Long time, No blog...

Wow, so it's been a while since my last post and that's been because it's been a little hectic.
I've been planning a trip to see my parents around meetings with the benefts office, sorting my bridesmaid dress and wedding flowers out, getting my other half to tide his crap up, organising some voluntary work and basically not managing to get any soaping done, though I have managed to pick up a few things for future creations! :)

All this on top of having a really badly twisted knee (don't know when I did it exactly, but its hurt like hell for weeks) and IBS flare-ups. Grr IBS is possibly the most annoying and inconvenient condition ever. It isn't all that serious at all, but the symptoms and random things it causes make me mad! I have headaches and a stiff neck most days, the stomach cramps are horrible, I feel tired most of the day, my joints ache in the cold or if I've been stood up for a long time, I'm cold and losing weight (though that's not a bad thing heehee), I can't eat some of my favourite things anymore and that's not to mention the having to rush off to the loo while I'm in the middle of something.
Stress makes it worse, but it makes me stressed some days, so in a big vicious circle I don't get any better for a week and I just feel like I'm being soft. I just needed to vent for a while, I mean I'm 22 now and I feel so old and worn out. The little time I did have to myself this week, I spent asleep or just lying down resting. I was even out shopping for things for the house on my birthday.

Well, with everything going on and feeling so tired, I think I'll officially give up on Craftjuice Tuesdays, I just can't spend time looking over people's creations and blogging, hell I haven't had the time (or a clear kitchen) to make anything for 2 weeks.
On a brighter note, our lodger has taken a carfull of his stuff out of our front room, and he'll be back next weekend for more, so things are looking up there. Plus I think I'll have a part-time job interview next week! Yey for making money!

I like to end on a good note, so that's all for now folks. Hope I get the time to blog again soon.

The Second Batch (no Gremlins though!)

I've been busy in the kitchen again cooking up some ideas into reality!

(Apologies for no pictures, I took them, but then my memory card decided to break in half. I'll try and update when I can with pics just as soon as I get a new card.)

First up is chocolate cupcake soaps with vanilla icing!
I had this idea when I first decided to make melt and pour soaps but I've only just plucked up the courage to make them now that I think I have the hang of the technique. I used real cocoa for the main part of it, and it's made them a nice chocolatey brown and they smelled good even before they cooled! I then topped them off with "icing", a thin layer of plain white base lightly scented with vanilla.

Second up, (a first for me making two different batches in the same day, I usually let my equipment air dry overnight) is my first proper soap loaf! And it's a layered loaf too! The top is summery scented, orange opaque soap and the bottom is a clear base with orange peel exfoliator and a tiny bit of citrus scent to make it all really pop. The orange smells deliciously sweet and I'm really looking forward to testing a slice myself!

UPDATE: The inevitable happened and the layered loaf came apart haha! Ah well I'm not bothered as it looks quite nice as a pair of fairly chunky soap bars :)

Most of my creations are going into a little tester gift basket for my best friend's birthday (which is actually today, but she has to wait until they cure heehee) and I'll squeeze some feedback out of her once she's tested them, the rest will probably be spread between a couple more friends and family as well as used myself. Well, you have to have enough faith in your product to use it yourself, don't you!

I'm calling this my second batch of soaps because the first testers really have turned into a bit of a disaster. It would be nice to know what went wrong so that I can avoid it in the future, but I think the problem was in the base. It might have been old, I don't know if melt and pour base goes "off" when it's old or been kept in bad conditions?
Well, lesson learned with that one, all my bases will come from reputable sites in future. eBay is a false economy for some things.