OOPS! Latest supply haul, last video to go up :(

Meant to get this one up first and somehow it is the very last thing I am getting to today :(  Here is my supply haul from last month...

I really do love these new fragrances....still trying to decide which cranberry I like best...but overall I am pretty excited to start pulling out the Christmas stuff and getting it going!

The making of...THREE soaps :)

Well - really it's the making of a normal batch of "Country Skies" and then two tiny test runs of "Hansel and Gretels House" and "Saffron and Cedar".  But it's not the size of the soap it's the info in the video that counts eh?

Hansel and Gretels House I think I shall rename to "Gingerbread Man"...or maybe "Can't Catch Me" and when people ask ??? what does that mean I'll say: "Run, run run as fast as you can - can't catch me I'm the GINGERBREAD MAN" and I'll laugh wildly at the end.  What? No? Sounds Crazy?  Okay, so maybe I'll stick with Gingerbread Man....probably keep it simple like it is here too....perhaps a flat, short bar instead of a tall normal bar, but still with icing and sprinkles?  Oh how mama needs a froo froo mold for that...one day.....anyways, top came out like this:

Then there is "Saffron and Cedar" - I dunno....I was thinking I might call it "Drop Dead Sexy" or "Awesome Sexy Man" or something! I love it! Didn't think I was going to love it as much as I do...but it really is a nice fragrance! I was just playing with the colors there - but I will probably keep it just as simple when I do a big formal batch of it....the fragrance did seep out a little the first day or so...but it reabsorbed back in before I even had the chance to cut it...so no biggie there, I still love the way it smells!

This is the top of "Country Skies" - a remake really, it's the Fresh Outdoors scent from Nature's Garden - but I hadn't done a video of it (I don't think anyways) and since I was splitting off the other stuff from that one I figured "eh why not"....just love how it looks all fresh in the mold! Smells good too!

All three claim to accelerate trace - and maybe a little yes - but really all 3 did very well for me and came out pretty perfect...if this slow as heck old internet ever gets the first video up, I MAY post the video where I cut them LOL....and here it is:

Anyways...on to the next video lol...have that ready about Christmas time haha! Actually, with any luck it'll be up before the day is out ;)

FINALLY! A making of "City Slicker" video :)

I FINALLY did a video of making what I call "City Slicker for him" - it's really Black Tie by Nature's Garden and it is FANTABULOUS! I love that smell, I love how the soap comes out, it's just fun!

This is the one I do with the zebra/tiger stripes in black and white...just loving it how it goes together...

The top had a little more texture, but still overall very flat :( I don't know why - I guess it's just so dang hot, I don't feel perky and thusly my soap tops are NOT perky either lol!

I haven't cut it yet - but it's gonna look pretty much like that when I do, just love it! Elegant, but fun all at once.

Off to allow another video to upload while I do other stuffs then :P

Lip Balm...hmmm....

Not real sure how I feel about all that....I didn't get any pics either....but let's just say I now have 85 little tubes of the devil with a lid on it!

Actually, it's pretty good stuff - I'm cheating the system a bit...not gonna lie about it.  I bought a base from Nature's Garden and just melted it down, sweetened it, flavored it, and got it into the tubes....pretty basic right? We'll see how it goes over next time I hit the markets - if it moves pretty decent there, I will for sure make up some more. I have already sent out testers to my loyal groupies - they are loving it, I am loving it.  It's just all the "itty bitty" stuff that makes me a tad bit crazy LOL.

Itty bitty tubes, with teeny tiny tops, and small little sticky icky labels and tiny little shrink wrap bands.....yeah...I like stuff that's bigger and easier to work with can you tell? FOR SURE if I do any more of this I will be investing in the easy peasy filler tray thing-a-ma-jig! I figured this time, since I was only playing with it, I could use a dropper and fill stuff by hand...um, yeah, NEVER AGAIN! That was some royal crazy madness - for real!

