“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

Yes, yes you should smell like dirt right?!
Gah, I cannot wait until I can smell the soil in my garden again.
Spring is my favourite time of year...well, apart from summer & autumn.
I love the anticipation of seeing my bulbs flowering and planning the garden for the coming season. However, this year we plan to completely cover the garden with a new natural stone patio.  I do plan to have some huge pots full of bamboo and several other companion plants though, I couldn't handle a plant-less garden!
I'm plants crazy, but have found that in our tiny little garden we can only handle a few large specimens, which is a real shame as the big monster plants are my favourites. Our garden has lacked charm over the past few years, mostly due to Matt and I being too busy to deal with it all...even with it being small it's still a bind to keep on top of it.  I do hope that changes this year.
I feel like we need some order out there rather than the higgeldy piggeldy garden we've been used to for a while, so I would love a nice natural (but rusty/black) coloured stone with lots of stuff around to catch the eye.

Here'a a little pic of our garden taken around 2007.
Ya see how new it all looks? It was! But it very quickly became a tangled mess and most plants had to come out. The only thing I can see in this picture that we still have is the palm to the left, which is now approaching 8ft tall!
So, I plan to take out the gravel path, which only leads to the shed and replace all of it with a nice Italian stone, a nice table to sit at, some big floor cushions to sit on and lots of little things to tinker with.
If I manage to pull it off I will post pics of course.


So...back to soap.

  Our Spring release went live on Thursday, which was a hoot. We did really well so a big thank you to all who ordered.  I made sure I had plenty in stock this time as all other previous releases have been sell outs, which can be a pain - not just for the customers but for me too.  Re-stocks can be a bind when you have a pile of orders to send out beforehand.  As the business grows I'm starting to plan ahead just a little bit better, which helps me feel prepared for the rush.
This coming week will be an order packing frenzy, but I've gotten pretty quick at it so hopefully I can get back to playing with soap by the weekend. I have a few new techniques I'd like to try.
I tried my first oil in mica swirl last week, which I loved but was a little disappointed that the swirl I did inside hardly showed at all. Lesson learned.
Here it is, scented in a Lush dupe (American Cream) and not for sale since the dupe is a US fragrance oil, which we are not allowed to use to sell over here in the UK due to the allergen content being missing from the MSDS :-(

I used a Vintage Blue mica and then dusted over a copper mica afterwards for some contrast.
Oh, the soap formula is pretty bad on this one too since I ran out of coconut oil. I thought I'll try a palm & olive soap with a few extras, so I went with Palm (quite a bit), olive, sunflower, rice bran and a small amount of avocado oil. It's gunky, slimy, sticky and well, not very good at all but after tweeting about it being the worst soap I ever made I was tweeted back by Hayley of Paintbox Soapworks who mentioned using Palm Kernel oil next time if I wanted to try a coconut oil free soap in the future. I just may one day.
I think it came out pretty good, but nowhere near as beautiful as the creations made by Emily.
If anybody can pull this technique off to it's full out extent, it's her. What an incredible talent.
I plan on doing some gradient soaps and a few others I have up my sleeve shortly (once the coconut oil arrives!), so will be sure to share once I've had a play.
To finish, here's a pic of our new labelling on a jar of Ethereal Seas Body Whip 
(my fave from the current line up).
Have a happy Sunday x

Walter Sickert....stirred something in me

On my birthday last week Matt and I took a trip to Oxford. We went to visit the Ashmolean museum for the second time. It's been a couple of years since we last went and quite a lot has moved/changed.

The last time I went I didn't have the time or the head space to really enjoy the paintings and the tapestries and the India dept. as I would have liked so this time since it was just Matt and I, we strolled around looking at the items, which stirred something inside us both.

Matt of course was checking out all the pottery (he's a slipware potter if you didn't know) and I fell in love with the Indian God sculptures and the Linens, the Egyptian Gold and the areas dedicated to all the great painters.

Walter Sickert though was the one who's paintings made me stop dead in my tracks. Not because I have anything in common with the paintings, but because they are so thought provoking and rather ahead of their time.

This one above just blew me away. I stood in front of it for quite a while before Matt found me.

I took this close up pic along with the storyboard for you all to see.

I love the expressions and the bottle on the mantlepiece and how everything in the home is as it should be...apart from the occupants.

Saddening. I almost want to jump in the pic and say "You go one way...You go the other"!

But at the same time I can see why they stay as they are.

Thoughts?

7 Sins...

Stylin': Deep, dark chocolate cake with fondant icing fingers and cinnamon quills with thick dollops of whipped cream, dusted with mixed spice.

Scentin': 7 sins...of naughtiness. Banana cake infused with Ginger, topped with Vanilla Frosting and drizzled with melted Dark Chocolate. Toasted Madagascan Vanilla bean with a dribble of Honey and finished with a scattering of Hot Buttered Popcorn.

Butterin': Un-refined, dark, organic Cocoa Butter from Kenya.

A bit more....I decided to have a pop at creating a cake inspired soap after watching Kia from Beacon Creations do her thang on YouTube. She has such a flair for creating the ultimate in textured tops and for creating a want for her products inside me so deep that I want to buy her soaps all the time just lately. (i just placed an order...shhh!).

She makes all kinds of different soaps and I love how she talks you through what she's been doing. Her video's also chill me out so much so that I watch them before slumber.

Anyways, this soap is a one off from me. I rarely use 100% fragrance oils in my soaps so this is like somebody else made it. I walk into the curing room and sniff it not really registering that I made it!

