Thanksgiving; The forgotten holiday

Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday.  After Halloween, things seem to jump right to the winter Holidays with out even a look back.  I find the Holidays come earlier every year, I mean the shelves are stocked with stocking stuffers, Christmas candy, and presents before Halloween is even over.



The Praying Paisley Thankful Wall Hanging



It seems there is no reason to celebrate Thanksgiving if you can't give everyone in your family the most expensive gifts for Christmas.  If you watch the news, there is no reason to be thankful, it is all negative gloom and doom.  But I am thankful.  For all kinds of things, I am thankful. Thankful for the ability to write here, and the roof over my head, the sun, the moon, the seasons, the snow, heck, I'm thankful for indoor plumbing.  Thankful for the beautiful mountian town I live in.  I am grateful for my husband, and my children and my dogs that bark too much.  There is so many things to be thankful for and a lot of them we take for granted. 



That is why Thanksgiving is such an important holiday because it is not about the stuff you get, it is about appreciating the stuff you have.



Im So Crafty Thankful for You



Satin and Birch Cornicopia Soap      Solstic Scents Candied Yam Soap



Laurie's Tutu Boutique Little Turkey Tutu
Isn't that just the sweetest thing!

Soooo Important

I usually do not title my posts with exclamations and pressing things but this one is important for all lovers of handmade soaps and cosmetics, especially the small businesses manufacturing them.

The Safe Cosmetics Act....not so good.

This is the second (or is it third) that the government has recently tried to make it more difficult for small businesses to stay in business. It seems that the government, all though with good intentions, is trying to save us from ourselves and kill small business for fun and profit by passing more regulations that require more time and money from those of us trying to run small business.

You can decide for yourself by reading the full legislation here.

Write your representative and tell them no on the The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 (H.R. 5786).

Here is a copy of the letter I composed (with the help of The Soap Queen)and sent to my representative here in Colorado.


Dear Representative John Salazar,

I am writing to express my concerns for H.R. 5786, The Safe Cosmetics Act. I make lip balms, soaps, and lotions and sell them at my local Farmer Market and festivals. I make less then $5000 per year. I sell them to pay for my daughter's new clothes and my son's snowbaords every year. what I make enhances my families income and helps the quality of our life, puts money back into my community, and helps deter the effects of the downturn in our economy.

I make soaps from common ingredients that you can find in your kitchen. For example, I have a great bar of soap that I make out of four ingredients: olive oil, lye, water, and essential oils. H.R. 5786 has a lot of extra reporting requirments that would be virtually impossible for me to comply with. I am just one woman in a kitchen. I do not have a huge staff to help with this paperwork nightmare. I often change formulations based on the season and consumer demand. Being nimble is a huge advantage for me and if I have to submit a new safety and ingredient affidavit for every product that will take away one of my key advantages. This legislation is unnecessary because it is already illegal to manufacture unsafe cosmetics and disclosure of ingredients and contact information is already required. Buying handmade and homemade toiletries is a prefferable choice for many consumers; these handicaps to small business like mine, could put me out of business and take that choice away. Please don't take away that choice. Please do not support H. R. 5786. It is well-meaning but it is written in such a way that I will not be able to stay in business because I will not be able to keep up. Estee Lauder started at her kitchen table. Please do not take that oppotunity away from me.

Sincerely,

Cass Smith


Make the decision for yourself and take the time to write your Representative. Help small business' do what they do best, business.

You can also check out the Oppose SCA website and sign the petition to Oppose the SCA here.

Love this

I was testing out this new fragrance I bought from Brambleberry, not to mention it was a good time to practice layering. I did not really think it was going to real well. But I love this. The storm that is busy brewing over that ocean matches the fragrance well. Ummmmm.

I call it Stormy Waters.

Who killed the doll?

My kids do some pretty crazy things sometimes, so when I saw this on my kitchen floor, I had to laugh, even though it was kind of funny and then again kind of not. What are the chances that I'd have a CSI crime scene on my tile.:)

As it turns out the red smudge is from a strawberry my little one squished into the tile and then just so happened to drop her dolly right next to it. Looks BBBBAAADDDD!

At 9:30 at night

There is a major sweet tooth in my household. Cookies are usually gone with in a day or two, especially if they are homemade...yummy. I am always looking for new recipes to try, so last night after a desperate search through the cupboards, I decided it was necessary...at 9:30 at night no less...to make brownies. It is not like they are hard to make, they just take a little time to mix and a lot of time to bake.