I did kinda have fun doing it though - it's simple, not much thinking involved, no preplanning of colors or designs or any of that extra brain power that goes into soap.  Just pick a flavor, melt stuff down and voila! Lip balm :)

But for real though...filler tray thing-a-ma-jig...it's the word of the week where lip balms are concerned :P

Cannabis Flower...aka "Pimp Juice"

Okay, so to be honest, Monkey Farts was getting old - played, tired, too many reruns!  Random way to begin things when the title mentions cannabis right?  See....what had happened was....

Monkey Farts is always the soap that makes people stop and smell things...it's the name.  At markets, at the feed store, even here at the house - when people see "Monkey Farts" they ALWAYS say: "I have to smell that, what DOES a monkey fart smell like???"  And then from there they smell everything else, and especially at the market I have noticed they usually will find at least a few soaps to buy after that....When I placed the monkey farts soap right on the corner where the most traffic came from I would without fail stop a good portion of people "to see what it smelled like".

But now everyone has seen and smelled that one...lord knows I myself have smelled that one...and while it's still a nice soap, I was over it.  I wanted to do something new, something different.  Have I mentioned this before?  "Pimp Juice" was my husbands idea.  He is just nerdy enough to come up with it.  What is pimp juice you ask?  Hmmm.....let my friend Nelly tell you:
Pimp Juice - Nelly

So as we sit here one day the hubby says, "You should make a soap called pimp juice!" (keep in mind I also refer to pg600 - used to bring the goats into heat for breeding - as 'pimp juice', which is where the phrase was being used at the time and I am sure what sparked the hubby to think of using it with soap).  We talked about it, and decided that Pimp Juice the soap should smell like Cannabis Flower Fragrance oil from Nature's Garden.

So, my fragrances came, and I swear to you, as soon as I cracked the bottle open to sniff it I coughed, I giggled, I had flashbacks to younger days! Oh my goodness!   It's one of those scents that inspires you to be naughty and get in trouble like highschool style, I swear! Really - the fragrance gave me the giggles and made me hungry...I'm really having fun with this one even if it smells naughty, thought I admit, I plan to take all my receipts and such to the market with me...and a print out from their website just in case I get pulled over on the way there....ya know...to prove it's really soap.

So I split my batch three ways, and I WAS going to do the whole "mantra swirl" thing....but DANG it was hot that night, and I was all out of patience as sweat dripped in my eyes (and no one wants a bar of soap made with love AND sweat - YUCK!)  I just flopped it all in a mold and swirled it up and added a little gold mica swirl tot he top with some green sprinkles too! I was shooting for the whole Mardi Gras/Rasta/Bob Marley kinda bright and colorful thing ya know?

Not my favorite top ever - I set it down in front of a fan (not thinking) and the paper lining in the mold blew over the top and smooshed it all around a bit....not bad, my mica still shows up nicely, but the very edges look a little ugly ya know?

The house smelled of, well, smoke for a few days too - even though I had a batch of Pink Sugar AND Black Tie AND Rosemary Mint soaps all curing! I went LIGHT on this fragrance too! Thankfully no one stopped by to have to explain it to...

I know, crummy lighting right?  But I like it!  Now if only it will be my new show stopper for a while....I think I will have fun with this one....I know it still makes me giggle when I walk by and smell a bar of it!

Crochet - A soap related Hobby?

Crochet - yarn, a hook, and your own 2 hands. Simple stuff, but highly entertaining for some of us (myself being part of the "some" here). I haven't crocheted anything in AGES! 1) It's too hot - no really, who wants to have a 5 pound blanket made of yarn sprawled across their legs in the middle of summer? 2) WHEN would I squeeze in time for such a project? Sure, there are easy peasy cute little baby things you can make that go fast...but I don't have any kids, and I don't know anyone about to pop a baby out any time soon...so there's not much need for cute little baby stuff at the moment.

