10 Year Anniversary

Ten years ago today, I married the love of my life. Although we've been together for almost 15 years, it seems like it has flown by in a flash.

The perfect day!

I've never shared how we met, and it's adorably nerdy.

I think this is the first picture I have of us together. We had only been dating a few months here, and we met at a Technical Writing professional organization meeting that previous fall. Both of us were SO serious and into what we were doing at the time. I joke and say we were Tech Writers in love!

Tech Writers in love...silently judging your grammar since 2002

It seems fitting this month has been extremely hectic, as 10 years ago, the month of August 2007 was a crazy month too. We finished our grad school program finals earlier in the month (Univ. Central Florida...go Knights!), then hubby-to-be went on a business trip for a few days to come back just in time for the wedding.

MAs with an attitude!

While he was gone, I worked and continued to wrap-up all the wedding and honeymoon details, including making our amazing Carrot Cake wedding cake. It's all a blur now.

Our wedding was very small and it was a perfect day in every way. Even the typical Florida summer afternoon rain showers held off until after we had finished the ceremony and had pictures taken. I know this is cliche to say, but it truly was one of the happiest days of my life. We were just so darn happy and full of joy, love, and relief that day.

They tossed bird seed instead of rice

These past 10 years have been amazing, and I'm so grateful to say that we've been very graced to have had many more good times than bad. We've had so much fun on this journey together, which is truly a lucky gift to have in another person.

Now, we're a little bit grayer, and a little bit fatter, but we still count the laughter more than the years. Happy anniversary to the most adorable, caring, handsome, and loving husband in the whole wide world!

Still laughing and loving a decade later

Soapy Friday - Espresso and Another Honey Soap

Happy Friday everyone! This week I've been getting my groove back on in cold processing soapmaking and I think I've found my sweet spot.

I was SO happy to get back after my last curing wait period and crazy lye mix-up Frankensoap. BTW, all of the soaps I've made since implementing my fully melted oils have turned out spectacular. I've tried them all out in the shower and they've all been silky smooth with a great, bubbly lather. Even the rebatched Honey soap from last week was a hit! I tried it this week and it's amazing.

So, with all my new-found knowledge of oil melting practices and lye concentration, I wanted to try out my Espresso fragrance oil from Brambleberry.com to make an espresso soap.

Look how daggone cute it turned out! I wanted it to look like a cup of latte, with foam on top, and it smells AMAZEBALLS....sort of like a hazelnut espresso.

Espresso Soap...drink it up!

Yum!

I also wanted to try out ye-old Honey Soap for the hundredth time (if nothing else I'm tenacious) using different water amounts and lye concentration and I feel really good about it. I was able to unmold in LESS than 24 hours and I'm very confident this will feel amazing once it's cured.

Still, I used my original recipe and would like to incorporate another hard oil like cocoa butter in it, so it may evolve even more.

I just unmolded and cut this yesterday, which is why it has such a light color to it:

Honey Soap...batch #27

Soapy Friday - Rebatching Soap

So what do you do while you are waiting for your shipment of Sodium Hydroxide (lye) to come in and you want to make soap? Why, you rebatch some of your older soap into something new!

New old soap

I'm practically chomping at the bit to get back into real soap making. With my last Frankensoap disaster, I've had to reorder the correct lye and wait, wait, wait. I ordered from Brambleberry.com, which is an AMAZING supply company, but dang it takes FOR EVER to receive their orders. It averages anywhere from 10-14 days for me to get my orders from them, as they are on the West coast in Washington state. For this reason, I normally don't order from them unless I want something specific and even then I wait till I have a big enough order to make it worth the wait.

ANYWHO, so I'm rebatching some of my previous batches of soap where I didn't like how they turned out. Rebatching (also sometimes called milling) is where you shred-up hard soap, melt it back down using a cooking method, add a new color or fragrance if desired, and then remold it. Most home soapers use soap-only crockpots to rebatch or hot process soap.

So, if you buy soap that's been "triple milled" it means that it was made, shredded-up, remelted, and remolded three times. Milling soap is said to make it a more solid and creamier soap, but I'm no expert.

Shreddings ready for rebirth

Rebatching soap has many benefits of being able to reuse soap that didn't turn out as expected, or if you forgot to add an ingredient, or even if you'd like to add finicky fragrances that react badly during the traditional lye/oil/water saponification process. Since rebatched soap has already saponified, fragrances won't behave badly or fade like some are prone to do in cold or hot process soap methods. Some soapers do nothing but rebatched soap for this very reason. They buy bulk orders of unscented and uncolored soap and turn it into what they want.

