Fun with Packaging

Oatmeal, Milk and Honey soap will be ready for sale in about a week, but in the meantime, I’ve been thinking (quite a lot, actually) about how I want the packaging to look.  I’m learning that customers who buy from the local shop where I sell my soaps are enticed to buy just as much, if not more, by the cute packaging.  So, I’ve been mulling this over for a while and here is what I’ve decided on for Oatmeal, Milk and Honey.  I’m quite pleased with both the simplicity and cuteness of it!  What do you think?

Happy, happy birthday and a Merry Christmas!

When most people hear that my birthday is on Christmas Eve, I get the response, “Oh, I’m sorry.”  Other than never getting to have a birthday pool party, I’ve always enjoyed having my birthday the day before Christmas.  Sure, I’ve gotten plenty of “combo” gifts, but I’ve also gotten to spend plenty of birthdays surrounded by loved ones; playing games and eating sweets.  It’s like one BIG celebration and I get to have my own, little special part in it.  Growing up, my Mom and Dad made sure to wrap my birthday presents in birthday paper, and no matter how many cookies, pies and sweets they had already made, they still made me a birthday cake.  Now that I have my own family, I spend much of my birthday preparing foods and presents for our Christmas.  And I don’t mind.  I want my family to enjoy some of the same Christmas traditions I looked forward to when I was growing up, and we’ve made some new ones of our own.  And even though we have pies and cookies and presents to come, my sweet husband always bakes me a cake (this year, cupcakes!) and wraps my birthday presents in birthday paper. 

This birthday, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about “hope”.  At this time last year, we were hoping to travel to Ethiopia soon to bring home our son.  For hundreds of years, God’s people hoped for a Savior; diligently keeping God’s laws and practices while they waited.  I’ve been thinking about how so many of those people who had hoped for the redeemer completely missed Him when He arrived because He didn’t come as they had expected. He didn’t save them the way they wanted, but the way they needed.  They hoped for something earthly and God gave them something divine, and so many of them missed it.

I hope you don’t miss Him this Christmas.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

Merry Christmas!

Put de lime in de coconut…

Recently, I asked my Facebook fans for suggestions about what would go well with Coconut Fragrance Oil.  One suggestion I liked was for Coconut Lime.  Of course, the song “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson popped into my head and with it, the inspiration for how this soap would look.  Making this soap was a two-stage process.  First, I had to make a batch of green, lime-scented soap and then create “limes” out of it.Next, I made a batch of Coconut-scented soap and added the lime soaps as I poured.  The next morning, I sprinkled Apple Lime Sugar on the top. The best part was unmolding the soap and cutting the soap bars.  What fun to see the “limes” hidden in the coconut!So put de lime in the coconut and soap it all up!

First soap’s first

The first soap I selected to try from the Soap Swap was called “Hello, Sweet Thang!” by Plum Creek Soapworks.  I chose it to be first for two reasons: 1. It was the only soap I received that contains goat’s milk, and I was curious about how it would feel compared to my soaps (sans goat’s milk), AND 2. The smell reminds me of Fruit Stripe gum, which I LOVED when I was a kid.   So, far, I like this soap a lot.  It’s not super bubbly, but it is super moisturizing and feels really good on my skin.

Peppermint Bark…for real.

After making some delicious-looking peppermint bark soap, I decided I needed to make the real thing.  I used my silicone pan and lessons learned from making melt and pour soap and went to work.  My method comprised of melting, pouring and freezing, first milk chocolate chips, then white chocolate chips.  Before I put the last layer in the freezer, I sprinkled crushed peppermint (from candy canes) on the top.  It came out great!  Here’s my hubby cutting the pieces for me (since my hand was hurting from a cortisone shot I had received the day before).

And here they are before we ate them all up!

Really, it was all too easy! 

I’m a Big Boy Now!

What is it about a baby boy’s first hair cut that makes them lose their baby look?  My sweet, baby Abey now looks like big boy Abraham, but the trim was definitely needed.  I love his beautiful curls, but they had become unruly! 

Here’s Abraham before his hair cut.So, my husband asked one of his African American friends where we should take him for his hair cut and he suggested the beauty salon owned by his sister.  My only stipulation to my husband before he and Abraham left was “I want him to keep some curls!”

It’s hard to get a still shot of an on-the-go toddler, but I did the best I could to capture his cute new ‘do.  And he’s still got some curls!

