Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘In The Soap Shop’ Category


Some days we just need to relax and restore.

Today I have been working on the website, rewording, reworking and retagging. I have felt a tad bit frazzled lately. But today is a “get back to grass roots” day, at my own pace.

On these types of days it sometimes calls for doing something a bit extra for ourselves, which made me think about lavender.

Did you know that lavender has been used as long as history has been recorded as a soothing herb, one that might help with relaxation? It has also been used as an antiseptic, and as an essential oil to help the skin heal from certain conditions such as insect bites and mild burns.

The color lavender, I feel, is also relaxing. As a child, I belonged to a number of groups, such as Girl Scouts, and always loved the projects that we created in Vacation Bible school, the bowling league, and a few others, and whenever I was asked to put something together it normally ended up being lavender in color. My grandmother lived in a large older home, with a master bedroom painted in lavender. Oh, how I loved to spend time in that room, especially with that huge bay window.

I recently received handwritten cards from Alix of Casa Hice, and Anne-Marie of Soap and The Finer Things in Life (along with a special gift pac that I still need to tell you about). Beautiful lavender cards!

Read Full Post »

Hello…hello…hello!

I am so tired…drop dead tired.

First, the pic of the 3 soaps that you got to see still in their molds yesterday. How about those colors? Not just grandma’s goat milk soap any longer! Time for change…time for spring…lift up your chin for feels-like-something-new soap!

Before I tell you why I am tired, I have some catching up to do, some comments to respond to, blogs to read, so please do not think you are on hold, I’ll get there. The energy will return.

I did not sleep well last night. We got hot, threw open the window, it was snowing outside, so I have no idea why the stuffiness…but it happened. Then I heard the coyotes a couple of times. Wide eyed, but I knew Caleb (the LGD) would do his job when/if needed.

Yesterday I reported that I have met all but 3 of my business goals for the year. My personal goals are not doing as well. Today I woke up thinking I would target the most important goal. The goal is to clear off the exercise bike, and begin using it for its intended purpose, which includes putting the the small dumbells/weights back to work. Instead, we headed to the big city to get new peepers for me, a much, much overdue need.

Here is a pic of the famous (and dusty) exercise bike. It holds a throw blanket, my purse, a heating pad, the dumbells (small red ones on the seat), another throw blanket, and who knows what else. You can tell, it has not been in use for a while. I will get some sleep tonight, and tomorrow I will report to you that the exercise bike has gained a few more miles! Okay!

Here is the beast…


The story about my new peepers now…it has been 5 years. My glasses had seen their better days. I have 4 pairs of reading glasses, yes, 4 that I have been wearing for various reasons (driving, reading, television and computer screen). In fact, I have one pair on now because it is perfect for the computer screen. Today I discovered that my prescription has finally reached the 50 year old woman level! I now have less frame styles to chose from. I am not happy about it (but thank goodness I am not vain). I had these small rectangle (but rounded) frames chosen today, nope, not enough room for my prescription. Sad…sad…sad…but there is a reason for everything, and tonight, lo and behold, I can see again (a blessing). I can read the aspirin bottle, I can see the dirt on the floor, and I feel like I got brand new peepers today! I did.

I am tried from the trip to the city, and I am tired from the rush today, and also from not sleeping last night. I’ll catch back up!

Read Full Post »

Today was a day away from the shop and office that included running chores.

I did get new bars of soap on the curing rack after lunch. I always like to see the curing area fill back up. I am happy so far with the chunkier bars!

Storms are going to roll in. The wind was strong enough earlier that Bob had to turn the truck sideways so I could get the cab door shut.

Took a photo a short bit ago of the slowly darkening skies.

Read Full Post »

Had a busy day today!

The weather was beautiful, perfect. Started the day out with some fog. When the sun started coming over the ridge this morning, the fog turned orange and pink. It was fantastic.

