Yoda and Reading

No, not the little green Jedi. My car. It's a twenty-four year old Toyota Camry, so I named it Yoda, and it's blue, not green.

Anyway, I had some excitement this past week. Something I had hoped to never experience.

My car dying in the middle of the road.

Not only the middle of the road, but on a very busy road.

During rush hour traffic.

And at the time, I didn't know that my hazard lights weren't working.

Ah yes...that was exciting.

After an eighteen wheeler almost ran me over, lots of praying, and another big pickup truck helped push me off the road, we found out that my alternator quick working which caused my battery to die.

So much excitement...

Thankfully, we were able to find a new one for my car and now she drives wonderfully!

And I am so thankful that God kept me safe.

Sunrise one morning

Also this past week, I went on my very first double date with my Handsome Gnome. That was so much fun! We went with my best friend from my childhood and her new fiancee. It was a lot of fun and can't wait to do it again!

I took my sister to see Cinderella and just to hang out. It was fun to get to hang out with her on my day off.

This week is a bit hard. I was supposed to be packing this week, preparing to go back to the UK, but God had other plans for me. There is the small part of me that is really disappointed, but there is some reason that He has for me to be here.
Today, I read 1 Peter 1. It is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. This part really encouraged me today:

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
-1 Peter 1:6-9

It reminds me that God is in control. God knows what I am going through. This is why I am here.

Planning and Studios

That time is coming....
I know that June is so far away, but I like being prepared.

June is when I am going to really kick off my soaps, and I just want to make sure I am prepared and things run smoothly. I have started setting up an Etsy shop, which you will see a link for on my sidebar. I'll post more about it when I actually have it done! There isn't much to see at the moment. I'm hoping that it'll raise awareness for my soaps, and maybe help people that I meet in June to find me again, or tell their friends about me!

So that is something I've been working on, but I have also made myself a studio! I have been wanting my own space to do my scrapbooking and writing. I just finally decided to clean up and do it.

Oh yes, look at me being an adult. I have organized my closet and dresser. I have also started tackling the mess that is the top of my dresser...that's been quite a task, but not as exciting as my studio.

So, a bunch of kids used this room the night before, and made it very exciting.

You just can't really experience the full aroma and sticky-ness of this place. Yes, the floor looks clean, but I was stuck too it.

It was intense.

Let's just say I never knew that I had this love/hate relationship with applesauce.

So, after sweeping away cheese square crumbs and mopping the floor FOUR times, I finally got this:

Yes, the picture is a bit blurry, but it was with my phone and it's dark. Anyway, you get the point. I was able to get the place clean.

Then it was time to set up my desk stuff. Handsome Gnome's brother gave me this desk and I am so excited to finally have somewhere to put it!! I still have to move a reclining chair in here, and also organize everything, but I wanted to go ahead and get everything in here.

So now, yay! I have a writing/crafting studio to work in!

The Pinwheel

Oh my goodness, this soap was so fun to make.

One thing I have found out about this hobby of mine, it takes a lot of patience. I don't have a lot of patience, so this is teaching me how to be. I have ruined a total of two soaps from being impatient.
So, yay for a hobby that teaches me something!!!

Back to the actual soap....

It took a few steps, and I forgot to take pictures for each one, but the making of the pinwheel is great. I took three ounces of white soap base, microwaved it for 25 seconds, and put a tiny bit of liquid glycerin into the melted soap. Somewhere around 1/3 of an ounce. (I just eyeballed it, and it still turned out great!) Then this went onto a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Basically, it just needed to be flat.

I did the same thing to another three ounces, but this time, I added a bit of color to it. I wanted it to be blue, but decided as I was adding little bits of color that I liked this shade of purple a lot better!

I sprayed the first layer with rubbing alcohol, and then added the purple soap base once it was not too hot.

Once it set after a few minutes, I took it off the cookie sheet and rolled it.

The result?

I ended up with nine, half inch thick pinwheels!!

