Soapy Friday - No Soap This Week

Just got back from L.A. last night for work. The work was stressful, but the location was cherry. I didn't want to come back.

Goin back to Cali, Cali, Cali...

The hotel I stayed at was right at the beach across from a marina. I could hear the seals barking out in the water.

Follow the barking seals

The kittehs are glad I'm back but did NOT pull their end of the packing while I was gone. Total slackers.

We watchin' you

There IS no soap for this week because it's all in boxes...well most of it. To be continued. Lastly, I need a moment of silence for a dear friend that I lost this morning.

Goodbye Ruskie...we had 6 beautiful years together. You will be missed.

R.I.P. Ruskie

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

Ugh. This is the quiet before the storm.

Chaz is taking a moment of solitude in an afternoon sunbeam…

Meditating Kitteh

We loaded and unloaded 2, 15 ft. U-Haul truckloads of “stuff” this weekend into the new place and we are both incredibly SORE today. We are positively out-of-shape. There is certainly a huge yard-sale on the horizon once we are back in a real neighborhood.

Our “big move” isn’t until May 12^th, but I’m in L.A. next week, so there’s a week lost out of that time. Our goal is to only have the movers move the big stuff and packed boxes, so we are taking care of all the loose odds-n-ends, most of the basement, and the garage, plus all the packing.

This is certainly better than the 4-day packing blitz we did in Florida for sure, but it still sucks.

“I LOVE MOVING”…said no one ever!

New digs

Beautiful, big kitchen...a must have!

The house we are moving too is really nice and it’s practically brand new (3 yrs. old), but we have found upon closer inspection and from talking with the neighbors, the owners had 3 dogs (golden retrievers) and a cat. There is HAIR EVERYWHERE! They did not do a post, move-out clean and the floors are disgusting, not to mention a suspicious odor is coming from one of the spare bedrooms upstairs. So, a total house clean, with professional carpet cleaning is being done this week. There are other things that need to be addressed as well, but I’m too tired to go into it.

I’ve never understood why people buy homes and then not take care of them. Why spend so much money and then watch your property values go down the drain?

Anyway, as usual, we will leave this house in better condition than we found it.

Soapy Friday: I'm Gelling (Sort of), Are You?

Happy Friday everyone. Posts for Ye' Olde Blog will most likely be a once-a-week thing for the next couple of months due to all the chaos of moving. We start packing this weekend.

Miss Thang is being chill, though. I know they know something is going on.

Chillin' Thang

It's Cherry Blossom time here up in D.C.! The trees are at their "peak" over today and the next day or two. It's fun to go see this amazing display of beauty....once. In order to make the most of it and the crowds, you really need to get there before sunrise. We did this the first year we moved up here.

Cherry Blossoms in D.C.

Getting excited about prospects for our new "home". It's a rental, but has very high potential for us to buy if we decide we like it and the neighborhood down the road. I mean, look at this basement! It's finished and it's ALL MINE! No carpets = a perfect soaping studio.

So many possibilities!

Speaking of soap...

I remade some of my 100% olive oil soap (aka Castille soap) and used tumeric to color it. I try to keep my olive oil soaps all natural using only essential oils (EOs) and natural colorants.

The EO blend I mixed as called "Sunset" and was a beautiful blend of grapefruit, tangerine, ylang ylang, litsea cubeba, and rose geranium. I wanted to color the soap a sort of orange/rust to compliment the citrus notes in the EO blend and look what happened:

I'm gelling...sort of

This is called a gel ring. When a soap "gels" after it is made, it heats-up either naturally or is forced to heat-up using a heating pad, insulation, or even an oven. "Gelling" a soap contributes to more saturated colors and less chance for soda ash. Soap crafters either prefer to gel all the way or not at all, as a partial gel (like in my soap) can be distracting and take away from a beautiful soap design.

Neither a good mother, nor from Marseille

In my case, I think it contributes and makes it more interesting. I tried to gel this soap by putting it on a pre-heated heating pad and then turned it off, as I was afraid it would overheat. I guess I should have left it on.

BTW, "Savon de la Bonne Mere Marseille" means "Soap from the Good Mother of Marseille" which I am neither. I need to make my own stamp.