Holiday Crafting

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Holiday! It was a busy one for me. I think my children, Tony and I have had enough Turkey and Trimmings to last us a year. Over the holiday we celebrated Thanksgiving four times at four different family members homes. The best part was getting to see all the family.

On the Crafty side of things

This year the girls want to make some gifts for people so I agreed to help them. Our first project is to make French Milled soap. I don't want them involved in the lye process it is way to dangerous for them so they are re-batching soap and making them in to unique small batches. So far we have made together Pomegranate Citrus Confetti soap that contains Grape seed oil, vegetable glycerin and is enriched with Vitamins C & E, and silk proteins. We also added a small touch of rose petals.

We also made Oatmeal milk and honey deodorant soap that contains Grape seed oil, vegetable glycerin and is enriched with Vitamins C & E, and silk proteins. We added my secret blend of oatmeal to the soap that I also make to use for a facial mask.

Our last batch that we have made for soap so far is a Spa Soap. It is a Rose Violet soap. It is a Salt bar soap that contains Grape seed oil, vegetable glycerin and is enriched with Vitamins C & E, Salt, Camomile, Apricot Seed. Three of the bars we embedded a tiny rose bud in the center of the soap.

We are trying to make all the soaps first because even though they are being re-batched they need time to dry and harden. The more time they have the better.

We also started to make bath bombs. So far only one batch of these and I would like to find a better mould for them, because the ones we are using now just are not cutting it. Some of them are so hard to get out they break and we have to start all over again.

Powdered Method Laundry Soap Large batch

Well since we covered the fabric softener lets get to the laundry soap. There are different ways you can do this as well. If you are a soaper you could make your own laundry soap bars with out superfatting. The extra oils create a nasty film in your washing machine and can leave spots on your clothing. If you make the soap bars you will then need to shave them down on the smallest size on your box grater. Making the soap yourself is the most cost effective for making you own laundry soap but not everyone is cut out to make their own soap so If you are not a soaper You could purchase soap to shave if you buy homemade soap again please make sure it is not superfatted. Using homemade soap is the greenest way to go about making laundry soap but if you wanted you could go to the store and get bars that would work like IVORY would we a great one or others like it and shred them down. Or you could buy soap flakes that are ready to use. One place of many that you can get a bag of them is on Amazon for 8.99. You will also need 1 box of borax, 1 box of washing soda, food processor, rubber gloves and a dust mask & a bucket with airtight lid. Also if you would like Essential oil or fragrance oil to scent your laundry soap.

 

 

2 lb soap

1 lb borax

1 lb washing soda

2 cups baking soda

 

Put on the gloves and mask place soap into a separate bucket for mixing. Next incorporate the Borax with the soap. Next mix in the washing soda and baking soda and completely incorporate. After the mix is complete start to run the mix through the food processor until it is a fine powder and place into your laundry soap bucket until all is completely processed. I recommend that you not skip this step because it will help the laundry soap dissolve better in your washing machine when it is being used. Use 1/8 cup of powder per full load of laundry.

 

Saving money & your laundry Part 2

Please remember as stated in Part 1

~*~ DO NOT USE HOMEMADE FABRIC SOFTNER WITH BLEACH!!~*~

VINEGAR AND BLEACH PRODUCE TOXIC FUMES!!!!

 

Baking Soda Fabric Softener

2 cups baking soda

6 cups white distilled vinegar

8 cups water

Add baking soda to bucket, followed by water. Stir and add vinegar. Separate into bottles then fragrance with essential oil or fragrance oil to your liking.


I use a big bucket to mix the base then I poor it into smaller fabric softener jugs and scent them with E.O. or Fragrance Oil after it is divided. It depends on which I am using to fragrance my fabric softener I add it until am happy with the scent. Before each use you must shake the bottle because it separates and add to your laundry as you would any liquid fabric softener. Add 1/4c to the final rinse in your washing machine. If you have hard water, use 1/3c.

Saving money & your laundry Part 1

I don't know about your world, but in my world this economy isn't getting any better yet. I am always looking for ways to save pennies any way I can. I have been making my own soaps for some time now and since I have such good results with the bar soap I have decided to venture into the laundry. There are some great perks to this project not only will it be better for my families sensitive skin issues, it will help reduce costs for the family budget and it will also be greener for the environment.

