Soap Kitchen Taking Shape

I am so excited that this is coming to an end. By "this", I am referring to my flooded basement and subsequent gutting and remodeling. The kitchen is the last big part. God really does have better ideas and better timing than I do.

I wanted to remodel our main kitchen but when the basement flooded and we realized we were going to have to really fix it, the main kitchen got to take a back seat, again. Fixing it involved completely gutting it down to the studs, jack hammering the floor to install french drains, re-framing, drywall, and new floors. At the beginning of this mess, I was so depressed. I did not want to spend all this money in the basement where nobody would really see it. It was right up there with the new HVAC equipment we had to purchase the prior year.

I honestly did get angry. I did not see how this could be a good thing. I cried out to God and He showed me how silly I was being. This was not life threatening. This was not sickness or disaster. This was a minor inconvenience. This was merely a small bump in the road. But God uses even the small bumps to teach us. He uses these inconveniences so that we leave ALL things to Him, not just the big stuff. Before the demolition had finished and the dust had cleared, we had realized this was a blessing.

The kitchen in the basement would make the remodel upstairs much more bareable. I have some annoying food intolerances so eating out frequently makes me really sick. It became obvious how crazy I had been to think I could go without food for the 4-6 months it would take to remodel the kitchen. God knows me better than I know myself and He amazingly and sometimes miraculously meets our needs.

When all is finished, this kitchen will make a wonderful soap kitchen. I will have storage for all my finished soaps and all my soapmaking supplies. It will also be a wonderful space for my guild to have sit-n-sews without burdening my husband and girls. My girls have finally decided they like sewing and this space is so wonderful for all of us. We all have room to sew and not get in each others way.

Isn't That Smurfy?

The blue jar is my latest Sugar Scrub. The bars to the right are my "Pretty Pretty Princess" soaps that are going to be fabulous because it is a previously tested recipe. Up front all wrapped and ready is one of my SWAP bars.

I'm feeling a little blue today. Not in a bad way but rather in a funny story kind of way. I had a friend some years ago that used to make M&P soaps and bath products. She used to make this sugar scrub that everyone raved about but I thought was a gloopy gloppy mess. It was a jar filled with sugar and assorted oils that never looked appealing to me. I never could quite figure out how to get oil AND sugar at the same time. Either I was scooping to the bottom only to be coated with oil, or I was skimming the top only to be completely void of any sugar. Who wants that mess in their shower?

My cousin told me that she was using this new body scrub and rattled off the ingredients. She was scrubbing herself with $14/bottle borax scented with lime. We were both horrified by this revelation and she vowed never to buy it again. The worst part is she was totally scammed. The lady in the store said proudly that they had switched to volcanic ash in their scrubs. What she meant was that they had switched to 20 Mule Team Borax.

I made some lotion the other day that smells great and works great. It has very few ingredients and only a few scary sounding chemicals. It just would not be acceptable to have mold growing in my lotion so I had to use a preservative. Sugar scrubs have a lot in common with lotion. Basically the same ingredients minus the large amount of water. There are recipes out there for emulsified sugar scrubs that would solve my goopy mess dilemma so I decided to give it a try. The recipe said that if I colored the sugar, I would have colored sugar scrub. This seemed like a neat idea.

I added a few drops to my cup of sugar. It didn't look like nearly enough buried amongst all the bright white crystals so I added a few more. I shook it all up and ta-da, turquoise sugar. So this morning I proceeded to add all the ingredients together and make my fabulous new sugar scrub. I just knew it was going to be great, despite the rather extreme color.

Sugar scrub finished and I was off to the shower for testing. I scooped up a small amount and scrubbed my face. It felt wonderful and turned to a sort of lotion by the end. Oh my skin was going to be so soft and indeed, even in the shower it felt soft. I rinsed and looked at my now blue hand. If my hand is blue, what must my face look like? In a panic, I leapt out of the shower flinging water all over the bathroom. Thankfully, my face was not blue or at least not really noticeably blue. I jumped back in the shower and decided I might as well be the same shade all over and scrubbed the rest of my body. I must admit, despite the blue tint, this sugar scrub is fabulous. I will have to make some more but leave out the food coloring. My hubbie suggested tinting it brown to give everyone the just been to the beach look. I wonder if that would work?