THEN it hit me - BAM! Cute can be functional AND soap related! Don't get me wrong, I know I can always make stuff for babies and turn around and sell it...but why not make something that anyone can enjoy? The answer, crocheted  in 100% cotton yarn is this:

See...I often find myself awake late at night. In case you hadn't heard, my husband snores - BAD - so I (for many reason) am up until pretty late most nights. Let's be honest, I am NOT going outside in the dark, in the woods, with coyotes, snakes, and everything else creepy crawly to do "yard work" at night. Not doing it, the end....BUT...what I can do is sit in here and crochet...small easy things, like wash cloths! I can churn out one or 2 of these in an evening, and I have been. Then I set them aside in a rubbermaid tub.

My thinking is this: come the holidays (and even at regular markets through out the year) I can offer these for sale OR I can include them in gift baskets. To me this is SOOOOOOOoooooo much nicer then the shower poof thingies, or even regular wash cloths....it's hand made, it's personal, and it's somewhat "organic " in nature (though not certified or any thing. By organic, I mean "natural" - what's more natural than cotton? NOT polyester that's for sure lol :)

So....part of what I have been up to (though in small bits of time here and there) are these little devils...if anyone wants the pattern, I'll post it - heck, I may post it just because. I figure it will be a nice, personal touch of sorts in gift baskets to come.

Gotta love the men folk....

Oh yes, it's 6a.m. and here I am.....thanks to the husband, wide awake and not in the mood to do anything besides type :P  Why does he always come home from work with orders as follows: "Please send me more of the brown soap".  Okay....um, which one? Oh...AND WHY did he wait until 5a.m. to ask me for soap????

There's Kerfluffled, Rustic, and Billy Goat Buzz - all of which are dark brown due to the vanilla content, Cherry Almond, Goats Eat Oats, and Rustic Roses, all of which are tan either due to the fragrance or how they are made (Roses is a hot process soap, and goes a little tan where it's not colored).....

I just packed up a basket and stuffed a couple lotion bottles in there for good measure, so I could plod on off back to bed and abck to sleep....nope, not working, still up LOL :)

Bless their less-than-specific souls.....the brown one it is this morning! I hope in the future my note "to please save the tag for reference" helps, and I REALLY hope the message my husband took away was to tell me this stuff in the evenings and NOT when I am sleeping!

I'm BAAAACCKKKK!!!!!!!!

Yup - I just looked and it's been OVER 2 months since I have blogged! I have made some soap since then, but not very much :( There's a few videos needing posting....and much updating to do LOL! Going in reverse order of what I have been up to this summer....

There were tamales to be made.....just over 30 POUNDS of meat! Oh yes....that's a LOT of tamales LOL!

3 giant pots full of meat to cook down, masa to make, much steaming to do....

THEN, there are the "baby goats" - whom are no longer so much babies as giant terrors haha! BUT...they have been keeping me on my toes with 3 bottles each, every day, hoof trims, ears that needed tattoos done and of course much baby goat lovin's to be given!

The disappearing/reappearing pig....who has also taken up residence in the goat pen WHEN he is home! I'm always keeping an eye out for him...some days he wanders off in search of greener pastures....

I finally made the decision to sell one of the does - she just wasn't growing up to be what I want or am going for in my herd, it was hard....but it needed to be done. Keep and breed only the best right?
I miss her, but I know she has gone on to a VERY nice pet home!

The whole herd got a bath, and hoof trims a few times since last I was here and...drum roll please....FIVE does have been "exposed"/bred for November babies!!!! I still haven't sent in bloodwork to confirm pregnancy yet....but fingers crossed I get what I want LOL! We did however send in bloodwork for CAE (all negative of course) and that was nice to be done with as well!

Five kittens were born out there, who always seem to be literally under my feet....though thankfully we are a mouse free property I must admit!

 I have a date every few weeks with Murray....our lawn mower! Keeping the grass cut down to a reasonable height takes about a half a day at least out here! THANK GOODNESS Murray is a riding mower!

