I often think of my blog and wish I could keep up with posting here regularly. I’m sure I could think of lots to write about, but somehow I just don’t do it! Of course, the turning of the new year makes me think of the all of the things I’d like to accomplish. As usual, my life is pretty busy with caring for my elderly mom who has alzheimers and with working full time. I miss the days when I worked part time so I could more of the things that interested me, like painting rooms or working on my soap making business.

The truth is, I’m not great at the business side of things so that’s what puts me off building up the soap business. If it were just a matter of making more soap, I’d be all over that. It’s fun, creative and relaxing for me – but doing paperwork, keeping track of expenses and inventory makes my brain go numb! I can’t stand it.

I got a new camera for Christmas, so I think I’m going to take advantage of that to post here and share my photos more often. There are blogs I read all the time that are just about everyday things, and I find them interesting. Maybe someone out there would be interested by my everyday life- can’t imagine why, but you never know, right?

This past week I’ve been making soap for my wholesale customer, Carberry Soap Company in Pickering, Ontario. I make round olive oil soaps for them in several different scents: Unscented for babies or sensitive skin, Lavender, Citrus blend, English Rose and a Patchouli soap made with a blend of veggie oils including hemp oil.

In other news, we got new blinds for the kitchen windows and it’s all looking very ‘finished’ now. There’s just one small thing to complete, which is some final painting around the small window over the sink. Somehow the small jobs just get put off, but I’ll get to it soon. We also need to touch up some of the caulking under the crown molding where it has cracked.

The spring after we moved into the house in 2005, we had the tiny bathroom downstairs completely gutted and renovated. We ended up with a beautiful, big, very WHITE shower stall. It looked lovely- for about 5 minutes. Then I started to realise that there is no good way to keep white tile grout clean long term. It just doesn’t happen. Nothing I did worked and I was sick of scrubbing and spraying with bleach solutions. After a couple of years it never looked white again, no matter what I did. Recently I was searching aimlessly online for a solution to this problem. I actually considering having the floor of the shower ripped out and replaced with a solid surface of some kind. I gave up on that idea pretty quickly when I found out what would be involved and how much it would cost. Thousands of dollars and basically an entirely new shower stall= not happening!  I tried to scrape out the grout myself using a dremel tool but I soon realised my knees weren’t going to take it, let alone my back. So- the shower sat unused for months during our kitchen renovations because we had to deal with that first. Luckily, we have 2 other showers in the house.

Eventually, I came across the website of Laurentian Tile & Grout. Looking at the before and after photos on his website, I realised I had found my answer! This miracle worker replaced all of the grout in the shower walls and floor in 2 days and it looks completely brand new again. The new grout is an epoxy that is guaranteed not to stain. Check this out.

Before: (this is clean, by the way)

After:

Yeah, I’m pretty happy with how this came out. Totally worth the cost.

I was just reading that last bit over and realised that I sound like a late-night infomercial!

“But wait, there’s more! If you act right now, we’ll rip out the grout in 2 showers in your home for the price of one!”

Last fall my biggest seller was a soap I called ‘Vancouver Rain’. The scent I used for it is called Rain Cybilla from Brambleberry.com. It’s one of my favourites. The other day I thought I would whip up a batch and do an In-the-pot swirl with white and blue soap. Before my eyes, the bright blue colour morphed to an ugly gray as I mixed. UGH!  It got worse as I poured it into the mold. At that point I just decided to pull out my trusty crock pot and cook it down. No pictures of this part– it was a pretty messy operation!

Once it was all cooked, I added my colours again till I had a pretty blue then glopped it all back into the mold. Here’s what I ended up with. Decent colour, but YAWN….kinda boring. I wanted my favourite soap to at least be interesting looking.

Time to get creative. I did a couple of embedded ball soaps before with varying degrees of success. I decided to give it another try. I cut the loaf in half and then cut half of it into long rectangles- about the size to fit horizontally into my small silicone loaf molds.

Next I trimmed the edges to get it closer to a cylinder shape, then wrapped them in parchment paper and rolled them individually against the countertop to try to get the sides rounded. It was harder than I expected it to be. This took ages! I decided to only make a few of these and do the rest into little balls I could drop into the soap. Still time consuming, but it’s not as difficult to make them nice and evenly round.

