Moving! All my blogs are rolling in to one location!

I've moved and put All my lives rolled in to one blog!


please follow all of my postings in one place at http://allofmylives.blogspot.com/


thank you for finding me there!

denise/deBRAT

Happy Monday Morning!

Isn't it just the most wonderful day out there? Today, in the TampaBay area of Florida we are experiencing our coolest day yet of thisseason and it is just mahvelous dahlings!

I rode to work with the top down on the Miata and for the first timethe heat on my feet. In FL it is either top down with A/C on or topdown and heater on. Rare is the day you do not need to accompany your top down driving with one of the two.

But before the weather put me in a great mood, I managed to take mysoap I made yesterday out of my round tube mold from UPland.ooooooh it is so pepperminty and it lathers wonderfully and then Ieven used my bath poof on it and I was literally covered in whitelather and bubbles with no skin showing. I just love mysoapmaking!

This was the first time I made round soap and what fun it is! Ithink I will have to get yet another tube and liner from UPland andI think another set of the mini molds too! I'm just a mold hog andfragrance 'ho these days.

I also spent quite some time yesterday on the phone with my sisterin upstate NY where they had been putting the something or others onthe roof to prevent ice dams. I gather it is a heating wire appliedto the roof so when heated she says it allows the melted snow todrip down and not get held up creating an ice dam. All I know is itis much nicer to live in FL at this time of year. She said lastyear they were putting them up on their roof on Thanksgiving Dayduring a snowstorm while the turkey was cooking away in the oven.Well at least this year it was not during a snowstorm, eh?

Back to soap and sundries..... so I made the round peppermint soapthat smells wonderful, lathers greatly but is almost peach incolor? I used Rocket Red jojoba beads to add a bit of red color tothe soap. Ummmm they morphed and none of it is white and most of itlooks peach. I can't wait to see what color the Peachy Keen Pinkones morph too LOL Or the Brilliant Blue ones.

I also made the MSM cream from another list's (SS maybe) class whichwas Saturday. I had an issue or two with that but it appears dojust what the claims were, aid in pain. I took the jar with 6 1/2oz in it to work today. I can get really really painful and thenslather it all on for relief LOL. It too is scented in peppermint.

My son came home from college this weekend and it was sooooo good tosee him. My how he has matured in the short time he has been on hisown. The poor kid is fully aware of just how much college iscosting him each semester. A whopping big amount too! He was allconcerned about what to get his dad for his b'day, which isWednesday. Asking me to get something from him. I have no cluewhat my dh wants and we no longer exchange b'day gifts it appears.I told him call him on that day and you will make his b'day the bestever! Send him an e-card and if you have time make him a card andmail it to him. Any or all of those things will make it a wonderful day!

If any of you have access to the Armyaviation 2006 Blue BookDirectory for Aug/Sept 2006 my son's picture is on page 121 for theTennessee Valley Chapter Matching Scholarship. YOu might be able tosee it online too. Let me see if I can find it. This is the Quad A(AAAA) Scholarship Foundation. There were 3 awarded for 4 years of$2,750 each year; 2 awarded for 4 years of $1,000 each year; 1awarded for 2 years of $2,000 each year and then my son at 2 yearsof $1,500 each year! There were 2 more $3,000 total scholarshipsand then (in total amounts) eight @ $2,000; ten @ $1,500; 110 @$1,000; and ten $1,000 per year interest free loans.

I am so honored that I am the mother of a son who got one of thehighest scholarships offered by the AAAA Foundation!

Yes you can see it on line, http://www.quad-a.org/
on the left choose ARCHIVES
then 2006 scholarships
and you can see the article as I see it in the magazine.scroll down on that first page and he is the bottom right :)

okay I could go on and on (as you all well know) but don't you justLOVE Fall in Florida?

hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that Monday is the beginning of a terrific week for you,

lots of soapy hugs
denise/deBrat showing her proud mommy side quite obviously today :)

Soaping during Tropical Storms - a saga - as told by denise/deBRAT

Preface:For those that like my stories of soaping mis-adventures, this one is a doosey! enjoy!

NOVEL:Okay so I know better. I'm an adult. Have been for many years. I have been known to make good decisions in life but sometimes I forget myself and make decisions like I am that 16 year old that my mind's eye still sees my physical self as.....

Last night was the third night of dh being away on a business trip. Monday night as you may recall, I made three different batches of soap with varied results with Crystal (soap virgin) there. Tuesday I wound up at dinner with my gf and her three kids so no soaping stuff that night. So last night was the last night I could do any soaping until I go to Judi In Jax's this weekend!

