4 posts tagged “soap”

We’ll, time for a little update I suppose.

Tonight we enjoyed watching a stage production of Peter Pan.  A friend of ours played “Mr. Darling” and it was very cute.  This is not a story I grew up with and I knew it only in a peripheral sort of way.  I was surprised with how chauvinistic the roles were, the girl being a mom to all the boys, making the meal, and doing the annual Spring cleaning.  Peter Pan pretending to be the father with his chair and pipe.  And I was also surprised with how the Indian characters were coreographed in the most stereotypical way possible.  I know I’m an uncommon woman, but as I child I never pretended I was a mother or that I was cooking or spring cleaning for anyone – ever!  It wouldn’t have occurred to me.  Now I did pretend I was on stage singing or playing piano for thousands, hosting a cooking show or designing doll clothing or designing the interior of a shoe box with blocks for furniture.  You know, all the normal stuff.  J  (for an artist.)

I’ve started making my own mineral makeup.  It’s an interesting process and I’m learning a lot as I go along.  I managed to get a really good match to my own skin tone, that was surprisingly easy.  Most mineral makeup is far too yellow for my skin but I was able to work it out by adding pigments and then using the back of my hand to match the color.  I’ve got a good eye for color so it wasn’t that hard to get it right.  It seems to me that I should be able to get pretty close for other people’s coloring as well.  And now that I’ve got all the stuff, I might as well make it available to my friends.  I’ve worn the product a couple days and it covers more than any other mineral makeup I’ve worn and that’s kind of interesting.  I guess this formula is a bit more like a concealor than a foundation.  So I’ll keep messing around with the formula for the light coverage and good for your skin qualities that are so cool about mineral makeup.  I refuse to use that Bismuth stuff that is in cheap mineral makeup that is actually an “inorganic” (not a mineral at all) that is just cheap filler and actually known to cause issues for some people.  So I’m fascinated by this for the moment.  We’ll see where it takes me.

I’m laptop computer shopping.  Yeah, it’s time to purchase a computer that will be able to handle the next round of software I’m going to try to get for my business.  I’d love Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver, we’ll see if I can pull together that kind of cash.  It’s a big investment and I’m not a professional designer (well, I used to draw logos for a marketing firm but I haven’t done that for a while) so it’s a bit difficult to justify.  However, buying Dreamweaver is certainly cheaper than hiring a web designer who knows dhtml so as long as I can continue to put together all my own websites, then that’s good for me.  I wish I could figure out a way to learn how to code dynamic html websites without having to put out the big bucks!  I’ll keep researching it, it is still possible that some of the features I need are already in the Frontpage software that I already have.  I don’t think Frontpage uses CSS though, so I’ll keep researching that.  I’ve also put in some time researching shopping carts and setting up a website to sell products using PayPal.com.  I’ve giving some thought to a commerce website and exploring some of the other options with that as well.  The wheels, they are a-turning!  If you've been there, done that - pass along any pointers!  (I had a yahoo store for a while and that just isn't what I want.)

I’ve made lots of different kinds of soap lately.  Some of it really turned out beautifully.  (And some of it had to be completely melted down and rebatched.)  I’ve got about ten different kinds now and I’m especially happy with the colors and fragrances and my favorite of the moment is a Milk and Honey bar that I think is especially cute.  I’ll try to take photos and post them one of these days.  I’m really happy with how that adventure is going.  And my soap has been accepted in a local gallery, so that’s kind of cool.  I have tentative word that my alphabet photography has also been accepted there.  So I just need to pack up a bunch of stuff and take it to them and see what happens.

I need to spend a little time with the jewelry again.  I have a wholesale order waiting on enough money to be able to click the “checkout” button.  But I think I’m going to give that some serious thought and maybe go in a different direction altogether.  There are just so many different options with jewelry design that keeping it fresh is really not that hard to do – it’s just a matter of deciding what to explore.  So many ideas, so little time.

The good folks at the Library have invited me to come and do a cake demonstration for them.  They’ve given me an hour and I’m supposed to carve, ice and decorate a cake into the shape of a book and talk to them as I do it.  Then they’ll all eat the cake and that will be that.  It sounds like it could be fun.  Boss Lady told me to think about jokes to tell and ways to make it fun and interesting.  I’ve never really thought about cake decorating as a performance art, so this will be interesting indeed.  Anything for a change of pace I suppose.  Who knows, I may decide that I really like pretending to host a cake decorating show.  J

Well, it’s getting late and the morning has a way of coming round on a regular basis.  So I shall curl up next to my snoring hubby and see where the Dream Giver takes me.

Goodnight foxy voxers

And sweet dreams

I adore my UPS man!  Three (yes, count em) boxes came this afternoon.  I don’t get to see my UPS guy very often since I closed my gallery so now it is a real treat to see Mr Brown lookin all strong and efficient!