The next step was to make a couple of batches of white soap. I used goat milk and a little TD added to get it whiter. I wanted a nice contrast with the blue. The goats milk makes the lather so creamy and smooth, and I love the creamy white colour it gives the bars too. I didn’t get any photos of making the new soap. The camera was getting kinda soapy and slippery! I left the large mold outside overnight to cool and put the smaller ones in the fridge. When I use TD I like to try to avoid gel or I end up with streaky lines in the soap that remind me of stretch marks- ew!

Here’s how they looked just before taking them out of the molds them the next day, and then the larger one unmolded.

A few cuts later and here are the finished bars. I’ll let them harden up a bit more, then smooth out some of the rough edges. I’ve still got half a loaf of the solid blue bars left, but perhaps I’ll just keep them as-is. Not everyone is an artsy soap fan. Some people just want to get clean! Imagine that— I know, I don’t get it either!

This photo was taken in my new kitchen (yeah baby!) so the lighting is a bit different there. The other photos were taken in my soap-making area in the laundry room. The soap is really a creamy white colour.

Since I am primarily a pediatric nurse, this is a problem that I have seen and dealt with repeatedly over the years in my practice.

Most constipation problems in young children are diet-related. Unfortunately, many children don’t eat a varied diet and don’t get near enough fiber in their diets. This, along with a tendency for parents to offer milk or juice as a comfort food (bottles in bed or as a soothing device) can cause nutritional deficiencies like anemia as well as constipation (not to mention serious dental problems) I once had a little patient who demonstrated this in the extreme. She was 3 years old and her entire diet consisted of whole milk and the odd bite of a pancake. Her iron deficiency was so severe that she just sat in one place all the time. She had no energy to play or even to laugh. I remember being shocked at how pale her skin was.

Many parents are surprised to find out that the recommended amount of whole milk for toddlers after they have stopped breastfeeding is 2 cups per day. That’s only 16 ounces every 24 hours. After age two, they no longer require the extra fat in whole milk and can be switched to 2% or 1% milk. Of course, if they are breastfeeding this is also a healthy choice.

Children who drink large amounts of milk tend to eat much less solid food and are less likely to try new foods. A child’s stomach is roughly about the size of their own clenched fist, so you can imagine that a bottle (or glass) of milk can fill it completely, not leaving much room for other foods.

Toddlers who take a milk bottle to bed for sleep, and/or drink a bottle upon waking in the morning are less hungry for breakfast and are less likely to eat a healthy meal to start their day (they are already full!) Unfortunately, milk is not the “perfect food”. Milk is low in iron, so kids who drink too much often become iron deficient which can cause problems with their growth and development.

Toddlers will generally only eat the amount calories their bodies need, so if they drink too much milk, they won’t have room for the healthy food they need to meet their nutritional needs. Water is the preferred drink for between meals and with snacks. Offering small amounts of milk with meals only and in a cup rather than a bottle is a good way to set limits on milk consumption for toddlers. Juice is not necessary for a healthy diet and is high in sugar (natural sugar is still sugar as far as the body is concerned) It is far better to offer the actual fruits as a snack rather than juice.

Feeding toddlers can be a tricky business! If you’re looking for some more tips and guidance, check out ‘Toddler’s First Steps’ which is a resource provided by the Province of BC in print form or online. You can click HERE to see the PDF version. This publication is for parents of babies and toddlers aged 6-36 months. It has current and medically approved information about all aspects of parenting toddlers.

If your young baby under the age of 6 months is having constipation problems, it is best to consult with your family doctor for advice. Exclusively breastfed babies will not become constipated, but the introduction of solid foods or the switch to formula or whole milk can cause temporary problems for some babies. Start solids slowly and in very small amounts, gradually increasing the amount over weeks. Offer only one new food every 4-5 days so you can watch for any problems. It can take some time for the baby’s digestive system to adjust to the new foods.