Eeeek! New Labels

I just had to share my new labels with everyone! They are perfect. This is a wedding gift for a friend. Fortunately, she had white towels on her registry. I really just wanted to give her soap but thought a basket might be better.

Shhh, little secret...Rena Soap the website is coming soon!!! Here's a preview...

Ramblings

This is the most insanely pretty cake I've ever seen. The image is from flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/ameadowlark/3178127811/ and the directions for the cake are here http://www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake

I read an email from a friend the other day. One of those passed from person to person, annoyingly un-edited emails that sometimes catch my attention. It was titled The Cake and perhaps you've already seen it. In summary, it talks about a mother and daughter and the daughter has had a very bad day. She goes on to complain about all the things that had gone wrong in her day. The mother replies well would you like some cake and proceeds to offer her the ingredients separately. Of course the daughter says yuck to each one. The mother then says well, all these things are awful by themselves but put together make a great cake just like God can take the seemingly awful events in our life and produce something great.

I got to thinking about God's providence. Who would think to take rain water, wood ash, and animal fat to make something as useful as soap? The rain water by itself is great but lye is extremely caustic and well, animal fat is just disgusting. God knew we needed to be clean to stay healthy and reduce the spread of illness. He provided us a cleaning product from a very unlikely source. Might I add a natural skin cleaning product that is still superior to anything man has tried to chemically engineer.

It is often in hindsight that we see God's glory and His perfect plan. It may be a delayed plane that puts a stranger in our path. It might be a sick day that kept us from work and certain death as in the case of 9/11.

I was really struggling one Saturday morning. The weight of all that was wrong in my life was resting uncomfortably on my shoulders. I got a call from a lady that wanted to donate some things to the Sewing Guild. I agreed to meet her that morning even though I really did not want to go. I wanted to crawl back in bed and hide from the world. As I drove to meet her, alone in my car, I yelled to God "Are you REALLY listening to me? Can you hear me?". I grumbled as I drove around the building several times trying to find her. Finally, I parked and just got out and walked yet another lap around the buildings until I finally saw a gently smiling older woman looking at me inquisitively. Immediately I knew that was the lady.

I apologized for being late and she said it was all right. We walked back to the gazebo where she had left the few bags. As we walked she asked "Are you a praying woman?". What an odd question from a total stranger but maybe not. My strong facade came crashing down around me and I told her all that was wrong at that moment. She pulled out a book The Power of a Praying Woman and said "God told me this morning to bring this to you." Then we stood in the middle of town and prayed. I went home in peace. God was listening and He heard me but I needed to wait on His timing. In the end, the result was nothing short of a miracle and all my worry was unnecessary.

If all the pieces in your life seem like a mess, maybe God is just making you a cake.

Black Eyed Susan Soap

I had read way back in the spring before I started this soaping adventure that black eyed susan's could be used to color soap. If you know me, you'll know I love daisies, black-eyed susans, and sunflowers so it's no surprise that I have an abundance of black eyed susans growing in the yard. I had forgotten this tidbit of information until I stumbled across it again flipping through Susan Miller Cavitch's book a Soapmaker's Companion . Tucked away in a drawer was a sample pack of dried calendula from Brambleberry and I instantly knew I needed to make some BE Susan Soap.

I used a basic recipe that called for quite a bit of cocoa butter which I love for it's richness and hardness that it gives to the final bar. I picked a handful of black eyed susans from the garden and commenced playing He loves me, He loves me not. Once I had all my petals I measured up some lye and water and tossed in the petals. Hmmm, nothing. Then suddenly it went from clear water to dark orange with wilted blooms scattered throughout. Yeah it was working.