I’ve taken special interest in seeing exactly how fast I can blow through my Virginia State Tax return.  I’m pretty good at this, believe me!

The first box was from QVC (don’t judge me.)  I took advantage of a “today’s special value” offer on Philosophy products.  Cause I’m a philosophy girl and I love everything they make that I’ve ever tried!  Which is why I am 39 1/2 but can pass for not a day over 39 1/4!  *giggle!*

The second box was full of thirty pounds of white powder, some of which had leaked and it looked like the plastic bags inside were broken.  Turns out it is three bags and they aren’t actually broken, though they are a royal white powdery mess.  One has sodium bicarbonate, the other corn starch and the third bag is ten pounds of citric acid.  Now if I were to dump all that in a bathtub of water right now, it would probably blow the bathroom off my house.  And while I ponder the various delightful aspects of that idea, I had to remind myself of why such an obscenely heavy box ever made it to my studio to begin with.  Because I’ve paid $2 for a tiny little container of citric acid and by comparison this huge box was a steal.  So I’ve got enough “spa soak” for all of Vox to have delightful fizzy baths every day for a week!  Oy!

The final box included thirty pounds of soap.  Yeah!  They come in gigantic bars that weigh five pounds each.  I recently had my soap excepted into a gallery in Harrisonburg so now I have the supplies to get into soap making again.  Yay!  A while back my house was all about chocolate.  Right now it looks like it’s going to be all about soap.  There isn’t much difference in working with chocolate and soap actually, except for how often I lick my fingers. 

Thank you Mr. Brown, you made my day! 

I’m working on fund raising events for April, May and June here in Virginia.  There will be one in July in Indiana as well.  We chose to do three because I love planning events, we think bringing home our kids is a really big deal, (LOL!) and it gives people options for their calendar and interests.

Plans for the “Art & Chocolate” event are coming along. 

We’ll be serving chocolate, fruits and vegetables and Colombian coffee at the event so come prepared to enjoy an array of flavors.  I’ve been working on some formulas for truffles and chocolates.  I stumbled across some “dulce de leche” which is a South American milk based caramel.  I’ll pair that with cashews and chocolate.  Another is a vanilla truffle that starts with steeping a vanilla bean in heavy cream for a while until the flavor develops.  The cream is used in a ganache that becomes the filling of a decadent truffle.  While imitation vanilla can be overbearing and overly sweet, the real thing is delicate and earthy and I love it!  Earl Grey is my favorite tea and I’ve been exploring a way to make an Earl Grey truffle that I think will be quite good.  I’m going to try a blueberry truffle idea later on today if I get the time.  And the marzipan that a friend made is divine!  I tried a bit of the marzipan with some of the chocolate that it will be dipped in and I nearly melted on the spot.  It was sooo good.  I’m also in love with the chocolate cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper truffle that I made.  I haven’t found anyone else that likes the idea yet, so I may be the only one eating those.  I guess I’d better make a big batch then.  LOL!  I’ve been enjoying the creative process of exploring flavor, texture and color combinations.  It’s outside my usual media but I love it.  And since I got pretty good at making chocolate years ago in the family business, I have the skills.  Chocolate and art are a few of our favorite things and this April 19^th event is our opportunity to share them with you.

I’m also working at putting together a collection of artwork that will be for sale at the event.  I’m planning to share a variety of media and proceeds from all purchases will benefit our adoption fund. 

• First and foremost there will be jewelry.  Lots of jewelry.  Mostly pearls, natural stones, Swarovski crystals, sterling silver and seed beads.  There will also be some hand made polymer clay beads in the collection.  This is all hand made artisan one-of-a-kind jewelry.
• I’d designed a line of cards from my watercolor and mixed media work.  These cards double as a display for a pair of matching earrings.  The combination of a pretty card, a fragment of poetry and a pair of earrings in an envelope make a beautiful gift for a friend.
• I’ll bring a collection of soaps.  Again, it is outside my usual media but it has been fun to toy with the combination of color, texture and fragrance.  And it’s great fun to have an exotic soap in the bath each morning plus they make marvelous little gifts any time you need a small token of appreciation.
• Recently I’ve explored a photography project in Staunton, Virginia.  I’ve taken photographs of local architecture with a specific focus on the letters of the alphabet.  These black and white photographs can then be arranged in words for a creative accent to the home.  I have about 100 photographs in the architectural series as well as a home series that were all taken inside my home, mostly in my kitchen.  I will bring examples of each letter to the event and guests can place orders for the letter combinations they would like. 
• Some of you have seen my line of watercolors with poems that I’ve written over the years and I’ll be offering this collection for sale at the event as well.  They are colorful, vibrant and heart felt.
• And if I get some time, I’ll package up some hand made polymer clay beads I’ve made and offer them for sale as well.