Of course, I can never just make a resipe, I always have to alter it in one way or another. I wanted raspberry brownies. OOOOOHHHHH......AAAAHHHHHH!

So I took a plain brownie recipe and mixed in aswirl of raspberry jam before I baked them....o.k. I'll say it again. OOOOOOHHHHHH.....AAAAHHHHH......mmmmmm. They smelled so fabulous, and oooey gooey goodness when they were cut into.

I'll be altering this recipe again, maybe I'll try orange marmalade, apple butter, or plain old strawberry next time.

Porn to brighten your day.

Inspiration is all around, everywhere that I look these days. I think that the summer wild flowers blooming has a lot to do with it. So I thought I would show some soap porn that makes me think of summer.

Poppy Party Soaps by Naturally Lela

Bailee Berry Exfoliating by Mountian Mama Chic

Sweetgrass Sun Soaps by Luxury Falls
What could be more summer than this!?!

Spell Bound by Sherri's Scents and Soys

Words for your Brain

Be careful what you think...

Your thoughts become your words,

Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,

Your habits become your character.

Character is everything.

Not sure where this comes from, saw it on a crafters sign at a farmers market years ago, it has stuck with me ever since.

Words worth thinking about.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

I am always up to try something new, especially when it comes to the old standby chocolate chip cookie recipe. I found this recipe on a fabulous foodie blog. So I whipped this one up last night and baked a few this morning. OOOOOhhhhhh mmyyyyy.....

I think I have eaten too many already!
You can find the recipe here for your own devouring session.

Orangalicious, Finally!

Love to get ready to make soap, whether it is a new batch or not it is always an experience. It is like a science experiment and you not quite sure what the end product will look like. So I was elated when this batch turned out the way it did.

Here are just a few of the ingredients plus, a few that I had lying around. "The Gathering" of ingredients, as I like to call them.

The colors I used are micas, copper on top(love this) and apricot blush(love this even more) on the bottom. I love my colors intense and they both embody the fragrance I put into the soap.

MMMMmmmmm....love how pretty the colors swirl ont he top of the mold. This is the first test of a new mold I made, trying to get the dimensions just right for the size and shape I was going for. The shape was right but the length was not quite there and it did not fit the whole batch of soap, so I improvised and used a plastic container that worked well. You can see it in the back kind of hiding.

I had read about soap growing and cracking, this was my first experince with it. Duh, I forgot to insulate the top well so it grew and cracked. Boo hoo :( The picture does not show how much it really did grow but I did manage to stop it.

Beautiful! I am delighted with how it turned out and the aroma is fabulous. i wish I could have smell -o-web or something so you could smell it through your screen! Orange rounded out with a little grapefruit, so energizing!

Summer is finally here!!

I live at a high altitude, so winter seems to last forever. When the temperature turned cold and snow fell in October, I danced out of bed to watch it fall. When it snowed in the end of May I almost cried.

When summer finally hits here (picture me jumping up and down for joy) it's like the return of a long lost love, stars returning to your eyes and a day-dreamy like haze flows over you. The sun warms your soul as the wind caresses your skin and your mind can think of nothing else but being in it's warm embrace.

So, needless to say when summer hit the valley last week, I did not hesitate to get out and get a tan, hike, run, and work on the garden. So much for unpacking and organizing but it is getting there (slowly). Winter can still overtake the warm weather so we get out and enjoy it whenever we can (especailly since it snowed yesterday).

Funky soap.

It is funny how life can get shoved into fast foreward in the blink of an eye. It seems just yesterday I was posting about my giddy-ness over getting my shipment of soap stuff, I was so excited and impatient(ooooh, making soap!)

So, when I got my package I was laughing and smiling like a little kid in a candy store. Plans for soap making had been in the works for a week or better and they stayed there until last Saturday when I finally had a chance to make a batch with my new toys.

And was I disappointed? Yep, I was. I was tinkering with a new recipe and a new ingrediant that traced soooo fast. It was like custard in no time and and no time means weird sloppy batch of soap. Smells fabulous, feels wonderful, oh, and bubbles...lucious bubbles....looks... not so hot. Kind of bland for my taste but should work fine.

My colors are usually more vibrant, those were going to be green and dark purple along with that beautiful black. Oh, well, geuss I'll just have to make more!

