10th ave. soapworks

This fall, Bramble Berry contacted me and told me that they enjoyed my blog. (Aww--thanks!) I was then asked if I would like to do a soapy project using some Bramble Berry products and then write about it on my blog. Hmmm. After pondering such a silly question for approximately 1.5 seconds, I began contemplating my project. The possibilities were nearly overwhelming, but didn't take me long to choose a project, however--it just jumped out at me.  And what was my chosen project, you ask?  I'll show you tomorrow and the three days after that. the arrival of the Bramble Berry project box But in the meantime, I will share this with you so you can get a jump start on your ordering.  (It takes me forever to make an order for soap supplies.  I start off with my list of absolute needs, then I browse, add "maybes" to the list, daydream, watch the "maybes" become needs, check my budget, which leads to editing, ...

I'm completely out of my herbal balms and I miss them!  Right now I'm infusing oils for more batches.  Arnica is the most recent herbal infusion I have brewing.  I know it's fabulously good for bruises and such, but the dried herb is rather expensive so I've never tried it before.  But recently I was wandering around my local Mexican grocery store to get one of the staples of life, corn tortillas (the real ones), and a little bag of dried arnica caught my eye.  I had never noticed the shop carried it before, probably because I'm so focused on my beloved tortillas, but it got me pretty excited.  (Really, I ask you, who else goes to a Mexican market and comes out with bath and body ingredients?) I am using the slow method of infusion, letting time and sunlight do its thing on the arnica.  I've heated infusions up on occasion, but it often leads to deep-fried calendula petals...

So what have I been up to lately?  Besides ignoring my blog, that is?  Ahem, about that....I can tend to throw all my attention to one or a few things to the neglect of everything else.  But in this case, my primary focus has been madly soaping and oh, have I been busy!  (Taking pictures as I go obviously has not been a focus!) Here are just a couple of the batches that I did get around to taking pictures of, however....  I'm a literalist when it comes to coloring soaps, but I've been making a conscious effort to avoid some of the expected colors for a change.  So for the first time, I made a batch of Energy (Bramble Berry's citrus blend) that wasn't in citrus-y colors like yellow, green, orange, and pink.  I am in love with this mustard/lavender combo!  The lavender as the main color didn't come out as strongly as I'd hoped and turned gray in this batch of Black Raspberry-Vanilla.  But I'm ...

I received a challenge from a customer this summer.  She asked if I could try making a grapefruit soap scented with essential oil.  I've used it in the past and the scent utterly vanished after a month or so. I did some research and asked other soapers for advice and this is what I came up with for my second attempt. 1) Clays and/or cornstarch in the soap will help the scent to "stick." 2) A touch of other essential oils, like benzoin, litsea cubeba (may chang), and patchouli may also up the "stick" factor. I'm not quite certain about the actual definition of "sticking"--does that mean the scent remains the same strength as when added, or to a lesser degree?  I would be happy with even a faint grapefruit-y smell.  As suggested, I mixed the essential oil with the clay and cornstarch before adding it to the soap mixture.  I didn't discount the goat milk at all because I was afraid a lot of the liquid might be a...

Every other year, the community in which I live celebrates its distinctly Swiss heritage, which includes cheese and beer, in a celebration known as Cheese Days.  It's a homecoming of sorts for former Green County residents flung far and wide and for three days, Monroe's population of 10,000 swells to well over 100,000.  THE cheese tent, the place to sample and buy cheese from local cheesemakers. Baked garlic (fried on a griddle), peppadew Havarti, and Roelli's Kingsley were some of my favorites.  Traditional dress representing the different cantons in Switzerland.  Sunday morning's polka church service Cheese Days 2012 was a good one.  I sold soap at a booming Farmer's Market in perfect weather, sampled my way through the cheese tent (twice), saw lots of friends, and even sang the Doxology to the Beer Barrel Polka at the church service on the Square. (You didn't even know that was possible, did you?) As long as I'm on the par...

Blog views galore!  Over the summer, but especially in the last few weeks, I've noticed a distinct increase in the number of hits to my blog.  I must honestly say that I have no idea why; perhaps I'm writing something that people want to read?  Or maybe they've simply stumbled onto it wending their way to something better for all I know.  And from all over the world, too!  How humbling to think that people in gorgeous, far-flung locales paused long enough in their sophisticated, savoir faire exploits to read my occasional blathering.  (If I were you, I'd be sightseeing or nibbling on local cuisine instead.)  But many thanks! Let's see....how can I wow all of you today? ....oh, the pressure of it all.....oooh, oooh....wait, I've got it!!  And this should wow you, actually, because it's not about me. This spring I participated in a soap making challenge, coordinated...

In the words of the good old doctor (Seuss)--"That is not all. Oh, no. That is not all."  This, my bloggy friends, is my afternoon, ahem,"diversion" today. This picture represents the one mere 24-hour period of garden abundance that I could lug home in the bowls I took to the garden.  (I'm no dummy; I left the bushel baskets in the garage for a reason.)  This, of course, does not include the pots of tomato sauce currently on the stove.  And this, dear readers, is what happens when you look at your garden plot in the spring and say "Let's put tomatoes in this general area" as you sweep your arm in a wide circle and then after filling the "general area" you count 50 tomato plants. This is why I have no new soap pictures to share with you, although I've been madly soaping during those moments when I pretend I don't have tomatoes ripening hourly.  And this is why there are little tomato jui...