I wish this photo had turned out better! I filled this mint green hutch today in a local shop. It really turned out great. You cannot see the raffia, special tags and other things that added the special touch to the packages. I tell the shops I will design the packaging to fit their store, however, I love it when I have a placement (like today’s) where I feel my design fits in like a charm.

This computer was on the fritz for most of the day today. I got it back online a 1/2 hour ago.

And I got back to soap production today. I am in the inventory process, restocking. Today was honey oatmeal and unscented goat milk soap.

The lotion shelves in my own shop are now empty. Lotion making is on the agenda for later this week. If you want to order lotion, however, please do so. I can have it ready in time for any shipment.

I feel good tonight. No back pain at all, so I am definitely on the mend. I have been active enough today to ward off stiffness.

Read Full Post »

Good Morning!

Yesterday was a busy day. We visited handfuls of shops, some with pretty interesting soap.

One $15.00 bar of soap really fascinated me. The shop manager told me that she tried the soap herself. She said you have to have a wide place to set the oblong-rounded soap or you constantly have it dropping to the tub floor. We had a good giggle over that discussion!

I can honestly say this, none of the big brand soaps that I picked up during my excursion matched up to my rustic goat milk soaps. They do not smell as good, and most importantly, they are definitely not the silky soaps that Annie’s Goat Hill Handcrafted Soaps are. I am not Crabtree & Evelyn, no doubt, but their goat milk soap holds no candle to mine!

In this economy, many of the local shops (in a 5 county area) are leery of adding products to their line. They are having difficulty selling what they have on hand. The walk-in customers, holding onto every penny, are extra concentrated with caution in our rural area. I am not sure if you are aware of this, but our area has been suffering from a lack of jobs (as the overall U.S. is), but we are also gradually losing 10,000 jobs out of one location. The story appeared on 60 Minutes a couple of weeks ago. I also wrote my own article on the topic in December.

I refuse to succumb to the economy, I am too happy to let that even begin to etch the surface. For all of us, no matter what our jobs are (mine is a soap and bath product maker, goat keeper), we will be on the upswing again, and when it happens, if we are smart enough to keep our feet on the ground, the roller coaster car is going to sweep us back up up first, right on front, and carry us to the top of the hill in front of those that missed the car the first time!

Today, after I go and visit the Country Home Crafts shop, in Hillsboro, Ohio, where I am gratefully moving products into this week, I will begin filling the curing racks in my own shop again. And the buzz in my head says, you may see a change in my own shop in the very new future. An exciting change!

I have a lot of blog reading and commenting to catch up on! I haven’t forgotten…just swamped, and still nursing a very achy back.

Have a wonderful Friday!

Read Full Post »

Well…here she is!

The Winter Storm Warning Soap turned out rather interesting.

The colors will continue to fade, but they will remain pretty, no doubt!

It sure does smell wonderful to me, but I cannot let the cat out of the bag just yet…lets see what happens on the curing rack for a few weeks. πŸ™‚

Read Full Post »

Now, my friends, are you looking at this soap and saying, “Yuck…what in the world is that?” So am I!

I headed into the shop today with a scent on my mind. I knew how I was going to obtain it, and I got it. It was one of those wake up at 2:00 A.M., with something in the head, that just would not go away until it is tried sort of things. I like it.

The color is near what I was shooting for. We will know more tomorrow when I cut the log.

What I truly like about batches like this one is, it isn’t quite what I sought after, but I accidentally found something that I really like. Everything goes down on paper when I am in one of these moods. If it doesn’t, I cannot create it the second time. That is the fun of this, we can tag it a true artisan project.

Anyhow, for now, this is Winter Storm Warning Soap. Later I will tell more about it. I first have to decide what it smells like. Who knows, I may name this soap after someone that I know. Can you imagine, an Annie’s Goat Hill soap named after you?

Now my husband will truly think the nutty formulator has gone mad! πŸ™‚

More on this tomorrow…

Read Full Post »

Today’s projects include making a light box and formulating several batches of lotion.