The other pig...Breakfast...is growing well and doing great! I anticipate her heading off to the processor in a month or 2 more...maybe 3 months, but I bet just 2 more and away she will go and back will come pork chops, hams and bacon!

Several days were devoted to the stocking up of jams and jellies for us for the year....apple cinnamon jelly, raspberry peach jam and blueberry jam....and then I was given a heap of jalapenos so those were pickled and canned for future use in goat cheese (mmmm.....garlic jalapeno chevre!).....HOT, long, sweaty kitchen days...but nice to have enough good stuff put up for us!

A trip was made and geese were brought home....COTTON PATCH geese! Rare, heritage type geese, pretty cool birds actually! I had to do some "remodeling" outside and set up for them as well - they are happy birds, funny too! When the horses call to me, the geese honk and call back! I can't wait until next spring when we have baby goslings running around!

The hens are doing well, and I am now getting about 3 eggs every day from them! Keeping us happily in enough eggs to have breakfast for dinner whenever we please :) I do so love my poultry!

I got the herd on "milk test" - a very simple (though tons of time to figure it out) process with once a month test days where we weigh and send in samples on the milk....makes things more official in the milk department for the goats, and I like having one more bonus to market with them as I can prove how much milk they give!

I also expanded on the doe pen - put up 120 feet more of fencing and "yard" for them....I figured if I wanted to be gone more to markets selling soap and if I wanted to be inside more MAKING soap I needed to give the goats more room to roam and run and play. I felt guilty on the days when I couldn't walk them about...so I added on to their "facilities"....they like it and I feel better now, but that was yet another loooonnnggg week of hard work outside!

There's the magic "pimp juice" that helped to get the goats all bred out of season for them and synched up to be bred on the same day! That way I only have to wait on babies at one time, and not spread out over the fall!

The old water heater had a Chernobyl stile melt down and I awoke one day to a flood of Noah's Ark proportions...so a weekend was spent getting a new one put in. YES, we only have a tiny water heater, in a tiny spot....it's a tiny house, what can I say? It works...no super long showers, but I have enough hot water to test out my soaps LOL, and that is all that matters!

And that's it! WHEW! Looking back, it has been a REALLY long 2 months! I'm going to try to get the few videos I made up, and THEN, I have a TON of supplies on the way this week, so I will hopefully be making more soaps and getting THAT stuff up as well! I spent the early part of the afternoon premixing colors and getting ready to do the few more soaps I can with what I have here...but I didn't realize until last week how empty it was looking in there in the supply department! CRAZY how fast stuff can go when you aren't even trying! And never mind all of the blogs and youtube vids and such I need to sit down and watch and get caught up on! Oh my good grief I have missed SO MUCH being outside like I have been! I am not gonna lie...it's kind of nice to get away from things like television and computers for a while, but I also miss the interaction with other people of similar mindsets...it's just me and the goats most days....hanging out, chillin, and they don't talk you know?

So....off to fidget with a few things and get back on a roll with soapy stuffs and what not :) Glad to be back finally, but I really did need to focus on the farm for a while :)

Soaping - it's a DIRTY job!

First of all, I TOLD ya'll I had a TON of stuff to upload LOL :)  Secondly, take a look at the crazy after math of a night spent soaping!  It's all cleaned up and put away like an hour after I finish the video...BUT DANG!  Can I make a mess or what???? Call me pig pen haha!

All I have to say for myself is at least it's a clean mess :P

Excited for the market tomorrow!

Hitting up my old stand by - Olde Security Square Flea Market - this weekend! Haven't been able to do a 2 day market weekend in a while, just been way too busy! So I am excited to be getting out of the house and heading out!

I know some people DREAD all of the work that goes into this kinda thing - I admit, it IS indeed a ton of work!  But, I really do enjoy the majority of my clients that come through and I really get a kick being about and talking about soaps and goats all day!

I know what I need to be doing at this moment is laundry so I have a clean outfit AND packing...but instead I am playing online...hehehe...naughty me right?  Just can't help it! I am TOO excited! Two whole days outta the house! WOOHOO!