* As always, the information I share here is general, current and comes from reliable sources, as well as my own pediatric nursing experience. It doesn’t replace a doctor’s advice and is not meant to diagnose. If you are concerned about your child’s symptoms, you should always contact your doctor for specific advice- or you could start by calling 811 from within BC or the Yukon to speak to a nurse at Healthlink BC *

…just lost the blogging bug for a while. All summer we’ve been buried in a mess around here due to our kitchen renovation. I try not to complain because I’ve been waiting for this new kitchen ever since we bought the house in January 2005. The kitchen was the least-desirable part of the house, but everything else ticked the boxes on our list so we decided to buy with the intention of imminent kitchen demolition. Well, one thing turned into another and we did lots of other renos first: we had the downstairs bathroom gutted and rebuilt almost right away, then we replaced all the windows and doors in the house and replaced the furnace and installed bathroom extraction fans upstairs. We upgraded he attic insulation, changed out most of the interior doors…well the list goes on and on.
So, this summer we got the chance to start the kitchen. I’ve been planning and plotting my new kitchen for YEARS, so it was really exciting to see it come to life. Here are a couple of photos I took back in 2005 when we had just moved in. You can still see boxes lying around from the move, but it shows the ridiculous layout of the room.

Just to the right in this photo is the rest of a very large (23′ x 17′) room, so the kitchen itself is closed into this very small corner by the wall and the peninsula. It is a crazy design, but I guess kitchens were built only as work areas back in 1980. Too bad only one person can work in there at one time. It was a constant frustration for us. You want to see me going insane? Making Christmas Dinner in here! Ugh!!

In the next photo you can see the peninsula with the bulkhead or…what is this called?…soffit? above it. I think there were originally cabinets attached there. Wow, can’t imagine how closed-in the kitchen must have felt when they were still there! Don’t you love the old-newspaper-looking wallpaper? (because oh yes, we want to draw attention to these useless empty soffits along the ceiling- pfft!)

So, I spent years planning and designing what I dreamed of having in this room. Ikea has an online planner that lets you lay out cabinets and appliances to get a feel for how things would fit and how it would look. I tried a few different combinations, but I knew I wanted an open kitchen with a huge island. This is the basic idea I had:

It’s hard to see in the ‘before’ photos, but the original kitchen had a pocket door opening on the wall where the stove is in this plan (into the dining room), and another one where the wide doorway is shown here farther along that wall (leading into the hallway). We decided to take out both pocket doors (they no longer functioned anyway) and make one wider opening instead.

Over the years, we made a few changes to try to make it a bit more comfortable. We changed the light fixtures, painted over the wallpaper and the walls, and changed out the ugly old light switches and plugs. We replaced the old stove and fridge at different times when they died on us. This is how the room looked the night before ‘demo day’. Of course, it’s empty because we had packed everything away already.

In this next photo, you can see that our contractor had already taken out the small pocket door and widened the opening. This was to make it easier to unload the furniture before demo.

On the wall to the right in this next photo, you can see one of the three windows along this wall. It’s a very bright room with lots of natural light. (and little Molly who always seems to get into the photos) but this was in the evening with not much light for photos.

Finally- DEMO DAY! Here’s me taking a few (pathetic) swings at the hated bulkhead/soffit box-thingy over the peninsula. It was nice to get the chance to wreck that thing finally:-)

Here’s how the room looked after the first day of hammering, ripping and sawing. The huge hole in the wall is where the other pocket door was removed. This has become a solid wall, as later photos will show. The dining room became our makeshift kitchen area, but at this point it was a disaster area too.

Next came the electrical work, so lots of drywall was torn out, and the new section of wall was framed in. You can see where the ceiling is being cut up to put in the new pot lights.

By Day 4, all of the flooring had been torn up. We were conflicted about taking out all of the hardwood floor, but we couldn’t come up with a good way of saving it without having an odd transition into the kitchen area and we didn’t want to try to match the wood since it has yellowed quite a bit from light exposure, and there were areas where the finish had worn off (under my office chair from the casters- guilty!) We decided to go with cork for the whole room, which of course added more $$ to the job…like everything does!

By Day 11, we had new drywall all over the place and things were looking much cleaner.

Day 16 and we have a new sub floor and the footings for the base cabinets are being installed.

Base cabinets and the island!

