18 posts from November 2006

So, we've been under drought conditions for a couple of years now.  This year, our duck pond was down by almost 12 feet, just as an example.  Massive water restrictions instituted in the entire area, except, of course, for the golf courses. (sigh).  Point being...not a lot of humidity, as a rule.  Until, naturally, I need to make bath bombs.  Then, it will rain. Yay, and verily will the humidity be 100% and lo, there will be a great wailing and gnashing of teeth as these bombs continue to expand to 7000 times bigger than they should be.  Mightily will they expand, refusing to take the shape of their mold, but instead, growing into organic shapes resembling 50's monster movies about pod people.

I swear to you, one of them just moved. I think they may have reached critical mass and achieved sentience. If I am subsumed by the growing bath bomb crisis, tell my husband I always loved him...

Today I'm making Spicy Mint soap.  This is one of my favorites for winter.  It's got cocoa butter and white kaolin clay for super skin protection during the foul weather, and it's loaded with peppermint, spearmint, eucalyptus, basil and rosemary essential oils for upper respiratory relief.  Nothing is better than a steamy, minty, herby shower when you feel ooky.  

If I've got time, I'm going to try and get a batch of Fire and Ice done too, but that may have to wait until tomorrow.  Also have a ton of bath bombs I need to get made before the humidity gets any higher.  Those things are so temperamental about weather conditions. 

I hope everyone had a happy Turkey Day!  Now that the triptophan has worn off, and my Mother assures me that all is well, despite her house catching on fire, it's back to making soap. (And shipping a ton of Gardener's Delight to my mom to help get all the soot off her and the various workers who kept the house from becoming cinders...)  So, todays batches:

Chocolate Seville (Orange Chocolate)  This soap is a big component of the "Just Desserts" gift basket...it's also one of my faves to make, especially during the "Give me chocolate or you die" week.  I make it with 3 different chocolate oils, fair trade organic cocoa powder and 5x Orange Essential oil.   You know those chocolate oranges you get around the holidays?  The ones where you whack em on the table so they break into little orange slice segments?  (I love those!)  This soap smells exactly like those chocolate oranges.  So yummy!

Jojoba Parfait Scrubs:  Fluffy cream soap laced with emerald jojoba beads.  It's so pretty!

Monoi Whipped Body Butters:  Monoi oil is made in super limited quantities in Tahiti.  It's made by crushing Tahitian gardenias into virgin coconut oil, then steeping the flowers for months until the oil picks up the delicate scent of the flowers.  I melt the monoi, add first press cherry oils, jojoba oils, and shea butter and whip it together as it cools until I get a finely tempered thick creamy butter of oils that smell of island escapes and sunny escapades.  I don't add any scents to this mix, letting the Monoi do all the talking.  (A note for fellow soapmakers...a commercial KitchenAide standing planetary mixer is your best friend for making body butters.  The whipping can take up to 45 minutes.  Commercial chef's tools make that a whole lot easier. Plus, you can do other stuff while your KA is doing the heavy work.)    

Finishing a few custom orders, then prepping for Turkey Day.  For the first time in almost 2 decades, I'm having a small Thanksgiving.  Just me, Man and Boy.  (And Dog.  And Cat1 and Cat2). 

So, my usual over the top menu has been trimmed down to something reasonable:

Squash Soup
Turkey with 2 stuffings (inside and outside)
Green Bean casserole...because apparently, it's the law. Who knew?
Home made bread (need to go start that now...gonna try the 24 hour clay baked style)
Baked Apples
Buttermilk Brulee Pie (Because Man specifically requested it.)

So...I just found out that The Boy's preschool has shown him at least one PG movie. (Monster House) This does not make me a happy camper. Monster House is targeted at a much older demographic than 3-4 year olds, and frankly...I'm not comfortable with the school assuming that they have parental rights when it comes to media content.  (To be honest, I'm a little pissed that I'm paying for private school and they're watching movies...but that's another issue entirely.) 