Not like I have been here that much really - I made a trip to the middle of Texas this week, have had a TON of errands to run, just been on the go - but this is different.  I get to go and stay put for the day once I get there, it's nice :)

Better go fix the goats their bottles though....or they will come and yell at me shortly :)  I have some more videos loading as I type...sloooooowly :P Trying to get all caught up after a being double busy!

Making "Lullaby" CP Goat Milk Soap

I use Bedtime Bath Type fragrance from Nature's garden when I make this one - LOVE IT!  Super calming scent to my nose, very nice blend of lavender and chamomile!  Changed it up a little to blue and pink swirls and did a "Holly Swirl" with it - which came out nice :)

I really have fun making these little videos - I mean, while I am not Steven Spielberg I still enjoy what I do! Always a drama student deep down at heart!

Can't wait until this one has cured a bit longer - been made for a while now, just waiting on me to post the video of it's "birth" haha!  One of my faves by far!

Making Cherry Almond Goat Milk Soap

Here's the video from making my version of Cherry Almond goat milk soap, cold process style :)

It came out nicely...still a wee tidly bit soft when I went to cut it...but also still very young at that stage LOL:

I get the fragrance from Rustic Escentuals and it's one EVERYBODY loves :)

Cutting a TON of soaps!

Well, here goes I suppose.  There will be more of these for sure haha, but for now, here is the cutting of "Rosemary ROCKS!!!" a rosemary mint fragrance from Nature's Garden that I absolutely LOVE!

AND THEN....since the "making of" videos were crud...here is the one where I cut a bunch of other soaps LOL.  "Berries & Cream" which is Black Raspberry Vanilla fragrance from Nature's Garden, "Kerfluffled" which would be my name for Pink Sugar fragrance from Rustic Escentuals (the "SNC" version since they have several).

There is also a little bitty loaf of "Malibu Heat Type" also from RE - I haven't renamed it yet since it was just a test run on that one...but I am in love again :)

The true special here is "Summer Nights" which would be Moonlight Pomegranate from NG....even though it is so special it will get it's own blog post...for now it is one video and displayed as such.  I LOVE the way it came out!  Looks so neat!  Took a bit...may not be doing that again LOL....but I was amused :)

So...without furher ado yet another cutting video: 

White Noise...

Well, I sat down tonight to TRY to get some of the videos I made last week and the week before uploaded...yeah...no dice...

See, hubby was home and MOST of them were made while he was sleeping.  You would think this would be great right!  Not so much, see the man snores.  And when I say he snores, I mean like off the rictor scale shakes the house, people in nearby towns think there has been an earthquake SNORES!!! 

So...I played one back....you can hear him...played another back and deleted it since he waltzed through the kitchen half awake and BELCHED then looks over and realizes I am making a video and just hangs his head and walks out....third video I went to check the freakin' dog was barking in (armadillo had her riled up).  Yeah...no....the only ones that are any good are the cutting videos the next day when he was GONE TO WORK!!!

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!  I don't know how other people get such nice quiet houses LOL.  It wasn't happening for me!  Heck, in one you can barely hear me over him!

Suffice it to say, white noise and soap videos do NOT mix!  Tomorrow I am making a road trip, so there will be no uploading of anything until Wednesday or Thursday now...Don't get me wrong, I love him, I really do...but he wonders why I don't sleep at night until I sit down and show him the videos! UGH! I don't know how HE sleeps through his own noise!

So...there shall be minimal video goodness from the most recent batches - but I am okay with it - flustered a bit, but okay with it....someone tell me how to get the house so quiet though....

Some new fragrances :)

Made a short little video the other day, got some supplies from WSP, and a few fragrances from Rustic Escentuals. 

I decided on the Pink Sugar "SNC" version after checking with my lab rats...I mean test subjects...I mean friends LOL.  More Coffee House because that one just ROCKS! And Cherry Almond as I was getting low....AND...I got a small bottle each of "Malibu Heat Type" and "Sweet Grass and Cedar"...

