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