Guest Moulds

Deliveries arrived yesterday, so I have started making soap again. I had ordered a guest mould to have a play with. I have not used these sorts of moulds before so I did not know what to expect. They are a bit of a faff to fill, but then I am not terribly adept at fiddly. Then there is the difficulty of getting the little buggers out of the mould. A great deal of twisting, banging the moulds on the work surface, and a little bit of yelling and they popped out. I am quite pleased with them, but I think that next time they I will leave them longer before trying to extricate them. I think that they would look lovely with a touch of mica to highlight them, but I don't have them on my assessment.

I have been getting soapy withdrawal symptoms waiting for my ingredients to arrive. The bank holiday weekend slowed things down a little and I am still waiting for my ribbons so I can make a final decision about packing.

Easter

Surprisingly for a bank holiday, the weather is sunny with blue skies, albeit windy.

I have been messing about with packaging, but can't quite decide what I want. I like both options (see above, but please ignore the delightful background) and there does not seem to be an overall consensus. I think that I will have to defer my decision until I have the "proper" ribbon and have created my label. Still, I have plenty to do to be going on with.

There is a lot of work involved with getting a business off the ground, and my loo roll list of things to do, never seems to get any smaller. It does keep me out of trouble however and what I find so encouraging is the reviews I get for the products I make.

Lovely Buttery

Yesterday, I made a body butter for my Mum to take to my godmother in Menorca next week. I have made them in the past with varying degrees of success, but I am really happy with yesterday's efforts.

It is a shea butter, coconut oil whip with added avocado butter, fragranced with geranium essential oil, and absorbs beautifully. I hope that she is happy with it. It is good to have as many guinea pigs as possible, and the body butter is something which I hope to sell at some point.

It would appear that spring has finally sprung. We have beautiful blue skies and sunshine today, although there is quite a wind which lowers the temperature somewhat. I spent a few hours potting up seedlings and planting seeds in the vegetable patch. The seeds which were planted a couple of months ago - aubergine and tagetes are doing very well, although the celeriac have died a death. The consensus is that it was too warm for them in the propagator. I have put celeriac seeds in the veg patch to see if they will be any more successful. I can't wait to be able to pick and then cook my own veggies.

The clocks to forward early tomorrow morning. That will confuse the animals.

Soap or Croap

A couple of weeks ago I made a batch of my usual soap, and it was a complete disaster. It was supposed to be my first batch for sale, and the really frustrating thing is the waste of essential oils, which are not cheap.

Today, I decided to bite the bullet and make another batch. Just in case, it all went pear-shaped again, I left it unfragranced, and thankfully it worked. I was beginning to think that I had lost my touch, but it has set and cut really well. I was so pleased with the result that I made a fragranced batch later in the afternoon scented with my geranium mix.

I have also, finallly, decided on my packaging. It has taken a while. I kept allowing myself to get distracted by what other people were doing, but once I had decided on a look for the products it all fell into place. Watch this space, and all will be revealed shortly.

This year, I have taken over Dad's vegetable patch. I am really not known for my greenfingered abilities, but I am giving it a go under the watchful eye on my Mother. The garlic is growing nicely - at least the garlic that my brother's dog is not pulling up. I am not sure that she is digging it, but I think that it is more that she tears around the garden like a mad thing, and churns up the plants.
Last weekend, we reinstated the propagator and planted aubergines, tomatoes, salad leaves, celeriac and tagetes (the tagetes are to keep away greenfly and other such creature) and the cucumber seeds went in yesterday. At the moment, we have two aubergines, one tomato and lots of celeriac and tagetes growing nicely. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks the soil will be warm enough to be able to plant seeds directly in the garden. We have lots of other vegetables to go in - garlic chives, leeks, khol rabi, baby turnips, French beans and other things I have forgotten. I am terribly excited about it, although there is absolutely no guarantee of success.
My soap safety assessment came through a little while ago, so I am desperately trying to finish the website, decide how I want my products to look, find packaging, look for boxes to ship my products in, and of course make the products. Still, it keeps me out of trouble. There is a lot of competition about and I need to make sure that not only are the products lovely, they look great too. Decisions, decisions.
The weather this weekend has been glorious, giving hopes of a summer to come. The sun is shining, and the sky is blue although there is still a real chill in the air. I do hope that we have a decent summer this year, we deserve one. The winter seems to have lingered longer than normal, but that may just be my perception. We are in March and still have frosts.

Winter Blues

I think that Winter is the saddest of seasons. It is joyless with dark skies and short, cold days, the leafless trees and the plants awaiting warmer weather before they appear. There is little to recommend it to the uninitiated and I yearn for the warmer weather, particularly as I have just received my gas and electricity bill. It will be nice to fling open the back door and not have to shiver while the cats sit and chatter at the birds sitting in the tree which overhangs the alley, desperate to get at them and unable to. I am sure that the birds know that, and sit in the branches just to tease them.
On Friday evening, while I was driving home, the sky looked as if it was on fire. The most intense reds and burnt oranges lay low over the horizon with small grey wispy clouds floating above. It was a beautiful and vivid sunset.
There are signs of Spring in gardens and in parks. Snowdrops are showing their small white bells, and daffodils are beginning to show above the soil. We have had snow again this weekend, and more is forecast for later in the week.
I planted garlic before Christmas, and it is doing very well. It is standing inches above the soil while other plants lag behind. Apparently, garlic likes to be hit by frost to be successful, and it has certainly had plenty of that. At the weekend, Mum and I planted flower and vegetable seeds in the propagator in her greenhouse. I decided that I wanted to grow my own vegetables this year. I am not renown for greenfingers, and do have a habit of killing all that I touch, so we will see what happens. It would be lovely to be able to go an dig a vegetable out of the soil, peel it and cook it the same day.
It was great to see British success at the BAFTAs last night. Usually awards go to the strong American contingent, but it makes a great change to see the British on top.

Obsessions

I have an obsession I should probably admit to. Soap. Not that I am obsessive about washing, although I like a good soak in the bath, and I do have a bit of a scrub in the morning. No, I am talking about making it.

I had been thinking of trying for some time, but when you look at on-line tutorials, those demonstrating soap making look like they are dressed in hazmat suits. Luckily, I received plenty of encouragment by people who know what they are talking about, and late last year I gave it a go. I loved the results, and so do the people who have been acting as guinea pigs for me. I like knowing what is in the products I use and I like knowing that they have not been tested on animals. Since I started making my own soap, despite the cold weather we have had over the winter, I have used far less handcream than I would usually have done.

I have had some success with my soap making, although it took me a while to get the colour right. I tried some alkanet root a while ago, to see what colour the soap would turn out and loved the result. It looked like chunks of Welsh slate. I tried again with the last batch I made with a little less of the alkanet in to give it a paler colour, and it looked like cat vomit. Not what you would call much of a success and not one which will see the light of day.

I have just applied for my Safety Assessment, which is very exciting but scary at the same time. I need to think of how I package my products, and look for ways of selling them. Each time I think that I have decided I know what I am going to wrap the soap in, I see something else and then change my mind.

I made a whipped shea butter today for a pregnant friend. Actually, I made two, the same recipe but two different methods. They have turned out very different indeed. One looks like lightly whipped cream and is mousse like in texture, and one like stiff whipped cream. One took two hours and one took half an hour. I will send them to my friend, and she will no doubt give me her honest opinion. This the first time I made whipped shea butter, so I have much to learn. I really enjoy experimenting and it is great fun even when it does not quite work.

We are in for a cold snap later in the week, with accompanying snow. I thought that we had seen the last of the white stuff for this winter and I am not looking forward to more.