I'm a Versatile Blogger Nominee!

I was so honored and surprised when I spotted my blog's name on Cee's blog (Oil & Butter) as one of her 15 nominees of the versatile blogger award that she also received. I am so grateful since Cee is the one who inspired me to start this little blog with her amazing posts! Cee also was one of the first bloggers to put me on their blog roll opening me up to even more visitors and followers.

Now down to business! The rules of being nominated are as follows:

VBA RULES: 

(Copied from versatilebloggeraward.wordpress.com)

If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger award.

•               Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.

•               Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.

•               Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)

•               Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.

•                Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Well of course I thanks Cee times a million not only for nominating me but for also the previously mentioned kicking off my blog by adding me to her blog roll (seriously I had like 40 views before she opened the door for me). I have already liked her blog but I will again, it is Oil & Butter and if you don’t already FOLLOW HER!!!! Her blog is one of the best you will come across. Now are my 15 nominees...

1. Point of Interest (best blog if you are learning to make lotion or are interested in it)
2. Jennifer's Handmade Soap
3. New England Handmade Artisan Soap
4. Midlife Farmwife
5. Soap and the Restless
6. Winberg Bathworks
7. Missouri River Soaps
8. I am Handmade
9. Berry Town Soaps
10. Modern Soap Making
11. Jenora Soaps
12. Soap up Your Life (written in dutch)
13. Petals Bath Boutique
14. I'd Lather be Soaping
15. Claudia's Welt

Now seven things you may not know about me

1.  I am the proud owner of an incontinent, tail-less puppy (long story....)
2. I suffer from chronic daily headaches
3. I live to sew and cook
4. I love making soap! (bet you didn't see that one coming?)
5. I am the youngest of three children
6. I am a third generation  'Rose'
7.  My family owns pigeons

Thanks for nominating me and thanks everyone for stopping by and happy soaping!!!!

Karma Soap

     Last month was my birthday and my mother got me a big Bramble Berry box filled with goodies! included in the box was a 9 bar unfinished birchwood mold and tons of new FO's including karma (type). Of course the first thing I wanted to do with my new slab mold was the Peacock swirl using Karma. I was so excited I even had plans for my first tutorial but alas it wasn't meant to be, Karma moves FAST!(as you can see in Westminster and Karma Soap Preview)

    Now onto the the soap. After scenting my 2 pound batch with 1oz of Karma I split it into 4 equal batches(this is the point I realized the peacock swirl was not happening). I colored these containers with the following colorants going clockwise starting with the orange;

•  1/4 tsp of mango madness neon orange + 5 drops of premixed ultramarine blue(to darken the neon orange)
• 1/4 tsp of hydrated green oxide
• 1/8 tsp of brown oxide
• 1/8 tsp of yellow oxide

(all mixed with 2 teaspoons of sweet almond oil)

Instead of the peacock swirl I did a simple layers with gold pencil line in between. I actually really like how it turned out!  It kind of reminds me of a sunset over the ocean! What does it reming you of? Comment below. 

Thanks for stopping by and happy Valentines Day!!!

Westminster and Karma Soap Preview

      Sorry I haven't posted in a while(for the 100th time in the blogs short history), but I have a little schedule for soaping and blogging. Hopefully in the next few weeks I should get blogging about once a week, but let's face it and say a week and a half to two weeks, but hoping for the former.

     The schedule will start after I get back from New York City (YAY!!). We are here for the famous Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and have been here since Friday. The reason the family is going is because my grandmother, Ellen Charles, owns and is very involved in the dog show world which lead her to be inducted into the AKC's hall of fame this year! Sadly this year none of her dogs won breed so you won't see any of her dogs in this years groups. Last year not only did two of her dogs win their respective breeds but also their groups! If you watched last years show and remember some of the dogs her's were the american foxhound, Jewel (Pandora's box),who is now retired and expecting pups, and the bichon, Honor, who is also now retired were in the Best is Show ring. To end my little brag on my grandmother I hope y'all watch Best in Show tomorrow and maybe you will see me in the stands ;).
  P.S. I will post doggie pics when I get home and edit them!

     Now moving on to soaps I will give you a little preview of the karma soap's colours. plus I have a hint on the design, it is NOT the beautiful peacock swirl I planned as you can see in the pictures of the batter and how thick it got.