A little crafty box

I got a random hair the other day and decided that the "storage" that we had in my daughters room for her books was just not happening. It honestly was the box we packed them in when we moved here a month ago. Since she is little and is climbing on everything I was not sure that a bookcase was such a good idea, she pulls just about everything over on herself. I found baskets and all sorts of plastic containers and fabric lined boxes...there's an idea... though not one of them screamed "little baby girl." Since my daughter is getting to an age where she doesn't need all her baby blankets, I thought it would be cool to cover a box for her books with a couple.

Her old receiving blankets were perfect, though I did use about one and a half blankets to cover the box pictured.

I started by measuring and cutting the blanket on the outside of the box, this way I was sure to know that it would also fit on the inside of the box. By the way, I love duct tape, for all kinds of things, this time it just happens to be holding the blanket in place while I work on the other side of the blanket.

I cut two long pieces, one for the inside and one for the outside, that fit from the top of one side of the box across the bottom and up the other side. Then I cut squares that fit each end of the box, again one set for the inside and one for the out.

Then, I fit the long piece into the inside of the box, trimmed the extra, and glued down the creases in the bottom first with a white school glue and weighted it with a good sized text book, who knew they would come in so handy. After that dried, I pulled the top over the sides and glued those, using my friend duct tape to hold it in place. I folded over the edges to the side squares and glued them before I glued the squares in place on the box. Those were also rolled over the top of the box and glued.
Then I repeated almost the same thing for the outside except I folded in the rough edges to give it a more finished look. Yep, again with the duct tape.

Here is the finished product, turned out nice, if I don't say so myself and it is the perfect size for baby books. Looks nice in her room too. Love getting organized (Well, trying to, anyway.)

Soap porn Sunday!

The title kind of seems like it contradicts itself, doesn't it?!?! I thought I would share some of my soap porn today. I was jones'n for some sudsy images.

Anise Clove Vegan Handmade Soap

By DeShawnMarie

Lulu, Limited Editition, goats milk soap

by The Dirty Housewife

Lemongrass Sage

By Sherries Scents and Soys

Black Cherry Vanilla.....mmmm

by Angels Kiss

Love these, just makes you wanna jump in to the shower and rub them all over...mmmm.

Fear

It is amazing what fear can do.
Many great ideas go to waste, innovations never happen, and life upgrades go un-upgraded.

When I left my last job in a casino, it amazed me that one of my co-workers said they envied me because I was going back to school and getting a new job and they could never leave there for fear. Fear of what? Fear of failure and change.
Taking on something that was different from her norm was too frightening to her. It's not that she didn't want to...fear was keeping her from other possibilities.

A new position for me just opened up, it would be great experience towards my goals, and the idea of taking it on SCARES me, right down to the particles of my being. The idea also makes me want to do something and I realize the possibilities, and that excites me. So, I hold on to the excitment and the possibilities and leave the fear in the back somewhere because without it the others would not exist.

Fear just needs to grabbed by the horns and embraced. Fear leads to anxiety and excitment, the need to take action and getting something done.

One of my favorite blogs that I stumbled upon just recently for my life tool box is all about fear and over coming it. It is inspiring to read and makes you want to go out there and "get'em."

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. Marie Curie

Patience is NOT a virtue!

I started this blog to kind of share the wonderful soapings, crafts, baking, and other entertaining things that I love to do. I embrace many philosophies and I will share those, too. For the most part this blog is about my passion of soap making and how exquisite and beautiful it can be...bubbles...lather...slippery....mmmm...ssooaapp!!

I have been soaping for many years now, around seven or eight years, I guess. I love it. My first batch started with only olive oil, water, and lye. Boy, has it has come a long way since then. Colors and fragrances, and failed batches. I actually never experienced defeat with a batch until a year ago and of course after the first failure there was a second right after and a third...well, you get the point. Recently, I have been neglecting my passion for more educational pursuits and realized that I was jones'n for some creative lather. Hence, I am hope'n the blog will help keep my creative side tame by sharing my creative suds here (plus, creating more often).

I ordered some fabulous supplies, I have run out of my stock and need to reload, and am waiting patiently for the truck with my box to appear. I am almost antsy with anticipation, but patience is a virtue, right? Wrong! it is a necessity, in this case at least.
So, I will be waiting, patiently or otherwise to see the ingredients to my next experiment in suds.