She Sells Seashells

With the beautiful weather and the proximity to the beach, I've decided to stay with the beach theme. I've had this mould for a while now, but this is the first time I'm trying it out.

I should've (coulda, woulda) re-watched the Soapqueen tv episode where she makes the clam shell soap but I thought I could do it from memory (hah!) Why I keep deluding myself into thinking I can remember things is beyond me. I like to think this is what Mother Nature would've created if she was smoking some of her other creations. ;)

At least the background for the soaps is beautiful.

Scented with Green Garden from WSP.

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same.

I think I'll call this one Ariel's bra. (Yes, I've had some wine, why do you ask?)

Summer Soaps

I love the warm weather we've been having. To me, summer is all about lots of fruits and veggies being in season locally, rather than being imported from Florida or California. I've been eating as many thimbleberries as I can find and also buying as much local fruit as I can.

One of the fruits that always makes me think summer is watermelon. I remember eating it as a child, although it was never one of my favourites because I am lazy and hated having to pick through the seeds. I was so happy when they came up with seedless watermelons.

I do however, really love watermelon FO and have been wanting to try my hand at watermelon soap for a while. I've seen many versions of it and they're all lovely. I wish I had the proper mould to make a watermelon wedge, but I settled for making it in a rounded mould.

I tried making it with low sweat, forgetting that embeds don't work nearly as well in it.

But from the side, I like it more than the clearer one because I actually made the rind thick enough.

What's your favourite summertime fruit or vegetable?

                            

 

New Toys

I have whined and complained about not having moulds that allow me to try out new designs, so enough whining already. I bought myself a guest soap mould and a mini loaf mould from WSP.

Of course, as soon as I do that, I draw a blank on what I want to make. That's what I love about Pinterest, so many good ideas, so many things to drool over. Of course most of the soaps on Pinterest are CP soaps with all those gorgeous swirls and fluffy tops, stuff that you can't do with MP soaps, or at least I can't.

I thought I'd try and do the marbling at least, and this was the result.  I kinda botched the second layer (from what I had in mind) by spraying the first layer with rubbing alcohol so it'd adhere, but then it spread the colour dots in ways I didn't want them to spread. But putting on a third layer covered it up, so it's all good.

Reminds me of a Rorschach test. What do you see?

Or maybe it's more like a kid's finger painting project.

Next I decided that I'm tired of winter and snow and so I'd do a summer theme. (I know, I have nothing to complain about on the west coast, but hey, we're not Winnipeg, we don't comprehend snow here). Nothing says summer like palm trees, beach balls and sun right? And an exotic fruit smoothie scent finishes off the summer scene.

Have a great week and for those of you dealing with way more snow than we are, my sympathies.

Summertime and the canning is (not so) easy

Costco already has Christmas stuff on out display, can you believe it? I can't, and I refuse to think about Christmas, especially when we're having nice sunny weather.

I enjoy summers because of all the fresh fruits and veggies in season. I haven't done any canning in a few years, so this year I decided I would pick up some fruit and make some jam again.

I met a woman at work who has 5 acres and grows fruit in the organic manner. In other words, she is not certified, but she doesn't use sprays or pesticides. She had some lovely berries, so after I unloaded a good chunk of my wallet at her house, we came home with raspberries, blueberries and white currants.

Jam making is a lot like soap making. It takes patience, a sense of timing and one should always start with the lightest colour and work towards the darkest colour if one doesn't want to wash out the pot every time. :)

White currant jelly

White currant and raspberry jelly

White currant jelly on bottom, white currant and raspberry on top. Waste not, want not, right?

 White currant juice with Perrier

Mango blueberry jam

Last but not least some basil from her garden

Do you grow your own fruits and vegetables? Do you do any canning during the summer?

Double the layers, double the fun

It's summer here finally! We've been having some really gorgeous weather, a little hot for some of us west coasters, to which all you mid and east coasters will just scoff. But this is why we live on the we(s)t coast, for the mild weather.

This heatwave inspired the following soaps. I thought about how to incorporate summer into the soaps and after looking at other people's soaps for inspiration, I decided to try embedding in different layers. The soaps are scented with sun ripened cherry, because cherries are another sign of summer. Here are the results.

Maybe I should've put him on a lilypad.

What says summer to you?