New site underway

My son Jason is very generously setting me up a proper web shop.Haleluia.
I was going round in circles trying to do it myself.
It wont have the shop part ready for a few days and you can still wander through the temporay little out dated one on geocities.

Back from seeing sisters in Sydney and Son's help with web site

A quick trip to Sydney and back ,then a visit from my oldest son.
I am exhausted but very happy.
My sisters and I had such a great time.Thankyou Pauline for once again opening your home to me.
I love the embroidery you did for me with that amazing machine of yours.
If anyone would like to order some this is Paulines site
On arriving back I had a great time with my oldest son Jason who is now very kindly using his vast computor knowledge to set up a proper E soap store for me.
Thankyou Jason x x x

Not quite ready but fun doing the lables

Order arrived and grandaughter and son may visit

I just recieved a large order from Escentials of Australia for my soap making.
Their prices were the best I have come across so far and the goods everything I hoped they would be.The powdered colouring for the soap just perfect shading.I really was surprised with how quickly they came considering I paid by direct deposit and that usually slows things down.The cost of the parcel postage was also excellent. Thankyou Tanya for that link.
So here I am with what I need to try for a batch of whipped soap.
Planing , planning, Want to get those layers right. The prettiest pink, lavender and aqua clay colourings and the Youth Dew perfume to go in "Tenderness".
So I am thinking of making one big drawer batch that can hopefully have swirled topping piped on and several cup cakes similar.I picked up a cup cake display holder from a cheap shop recently .
My oldest son and grandaughter Emily may be coming up today or tomorrow and I thought that sharing soap making could be such an adventure to share.
I was trying to go to a market near my youngest son so he could bring his children and I could go and stay with them and his sweet wife Melissa but I just wasn't up to the long drive.
So if I get this other visit that will be wonderful.
I will let you know how it all turns out.I had better prepare the lye so it can be chilled down.That means I will now have to make a firm decision on the size of the batch and the ingredients
Bye for now.

Rose Soaps delivered

There's the Rose soaps that I dropped in at the lovely Emmalley's Shabby Chic shop in Maryborough.
That shop is the cutest and they serve lovely Coffee , teas and scrumptious food.
You can contact them on ph 0741234444

Tenderness

I have just ordered my ingredients for a new soap and have had to lay arround a bit so planned the colours and perfume "Youth Dew".
Then that little picture came to me. Now I just have to wait a few days for delivery and my precious Tenderness soap can be made.

Web page and Roses

I haven't been slacking off .No no no.

I have been placing slices of soap cake on to my Congo Cart up and coming Store.Oh how long will it take?

Also rustling up lables for my grandma Rose soap.

Those Rose soaps will be ready on the 24 th and they are gorgeous. $8.55 eachplus postage of course. This is the soap that I had all sorts of heart palpitations over importing Rosa Damascena Ess. Oil direct from India.But It really was worth it.

Wait till you see that lable I made for the Romance Rose Soap, incorporating my Grandmothers wedding photo.

Thats it for now.

Happy Sunday.

Starduster

Chistmas Catalogue for a friend

I have made a start on this little booklet for a friend to take to work.I would love to do the Santa ,holly, Reindear thing but I am rushing this.If need be I will go over it later.
I have one page roughed out with soap photos and I will go and give her and her husband a look and see what they suggest. Now this is motivating me .Even through the blurr of Dental Surgery Pain. Ahh what alovely distraction.
My friends havent seen my soaps yet.I can't wait to get their reaction.
Of I toodle now.I let you know later what happens.

Down under the Mulberry Tree

I got lucky.Just look at that.A rebatch of some baby powder soap,Real Mulberries, coconut cream, coconut oil, rice bran oil, coconut oil.
Amber Essential oil blend, Frankensence, ans Aloe Vera.
I just love the way it has turned out.