Day 28 was pretty exciting- granite countertops! Oh my gosh the island looks MASSIVE!

Then we had a visit from the plumber and we’re back to having running water. We had a filtered water tap and a soap dispenser added too. We love our new pull out sprayer faucet and the new sinks!

Subway tile backsplash with glass tile accent strip. I agonized over the grout colour and finally decided on Delorean Gray. It turned out exactly like I wanted:-) Just enough colour to show the pattern but not too graphic.

The new cork floors! I love the pattern- it’s impossible to see crumbs:-) We decided to go ahead and replace our foyer flooring at the same time. Renovations are like a virus, once you get started they keep spreading!

Foyer Before: Ugly, damaged parquet floor:

Foyer after: Lovely cork, yeay! It feels so good on the feet too.

Here’s where we are today (Day- oh sheesh, let me count- yep, it’s Day 58!) We have some of the cabinet doors and our garbage and recycling pull-outs are installed. The crown moldings are up (but not yet painted) and we are still waiting for the island cabinet doors, the cabinet and drawer handles, the glass fronted cabinet doors and glass shelving, the baseboards and a fresh coat of paint on the walls,  the painter to finish the ceiling, the electrician to install the ceiling lights…then I get to decide about window coverings.

Along this set of base cabinets there are two which we decided to change to drawers. Base cabinets drive me crazy- I can never find anything wayyy in the back of them. The drawers are built but not yet switched out.

The upper cabinets on either side of the sink will have glass fronted doors, glass shelves and interior lighting. We decided on a cross-hatch patterned glass to disguise the cabinet contents a bit.

The hood fan still has the protective paper on it and it still needs the cover for the chimney pipe. Stuff is all over the counters because we aren’t using the cabinets yet. Hate the mess but we are LOVING the kitchen already!

Later today I think we are getting the cherry doors installed on the island and all of the cabinet handles put on. At that point I think I will feel safe enough to start bringing everything back in and organizing the cabinets. We’re on the home stretch- more photos to come soon!

If you’re like me and you want to see all the nitty-gritty details and lots more photos, I’ve been photo blogging the whole renovation since we started in a set on Flickr. You can check it out by clicking HERE There’s an option there to watch them as a slideshow but then you don’t get to see my rivetingly interesting written commentary

Comments welcome!

I decided to make a batch of Heart Shaped Salt Bars tonight. I made them last year for Valentines Day and they were a big hit. I tweaked my method and recipe to try to improve upon last year’s batch. I started out by melting some white melt & pour glycerin soap base and mixing in some raspberry pop mica for a pretty pink colour. Last year I made the heart embeds out of cold process soap, which meant I had to wait about 2 days between the batches to finish these. I also had some trouble last year getting consistent colour in the little hearts- some of them went ashy and in some the colour disappeared or was mottled so I couldn’t use them. I figured that using melt & pour soap for these might be more reliable and easier.

I thought I’d add a bit of bling to this batch, so I used a paint brush to coat the heart shaped ice cube tray molds with a bit of cosmetic glitter before pouring in the soap.

Next, I poured the soap and set it aside to harden. See me pouring with my left hand while I took the photo with my right?  NOT easy- aren’t you impressed? (I guess that would be why this photo is so blurry- ha!)

When the tiny soaps were cooled, they easily popped out of their molds and I set them aside for later. Don’t they look like candy in this photo?

Next I weighed out the oils to make the main part of the soap which is done by cold process. Here is the coconut oil being weighed out. Then, I melted it and added sweet almond  and castor oils. Salt bars need a high percentage of coconut oil so they will lather well.

I added the lye water and the essential oils at this point. I used a blend of Lavender, Eucalyptus and Rosemary. I call it my ‘spa blend’. Notice my gloves? Lye burns are no fun!

Here, I have split the batch into 2 bowls so I can make layers of different colours. I added titanium dioxide mixed with a bit of water to one half to get bright white, and raspberry pop mica mixed with a bit of glycerin to the other half to get pink.

I used a stick blender to make sure the colour was mixed well into the pink portion, then added the sea salt.

