Something That Made Me Smile

It's the little things in life that mean the most to me. Up until a couple of days ago my yard was covered with a beautiful blanket of white snow. Deep snow. Heavy snow. Then the February heatwave came through and melted all of that pristine snow making way for mud. Both snow and mud mean the chickens and ducks prefer to stay in the barn tossing hay and straw all over in their quest for something to do.

As the winds came through, all of that was blown away. When I returned home from delivering soap to a few special customers I let the dogs out for some relief. This is what met us.
It began to feel like Spring. During the warmer months most of my flock is allowed to free-range and tend the yard. They keep an eagle eye on the back door knowing that when it opens there's bound to be a treat thrown their way. They know when dinner time for humans is and knock at the door for kitchen scraps if we don't serve them quickly enough. I can't help but smile.

Here is the ever-vigilant Mojo Jojo. He's an Americauna cockerel that was supposed to be a pullet. His head comes to about mid-thigh to me, so I would imagine he's the size of a small hen turkey. We have a deal that he can stay as long as he respects the humans. So far it's working out.
In the very foreground (bottom of the photo) is Zhu Zhu, the roo rescued from Animal Control last July. In the far back (behind Mojo) is Roady Roo, a little cockerel raised by me beloved Road Runner hen. Yes we have too many roos. Not pictured is Uno, the head roo, a Silkie Bantam and daddy to Roady Roo.

When the treats were gone, they still hung out hopeful for more.


Though the weather man forecast snow and freezing rain for Sunday I suspect Spring is right around the corner.

Up and Etsy time!

Seeing as how the craft fair season is far in the future, I decided to check off business resolution #1 for 2011: Open my Etsy Shop. Yes, I have a web site that does very well. The thing is, you can never have too much exposure. The competition among Etsians is fierce, the the rewards are priceless.
Rewards come at a price though. It takes a lot of work and dedication to set up a shop and manage products. For instance, my main web site provides one catalog photo. Take a few photos. Pick the best and post it. Simple. Etsy provides up to 5 views of each listing. Soap isn't always the easiest thing to make appear artful, but I think I have found "my look". I chose 4 "views" of the same stack of soap. Choosing the best four bars from a batch is harder than you think. "Dressing" those bars to photo well is an art form unto itself

Choosing the bars: I looked at all angles of each bar to find one that cut smoothly and looks creamy. Those with minor imperfections can often be buffed out with a little 91% alcohol and a piece of organza cloth. I looked for bars with "frosting", or decorative tops. My regular customers demand frosting, so I give them frosting. Who am I to argue?

Perspectives: Each listing has a "front" perspective of a bar face beside a stack of 3 soap tops.
I liked the glass marbles because they add a bit of shimmer and reflected light onto the subject soap.
Pose 2, closeup of the frosting.
You can imagine how important it is to choose bars with little to no ash. I discovered the 91% alcohol spritz trick on the Dish Forum. I use it with great success on each and every batch to ensure a shiny top.

Pose 3: Front angle:
Placing 4 bars at a slight angle like good little soldiers made me smile. Each face profile peeking out from behind the next shows a hint of the creaminess hidden within.

Pose 4: The top angle:
I liked the birds eye view of the same bars.

Now repeat that for each and every soap bar listed on the site and you have yourself several days of photo taking and editing. At least I did. Time well spent, don't you think?

My Etsy Store is here: Sweet Teagan's At Etsy
Stop in for a visit. Show me some love when you get there by making my shop a favorite.

Testing, Testing. A Bunch of FO's in CP Soap.

I have been collecting a lot of little fragrance testers lately. When I see a sale for a company that I like to order from, my credit card shudders a little. I decided that before I buy any more fragrances, I need to try those I already have. Here are just a few of the things I needed to test. In reality, there are waaaaaaay more than this.
Key Questions:
1: Does the FO accelerate, rice or seize?
2: Does the FO discolor?
3: Does it morph?
4: Does it fade?

This is where silicone molds come in very handy. I have 2 round "puck", 4 heart, and a few other shapes just taking up space. I decided that 2 oz tester bars would answer the key questions without sacrificing too much soap batter.

I also wanted to test out the new Vanilla Stabilizer from Nature's Garden Candle Supply on a couple of FO's that I know for a fact discolor DARK: The Scent Works' Pink Sugar and The Scent Works Vaniglia de Madagascar and a new FO that I'm sure WILL discolor, Nature's Garden Vanilla Extract. The Vanilla White Stabilizer usage rate is .3% of the total batch (water, lye and oils).

