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