Tune in to find out the design, pigments used, and the final result of the colours in the soaponified soap!

Thanks for Stopping by and happy soaping!!!!!!

    

Snowy South

     As you may have heard the east coast has been very snowy lately and of course as a soaper it gave me some inspiration. Just like my first ever batch of cold process it is made with snow, making me realize that my one-year soaping anniversary is just around the corner!!!!!! 

   

     This batch is scented with wholesale supplies plus's fresh snow (I wonder why?). I colored it with micas, and oxides which for the life of me I cannot remember the blends (which is why it is important to take notes!). As I said in a previous post Soaping up a Winter Wonderland this FO moves fast! I was going to do a drop swirl with the white to look like snow but it was already the consistency of a thick pudding and even plopping it in from a foot above it would not go down. I quickly pulled out my hanger to try to mix the white in a bit more and the rest is history...

Finally which version of Fresh Snow do you like best? Pin or comment your fave version.

Thanks for stoping by and watch out for a Karma dupe soap coming soon!

Happy Late New Year!!!

Happy New Year and I am so sorry I haven’t posted in a while. You know how it is during the holiday season! Life at my house has had a few issues that didn't help either, half of the puppies finally left mid November to be show dogs leaving us with three pet quality poodles to sell! Then Bee (the runt of the litter who stayed with us) was diagnosed with a condition similar to spina bifida, which caused her to be incontinent. One option was of course putting her down but since she was such a fighter (can drop and pin down her brother who is 5-10 lbs bigger than her), we decided to opt for surgery to fix it. That was a month ago we she is now officially an Iverson dog since no one else wants a broken puppy. Since Bees surgery we have sold one of her brothers, who is now called Camden and the other, Moby, has gone to live with my sister. 

The sleeping Bee

Now onto soap! I have only gotten around to making one batch this holiday season and they are for my brother who LOVES every thing space. And when I saw a pin of a planetary themed soap I knew I had to make it. I now present to you my planet soap!!

P.S. sorry these aren’t the most beautiful, three of prettiest ones met an unfortunate fate…

It is scented with Brambleberry’s Crisp Anjou Pear at .75_oz PPO. To be honest Crisp Anjou Pear is not my favorite I only got it because BB sent me it instead of Crisp apple rose (which they kindly sent me the 4oz bottle of free of charge) they let me keep Crisp Anjou Pear as a gift for their mistake. The balls are made with BB’s silicone ball molds in medium and large, and are also scented with Crisp Anjou Pear. Sadly I forgot to note what colors I used but I can tell you that the black is black oxide .

Have a happy New Year and thanks for stopping by!!!!!!!

Ombre soap

For the October Soap Crafting Club we made the LabColor ombre soap from Ann-Marie’s Soap Crafting book (I suggest you get it because it is AMAZING full color and pretty designs with simple instructions). This recipe was a complex design with nine layers layer so be aware that you should use a tried and true slow moving fragrance/ Essential oil (I used Bramble Berry’s cranberry fig which I love).

I would also like to add that while trying to get the colorant amounts just right I forgot to split of the 12 oz for the purple layers so when you make this your top layers would bee a nice pink not my purplie pink.

**** A side note for all the soapers and soon to be soapers I really suggest signing up for the winter Soap Crafting Club. Once a month you receive all the ingredients (including colorants and FO/EOs) for one recipe in the Soap Crafting book, and on the first month you get a new nice wood mold with its silicone liner (if it has one)!! All you have to supply are bowls, a stick blender, utensils and lye. Going off into another direction I forgot to mention the oils come premixed! It saves more time than you think all you have to do is throw the bag in the microwave, then pour it into a bowl to mix the lye in!!!(Could you tell I am excited about this??)

Thanks for stopping by and happy soaping!!

I was not paid to review the Soap Crafting Club or the book these are my personal opinions on the products.

Soaping up a Winter Wonderland

Sorry that I haven’t blogged in over a month had a ton of appointments and no time to soap:(. So for the last few weeks I have been busy making a bunch of Christmas/ winter soaps!

Fir needle Mantra swirl Christmas soap

First I have the classical holiday soap with a mantra swirl of red, green, and a touch of gold. The scent is the distinctively Christmassy smell of a fresh cut fir tree.