Another plus is rebatched soap can be used right away, but does benefit from a few days-to-a-week of drying time. The only downside that I can see to rebatching soap is that it often is more difficult to make into pretty designs and it looks more "rustic".

So, I decided to rebatch some of my old Honey Soap where I didn't melt the oils down hot enough during initial processing and the soaps felt a little scratchy when used. I added just a touch more Pure Honey fragrance oil to the melted batter before molding.

Honey Soap reborn

I think they turned out surprisingly well and from the sample sliver I tried in the sink to wash my hands, they are silky smooth to use! I will know for sure in a few days.

Yesterday, I shred-up and rebatched my old Pear Lime and Cucumber Melon soaps that didn't turn out the way I wanted. I was hoping the shreds would melt down to a very light green and I wanted to rescent with "Apple Sage" fragrance oil.

They turned out adorable and I even stamped them with a generic soap stamp.

Rebatched as "Apple Sage" for fall

Rebatching is a lot of fun; I shredded, melted/cooked, molded, unmolded, and cut that "Apple Sage" soap in a single day! The good news is my lye order came in yesterday so I'm back on track...I have a lot of catching up to do.

Black Krim, Green Zebra and Gold Medal Tomatoes

It's that time of year again to taste-test and compare some of the heirloom tomatoes I've grown in the garden. Every year I like to grow different varieties to see what's-what, but very few actually make it back to take up valuable space in the garden beds.

This year, I grew "Black Krim," "Green Zebra," and "Gold Medal" along with my standby ultimate favorite heirloom "Brandywine Sudduth's Strain".

Black Krim
"Black Krim" is a deep purple beefsteak tomato that is supposed to have a deep, rich, almost smoky flavor. This heirloom wins tomato-tasting contests all the time, so I had to give it a try.

"Black Krim" tomato

The plants were productive and the fruit beautiful; however, I wasn't impressed. I found it to be mild, slightly sweet, lightly acidic, and it did have a very slight smokiness to it. This is a good tomato if you have issues with eating acidic foods. I think "Black From Tula" is a better-tasting purple beefsteak.

Green Zebra
"Green Zebra" was a wonderful surprise this year!. It's a small, plum-sized, green-striped tomato that is said to have a bright, high-acid, almost "citrusy" flavor profile. I've read that this tomato is amazing sliced on top of a crab-cake sandwich.

"Green Zebra" tomato

It's flavor description is spot-on, as well as having a nice depth of all-over-tomato-flavor. Since this is a green tomato, I was confused/concerned as to when to know when to pick it. Luckily for me, the variety that I grew turned its stripes yellow when it was ripe.

The only issue with this tomato was I noticed it had a tendency towards blossom-end rot, even when given bone meal at planting. I've never had this issue w/my other tomatoes, so it's something to keep in mind. The 2-3 plants I had only had a few fruit that got BER, so it wasn't too bad.

This is a keeper tom for sure. We loved it.

Gold Medal
"Gold Medal" tomato is a hearty, yellow/blush, beefsteak tomato that is quoted to be "the sweetest tomato you've ever tasted," and boy were they right! It's definitely sweet...almost too sweet and I prefer my tomatoes to be on the more savory/acidic side. It's a mild (almost watered down, IMO) tomato, lightly acidic, and would be great for people who are watching their acid intake.

But talk about being super fun to grow! Check out this 2 lb. monster I picked from one of my plants!

A 2 lb. Monster Tom

2 lbs and counting...

Almost all of the fruit from this plant were this size. In fact, I'm going to enter my tomato in our local paper as the largest tom and see if I win!

As far as yellow beefsteaks go, I much preferred last year's "Mr. Stripey" for flavor.

More and More Tomatoes
This summer has definitely kept us busy. Our late, cool spring allowed our plants to set extra fruit and I think we are at about 150 lbs picked so far. I'm done with canning tomatoes for the season. No more!

After this, it will be Herbed Roasted Tomatoes, Tomato Basil Butter, and giving what's left away to friends and neighbors.

Gratuitous Kitteh Monday

It's blissfully raining this Monday morning, with the occasional thunder. That means both cats have disappeared and are hiding - they hate thunderstorms and Chaz doesn't even like the sound of rain.

It's been a while since I wrote a GKM post, as life has been hectic, but fortunately the kitteh life has been mostly boring...

I'm cute and I know it!

Miss Thang is still on Prozac, although just the tiniest amount possible (2.5 mg). We have found it's just enough to help her manage stress/anxiety, but not be a recluse. She seems happy and balanced. Time will tell if we will keep her on it.

Soapy Friday - The Story of Frankensoap

I'm convinced that if you think you've figured something out and get a little cocky, God says, "Here, hold my beer. Watch this!"

