine & Roses Soap

After this batch, achieving a red color was still on my mind.  I wanted to try two more approaches.  The second was still red wine, but I was going to add it to the batch by the 50/50 method.  And my third attempt was to use tomato paste.  I added the paste after a light trace directly to the batch.  

Here is a picture of the soap in the mold...the large one is the tomato paste and the smaller one being red wine.

And here they are after a gel and unmolded 24 hours later.  The red wine is still brown but not as dark as attempt number one (with it being ice cubes) and the tomato paste is a nice pale orange color.

I decided to make soap balls with the red wine 50/50 soap (second attempt) and have some soybean oil infusing with paprika for a bright orange base to toss the light brown balls into.  I'll shake the soybean oil everyday for about a week to get a nice dark color.

Here is the making of the red wine soap balls....totally reminds me of peanut butter balls at Christmas time.  As a matter of fact the 50/50 red wine soap looks about the same in color to a batch of peanut butter balls.

First Soaps for 2013

So I thought I'd try red wine in soap to see what type of results I'd get.  I expected red or mauve but I got brown.  That is okay since I swirled  it with some rose clay for what I'm calling Wine & Roses Soap.  Looks pretty cool.  I took some leftover spiced wine from Christmas (it was kind of gross...so no worries on the waste and not actually drinking it) boiled it for a few minutes to remove the alcohol then put it in the freezer.  I really didn't want to experience a volcano with the sugar/alcohol and lye.  I think next time I'll try the 50/50 wine/water method to see if I can keep the red color. 

Wine & Roses Soap

I then decided to do something with all of my leftover soap shavings I had sitting in a bowl...... that I'm so surprised my cat never knocked over.  I grabbed some Eucalyptus infused oil for the base and dumped in all of the shavings....gave it a good mix and then tossed in the remaining orange balls I had.  I think it looks pretty awesome....maybe one of my favorites.  It smells sooooo good too!  I just love all of the colors and the fact that I used scrapes that otherwise I'd have no clue what to do with.

Here it is in the mold

Bits & Bobs Soap

I'm in love with Orange Balls

Iced Soy Latte

The inspiration photo.....

In the mold...made with Soy Milk (1/2 water, 1/2 soy milk pour method), Sunflower Oil with a blend of others, cocoa, cinnamon and COFFEE!

Uncut loaf

First cut

The stack...+ my messy work space in the background :(

Lesson learned...more 'ICE' embeds in the next batch

Oops...Orange Blueberries

 I wanted to do an embed soap with some chocolate honey oatmeal scraps I had sitting around.  I contemplated making a swirl mixture with curry powder for some color but instead I went with a Naked Blueberry juice.  It turned orange!  HAHAHA  It still turned out the same way in my mind, but was a bit unexpected.  I think maybe if I used frozen blueberry juice it may have stayed its true color (who knows!)

The soap in the mold

The block ready to be cut...I like the swirls on the side!

 The soap...I don't know what to name it...any ideas?