I drag all my stuff out of the hallway where I left it Monday night, because I COULD with dh away. And I'm sure there are others who read that with the proper appreciation for inflection of the word could. And I decide to make a double batch of the 3 oil batch from Monday night that lathers so nicely and inexpensively and moves so quickly to make. Recalc the lye at www.the-sage.comand measure out the lye, decide to go with just water this batch and as I am begining to pour the lye into the water a downright DELUGE of rain falls from the sky! OH crap! What was I thinking? Of course, it will rain heavily and the wind will kick up because there is a Tropical Storm now effecting my area of Florida and I am trying to soap. stupid ninny....

so I proceed, as my lye is now in the water and I sure as heck am not going to risk forgetting the lye water is there on the table and pack it all up... and then have dh come home and feed the water to one of my plants or something. and i'm not going to go out in the DELUGE and pour it some place safe as a disposal method.... so I plod on hoping that the wind stays rather lowish and the rain stays on the out part of the screen room.... measure my oils dump them in the crock pot to begin to warm in hopes of "meeting" the lye temps soon and......

drip drip drip goes the water.... drip drip drip my lanai roof is leaking? Oh crap! (again)
I decide well if I'm going to make soap during a Tropical storm it should smell like I did, and find my lovely special-ordered-only-at-Gathering Tangerine Rain(lebermuth).... oh how appropriate..... measure it out on my scale and think(I should NEVER think) lets see how this might smell with a touch of black pepper in it......

we will never know.....

I came back with my black pepper (TFO's) and what do my HORRIFIED eyes spy????????
one disinigrating-before-me styrofoam cup of Tangerine Rain FO..... I cannot change the font in my post.... be assured it is now at like 72 pt font CAPS and BOLD when I say oh CRAP!

So now I scramble. Trying to salvage the FO only to realise that the cup is melting, not just a hole in it, literally melting away like it was the Wicked Witch with a bucket of water on her. (Can you jear Dorothy laughing away at me?) I grab the paper towels (I use a LOT of paper towels when I soap LOL) and try to mop it up some.... oh CRAP! my scale is plastic.... the FO is making my scale very very very very tacky! Not as in not-chic, but sticky tacky....so i take out its battery and rush to my sink and try to figure out how to remove most of the FO from the scale without the water ruining the scale's ability to weigh.... at $30 I sure did not want to buy another one this soon into my soapmaking career.

Conclusion: Well I made soap but I am now hoarding what remains of my Tangerine Rain and the soap has a nice lemon California scent with chamomile tea leaves added to it instead. And the second batch came out okay and it too is NOT Tangerine Rain but lavendar and oatmeal and I think I should give up on that combination, that one NEVER has a successful batch. OH! and guessie what? I made them both only to trace and additives stage.... I put them in the molds to GEL! I did cold process... well sort of as I continue to heat the mix in my crockpot until trace then cut off the crockpot.

I also ordered a bunch of molds from Upland yesterday and they are winging their way to me as of yesterday late afternoon. Hopefully, with all the rubberbands the molds need.
I have a pic of the cup and of today's cuttings but the camera is at home. so will try to find time to download them tonight and post tomorrow. If not, it will not be until tuesday or wednesday some time til the pics show up.

so just to let you know that it started with the DELUGE at about 6 pm last evening and as of noonish today the "should have stayed in bed" continues. today from when I woke up and the one mold won't release my second batch of soap, to the unexpected traffic delay (did you know that 15 mins in traffic is just long enough to make another bad decision and try to drink your Sunny Delight from a travel coffee mug that will not cooperate and wind up with Sunny D in your lap? And the number of papertowels/napkins in your car is directly related to the equation: paper's absorbancy %= 75% of ounces of liquid spilled and soaking into clothing item) to the student STILL with an account problem since last friday's phone call at 5 mins to 8 am and it goes on and on my friend like that song....

soapy disaster prayers and hugsdenise/deBRAT
Thought for the day: if grease takes out grease (oil laundry sticks) does this mean that salt soap will clean up sweat? I was mighty mighty sweaty after last night adventures and cleaned up with a salt swap bar :)

Thanksgiving Day Soap Pictures!

Hey all,

Here is a picture of the Thanksgiving Day Soap after it has been made and cut since July 26th. This AM I cut a bar into 3 samples and look at the cool coloring it currently has. It is in the bottom right of the picture.