Well, do I have a doozy for you! Please, sit down and pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea...

So last week, I was pretty sure I had this whole lye concentration, oil, and water thing figured out and I was anxious to get back to my trials. I wanted to make my friend Mary a batch of Patchouli soap because I know she loves Patchouli.

Well to make a very long story short and after making a big-ol' hot mess (literally), I present to you the first batch of soap that I had to throw away...Frankensoap:

A big log of sticky gunk

Yuck!

Ultimately, what happened was instead of ordering and using Sodium Hydroxide, which is used to make HARD soap, I accidentally ordered Potassium Hydroxide, which is used to make LIQUID soap. Both containers look the same and I did not check the label.

I didn't realize this HUGE, HUGE, HUGE screw-up until after I had wrangled with this once cold-process, then hot-processed to save, rebatched and whipped soap into the mold. After cleaning up, I sat down on the couch and was wracking my brain to figure out what I had done wrong.

I scrolled through all my Pinterest pins and blogs and websites for info and something stood out...earlier I was reading about how to make shaving soap, which is made with both Sodium and Potassium Hydroxide, and I thought, "WAIT A MINUTE....did I? NOOOO!"

Yep, I used the wrong lye and ended up with a big log of sticky gunk. So, the moral of the story is...

Yes, a bitch indeed.

Soapy Friday - More Tomatoes and Masterbatching Math

Happy Friday everyone! We're finally going to get some rain today, but first, a tomato windfall.

I went outside this morning to pick "Oh, 12-or-so tomatoes" and this is what I came back with...

Oh well, no rest for the weary or wicked.

On to soap, shall we?

It’s been an exciting week of sorts in the soap department. First, I finally was able to try out my “Summer Melon” soap and it was perfectly smooth and silky to use…no grit or scratchiness at all and it smelled wonderful! This is the green light I was waiting for to go forward.

"Summer Melon" measured up 

I’ve also been using my “Lovespell” soap and it is amazeballs; I’m so happy!

"Lovespell" soap and bath bombs...coming to a friends and family soon!

Secondly, I am going to geek out a little and talk about science. Specifically, soap science. So, if your eyes start to glaze over, you won't offend me. :-)

I’ve been curious about what is called “masterbatching” in soapmaking, which is not to be confused with Masterblaster from “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”. But wouldn’t it be fun if these two made soap?

Let's go make soap!

Anywho, masterbatching is where you pre-mix large amounts of your lye water solution and oils in separate containers and set them aside for when you need to make soap. If, say, you want to make soap, instead of individually weighing and combining all your ingredients each time, you’d have them all pre-mixed in separate “masterbatches”. All you’d need to do is scoop/measure out what you’d need from each and be on your merry-little-way. This saves a TON of time in prep-work!

Specifically, I wanted to learn about masterbatching lye water. I didn’t really know you could do this and could set it aside at room temperature. Traditionally, when you mix lye with water, it heats up to about 180°, and then you have to wait till it cools down to around 100° before you can make soap. This can take about an hour or more. I often mix my lye water solution first and then I have to go find something else to do until it’s ready.

If you masterbatch your lye water, it’s always ready when YOU ARE, instead the other way around. The tricky part about this is you often have to calculate, based on your recipe, how much lye water solution to add to your oils to make soap, as the lye and water are no longer two separately measurable ingredients.

For example, if you make a 50/50 masterbatched lye water solution (meaning 50% of that solution is lye and 50% is water) and your recipe calls for 4.61 oz. of lye and 9.15 oz. of water, how much of the concentrated lye water solution would you need instead of the 2, separate ingredients?

To go even deeper, if you needed to add MORE liquid to that 50/50 lye solution to make your recipe, how much would you need to add?

Ummm....

This is me in real life

IKR? It sounds like one of those annoying math word problems on a test. And believe me, I've been banging my head around trying to understand this, BUT I'm pretty confident I've got a handle on it. 

You see,  through this I've learned there are two types of people in the soapmaking world: Those who calculate their recipes based on water as a % of oils and those who calculate their recipes based on the lye concentration requirements for each recipe. 

Most "newbies" (including myself) and casual crafters have used the former. In fact, most DIY and craft websites use the "water as a % of oils" approach to calculate a soap formula. It's the easiest and most forgiving to understand and grasp, but it's not consistent and leaves room for error, as it assumes that ALL oils are the same and saponify at the same rate.

You see, each oil has it's own separate saponification requirements...some oils (such as olive oil) need more lye to turn them into soap, and some oils (such as coconut) need less. When calculating a recipe basing the water requirements as a % of  the total amount of oils, it assumes that all oils in the recipe, regardless of what they are, need the same amount of water/lye amount. 