Here I go with my left-handed tricks, pouring while taking photos. This is just for the photo- I had to pour all the rest of them right-handed:-) I poured the pink soap into the molds to about half full. These silicone heart muffin tin molds were a great bargain. I picked them up at Target one day on the ‘dollar shelf’– $2.50 each!

Back to the white portion of the soap, I added the salt and gave it a few blasts with the stick blender to thicken it up a bit.

Then I gently spooned the white soap on top of the pink layer. I remembered not to fill them too full this time so I would have some space for adding the tiny hearts afterwards.The first time I made these they kind of overflowed and I had to do ‘plastic surgery’ on the edges to tidy them up.

After a few minutes, the soap started to set and I pressed a tiny heart soap into the centre of each bar. I like the way the white soap puffs up around it a bit when it’s pressed down.

Now, they will set for a couple of days before I un-mold them. Salt bars can get kind of crumbly if you try to remove them from individual molds too soon, so I’ll have to try to be patient. I’ll update here with un-molded photos when they are ready.

Thanks for reading!

Update Thursday Dec 30th:
So much for waiting a couple of days- I have no patience at all when it comes to soap! I un-molded one bar today (after about 17 hours) and it popped out perfectly, so of course I had to take them all out and do photos. I was surprised that the layers look so equal. I thought I had poured too much for the pink layer. I ended up with one and a 1/2 solid white bars that didn’t have embedded hearts. I took notes so that next time I will know how much M&P I need to make enough hearts for the whole batch.
These will get incredibly hard as they cure. Salt bars don’t feel gritty at all- they shine up like a polished stone with use and last for ages.

I participated in a handmade soap swap that Anne-Marie hosted on her blog recently. So much fun! I sent in a 12-bar batch of my hot process soaps scented with Brambleberry’s Salty Mariner fragrance, and in return I received this fantastic pot-pourri of gorgeous handmade soaps in lots of great fragrances. I feel like Christmas came early for me today! 10 out of the 12 fragrances were new to me, so I’m looking forward to test driving them before I use them for my own soap.

My favourites in terms of fragrances are Sandalwood Vanilla, Spiced Mahogany and Clove Mint. I have to mention Summer Melon Spritzer too because I’m taking that one directly to my shower. It reminds me of summer time and I am really sick of fall right now!

My pick for best design has to go to Anne-Marie for her incredibly complex embedded and layered bar scented with Cranberry Fig. It’s just gorgeous!  There’s a How-To posting on her blog about it here.

Here’s a breakdown of the soapy bounty I received today, with links as I was able to find from the packaging.

Sandalwood Vanilla from Owl Tree Soaps

Marrakesh Goat Milk Soap from a soapmaker in Grant, Michigan

Cedar Saffron from Foster Creek Soap & Botanicals

Summer Melon Spritzer from Tub Time Treasures

Clove Mint from Freshwater Handmade Soap

Mango Sangria from Sweet Peas Soap

Cranberry Fig from Anne-Marie at Brambleberry

Spiced Mahogany from Dreaming Tree Soapworks

Karma Essential Oil Blend from Carmel Soaps

Lychee Red Tea from Barclay’s Soap Box

Cranberry from Bungalow Soap Co.

Rosehip Jasmine from Ali Mendelson

Looking forward to the next swap- this was so much fun!

I keep thinking about blogging and haven’t done it! (obviously!) so here I am. It’s not like I don’t have time, maybe just not much to say…? I’ve been doing a bit of soaping in recent weeks, gearing up for the upcoming craft fair events. I thought I’d post a few photos here and share some of my new goodies. First are a few Christmas themed soaps. I’m calling this first one Candy Cane. It’s peppermint scented with a dusting of glitter for bling. Here it is in the mold, and then the cut bars.

Next I tried out an idea I saw on the Soap Queen’s blog for Hot Cocoa With Marshmallows. This one was really fun to make and even though my marshmallows collapsed on this first batch (I shouldn’t have insulated the mold) I was pretty happy with the result. This fragrance is mouthwatering too! My son Devon already grabbed an off-cut from this batch for his bathroom.

These little guys are my first successful Melt & Pour soap projects. Working with M&P takes a steady hand and there is definitely a learning curve to figuring out the proper temps for pouring and levels of fragrance and colours. I’m really happy with how these came out. I’m making more this week!

