Soap Making, Packaging and the Golden Globes!

My largest wholesale order :)

Sept. and Oct. have been very busy months and November is looking like an even busier month!  I am making lots and lots of soap....and having so much fun :)

These gnomes were a custom order for a wholesale customer.  They are time consuming to make, but so cute!  The green ones were scented in pine tree and then red ones were scented in red apple.  I dust each one with 24k gold mica.  The packaging turned out to be the biggest headache.  My supplier didn't have any of the gold buttons washi tape, so I had to order a different gold stripe washi tape.  Um, yeah it didn't stick so great.  SO I had to glue each piece of tape on to the soap boxes - it took forever!  You can see in the picture at the top how the tape crisscrosses the top of the boxes (middle, lower kraft boxes in picture).  I was using a glue gun and I burned my finger too.  But they ARE so cute :)  I have a few of them listed in my shop - lighter green color, pine scent Golden Gnomes

I made this super moisturizing shaving soap - I LOVE this stuff!  I have been shaving my legs with it and it is amazing.  So smooth...I may have asked (a few) people to feel my legs LOL!  It also smells really good - winter apple, smells to me like Herbal Essences.  Plus I found these awesome little vintage glass lids to use with the cute little glass jars - great for traveling.  I have already tested it on a trip and the jar and cover worked great!  Shaving Soap

This was my donation to the Joyful Child Foundation benefit.  I sewed the cute little bag myself!  It was my first time sewing a zipper.  It turned out nice, my Mom saw it and thought I had bought it some where, because the stitching was so straight and even.  Ha! I included a bar of Tipsy Hippy soap.  Made with 1/2 hemp milk and 1/2 Minnesota micro brewed beer.

My soap is going to the Golden Globes!!!  These are the bags I had made (by another small hand crafter!) for my soaps.  The soap (in these cute bags) will be included in swag bags and given to some attendees. 

One of my favorite new soaps - unscented and uncolored.  Bear Buns.  The packaging is very cute ;)

I like the uncolored soaps, but I love colored soaps.  Marie Antoinette

 - let them wash with soap cake!  Below - Psychedelic - whoo patchouli!

Well, I have to get back to making soap!

Goat's Milk and Honey Soap Tutorial With A Mica Swirl

I am participating in the Great Cakes Soap Challenge for the first time - even though it is week 3 of the challenge :P

I decided to make a goat's milk and honey soap with an oatmeal, honey and milk fragrance.  And I made a video tutorial!  Don't laugh too hard LOL!  I was nervous!

The challenge part was the mica swirl and we could do whatever we wanted inside the soap.  I love this goat's milk soap!  It turned out really nice and creamy!  I included some honey in this recipe.  The honey was from my Grandpa, who was a bee keeper, so it's a very special soap :)

Keep going to see pictures of the cut soap....

Ta da!  I thought it was great!

I used coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil and castor oil.  It should have great fluffy lather and be very moisturizing.  I can't wait to try a bar!  I plan on making another one tomorrow, but it will be unscented.   

They have some honey comb texture and swirly mica tops AND then I added a bee hive stamp with more mica on the front of each soap.  

So creamy.....

Yum!  The scent is amazing!  Sweet and a little bit almondy.  I can't stop sniffing it LOL!

These bars will be for sale in my Etsy shop in a few weeks :)  

Kiyi Kiyi Etsy Shop

Daring Cook's Challenge - Risotto

Blog check in line:
The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

First we had to make our own stock. The recipe called for chicken stock.

But you probably all know how I feel about that!

No ladies in my soup, thanks very much!

I used the same recipe here that I used to make the soup for the Potato Dinner Party.

Roasted onions, carrots, celery, cabbage, bay leaves, garlic paste, basil, thyme, miso and water.

I used about 3 quarts of water.


Brought everything to a boil.
Let it simmer.
When the carrot was soft, I tasted the stock and adjusted the flavors.



Then I strained the stock.
I had 2 quarts and 1 1/2 pints of stock.

Ingredients for risotto.

I had a little bit of trouble making this, because the rice was vacuum sealed.

Which is weird for me, but I suppose it keeps the rice fresh.

Saute onion.

Add rice and 3ml wine.

1 quart stock.
Stir, stir, boil.

Add 2nd quart of stock.

Repeat stir, stir, boil.

Done!

It was OK.

But I really liked it the next day.

I fried 2 cups of risotto in a little butter, added 2 of the Ladies' eggs and some frozen mixed vegetables.

That was good.