Muberries

I forgot to mention that I stopped at JA'S Herb nursery to get some money wort , a herb good for healing wounds, to add to soaps later and was allowed to pick some mulberries which I have already boiled and sacrificed my last sugar in the house for.
Mulberries were the staple diet of my 3 sons and my self many years back after I had bought my first Aussi Home and money was as tight as it is in a new home with teenage boys.We ate every type of food you could make with mulberries off a tree in the garden.We died clothes and had mulberry fights.So mulberry Soap is a must.
I will blend that into a christmas star soap with some rebatched baby soap. Had just enough rainfall to be able to wash soap making equipment out.Things are a bit touch and go with water till the next big deluge thanks to a little hose incident.
JA'S nursery has an amazing variety and is well worth a trip.It is at 81 Mapleton Montville Rd, Mapleton. Ph 05 54457128 Fax o7 54786185. I think they do mail order.

Sunday again

And a great sunday morning to you all.
Some of you will be off to sit at an alfresco coffee place and watch the passing crowds,maybe in Veinna. A whole lot of you out there working at essential services like Nursing, ( hi cousin Raewyn) or traffic control.While the mad soapers of the world and I am certainly in that bunch, are as usual contemplating new soap opportunities.
I am picturing sea themes at the moment.Sea horses and dolphins.
Of course there is quite a bit of lead up time from the first day dream to conception.Days roll into months quite easily.This little project is bringing back memories of an underwater sea dive at Cairns with my sister Pauline a couple of years ago.How incredibly beautiful a world it is down there.The colours are unbeleivable on the reef.
I went on a soap adventure to Montville last week.Boutique shoppers most heavenly indulgences.
About soaps up there.Nearly every 2nd shop had soaps.Gorgeous varieties.
Some just wrapped up in gift papers and tied with string.Others very expensively boxed.One of them got me.A pale pink Marshmallow Mor soap.From Ruby and Rose interiors.I was served by sweet Marie, the owner. It was worth it, a lovely perfumed peice of inspiration.
I was inspired to come home and work further on the lables for my 3 Rose Soaps that will be ready about 24th.
Thats it for now and wishing you large soap bubbles of fun.
Star Duster x

Pleased to get that soap all cut up

The colour at this point is so mellow and the chopped up petals and herbs give it that glide over your skin impression.

There they are.112 slices of soap that has turned out just as I had hoped except they rougher top bit settled down.That could have been the coconut cream I added at trace maybe.All in all a satisfying result for my first try at a large lot.

The bottonless draw and builders black plastic was perfect as a mold.

I cut all those soaps with a carving knife .The slices cut smoothly and by measuring before cutting and weighing each block as I cut it I managed to get a pretty close uniformity.

Practice is paying off.

Heavenly Herbal Happiness Soap

I have just made my first larger batch of soap.
Approximately 18 litres.
This is one that I put a lot of planning and meditating into.
I have used Calendula Petals and some Calendula Tea plus sage leaves chopped up and Aloe Vera staright from the leaf in it to give those all good natural extras. I nearly forgot also a few leaves of soap-wort. Soap-Wort (Saponaria Officinalis)
These ingredients were fresh from my garden.
Perfumed with Bergamot ,lemon,vanilla, chamomile and Frankinsense.

The natural oils used as the base were Rice Bran,Olive Oil and coconut oil.
I coloured the top third with Yellow Oxide clay deepening and adding extra petals to the final layer.
An extremelly joyfull batch to make and in 4 weeks I will report on how it feels to use it.
I used a favorite old dressing table draw with black plastic lining for the mold.

The large amount came after reading this interesting page http://www.bootstrapbabes.com/bb_blog/2008/09/index.html

Almost a Sin and Lavender Fields Soap

These soaps are available now but I have trouble finding the time to get them set up on a shop so if you are interested in them email me and we can arrange something that way.

By the way they are both as gorgeous to use as they look.

Preveiwing two more Natural Oil Soaps. Almost a Sin Peppermint Chocaolate and Lavender Fields