The Malibu Heat type I really like - very summery - and the sweet grass and cedar...hmmm...not too sure WHAT I think at the moment LOL.  But it's just a small sample and I will make a small batch of soap and see what others think.

I find the longer I soap, the less my nose can pick stuff apart. Probably because the whole house is filled with the multiple aromas of multiple soaps curing in there :)

Anyways...one down...MANY more videos to go LOL

Youtube...you are a slow one....

Actually...it's not really youtubes fault...it's the slow internet here in the sticks...

First...the armadillo who comes to visit nightly, a brief video, and notice it is NOT running away, but merely sauntering under the porch to go out the BACK of the house! Bold little critter....

I have videos a plenty to upload, babbling and such to share...and until I get that done, here's some random baby goat cuteness from earlier in the week. The spots on their head are from being disbudded.  Yes, it hurts, but they always seem to get over it VERY quickly! No hard feelings there AND they will be "horn free" adults, which, trust me, is HEAPS better!  That's another blog though....so, until I get more videos uploaded...please enjoy the bouncy little interlude!

Revenge of the Goat Milk Lotion!!!

Okay - so not really revenge - perhaps "Goat Milk Lotion strikes again" lol :)  It's not a bad thing though, just tedious with a LOT of dishes when I am done!

First of all, since I DO put milk in my lotion, I don't like to make a ton all at once and leave it sitting around.  Unlike soap which gets harder and better with time, lotion DOES have a shelf life.  So I try to only make about 50 bottles of it at a time.  I may be bumping that up a bit since it moves pretty fast at the market though...we will see....Anyways, like I was saying...

Yes, I also put a preservative in there (phenonip if you were wondering).  But still, nothing lasts forever you know?  So I don't make more than what will last me a few weeks when I make lotions. However...this leads to TONS of dishes on a lotion day!

I have a lotion for almost every soap scent I make - not every single one, but pretty close.  I have found people like having a lotion to match the soap they use....and this means 5 - 10 bottles of each fragrance every time I make more lotions.  Of course I'm not TOTALLY daft...I make a LARGE batch, then portion it out into smaller parts to scent and bottle....not a million little batches.  At least it saves me time on weighing and measuring and melting everything ya know?

So...today is a "Lotion Strikes Again" day.  It's raining anyways, so at least if the power goes out I can stop what I am doing and come back later...lotion is pretty forgiving like that :) But...I DO have about 50 bottles to get crack-a-lacking at.....

Mother's Day has come and gone...

And a healthy little stack of boxes went with it full of soap orders LOL :)  That's just a portion of what went out last week - it was nice, but tiring!  See....MOST people can get the post office to come right to THEM to pick stuff up - um, no, not here :(  All delivery personnel avoid our dirt road like the plague.  This is probably for the best as they would otherwise most likely end up stuck in my driveway (got a GIANT sink hole happening of sorts, we refer to it as "the quick sand").

So I had to treck into town with all that, unload it with no assistance, and THEN get a lecture from the guy at the post office about someone else picking it up at my door...hahaha...LOL...ROFL!!!!!  I had to tell him they won't come to my door - he looked a little crushed on my behalf.  It was nice of him though to try to let me know about it.  I have to admit, out of all of the major delivery services available, the United States Postal Service is by far the most cost effective for me and at one of the local post offices they are pretty nice (the other one is 'eh soso').

I must admit, I am kinda glad to see one more holiday behind us for the year - it means moving on and ahead to other things, other soapy themes and ideas if you will.  I am TOTALLY ready to start making Christmas soap - but I am trying to hold out until August to start all that :P Perhaps I should focus on summery stuff and Father's Day for the time being don't you think?  Lordy me, I AM a soap mess aren't I?  All ready for Christmas and it isn't even JUNE!

Oh well, guess I should go out and give those baby goats their bed time bottles and then head off to sweet dreams myself eh?

