tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5364273126094518602024-03-13T18:13:10.296+00:00Soaps, creams, lotions and potions by lcr soapLululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-43416090999413933622009-11-09T20:34:00.006+00:002009-11-09T21:58:53.774+00:00Another Christmas FairI spent a lot of hours last week making up gift sets etc for the two day Christmas Fair on Friday and Saturday. I didn't finish pricing up etc until midnight on Thursday, up again at 6am on Friday morning, loading the car etc and setting up at the venue at 7.30am. Worn out before it even started, lolol. I took a few pictures as we were all setting up -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSi_AWIAXpBSCTkE0OWBTxa_jtKGFThCnggwFc4I6nf1SZ7glm2VQVsYDAwTmoxAO-bdvWQCJPWARY58J3OXFagDVjXcN3F4-OShmOASD_UdBD0r4-9IkMlWi5danS4aQAhBWGtjxAAA/s1600-h/DSCF0739.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSi_AWIAXpBSCTkE0OWBTxa_jtKGFThCnggwFc4I6nf1SZ7glm2VQVsYDAwTmoxAO-bdvWQCJPWARY58J3OXFagDVjXcN3F4-OShmOASD_UdBD0r4-9IkMlWi5danS4aQAhBWGtjxAAA/s400/DSCF0739.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402218236772994626" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk8JL2bEIzHpdk3Az8PHJXmEBzoxkPeFNPKj7X1U3nLvWDHlOZap76gAjjOyWlA6RwVjHNzEdwj0NAezQiVaGZ3uaBHvdXkSvBwQeyuamP8HEVIM5orrwNBROaAcMd5MASY_dbhGEvE6M/s1600-h/DSCF0740.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk8JL2bEIzHpdk3Az8PHJXmEBzoxkPeFNPKj7X1U3nLvWDHlOZap76gAjjOyWlA6RwVjHNzEdwj0NAezQiVaGZ3uaBHvdXkSvBwQeyuamP8HEVIM5orrwNBROaAcMd5MASY_dbhGEvE6M/s400/DSCF0740.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402219207359175106" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SfZde-x7vVw0dJYasorjNzi8JIfFa7i16lL6Uwn-kapxZw4mkWWXcuiA2nPeRekJHm5kvnOUyLN9_i4JJ57BF2qt-IpqYhUIIbNMyO9g-JFxB7hyphenhyphenLyJ0FXkHYhfL76Zoj2X5YIpI_gE/s1600-h/DSCF0741.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SfZde-x7vVw0dJYasorjNzi8JIfFa7i16lL6Uwn-kapxZw4mkWWXcuiA2nPeRekJHm5kvnOUyLN9_i4JJ57BF2qt-IpqYhUIIbNMyO9g-JFxB7hyphenhyphenLyJ0FXkHYhfL76Zoj2X5YIpI_gE/s400/DSCF0741.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402221609893875922" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWvLWI23LX9h-xHbqTPiJ9sbmRLWvXWGF0K_qmpa_dSlqNAqOD9WsuGmI1H-qHex9e2YFFYoyVEUTFoaIRmoe71_KcbJabzKDWoiLLyuGVeFDZapZizDhAdDUGhsrBA21GkZEJexYQaZc/s1600-h/DSCF0742.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWvLWI23LX9h-xHbqTPiJ9sbmRLWvXWGF0K_qmpa_dSlqNAqOD9WsuGmI1H-qHex9e2YFFYoyVEUTFoaIRmoe71_KcbJabzKDWoiLLyuGVeFDZapZizDhAdDUGhsrBA21GkZEJexYQaZc/s400/DSCF0742.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402221611661995426" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hJ0timcpoPiklg1g5y9YWVuXfzh1S9jlbWG4i4cwyUnZ0XKBOI1wDncXANbTPJdK53ak9Ka_CcZ7IDyU8pzO13Htp8zK-L_dcZFxgeKrUG2EOLtzUKpPhHlz-49XMvq6qImmLA-8_zY/s1600-h/DSCF0743.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hJ0timcpoPiklg1g5y9YWVuXfzh1S9jlbWG4i4cwyUnZ0XKBOI1wDncXANbTPJdK53ak9Ka_CcZ7IDyU8pzO13Htp8zK-L_dcZFxgeKrUG2EOLtzUKpPhHlz-49XMvq6qImmLA-8_zY/s400/DSCF0743.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402224427406438114" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTjUKOHFns45nVMIq1oyKc6vTo6n_P1AkCiJbdnB8HLi5IXJPH7m3LsSTqbAYYCif8KLzCY7z-EbnJWwvjMF8HN8ZsHt9l40jFGzagUUO4e4zyhgReOiDgVunxPA8rF8YFNkVLeEn5xbc/s1600-h/DSCF0744.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTjUKOHFns45nVMIq1oyKc6vTo6n_P1AkCiJbdnB8HLi5IXJPH7m3LsSTqbAYYCif8KLzCY7z-EbnJWwvjMF8HN8ZsHt9l40jFGzagUUO4e4zyhgReOiDgVunxPA8rF8YFNkVLeEn5xbc/s400/DSCF0744.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402225863348467138" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKr4RRyEkXR7p1DjUV-qhDnnaOGpOFV2ocKqTKI1fxfQ00DUs3SmWsZeR4mAeYQ1Yj1e-bYdXvAKwpj_l9F6RmAFz55KaLyZ8nSt0FE6iaXS2ekh_TWSTYn1c9CG2gv3-qjWk_mmCGxes/s1600-h/DSCF0745.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKr4RRyEkXR7p1DjUV-qhDnnaOGpOFV2ocKqTKI1fxfQ00DUs3SmWsZeR4mAeYQ1Yj1e-bYdXvAKwpj_l9F6RmAFz55KaLyZ8nSt0FE6iaXS2ekh_TWSTYn1c9CG2gv3-qjWk_mmCGxes/s400/DSCF0745.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402225864596159794" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It was most definitely worth all the effort and taking tons of gift sets, and it was such a pleasure to see them flying off the table ( so to speak ). Both days were busy busy busy with a pretty steady stream of customers coming through. I didn't have a lot of space and I tried to cram as much as possible into the available space, I even managed to get a few vintage bits and pieces into one corner! Just as well, because I met a lovely couple that way. The gentleman was very interested in the cravats ( ascots ) I had on the stall, kept coming back to them and finally bought one, which he put on immediately and showed off proudly to everybody. He came back again after ten minutes and bought another one, a nice snazzy one, and went off happily with his wife to have lunch. After lunch, guess what? His wife came rushing to my stall asking me to show her the paisley scarves he had also been looking at. We had such a giggle picking one without him noticing and squirrelling it away for a Christmas prezzie. Bless them, they were just wonderful.<br /><br />The stall holders were great, we were giggling and laughing together whenever we didn't have a customer, and the atmosphere was really lovely, so friendly and relaxed. I wish I could have spent a bit more money than I did, buying little gifts from all of them. There are so many talented people about. It was really nice seeing some familiar faces as well, stall holders I had met before. Of course one had to have a good natter about what fairs one had done etc etc.<br /><br />I have only booked one more Christmas Fair, for Saturday, thats quite enough for me. I'll be making more body scrubs in those lovely vintage French jars, lip scrubs, herbal bath teas and bath bonbons for that one. Also got to get a few telephone orders ready over the next couple of days. We will be off to France soon as well, for a week or so, and after that I'll be busy preparing for our own Christmas. There are so many things I want to make this year and it all takes time.<br /><br />Back soon, xxLululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-32037350214991224662009-10-28T08:26:00.003+00:002009-10-28T08:45:57.061+00:00Busy, busy, busyGotta love this time of the year though. I love making up gift packs and people are certainly starting to buy for Christmas already. I haven't really made any new products over the last few months, I seem to be making more of the same all the time. Not complaining though, because its really great when soaps sell out, at least I know people like them.<br /><br />So, last week I made 4 soaps, all restocks - Laventine ( lavender ), Aveline ( sapmoss ), Clementine ( citrus ) and Gigi ( geranium )<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_zT_Bbx2WjV0TSU8WOeWqxNPG-21Eflbx-pIK8yR_A4RFFLsGGGtuGqghkpN_HZxPliHNhKLpheTeIftnqQ0d4x8ZND8yhDb_5KWPsikdf1KXX6oaTJEXsXE56jPsVxI3-RVFhsO6YU/s1600-h/restock+oct+2009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb_zT_Bbx2WjV0TSU8WOeWqxNPG-21Eflbx-pIK8yR_A4RFFLsGGGtuGqghkpN_HZxPliHNhKLpheTeIftnqQ0d4x8ZND8yhDb_5KWPsikdf1KXX6oaTJEXsXE56jPsVxI3-RVFhsO6YU/s400/restock+oct+2009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397568947843358066" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIhMhhJrFpftmmWYofPToEvuqHLamFUEdWPEvruomyZisvZLSQNyT9lpy66L9rumhEKy0A8bafWN1VEJzBYgbraAYV1F_PTrJtJKjPlCO9PhQWfokSIE8MxUGxwKOh0LSjrF6RuX1kAl0/s1600-h/restock+oct+2009+cut+a.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIhMhhJrFpftmmWYofPToEvuqHLamFUEdWPEvruomyZisvZLSQNyT9lpy66L9rumhEKy0A8bafWN1VEJzBYgbraAYV1F_PTrJtJKjPlCO9PhQWfokSIE8MxUGxwKOh0LSjrF6RuX1kAl0/s400/restock+oct+2009+cut+a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397568956273378434" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFT2llL9cVXDxb5LREK4fvXlXf-EZglKxqWJbEg27yK3JEVSkdhNgLIWgbEcwpYqaeKdq2kwgviiUBPzyFSklh_-N4dxDirRkRKsnEalW2gWNOkAyuX7JbXXndIJKuZNIlcM4lVlu4UWY/s1600-h/restock+oct+2009+cut+b.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFT2llL9cVXDxb5LREK4fvXlXf-EZglKxqWJbEg27yK3JEVSkdhNgLIWgbEcwpYqaeKdq2kwgviiUBPzyFSklh_-N4dxDirRkRKsnEalW2gWNOkAyuX7JbXXndIJKuZNIlcM4lVlu4UWY/s400/restock+oct+2009+cut+b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397568963050591890" border="0" /></a><br />I have orders to fill this week as well, and today I am making salt soap bars, as they are all sold out as well. The last two, which I had hoarded for myself, went to my almost-daughter-in-law. She asked me for them the last time they came over. She loves them and swears its the only thing which helps combat her outbreaks. Isn't that sweet?<br /><br />Back to the pleasurable task of making up gift packs, yay! xxLululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-89496286079727850422009-09-30T13:34:00.004+01:002009-09-30T15:31:14.877+01:00Two-day MarketI know, I know, I should have posted about this last week, but somehow I only seemed to have had a few mins here and there to quickly check some of my favourite blogs and leave a comment. I really had the best intentions, but......... usual story, lol.<br /><br />I really didn't know what to expect of this two-day market. I hadn't done a market before, and I hadn't even known about this one until this year. Boy, did I get a pleasant surprise! The market stalls were all set up for the traders, proper traders licences were handed out first thing Saturday morning and displayed prominently, and then we could arrange our goods. I had enough space at the sides of the market stall to put tables up, and I had brought some of my antique French linens and other vintage bits and pieces with me on the off chance. So, on one side of the stall I hung some really pretty French 19th C tops, nighties and..... yep, bloomers, along with a display of vintage French and German linen towels, some laces and buttons, and on the other side of the stall I had a quirky mix off all sorts of vintage stuff.<br /><br />It worked out brilliantly. The market was so well attended, there was a constant flow of customers. I got to chat with lots of ladies about the wonderful linens I had with me ( I get very enthusiastic about these things ) while my son was doing his bit selling the soaps ( and getting very good at explaining about them as well ). And quite amazingly, I had people queuing up quite frequently when my DS toddled off and I was on my own. It was the by far the best event I have had so far, and despite a very wet start on Sunday morning, it turned out as good as Saturday. Everything sold really well, sold out of quite a few soaps and skincare products again, Lavender soap being the first to go of course. French antique nighties, buttons and tins, as well as vintage bits and pieces from 1950s cocktail fork sets to 1960s art glass soap dishes and snakeskin wallets, all sold so well.<br /><br />Not much in the way of photos, we didn't get the chance really. But here are a few<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivhUNIvUQ2oVNYQfbUS2eDT3CPJoPAUmXPtECyalNz9E-lOH0XM020mWEcBM2nLywucozkQzZfj-tdSGljAO0wppef-rckkrU42UQJ0_AfTOpbA0YsNzHpKHYfScsyYVNNUaepEnIBYDU/s1600-h/DSCF0634.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivhUNIvUQ2oVNYQfbUS2eDT3CPJoPAUmXPtECyalNz9E-lOH0XM020mWEcBM2nLywucozkQzZfj-tdSGljAO0wppef-rckkrU42UQJ0_AfTOpbA0YsNzHpKHYfScsyYVNNUaepEnIBYDU/s400/DSCF0634.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387244991489452818" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimpcLIhqY4PjklyvWt3s2RTMotc9_EmLd_HpBEsVDa2Vdk0B_WecdZXiJRO7l8s9m3tPpZkBj_JqOI-8RWRkf71OwzrlB69aa-u3zGLysqd1zbWCkE-745tVuDTxXCernhIy4ttssaNqY/s1600-h/DSCF0637.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimpcLIhqY4PjklyvWt3s2RTMotc9_EmLd_HpBEsVDa2Vdk0B_WecdZXiJRO7l8s9m3tPpZkBj_JqOI-8RWRkf71OwzrlB69aa-u3zGLysqd1zbWCkE-745tVuDTxXCernhIy4ttssaNqY/s400/DSCF0637.