The 12 Soaps of Christmas

My lovely soaps have arrived!  I participated in Bramble Berry’s Soap Swap by sending them 12 handmade soaps and receiving 12 different soaps made by other soapers who participated in the swap.  They all smell and look so wonderful that I’m not sure which one to try first.  The first thing I had to do was smell each one and then read the list of ingredients.  I’ll have to make some notes about which oil/butter combinations I like the best.  The real treat will be putting them to the test!

Aurora

This soap does not look like what I had envisioned.  I was going for a dark blue base with streaks of black, green and purple.  When I added my fragrance oil, the saponification process rapidly increased and before I had a chance to pour my colors into the mold, they were thicker than pudding.  Rather than “pour”, I had to “plop” my colors into the mold.  Rather than “swirl”, I had to “blend”.  However, I’m relatively pleased with the final result.  The green still “pops” a bit, though the contrasts are not what I had hoped for.  And the white powder on the top?  That’s a bad case of soda ash.  I’ve read it’s caused by high levels of humidity and we’ve had our fair share of that here in the St. Louis area, but I’m at a loss as to how to prevent it.  I’ve read placing wax paper on top of the soap will help prevent it, but that sometimes ruins the appearance of my soaps.  My husband suggested that I wait a while before covering my soap so that condensation doesn’t form with the soap is still hot, so I’m going to try that next time.  It smells wonderful, though!  I used Sleigh Ride fragrance oil, which smells like peppermint and snow (to me).  We’ll see what a month on the curing rack does for it. 

On the Rack

A favorite!  Oatmeal, Milk and Honey! After a brief hiatus from soaping to focus on Christmas decorating, shopping and baking, I made this beautiful loaf last night!  It was my first attempt at layering cold process soap and I think it turned out pretty cute!  There are three layers: yellow, brown and natural with oatmeal in it.  I used bubble wrap on the bottom of my mold to create a honey comb look.  The soap is made with Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Olive Oil with infused Geranium Blossom, Sweet Almond Oil, Shea Butter and Castor Oil.  It will be a real treat for dry, winter skin!  Look for it to be ready middle of January.

Christmas Cookies…Mmmmm

I don’t know if it’s a tradition, per se, but we definitely make a lot of cookies during the holidays.  I recently made over 100 snowflake sugar cookies to exchange at a cookie exchange party.  In return, I received a variety of delicious cookies!  My favorite were gooey butter cookies…it’s a St. Louis thing.  However, my cookies are going fast so I need to replace them SOON!  Here’s what I have on my baking list:

Peppermint Bark.  Never made these before, but the peppermint bark soap I made recently made me want to make the real thing!

Frosted Sugar Cookies.  We make these on Christmas eve.  The kids frost and decorate them, eat some and leave some on a plate for Santa.

Bourbon Balls.  I made these last year and they are delicious!  Chocolaty with a touch of Bourbon.

Chocolate Chip Forgotten Cookies.  So easy but oh so tasty!  My husband makes these!

Gooey Butter Cookies.  Fortunately, my friend who made the gooey butter cookies (which are now all eaten) also gave out her recipe!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.  I cheat with this recipe and use pre-packaged peanut butter cookie mix.  Still, they’re delicious!

What’s on your cookie list?

Christmas Traditions

I hope my children have wonderful memories of our Christmases.  One of the ways I try to make that happen is by starting and keeping traditions that they look forward to each year and will remember when they’re older.  I thought I’d spend some time this month posting about some of our Christmas traditions.

A tradition I started a couple of years ago is called The Jesse Tree.  My children know that Christmas is when we celebrate the joy of salvation that was made possible through Jesus’s birth (and ultimately his death).  However, I didn’t want that celebration to focus on just one day. The Jesse Tree connects the Advent season with Old Testament promises of the coming Savior.   The Jesse Tree gets its name from Isaiah 1:11,

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
   from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

This prophetic verse points to the promised Messiah who will be a descendent of Jesse (King David’s father).   Each day during Advent, we read a passage from the Old Testament and then hang a relevant ornament on the Jesse Tree.  The scriptures span 4000 years of God’s promise of salvation to His people and ends with the ultimate fulfillment of that promise; the birth of Jesus.

Two years ago, I let the kids pick out any tree (within budget) to use as our Jesse Tree.  They chose a white tree with multi-colored lights.  I didn’t like the laminated ornaments I used in the past, so this year, we made new ornaments.  I found clip art pictures that represented each of the scriptures and printed them on white card stock.  I then used a circle cutter to cut them out and glued them onto foam ornaments I bought at Michael’s.  The kids had fun decorating them with glitter glue and sequins.

The readings I use were written by Anne-Marie Welsh for Faith magazine, published by the Diocese of Erie.  You can find them here.

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

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