Warm weather

What a lovely day, sat in the sun getting sun burnt wrapping all of the lovely iced bath bombs I made yesterday.  They all look so lovely.  Off to Worthing to a fair tomorrow so hopefully they will find new homes.

Drain pipes

Well the dog soap went into the drain pipe to try and get a round soap, then my neighbour knocked with four pringle tins that I would normally use, but too late.  Now I am hoping that the soap is going to come out of the drain pipe.  Any ideas!!!! Will just have to wait until it is dry then it should have shrunk sufficient to come out.  Hopefully!!!!!!!

Fairs

We are at Redhill on 2nd April so if you are around that area come and meet us.  Helen has done a marvellous job with the advert take a look - http://tinyurl.com/62xb3ou.  


Come and support her and her colleagues.

SOAPS

Un molded and cut the soaps into blocks.  The nettle and lavender is lovely, just needs to dry and cure.  The cup cakes that I was worried about only had three that had not set properly, so that was good.  Came up with a new way to package, before I wrapped in brown paper tied with raffia, this way you could not see the pretty soap, now I am printing the labels and wrapping around the soap with pretty coloured spiders web.  You can see the tops and they look great.  Just wondering about doing the local large market during the summer and whether I can keep up with production.

too quick setting

Yesterday made the dogs soap in the morning, great, just need to leave it a couple of days before I try to get it out of my drain pipe mold, watch this space.  In the afternoon I made cup cakes with Honeysuckle and English Rose, sounds like a summers day.  However, obviously the honeysuckle had a high alcohol content for the fragrance which set it off to trace at a very fast rate.  I ended up having to rush to get the soap into the cup cakes as I could not pour it, it is now like thick custard, I have to scoop and try and get it to go into each part of the mold, any way, word of warning, rushing got some on my arm and now have a lovely red arm where the lye burnt my skin.  Yes I did have two pairs of rubber gloves, but it go onto my skin above the gloves.  However on a really exciting note to me, I have had trouble with my botanicals going black, this week I used my new way of making soap and the nettles are green still in the soap so the Nettle and Lavender will be fantastic when it has dried.  Will unmold and see if cup cakes ok, if not will be selling them off as seconds.

Round Soaps

People like round soaps, heart shape soaps etc.  So how does a small producer like me make a round soap.  Well up to now I have scrounged from any one who eats crisps that come in a round tub for the tub.  Today I am off to try my new way.  I have bought and cut down drainpipe, so here we go.  I am off to make the dog soap as it is so much easier to use when round and Bailey's getting to the point where we will be washing him more often.  He is one of those dogs who manages to find the muddiest smelliest ponds.

Moody Mondays- March Hares

Monday again where did the week go?? As you can see we are a bit later than last week posting this, this is due to a busy Monday, we had a someone come visit us today to see about buying from us wholesale which is rather exciting but daunting at the same time!!

Our Moody Monday theme today is March Hares, this month we thought we would join the March Hares group on the forums of folksy and see if we could manage to list an item everyday. Although this is proving something of a difficultly as the soaps are not being made quick enough, it has provided us with the opportunity to look at the other March Hares lovely listings and so today on this cloudy Monday we thought we would share a few.

Dottery Pottery Ceramic Flower Buttons, NOfkants Curios, Crocheted Be-jewelled Corsage

Blue Daisy Glass Dinky Daisy, Crafty Little Wotnots Flower Bookmark

Dottie Designs Tropical Butterfly Guest Book, Maytree Lane Red Brooch

Moody Mondays

Monday always seems to come too fast so to make Monday's a bit easier we have decided to create a moody monday blog full of all lovely things from the online marketplace Folksy, so grab yourself a cuppa and sit back and enjoy ten beautiful items we have found on Folksy this past week!!

 

 

 

All the pictures are linked to the item so just click away!! Have a great Monday

(Makers of the product from top to bottom left to right; Pants & Paper, Cards with a Difference, PatsParaphernalia, fluffandfuzz, JOYSofGLASS, CottonsAndDreams, redbrickglass, OscarCat, Pink Amaryllis and doodlelove)

Lemongrass and Ginger

I made this soap first last year and it has become one of my favourites and judging by how much I make and sell one of yours.  This batch today, I have put bronze hearts through the centre of the soap block and made some small cup cakes ones with flowers.  The smell of the ginger just tones down the lemongrass to vibrant but not overwhelming.  Adding ginger powder gives it this lovely pinky glow, which develops as the soap cures.  My favourite is when I unmold them the next day and see how they come out.

Sunshine

Yesterday was a lovely day and we were busy photographing our soaps.  I am getting involved with an exciting village project, where we take an empty shop, and lots of villages have them, and put in small local business, this gives the village a injection of new life and also allows those who cannot afford premises ways of getting to the wider public.  Watch this space.

                                                            My little bantans enjoying the sun.

Spring and March Hares

Years ago I lived in Hertfordshire and I will never forget looking over the fields at the begining of March and seeing Hares in the field, I felt so blessed that they had shown themselves to me.  I have just been in the garden and everywhere you look the daffodils are shouting spring.  I love this time of year and even in the woods where I walk the dog the daffodils are coming out making us feel so alive.  I live in Sussex and driving along towards Steyning there is a field with the first little lambs, so sunshine and warm days are on their way.  I have a friend who lives near Perth Australia who is moaning about the heat, so I said I would send her a bottle of rain in exchange for a tank full of sunshine and warmth.  Have made some lovely bright spring coloured lollipop soaps, a great idea instead of the mountains of chocolate eggs kids have.  I remember mine never getting through them all and throwing them away, so folksy has lots of goods ideas for spring presents.  Have a look and you will be spoilt for choice.