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387244999619059986" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ5eUZ1UrN7EotFG3upRDURPIoQHyFg4PRrVDWRKN8SOQANo12EwUoIyb-Id7Ojj_r9yDPlC-TjcrOzXbGVzl5nMWyC02G11VMpGEA7YrkiXbdlPBEWchJuzc0QkAJEKAVP3O3Jg2dwjk/s1600-h/DSCF0639.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ5eUZ1UrN7EotFG3upRDURPIoQHyFg4PRrVDWRKN8SOQANo12EwUoIyb-Id7Ojj_r9yDPlC-TjcrOzXbGVzl5nMWyC02G11VMpGEA7YrkiXbdlPBEWchJuzc0QkAJEKAVP3O3Jg2dwjk/s400/DSCF0639.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387245007725990498" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivOsObV9GS4l-SCqUyKdYaAUU7sNCCIjx6m7Dx98prXvMRa3RTyTdbYyJumFgFjSSAZj6EcATfficLUI_SiiyWnCvOmZtrmc91iaYClCXOrZu1V0879za20cCGgCeBxkuK9o6kK1gIhvc/s1600-h/DSCF0640.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivOsObV9GS4l-SCqUyKdYaAUU7sNCCIjx6m7Dx98prXvMRa3RTyTdbYyJumFgFjSSAZj6EcATfficLUI_SiiyWnCvOmZtrmc91iaYClCXOrZu1V0879za20cCGgCeBxkuK9o6kK1gIhvc/s400/DSCF0640.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387245014318261602" border="0" /></a><br />These were the new soap designs which I took with me for the first time. They were very well received -<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuRcpr_J-PJDvViR1SqHLzpk-31Hf2AkMitDh48PjwDof6tLpK2s-zKOD1Rh6INNUn-E5HdUKJVOfAFZ5V2Kh9oc0dc19XivhR3RlFDTSNEa8Bm8b1lL5WLlKJmROYrGbSBZBgSF8ZHE/s1600-h/DSC_0746.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuRcpr_J-PJDvViR1SqHLzpk-31Hf2AkMitDh48PjwDof6tLpK2s-zKOD1Rh6INNUn-E5HdUKJVOfAFZ5V2Kh9oc0dc19XivhR3RlFDTSNEa8Bm8b1lL5WLlKJmROYrGbSBZBgSF8ZHE/s400/DSC_0746.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387267561535838898" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6BGoEfDVlkETgjxl52xaik0m0qtWoFneIKz7-gRM_yEp6NS7MRU-A9KNpW6an43DNFqXgq07r_EpEbL1KpfH_bUj2-omi47fK5DkVrOUH_Yn_jDJecGCiIplPcyvdgFLGugxN7zj6sTU/s1600-h/DSC_0743.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6BGoEfDVlkETgjxl52xaik0m0qtWoFneIKz7-gRM_yEp6NS7MRU-A9KNpW6an43DNFqXgq07r_EpEbL1KpfH_bUj2-omi47fK5DkVrOUH_Yn_jDJecGCiIplPcyvdgFLGugxN7zj6sTU/s400/DSC_0743.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387267552699418482" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG1Qq9jaYHyztUCXS_BspZLUMWOnVhUpqq9PbPK5WgKHA4uKFFKIiRDmAISTTeAA7NcHuDMRUFXve1vQ75vn_IucESFrUdtRCTO-eE23Z5SZ1ykzAAXMWxNIy1qri6eTLbqrDGbmNFZuQ/s1600-h/DSC_0741.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG1Qq9jaYHyztUCXS_BspZLUMWOnVhUpqq9PbPK5WgKHA4uKFFKIiRDmAISTTeAA7NcHuDMRUFXve1vQ75vn_IucESFrUdtRCTO-eE23Z5SZ1ykzAAXMWxNIy1qri6eTLbqrDGbmNFZuQ/s400/DSC_0741.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387267545692055938" border="0" /></a><br />Now I have to get my butt into gear and make a load of soap batches, new shaving oils and facial serums, start planning new gift packs etc, basically get ready for the Xmas fairs which are coming up soon.Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-37286209454488002432009-09-08T16:04:00.006+01:002009-09-08T16:37:36.653+01:00And back to work we go....We got back from our summer holiday in France on Sunday night, and I am trying to get myself back into work mode. Well, making soap and skincare products isn't exactly like daily-grind-work for me yet, I love doing it, and its most definitely not a dreaded chore, but getting back into the swing of things after a few weeks away is not easy.<br /><br />I have some fairs coming up, so I need to go through my stock, replace damaged labelling, make a list of products I am running out of, take out anything which is approaching BBE soon and perhaps organise a bargain bin for it, hmmm. And then there are the now well cured soaps on the rack, which need wrapping and labelling ( ah yes, I need to design new labels as well, as these are new soap designs ) -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPfG8vbSqiUD42N37XYYXa-sbccsVwEwJV-GgWIMmDYOab_4IhXEcIpROkA43qgJyI9FNyzy_4uaTIk7Of-azFOgEQihTpaLPO5v4jlKV19UKtBFsBJNnZj3nu-oTG-VSA1ijXEgsCEPs/s1600-h/DSC_0732.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPfG8vbSqiUD42N37XYYXa-sbccsVwEwJV-GgWIMmDYOab_4IhXEcIpROkA43qgJyI9FNyzy_4uaTIk7Of-azFOgEQihTpaLPO5v4jlKV19UKtBFsBJNnZj3nu-oTG-VSA1ijXEgsCEPs/s400/DSC_0732.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379118372446812162" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I know I have to make loads more of the Cleopatra's Decadent Milk Bath, I sold out of that one, again! I need to make more bath melts, my last few, errrmm, well, melted at a recent outdoor fair during some very hot weather ( which is ok, because I get to use them muyself, woohoo ).<br /><br />I also want to start on gift packs, I know its still too early really to mention the X word, but one has to get organised in good time, right? So there are men's gift sets to be made up with these gorgeous Wade shaving jars -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kWvB8SGhBXHSgfqR2SxI60UzVRvKzC6QE3VGsxxQCn1Itd1ZRVeRe1BvroUk_VBPsuRV2zZxyUw-4PjMZ5aRXPb9IShdcFjmF2YyQYKRXSMhtvBQhpHHAV-Ly1snu1fVWNsOiHaXMaE/s1600-h/DSC_0733.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3kWvB8SGhBXHSgfqR2SxI60UzVRvKzC6QE3VGsxxQCn1Itd1ZRVeRe1BvroUk_VBPsuRV2zZxyUw-4PjMZ5aRXPb9IShdcFjmF2YyQYKRXSMhtvBQhpHHAV-Ly1snu1fVWNsOiHaXMaE/s400/DSC_0733.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379118377960330818" border="0" /></a><br />oh, and I got these gorgeous little cups in France, I would dearly make some cup candles with them, perhaps again for a gift set, with a soap in the matching fragrance -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFmNLEOxujUzgWwiCYKZr9KWGswpCpTz01QgtJNcChcY0HnnfuLImXL2HjTgYPQitG_vYZAidEhkg6E9vzBmk7yzq3K8zQsnlqrqtAEgeNKIZg9oJTiwxo7Xky2117ETVGJfIbW0VrBJU/s1600-h/DSC_0482.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFmNLEOxujUzgWwiCYKZr9KWGswpCpTz01QgtJNcChcY0HnnfuLImXL2HjTgYPQitG_vYZAidEhkg6E9vzBmk7yzq3K8zQsnlqrqtAEgeNKIZg9oJTiwxo7Xky2117ETVGJfIbW0VrBJU/s400/DSC_0482.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379119526206285266" border="0" /></a><br />I hope I manage to get my butt into gear, and don't just stop at making lists! Which is what often happens with me, sigh. Feel free to give me a kick up the backside, if I am not getting my act together within the next couple of days. xxLululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-81779612308152557702009-08-03T13:58:00.007+01:002009-08-03T15:46:45.136+01:00RecoveringDon't worry, not recuperating from swine flu, just recovering from a very hectic weekend. I tell ya, outdoor fairs are, lets say, interesting, lol. We had a two day fair booked this weekend, and although the event had been held for many years, it was all completely new because it was at a different venue. So, I thought perhaps it might be a good idea to set up the day before.<br /><br />We decided just to take the gazebo, no stock, for a quick in and out. Yeah, right, lol. The venue was enormous, we are talking square miles, lol, absolutely HUGE, and not exactly flat, in fact you could have held a dozen or two simultaneous ski jumping events there, if there had been snow of course. Also, it felt like driving over corrugated iron, lol, my poor car was making very strange noises. Plus, the wheat (?) had only been cut 3 days before, so it was definitely trainers and long trousers, otherwise you could have gotten prickled like crazy by the stalks.<br /><br />As soon as we got there in the morning, we were shooed into a field and told to wait until they found out where to put us. Errrmmmm. Ok. We parked the car, toddled off to where we could see tents, marquees and gazebos going up, and were slightly surprised to see that everything was extremely higgledypiggledy, there were no marked out pitches, no rows, people were setting up, it seemed, all over wherever they fancied and with huge empty spaces between them. Back to the car again, check with the organisers, still no news where to set up. An hour later, same thing, give us another 5 mins, bla bla bla. Sigh. At last, 1 1/2 hours after arriving we were finally told where we could go, so we put up the gazebo, made it safe, and made our escape.<br /><br />Saturday morning was lovely. We were absolutely amazed at how things had changed, the whole site was a hive of activity, the empty spaces were filling up somewhat, although still very haphazardly, and there was a really good buzz in the air. People started pouring in nice and early, although as the grounds were so vast, it took a couple of hours before it actually looked busy. I had no idea how vast the place actually was until I had a quick womble about. There was a whole Red Indian village, an area set aside for the helicopter rides, arenas for the demonstrations ( shire horses, dancing horses, birds of prey ), vintage tractors galore, an oldfashioned fun fair for the little ones, loads of traders, huge charity marquees, beer tent, refreshments, a large stage for the band.... just so many things to see and take part in, and no time to see/do it all. I took loads of photos during my quick womble. I'll post some more on my lululizinlalaland blog later and will put the rest on photobucket, there are way way way too many to put on a blog, lol, but here are a couple of the gazebo -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAY7b8HloZH6yf7xmjQM9B-5yFXD8y1RuURGd8RZo9-vLPTu7kyDw70egCHxHJXXn1h5AkmUAa6WK8ap9dul_DnuO2b0-IIMAi3RZYHn089-NEX31rYxatyvFvNHZ54QMKvg5HbYxqx3s/s1600-h/DSCF0090.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAY7b8HloZH6yf7xmjQM9B-5yFXD8y1RuURGd8RZo9-vLPTu7kyDw70egCHxHJXXn1h5AkmUAa6WK8ap9dul_DnuO2b0-IIMAi3RZYHn089-NEX31rYxatyvFvNHZ54QMKvg5HbYxqx3s/s400/DSCF0090.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365740569621286962" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWmpZkeMufON5VKfvhJlXRAoEmsY0l1wgYWIwAUg2WyE28KRaVEZix_gxQNTfsm2E3z6ZziyJTLWS7ReLK8fqUOZDFkENuvbDQ5qj2eD-NS3OZEqIbo2-ES6eYY4bM4QfLkyrCUg68oXQ/s1600-h/DSC_0294.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWmpZkeMufON5VKfvhJlXRAoEmsY0l1wgYWIwAUg2WyE28KRaVEZix_gxQNTfsm2E3z6ZziyJTLWS7ReLK8fqUOZDFkENuvbDQ5qj2eD-NS3OZEqIbo2-ES6eYY4bM4QfLkyrCUg68oXQ/s400/DSC_0294.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365740567232132306" border="0" /></a><br />Some of my vintage bits and pieces -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3FEX_Sx0_8gGfqIJ1OnEKFDiaxPyJ4Dz4BV6rebUiddBIFwn7_TFf64PvWZr_sNSJSgFFYaVz2vxVbK8IYynNOptQjVKt-OGuw2VAEUNlgnxRNe-TsaNYNhDCY6A4KKNtlbQ73o89t8/s1600-h/DSCF0124.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3FEX_Sx0_8gGfqIJ1OnEKFDiaxPyJ4Dz4BV6rebUiddBIFwn7_TFf64PvWZr_sNSJSgFFYaVz2vxVbK8IYynNOptQjVKt-OGuw2VAEUNlgnxRNe-TsaNYNhDCY6A4KKNtlbQ73o89t8/s400/DSCF0124.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365744062424759202" border="0" /></a><br />Sales were good, customers were not exactly queuing up, but there was a steady flow and things were going well until about 2ish in the afternoon, when the heavens opened. OMG, you have never seen so much mud! It didn't take long to turn the whole site into a quagmire. We were right opposite the beer tent, which, not surprisingly, was jam packed within seconds of the rain starting. Our gazebo only has two sides, but we had some plastic dust sheets with us. You would have creased up watching us frantically trying to use the plastic sheets to cover another side, lolol, it must have been quite hilarious. But it make the gazebo quite cosy. We had dragged a hay bale into it as well ( basically to weigh down the bottom of the plastic sheet wall, lol ), which made an excellent seat, and we spent a couple of hours in there, with the occasional very brave customer strolling in. Packing up in the pouring rain is not fun, and we got absolutely soaked securing the gazebo in case it got stormy during the night, as the forecast was not very good. It was looooooooovely to get home, have a nice cup of tea and a bath.