New wax melts!

Hi Folks! Just a quick post to show you all what I've been working on lately. Wax melts! I run warming pots almost daily and I finally got around to doing my own. So here are a few I've been working on.


First up- Butternut Pumpkin

A delicious scent of pumpkins & spice and a touch of vanilla.













Hot chocolate
Smells just like your favorite
cool weather treat!

This one has got to be a favorite scent of mine now its Sugar Corn Pudding! Fresh corn, sweet butter, creamy milk & sugar






These are used in your favorite wax melter pots like the Scentsy pots or some discount stores have versions of the same kind of melter. The wax melts are available in my either one of my shops over on Etsy or Bigcartel

Gradient Soap Challenge

This month I joined the soap challenge from Great Cakes Soapworks. This months challenge was to make a gradient soap using 3 colors. This was my first time entering the soap challenge and my first time making a gradient soap! It actually went really well. The fragrance is Cedarwood Sage. I planned everything out, printed out the instructions. I even wrote down on paper my layers so I wouldn't get things mixed up. For the soap I used green, yellow and orange for a fall color theme. I also used just a sprinkle of glitter on the top of the soap. Here are some pictures I put into a collage. This is the beginning stages of the soap, from mixing colors to layering, to the plops on top! I did leave out some of the layering pics but you get the point.

This next set of pictures are when the soap has hardened, before I cut the soap in it's loaf form and then the cut bars. For this gradient soap I used colorants from TKB, all my other supplies used are from Bramble Berry, Wholesale Supplies Plus & Natures Garden.

And here is the final product! All in all I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I wish that the layers were just a tad more pronounced but I'm pretty proud of it!


Cedarwood Sage Gradient Soap

Thanks for stopping by! And thanks to Amy of Great Cakes Soapworks for hosting this great challenge. It's always fun to learn something new.

Super Swirls!

Good afternoon!

A few weeks ago I was able to download on my Kindle the new Soap Crafting book by Anne-Marie of Bramble Berry. If you soap, you know who she is. This is a fantastic book with lots of pictures, I like pictures :) After flipping thru the books for a few days I decided I was going to try out one of the techniques in the book. I picked out Squirty Swirls. Now this was fun! Squeezing layer upon layer of soap in my mold.

Here are pictures of the soap out of the mold and cut. I absolutely love the design it made. The colors I used were silver mica, aqua and white.

Here is a more close up picture. I would definitely try this technique again

Thanks for looking!

Just sharing a small soapy story of my soap I made from the Soap Crafting book. If you'd like your own copy of the book find it at http://www.brambleberry.com

Soap Swap

Earlier this year I joined Bramble Berry's spring soap swap, I had so much fun I decided to participate in the fall swap also. This time around I combined 2 scents. Black Tea and Blackberry, both from Bramble Berry. I wanted the tobacco smell from the black tea with just a touch of berries. It sounded good in my head so I went with it.

This was my entry. It is colored black, white and burgundy. I didn't do anything crazy as far as swirling. I literally just poured the soap batter in the mold. I was quite happy with the swirl. I named this soap Blackberry Tea

Here is a cut picture of the soap. Lookin' pretty good!

This is the Blackberry Tea all packaged up and getting ready to send out for the swap.

And these are all the fantastic soaps I got back from my swap! For those of you who have never joined and are curious about the swap. Bramble Berry hosts 2 swaps a year. A soap maker makes 12 full size bars and sends them to Bramble Berry and in return you will get 12 bars back from 12 other soap makers! All you have to pay for is your shipping ( bars shipped out & bars received back) and of course the cost of your own supplies to make your bars. I cannot wait til spring to join again!

Weird Soap

I made this soap a few weeks ago. It's Brown Sugar & Fig. Funny thing is when I cut into it... Anyone else see the resemblance to Jack from Nightmare before Christmas??

It's jammin' time!

It's that time of year again to start making your favorite jams & jellies. Making jam is on of my favorite things to do, next to making soap. We go every year and pick strawberries in June. My kids are older teens but they still enjoy going and picking berries, filling their baskets. So far this year I have made strawberry jam, strawberry & blackberry jam and just yesterday I made a blueberry jam. I'm still waiting for enough of my peppers to ripen in my garden, then I will make a hot pepper jelly.It's one of my favorites. Jam on!

