Soapy Soaps!

I was getting ridiculously low on soap...I had probably less than 2 dozen bars that would be reasonable to swap or sell, and I have had several e-mail or Craftster pm inquiries lately! So I got myself into the soapin' kitchen (it's my regular kitchen actually) and got to work. 4 hours and 1 frantic call to my friend Jen later, I had 4 batches of soap! 82 bars altogether.


The following day, Aidan "helped" me cut them and put them on the curing racks. I have an awesome professional cutter that cuts a whole log at once, and after I positioned the soap log he pushed down on the bar to slice them. He's a good helper. :) He also said that I'm a "good soap cooker." I don't cook my soap, it's cold process, but compliments are always appreciated! I love 4 year olds!


Calendula Green Tea, with dried Calendula petals and green tea powder for a light green color (that will fade to a brownish green) with a light, fresh green tea fragrance.




Unscented Oats 'n Honey, yum! I actually put in a little less oats than usual, but I think that's ok. I've been out of this for soooo long, but luckily I had a nice bar from Jen that was similar, but also contained egg yolk!


Lavender! This is wonderful for sensitive skin, and I love the light purple swirl in it.

And my absolute favorite bar of all time~Shea Luxury! This is 60% unrefined shea butter, without any colorants or fragrances. Yeah.

Crafting and Dieting!

My mom and I are eating healthy via the Flat Belly Diet! After an initial 4 day "Jump Start" of 1200 calorie days to de-bloat and get the salt out of our system, we're both down 4 pounds. Even though that's probably mostly water weight, that's ok!

Besides being low-salt, this way of eating is kind of Mediteranean based. The focus is having a MUFA (mono-unsaturated fatty acid) with every meal or snack to get a healthy fat in that provides a feeling of fullness. Yummy things like avocadoes, nuts, seeds, olive and canola oil, and olives are all required!

I realized that I need to get my crafting into high gear. I have a swap to go out Oct 30th that I have, oops, two different partners for! Today I think I just finalized what I am sending. Luckily each one is only 2 mediums and a small, so I should be able to take care of that, as long as I get started soon. Some of the projects are crochet, so if I meet up with the Portland Crafty Vixens tomorrow I will have a portable project to take along! No details yet since I don't want to spoil the surprise if my swap partners are stalking me!

My friend Kim shared some awesome patterns with me for toddler pants, so Sandora and I whipped up 3 pairs the other day for the boys. We have a bunch more fabric to make into pajama pants but wanted to get it right before we cut out too many of them. They turned out really well except Dane and Aidan's are a wee bit low rise! Oops. Oh well, I already adjust my home made pattern pieces for next time! Although when I saw Dane last night he looked inches taller than the last time I had seen him (a week ago!) He can now reach on top of the tv, as demonstrated by his ability to bring the remote to grandma! I'm going to measure him carefully before I finish any more pants for him, don't want to dress the poor kid in high waters!