<br /><br />It rained, A LOT, during the night, and although Sunday morning looked lovely and sparkling and promising, I had a very bad feeling about the show, remembering how many cars and vans had gotten stuck trying to get out of the field the afternoon before. And that was just after 2 or 3 hours of rain! So it was with some slight trepidation that we drove to the fair. Quite frankly I was VERY worried. Not without good reason, it turned out. The sort of lane which had been flattened out for traffic to get through the first field into the site proper was impassable. We had to drive right across the "corrugated iron" field and then park up, while they were " trying to sort out a few things ". This was just before 9 with the fair scheduled to open at 10. So we left the car, and tried to get to our gazebo. OMG, I was having kittens just trying to walk through the very slippery mud, down the slopes and up the slopes, it was a nightmare. At least we could get the gazebo all ready for whenever we were allowed to or rather able to bring the car up with the stock.<br /><br />Finally people were given the go ahead to try and get the cars/vans/lorries to where the pitches were. OH BOY! Cars and vans were getting stuck all over the place, tractors were towing goodness knows how many, lol. The main "lane" was impassable for anything other than the toughest 4 wheel drive mean machines and tractors, so once again it was right across a field, down the slope, and up the slope, which was VERY scary, with wheels spinning and sliding, and the occasional push required from my darling son. But we made it.<br /><br />I had dreadful visions of the general public coming in and slipping and falling all over the place in all that churned up mud, but, quite miraculously, within an hour or so the wonderful sunshine started drying out the ground quite nicely and by lunchtime it was almost back to normal! Hurrah! It was a glorious day, blue skies, sunshine, what seemed like thousands of people, and a great day for sales as well. The atmosphere was fabulous, I loved being there, I just wished I had had a little bit more time to have a look around myself. I did manage to pick up a couple of gorgeous things though, more of that on the other blog. As it was, my darling son did all the looking for me, lol, I hardly saw him that day, there was just so much for him to watch and do. The highlight of his day was when he had his photo taken with an EAGLE on this wrist!!! What an experience that was. A word of warning, never let your son loose with a camera, lol, he took well over 300 pics ( mostly of the dancing horses, oh, and the "fit bird" riding one of them, lol ). How on earth am I going to decide which ones to keep, which ones to delete, and which ones to post???<br /><br />So, all in all, it was a fabulous weekend, good atmosphere, good sales, really really enjoyable. Once again, sales were a good mixture of soaps and skincare products, a bit of most things really, plus I had to part with quite a few of the vintage things I had taken along. But they all went to really good homes and very appreciative new owners.<br /><br />Just a few general pics -<br /><br />Fun fair<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGmf2OxtDCQ-IX1FAEwB1Z5Sh3KbOiBzoJcpM9UONrz5BKdDS0Uc-z9UFliqgzu9qxrszZ-QwcG8szJZpAemsXTrySZBScNvm7ClDsCwe6R1xpHqe3GfKViQgStxKkbznryLwtW1hV3a4/s1600-h/DSCF0074.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGmf2OxtDCQ-IX1FAEwB1Z5Sh3KbOiBzoJcpM9UONrz5BKdDS0Uc-z9UFliqgzu9qxrszZ-QwcG8szJZpAemsXTrySZBScNvm7ClDsCwe6R1xpHqe3GfKViQgStxKkbznryLwtW1hV3a4/s400/DSCF0074.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365744059136847682" border="0" /></a><br />Red Indian village<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi54F9Lzq74_Elo7f_tEW8f0695gXBZfydiae1pwvFD9pMtqOAKYccezGqvVH-k98Dc8ROc1uLBDH3ybJsql3kSasEhyphenhyphensnRs0DjE_BAOpbX3ZA9rzlwD7Kw-QwQeaWhwzaKhrEPTzRPQvE/s1600-h/DSCF0139.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi54F9Lzq74_Elo7f_tEW8f0695gXBZfydiae1pwvFD9pMtqOAKYccezGqvVH-k98Dc8ROc1uLBDH3ybJsql3kSasEhyphenhyphensnRs0DjE_BAOpbX3ZA9rzlwD7Kw-QwQeaWhwzaKhrEPTzRPQvE/s400/DSCF0139.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365744067947416930" border="0" /></a><br />Look at these beautiful creatures -<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVBlDcJntUA939SoO3oiDGlzIuQk3Qz3AEqQhLZfrD0Q7LVy3Vkg6Zw4EUU0mRW7gI4sZirHcqFh1V9daFYnIt4U7mScJQE8C_PCNa1FWPjLNJTLawGkXCv4uEbU2kkEE8ABbYxvuv5Q/s1600-h/DSC_0298.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdVBlDcJntUA939SoO3oiDGlzIuQk3Qz3AEqQhLZfrD0Q7LVy3Vkg6Zw4EUU0mRW7gI4sZirHcqFh1V9daFYnIt4U7mScJQE8C_PCNa1FWPjLNJTLawGkXCv4uEbU2kkEE8ABbYxvuv5Q/s400/DSC_0298.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365746916942607538" border="0" /></a><br />One of the dancing horses and "fit bird"<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSrlHuRtFXE8YxDIPx93qBF97PRPKFp2QhosXSY9idPgfOHQZR7at6VaqcGOLijVnAACMf73HhrKuGO7L-2CJxyUhRtCY3jpmBIaIc5YzYXaU7kL2elMJ9TPlhagPFeCDGVAg9yGkIaGk/s1600-h/DSC_0542.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSrlHuRtFXE8YxDIPx93qBF97PRPKFp2QhosXSY9idPgfOHQZR7at6VaqcGOLijVnAACMf73HhrKuGO7L-2CJxyUhRtCY3jpmBIaIc5YzYXaU7kL2elMJ9TPlhagPFeCDGVAg9yGkIaGk/s400/DSC_0542.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365746923247529490" border="0" /></a><br />This owl was the most gentle creature, we stroked it, and it didn't mind at all, but look at those eyes!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihq23mAu9w34lG45aQxwb2RgG5GKkFr7-fAgXfuqpS6mrboE_kZ6p_xSlgxFLxXW_ZNjUenPHVOQso5br05DAu6Pf6oH0_l1v76488d-pSjuG9UwmZT7ImZSwqSOjYLK8486Yqu0od-ws/s1600-h/DSC_0278.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihq23mAu9w34lG45aQxwb2RgG5GKkFr7-fAgXfuqpS6mrboE_kZ6p_xSlgxFLxXW_ZNjUenPHVOQso5br05DAu6Pf6oH0_l1v76488d-pSjuG9UwmZT7ImZSwqSOjYLK8486Yqu0od-ws/s400/DSC_0278.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365746907637237202" border="0" /></a><br />And this is the majestic eagle Nick had on his wrist -<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqV9Yt_Zc-Im11IDI_n5SgJPRlAq3KglvRigtMCya3_RTcedpUEvIrJyich7j8iaOiOjjgwhEv2tzn4DdVmfNz7d9hiL1EIfcHDZkv35fUPivIiNS64X8nyp46H1NgUaYPzO6qIp7Ww_I/s1600-h/DSC_0598.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqV9Yt_Zc-Im11IDI_n5SgJPRlAq3KglvRigtMCya3_RTcedpUEvIrJyich7j8iaOiOjjgwhEv2tzn4DdVmfNz7d9hiL1EIfcHDZkv35fUPivIiNS64X8nyp46H1NgUaYPzO6qIp7Ww_I/s400/DSC_0598.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365746926579629842" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmzeIDXp7zMaiD1UZGJRG97KBDFtNGQYCamCfKmzSlgfse9qVE6ZalUWIVxYkdLcxx_sKcGIka1HIIrjGfHwxx1dyx6g7nx0LwbUTjNeUazvJN4S85tPKjG-prP-9rJmigCTxFiBC1s0/s1600-h/DSC_0615.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmzeIDXp7zMaiD1UZGJRG97KBDFtNGQYCamCfKmzSlgfse9qVE6ZalUWIVxYkdLcxx_sKcGIka1HIIrjGfHwxx1dyx6g7nx0LwbUTjNeUazvJN4S85tPKjG-prP-9rJmigCTxFiBC1s0/s400/DSC_0615.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365748244944045778" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Fz00usBA7L4ZnNBmaertGiA0yHWTWWkuMFBkGU18UWNxeAJQMk7ulRAfokrEWN-my9LFOiEbMNaoFNUbJuxw8IwLxW0KC1o3zXZiR9ei2PMTnynNfx-pXOSSUfoTsbsRdRgTLG8adqA/s1600-h/DSC_0606.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7Fz00usBA7L4ZnNBmaertGiA0yHWTWWkuMFBkGU18UWNxeAJQMk7ulRAfokrEWN-my9LFOiEbMNaoFNUbJuxw8IwLxW0KC1o3zXZiR9ei2PMTnynNfx-pXOSSUfoTsbsRdRgTLG8adqA/s400/DSC_0606.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365748239594328098" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-76054778752043026312009-07-30T21:33:00.003+01:002009-07-30T22:04:59.791+01:00Cleopatra's Decadent Milk BathI usually sell the milk bath in a cello bag with three sachets and a little cotton bag, but at the fair last Saturday, I completely sold out and only had two single sachets left, which I had kept just to show people what it looked like. But even those two single sachets went, when a couple stopped by, saw them, had a sniff at the tester and said they loved the scent so much, they had to have them!<br /><br />So today I have been preparing more of this really quite decadent mix, which includes sheeps milk powder, buttermilk powder, yoghurt powder, fruit powder, honey powder, oats and wheatbran, plus of course a gorgeous fragrance.<br /><br />I have just finished filling the little baggies, printing the ingredients labels and front labels and am now debating whether I should take a pic of them tonight. Arrghh, decisions, decisions. A post without pics is boring, so I suppose I ought to really.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9jm5eWX85s89O9axvaGZXR68au0Y6Y-psIRASgEZ7oTEt2NtJ4fYMn3wUYzV5i9nOqYuCFi5Sh0HC-8PS_8RU-lAO4on_Y0-NQMr0FV661DG3hwO7ksNewS1gNSwGQepIaLVhYbG6kg/s1600-h/DSC01126.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9jm5eWX85s89O9axvaGZXR68au0Y6Y-psIRASgEZ7oTEt2NtJ4fYMn3wUYzV5i9nOqYuCFi5Sh0HC-8PS_8RU-lAO4on_Y0-NQMr0FV661DG3hwO7ksNewS1gNSwGQepIaLVhYbG6kg/s400/DSC01126.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364361366097894802" border="0" /></a><br />There you go, pretty poor photo but then its 10pm, I oughta be in bed and not trying to take pics, lol.<br /><br />Tomorrow I'll be making more clay,yoghurt and fruit face mask trios, I sold out of those as well.<br /><br />Weather forecast is still not good for the weekend, sigh, it is not going to be pleasant if its chucking down. Ah well, fingers crossed and hope for the best, eh?Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-84640059296791967702009-07-28T11:11:00.007+01:002009-07-28T16:37:15.762+01:00So many fairs!It seems that lately I have been spending most of my weekends doing fairs. Actually, I love doing them because I love talking to people about my products. Saturday was a brilliant day. I was at a huge two-day fair, sharing a large outdoor space with three others. I could only do the Saturday, as it was my granddaughter's Christening on Sunday, but it was so worth it!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDSZ1UAx-Y121au9YgQtgzGkf_GsiWHMcO_DYME3_q64EF9Ouju_hrzymzy7T_bm6OoLjpd-hAe4WmRYkzm5AhOwXwidduF1bt_TTKUw93kBn9qwF3oB6hU1Qi1h2q3fL1zph3N9jvJ8/s1600-h/htcs1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDSZ1UAx-Y121au9YgQtgzGkf_GsiWHMcO_DYME3_q64EF9Ouju_hrzymzy7T_bm6OoLjpd-hAe4WmRYkzm5AhOwXwidduF1bt_TTKUw93kBn9qwF3oB6hU1Qi1h2q3fL1zph3N9jvJ8/s400/htcs1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363455228542925330" border="0" /></a><br />The space was shared with three jewellery makers. I was quite amazed at how different their styles were. Mind you, I could have easily bought a piece or two from each of them, they all made such exquisite necklaces etc. I only managed to take a pic of one of them though, somehow there were always people to talk to, lol -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVhynaPPR9UJ7GIqxkfbwnLZ7Lh1_g5QSz0pgN4eGEqVRDqQjNct7mlmoN0bKRZ0yxF84LE1wccJLUvS5I9E3pQjfmAt2dZsWBhH9yCY2YFLWwvwoemzvEIoMtePmmNQU9UPC1_Ao8F0/s1600-h/htcs3.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUVhynaPPR9UJ7GIqxkfbwnLZ7Lh1_g5QSz0pgN4eGEqVRDqQjNct7mlmoN0bKRZ0yxF84LE1wccJLUvS5I9E3pQjfmAt2dZsWBhH9yCY2YFLWwvwoemzvEIoMtePmmNQU9UPC1_Ao8F0/s400/htcs3.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363455740107992770" border="0" /></a><br />This was my corner -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_qDlVDDNmUyKZWI1Et3-K4ql-ZUIz08lUK7nZdqdJKts7WLmALV5Nw5l3V-x5dQb3x8GGxkHDyuWx3InaXGP6geTwH5u9r5BBkYij3SzoWIplemXCHmqK2Vhl_EP9vpHXCtro7xodlOs/s1600-h/htcs4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_qDlVDDNmUyKZWI1Et3-K4ql-ZUIz08lUK7nZdqdJKts7WLmALV5Nw5l3V-x5dQb3x8GGxkHDyuWx3InaXGP6geTwH5u9r5BBkYij3SzoWIplemXCHmqK2Vhl_EP9vpHXCtro7xodlOs/s400/htcs4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363453396701148194" border="0" /></a><br />Whenever I have a large outdoor space, I try and take some other stuff with me as well. I love love love vintage fabrics, so I usually take my box of vintage and antique French and German linen towels with me. I also had a basket with lavender hearts and brooch pillows made from 19th Century French fabrics as well as rosy vintage fabrics, and a basket with those crocheted flower brooches which I have been making. And you can probably spot the eiderdown, quilt and crochet blanket in the background as well ( oh, bad news for you, Joy, I actually sold the <a href="http://lululizinlalaland.