Here's the math:
40 fragrances
2 oz testers, (approx 56-60 grams each)
80 total oz of soap (lye + water+oils)
Vanilla Stabilizer = .003 * 2 oz or .003 * 60 grams = .18 grams VS (thank goodness I have the tiny gram scale from TKB-Trading!)

I figured a 60 oz batch using a 33% lye solution would do the trick. Rather than waste precious cocoa and shea, I stuck to the trinity: Coconut, palm and Olive. SF was 5%.
FO at approximately 1 oz PPO = 2.5 grams per 2 oz tester.

I used the thermal transfer method to help ensure a long working time. No colors to worry about, but lots of FO's to measure.

Here's a photo of the aftermath:

The process:
LABEL YOUR TRAYS!!!
I used letters in the top left corner to orient myself in case the tray got turned. Good thing too, because they DID get turned.
Pour the 6 cavities in the first mold with approximately 2 oz of batter. The first 3 FO's were to try the vanilla white, so I pre mixed the VW with the FO's then one by one poured the FO mixture into the mold stirring briskly with a chopstick until it looked blended. Rinse, repeat for each one. I kept the bottles of FO lined up in order of where they were poured so that I could take notes later.

Repeat for tray #2. Instead of pre-weighing the partial grams of FO, I used a graduated pipette to dispense the fragrance into the muffin cups.

Lecithin Test:

One FO started to rice. I stirred as best I could then reached for the lecithin. I used a 400 IU caplet for the FO in a mixing cup. It was probably too much lecithin, but I was in a hurry. The second pour of the FO was much smoother. Mental note.

Repeat for trays 3, 4, and 5. By this time the soap batter was getting thick. I added some water to the batter to thin it a bit but I couldn't expect miracles! Tray #6 was a tiny muffin tray, so 1 oz testers...

I remembered to write down the FO's in each tray by the positions and have to make little tags to keep with the soaps once they come out of the molds.

4 trays are sitting on the pellet stove in hopes of coming to gel. The rest will have to sit for a few days before they can come out of the molds. I suppose I could stick them all in a low oven to gel, but that requires me to trek up/down stairs several times.


I will post after photos of them so you can see if the VW does its job or not. I'm a little hopeful, but at the same time worried that it will morph the scent.

Fragrances Tested:

1. TSW Pink Sugar with VS
2. TSW Vaniglia de Madagascar with VS
3. NG Vanilla Extract with VS
4. Peaks Frankincense & Myrrh
5. AH Vetiver
6. NG Cucumber Melon
7. Pear Pleasure
8. Peak Bartlet Pear
9. NG Nag Champa
10. NG Sweet Pea
11. AH Mint Julep
12. AH Gap Heaven
13. NG Cucumber Melon
14. Amber Musk
15. AH Gap Earth
16. AH White Tea
17. AH Cotton Blossom
18. AH Amber Romance
19. AH Almost Paradise
20. AH Amazing Grace
21. AH Dreamcatcher
22. CC Victorian Rose
23. AH Childs Room
24. AH Barbershop 1920s
25. NG French lavender
26. AH Aqua
27. AH Pineapple
28. AH White Tea & Ginger
29. NG Fresh Raspberry
30. NG Rice Petals and Shea
31. NG Bamboo Hemp (with and without Lecithin)
32. NG Mango Papaya
33. AH Neroli
34. AH Pomegranate & Oak
35. AH Lemon Verbena
36. AH Japanese Pear & Ginseng
37. AH Falling Leaves
38. AH Black Linen & Amber
39. AH Blackberry Sage
40. AH Interlude
41. AH Oak Barrel Cider
42. AH Badedas
43. AH Black Raspberry Vanilla
44. AH Celtic Moonspice
45. TSW Creamy Coconut
46. TSW Ginger Souffle
    

Open up and say Aaaaawwww!

When a gift holiday would roll around, I would ask my daughter, Teagan, what she wanted most. Her answer never varied. She wanted a kitten of her very own. This went on for more than 2 years. Finally, the right kitten came along. thanks to my volunteer position at Animal Control I was able to preview kittens to find the right one for our family.

On Christmas morning 2010 the very last gift Teagan opened was her kitten. It was love at first sight for both of them. Here she they are giving hugs:

As kittens often do, she finds the coziest places to snooze. Here is Holly on a stack of blankets.


To show me just how exhausted she was from being so cute, she gave a big kitty yawn.

