Quiet (by Kat)

It's been pretty quiet around here, hasn't it?

I've been up to my brows in reading the three soap making books available at our (tiny) library and devouring every web page I can find that pertains to the subject.
I'm not happy with what I'm finding...

One of the books from the library gives three very bad pieces of advice in the first three pages. So really, am I going to trust anything else she has to say on the subject? Heck no!

The second book was a real hoot to read. It was full of old soap advertisements, and delved very deeply into the history of soap making. I loved her style, and she had really good advice. The trouble is, the book was written in the early '70s. The methods and materials she uses are very out of date. I'm not going to stir my soap for an hour and a half when I can use a stick blender. It's just not gonna happen! Also, her book only has two recipes that don't include tallow.

At the time the book was published, tallow was extremely inexpensive, if not free. I haven't found a local supply of it that isn't nearly the same cost as hamburger. I think this is because the stores are owned by national franchises who just can't see past the end of their greedy little fingers and must set a minimum price for everything, even if it's just scraps that they'll end up throwing out anyway. So, that book was fun, but not so helpful.

The third book is very pretty and has lots of recipes for melt and pour soaps. I'm sorry, but taking a pre-made bar of soap, melting it down, and pouring it into a mold is not soap making! It's soap art. I'm not knocking soap art--I have two sisters-in-law who do that type of thing and their results are gorgeous and smell really nice--but it isn't "making" soap.

So, web pages. They've been somewhat helpful. I've spent a lot of time there. A LOT of time there. HOURS there. And you know what, it's frustrating as h e double hockey sticks.
I work closely with the EPA and our state's department of ecology. I can sling acronyms with the best of the government agents. But holy cow, soap makers put the g-men to shame when it comes to cryptic "communication."

I've been persevering though, reading page after page of in the soap makers' forum. Finally, I decided to register so I could post a few questions that I had not been able to find answers to. The registration process required entering a series of letters and numbers shown in one of those spam-bot prevention boxes. The program was case sensitive. Each letter was of a different font, and the letters themselves were topsy-turvy throughout the box. So how the h e double hockey sticks are we supposed to be able to tell the difference between a capital v and a lower case v?

Same thing with the w.

Same thing with the o.

I finally was given a box with no ambiguous letters, I entered the code, and it said the user name I chose was already taken. So, I changed my user name and tired to enter the code again. This time, the letter that stumped me was a straight vertical line. Was it an I or an l or a 1 or what? I guessed wrong, and then a message popped up saying that I had exceeded my number of tries.

No registration for me.

I went to bed.

Soap making is hard.
(My soap still isn't.)

So, while it's been quiet here on this blog, you can imagine that it hasn't been quite so quiet at home, here in front of my computer!

Stupid hockey sticks!!!

Feature or Bug? (by Kat)

In the world of IT, there's a question that pops up on occasion--is this a bug or a feature?

Is it supposed to do this? Did the designer think this was a good idea?

This question translates well into other areas of life, including soap-making. My soap has rings. My soap has tree rings. I'm labeling this, my first batch of soap, as the dendrochro-soap.

Bug or feature? I don't know.

I do know the rings are caused by non-insulated cooling on a not-so-warm kitchen counter. I don't know if it's bad, if it will fix itself on it's own like so many other problems are purported to, or if I'll need to re-mill the batch. The intensity of the scent decreased drastically, but I think it's still pleasant so I'm not too worried about that (bug or feature???).

All-in-all, I'm okay with this first attempt. I'm definitely going to do another batch in the near feature, but not until I get the kinks worked out of this batch.

Speaking of batches, I've got a batch of cakes in the oven as we speak (or at least as I type!). I'm using my brand new Chicago Metallic 8" cake pans to build myself a birthday cake. Smitten Kitchen has never ever never ever never ever failed me, so I'm trying yet another of her cakes, with absolutely no worries, to serve to the family tomorrow. The house smells so good....

Speaking of the house, it's so empty. We had family, including COUSINS!!! over for New Year's festivities. Giant snow forts, new games, lots of food, very late nights, and very sleepy mornings were the norm for the past few days. Now the house seems so empty. The Christmas decorations are down, the family is gone, the moon is waning, and Monday is nearly here. Bah.

But oh, the smell of that chocolate cake is something else....

First Soap (by Kat)

Well looky here! I did it!
I hereby present to you...

...my first attempt at soap.

It's still curing, but already it's "soapy,"
and the bars smell like yummy tangerines.

I'll post more pictures later, as well as a how-to,
but for now I must run back to the table.

We're learning another new game...
well they're learning it, and I need to catch up!

Hope you're all having a great new year's weekend!!!