Gifts

A housewarming gift ready to deliver to my little sister at dinner tonight!  Here is the packaging:

See, I am making progress around here!  I've made tons of soaps and starting figuring out the direction of the packaging and product line!  Most everything I've made so far is either already being used in our home or in a friends home or is being gifted at Christmas time!  Soon I will have enough of a direction to be able to market some of the products online and in our community! 

Just in case anyone can hear me type!?

Here is the first recipe I might really turn into a product ~ baby soap!  This one is going to be a delicious organic baby morning wash!  It even has a cute name already picked out - my nickname my grandmother gave me when I was tiny.  But.... I can't share all the details yet because what if somebody takes it!  How does that even work?  I don't know!  There will be an organic sleepytime wash too - I have the ingredients all ready, just need a few hours to complete the batch!  To encourage little ones into a gentle restful state I will add a touch of lavendar & some smooth oatmeal at the trace!  Can't wait to see how this one turns out!

Homesteaders Soap

This recipe is as simple as they come!  Just like in the pioneer days, this soap is pure water, tallow & lye.  I read that families used to keep their animal fat to give to the soapmaker and then they would recieve bars of soap in return for the ingredients they contributed.  That is, if they didn't make their own! 

This soap can be used as is or can be milled into other delightful recipes.  I used this as a base for lettuce soap with 8 leaves of lettuce right from my garden! 

More to come!

Blessings,

Olivia

Soap 101, Tallow Blend

Here is one of the first soap recipes I tried. 

After buying suet from a local butcher and rendering the fat myself I was able to make this tallow blend containing some vegetable oils also.  At this point, my goal is to try many recipes to find the ones I like working with, with the most local ingredients I can find.  Part of my vision is to support local farms.  I cannot wait to be able to incorporate fresh local goats milk, buttermilk, lavender and many more locally farmed ingredients into the basic recipes.  I love living out in the country ~ I'm a farmgirl at heart!   

So, I haven't decided whether or not I will continue to use tallow in my hand crafted soaps.  Personally, I feel it supports the local cattle farmers whose meat is sold at my local butcher and utilizes all the parts of the animal so nothing is wasted.  However, I know there are many people who would prefer not to use soap containing animal products and I respect that also.  On the other hand, most of the vegetable based soaps require importing oils from far away and this doesn't do anything to support my local community.  I will probably end up trying to strike a balance with this to be able to offer quality products, with a variety of choices. 

I have tried milling the recipe above into cornmeal bars which was really fun - more on the milling adventures later!

What creative projects have you been working on?  Please do tell!

Blessings,

Olivia

Morning wake up soap with Tea Tree & Peppermint

Here is one of my favorite new soaps I've created.  It's a morning wake up bar with refreshing Tea Tree & Peppermint essential Oils.  I also added peppermint leaves right from my own garden!  Delightful!

My quote for today

I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred,
I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

confession

isn't this soap interesting and delightful?  yes, but it's not mine...

ugh, this process is soooo much harder than it would seem!  i've tested 4 different batches, i've remilled 3 smaller ones.  i'm telling you just about nothing comes out like i imagine it will.

there are so many possible ingrediants, so many calculations to be made... and i want them to be perfect!  i think i may have failed to plan a learning curve into the mix!  about now i am wishing some savvy soaper would swoop into my kitchen or workshop and point me in all the right directions! 

i have so many concepts i'm longing to pursue.  baby soap sets with the most darling names & the sweetest scents...  chickety chickety soap (more on that later)...  i've thought up a whole product line but hmmm it looks like i may be gettin ahead of myself! 

so back to the drawing board i go! and i haven't even started in on the candle troubles i've had!  whew!  just so ya all didn't think everything was always raindrops & roses around here! or maybe that's exactly what it is!