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-lovely-saturday-its-been.html">eiderdown</a> which you liked so much, sorry ).<br /><br />It was incredibly busy, it took me 5 or 6 attempts to get a drink from the van opposite us where they were selling ice cold water. Everytime I just got into the queue, there were people picking up the soaps, the serums, the gift packs etc at my stall so I had to rush back. Not that I am complaining, lol, it was great to see so much interest.<br /><br />It was a successful day, the soaps sold well, as did the facial polish, and alls sorts of other things as well, like the Pampered Feet packs for example. Lavender hearts, crocheted flower brooches, french linen towels, French vintage buttons, ah yes, and the eiderdown, all sold nicely. What a nice change to sitting in a huge hall with just a few people aimlessly drifting about not even looking at the stalls.<br /><br />Just to finish this off, have a look at this fella, you do get some characters at these shows, lol<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwHbHYaxKFNjoGz6oE6HdPoFY9DTAw6tttwZCgtqhC6abU60_NLUFYmXSE7EWCnP_FIey-qxWbPKwbW9mC1t_wVLOPc6nKG1spqtSnpT-uyYwoO0PWYA98-ygW-2C20r2YNfgltWeov7c/s1600-h/htcs2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwHbHYaxKFNjoGz6oE6HdPoFY9DTAw6tttwZCgtqhC6abU60_NLUFYmXSE7EWCnP_FIey-qxWbPKwbW9mC1t_wVLOPc6nKG1spqtSnpT-uyYwoO0PWYA98-ygW-2C20r2YNfgltWeov7c/s400/htcs2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363458380428986514" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2CzESqHs_T5LxJ1YLWQ8jAE38M5e_Y9jfkxX1obiiGnwx0aPNSNd5Gzn-obrYVddvFBm21z2Pp2Ub8ZPv422IzofHEl2_fETRLRERk-ZjZP8gg5NV5qp6yFO5N6_R52U1o-5-4PyK3Pw/s1600-h/DSC01083.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2CzESqHs_T5LxJ1YLWQ8jAE38M5e_Y9jfkxX1obiiGnwx0aPNSNd5Gzn-obrYVddvFBm21z2Pp2Ub8ZPv422IzofHEl2_fETRLRERk-ZjZP8gg5NV5qp6yFO5N6_R52U1o-5-4PyK3Pw/s400/DSC01083.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363458376446455186" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-11163979898333754082009-07-12T17:17:00.021+01:002009-07-13T10:23:48.502+01:00Fun at the Village FairIt really wasn't a great start to the day, it was drizzling, there wasn't a speck of blue or ray of sunshine to be seen in the sky anywhere, just big dark clouds, sigh. I was feeling a wee bit apprehensive as we were putting the gazebo in the car, remembering Purplesparkle's adventures with her gazebo last year. Although her writings made us all laugh, it really wasn't very funny, having your gazebo blown away and I was starting to have visions of my gazebo going the same way. And even if the gazebo behaved itself and stayed put, would there be any customers if the weather was going to be foul all day?<br /><br />Still, as we were going to a village fair I was hopeful that people weren't going to be put off by bad weather, villagers always seem to support their local events come rain or shine. Half way to the fair, it stopped drizzling and my spirits rose. Perhaps the gods would smile on us after all, eh?<br /><br />The grounds where the fair was being held were huge! And there was so much planned for the day! Dog shows, dance displays, animal displays, hog roast, bar tent, a little funfair for the kiddies and of course lots of stalls. The atmosphere was fabulous, you really can't beat village fairs for that, the stall holders were friendly, the organisers were very nice, the only criticism I have is that everything was too spread out, there were huge areas of nothing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsnIamgvs0ESihhTmXdk81BeKUC0rYhNogKvWC8pok85442IWEnxr7Foju5A4KLmYILo21FFCsJ6oqRZa0LfguPC-lvocM9e4C8cpzLCY7X880VlsHVzlVm1soXzw7Imx_gcvwoQg52L4/s1600-h/country+fair.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsnIamgvs0ESihhTmXdk81BeKUC0rYhNogKvWC8pok85442IWEnxr7Foju5A4KLmYILo21FFCsJ6oqRZa0LfguPC-lvocM9e4C8cpzLCY7X880VlsHVzlVm1soXzw7Imx_gcvwoQg52L4/s400/country+fair.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357614422369703794" border="0" /></a><br />The morning was slow, every now and then there was a little moisture ( alright, drizzle, sigh ) in the air, and I was beginning to think that perhaps this would be the first time that I would make a loss. I was so wrong! After midday, things really started to take off, despite the lack of sunshine, and the atmosphere was just fabulous. So many happy families about, people making such lovely comments about my products, and buying, lol, and not allowing me much time to have a look at the other stalls or events which were taking place in the arena. It turned out to be the best fair yet for me. The best thing, and which made us all laugh out loud, was when I had a bunch of friends in my gazebo fighting over the last bar of hair soap, and one saying in desperation " I need it more than you do "! It is really quite worrying how many people these days suffer with skin/scalp problems. So far, the hair soap has proven to be of tremendous help in soothing the scalp, calming itching and reducing flaking and patches of psoriasis. In conjunction with the scalp oil, it certainly clears my husband's scalp problems.<br /><br />I really wanted to take photos of some of the events, but in the end I had to ask my DS to go and take some, as I was constantly talking with customers. Just look at these totally adorable doggies, the brown Newfoundland looks just like a huge cuddly teddy bear -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jxhZLxF9ELgnkBtTnYXg2PR85HQf2HeFE585iGs4Q_1-uW1hrmzg9BxpIbg1aJBNpriDUZpBMlslTp9UGpCQOikywKQuP_G8Vh4YD1yWjKEfqzBdpniFUcfDrQoYPB2a2bPb7jFhi_s/s1600-h/country+fair+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5jxhZLxF9ELgnkBtTnYXg2PR85HQf2HeFE585iGs4Q_1-uW1hrmzg9BxpIbg1aJBNpriDUZpBMlslTp9UGpCQOikywKQuP_G8Vh4YD1yWjKEfqzBdpniFUcfDrQoYPB2a2bPb7jFhi_s/s400/country+fair+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357616921768388226" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmW5EPfGq3zN5iyo17MQ0Sl3tcqfqzHGWpOVQd5EgW8BIMg-liFj3fzowbhd1EHKeAgtPw6osZcbqExYdNUcxbTv3zixKJa_Z1INexKAoFwu6JixCApCjqUbqEhlX_yJkWjtP9GMv6jw/s1600-h/country+fair+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmW5EPfGq3zN5iyo17MQ0Sl3tcqfqzHGWpOVQd5EgW8BIMg-liFj3fzowbhd1EHKeAgtPw6osZcbqExYdNUcxbTv3zixKJa_Z1INexKAoFwu6JixCApCjqUbqEhlX_yJkWjtP9GMv6jw/s400/country+fair+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357617257700011170" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnY2OpSrlliR1glPoGqpOnPO7pORKr_KKes_sFAgUmUWsCbHmiLrHIGcpvczkzNiG3OVY4g-r5wHr6T11zY9MddF9aAs3qLa-PvBLg2GSu-yu7c3SmyD_5j3Qix8Vtiz8bhR-X3j3gU0A/s1600-h/country+fair+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnY2OpSrlliR1glPoGqpOnPO7pORKr_KKes_sFAgUmUWsCbHmiLrHIGcpvczkzNiG3OVY4g-r5wHr6T11zY9MddF9aAs3qLa-PvBLg2GSu-yu7c3SmyD_5j3Qix8Vtiz8bhR-X3j3gU0A/s400/country+fair+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357617480683475698" border="0" /></a><br />Debbie and Mike organise craft fairs as well, in Tunbridge Wells, and we also seem to be at the same fairs quite often. They are such lovely people, so I was really pleased that they were next door but one to me.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEtcBImL9mjbrmNNN_hAQUnJssVzNLxwcujAK5bEDQ1xJiamCSAbD8i_gEk6du9DTtmEGPGqGSYu4Alk2ZswQFWKolu4fKDzw6iPQuA3SYhDByXrHq5E0Mf9m3Uuwo5Jys8G2Hgx4N-s/s1600-h/debbie4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 279px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEtcBImL9mjbrmNNN_hAQUnJssVzNLxwcujAK5bEDQ1xJiamCSAbD8i_gEk6du9DTtmEGPGqGSYu4Alk2ZswQFWKolu4fKDzw6iPQuA3SYhDByXrHq5E0Mf9m3Uuwo5Jys8G2Hgx4N-s/s400/debbie4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357643008958677570" border="0" /></a><br />We had such a laugh during the day, Debbie had a naughty glint in her eyes most of the time, lol, and she is quite the little daredevil. Just look at what she got up to! You wouldn't get me doing that, even if you paid me, I'd be spewing for the rest of the day, lol -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bZqEREsTqinnQ0w1WO9X7aVlDAHy_aPHRrAtwsehabvVoimDoYptyFl2gzWogwwZeTQNNiLVi3tY6eFCYSVj3wmt1TE-U2kr4QtYxo36CLITCze3NB4e2tQtkULR1fi995g6X0dyj-4/s1600-h/debbie5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bZqEREsTqinnQ0w1WO9X7aVlDAHy_aPHRrAtwsehabvVoimDoYptyFl2gzWogwwZeTQNNiLVi3tY6eFCYSVj3wmt1TE-U2kr4QtYxo36CLITCze3NB4e2tQtkULR1fi995g6X0dyj-4/s400/debbie5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357639630272694290" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizAFuJXAQLGzs7N-b6p4J0txZsOlBwo7bwkCK3cuEn_Vyy_u9PdSWygbuY0IcPKHMSapj2bIUZrFeEiThuNmhk-IyM7pZWBel-qtF4fJ5006R5yT77aqJsdEGgc2h-zgGlibgdlXx-jwQ/s1600-h/debbie6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizAFuJXAQLGzs7N-b6p4J0txZsOlBwo7bwkCK3cuEn_Vyy_u9PdSWygbuY0IcPKHMSapj2bIUZrFeEiThuNmhk-IyM7pZWBel-qtF4fJ5006R5yT77aqJsdEGgc2h-zgGlibgdlXx-jwQ/s400/debbie6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357639634396062914" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVck6etnKuL5lh1wYNAWR_OCnp-lss93PMAwLzGQ3xpJOU0UEEpbNM5DacuIptDaMiCLkHBHt4Tu7RHMhyphenhyphenwthH4OdnpDTJ_jkMCKVYfrG9U0x7pBvmDN8nEkHIVqOSLpsMfuctX5lPTpM/s1600-h/debbie7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVck6etnKuL5lh1wYNAWR_OCnp-lss93PMAwLzGQ3xpJOU0UEEpbNM5DacuIptDaMiCLkHBHt4Tu7RHMhyphenhyphenwthH4OdnpDTJ_jkMCKVYfrG9U0x7pBvmDN8nEkHIVqOSLpsMfuctX5lPTpM/s400/debbie7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357639642875952594" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlRKNVHqE394rVtTKXbSlRjRTnQ16TzLOD05KWO4mXl46hYRnLWKOT6BC02hkPN0CE7xv6esMbk5NVk9_8XmzBsIFjRdFPtGRpW8227Gz5jW1SILMsd3l9wGf1K6KRLNpphz6xwSOvI_M/s1600-h/debbie8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlRKNVHqE394rVtTKXbSlRjRTnQ16TzLOD05KWO4mXl46hYRnLWKOT6BC02hkPN0CE7xv6esMbk5NVk9_8XmzBsIFjRdFPtGRpW8227Gz5jW1SILMsd3l9wGf1K6KRLNpphz6xwSOvI_M/s400/debbie8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357639641542275266" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJSgerk5sm0hIRk3GenTtVEtnkuKnGzkdHzg21RekDQFaa-gcSyXxkQP9ilMAX6WAeB3WMEBAwa7sCXN6MRHo5cacv-5deqToTk1LitdS-p5oxke8lRu_HkoKbeovmrSSFAjyQjFFnBE/s1600-h/debbie9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJSgerk5sm0hIRk3GenTtVEtnkuKnGzkdHzg21RekDQFaa-gcSyXxkQP9ilMAX6WAeB3WMEBAwa7sCXN6MRHo5cacv-5deqToTk1LitdS-p5oxke8lRu_HkoKbeovmrSSFAjyQjFFnBE/s400/debbie9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357639653284801298" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit__OJjmgi3A8LTI98Pt6RajatX1CssL1CSzEiPuO_U3hLQmSzypAFh5hXC980VbTj-_q5LGTzXkcUUWcSZWFi06FTWzREY5JlkCQhWTlxr7S19llOzTl6YLi9lAkU7aVLCUp8ftYxST4/s1600-h/debbie+10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit__OJjmgi3A8LTI98Pt6RajatX1CssL1CSzEiPuO_U3hLQmSzypAFh5hXC980VbTj-_q5LGTzXkcUUWcSZWFi06FTWzREY5JlkCQhWTlxr7S19llOzTl6YLi9lAkU7aVLCUp8ftYxST4/s400/debbie+10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357640373443619586" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiGEp-KOeeDK2sxMGv8WEh9fe2OKAj49CmxSwAbaVrsK1jCSBTjeStnuxSIb0RYdvfpKzHBtNokdusR4XXLWFakADWqaxQjVo6ipgp5aUGdM_fOY_BMq17qMIC9JFRpo2yXaQk7yB4HeM/s1600-h/debbie+11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiGEp-KOeeDK2sxMGv8WEh9fe2OKAj49CmxSwAbaVrsK1jCSBTjeStnuxSIb0RYdvfpKzHBtNokdusR4XXLWFakADWqaxQjVo6ipgp5aUGdM_fOY_BMq17qMIC9JFRpo2yXaQk7yB4HeM/s400/debbie+11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357640383270923762" border="0" /></a>Just look at her, she is still smiling after all that, and she didn't even stagger when she got out of that contraption!