Oh, I almost forgot my Pumpkin Pie Soap! This was made in 2 layers. The bottom layer has real pureed pumpkin in it for the great orange colour, and the fluffy white topping is made from a separate batch of whipped soap and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spices for the final touch. Who doesn’t love the scent of a pumpkin pie baking? This fragrance is fantastic!

My history with making bath bombs can be summed up in one word: FRUSTRATION.

a) I can’t get the 2 halves of the round bombs to stick together consistently

b) My round bombs usually get big cavernous cracks around them when they dry

SO– this is my solution: Bath bombs made with soap molds! I love how these came out. The details are so pretty. These are scented with Fresh Rain fragrance which I also used to make my Vancouver Rain soap.

Yesterday was our 5 year wedding anniversary. It made me think back to our wedding day- still ranks as one of the best days of my life. I look at the wedding pictures now and it makes me a little sad as I miss certain things from back then. I am disappointed that I have gained 20 pounds since then and of course I’m looking older now. At least I can do something about the weight if not the aging! I just wish I could get motivated to get back on track with working out. I used to make it a priority in my life and now it just seems to easy to avoid.  We eat healthy meals, but portion control is hard for me. I know if I don’t want to continue to pack on the pounds I definitely need to get moving and control my eating.

Why does it have to be so HARD?

The weather cooperated yesterday afternoon, so we packed up a picnic,  loaded our bikes onto the back of the car, and went bike riding on Westham Island. Lots of farms-  not terribly interesting though,  so we packed up again and headed over to the dyke in Richmond and rode along there for a while. There are picnic tables dotted along the dyke so we stopped at one for our picnic before heading back. It was really nice to get out and do something active and fun together. It doesn’t happen often enough. Daily life gets in the way and it’s so easy to just fall into the routine. Days like yesterday remind me that life is short and we should seize the day with the ones we love. I know it sounds cliche…

Which brings me to my Mom. She’s got some kind of dementia, probably Alzheimers disease. About 18 months ago she saw a specialist who thought she probably had early Alzheimers, but we took her to another specialist for a second opinion and he disagreed. Either way, there was really nothing to do at that point other than keeping her on the medication (which may or may not help in the early stages) and try to support her as much as possible. Since then her memory has gotten quite a bit worse. She calls me regularly with questions and gets confused about paperwork and things that come in the mail. I’ve taken over her medical insurance claims because she was getting them mixed up. Luckily, all of her other bills are paid via pre-authorized payment. The one thing she is still doing is paying her Visa bill each month. All her life she has saved all her receipts- writing the date at the top and then checking them against her statement each month. Lately she’s been having more difficulty with it. She frequently calls Visa to send her copies of certain bills she can’t find, but for the most part she’s managing that pretty well.

My big concern about her is that she is still driving. Last year after she had 2 accidents close together and her car was wrecked,  then had eye surgery and couldn’t drive for at least 6 weeks we thought we could convince her to give up driving but it didn’t work. After her eye healed, she convinced my brothers to take her car shopping (in hindsight they should have refused) and she bought a new car. She can no longer drive anywhere she hasn’t been many times, and even needs written directions to get to my house reliably. Recently she was supposed to follow me in her car to go to a specialist appointment, but as soon as I got into my car she didn’t know where I was. She had no idea what my car looked like, so she just went home and then was upset with me because she said I didn’t tell her to follow me (of course I did). So- she still drives to her credit union and to stores she knows and to my house. She says she doesn’t drive very often, but I wish she would make the decision to stop herself. I think this is going to be a big problem because she doesn’t see the danger. Maybe it’s going to take her getting lost before she realizes she has to stop. I just hope it’s not an accident that decides for her.

Bubble bath Bars are one of the products that I’ve always wanted to try to make myself. The first time I tried one years ago, I knew what a great idea it was: No paying for all that water and plastic bottles and I could control the ingredients to make it exactly like I wanted. My recipe includes super-bubbling surfactants, baking soda for water softening and skin soothing properties, a touch of sweet almond oil for moisturizing without an oily feeling, as well as glycerin for its humectant property (it draws moisture to the skin) I have lots of different fragrances and essential oils to create some wonderful scents for them.

