Unscented Goat's Milk Soap

This is such a beautiful soap!  I had so much fun making it :)  

It has a really creamy, luscious lather.  And it is really, really moisturizing!  I had my hands all suds up for that photo at the top - yup that's my hands! - and my skin was so soft and felt great after the photo shoot.  And they were covered in suds for a long time.....it took a surprising amount of photos to get one that wasn't blurry!

Before cutting.

Video of the whole process!

Cut bars.

This soap is unscented and uncolored, but it has a sweet toasted almondy scent just from the yummy goat's milk and the heirloom honey I added.  I think I get to call it heirloom honey, because it's honey from my Grandpa who was a beekeeper.

I did get some partial gel even keeping it in the fridge for over 24 hours.  I think it looks beautiful!

For sale in my Etsy shop KiyiKiyi 

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

DIY Fancy Crayons

I saw a cute idea on Pinterest and I had to try it out for myself.

There were a few things I learned while making these: Using an ice cube mold doesn't work as well as a candy/muffin mold. The ice cube mold melts a little bit and the crayons don't release cleanly from the mold. See pictures below.

 I tried using some WD-40 in the ice cube mold, but the results were the same.

Also, it takes quite a while to melt crayons - much longer than the 30-40 seconds that the tutorial on Pinterest said. More like 5-6 MINS.  Check on them often to make sure they are melting.

 Thirdly: It pays to put the mold into the freezer before you try to remove the crayons. Just let them warm up a tiny bit before you try to remove them or (if you have little details like arms, legs) they will break.

How to:
Remove the wrapping from some crayons. 
Break crayons into pieces and place in mold.
Melt crayons in molds - Microwave 5-6 mins on High.  Check often.
Place molds with melted crayons into freezer for 5-10 mins.
After removing molds from freezer allow crayons to warm up and then remove from molds.
Ta da!  Fancy crayons!

This was an ice cube mold.  The crayons stuck to it.  Still cute, just not shiny and smooth.

Candy mold men.  Lots of colors!

Rhubarb Stepping Stone - How To

Are you a can jammer with leftover rhubarb leaves?

Don't throw them away!

Make a stepping stone!

First dig a shallow hole.

Mix up some concrete.
Remember to wear a mask, eye protection and gloves. Really. It's not fun to get cement in your eyes or lungs.

Place your leaves on top of the cement.

Put a plastic bag on top of the rhubarb leaves and then cover it with a layer of damp sand.

Your stepping stone should be hard in a few hours or overnight - depending on the type of cement you decide to use. I use mortar mix, because it gives the stepping stones a finer detail. There aren't any stones in the mortar mix.

Once your stepping stone is dry let it cure for a few days. Spray it with water every day. Then you can paint it. I use Patio Paints and then seal with an exterior varnish.

This is one I made last summer. For this one I put the leaf down first and then poured the cement on top of it.

Building a Covered Bed

I found some 5 foot lengths of black pipe at the local Menard's store.

They are called black flexible water pipes.

I like them ,because they are precut and I can put them in my car without looking like an idiot driving through town with PVC pipes sticking out of my back window.

Although, I still buy the PVC pipes sometimes - seems like I can't avoid looking like an idiot - at least occasionally.

OK continuing with the tutorial!

I also used a few branches, cut into 8 inch lengths, to hold the pipe in the soil, but I think I may end up using some kind of bracket instead, because the hoops tend to fall over when it rains and the soil gets soft.

Stick, soil, pipe.

Cover with row cloth.

Planting Tomatoes

Before the plant sale I took out the plants that I wanted to keep.

The week after the plant sale was beautiful - sunny, 75F - perfect spring/summer.

So, silly me I planted all my plants.

Two days after I planted everything, we had freezing temps. For. The. Whole. Next. Week.

I covered everything, but the peppers aren't looking so great.

These pictures will probably be the peppers memorial service. Remember those beautiful peppers? Oh, yes they were just starting to live, so sad....taken in the prime of life.

This is how I plant my indeterminate tomatoes.

Dig a nice deep trench and amend with kelp (fertilizer) and crushed crab shells (calcium).
Put the tomato to bed in the trench and pull the soil covers up to its leafy chin.


Water deeply.

This is how close I plant my tomatoes.

Remember I grow my tomatoes up not out - so it works.

These are the covered beds I made - I'll show you how in my next post.

In these beds I planted the peppers -poor frosted peppers :(

In this bed the cabbage and broccoli are nestled. On the far right of the covered bed I have Golden shallots.

The bed in front of that has peas and onions.

More tomatoes.

More tomatoes!

The dearly departed peppers.

Really I am sad about this!

Broccoli and cabbage.