If you are calculating your recipe based on the lye concentration requirements necessary for all the different oils in the recipe, it's more precise and reliable. I REALLY could go into nerdom and talk to the different percentages of lye concentration mixes and how they perform in soapmaking, but I think this is enough for now.  In fact, I'm probably not explaining what I have explained exactly right...it's complicated.

I've run some of my previous recipes back thru using the lye concentration vs. water as a % of oils approach and have been shocked and validated on the results and my hunches. This is why some of my recipes haven't been doing what I've wanted them to do and I'm confident that things will be going in a MUCH different direction from here on.

July Canning

Since I'm taking a small break from soapmaking, I've turned my attention back to the kitchen. Tomatoes are coming in, so it's time to get busy!

This week I've made Annie's Salsa, Dill Pickles, Crushed Tomatoes, and some Sour Cherry Jam. I also whipped up a batch of Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread, which was pretty amazing!

Plus, it's too damn hot to be outside!

It's been a busy week in the kitchen!

The Garden in July

I'm not going to have a Soapy Friday post this week, as I'm waiting to see how some of my latest samples perform, so it's back to our regularly, scheduled broadcast. :-)

This has been the driest summer that we've had to date. Even 2015, as bloody hot as it was, had more rain than this summer (according to my records). And with temperatures regularly in the 90's with the heat index into the 100's, everything is suffering. My rain barrels have only filled up once, and have been completely drained. This has never happened. I've never been able to completely drain my rain barrels before a rain shower comes along and refills.

Even the turtles, which we spot on our property every year, have retreated to the cooler, damper areas of the woods. We haven't seen a turtle on our property at all this year.

And so it goes.

I've managed to keep the flower beds, hosta beds, and vegetable garden watered and alive. I've started installing Mister Landscaper micro-irrigation around the property where I can and it's made a big impact on my watering chores.

The lawn has only been cut once in the past 6 weeks as well. We found that keeping the grass taller has helped preserve it during hot-spells like this, as we don't have an irrigation system, nor do we water.

The tomatoes are starting to come in heavy. We had our first BLT last night for dinner, and I'm canning crushed tomatoes in the kitchen as I type. :-)

The back perennial bed is filling-out. I'm still getting used to the whole "The 1st year they sleep, the 2nd year they creep, and the 3rd year they leap" gardening concept up here. In Florida, it was growing season ALL year-long, so plants matured and filled-out quicker.

Even the perennial beds in the front of the house look dreamy. I need to thin and divide much of these plants over this fall.

I was mentioning to my friend Mary, how summer bums me out. I just can't wait for it to be over and I hate the heat, although I love the fresh produce! I live for the fall, winter, and spring.

Soapy Friday - Fall Leaves and Citrus Energy

Happy Friday everyone!

There wasn't much going on this week due to me waiting to see how my last couple of batches of soap perform after they cure...

But first, fall leaves in July! Can you believe this?

October in July?

It's been so dang hot and dry that our tulip poplar trees have already shed 10-15% of their leaves due to heat stress and lack of water. Usually, they start to drop a few leaves here-and-there in July, but I've never seen this much!

The veggie garden is starting to pick up, so I guess it's a good thing that I'm taking a small break from soap (sort of).

Maters are coming it

On to soap, shall we?

Like I said, not much happened this week, but I did manage to make a double batch of what I am calling "Citrus Energy" olive oil soap. I usually make my olive oil soaps 100% natural and only use essential oils, but I didn't have enough orange and grapefruit essential oils to make this batch, so I subbed in some "Energy" fragrance oil from Bramblerberry.com. It smells just like orange essential oil.

Waiting for release

I usually can unmold in a day, maybe two, but when I tried to unmold this morning, the bottoms were still a little soft, so I am going to let it sit for another day or two. I might have used too much fragrance oil, which upped my total liquid amount and is making the soap a little softer.

I did try another lotion recipe that contained only 7 ingredients: water, olive oil, emulsifying wax, vegetable glycerin, vitamin-e oil, a preservative, and fragrance oil. I liked how it turned out and made 5 sample bottles, which were given away to friends. I've been using the one bottle and I really like it. I made it with an "Anjou Pear and Lime" fragrance oil blend, which makes me think of summer and fall at the same time.

Of all the soapy things I make, lotion is the easiest and gives me the fastest gratification...basically it's ready to use right after you mix it and put it in the bottle (after cooling).

That's all for this week, friends!