Winter Products Swap-Part 2

Delivery of my Winter Products Swap box was delayed by the Great Blizzard of 2011. We ended up getting about 2 feet of snow, but that's another story that I'll save for later.Back to your regularly scheduled post...

My box arrived a couple of days later than everyone else's, but it sure was worth the wait. I'm posting the spoiler photos taken by the swap hostess. I received back 24 new items to try. Man were they awesome. Here are 2 photos of the loot:

Notice the lovely lot of lotions, balms, butters,soaps, body oils, and more? Awesome, huh?
This second photo shows the hand knitted neck warmer. Mine is actually a lovely blue. It comes in very handy with the sub zero weather in Chicagoland! See my con"dish"ioner and poo? They;re in good company.


The hard part now it trying it all out. I chose a different lotion/butter for each leg and arm. Then the cuticle jellies and footie stuff. I smell wonderful and am soft as buttah! I used another swapper's Intensive Hair Conditioner and my hair looks fab. It will take me until spring to work through all of this awesomeness.

Winter Products Swap

I've been busy signing up for, and making products for, swaps at the Dish Forum. The most recent swap is the Winter Products Swap. The premise of the swap is to make something that people need during the harsh and gray winter months. I chose to make a solid hair conditioner with a little travel shampoo.

The first hurdle was done: what to make. The0 next, more difficult challenge was to decide upon a fragrance. What would I like in February? Where would I like to be? Easy: Enjoying citrus in Florida. Beaches and fresh juice, preferably on South Beach with a beachy drink in hand while watching the waves.

With a goal in mind, I set sail for my Fragrance cabinet. Fresh Squeezed Oranges, Lime Cilantro, Ruby Red Grapefruit and Mojito fragrances found their way to me. I started at a ratio of 1:1:1:1 and worked in more of one or another until I smelled "The" scent. Citrus Mojito. Bliss.

I then gathered all of my solid conditioner ingredients and molds and made 25 of the little darlings. 24 2.5 oz Solid Conditioners colored with Tangerine Pop! mica.



... and don't forget the 25 1 oz solid shampoos with the same color and fragrance.

Next challenge: Packaging. I made cute round labels with the ingredients on the back and the major info on the front. They were shrink wrapped to the bottom of each conditioner.
Here's a close up of the label:


The little shampoos got a custom product information card and were stapled into a treat bag.


Got them all shipped off to the swap hostess and began waiting ever so (im)patiently for the return box. I love swaps! They're like Christmas all year long!

"Dish" Home Cleaning Swap 2011

As some of you already know, I am a member of "The Dish Forum", which is made up of a very talented and generous group of formulators and business owners. Each year I participate in several "Swaps", where different people make products to share with one another. The next swap that is due for my products is the Home Cleaning Swap.

The Home Cleaning Swap came about after a discussion about using natural ingredients to clean the home. Several people in the discussion make specialty products such as degreasers, dryer sachets and such. We each signed up for a cleaning item with the stipulation that only essential oils could be used for fragrance.

My choice was carpet freshener, or as I have labeled my items, "Carpet Re-Freshener". I don't have many carpets left since working for the past 3 years to remove the wall to wall in favor of hardwood with a few area rugs. Even so, those area rugs do get a little 'not-so-fresh' in the winter time, so I went about researching and testing until I cam up with something that worked very well in my house.

The ingredients are simple: Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda), Borax and non-Iodized Salt. For fragrance I chose Lavender, Lemon and Litsea Cubeba. For a little fun, I added dried lavender buds.

The next issue I had was to choose packaging. Glass Mason style Jars would have worked, but mailing them to the hostess of the swap, then mailing them again could prove disastrous. Instead, I broke out the trusty Singer and made shaker pouches. Basically I made drawstring bags out of muslin with a piece of nylon netting inside the opening to control the flow of powder out of the bag and provide a bit of 'sprinkling' action. It worked great, but took for EVER to make all 10 of them.

I added an iron on transfer to the front of the bag to identify the contents as mine and make the plain bag a little more dressy. When full to the maximum capacity these bags will probably hold 3-4 lbs of carpet refresher.

Here they all are waiting for wrapping:


I sealed them in shrink wrap for their journey, but decided not to shrink them because they looked better 'unshrunk'.


I included the 'recipe' and directions in the shrink packaging so the swappers would be able to make it again if they chose to. If you would like the recipe, or would like to know how I made the shaker pouches just drop a comment below.