Even the producer of the film has said that it's a "gateway horror film for the 13 year old set", and most reviews have made it fairly clear that it's not Little Kid movie, despite being animated. There are some ethical issues raised in the film that I think deserve discussion, and I feel as though the school has usurped my role as his ethics guidance point by showing a film with implications that weren't discussed. I'm not really concerned about the language, but I am concerned with the implication of a grown man requesting a child to murder the spirit of his dead wife. I’m more than willing to admit that my take on this is extreme. But the fact that Constance is treated and referred to as a human entity, and children are asked to rid the world of her, really disturbs me.

Am I totally overreacting here? Because...my instinct is to raise holy hell about them showing PG movies to a preschool class. Especially one where the resolution is to kill the spirit of a tortured woman.

Talk me off the ledge if you think I'm being absurd. Tell me why you think I'm being a big ol over protective ninny. (My people may not have been practicing Jews since they were hiding from the Nazis and pretending to be Catholics, but damn...that Jewish Mother Gene is hardwired, ain't it?) 

Else, feel free to add fuel to the fire...because watching me go ballistic is always good fun. ;)

Lotions.  Lots and lots and lots of lotions.  And clays.  And maybe some body butters and a few custom soaps if I get time. Had work done on my foot today.  Injections and tape and things that make me go OWWWW!  The doctor said I was supposed to stay off my feet for a couple of days.  I just laughed.  Silly doctor. Doesn't he know I have painkillers? 

Speaking of drugs, Billy Idol has a Christmas album.  It doesn't get much weirder than that, does it?  Links to follow, once I can find the heart to piss on my punk youth...

The Boy and I were making sack puppets.  We're gluing on pompom noses, and big ears and whatnot and I said to the Boy, "What else does your puppet need?"  He thought for a moment, then said;  "Brains!  Give my puppet Braaaaaaains!"  Hee.  Who's been letting the 3 year old read the Zombie Survival Guide? 

Finished pouring the last of the dragon soaps.  Still need to cut and shrink wrap them, but that big ol order is almost out of the studio.  Yay!  It took a lot less time than anticipated, and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. 

Note:  LabColor emerald green is totally worth the money, but should probably not be diluted fully to get the deep colors in traditional soaps. 

Bathmelts2

Also in production today: Bath Melts...an incredible concoction of cocoa butter, shae butter, steel cut fluffy oatmeal, some other goodies and chocolate oil.  When dropped into a warm bath, they fizz and disperse the oils and the oatmeal.  So yummy. 

I'm making about 20 pounds of Green Dragon Serenity Soap (in glycerin) for someone.  (An eo blend of Bergamot, Clary Sage and Ylang Ylang Complete...so very, very good...and a very high aromatherapy value.)

The soaps are turning out beautifully, but it was a bit of a disaster on the way to the forum...  

Dragon_serenity_soap 007

See, making glycerin is a really pain in the patoot. So, usually, I only do it if I'm getting together with someone who has much better equipment than I do, and we make a hundred pound or so at a time...or better yet, I bribe her to do it for me, bless her heart.  (Yes, I could buy commercial melt and pour sodium laurel sulfate, and not the natural soap we make... but when have I ever done things the easy way?)  When we pour these monster batches, we usually line cardboard boxes with plastic and pour 25 pound blocks. So, until I get motivated and cut the block up, I'm usually just manhandling a giant block of soap. 

So, I get everything ready.  I've got molds, I've got cleaver, I've blended the essential oils.  I have everything all set to start production, including a heavy duty plastic tub that I use to hold the soap chips I take off the giant block. 

I heaved the giant block of soap up onto my glass stove top.  Apparently, I knocked the dials for one of the burners on to high.  The Boy was doing something that required attention, so I wandered out for a second...only to start sniffing...because it smelled like something was on fire.  Yes, that's right, I created a molten puddle of plastic all over my stove top.  And what did I use, in my panic to get it off the heating element?  If you guessed my only really good soap cleaver, you get a cookie!

Sigh. 

So, all the windows are open, the mess has been cleaned...but I may suggest that theraflu and any sort of rational thought may be two things that do not go well together.  ;) 

Sandalwood Vanilla today.  And lotions.  It's been a while since I made a big ol batch of lotion.  My hands feel *so* good.

Friends in from Austin.  With presents!  Whee!

More soap tomorrow. :)