To the left, in a flower shape, is my peppermint EO salt soap cut into thick sticks with a clear and melt overpour with Rosemary EO that has the claim to fame of being my first (and only) bar of soap sold! Woohoo! I'm framing one of the dollars she paid me with :)

To the upper portion the pink rectangle is the BUS peppermint EO Salt Soap in its original form. Too ugly to send off as part of the swap but too wonderful to pitch and way too hard to rebatch, plus all that salt in there..... did not want that just melting away to nothingness.... so Anhoki/Angela suggested the melt and pour over pour. Of course, as I march to the beat of my own stubborn drummer, I should tell you that Anhoki/Angela made that suggestion after the first batch failed. I, my non-listening self, managed to foul up several more batches before officially panicing about the impending arrival date deadline and doing the resulting overpour. by the way, it is one of the few soaps I put the WHOLE bar into my own shower.... smile.... but by far my two favorite soaps are the peppermint salt, ugly though it may be and the Thanksgiving Day soap... now to experience the adventure of trying to re-create the same recipe (yes, I kept notes) and getting the same results!


Okay, you have waited long enough for the picture!

hugs and happy soaping adventures,
denise/deBRAT

The most amazing soaping adventure happened today.....

This is just so cool ... today i brought to work some of my 40 oz of lotion i made last night after my massage therapist was at the house.... and i gave a few away.... i had met this nice lady in the parking lot one day who had made homemade baklava and I was a GOOD girl and did not have any..... i had knocked on her door yesterday (everything is protected by a swipe card in this building so i can't just get into the area she works in) there was no answer and i had so wanted to give her a couple of pieces of soap, the new Thanksgiving Day and the Rosemary's Mint soap.... but alas, when she did not answer it was not long before someone else came along needing a little brightening in their day.... so today i run into her in the hallway and think ahha i have lotion in the cubible still.... I'll give some to Margareda.... and can you believe this woman makes her own lotions, soaps etc!!!!!
just down the hallway from the lab i work in. She wanted info on making her own perfume and i gave her a quick answer but i will refer her to some of these lists... she is working on her dissertation so doubt she can read many but oh my gosh!!! right down the hallway from me is another soaper/bath and body products-maker!!!
Now tell me ladies what can be depressing about this? You would think nothing... but ... BUT... we just had gathering adn I was trying in the worst way to GIVE away the other bed in my room and have someone ride up with me.... see? now THAT is depressing. BUT I will go forward and hope that she is not in the end stages of her dissertation, eh? wink
hugs
denise/deBRAT

Yet another soaping day/night

Tonight I made soap! I made soap in honor of my mom's 69th birthday. It is crockpot soap with 100% carrot juice I got at work today as part of the liquid. They were donated to us at the college by someone who must represent www.bolthouse.com . And I used the Pumpkin Pie Spice I got from Debbie @ Lebermuth.com and Lordy it smells like I baked a pie! Well, more appropriately like someone else who cooks well baked a pie... mine always have that hint of burnt something fragrance about them....

Anyway, I cooked it the way Cheri www.bearablescents.com told me on the phone the other night that she does hers in the crockpot. I let it roll over to the center three times though because it reached the center each time without being completely all around the edges to the center. Cheri says she lets it roll twice. I guess it is soap.

Hubby is away and I had left a message for him to call me about a phone call he got that needed to be returned in a timely manner.... yup... you got it... he called when it was all done and 1/2 of the 12 bar slab mold was filled already! Sure hope that it survives the less than "all-at-once" pour.

I have pictures so here you are you patient people!

soapy hugs

~denise/deBRAT

Final Salt Bar Swap Try

So today yet again, I tried to make salt soap. This time I changed the FO to Royal Aromatics Pink Grapefruit. i also mixed my color, FO and salt in at trace then poured my batch into my mold. Then I set it to bake in the sun for over 2 hours. I brought it in after the color change stretched its way all the way to the sides from the center. I then waited until just before 5pm to cut my soap.... this is what I have for soap...... sigh

What you see in the picture: on the far right is a slightly paler bar. this is one of two individual molds bars made. the difference is i did not attempt to swirl more color into them, just into the slab. In the center you see a small sliver of a pink translucent bit I took off of the bar I tried a small slice from. It lathers lots in very small bubbles. It has a slight hint of grapefruit so not sure if the scent will be come more intense as time passes or not.the bottom center you see the top of the bar. on the left you see one of the "holes" that presented themselves when I cut the soap. Yes, clear odorless liquid came out of there. But it has no bite to it at all. You can also see in that same bar some of the pink translucent area of the bar.

So... what did I do? Or is it just ugly and still functional? Dang, this is my 4th batch of soap for the salt bar swap. I have hardly made any soap at all so I guess I'm lucky I have some luck at it but I can't wait for it to be pretty AND smell nice AND lather. I only want three things from it. Well, four... I'd like to sell some too. Maybe I'll go make some unscented lotion... the scented kind came out well last week and now I have bottles!... have a grand and glorious day filled with the blessings of family and friends ~denise/deBRAT