Recently a couple of my new customers  ordered a bunch of these little babies in a variety of scents, so I had fun experimenting with different colour combinations and styles. Each 4 oz bar is enough to last about 3 baths. The bubble power of these bars is incredible. We’re talking mile-high suds, especially if you agitate the water really well or you have very hard water pressure. Our water pressure is pathetic here, so I just splash the water back and forth with my hand after crumbling part of the bar under the running tub faucet- it works great. I include a warning on these to be careful using them in a jetted tub- the suds will climb right over the top if you aren’t careful!

Here’s Black Raspberry Vanilla

This one is scented with Peppermint and Spearmint essential oils. I call it Double Mint. Here you can see one of my handmade wooden soap dishes too. They are great for keeping handmade soaps drained and dry between uses, but here this one is just a photo prop:-)

This one is Ginger, but I used this colour for Creamsicle too

In the group photo at the top, you can also see Lemongrass Lime (yellow and green swirl), Oatmeal Milk & Honey (tan with added colloidal oatmeal) and Energy (yellow and green blend)

You can purchase these in singles or as a pack of 4 in my Zibbet Shop. For larger quantities, please contact me directly via my shop contact link. There’s a long list of scent choices there- choose your favourites.  If you’re local to Vancouver BC, don’t forget to use the Coupon Code LAZ289 during check out so you won’t be charged shipping!

I make these bars fresh to order and they need about 2 days to dry before packaging. No artificial preservatives are added, so they should be used within about 3 months of purchase.

I realized the other day that I only had a couple of bars of lavender soap left, with a big selling event coming up! I haven’t been making much soap lately because my inventory is pretty full so it was fun to finally make a new batch. I took a few photos of the process and the outcome to share here.

First- here are the measured and melted solid oils next to the liquid oils, ready to be mixed. In this batch I used palm and palm kernel flakes for the solids and olive and castor oils for the liquid.

Meanwhile  a mixture of lye, salt, sugar and water sits in an ice water bath to bring the temperature down. The lye water and the oils should be nearly the same temperature when they are combined. I’m usually too impatient to wait and end up soaping hot. Doesn’t seem cause a problem most times, unless I’m using a touchy fragrance oil that might speed things up.

Here the oils are mixed with the lye solution and I’ve added some grape pop mica which is a skin safe colourant. It makes fantastic bright colours in soap.  I added a little pearl whte mica as well because I thought I added a little too much grape. Sorry this photo is out of focus and the doorframe reflection doesn’t help!

At this point I didn’t stop to take any photos, but I separated some of the batch into another container and added more grape mica for a deeper purple, then I mixed both bowls with my stick blender to thicken them to a medium trace. I wanted the bars to be swirled with the 2 shades of purple, so I poured the darker soap back into the main batch and mixed once or twice, then poured it into the waiting mold. I saved a bit of the darker soap to pour on top and add a bit of swirls using a cardboard coffee stir stick.

Here’s how it looked in the mold after that:

Jon made my soap molds so they would fit perfectly inside the oven. I nearly always oven process my soap for one hour at 170 F, then shut the oven off and leave the soap in the oven overnight. It’s ready to cut first thing in the morning. The only soaps I don’t oven process are my milk or honey recipes since they can heat up pretty well on their own. I usually leave my individually molded soaps like the cupcakes or hearts out to set at room temperature as well.

Here’s how this lovely lavender loaf looked after I unmolded it the next day. I was kind of bummed that the colour faded.  Too bad – I would have liked more contrast between the two shades.

…and here it is about to be sliced into bars with my handy dandy craftman soap cutter. This cutter is awesome- eight perfectly straight cuts in one go. I love this little gadget.

Finally, here are the cut bars all ready for the curing rack. They will air dry on the racks for 4-6 weeks for the excess water to evaporate. The soap gets better and better as it dries out and ages.The curing time also ensures a hard bar that will last a long time. Aren’t they pretty? They smell great too. Lavender is a scent that has grown on me since I started making soap. It really is very soothing and relaxing.