Bath "stuffs" 1 - Me 0!

Yup....you see the score....bleh :(  Last weekend my niece was over, and we decided since I had the fixin's on hand and it's an easy project for a young teen to try that we would experiment with "bath melts'.  Yeah, I know, it's getting too hot almost for all that and yeah, I know it REALLY shouldn't be that hard...yeah...BLEH I said!

Gave a few recipes a go before all was said and done and popped them in the freezer - where they were PROMPTLY forgotten about once we discovered the cookies'n'cream ice cream in there!  Can you say "easily sidetracked" oh yes, that would be me :)  Just a trio of small batches mind you, nothing major...experimental stages and all....

I remembered them Friday when it was dark and I had literally NOTHING to do for lack of electricity that day AND the fact it was still way too soggy to go out side...I unmolded them easily enough...I set them on a rack to thaw a bit...and they were forgotten again...

Whilst passing through the kitchen a few hours later, pacing the house in search of SOMETHING to do with myself they were for the second time rediscovered and OH NO! Oh MAN! OH BABY THEY WERE MELTING!  Yes, melting, OOZING through the rack!  A few gloppy gooey drips of bath melt had hit the counter tops...it was a bath melt tragedy!  The worst part - we don't have a TUB!!!! If I had a tub and not just a shower stall in our little place I would gladly use them straight from the freezer - even if they melt too fast it won't bug me...but nope, no tub here...perhaps a little swimming pool in a month or two would work?

My initial thought was: For real, is someone kidding me?  Because it was fairly cool in here - like MAYBE 75 - 80 degrees - MAYBE....IF that warm!  Let's just say I sweat like my ex-racehorse and I was NOT sweating when I caught them melting....I DOUBT it was that warm in here! Then I realized: This will never do, oh no, can't have bath melts that melt in people bathrooms BEFORE they hit the tub! Good thing we only made a few of each right?  That's what test runs are for folks! Now what to do with the gloppy mess? Back in the freezer - what else could I do?  Power or not it was still cold enough in there to firm them back up and stop the dripping at least!

I wanted a picture SO bad!  I stuck them back in the freezer - if I remember I will get one later when I feel like trooping out there...I am hoping I can at least remelt them (not that much effort will be required there right?) and add a bit of stuff (beeswax really since they are pretty close to what I make already here for lotion bars) and make the "lotion bars" my hubby loves so much for his ucky man feet out of them!

So the tally at this point is Bath Stuffs 1 - ME 0!  I fully intend to conquer this prior to Christmas LOL...one failed batch at a time! Perhaps better luck shall be mine when there is no ice cream to distract me and no power outage to frazzle my nerves?  Maybe they sat forgotten too long and too many times and took it personal?  Who knows...all I know is NONE of those recipes are gonna work :P

Soap Class AND Goat Midwifery 101 :)

Let's just say it has been a CRAZY busy week!  Like that song by Adam Sandler - we have had 8 CRAAAAZY nights!  But, it's been good :)

Taught a soap class a week ago Sunday - and it was one of the best groups of people ever I think!  Heck, they are all pretty great :)  Had a ton of fun, nothing too exciting though...just soap class...THEN....

Monday morning I had a class scheduled...turns out her husband had been teasing her about baby goats coming during class.  AND ONE DID!  Yup, with just minutes of class left I heard it - SOMEONE was having a baby!  So they got a "two-fer" LOL!

Look what we got, a 7lb 6oz girl!

Tuesday I was WHOOPED!  It had been a long few days...THEN Wednesday I got up and shortly there after look what else I got! AN 8lb 14 oz girl!  THAT'S BIG!

NadaLottaRanch Diamond Bar and NadaLottaRanch Dixie Chicken have arrived :)  SO THEN....