And oh how much fun this soap was to make!

Now, what do you do with pinwheels??

I'm glad you asked.

You can just use the pinwheels, but they are not very large bars and wouldn't last very long...but they will clean your hands!

But today, I made Pinwheel Soap.

First, I stuck one of my pinwheels into the mold and sprayed it with rubbing alcohol. I may have sprayed it too much, which made a few imperfections in the final bar.

Melting 2.5 oz of soap, I added a little bit of Crisp Cotton scent, a sample I received. I added two drops. This scent is SUPER strong, at least to my sensitive senses. 

 I let the melted base cool for a little bit, and poured it around the pinwheel. This is something I definitely need to work on a bit more. Embeds are harder than they seem!

 Here is my finished pinwheel soap! You can see the little imperfections from the too much rubbing alcohol, but hey, I'm not a professional. Not yet anyway!!

Rubber Ducky Fun

Today I finally figured out how to make a rubber ducky soap.

I have made several attempts...

Yeah...don't even ask about the last one...I tried making soap foam, and it just failed...
I know several ways on how not to do it.

But today, I have redeemed myself. I made a rubber ducky soap that actually looks like something that I can sell!

So, to start out, we of course need the materials.
I used about 3 oz of clear glycerin soap base. (I get mine from Hobby Lobby, because they put it on sale a lot and I am still experimenting for now!)
When I'm only melting small amounts at a time, I just pop the base into the microwave for about 20 seconds. If its not completely melted, another 10 seconds is usually enough to get it melted all the way through.

I also added some color to my soap. This lovely color I got from Bramble Berry, and have really enjoyed it so far.

After melting, and adding the color, I added a small bit of the melted base to the bottom of the mold and sprayed it with rubbing alcohol. I love using silicone molds because the soaps come out so easily!
Then I sprayed little shea butter soap base shavings and the rubber duck with rubbing alcohol, placing them into the blue soap base.

This small layer keeps the duck and shavings in place when I add the rest of the soap base. Once it hardened, I put the rest of the soap base into the mold.
Something I have to remember, is to make sure the soap base isn't too hot. If I add it when it's too hot, it'll just melt right through the bottom layer, then the duck and shavings will just float away...
(Yes, I did find this out the hard way.)

After letting it harden for 45 minutes, I had my Rubber Ducky Fun soap!!

I was so excited to finally get this done the proper way. Practice does make perfect!!

Hunny Nut Bubbles, Embeds, and Chapter 8

Ah, so much snow. The past few weeks have been crazy. We have gotten a total of 13 inches of snow and an inch of ice over the course of two weeks. For this area, that's kinda crazy.

But, it allowed me to get a ton of editing done on my story!! I had writer's black for the longest time, but when I was stuck in the house, sitting by the fire, I made it to chapter 8!! Which was great progress. So much writing, and then a whole page marked out in red. That was a sad moment... There is just something heartbreaking about looking at a scene and cutting it out of my book. But, it was horrible. It had to go...

Farewell, little scene...

Anyway, I have also had more time these past weeks to keep working on more soap combinations! I also bought colors to make colored soaps, those should be coming today.

This one is my Hunny Nut Bubbles! It has honey, almond oil, and oat meal in it. The base is Shea Butter base, and all of this makes it a very moisturizing soap! And it has definitely helped these lizard hands of mine. I also tried doing this as a loaf mold. I won't be doing that again. It made for weird lines and strangely shaped soap. Maybe one day I will try again, maybe when I get a silicone one instead of a metal loaf pan lined with wax paper.

 I have also been trying a few techniques, including embedding things in my soap.
Such as rubber ducks!!

I tried to make it look like it was swimming in a pond by putting dill into the soap. Makes for a very interesting smelling soap.

Now that June is getting closer, which will be Lovely Gnome's Essentials debut, I am going to start posting in a new section for my soaps. It is crazy how quickly this past month went, and I have a lot to think about....