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.
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| Sushi soap...with wasabi soap and pickled ginger soap |
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| 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).
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| Southern Peach scented soap |
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| Linden Blossom scented soap (on left) |
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| 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