I was so happy with the results though, really. Thanks Kia!

At this time of the year my thoughts turn to pastels, to finely iced cakes and to flowers and leaves...and my birthday is just around the corner so I am starting to feel very spring-like and inspired by what's happening around me in the outside world so much that my soap ideas are now flowing for summer soaps.

I have a few from the original line up to make once my Patchouli oil turns up (how I got so low I don't know), then I'll be cracking on with some newbies again.

Hope you like this one.

x

Headline News...in The Telegraph

Hi gang!

Last Saturday we were featured in The Saturday Telegraph newspaper and have since been absolutely inundated with orders, which has enabled me to breathe a huge sigh of instant relief.

Those who know me well know that Matt and I have been under tremendous strain with money and have been holding out for a miracle that will enable us to continue with our little cottage industry.

This may only be short term...who knows...?

But it has enabled me to spend some well-earned cash on a shed load of ingredients so that I can get on with new introductions for 2011. I'm so excited!

If you missed the article on our Facebook page, please click here to be directed to the website 'In The Press' area. If you click 'The Telegraph' you can read it as a pdf.

If you click view you can change the page display to 'two up' so you can read it as it was displayed in the paper.

If any of our new customers are reading....thank you all sincerely from the bottom of my heart for ordering! It means an awful lot.

I've been tweeting and facebooking about it all....so I'm really sorry if I've bored some of my soapy friends...but really, I can't believe the response we had. It's truly incredible and makes me feel very, very happy to know that people really like the soaps as much as I love to create them all.

Next up....there will be a trip back to the archives....SNOWDRIFT soap is making a come back shortly. Those of you who tried it and loved it will be over the moon!

Keep 'em peeled!

xx

Midnight Marauder....

New!

Midnight Marauder was named by my nephew Ethan who is 10.

Inspiration for this ere soap was good old Harry Potter....and Peter Pettigrew.

Sprinkles of brown sugar & dried orange peel are scattered in zig zag lines over the top.

Footsteps run across each soap.

The scent is a combo of warm spices with citrus and sugar.

Lots of essential oils blended with a few choice fragrances.

Made with molasses and dark brown un-refined cocoa butter with a bit of yellow oxide for the flashing.

I was going to incorporate some red to mimic the colours of Harry's preppy scarf but then decided to leave it and keep it looking darker...like something you may find in a shop in Diagon Alley.

Coming out for sale in a week or so. I'll keep you posted.

Hope you are all well.

new batches of regulars

Just cut this morning. I tweeted about this soap seizing on me yesterday. It decided to go on me just as I needed to do my dots. I only just managed to save it, but it didn't come out as good as it normally does. Never mind, at least it wasn't a total disaster.
Because my soap batter thickened too quickly, I had to layer instead of the usual random pours.
I actually quite like the layering. It came out good. Not too perfect.


Herbaceous cut up on Sunday. This soap has such a good scent...even if I do say so myself.
It's a blend of Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram and Litsea Cubeba (may chang).
A very refreshing herbal scent with a lemon top note. One of my ultimate favourites.
The colour was created after looking at my trusy Farrow & Ball paint chart...again!
Such a good way to think up colours. This duck egg blue was created with TD, ultramarine blue & chromium green oxide.
A good seller at Capability in Cheltenham. If you're ever in the area, you must visit this little treasure trove. It's a really well thought out shop for gardeners. Michele also does garden design.
I'm so pleased she agreed to take my soap last year. She's done really well for me!


Arabica in it's packaging. Now available to buy online here.
I didn't plan on this soap being as scrubby as it is, but I've been using it for the past 3 days in my bath, and it's the DON for exfoliating the whole body.
I like my scrubby bars ultra scrubby, yanno...so it does what it's supposed to. This does a good job, and smells ultra nice. Sweet orange with earthy base notes. I love this and will keep making it as I think folks will love it.


Remember that tutorial I did for Jo's blog? This is the finished, cut up soap we made.
How did yours turn out? I know a few of you had a go as you've been telling me...so do show us.
Leave a comment with your link on this post if you like. Thanks!


Final pic...Herbaceous logs. I love my batches cut into logs. Just a shame to cut 'em all up.
If only I could bathe with a whole log. I might try one day!

harvest moon...already?

nice balls. nice peaks. A newbie. I dunno why but I had this 'orange' thing going on in my head for a few days, so I thought before I have to re-produce all of my regular range of soap, I'll get this one outta my system. It kept eating away at me. Sometimes, the need to create a new one gets to you. It can sometimes be a chore when making the same soaps over and over....for me anyway...anyone else? So...a bit of pad 'n pen action brought me to an essential oil combo of Sweet Orange, Clove Bud, Patchouli & Ginger. As I write, I'm thinking there's another oil that I added, but I can't remember right now if there is or not! Will have to check my notes...but I can't remember where I put those either. Never mind. They'll turn up. Now, I'm not a fan of ginger when smelling it straight outta the bottle...to me it smells somewhat 'doggie'....or rather like 'doggie biscuits', but when added into a blend in very small quantities I find it very, very pleasant. Even when cutting, this soap smelled divine and after a few days curing the scent has changed a little more into a 'fresh linen'-like scent. Very nice, especially when created naturally. I didn't have a name until I cut it. When I sliced the batch open, the balls looked like moons and the colour looked like harvest hay. So, there was my little soap making up it's own name all by itself. I bring you 'Harvest Moon'. Funny, I used to sell an Echinacea plant called just that too....but it died every time I tried to grow it. Hopefully, this soap will live long...and prosper.