Rebatch! A Success...

As a soapmaker, I have always cringed at the thought of having to rebatch soap. HELLO! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO WORK THE FIRST TIME!!! But, it happens. Usually, I end up chopping it up and giving it away to friends and family because I just can't bring myself to sell something that did not turn out anything like my vision. Once, I made it into soap balls and sold some, gave others away to kids at the farmer's markets.

I have recently found out that rebatching your soap does not have to be all bad. I was reading about rebatching adventures over at Great Cakes Soapworks and I thought about my bowl of soap shreds and scraps and decided to give it a try.

Well, my first batch did not go well. I don't think I let it cook long enough or didn't add enough liquid. I might try rebatching the rebatch :)

My second try was much better! Here is my process...

First, add soaps shreds and small chunks to your crock pot. You can see, this is from lots of different batches. I added 8 oz of water for 2 lbs of soap because some of the shreds were of unknown origin.

 I let it cook a really long time on low heat. I kept going in to stir. Eventually, it looked really moist and mostly uniform. I added a few white balls and pink chunks to give it a little something extra. I put those in and let them sit in the hot soap for a while. I didn't want them to dissolve into my mix, but I wanted them to absorb a little moisture and be incorporated well.

 This is my soap in the mold. I used buttercream and snickerdoodle fo, which is why it is so brown. Because it was pretty liquid, this step was pretty easy. I used a big spoon to put it in the mold, I wanted to make sure I got it into the corners. Then, I tapped (slammed) my mold on the counter a few times (lots and lots) to really pack everything down.

 He is the soap out of the mold the next day. You can see it have some discoloring to do, but I think that will help some of the chunks to stand out more. I'm going to let them sit for a bit to let the water evaporate. I really don't think I over did it though because these are pretty firm already. Then I'll clean them up and go from there.

I know they aren't the prettiest soaps ever and really, I should probably keep my scraps separate, but I found a use of all the scrap soap we end up with, but never know what to do with it. Stay tuned, these will probably go up on the website soon. I'm kind of thinking about selling them to raise money for another turtle nest. What do you think?

I'll let you know how the rebatch of my rebatch goes.

Rearranging

I've been wanting to rearrange furniture in the bedrooms for a while, it just hasn't happened. Kinda like a lot of other thing, but I finally got it done,

Hayden isn't a baby anymore (tear...), so he needed a more toddler friendly room that he could play in. We took the front off his crib two months back because he was constantly trying to climb IN the crib. I even found some sheets and a small comforter that I liked, but we hadn't gotten around to a new bed. I was planning on several changes: a new toddler bed, repainting, some new wall decor and some new curtains. But, none of that is in the budget now.

However, I still managed to rearrange and make it look better and feel roomier. First, I removed the blanket box that he loves to climb on and jump off of. He doesn't need it now anyway. Next, I culled the herd of stuffed animals and made them fit in the hammock I found on amazon. I moved the bed so it wasn't centered in the room and moved the small shelf that used to hold changing table stuff to be his bedside table. I hung an adorable Ikea lamp so he can easily turn on the light in his room. I hung a small coat rack that I found ages ago at Goodwill and finally fixed up. Last, I removed the changing pad from his dresser. 

I was trying to keep him out of the shot and he kept running in and out of it laughing "No pictures mommy."

 He now has way fewer books on his shelf, many were way too old for him, so I cut it down to just the ones he really loves to read. He also has a few more toys, so he can sit in his room and play. I know the hammock is a little low, but he is a little short and he's supposed to be able to access it. I left the nursery rhymes decor because I didn't want bare walls or windows. I also would have liked to paint the dresser a different color.

Again, he was "getting out of the picture." Forgive the unmade bed, we were actually getting ready for bed.

I love the little lamp! He now has a table beside his bed for his animals, water, and turtle. Now, he isn't trying to get it all in bed with him.

Crooked picture

Isn't this cute! I found it for $4 forever ago, but never got around to doing anything with it. I decided to paint and decoupage it. The yellow paper actually matches the letters I did for his initials and the other paper is really similar to the other side of his comforter. I hung it low so he can use it. Really, he just stares and makes faces in the mirror, but that works. Bonus: now I have a place to put his coats within easy reach.

I also did a little rearranging in my room. I moved the bed under the window because I love morning sunshine. I also hung my jewelry organizer and cleaned everything off! It feels good to have a clean room. I still need to organize the closet, but hey, I'm getting there. Also, I have to clean the upstairs again because lots of stuff got shoved up there as I cleared stuff out!

Has your Spring Cleaning started early?

New Year-New Goals

Well, it is a new year. There were a lot of changes in my life this past year. I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't been around a lot. Most of that has to do with work, but other more recent changes have really changed my schedule.

About a month ago, I asked my partner or almost 6 years to move out. It was a very hard decision for both of us, but in the long run, I think it is for the best. Hayden is adjusting well and we both still care for him, that won't change. Sharing custody of our new girl in April will be harder, but I think we will be able to make it work.

Between adjusting to life as a single mom and trying to keep up with the work load at school, it has been a little tough for me to keep up and get everything I need done. I have kept up with my orders and shows; I even managed to finish up some of the things I needed to do on my website, but a lot of the computer things have fallen behind.