<br /><br />Debbie creates really lovely, elegant and classy jewellery, not your run-of-the-mill strung together cheap beads. Her beautiful necklaces feature Swarovski crystal and semi precious stones, and her designs are so imaginative. These photos, taken with my very ancient digital camera really don't do them justice -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinArve4L9MifBqHBEdFjnEw6kZMt8fUFf1HceqM_kP3Sie11KtxzuuOaX7718QoDG9v4xmS088O3nHY_X5NSc2VlnIcKVSGFyHpFQubFJQDNoULZ9AtzxnXYR_MhVwcqvArCWH4zDa9Us/s1600-h/debbie3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinArve4L9MifBqHBEdFjnEw6kZMt8fUFf1HceqM_kP3Sie11KtxzuuOaX7718QoDG9v4xmS088O3nHY_X5NSc2VlnIcKVSGFyHpFQubFJQDNoULZ9AtzxnXYR_MhVwcqvArCWH4zDa9Us/s400/debbie3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357643637025419010" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8plZ8iKhkhKQK3NfkpIVwcAatmQGjE-gvC15yRReheznWuDojMiaXDCFljwglHQPdve8oU_4J1gghmfAzheaAHa2p6lxkfQqMaRfQGONcnLzaPC9U2nFOJB0FSRWq90aWbWs9S0DWak/s1600-h/Debbie1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8plZ8iKhkhKQK3NfkpIVwcAatmQGjE-gvC15yRReheznWuDojMiaXDCFljwglHQPdve8oU_4J1gghmfAzheaAHa2p6lxkfQqMaRfQGONcnLzaPC9U2nFOJB0FSRWq90aWbWs9S0DWak/s400/Debbie1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357643643080114050" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEvmhJtCqm4trqK7QZ0H_F67kUiA5GdE_tSqwjoabspCNgivdCgmy4iTz84FENvIIRoWugi_NIM0cc3oUMD6iqfUaAGpnBenfzyrZQ9H9EDcLewJaqgZioxuqqpkBRKvtLqBjHZUm53Y/s1600-h/debbie2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAEvmhJtCqm4trqK7QZ0H_F67kUiA5GdE_tSqwjoabspCNgivdCgmy4iTz84FENvIIRoWugi_NIM0cc3oUMD6iqfUaAGpnBenfzyrZQ9H9EDcLewJaqgZioxuqqpkBRKvtLqBjHZUm53Y/s400/debbie2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357643646390859026" border="0" /></a><br />The next few photos are for our very special friends in France, Frank and Christine. Well, mostly for Frank really, he is a bit of a tractor collector, especially the beautiful old Petit Gris tractors ( Petit Gris is the Little Grey ), the old Fergusons. I believe he has just been and got himself two more!<br /><br />So here you are Frank, for you, some photos of lovely old tractors, aren't they just so handsome?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjy0VuTsFIGx98hAYmKk0Wu7pr4kgKaepTltMMxVZLzcTr4iU6o0DEg0oqKqxfD30LsjTu4kU7OfViB5JWTj2GrteIxP9P71QLyUiDUSQuZulfcdqwNlTQcylhqx9nH_btyIDW8mG5Zk/s1600-h/tractors+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjy0VuTsFIGx98hAYmKk0Wu7pr4kgKaepTltMMxVZLzcTr4iU6o0DEg0oqKqxfD30LsjTu4kU7OfViB5JWTj2GrteIxP9P71QLyUiDUSQuZulfcdqwNlTQcylhqx9nH_btyIDW8mG5Zk/s400/tractors+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357645381967336946" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2n9sFwnKLSlTnIZjeQWRBOuSy0BvmczAGrqIis7JISehyphenhyphenr-8juZoFBNjTTHvZCovS2yn6i-Blf5FazwY0xdsufny_g1CoQG8Sdxb9rZGh6886Wdvx3o4hQlgW-dUD4n6MqYP7kfDf63s/s1600-h/tractors+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2n9sFwnKLSlTnIZjeQWRBOuSy0BvmczAGrqIis7JISehyphenhyphenr-8juZoFBNjTTHvZCovS2yn6i-Blf5FazwY0xdsufny_g1CoQG8Sdxb9rZGh6886Wdvx3o4hQlgW-dUD4n6MqYP7kfDf63s/s400/tractors+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357645385715389218" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2mnuECaQvc_nL2EOsDdMkqOA_45C9X9nDFVLIJ8P6u4TqFvRyhakGDH6f636WvzC38TRCmRPLLMovvmH6MLm3KR5V1w_l1AYBuPxkQTKmcpZrBe9EoOk-vvV5F2YBdtmEFVGDy8k6yo/s1600-h/tractors+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2mnuECaQvc_nL2EOsDdMkqOA_45C9X9nDFVLIJ8P6u4TqFvRyhakGDH6f636WvzC38TRCmRPLLMovvmH6MLm3KR5V1w_l1AYBuPxkQTKmcpZrBe9EoOk-vvV5F2YBdtmEFVGDy8k6yo/s400/tractors+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357645387420678626" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVsBhoHysYSomWgbM_9iXWfMdtwlFntZONfIEvCBoco4ikWnM08JEgLipPuDPr_VWHOus6uoFtbtrQOsYn_cwGHTUC_IUsEIu1TSHCUukyEwYzl-od1-bE2V5ONGLG1Z03c77WVM5I02E/s1600-h/tractors+4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVsBhoHysYSomWgbM_9iXWfMdtwlFntZONfIEvCBoco4ikWnM08JEgLipPuDPr_VWHOus6uoFtbtrQOsYn_cwGHTUC_IUsEIu1TSHCUukyEwYzl-od1-bE2V5ONGLG1Z03c77WVM5I02E/s400/tractors+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357645395521446962" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZkDLJ5Dzti5p-bEVJRqdEE3DMk0F_Zd7P7RU7O4NOq2OpLCJb-Br3ccpEyN-JFtiOLoW2VRnLBfpo4oQitfWG76-ORnxrURhLv1mlwrUBqPQ0_u6sFilI_wGXgKZlAm3XWwlQowEixNE/s1600-h/tractors+5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZkDLJ5Dzti5p-bEVJRqdEE3DMk0F_Zd7P7RU7O4NOq2OpLCJb-Br3ccpEyN-JFtiOLoW2VRnLBfpo4oQitfWG76-ORnxrURhLv1mlwrUBqPQ0_u6sFilI_wGXgKZlAm3XWwlQowEixNE/s400/tractors+5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357645400016173394" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglnK9PGXh4lha8z65DqATMv8FwtE8yESaoTqHVQ7ZLGn5fr9oi_dr9Ygv1ur-HIyW6Ii5xHlSmwq0IRVVuRjyA6noLQTnGh8Pfxs24HhOE5rzljwtR1tIIQnFzvybPw5IwB2YLwgz0RK8/s1600-h/tractors+6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglnK9PGXh4lha8z65DqATMv8FwtE8yESaoTqHVQ7ZLGn5fr9oi_dr9Ygv1ur-HIyW6Ii5xHlSmwq0IRVVuRjyA6noLQTnGh8Pfxs24HhOE5rzljwtR1tIIQnFzvybPw5IwB2YLwgz0RK8/s400/tractors+6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357646290131656642" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgycU3TApOIIK_fAdbtzeRr5JJ4G3ODBaUUyZv-TwYNX9Qs9oYRRSqJN7h8R0lI8lkmRd1K1jwMuBVoVdVovrkQ3ULTLNW27JpWLpTEfZ5fbM8nQfPO1brqujBBYZ-UVB5OIKr9h7grcMc/s1600-h/tractors+7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgycU3TApOIIK_fAdbtzeRr5JJ4G3ODBaUUyZv-TwYNX9Qs9oYRRSqJN7h8R0lI8lkmRd1K1jwMuBVoVdVovrkQ3ULTLNW27JpWLpTEfZ5fbM8nQfPO1brqujBBYZ-UVB5OIKr9h7grcMc/s400/tractors+7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357646294560852114" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHX-V7ajQGQG69QotVmg9-E-gN88Ct5RF-Rd_FntNJss93lnrc0d2ToLbUOVFINLc60ASjemwq1_m_TbFvBWOwUC8_lY4Y_liS7NTMfnJ1-3ePk9sRbahJ4lD45ffpkMO1jpN2MM7sdw/s1600-h/tractors+8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHX-V7ajQGQG69QotVmg9-E-gN88Ct5RF-Rd_FntNJss93lnrc0d2ToLbUOVFINLc60ASjemwq1_m_TbFvBWOwUC8_lY4Y_liS7NTMfnJ1-3ePk9sRbahJ4lD45ffpkMO1jpN2MM7sdw/s400/tractors+8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357646299835866242" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtOwV0tXXxtvEL16VHJe9lLxubIM5A-gvx551krVnkWwZcST4xzkBTEEA7epjwM-GNsDCVmDjLV4wIRf72DttGpIXVEsLcdeZbRIjIEptFi0yBOrIkyoQ-U9g3HiK3An1K2PSq6gT14jw/s1600-h/tractors9.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtOwV0tXXxtvEL16VHJe9lLxubIM5A-gvx551krVnkWwZcST4xzkBTEEA7epjwM-GNsDCVmDjLV4wIRf72DttGpIXVEsLcdeZbRIjIEptFi0yBOrIkyoQ-U9g3HiK3An1K2PSq6gT14jw/s400/tractors9.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357646304013170898" border="0" /></a><br />They are so incredibly well looked after, just look at that last one, pretty impressive, isn't it?<br /><br />Well, there really wasn't very much about soapmaking in the post, lol, more about soap selling and the pleasures that (sometimes, lol) go with it. So, just to make it a teeny bit more of a soap post, here is a picture of the hair soap which those lovely ladies fought over ( in a very friendly and funny manner of course ). Hmm, obviously not this particular bar, just thought I point that out, lol.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikw2UdQLgQKhmc3egA6xAshnu6-hNXL4LXFeTL1CQ43gibOw-5C-KFVgrTEeJi1ddB6o4Frx8CV5hyphenhyphenBshVUhttWaD4SwsWFlaa-d-Et-vWcY-bUuBM2pCr_kIyzjbTaZX0B78qjZTJW1c/s1600-h/DSC_0457.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikw2UdQLgQKhmc3egA6xAshnu6-hNXL4LXFeTL1CQ43gibOw-5C-KFVgrTEeJi1ddB6o4Frx8CV5hyphenhyphenBshVUhttWaD4SwsWFlaa-d-Et-vWcY-bUuBM2pCr_kIyzjbTaZX0B78qjZTJW1c/s400/DSC_0457.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357647851710844978" border="0" /></a><br />Oh, I should add really that I have made a big big batch of hairsoap this afternoon, which will be ready in about 4 weeks time. That should keep a few people happy.Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-81841520858982065962009-06-16T14:39:00.003+01:002009-06-16T14:48:02.877+01:00Cubist phase?It seems I am having a love affair with cubes in soaps at the moment, the three latest ones all seem to feature cubes. I have even made a plain orange soap ( with annatto seed infusion ) so that I could make more cubes in yet another colour. The rebatch with the salmon coloured cubes I have already shown you in the last post, here are the other two soaps, which I have made this week -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBedJNgtY8xIl0G6O-8qaL_dB4Ve-pXTdbGvAKznQ9uKUMvwt533XR2nq3ipwDNfDQW54vz2z6EdSgNE1w1qRk3aq3_0fCvWHcBXOLUPy2yi7iggmvMEtWMHkhFs1TyqOTdQu7oSzo8lU/s1600-h/bluecube.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBedJNgtY8xIl0G6O-8qaL_dB4Ve-pXTdbGvAKznQ9uKUMvwt533XR2nq3ipwDNfDQW54vz2z6EdSgNE1w1qRk3aq3_0fCvWHcBXOLUPy2yi7iggmvMEtWMHkhFs1TyqOTdQu7oSzo8lU/s400/bluecube.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347921414143035202" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_7UOEetjVnIgscFMfkk1pTtwvkIVS1q6VAcPAyrznu63n1RBdMi4kfaKVZ5bzYqxC4ioJy0IKcQNqTwtIjbyVQDN3kpnQ5gz_L6e3f6QhkVZpJzoE4FnGToZFqykZZHDCw6fTN60BhQ/s1600-h/multicube+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_7UOEetjVnIgscFMfkk1pTtwvkIVS1q6VAcPAyrznu63n1RBdMi4kfaKVZ5bzYqxC4ioJy0IKcQNqTwtIjbyVQDN3kpnQ5gz_L6e3f6QhkVZpJzoE4FnGToZFqykZZHDCw6fTN60BhQ/s400/multicube+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347921420882280098" border="0" /></a><br />I am quite fond of these soaps, they are kinda modern and funky and they also smell rather good, lol. It seems once I get started, I can't stop making soap, so I am planning another one for this afternoon/evening. Cubes again? Well, lets see, perhaps not this time, one can have too much of a good thing. Maybe a nice plain soap, just subtly coloured with clay would be nice for a change.Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-9135525747347385952009-06-13T09:47:00.003+01:002009-06-13T13:12:26.393+01:00And here we go again,another rebatch, sigh. It is so frustrating, you sniff your way through your cupboard, pick a fragrance which you think is ideal for the soap you had in mind, and your notes say that this FO is meant to behave well and discolour to brown. Great! Layered soap, with brown main part and cream top layer with pink cubes, should be a doddle.<br /><br />I used my normal recipe, prepared for the two different batches, added the FO to the main batch and gently stirred. And it started ricing. And clumping. Terrific, this is behaving well??? So I stickblended it like mad to beat it into submission and ended up with something almost resembling fairly normal soap batter. Scooped it into the mould and went to get the small batch for the top layer ready. Ok, the bottom layer had set, no changes that I could see, it looked ok-ish, if not totally smooth. Poured on the top layer, added the pretty pink cubes, and put it to sleep.<br /><br />The next morning I was greeted with............ a soap loaf sitting in a huge puddle of fragrance oil, which of course went everywhere as soon as I had undone the mould. I had to spend ages cleaning up, mopping up ££ of FO and throwing it away. And of course the soap was holy, and lumpy, and ugly. Nothing for it but to try and rescue that lot by rebatching it. And sooner rather than later.<br /><br />Fortunately, the soap was still quite soft, so chopping it up was easy. Into the cooking pot it went with a little bit of water, and it melted down quite easily with some rigorous and continuous stirring -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXNpkEsE2G12cfLEkr0JuDdFHYdNCQpSKJi4VzCI9Qpaps4ncrv5gFV0UDsQqQCHKApOW8B-wY0l3H0H-vs2dU9x-GahF79HdzEQ1ME6a9XXU0FCkEZdOPPIeZs8I8bsV9xDX3EKW-fA/s1600-h/DSC00675.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXNpkEsE2G12cfLEkr0JuDdFHYdNCQpSKJi4VzCI9Qpaps4ncrv5gFV0UDsQqQCHKApOW8B-wY0l3H0H-vs2dU9x-GahF79HdzEQ1ME6a9XXU0FCkEZdOPPIeZs8I8bsV9xDX3EKW-fA/s400/DSC00675.