After my soap batter had reached emulsification I added 1.5 oz (for 2 lbs of oils) of Fir needle essential oil, this EO is very slow to trace so I had plenty of time to play with the design. To achieve the colors I first split of about a 1/3 of a cup of thinly traced soap in a condiment squeeze bottle (the kind you find ketchup an mustard in, they are easily found in a craft store or Target), and added around a ¼ of a teaspoon of gold mica. The remaining soap batter was and split in half. The first half was colored with 1 teaspoon of red rainbow mica (soon to be discontinued along with all other rainbow micas) and the other half was colored with 1/3 of a teaspoon of a mixture of 2 parts green oxide and 3 parts green rainbow mica. To get a full tutorial look HERE.

Fresh snow drop swirl

The second batch was a drop swirl made with Wholesale Supplies Plus’s Fresh Snow. This fragrance oil was described as: a cheerful blend of fresh mint, blooming jasmine and pine needles. I love this FO! While it did speed things up and had minor ricing (nothing that couldn’t be blended into submission) it was totally worth it.

To pull of the design I scented the soap with 1oz(.5 ppo) of fresh snow then split the batch into half, and one of the halves into half. I colored the 50% portion of batter with ½ a teaspoon of titanium dioxide and poured it into the mold until it was half way full. The 2 smaller portions were colored different shades of blue; the darker shade was colored with 1/3 of a teaspoon of blue oxide and the lighter with 1/3 of a teaspoon of blue rainbow mica. I poured the blues into the mold linear motions. After slightly swirling the top of the loaf I sprinkled some snow worthy glitter on top!

Hot Chocolate themed soap

My most recent batch is a blend I call mint hot cocoa, it is a blend of spearmint essential oil and Bramble Berry’s Hot Cocoa fragrance oil which out of the bottle smelled like those cheep “Hershey” chocolate lip glosses but it really bloomed out nicely in soap.

In this batch I made a few minor changes to my usual recipe, changing out shea butter for cocoa butter and adding an ounce of heavy cream deducted from the water amount.

For the design I first reserved 12 fluid ounces of unscented (this is important as the Hot Cocoa FO discolors) batter and scented the remaining amount with .85oz of hot cocoa and .15 oz of spearmint EO (again for 2lb of oils). After coloring the scented batter with 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder I poured it 2/3 the way up the mold. With a small sifter I dusted the surface with green rainbow mica for a pencil line. I went on to slowly pour the unscented batter over a spatula close to the surface of the previous layer as not to brake through. Finally I textured the top with a spoon to make it look more like whipped cream then sprinkled the top with the green mica and cocoa powder.

 I hope you enjoyed my blog and happy soaping!!

Washing Three' Birds with One Bar (of soap of course!)

Last month I signed up for the Bramble Berry's Soap Crafting Club, which basically every month for a session you get all the ingredients lye, oils (premixed), fragrance/ essential oils, colorants, and even a nice wooden mold the first month to make a recipe from Ann-Marie's amazing new book, Soap Crafting. September was natural colorants (on page 57 for those of you who have the book) and it came with annatto seeds with sweet almond oil to infuse the seeds in and 1.5oz fir needle essential oil, which I didn't do because I had other plans... If you have read my blog before you know I have been planning a beer soap for a while now (if not it's here and here) and this was the perfect excuse to make it! Also there is Amy's of Great Cakes Soapworks soap challenge club and this month was the Dandelion Zebra Stripe, which I have wanted to try for a while so I just mixed all these plans up into one bar of soap!

     It is scented with a blend of .5oz of lemongrass EO and .15oz of anise EO (for my 2lb batch) to go with the lemongrass and anise beer that I substituted my water for in my lye infusion. The base is colored with an annatto infusion and the stripes were keeping in the natural colorant theme by being made with cocoa powder (which didn’t mix in well) and nettle leaf powder. The soap batter went quicker than I expected it to but luckily I was semi-prepared with instead of pouring or spooning the batter on I put it into two squirt bottles (which I thought was pretty helpful) and the thickening also causes a lot of air bubbles in the top half of the bar of soap.

Happy soaping and Follow my new Pinterest!!