Soaps make me clean and happy

Many moons ago, when I first started blogging, I also became interested in making soap. I started with melt-and-pour because it was something easy and fun to do with the boys as part of our homeschool learning.

Sushi soap...with wasabi soap and pickled ginger soap

skull and crossbone soaps

 In researching soap-making, I stumbled upon the thoroughly awesome Soap Queen blog and was immediately drawn into the whole wonderful world of soapers. I have made some of the nicest friends from this caring and encouraging community.

Anyway, as a fun break from writing, I've started up with soaping again, this time cold process soaping. I like making tangible, useful things when not writing or doing art. Baked goods fill my tummy, knitted good keep me warm, and soaps clean us up and help us smell better. Writing does none of those things.

I had made a bunch that turned out pretty well last fall to give as holiday presents. Then, I had to take a few months off to prepare for the NYC Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference. With that stress behind me, I can now make soaps between writing and drawing again.


Since I'm still a newbie, I've decided to stick with an easy recipe in Anne Marie Faiola's "Soap Crafting: Step By Step" book (which I highly recommend).

Southern Peach scented soap

Linden Blossom scented soap (on left)

Champagne scented soap

I've already promised a couple of bars as gifts, and might offer a little bundle of them as a prize to celebrate my 600th blog post over at my One Good Thing 365-blog. But I should have enough soaps to last my family a little while. Besides, I'll be making more! Can't wait to try out some other formulations. :)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

All hail the Queen!

The Soap Queen, that is (a.k.a. Anne-Marie Faiola)!

I had to interrupt my self-imposed exile from Blogland to give the Soap Queen a shout-out for the lovely gift she sent. This is what arrived via FedEx yesterday:Talk about cute and great smelling soaps! These are soaps that Anne-Marie made during the taping of her new YouTube educational videos on the art and craft of soap-making. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about these videos. I bought DVDs from Brambleberry on how to make cold-process and melt-and-pour soaps and have learned so much from Anne-Marie (who has a great video presense and is a wonderful teacher). The YouTube videos will be so helpful in supplementing my education.

This is her schedule (click on image to enlarge); check it out!On a tangential note, I have a few things made (and nearly made) for some of the participatns in the "First Responders/Pay-It-Forward" giveaway/swap. I'm excited and will be dropping by the recipients' blogs within the next week or two to ask for your snail-mail addresses!

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

Late cake and Shout-out

It's a good thing ds#2 is easy-going sometimes. I finally got around to making a cake for him today...several days after his birthday. But, I think he'll agree it was worth the wait. The Walnut Mocha Torte is very, very tasty!And huge thanks to Anne-Marie (The Soap Queen blog) of my favorite supplier, Bramble Berry, for the shout-out on my sushi soap!! It was quite a thrill to be featured on Anne-Marie's blog! You can see more pics of this soap at my other site.

Now, I really must go to do some writing before I fall farther behind. Happy weekend to all!

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet." ~ James Oppenheim