Strawberry Jam

Strawberry & Blackberry Jam

Vine videos!

My first set of vine videos! Such a neat way to video soap making adventures! Here I am making Cucumber Melon soap. My youngest daughter was so kind to film for me. I think she did a great job! Thanks Cami!

Soap Making

 Why make or buy handmade soap? Besides that it is so customizable, you can make it any color or no color, any scent or no scent. Handmade soap uses little ingredients. It's not like the bars and body washes at the store. Those are made of tons of chemicals, things we can't pronounce and remember the skin is your largest organ. We should take care of it!  Handmade soaps are made with simple good for you ingredients. Oils, fabulous butters such as shea butter, colorants from clays, micas & pigments, fragrances from synthetic fragrance oils or natural essential oils. Soap makers control what goes into them. Some are all natural and some are mostly natural with the exception of say fragrance oils. The one below is made with a fragrance oil, my usual oils and cocoa butter.

Blue Sugar handmade soap

Master Tonic


     Have any of you ever made or tried a master tonic? Sometimes they are called plague tonics because they are believed to cure everything, mainly colds & flu. So I thought I'd give it a shot. I made this one back in February. We haven't had the need to use it here in our family.

This spicy little jar has a combo of  fresh onions, garlic, jalapenos, ginger root, horseradish & unfiltered apple cider vinegar.  This mix can be used by drinking a few teaspoons when you feel sick.

Use fresh ingredients:

1 part onions                                              1 part ginger root
1 part garlic                                                1 part horseradish
1 part jalapenos or any hot peppers        Unfiltered apple cider vinegar


Wear gloves!!
Start by chopping up all the veggies & roots. Pack them in a jar that will seal. Cover the veggies with vinegar and tighten a lid on. Let this mixture set for 2 weeks, shaking it once a day. After the two weeks is up strain all the goodies off and keep in a cool place out of the light. I have mine stored in a cabinet.

To use: gargle, swish & swallow a teaspoon once you feel cold like symptoms coming on. Several times a day. Now remember I've never tried this so I have no idea if it actually works!

Hopefully we won't ever need this but just in case...

Wild violet vinegar

I saw a few posts recently on making different things with violets. I never knew the little tiny purple flowers I picked as a child in my yard were violets. I also didn't know the many things you can do with these things! Make oil, vinegar (which is what I did here) candy them, eat them in salads and make jelly. I'd love to gather enough to make jelly but for now I made a vinegar. I guess I should have infused them in oil and maybe I could have used that in soap? Hmmm
I really just wanted to see the beautiful color this would turn out to be. So I give you

Wild Violet Vinegar!

We picked the flowers, trimmed the stems & rinsed them off. Placed them on paper towels to dry out a bit and then placed them in a old salsa jar. Next you heat up some vinegar till it's warm enough to cover the flowers and let the flowers steep. The bottom left picture was taken maybe and hour after adding the vinegar. The bigger picture on the right was taken about 12 hours later. It's a magenta color and it's so pretty.

So in about a week I'll strain off the flower and be left with this gorgeous vinegar.
Now I have no idea what I'm doing with the mixture but it sure is pretty to look at.

     This is a bar of my handmade soap. It's Honey Almond scented, uncolored, plain Jane  looking, contains a fine oat powder I ground myself & raw honey along with it's usual good skin loving oils. I set out a year ago to make soap mainly because I thought how cool is this? I can customize soap recipes to smell like whatever I want and look however I want?!
Holy crow!

     One of the first things I learned was the difference between handmade soap & commercial soap my soap was just that. soap. Commercial soaps are not soaps they are detergents and really harsh on your body. In my researching I shifted from "how cool" to " I need to" to protect my family. I use essential oil and synthetic fragrances. Some of my soaps aren't completely natural, and some are...  but either way they are better then store bought in my eyes and I control what goes into making them.

    So here we are a year later.. I make soap, lip balms & solid lotion bars. I make my own laundry detergent (it's 3 ingredients!) and use vinegar as a fabric softener. I've made my own hand soap. I am far more aware of what we put on our bodies & what we eat as well, and my plan is to change that for my family. I'm planning a herb garden this year to grow on my tiny condo patch of grass. Hopefully the herbs I grow, I can use in soaps, salves and herbal teas. I'm applying for a garden plot here in our city at the community garden, hopefully we can get a plot! Wish me luck


I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences with you