In light of the fact that I have less time to get stuff done and I have more to do on my own and I will soon have a newborn to care for, my goals for this year will be relatively simple.

Business Goal: Keep up with the current level of business that I am currently doing. This will include the few wholesale customers I have, but I'm not going to focus on adding any. Doing all of the shows and markets I currently do, but not really trying to add more. You get the idea. While I would love to grow my business and expand, at this point, I have to be honest about the fact that I'm struggling to keep up with the amount of work I have to do. I desperately want to keep my business because my goal to eventually be able to quit my day job hasn't changed, but the time scale will have to be adjusted a little. The great thing about goals though...they can be changed. So, maybe things will be easier than I expect and I'll have time to do everything I need to do and grow my business.

Personal Goal: Focus on giving my family what they need and take care of my own needs. I think that is probably a little too broad, but really this means a lot of things that I don't want to leave out. I want to get Hayden involved in group activities such as swim classes and soccer. I am still hoping to buy a house despite the looming medical bills I will have. I actually have a long list of things I am planning to get done, but I don't see any reason for you to have to read the whole thing.

Another big goal: Keep up with my blogging, I actually enjoy it and the interactions I get from it.

I hope you can forgive my recent absence and be patient as I try to get my life back in the order.

Sale Is On!

I mentioned yesterday that I was running really low on certain items and I would be having a sale to clear everything out before the end of the year.

well...THE SALE IS ON! I have updated all of the items on sale and marked them 20% off. You don't need a coupon code to enjoy this one! I do have limited inventory for these items and the sale is only for items marked.

Hurry, I have a feeling these won't last long.

All orders placed by Tuesday, December 18th will ship by December 19th. So, barring any natural disasters, your order will get there before Christmas.

Inventory is LOW!

WOW! I had an awesome Saturday at the CFAM holiday market!

I am almost out of many of my products. I am down to just a few items left! Most of my soaps are sold out, as are many of my lotions and tub treats! It was a crazy day, but I had a blast.

I am going to go through and inventory everything tonight and what I have left is going to be on sale for the next week! It might not happen, but I would love to sell out of everything before Christmas. That would make the year end inventory so much easier!

I will also have to ask for you to be a little patient with me. I am almost completely out of soaps. I will start making more of everything after the holidays, but soaps take a while to get ready. Everything else can be ready quickly, but soaps will take a little bit.

Keep your eyes open and check the website for an upcoming sale on all remaining items! (Yes, that was supposed to sound like a car commercial)

Awesome Day!

Today, I stepped out of my comfort zone and I presented at the Colorado Science Conference! I am great at presenting to my students and pretty good at presenting to my fellow teachers. However, I do not do well in front of complete strangers. In fact, my Public Speaking class was nothing short of torture in college! I did actually get better in grad school and presented well, but I still get nervous.

Well, back in the spring I went to the National Science Teaching Conference. I got the idea that if some of those people could present, I could too! I decided to start with the state conference and I was so excited when they accepted my proposal.

My morning didn't start out great. I woke Hayden up when I was getting ready to leave and he was VERY upset that he wasn't going. Then, I was rear ended in Denver. Luckily, there was no visible damage to my car (I will still take it and get it checked out), but the other guy's was pretty messed up. I arrived at the conference a little late, but was really glad I wasn't presenting first!

I set up for the second session with little butterflies in my tummy. I didn't have any problems with set-up, people actually showed up, and I wasn't actually shaking :) I started and as I went I saw people nodding and taking notes, which is very encouraging. At the end, I had some great questions and was able to give some great feedback. I even had a few people stop by to thank me for my ideas and my help!

That makes me feel so good. I can be reasonably sure that I was not one of the terrible presentations I heard people complaining about. I think I'm going to apply for the National Conference and see if I can make it happen!

New Website Is Up!

I have been tired of my old website for awhile now. A lot of work went into the original website and it was fun to see, but I didn't have the ability to easily edit it. I had to give all the changes to the person that maintained my website (which is a close friend, so it wasn't a problem contacting her), but that put a lot of work on her. Plus, I didn't like the fact that I couldn't change anything, we didn't have access to coupon codes, or a host of other features.

We started searching for templates that would fit what I wanted, be customizable (I don't need to look like everyone else), user friendly for me and relatively inexpensive. There are plenty of templates out there, but that "relatively inexpensive" requirement was hard to fill. We did finally find a company that could give us what we wanted!

Switching to this new company required me to switch web hosting companies, so I decided to wait until my old one was up for renewal. That gave us plenty of time to work on what it should look like, get pictures taken, descriptions written and prices updates. Plus, I still have my full-time job and my little monster to care for. It really did take a long time to get it to look right and not all of the glitches have been worked out, but the new site is up and functional! There are a few more descriptions to be added. A few pictures to be taken (or retaken to show new packaging and designs). A few things that will slowly be fixed as we work on it in between all of the other things that must be done. After my last show in December, I will really be sitting down to look over everything and make sure everything is exactly what I want and if I don't want it, it isn't there. However, for anyone in need of a few Honu products for gifts or to keep, the website has everything that is currently available!

I have to say, it really looks pretty darn awesome too!