I mixed up my oils while the petals marinated. My next hurdle was how to get the petals out of the lye. I rigged up a system only a man would be proud of that consisted of a funnel holding a coffee filter perched on a jar. I poured the lye into the funnel slowly and it worked like a charm...for about 15 seconds. Then the coffee filter became so congested with petals that everything just sat and the lye barely dripped out the bottom. Not to be out done by a coffee filter, I wiggled and jiggled the filter (while wearing gloves of course) until at last, the coffee filter gave way thus dumping all my petals back into the mixture. Rewind, take 2. Same set up, same process, same result. Isn't the definition of stupidity repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome?

At this point I threw caution to the wind and grabbed a colander from amongst my kitchen utensils. Hoping it was stainless and not some highly corrosive metal, I poured the lye through into my container. Thankfully, this attempt was successful. I stirred in my oils and poured it into my mold. I sprinkled my calendula blossoms on top to give a nod to the flowery origins of this bar and set it aside to cure.

I finally un-molded these this morning and am fairly happy with the results. As promised the calendula retained it's beautiful yellow color and the black eyed susan petals did dye my soap a warm yellow. I can't wait to try this one out as it smells wonderful. I chose Arabian Spice from Brambleberry for it's warm, spicy scent. It should be a good fall soap.

Pretty Packaging!

As I give my soaps to people, I am aware how overwhelming it is to remember which soap is for what purpose. Which ones work great for oily skin and which ones work great for dry skin. My mom is constantly calling now and describing the bar and trying to decide which bar is which. Which soap should be left as a kitchen soap and which can be used on delicate facial skin.

Truly they are all fabulous for all body parts but you might want not want to scrub your face with coffee grounds or use colorants and fragrance on a baby. So to solve this dilemma I have been working on packaging and labeling today. Being the girly girl that I am, I am all about pretty and pink.

I got a new tool today, actually two. I got a crimper which is way too much fun and I believe every sheet of paper in my house has been crimped today by either me or my girls. I also got a paper cutter to make nice straight strips to run through my crimper. I learned how to make these adorable little bags at Teach Soap . They are very simple and look like old fashioned candy bags. Since some of my soaps look like candy, they should work out quite well.

So I need some opinions...which wrapping do you like best? The neat little crimped strip or the candy bags?

Wrestling a Greased Pig

If anyone ever says "I'll sell you some coconut oil at a good price BUT it comes in a plastic bag", run. No matter the price, it's not a good deal. Silly me in my quest for coconut oil in increasingly larger quantities succumbed to the lure of a good price. I bought a 40 lbs box of organic coconut oil thinking it's no big deal if it comes in a plastic bag. So the box came a couple weeks ago and I dragged it into my dining room and there it sat until my small 7 lbs. bucket ran dry. Today was the day that the box must be dealt with as I was out of coconut oil.

I opened the box to find a pour spout on this giant bag of hardened coconut oil. Seriously, a pour spout? My helpful husband suggested I let it sit out in the sun and just pour it into the rubbermaid tote I'd purchased just for this purpose. I outlined my plan saying I'd just line the plastic tub with a garbage bag and scoop it in with my giant soaping spoon. I sliced open the plastic wrap coating my scissors in oil. I peeled back the top and realized our air conditioner works really well. The coconut oil was definitely in it's solid form. I scooped and chiseled until the rectangle was the right size to fit in the tub. Now came the tricky part, I had to pick up this now 35 lbs hunk of oil and deposit it in the tote. At this point my hands and arms up to my elbows were dripping with coconut oil. After all my body temperature is slightly above 76 degrees...the melting point. Exactly how I managed to get the hunk of oil into the tub, I'm not sure but it definitely involved some grunting and sliding on the oil I'd plopped on the floor. Mission accomplished.

My second mission after the coconut oil was to make a shampoo bar. I poked around the internet looking for a recipe and suggestions. The commonality amongst the recipes was a large percentage of castor oil; about 25%. I read somewhere else to skip the palm oil because it left residue. I added some jojoba to help with conditioning and also a wee bit of sunflower and apricot kernel oil just because I had it. I contemplated my scents and decided on some cucumber green grass from Snowdrift farms. I added some cucumber extract and papaya extract because it seemed like a good idea. Now to wait a couple weeks and see if my recipe was successful. At the moment, it's cooking in the oven. If anyone's willing to try one of these bars when it's ready, just let me know.