Soapy Friday - Summer Veggies and Soap Trials

Happy Friday everyone! It's a short week for many, but they always feel longer to me as you have to try to fit 5 days of work into 3.

But first, a peek at the first summer tomatoes and eggplant from my veggie garden...

Future dinner

I didn't quite make my July 4th deadline for a ripe tomato, but that's okay. This little plate of loveliness will be grilled up and made into some yummy bruschetta for dinner tonight.

On to soap, shall we?

I gave my first shot at coffin bombs and they turned out pretty cute. The rose petals made the sides crumble off a little, but otherwise, I think it's a good start. I'm going to take them to my UPS lady today; I'm sure she'll be thrilled!

Coffin bombs...for people dying to take a bath!

I made some more 100% Olive Oil soap in "Peppermint Patchouli". I love to use peppermint soap in the summertime; it's so refreshing and cooling after a hot day outside. I'm pretty set on my Olive Oil soap ingredients and process and it's one of the most favorited soaps from my friends and family.

"Savon de la Bonne Mere Marseille" means "Soap of the Good Mother from Marseille" LOL!

I tried another batch of my "Old Faithful" 5-oil soap recipe with the 15% water discount to see if it would give me the same results and it did. I made a "Summer Melon" soap using a melon/peach blend of Fragrance Oil (FO). It turned out nice, but has a little soda ash on top.

"Summer" Melon soap

Making soap is a lot like making pickles: you don't know what you've got until they're ready, and that can take a while. So, I think I am going to hold off making more of my "Old Faithful" soaps for a while until some of the newer soaps cure and I can try them out in the shower/bath.

Need to test drive some of these soaps!

My earlier batches of soap over the past months had a tendency to be scratchy, even when I didn't add any exfoliating clays or charcoals. I think that was due to me not knowing about melting my solid oils down enough and the stearic acid within the oils wasn't dissolving.

I want to see how my newer soaps, where I've melted my oils clear, perform and feel in the shower/bath and I need to let them cure. I don't want to waste expensive ingredients on soap that doesn't measure-up.

Soapy Friday - Foxes, Fireworks, and Coffins

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!

But first, a continuation of last week's groundhog saga...

Earlier this week, about 4 days ago, we spotted a very large, adult fox trotting across our front lawn and into the woods. This is very exciting! I think foxes are so beautiful.

Mr. or Mrs. Fox is welcome!

We have also NOT seen John G. Kennedy groundhog since last week. Coincidence? Maybe. Mr. or Mrs. fox is welcome to stay and keep the critters away, but I worry about our neighbor's cat that is let outside and wanders over here from time-to-time. :-(

Next, since it is a holiday weekend, how about some fireworks from Mother Nature? Say hello to "Ruby Spider" daylily ....isn't she gorgeous?

"Ruby Spider"

I'm ready for my close-up! 

There is a man at one of our local farmer's markets that sells the most amazeballs plants. It's hard for me to not buy from him...I've already purchased 5 daylilies (4 last year), an echinacea, and a coneflower. I'd buy more, but I need to do some garden-bed prepping first.

"Lavender Stardust"

On to soap, shall we?

This week, I received some wonderful goodies in the mail. There is a lady at my UPS store who has been begging for me to make some coffin shaped bath bombs (she likes things "goth/emo") that look like this:

Photo courtesy from The Madbombers

So, I bought this cake mold and will play around with it this week. I also bought the pink "faux bois" wood grain silicone mat to line the bottom of my soap mold for some future sandlewood-type soap.

Coffin bombs coming soon!

Wholesalesupplies.com had a sale on their large 6.5 lb. silicone soap molds, so I bought 2 for future loaves when I am comfortable with my recipe and process. Messing up a small 3 lb. loaf of soap (on left) is MUCH cheaper and less painful than it would be if it were almost 7 lbs.!

3 lb. mold on left (it's dirty in this pic) and 6.5 lb. mold on right

For example, I made a "White Tea and Ginger" soap that at 24-hours was still a little too soft to take out of the mold and it tore in the corners. I had a hunch that I needed to do a water discount, so I made another similar batch with a FO blend the next day, but with a 15% water discount.

Looks like something took a bite out of my soap!

The 2nd soap was the perfect consistency at 24 hours, BUT when I made the soap, one of the FOs that I used caused my batter to "rice" and so, the soap wasn't perfect.

Better consistency, but a naughty Fragrance Oil

I'm aiming for consistency and I'm close, but when dealing with unknown fragrance oils (FOs), always, always, ALWAYS do your research to see how it will perform. This is why I am working my craft every week.

All of these "imperfect" but perfectly usable and wonderful soaps will be shared among friends, coworkers, family, and anyone who takes a bath!