There are a number of easy to follow instructions on the internet for making light boxes. If you need a place to photograph products or crafts, these boxes are an inexpensive route to take.

I bottled up 1 oz. lotion samples in the shop earlier today. With the shipment of each order I enclose a sample. The samples formerly were soaps only. Now I will be including either a lotion or a soap, and I hope to be able to give customers the option of their choice in the near future!

Our snow is completely gone now! The sun is shining again today. It sure does make the spring fever worse. The only remedy to that one is spring! I received several garden, flower, and pond related catalogs in the mail yesterday. I think Bob and I made a good dent in the pages already!

Read Full Post »


Cutting was just completed a short while ago. On the curing racks they go! I am happy. πŸ™‚

As a re-cap, the middle picture is the soap within minutes of being poured into the molds yesterday. The soap (in the middle pic) in the mold on the right was to be teal, green and white colored soap. See the peach in the photo, dotted throughout the soap? It made for some beautiful teal soap today! No peach. For those of you that are from the hippy era, and even those that are younger, this soap is scented (in my opinion) sort of mystical, far eastern. If you like patchouli, and this one is totaly different than patchouli, I believe you will like this one! I will say more about it in upcoming posts. I am one to get droplets of oils all over me when I soap. I keep a clean room, clean tables, clean instruments, but when I soap, I come out smelling good. I could wear the scent of this particular soap every day, I love it!

The soap on the left (in the middle pic) is pink grapefruit and mint green. Cut, (in the right pic) it is some gorgeous soap as well! Right now the mint is overpowering the grapefruit, but I believe it will settle down.

Anyhow…I hope you have had fun with this! I did!

Read Full Post »

Inauguration Day Soap

After watching President Obama’s acceptance speech I headed to the soap shop. I had not made soap for many weeks. I need to get the curing racks back in action!! I pulled muscles in my back while lifting hay last night, so I watched the speech on a heating pad, which helped by the way, and for that I am grateful! I am a go, go, go type of person. So, I got up, put on my coat, and announced, “Off to the shop. I cannot call in sick today!”

These are the two batches that I just poured into molds. I did not go red/white/blue. I was in a green color mood. The soap on the left is grapefruit mint. It will not be as dark in color once it cures. The soap on the right, hmmm, quite the different story. I’ll start a new paragraph dedicated just to the soap on the right, tee hee.

I’ll start with, I have been making soap since 2003. Today is the first day that I have used a colorant other than herbs, essential oils or complextion clays. With that being said now, I’ll also tell you that I hate to read instructions! Yes, I am one of those people that likes to try things on my own and then go back and read. Don’t ask me why, even I do not know why. I learn a lot more that way, always have. But, things go wrong from time to time. So…today, I made one batch of soap that was supposed to be teal with white and green swirls. Hmmm…does the soap on the right look like teal, white and green to you? Naw…It is more of a peach cottage cheese with white and green swirls. Ha ha ha. I am not sure if it is going to “take,” for a few other reasons that only a soaper easily detects. So, I may be throwing it out. I hope not!

I have been lucky, my record stands at 2 batches of soap thrown in the trash can in 2008. The one on the right just might be another. Tee hee. I hope not, it smells devine!! One of the batches that I threw away stunk, yes, it absolutely stunk! It was supposed to be a replica of a famous perfume, instead it was P-U-fumey!!!! I tried to like it. I cannot politely tell you here what it smelled like. My husband walked into the shop the day that I cut that loaf into bars and asked me what stunk so bad, and he cannot smell anything! I opened the trash can and dumped the soap. Took the trash bag out of the room as well. Funny! It had to go!

Anyhow, that is my soaping story for the day. Tomorrow I will cut the loaves into bars and share pics then too. I took a new shot inside the soap room today, just to show you how bright of a day we are having. I didn’t even flip on the fluorescent lights. It was nice!

Take care…enjoy!!!!

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started