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346778550397159474" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfphL3VN9UqJf7qfzM1sulWaSmcqQsMEhQbUVUxdThKROzBGsExutyUurfYokbS7GG-Nn1ghZt9tYvjqMIJrWSMblhxzf1D0SMO7Rsz9-nzfA3aLp877q7-hZj96NHglroG4X-Gny2Ias/s1600-h/DSC00677.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfphL3VN9UqJf7qfzM1sulWaSmcqQsMEhQbUVUxdThKROzBGsExutyUurfYokbS7GG-Nn1ghZt9tYvjqMIJrWSMblhxzf1D0SMO7Rsz9-nzfA3aLp877q7-hZj96NHglroG4X-Gny2Ias/s400/DSC00677.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346778554281445394" border="0" /></a><br />The cubes, which were from an older soap specifically made for cubing and shredding didn't melt, which was a bonus, and perhaps there was a glimmer of hope that the rebatch wouldn't turn out totally butt ugly. Well, that was two days ago, the rebatch has been cut, and is sitting on the drying rack, and is still looking very creamy. No sign of any brownness creeping in yet. Wonder why that is, I would have expected it to discolour at least a little bit by now. Ah well, I'd be quite happy if it stayed this pretty creamy toffee colour with pink cubes. All in all, I think it was a successful rebatch, could have been worse.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKz3vtfYNKNqRLneiJrqM6wYvn50EBUtVkwbvgGyvG862SucHhqxQC0dTcNIxYTKM9H3m3J0x8dK8VdIRBgHH8q_M-DLd0ZJrLDgI7YtzDd7FwSY2XsihMYZDfwbrc8EPhYgJAQmsMWc/s1600-h/rebatch+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKz3vtfYNKNqRLneiJrqM6wYvn50EBUtVkwbvgGyvG862SucHhqxQC0dTcNIxYTKM9H3m3J0x8dK8VdIRBgHH8q_M-DLd0ZJrLDgI7YtzDd7FwSY2XsihMYZDfwbrc8EPhYgJAQmsMWc/s400/rebatch+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346783369705950290" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0mHBNzEMzZb5b3laG1hJU578mjyVoYM6u5U4GWey9sIC5jDmlggnB-HZVjjiji6rpX_Vgt9bhc_FYtXIaxLsmhHiE4SS3CqIKp6Kqr_s9EIIr1LXuM7MCe4Vw9aTDVr2FTNzNqFP1mV4/s1600-h/rebatch+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0mHBNzEMzZb5b3laG1hJU578mjyVoYM6u5U4GWey9sIC5jDmlggnB-HZVjjiji6rpX_Vgt9bhc_FYtXIaxLsmhHiE4SS3CqIKp6Kqr_s9EIIr1LXuM7MCe4Vw9aTDVr2FTNzNqFP1mV4/s400/rebatch+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346783372663703186" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-39687469082072429842009-06-08T12:56:00.003+01:002009-06-08T13:27:57.965+01:00Love Lavender?It seems everybody really loves lavender, and there is no question of it being an elderly lady's fragrance, as people used to think. I had another craft fair on the weekend, and once again, the lavender soap was selling really well, to customers of all ages. For example, I had a lovely young girl tell me that she REALLY loved lavender, and used a lavender room spray all the time.<br /><br />So here I am, having just made yet another batch of lavender soap, and I will probably make a few more this week. This is the current one, just starting to gel in the mould -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDohZ6kHPz3s4E8B3VH04unTjYrFUiTBm-LReHHkmd5-saamMZ6EK9uI-Zr3f2UNLjV_cWBqbC_9eW3OEjKy9KNeUR9ic9AIxsUwHtpYH2KbVYGaV2774_jXFsAWmk1WgY1G6H4yCqikA/s1600-h/DSC00640.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDohZ6kHPz3s4E8B3VH04unTjYrFUiTBm-LReHHkmd5-saamMZ6EK9uI-Zr3f2UNLjV_cWBqbC_9eW3OEjKy9KNeUR9ic9AIxsUwHtpYH2KbVYGaV2774_jXFsAWmk1WgY1G6H4yCqikA/s400/DSC00640.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344926413280739410" border="0" /></a><br />The house is filled with the gorgeous lavender scent now. Sigh, I love soapmaking.Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-3165072181762872412009-06-01T18:27:00.004+01:002009-06-01T20:25:51.783+01:00All the fun of the fairI had a couple of very interesting days at the craft fair. The setting was stunning, Bewl Water is a superb location, and the weather was beautiful -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAt73gFLbWbyrQed7XcXcRS4Y2xAKbZzQ4qhAR25SS5dO-y_WXZaRqcSv3k_ZOvicIl-IfN4REXG6xIIcWBheIOWBLZn_t4TZpJT7p1WoeMd2M4GH8ejLQSmI_0sD3AIuKJk_HJwPktpE/s1600-h/bewl+4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAt73gFLbWbyrQed7XcXcRS4Y2xAKbZzQ4qhAR25SS5dO-y_WXZaRqcSv3k_ZOvicIl-IfN4REXG6xIIcWBheIOWBLZn_t4TZpJT7p1WoeMd2M4GH8ejLQSmI_0sD3AIuKJk_HJwPktpE/s400/bewl+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342441315732734802" border="0" /></a><br /> The visitor centre was packed with a really good mixture of craft stalls, manned by the nicest people you could wish for. Opposite me was Helen from www.leaftradingpost.co.uk. She had the most wonderfully soft fleeces on her stall, as well as antlers, jewellery made from bone and semi precious stones, natural dye stuff and a variety of other cool things<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcet7XVwu-m7wLssMUbiMQdnv8MQEh0o-Kums5_Xgq2tFWn2SILIXA-dctmqGfgA4SghxgOo1ktpOiA-ep2ZNUizL74g7OZWVdg7fQrZJlQMwnjB-Z6u2QNNUx48gT_jpGjIZw_fiDwXU/s1600-h/bewl+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcet7XVwu-m7wLssMUbiMQdnv8MQEh0o-Kums5_Xgq2tFWn2SILIXA-dctmqGfgA4SghxgOo1ktpOiA-ep2ZNUizL74g7OZWVdg7fQrZJlQMwnjB-Z6u2QNNUx48gT_jpGjIZw_fiDwXU/s400/bewl+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342438995994826786" border="0" /></a><br />Next to her was Suzanne's stall, which very much appealed to me. It was full of delightful vintage bits and pieces and beautifully sewn handbags, made with fab vintage fabrics<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFeaVxUktc4CebkXKzmQ0twWI3UvHAh28FOg7DQIbIf4BeYfmZktGNckPW7MFEks867ggP_A_4_l2XC_bRgZIyI5n461ULBEEYNhqMJ3PfFrGKNvQADIJZX9lYmxxxQ5AB-mf9aNZKoAM/s1600-h/bewl+5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFeaVxUktc4CebkXKzmQ0twWI3UvHAh28FOg7DQIbIf4BeYfmZktGNckPW7MFEks867ggP_A_4_l2XC_bRgZIyI5n461ULBEEYNhqMJ3PfFrGKNvQADIJZX9lYmxxxQ5AB-mf9aNZKoAM/s400/bewl+5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342439788396966962" border="0" /></a><br />Space was very tight so I couldn't spread and also had to restrict what I put out, but somehow that was quite nice actually, because as people bought things, we had to refill the empty spaces, and that felt really good.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJuJun0M3A82P5lxdOYYmCNnFQ1Gc52xjebtmeLROtrqinAmf4rSDvdDQXff17S84xRh5QjI7Kl4F4-6qKUliSWUBbgI9BbqxRUl4cJrnFkU1MgXsnGeU0_14rlvcDAlEq__Wr6JBMiNE/s1600-h/bewl+stand.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJuJun0M3A82P5lxdOYYmCNnFQ1Gc52xjebtmeLROtrqinAmf4rSDvdDQXff17S84xRh5QjI7Kl4F4-6qKUliSWUBbgI9BbqxRUl4cJrnFkU1MgXsnGeU0_14rlvcDAlEq__Wr6JBMiNE/s400/bewl+stand.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342441314454039586" border="0" /></a><br />The new soaps went down really well, and so many people commented on the Art Nouveau style labels. That really surprised me, and it certainly made my son happy, as he spends so much time designing the labels with me.<br /><br />Overall, it was a pretty good weekend for me, although I heard from other traders that not everybody was so lucky. I am looking forward to the next fairs now, although have to make more stock for those, as a couple of soaps nearly sold out.Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-79635471550201973812009-05-29T15:08:00.004+01:002009-05-29T15:22:29.234+01:00New soapies all wrapped upThere's nothing like a tight deadline to get the creative juices flowing, is there? Nick and I spent a couple of days designing and printing the labels for the new soaps, and we finally finished wrapping them, all ready for the two day fair starting tomorrow.<br /><br />Here are just a few pics which we took as we were wrapping the soapies, longingly looking at the sunshine outside, listening to fab dance music and jiggling about to it, lol -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1rG6fYiuh9X_upuNuEx5aBMoloy5GvOVdZIhc198BzI4EfhuoC9bPhbViD-AXtoG4FpM85EL1H7g_h14zFq8A65WwFsN2GJYfNrvWD-MPGSGcj4NYdKdAMMxwEhaKakUussK21m_HA1E/s1600-h/soapies+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1rG6fYiuh9X_upuNuEx5aBMoloy5GvOVdZIhc198BzI4EfhuoC9bPhbViD-AXtoG4FpM85EL1H7g_h14zFq8A65WwFsN2GJYfNrvWD-MPGSGcj4NYdKdAMMxwEhaKakUussK21m_HA1E/s400/soapies+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341250795656406002" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCkdenmpWfYYrSKnWkhI4uv8InCdjuCKp58uEa71E7L22vOIc7C9wfN4T8_w-0CL5Sts4NisxbrLp_PzYhjrIAx3ZeUVsHkD9Wf0POn_lq07So8Z63yvTt8q5hsNsI6-Ten6xwO2ZBks/s1600-h/Gigi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCkdenmpWfYYrSKnWkhI4uv8InCdjuCKp58uEa71E7L22vOIc7C9wfN4T8_w-0CL5Sts4NisxbrLp_PzYhjrIAx3ZeUVsHkD9Wf0POn_lq07So8Z63yvTt8q5hsNsI6-Ten6xwO2ZBks/s400/Gigi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341249885853226978" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGhat8oy5CB-IWq3nIf8TKHLJLwevzKTNboxgLOmDZ0o0hQzG1WTR-YEby_3NPKu08WFwN-D2vifyTicoWYi0EqW265DRGQnKYPatjVvKVWUt05WmcSuwk-pNlpiM32g-I-PDQksrGY8/s1600-h/Aveline.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGhat8oy5CB-IWq3nIf8TKHLJLwevzKTNboxgLOmDZ0o0hQzG1WTR-YEby_3NPKu08WFwN-D2vifyTicoWYi0EqW265DRGQnKYPatjVvKVWUt05WmcSuwk-pNlpiM32g-I-PDQksrGY8/s400/Aveline.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341249878152881090" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2QDxTrqNgID3Gion28bRIgx1U4ySuqV4uffbnvfZp7aenIasxxaqbrAsZm9QIiFCHCkGdvUY8tdtymFCulswBJ5PA04q5jAy0G8-G3XWtdb4elqeQMmvM-fqVkTmU7iDPR0VMJWI1uU/s1600-h/Amorette.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2QDxTrqNgID3Gion28bRIgx1U4ySuqV4uffbnvfZp7aenIasxxaqbrAsZm9QIiFCHCkGdvUY8tdtymFCulswBJ5PA04q5jAy0G8-G3XWtdb4elqeQMmvM-fqVkTmU7iDPR0VMJWI1uU/s400/Amorette.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341249874095469426" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZGgGtvLyo932e1dJbpvF6pi-QTHGYZdgafprOe6iPt1VXrcgk3UQOjffL5rNRtY1HnQYRLDVyeB6C-8JWFOZYFHD0Rbi8ppHMnDTf2B8vZVYZtn88txsoqRkA0Qyod5nNcsR9o9pGQ8/s1600-h/Lavandine.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZGgGtvLyo932e1dJbpvF6pi-QTHGYZdgafprOe6iPt1VXrcgk3UQOjffL5rNRtY1HnQYRLDVyeB6C-8JWFOZYFHD0Rbi8ppHMnDTf2B8vZVYZtn88txsoqRkA0Qyod5nNcsR9o9pGQ8/s400/Lavandine.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341250790826879026" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy4Uo_7PYwEolvlE7zFF2nXF_DtyYw0dph2FaFTDgj4RHNipPyXkvRhxIqZ2B-jmv0QViofW2iD0k6hdS0i9fMwas2wIabz6KNpsM7HF6kfLX2xHNRhfnnL8mtvftKrGbdRnsO8S3kYkU/s1600-h/Amelie.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy4Uo_7PYwEolvlE7zFF2nXF_DtyYw0dph2FaFTDgj4RHNipPyXkvRhxIqZ2B-jmv0QViofW2iD0k6hdS0i9fMwas2wIabz6KNpsM7HF6kfLX2xHNRhfnnL8mtvftKrGbdRnsO8S3kYkU/s400/Amelie.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341249870574242482" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqyd3uDMw4tiVAST-IJ26SJJxbPworAU7cV7kbVcLdgfvO7hduPSY7Fpg3bWC-NIBnNU5B1L0U4DlL6g2vqJb1Ft-ncCzGKoYuvw7rJN1750XdWw2XzM6s3uOiNHktIcQ74Q3DTphUE0/s1600-h/soapies+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqyd3uDMw4tiVAST-IJ26SJJxbPworAU7cV7kbVcLdgfvO7hduPSY7Fpg3bWC-NIBnNU5B1L0U4DlL6g2vqJb1Ft-ncCzGKoYuvw7rJN1750XdWw2XzM6s3uOiNHktIcQ74Q3DTphUE0/s400/soapies+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341249887782380578" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-60646298218007171332009-05-27T16:21:00.004+01:002009-05-27T16:52:03.698+01:00New labelsAs usual, we have left things to the last minute, my fault really for spending way too much time crocheting, boot fairing and blogging, lol. But at long last, my wonderful son and I have made the new labels for the facial polish, just in time for the two day fair at the weekend.<br /><br />As you can see, I am still going with the Art Nouveau theme, I just love those designs, and however much I admire other styles, I keep coming back to this one. The photo is pretty naff, but the weather is horrid today, very grey, stormy, raining, so the light is awful, and I really don't like flash very much.