Once this Art & Chocolate event is over, I’ll be working full tilt on the Benefit Concert that we have scheduled for one month later.  I’m hoping that the details can come together in the short amount of time I’ll have to focus on it.  It will be a casual evening of music and entertainment that will be very diverse and interesting.

Our June fund raiser will be a Silent Auction.  This will be my chance to get out a bunch of odds and ends in my collection of artwork.  I’ve pieced many quilt tops over the years and Hubby’s Mom and Grandma’s are working very hard to see that some of these quilts are assembled and hand quilted in time for this auction.  These quilts are each in a variety of wall hanging sizes.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.  I’ll also be bringing out oil paintings, pen and ink drawings, pencil drawings as well as leftovers from my season of working in art glass.  And of course there will be more jewelry and possibly some beads.  It is hard to tell what all else will turn up for this auction, but the evening will be very interesting. 

Would you like to help with our Silent Auction?  If you have something of value that you no longer need (no clothing please) please let us know.  I’m really curious to see how this event goes.  I’ve seen these done in the past and they can be very interesting and fun. 

Well, that about does it for my update.  I’ve got some work to do so I’d better get back at it.  It will be a very busy three or four months with these fund raisers, working at the adoption paper work, working and our various commitments.  It’s going to be fun.  Thanks all! 

Whew, it’s been a long couple of days!  Monday was my day off so I spent some time shopping with a friend for decorations for the church for the holidays.  I also did a little shopping with my hubby for something – I don’t remember what any more.  And in between I made a few varieties of handmade soap.  I have sixteen kinds planned and I’ve only got five left to make.  My favorite ones from the first batches was one that was a pretty blue with poppy seeds in it that I call “Robin’s Egg.”  It’s a combination of fir trees, cedarwood, etc…  Kind of like a walk in the woods really and it looks like a robin’s egg.  Another one I made that day was Lime Basil which turns out to be a really interesting combination of fragrances that I really like.  It’s a transparent soap and I made it kind of a pretty lime green.  And I also put some dried Basil in it and it’s pretty in addition to smelling really good.  I made seven kinds of soap that day and it was about 2:30 am when I got to sleep that night.

Tuesday I worked at the bakery, it was a day of redeeming messes.  Two girls made and decorated sugar cookies in the bakery on Saturday and they didn’t turn out very good.  So I spent a number of hours working on trying to creatively take ugly cookies and make pretty ones from them.  I took one cookie over to show Boss Lady and she lit up.  In a few seconds there she was at my station, planting a wet one on my cheek.  LOL!  I had lipstick lips on me.  She’d been thinking that they were unsellable and was really grateful to see how they’d improved.  I love getting brownie points.  But really, I hate having a shoddy product out there, so I was doing it for me as much as for her.

I came home Tuesday night and made more soap.  My favorites from Tuesday night are a lemon chamomile and a lavender vanilla flavors.  The lemon chamomile has a layer of white, then a layer of clear yellow, with chamomile flowers in that part.  It looks like amber with those flowers in there and I love it!  The other one is a pale lavender opaque with another layer of transparent lavender that has lavender blooms in it.  It’s really pretty in my opinion and I love lavender and vanilla so it’s hard to go wrong with that.  I think it was a little past 1 a.m. when I finally fell into bed last night.

I’m not real certain that I have much to show for my day at work really.  I spent some time cleaning off a shelf that I’m now using for storing Christmas sugar cookies.  They sell pretty fast and I’m ahead at the moment.  But that may not last real long.  I had to break the news to one of the elves that Boss Lady didn’t like her work on the sugar cookies.  I hated that.  I’ll work with her to make sure we get a better product in the future, I just have to be really careful with her.  I don’t want to hurt her but we’ve got to get to a better product.  It will come, I just need to be patient with her I guess. 

Then from work I went shopping for decorating supplies for the church.  I bought a bunch of fruit, some greens and ribbon.  I made new bows for all the wreaths on the doors of the church (well, the front ones anyway.)  And I used the greens and fruit to decorate this ledge we have up front in church, and I put lots of candles in the mix and it really looks nice.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it looks on Saturday when the concert is on.  I think it will look really lovely, and hopefully the fruit will last through the season. 

So I’m finally home with a moment to gather my thoughts.  I’m enjoying some sweet jazz with a trumpet player I’ve never heard before and the sounds are divine - Chris Botti is his name.  Sweet!  I should scurry off to bed but I can’t quite seem to break away from this amazing music.  I was tired today and I had some pain, but not to bad.  And it won’t be long until I’m dozing here but the music…  Very nice.  Very nice indeed!

Good night foxy voxers!

I have a little secret I'll share another day.