Stitching My Story

Soapmaking with my BFF...

Last week Cindy and I had our holiday soap making day. If you are someone who gets holiday gifts from us.... ummmm..... sorry to ruin the surprise.

First, we gathered our supplies. Fats, lye and smelly stuff.... Mmmmmmmm.

Next, we measured carefully-ish.

and melted...

and mixed....

and snacked....

and poured...

 

Each batch makes two 4-pound boxes.

24 pounds of soap (and a queasy swedish-fish filled tummy) later....

The lye and fats in the soap need to saponify. In a few days, the logs will be cut into bars.

In six weeks, the bars will be ready to wrap for holiday gifting.

*happy sigh*

Thanks for a great day, BFF.

(To read more about both our process and our adventures, go here and here and here)

Signs of the Season....

Windows filling up with paper snowflakes.

Piles of sTuFF for gifts to be.

Quilt tops that need quilted.

Newborn soap bars curing.

Beads and bracelets EVERYWHERE.

A warm wool hat in progress for the noggin' below.

(This grin sends me over the moon!)

A needle felted gnome... that wants to be part of a needle felted gnome garland
(This is the part of the post where you realize I'm a bit nutso... a gnome GARLAND? When will I have time for THAT??)

The beginnings of my cowboy's contribution to a cookie swap at work.

How are YOUR holiday projects shaping up?
; )

Some Christmas Gifties....

Handmade Citrus Soap... wrapped and ready for Santa's Sleigh.

The Magic Wand...

I couldn't even BEGIN to list all the reasons she is my BFF. I would be here for weeks and weeks and weeks on end typing away. I can show you one reason, though:

It's a magic wand. She bought it for soap making. Instead of stirring for two plus hours per batch to get our lye and fats to trace, we used this handy dandy tool and our soap batches were ready inside of 15 minutes each. We made three batches total (approx 96 fat bars of soap), and had plenty of time to spare to make some beaded bracelets for holiday gifties!

Who would imagine that fats, lye and essential oil could be mixed to make something so heavenly?! I'll post pictures of the cut bars soon.
: )

First Moo Cards, Now THIS!

Customized Starbucks Card

Seriously, friends.... Life ROCKS!
: )


Tomorrow is my SeMi AnNuaL soap making day with BFF Cindy. Look HERE to see the process we use, and the ridiculous amount of fun we have. I've been working on my arm strength at the gym. I'm ready for stirring... and stirring... and stirring....
; )

More Soap Pictures....

Soapmaking...

Today Cindy and I made soap. We do this a couple of times a year and it is WAY fun. The process involves, lye, fats, essential oils, laughter, and lots of stirring (LOTS of stirring).

First we mix lye and water outside and leave it to cool. You don't want to get too close to the bowl when you add the lye to the water.... it puffs up a really stinky little puff cloud, and the water immediately gets VERY hot.

(We tried adding lye to goat milk one time for goat milk soap. It was NOT a happy soap making experience. We will no doubt try it again because over time, Cindy and I tend to forget why we thought something wasn't a good idea. Selective memory is a good quality in best friends, don't you think? *grin*)

We leave our lye water outside to cool while we melt the fats together over the stove. Our favorite recipe uses coconut oil, palm oil, vegetable shortening & olive oil. At this point in the process it is hard to imagine rubbing these ingredients on one's body in an effort to become all clean and yummy smelling.

When the fats are melted, we cool the mixture until both the lye water and the fats are near to the same temperature.... then we mix the lye water and fats together.

Then we stir... and stir.... and stir... and stir some more. If we are going to get silly, this is where it happens. It is hard to stir for a long time without getting silly.

(P.S. Never eat soap)

(i *heart* you, Cindy... this picture of you makes me laugh OuTLoUd)

We watch for the soap to "trace" before adding essential oils and pouring the mixture into our soap boxes. We stirred for over two hours today! The picture below is me stirring myself into numbness.

My quick thinking buddy administered sWeDiSh FiSh ThErApY to renew my stirring enthusiasm.


Below Cindy is preparing our box molds for the soap mixture. She is lining them with parchment paper to make the loaves easy to remove once they're set up (24 hours or so).

(still stirring)

Our soap is almost ready to pour....

Now it's getting exciting! Our soap is CaReFuLLy poured into the mold
(Yes, I realize my pouring technique wasn't very tidy)
; )

Each batch fills two large soap boxes (14 to 16 bars per box).
We made two batches (four boxes) today.

After pouring the soap, we lay strips of parchment paper on top of it and fit the lids on top of that. These boxes are left in a warm spot, covered by blankets, until set. Tomorrow or the next day, we will pop the soap "logs" from the boxes and cut them into bars. These bars will cure 4 to 6 weeks before we begin using them.

Didn't that look like fun? Want to try it yourself?

Soap Making Books
Soap Making Supplies
Soap Making Dictionary

Soon our bathrooms will smell like
lavendar & lemon grass soap,
and
sweet orange & grapefruit soap.

I can't wait!!