Soap results
Patty was kind enough to take photos of the freshly unmolded soap we made.  
Here’s much anticipated blue marbled soap brick. 
Isn’t it pretty!?!?
Next out of the mold was the Oatmeal Shea…
I thought this was a cool photo showing how they slipped it out from the mold.
And now being cut into bars….
Nice of her hubby to lend a hand with the cutting. I’m sure it’s not that easy to slice through.
Fun stuff!
Definitely want to try it again soon.

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Breakfast tea
…actually coffee. Kimmie is nice that way…she doesn’t mind if we join without the proper beverage. Thanks Kimmie!
I have yet another busy Tuesday. Although I feel much better that I have a few things crossed off the list already. 
Tomorrow, I’m sending my oldest off on his 6th grade school trip. They will be gone 3 days and 2 nights.  This is a huge step!! For both of us. :)  
He is super excited. I’m nervous because it’s 4 hours away. 
I have the packing list at hand and am checking and rechecking it.
What are you doing today??

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Soap Making
So I took a drive today out to my friend Patty’s house so she could show me how to make soap. 
I’ve admired and used her awesome soap for quite a while, 
so when she said she’d show me…
I knew I had to find a time to do it. 
That day was today… 
As I found out later what we made today was cold process soap. It used lye but wasn’t cooked on the stove as I thought it would be.
 
She explained that this soap has a “curing time” of about a month which if I’m understanding correctly, hot process soap is ready pretty much
right away.
This photo is showing the mixing process after 
the lye dissolved in water has been added to the oils.  
She is using a deep pot and a stick blender. 
I was really shocked how quickly the saponification
happened.
This was actually the second batch we made but I had forgotten that I had my little pocket camera with me. I was too busy learning.
For this batch, Patty wanted to try out some new pigments she had purchased. We decided on ultramarine blue and titanium white going for a marbled effect. The scent we used was called “rise and shine”. It smelled divine!!
Her hubby stepped in to lend an extra hand while filling the mold.
Now I have to wait for a month until I see the finished product!! AHH!! I’m not known for my patience. If it didn’t take the better part of an hour to drive to her house, I’d be there on Tuesday when she un-molds it. I’m pretty sure she cuts it at that time as well. Yet another question I’ll have to ask.

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Bottle cap magnets
After working out and running errands this morning, I spent a good chunk of this afternoon putting together all these bottle cap magnets.  I think I’m a little loopy from the glue…need more ventilation in the basement!
You may remember a long time ago I had them strewn across my work surface.
I bagged them up and stuck them away…promptly forgetting they existed.
Well, no more.
They are heading to Texas along with all the other items I’ve been busy creating plus some oldies but goodies.
I still have a list of things I want to make but am running out of time.
I hope I remember to take a picture of everything before sending it off.

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Christmas tea??
Once again my Christmas cactus is confused 
about the time of year. 
It seems to be more of a Thanksgiving and Easter cactus. 
Sure is pretty regardless of the time of year. 
Won’t you stop over at Kimmies to see what my friends are doing today…I’m heading there next.  
And thank you for not noticing the dust on my end table.  

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Tea dye

The other day I came across this cool tea tin. Now I’m not a big fan of Jasmine or any floral tea for that matter but I did like the tin. Who knew it would be full of tea. Not wanting to actually drink it I decided to do a little experiment. I had some scraps of muslin so I heated some water and threw the muslin and tea in with it and let it sit all day while I was out and about.

It didn’t get as dark as I believe black tea would have but the fabric strips are a nice aged color.

So what did I do with them you ask…  
a little layered fabric hair accessory for my girl.

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Light box
I finally made myself a light box for photography!! 
I’ve seen many tutorials on the web but put it to the back of my to-do list. Well, now it’s to-done.  It may not be the prettiest light box but I didn’t have to buy a thing.
I have to show you the huge difference that it makes even without adding any additional light from a lamp.

This was a picture I took yesterday on my sofa table. 
I thought the dark wood of the table would really make the vintage ornaments pop. 
And they do…but not in the way I was really looking for.

Now look at this picture taken inside the light box!
What a difference!
I’m definitely going to have much better photos from now on…at least for the small stuff.
Now I just need to figure out where to store it so it doesn’t get damaged or dirty but is still very accessible.

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