~*~ DO NOT USE HOMEMADE FABRIC SOFTNER WITH BLEACH!!~*~

VINEGAR AND BLEACH PRODUCE TOXIC FUMES!!!!

~ What is great about these recipes for fabric softener is that they use vinegar! Vinegar is great for so many things! It Brightens & Whitens so there is no need to use bleach and gets rid of soap scum residue so your clothes will be nice and soft. Not to mention your washing machine will stay free from soap scum build up.

Conditioner Fabric Softener

To make your own fabric softener all you need is old Large liquid fabric softener bottle

3 Cups White Distilled Vinegar

2 cups of regular hair conditioner (any kind you like is fine)

6 cups of water


Add all the ingredients into the bottle shake to mix and your ready to use. If you still are noticing a static cling issue toss a tennis ball in your dyer with your laundry or a piece of crumpled up aluminum foil.

St. Mathews Craft Fair

    Craft Sale yesterday was good. I forgot the camera so that was a let down. I did have someone that came by and asked about if I would consider vending at Art in the Park an they asked for permission to take a photo for their reference of my booth. This is a great compliment. An yes I have been asked once before but it is a expensive show that I was afraid that I could not afford. She told me that I could rent a half booth and the fees she quoted me I felt I could handle so I am strongly thinking of doing it. After all I have been asked twice now they must think I have something don't you think?? Since I was a last min sign up for this show I was out in the hallway. The hallway was filled but still did not carry as much traffic as inside the gym. Also the hallway is much colder because of the doors then the gym. I think I would of doubled my sales if I would have been in the gym. So I put in a request for the next sale there. Sales where not horrible though and I did make a new friend. She was a vender next to me. She sells screen printed T'shirts & sweat shirts. She had some really cute stuff. She has goats at home and that is how we started talking because of my soap making :) She invited my girls and I to come over and see them. I will talk more about this later in another post.


    I had a lot of great customers come by. For the most part I kept busy. I had a few soap requests so I will have to work on them so when Art in the Park comes up in the Spring they will be available. Even a lot of great comments from some saying that they have received my soaps in the pasts as gifts and how much they liked them. Its always nice to hear feedback. Even one older lady commented she had gotten one as a gift and she liked the smell of it so much she uses it to scent things. She said she's had it for like two years now. The day went by really fast and turned out to be a great day! Oh and to top the day off I even had a job offer so we will see what will become of that.

Soaps & Getting ready for craft fair saturday

This week has been a very busy week. I took a basket of soaps to church about two weeks ago and received a call yesterday and said they have all been sold and there are customers looking to buy more. What a great feeling! I have a craft fair this Saturday that I am so looking forward to. I am going to take my daughter Star with me, she has been asking to go with for over a month. She will be a great helper.


I have 13 bars that I named "Imperfect Autumn Magic" it smells awesome! However I call it Imperfect because I had to break my soap loaf mold to get it out of the mold because it leaked through three layers of freezer paper. NOTE TO SELF.... DO NOT USE CHEAP FREEZER PAPER EVER AGAIN! I can be an impatient soaper and do not always want to wait for to soap to cool to much when I am doing hot press. This batch was a re batch and I poured it hot. On the bright side it is a wonderful bar of soap. It lathers beautifully and smells heavenly of crisp autumn leaves blowing in the sweet autumn air. My entire family loves this bar and four bars left the table as soon as it was cut. That is always a good sign. I have two more loaves of soap to cut into bars yet to package and label. I haven't decided on names for them yet. One is similar to my famous Lemon Thyme soap that Mechanics and Truck drivers just love because it really gets the grease off and if they have cuts it helps clean and heal them. This batch has some improvements in the bar and a few added extra helpers. I added Real Lime juice in addition to the Lemon. I also changed the base of the soap instead of using goat milk and shea for this bar I used extra virgin olive oil and aloe. The other loaf that is waiting to be cut is a Vanilla soap with a hits of coco an something else that I forgot what I put in and cant pin my finger on what it was. So I am not sure what I am going to name it yet. I will decided that after I cut it and start packaging it. It should come to me by then.