Thursday I got stuck in the storm of the year here coming home - it was AWFUL! Dorothy's house flew by! The oak threw another limb at me:

And yes, the broken down fridge is STILL in the yard - gotta get that bad boy outta here this week.  The whole world flooded for a bit:

That would be "Lake NadaLotta Drainage" there...actually it's drying up nicely NOW...but it was DEEP as the water came so fast and so hard! It could be worse though, someone (NOT ME I SAY) lost their carport:

It was VERY BAD! So bad in fact we spent over TWO DAYS IN THE DARK!  Yup, you read that right...no power from Thursday afternoon until Saturday morning!  Sure...we had a teaser where the lights came on for an hour Friday night...but then they oh so eerily blinked off and on and off and on for a few minutes before FINALLY going out! CREEPY!  Kinda like they WANTED to stay on but just couldn't :(

It's okay, they came back and SLOWLY we are cleaning back up again...funny how being without power the house goes straight to hell.  Yup, I said it, straight there...

So...I have some major soapy catchings up to do LOL...videos and pics and stories to post and share...but I admit, it has been a LONG week :)  YAY for babies though!  Got my hands full there for a bit as well - little ones are a handful!  It was so scary dark the nights without power they got to bunk with mama...look close:

I kept everyone safe and close by when it was super dark outside....no lights to keep the coyotes and such away!

So...apologies for being absentee - partly I was busy and partly I was in the dark...more soapy fun to follow ya'll!

Restocking L.O.V.E. (now on video)

Oh yes...I am all video crazy now!  Sure, it seriously takes like 12 hours to get a video uploaded...first from the phone to "google +" (I think that's what it's called...idk....all I know is it's the method I have figured out - I am sure there is a better way).  Then from there to being saved to the computer, THEN on to youtube...T E D I O U S!  But..I LOVE making the videos!

So...we made a restock of L.O.V.E. (the love spell type fragrance) yesterday - I had my niece here to help run the camera and she has never been old enough yet to make soap with me.  FINALLY she is old enough AND available!  All in all it was fun :)  AND it's one of her favorites that I make!

The newest NadaLotta Camera skills on video (LOL) :

The cutting of "Billy Goat Buzz"

I am in LOVE with this fragrance!  The house still smells like yummy delicious coffee! MMMmmm :)

Made a video - used my new "soap cutter" (aka cheese slicer) - and I think even if it wasn't exactly what I was going for, this is one nice soap!  And of course I am overly proud of my cheesy videography skills :)

OH!  Had a moment at the end and cut off the camera before I got the final shots of the cut bars...here's the still photo of that:

 I was shooting for a "Holly swirl" as they call it....I over swooshed a bit...but still a nice looking bar I think :)

So...presenting the cutting of "Billy Goat Buzz":

Billy goat Buzz - the new version!

Yup - finally caved and added fragrance to the coffee soap instead of coffee.  SMELLS WONDERFUL!

Made a video - getting better a bit - though it still takes me literally the entire next day to post it.  Gotta love that super slow country internet we have out here! T E D I O U S as heck waiting on it to do it's thing!

And yes...had a "uhoh" moment there - camera slipped outta position, stick blender is a tad bit wonkey and cannot be trusted to set still and was stuck in soap and I had 2 hands when I needed 3!  Just, don't do that at home folks!  I was all alone and not trying to edit videos and splice them together yet - heck, I'm doing good to get it up as one video....

Slowly, I am getting better at the whole camera thing....really probably just need a real one complete with a tripod for all the stuff I want videos of...it's coming...

It seems like there was something else important to go along with this I wanted to say...hmm...nope, forgot...been having lots of spacy moments when I write these days (my mind is on those baby goats about to be born mostly).

Wasn't too happy with the top at first, but I got a few good pics and it's growing no me.  The flash kind of washed out the "wet look" and since it was actually late at night a while back now when I made it withOUT the flash the colors aren't right...oh well, all the photos are still pretty in their own way I suppose AND the Top came out better than I thought (yes just a sprinkling of real coffee is on there - it's the only real coffee though):

So, here we are - SOAP WITH NO FARM DRAMA FOR A CHANGE :) YAY!