<br /><br />Ingredients info, batch No., addy etc are on one side of the main pic, the How to Use info is on the other side of the label. I was quite pleased to be able to get it all onto one large label. Do let me know what you think, please, or point out anything which might need changing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgihVIOXaV7Q4PwAhLEaGdmfEhYGoPzF-R1C5PnQBCyzfwzWOoZimCmXVJZ8-_yM1chbYsKxr51S3Rivzdru1OAU5B94i3KU_tI7VvxXNqP3IMPbbaV2_CRXA6NvSnUYIZRdvRK0Vd9KcY/s1600-h/facial+polish+tall+container.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgihVIOXaV7Q4PwAhLEaGdmfEhYGoPzF-R1C5PnQBCyzfwzWOoZimCmXVJZ8-_yM1chbYsKxr51S3Rivzdru1OAU5B94i3KU_tI7VvxXNqP3IMPbbaV2_CRXA6NvSnUYIZRdvRK0Vd9KcY/s400/facial+polish+tall+container.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340531410261835714" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-89656235683456010172009-05-14T08:00:00.003+01:002009-05-14T08:10:25.122+01:00I am all soaped out for the moment, I have plenty of stock now for the upcoming fairs, but I think I need to restock on some of the bath products as well. I love making bath melts, the fragrances don't change like they sometimes do in soap, you don't have to wait 4-6 weeks for them to cure and of course the best bit is trying them out myself for, well, errmm, quality control reasons, of course. Sigh, bathroom bliss.<br /><br />Also, I will have to bribe my son again to help design and print the labels for the new soaps and of course for the new tall cylinder packaging for the facial scrub. Yikes, I hope Cosmo will do the trick again.<br /><br />At the moment, I also spend quite a bit of time crocheting, it is such a therapeutic thing to do early in the mornings when the dogs decide to get me up at 6am or in the evenings, whilst watching telly or chatting with the girls online. Also blogging seems to have me by the scruff of my neck, lol, I can't seem to stop posting silly things on my other blog - http://lululizinlalaland.blogspot.com/, come and visit and have a giggle, you may even see a picture of Her Majesty the Croapqueen!<br /><br />Thats it for now, I am getting my bath melt ingredients ready, I'll probably spend half hour or so sniffing my way through all the beautiful fragrance oils in my cupboard, or maybe I'll come up with a new essential oil blend....Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-78740169837801180812009-05-08T18:15:00.002+01:002009-05-08T18:22:54.300+01:00The bestest thing.........is a full drying rack! It is so satisfying to see a whole lot of cut soap curing on the rack, and as an added bonus, the room smells absolutely delicious day in day out.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3V4VnaJW6BSrzl-zI9kQPCwKD-oMwckhUUlrk_VhUDWknhBxr0rETK_DyR-J4tx4OtpKA3oN1dCIRlhoAaSR2X2uCKlN8bcgpzUVRgeu3Onia-QL0f7k-cHSBSByLv0UG3PxHdTw4GW4/s1600-h/DSC00088.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3V4VnaJW6BSrzl-zI9kQPCwKD-oMwckhUUlrk_VhUDWknhBxr0rETK_DyR-J4tx4OtpKA3oN1dCIRlhoAaSR2X2uCKlN8bcgpzUVRgeu3Onia-QL0f7k-cHSBSByLv0UG3PxHdTw4GW4/s400/DSC00088.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333504688290060610" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I am really itching to make more soap, I don't know whats wrong with me, lol, but I would have to find space for yet another drying rack somewhere. That could be a tad difficult, as every inch of the house seems to be filled with my various collections of bits and bobs. Maybe nobody would mind if I put a rack or two in the dining room, next to all the boxes with the goodies for the fairs, or next to the trolley with the beads.........Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-16158817683505486912009-05-07T15:28:00.004+01:002009-05-07T15:40:51.030+01:00Yay, new cosmetic packagingI had sold out of my facial polish in those lovely tins and had been trying to source some more, without much luck though. Either they were too small, too large, out of stock or just way too expensive. So I was delighted when I finally found these great aluminium containers, they are perfect for just shaking a little of the scrub into your hand without having to use a tiny boomerang spoon.<br /><br />My son is going to hate me though, because it means we have to design new labels, lol! He will be back from France in a few days, and I will then break it to him gently, lol. In the meantime, here are the containers minus label -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXR6yhTHoBmbQqMs0iKzcnbr1IzxOPx9ZQ_SAv3RChipUq613NQJ-qmm7C0Zjc1hwSVqhxhLMhddWzNJOf1Rd3BSJiOBJSGkoGi3V7sqTY2IS9JdcjI1x2saZ9c1jFFY_vcj4hmllSI4/s1600-h/facial+polish+container+1.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXR6yhTHoBmbQqMs0iKzcnbr1IzxOPx9ZQ_SAv3RChipUq613NQJ-qmm7C0Zjc1hwSVqhxhLMhddWzNJOf1Rd3BSJiOBJSGkoGi3V7sqTY2IS9JdcjI1x2saZ9c1jFFY_vcj4hmllSI4/s400/facial+polish+container+1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333091595437435490" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIHQZf2OpeBtlg4vh5TgnHGqQrGvxNLsfb-uBLn1XT1R_iyX6M4fllR4XNsjwCes58U3TWRWa_UEkbKXaZ_JLrGl3ulxjxezpCDIDrh5qYn4Yzx5zgDkZw_AU4-VMwkirIRITouX_lWo/s1600-h/facial+polish+container+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIHQZf2OpeBtlg4vh5TgnHGqQrGvxNLsfb-uBLn1XT1R_iyX6M4fllR4XNsjwCes58U3TWRWa_UEkbKXaZ_JLrGl3ulxjxezpCDIDrh5qYn4Yzx5zgDkZw_AU4-VMwkirIRITouX_lWo/s400/facial+polish+container+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333091596866761026" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-59793376510745299572009-05-06T10:26:00.003+01:002009-05-06T10:46:22.234+01:00Sparkly Precious PrettiesI am a bit of a fan of anything vintage, and I love pretty little things for the dressing table. So, whenever I come across a sweet little powder bowl at a boot fair or in a junk shop, I snap it up. I am planning to use them for a limited edition of body dusting powder in these one off, beautifully sparkling bowls. Here is just a little taster -<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFL_7HrzEK2cgLF1WIuI4Q0V1RXQ7DVdUbE7Gsd45iEj9-23JvFd4bAoHVp3l4L-2rC-yvYVHlb8rufasbLTtopjW8oUCtALq9gzOJOerhs8upOoBvnPew80mss2JLUUZWibyC1vG7bGA/s1600-h/body+powder+bowl+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFL_7HrzEK2cgLF1WIuI4Q0V1RXQ7DVdUbE7Gsd45iEj9-23JvFd4bAoHVp3l4L-2rC-yvYVHlb8rufasbLTtopjW8oUCtALq9gzOJOerhs8upOoBvnPew80mss2JLUUZWibyC1vG7bGA/s400/body+powder+bowl+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332644490331538226" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip2zJuSoa9xOF6PeJwAcrc9UYpw9uuOGkIfAPsrKDijXYPTnN2EIGripCmZEBY1XTNCXh59P9EVTHB1K-kNH4a0w9_m1UpVwy48oQAMIWdzzL1CTouyOcTI5eM_zNdwo2ng6Fa0yk5KJA/s1600-h/body+powder+bowl+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip2zJuSoa9xOF6PeJwAcrc9UYpw9uuOGkIfAPsrKDijXYPTnN2EIGripCmZEBY1XTNCXh59P9EVTHB1K-kNH4a0w9_m1UpVwy48oQAMIWdzzL1CTouyOcTI5eM_zNdwo2ng6Fa0yk5KJA/s400/body+powder+bowl+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332644487330595554" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglbr-PWa7hR9J7n7z4Wz_284zq-hdp8_avTy-_SV39BtqWCPUucHiryIaBwB-XNBjQmfP28BA4NOVO2DgVfvkZ-etB3iKcCNUQvXNSQUYASMoqcoV8VJfDW2bneaI-mtT4WuxGReptNTw/s1600-h/body+powder+bowl+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglbr-PWa7hR9J7n7z4Wz_284zq-hdp8_avTy-_SV39BtqWCPUucHiryIaBwB-XNBjQmfP28BA4NOVO2DgVfvkZ-etB3iKcCNUQvXNSQUYASMoqcoV8VJfDW2bneaI-mtT4WuxGReptNTw/s400/body+powder+bowl+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332644484520105010" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJ-XFbvvh4cTx7LIygbGRFhgUUeeuf1_7eAAq6RcvfDI833uYGXX4atQeYsYi-98mzF1Gy26B46UVXga_PFZ_WydUUxTKEDmZf8fhUVGhkJ2KnL5ePLuqper99HMTnSkeTpWpuBACuvQ/s1600-h/body+powder+bowl+4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJJ-XFbvvh4cTx7LIygbGRFhgUUeeuf1_7eAAq6RcvfDI833uYGXX4atQeYsYi-98mzF1Gy26B46UVXga_PFZ_WydUUxTKEDmZf8fhUVGhkJ2KnL5ePLuqper99HMTnSkeTpWpuBACuvQ/s400/body+powder+bowl+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332644486356562322" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-72376575755096051662009-05-05T11:01:00.005+01:002009-05-05T11:15:32.653+01:00Sigh, when will I learn patienceMy darling dogs got me up at 6 am again, and of course I just couldn't resist checking out the soap from yesterday. It was still soft, very soft actually, and I ought to have left it alone, but could I? Nope, I really really really wanted to see what it looked like inside. So out of the mould it came, and I sliced a bit off the end. Note to self - don't slice a soft soap with soap shreds on top, lol, because they get dragged down and leave lovely big tracks down the soap, grrr. Second note to self - if you just can't wait, then turn the loaf upside down so that the shreds are underneath, lolol, that worked when I sliced another bit of the other end!<br /><br />Well, the sea green I was hoping for buy mixing the annatto seed infusion with UM blue is more of a sea mud, and of course the top layers aren't layers at all, but all in all, it could have been worse, its quite a funky looking soap. And who knows, it might still go greener, anything is possible with soap after all.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg13yPOdn_kU5Amw-wjzI_Q77qakPKrT2cv9mqjZAD1io8KWCNx95GljeXKkjw1u_6OWLfsbn5FZrY5SbfMTwH1ynUZwopojA6Y8pPTir6_cw9YY2gA5oA26zqJhbvpLb3WPjBX9dJ2PWI/s1600-h/DSC00036.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg13yPOdn_kU5Amw-wjzI_Q77qakPKrT2cv9mqjZAD1io8KWCNx95GljeXKkjw1u_6OWLfsbn5FZrY5SbfMTwH1ynUZwopojA6Y8pPTir6_cw9YY2gA5oA26zqJhbvpLb3WPjBX9dJ2PWI/s400/DSC00036.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332280089992196418" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-67728835608777224032009-05-04T17:01:00.002+01:002009-05-04T17:27:16.334+01:00Soap will never cease to amaze meJust when you think you got it all sussed, it bites you on the bum, lol.<br /><br />I had a three layer soap planned, incorporating an experiment, to see whether I could get a decent sea green colour by mixing annatto seed infusion with ultramarine blue. The bottom layer was going to be blue, the middle layer hopefully a sea green and the top layer a nice egg yolk yellow. I also wanted to use up some FOs I had in the cupboard. I do love vanilla rose combos, so thats what I was going for. Rose FO, being a floral, was supposed to accelerate badly, so I was going to use that in the bottom layer to get it to set up real quick. Yeah right, sigh. Would you believe that this English Rose FO soaped absolutely beautifully? No sign of acceleration, however much I stickblended it, lol. Sod's law, of course, when you want it set up quick, it will give you the finger, lol, and stay liquid, lol.<br /><br />So there I was, with the other two thirds of the soap, at very thin trace, sitting in two separate jugs, waiting to be dealt with. I had already coloured the two lots with annatto seed infusion. One was to stay that colour, the other one I was going to add UM blue to, to get a sea green colour. I didn't want to start stickblending the UM blue into the second layer, until the first had set up, and of course that was taking its time. Finally it seemed firm enough to pour the second layer on, so I quickly blended the UM into the yellow soap................ and blended............... and blended some more. Would that wretched soap thicken up? Nope, of course not, not at all, not after oodles of stickblending. Sigh. Ah well, nevermind, I thought, pour it onto the bottom layer, it will firm up nicely once its in the mould, and as the second FO, Vanilla Bean wasn't mean to accelerate at all, it seemed like a good plan. So on it went, and off I went to add the FO to the last third of soap. Stirred it in gently, and waited for the second layer to set............ and waited............ and waited some more. Would it ever set? Like heck it would, but of course the last third with the Vanilla Bean FO did, in the pot, lol. By now it was like a very thick custard, and I had to use it, or lose it.