Special gifts

My wonderful boss, well one of them, is retiring at the end of this month. I've only known her since March when I started here, but she is one of the most awesome people I've ever met. Her enthusiasm and joie de vivre is like nothing I've ever encountered before. When she found out I made soaps, she said, bring me some and I'll pay for them. That's the type of person she is; always willing to help out and believes in everyone's potential.

As part of my gift to her, I've made a gardener's soap and a chick and egg soap. The gardener's soap is for her to share with her husband, "Gardener Bob" as she refers to him. He went from being a banker to being a consummate gardener in his retirement. The chick and egg soap is a tribute to her many years of teaching kindergarten children all about chicks. I'm also including some whipped butter for her to use after cleaning up after gardening all day, as well as a most adorable poster.

Coloured with gold mica for the chick and antique blue for the egg. Scented with champagne for a light but refreshing scent.

Made with coffee grounds in the top layer of honey soap, a mix of honey and goat's milk soap in the middle layer,  and ground oatmeal in goat's milk for the bottom layer. Scented with chocolate fudge and vanilla for extra yumminess.

Welcome Spring

It's spring here on the west coast, and it's this time of year that really makes me appreciate living here rather than say the prairies or back east. We're having warmer weather and the first flowers are starting to poke their heads out. That's not to say, mind you, that it's not going to go back to raining for the next 60 days after this, but so far so good.

In honour of spring, I decided to make this spring themed soap. You know why this has three molds? Because that's how many times it took me to get it semi right.

The first one turned out okay to start; I had poured the entire mold in yellow, let it set enough to take it out (actually I lie, the first one I turned it over to see how it looked and ended up with soap all over the floor and table and had to scoop up all the soap and try again), then cut out the eggshell portion, put it back in the mold and poured the egg portion. This is what came out.

It doesn't look so bad in this picture but the blue's bled into the chick. Here it just looks like bad lighting, which it is.

My second chick I thought I'd be smart and pour the blue in first. Duh! Kinda hard to cut out the chick part and keep the eye intact (not to mention it's a bad imagery). That one went straight back into making the third and final one.

Not bad, it still leaked a bit, but overall I think managed to keep the wrong coloured soap from migrating into places it shouldn't.

Either way, they both smell fantastic because I used the pomegranate and black currant FO. Nice bright, fruity scents for a bright season. Happy spring everyone!