<br />I globbed it on, and the still thin middle layer squidged around and over it. So much for my lovely layers, lol. Ah well, it might still turn out ok-ish, fingers crossed. Topped it off with some plain cream soap shreds to hide the messy top, lol. Its happily gelling away now. I just wish I could see what it looks like inside, grrr, having to wait til tomorrow is soooooooooo hard.Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-64063454084683459652009-05-02T20:40:00.003+01:002009-05-02T21:10:09.759+01:00More restockingI had to make another batch of Oriane today, as it has proved very popular at craft fairs. I made the essential oil blend a couple of days ago to give it time to develop properly, and then spent most of today with the bottle glued to my nose, sniffing the heady fragrance. I do so love that particular blend, sigh. I make this one in a slab mould ( great old wooden tray from a boot fair, was all of 50p) so that I can swirl the top properly. Thankfully, the soap behaved beautifully and let me have enough time to swirl. It is gelling nicely at the mo. Didn't get a chance to take a pic straight after pouring and swirling, so the pic shows it half gelled -<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNIa5JBDn5AMRdJbgcLtlYeyB8lyuDqmO_uoQcSmQCb7dHe7wOwZpHoVMgt6kR9SWvxf-gkKzLsKfLphANBRtOyk2JqMK0JZF_dJ27WUdZUTtWWWSaFov2wJtwa7zMmlRUc_JkabaWUZw/s1600-h/Oriane+restock.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNIa5JBDn5AMRdJbgcLtlYeyB8lyuDqmO_uoQcSmQCb7dHe7wOwZpHoVMgt6kR9SWvxf-gkKzLsKfLphANBRtOyk2JqMK0JZF_dJ27WUdZUTtWWWSaFov2wJtwa7zMmlRUc_JkabaWUZw/s400/Oriane+restock.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331321254191594770" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-55271272321802982482009-04-29T12:30:00.002+01:002009-04-29T12:37:20.207+01:00Another update,this time on the tree blossom soap. It has darkened to a light brown, quite a lovely sort of caramel shade. Not sure whether it will darken any further, I was expecting it to from the FO description. Doesnt matter though, I am quite happy with this colour, even though its lighter than expected.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2WLXxTLofFunNb9YIKTjqOmma54TS7FOKqP3jfvpwnBxsJXfdBdBR8wxdxPyD5jtUScyoyzpwz3qRDfqS9SohV-WktzWIJjY9I1_H_dmW5RTIc-wdTCDJH4ie5k0L4wFL9xm0cVZOuQ/s1600-h/P4290003.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2WLXxTLofFunNb9YIKTjqOmma54TS7FOKqP3jfvpwnBxsJXfdBdBR8wxdxPyD5jtUScyoyzpwz3qRDfqS9SohV-WktzWIJjY9I1_H_dmW5RTIc-wdTCDJH4ie5k0L4wFL9xm0cVZOuQ/s400/P4290003.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330075628804437730" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-88497649925964299702009-04-29T07:24:00.004+01:002009-04-29T07:48:27.447+01:00Update on the soap experimentI was being a very good, patient girl this morning, I didn't jump out of bed when Andy got up at 5am this morning, I didn't even get up to check the soap when I got my cup of tea, mostly really because the two doggies were lying across my legs and I wouldn't have been able to move even if I had wanted to, lol. But 7am is a respectable getting up time ( I know, JJ would dispute that and argue very hotly ), but it just had to be done.<br /><br />Both soaps had ashed, was the FO responsible for that perhaps? I don't often get ash, hmmm. Actually mine had ashed more than hers did. I took the soaps out of the mould, and peeled off the liner. Big difference there, mine came off cleanly, hers was sticky and left residue on the liner, more on the bottom than on the sides. It wasn't really bad though, and the difference was probably due to her using full water at 38 and me dropping mine to 35. Her soap felt stickier and was therefore more awkward to cut, i got the heavy drag on the knife, but despite that, it was a fairly clean cut. Because my soap didn't have that stickiness, it was easier and cleaner to cut.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqiOK74P1kUxdyGZJ86z6urK2C9-rJIvE7Ez-Y24SS_wan_XdHyqeXKtj93o3Hi4wQ7wkJoRyOxost0yPt6LkEfR-H4lhE2dQM7949DmKWXed0RUI_BZvuXrssyc5yLocZo-tvDOQqeYg/s1600-h/DSC_0624.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqiOK74P1kUxdyGZJ86z6urK2C9-rJIvE7Ez-Y24SS_wan_XdHyqeXKtj93o3Hi4wQ7wkJoRyOxost0yPt6LkEfR-H4lhE2dQM7949DmKWXed0RUI_BZvuXrssyc5yLocZo-tvDOQqeYg/s400/DSC_0624.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330000644465124146" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Colourwise there isn't much in it anymore, mine is still a wee bit lighter and yellower than hers, which is slightly darker and more beige. We'll see how that will change over the course of the day.<br /><br />So, quite frankly, I am a bit stumped now, making allowances for the full water, her recipe itself didn't turn out too badly after all, although it requires more patience, lol. I NEED PATIENCE now to see how the soaps develop over the next days and weeks, arrgghh, this is the really hard part of the experiment, lol. In the meantime, I think perhaps her mould and lining has something to do with her problems of getting the soaps out in the first place. Perhaps a little tweak of the recipe, together with a decent wooden mould and a liner would solve her problems.<br /><br />Another thought just occurred to me. I believe that usually she doesn't take temps of the oils and the lye water, this time she did, and soaped at around 90F, that might have something to do with it as well. I am totally anal about taking temps, I have to admit, I always check the temps of both the oils and the lye water, and usually soap at around 85 or 90F.Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-5560524140554615002009-04-28T20:50:00.003+01:002009-04-28T22:10:11.489+01:00Wet Monkey FartsHonestly, its not what you might think, and it sounds much worse than it really is. I suppose I oughta explain really.<br /><br />A dear friend of mine who shall remain nameless ( see, JJ, I can be trusted after all ), keeps complaining about her soaps not coming out of her moulds, being soft, bla bla bla, you know the sort of thing. So, as I knew she was coming over to visit, I proposed a little experiment - we would make soap together, she would use her recipe, the way she always does her CP soaping, I would use my recipe, and make it the way I always do. We would both use the same FO, the same appliances, ie stick blender, and also the same mould. I made a partition in my wooden mould for that, so that the conditions would be exactly the same for the both of us. Oh, apropos FO, thats where the title of this post comes from, lol, the FO is actually called Monkey Farts, lol, and we thought we put a little twist on it, twisted broads that we are, and use some coloured shreds to simulate, errmm, well, wet ( or follow through, as Joy called them ) monkey farts.<br /><br />It was great fun weighing out our oils, lye etc together, all dressed up in the proper gear of course with hairnets, gloves, sleeves, looking oh so pretty pretty, teeheeee. Ain't gonna post no pics though, sorry, I have VERY strict instruction to keep those well and truly off the net, lol.<br /><br />We both poured our soaps at the same time, well within seconds of each other anyway, and she thought she could already detect a difference, she was convinced my soap looked smoother in the mould than hers, her surface was slightly uneven, couldn't really call it lumpy. We covered both halves of the mould with same weight towels, and then waited................ all of half hour, lol, before we had to check the progress of the soaps. We were immediately struck by the difference in colour, my soap had gone quite yellow, hers ( sorry, can't use her name, I promised ) had gone beige. Also mine was getting quite warm, hers was cold. The difference in colour is much more pronounced than in the photos, darned flash washed out the colours a bit.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTEicAf9TSoamB2T5BRe5weyElmHSpoeL0DOA-DPnFMxlDWE-7-xZZ71gV88d_2d-Fwthm029Fy84nMqIoPOU39Tk2EK9Gp1QUMxqBYYFxb52GRAHCYHca_7As-90Vjfvsvlj5G0C02E/s1600-h/P4280005.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTEicAf9TSoamB2T5BRe5weyElmHSpoeL0DOA-DPnFMxlDWE-7-xZZ71gV88d_2d-Fwthm029Fy84nMqIoPOU39Tk2EK9Gp1QUMxqBYYFxb52GRAHCYHca_7As-90Vjfvsvlj5G0C02E/s400/P4280005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329850841396648546" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We checked again an hour later, my soap was nicely warm, so was hers. Yay. Looked fine so far. A while later we checked again, my soap was still quite warm, hers had gone cold again. Hmm, that was slightly odd. Checked again an hour or so ago, and my soap had cooled down, and hers, well hers was hot hot hot, lol, and perspiring like mad! That was really weird, seeing all that condensation on her side of the mould. I think you may to click on the pic to enlarge it, to see the condensation properly, taking pics with a flash at night is a bitch, lol.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCiMF0T6phsKbrtm36rY3P8VcxLUhsafZLdyAAWzTeQgCi5ocCSfZRgrKH5aQt13s0lhAjsZZO_gUnw-ffO_1CLvolRlbenS3NbLmRW2z7jNF8cnDREruHiaHzjbKuNKgS7qLKRbisVQ/s1600-h/DSC_0614.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCiMF0T6phsKbrtm36rY3P8VcxLUhsafZLdyAAWzTeQgCi5ocCSfZRgrKH5aQt13s0lhAjsZZO_gUnw-ffO_1CLvolRlbenS3NbLmRW2z7jNF8cnDREruHiaHzjbKuNKgS7qLKRbisVQ/s400/DSC_0614.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329851543861012930" border="0" /></a><br />So now, the towels are off both soaps, I am hoping that the moisture will get absorbed by her soap again. Having just looked at the soaps again, mine is now developing a slight case of ash in the middle only, and hers, well hers is still sweating. Hmm.<br /><br />I so wish I could unmould the soaps tonight and cut them, to see whether HERS ( sorry, dear, really hate having to say hers all the time instead of JJ's ) is really as problematic as she says they sometimes are. I hate having to wait, waahh, bit I guess I can't jeopardise our fabulous little experiment, lol. It is really strange seeing how differently our soaps are behaving, and it can only be the recipe, everything else was exactly the same.<br /><br />I'll update tomorrow morning, as soon as I have unmoulded and cut the soaps. Darn, I wish Madam was here as well to witness it, sigh, its such a heavy responsibility, lol.Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-536427312609451860.post-67682964209014580392009-04-26T17:17:00.003+01:002009-04-26T17:29:20.544+01:00Royal VisitOmg, I have to dust off the red carpet, shampoo it and fragrance it, the Queen is coming for a visit on Tuesday!! Yes, you read that correctly, the Queen is coming in person to visit my humble abode. Now before you get too excited and start camping outside my front door with your cameras at the ready, I had better tell you that it is the Croap Queen who is coming for a visit, lol. Still, She does warrant the red carpet treatment, because She is of course a right Royal .... in the .... ( you may insert whatever first springs to mind, lol ) at times. When she moans and groans about her croapings, for example, or her croilies, or the dozen other things she is trying out and won't even tell about, because they may not work out.<br /><br />Just in case you cannot resist the lure of Royalty in any shape or form, here is a sneakily snuck photograph of the Queen in all her finery. What a magnificent croap crown!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOIA3BZI9v4z2J4KsnvN9KsehCiyAV9iGottnKCayzsu1dMXi4wZXP81LHopreNC-i-b7AjEDg2BmQLjh8vUXNX-srgQwk4ENz7Hb848alngHHDny74WfJs3hbHVxSD5QJZQv0g7Xg8fk/s1600-h/jjav.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 99px; height: 100px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOIA3BZI9v4z2J4KsnvN9KsehCiyAV9iGottnKCayzsu1dMXi4wZXP81LHopreNC-i-b7AjEDg2BmQLjh8vUXNX-srgQwk4ENz7Hb848alngHHDny74WfJs3hbHVxSD5QJZQv0g7Xg8fk/s400/jjav.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329037422971054706" border="0" /></a>Lululizhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16252036505940629329noreply@blogger.com5