Favors

 I did a special soap order recently for my step mom. She was throwing her daughter's baby shower and wanted soap favors to give as thank yous.

I made up a batch of mini peppermint pumice soaps (her favorite) and packaged them up in little kraft bags with bakers twine and shipping tags.

I really enjoyed putting them together as it was a little out of my normal soap making and labeling routine and it allowed me to buy new colors of baker's twine (!). Seriously, twine makes me happy.

I tried to match the colors and designs of the shower invitations while staying true to the rustic and simple feel of my soaps.

In fact I enjoyed doing this custom work so much, I plan to add some wedding or shower favor options to my Etsy shop in the next coming months. If you have any feedback or suggestions, I'd love to hear it!

Hope you're all having a lovely week out there.


 

Where you been all my life?

Geez. Didn't really intend to be gone from this space for 2 months.  Sorry about that. But, hey, I'm back.

Here is some of what we've been up to round these parts...

I rendered my own lard to use in a batch of soap. Isn't it pretty? I didn't think I'd ever use the words lard and pretty in the same sentence, but there you have it.

We've started canning using old school glass lids. Matt bought some off EBay and his mom sent us the mother load from her yard sale score.They are a little more temperamental to work with, but we like the re- usability of them and the lack of weird chemicals.

I have been intrigued with natural dyeing techniques. I dyed a piece of fabric with turmeric and it came out so beautiful. Turmeric fades with time, but I think that makes it all the more interesting. I purchased some natural indigo powder and am eager to work with it soon.

Two new soaps made their debut in my Etsy shop and at the Farmer's market. Lavender Rosemary Mint & Palmarosa Orange. Oh, how I love them.

Happy Monday! I'll be back soon. Promise.

Life and Times

Oh man, this month has flown by. I swear I've been busy. 

Here, take a gander at some of the latest....

Here I am milking Penny goat. I milk this little sweetheart once a week. Soap. Cheese. Yogurt. Yep, we're making it all. More pictures to come of her and her goat menagerie. 

Ran my first half marathon with my friend Gina. I loved it! One of the best parts though was getting the photo below as I was approaching the finish line....

Best picture ever for two reasons: 

1) The little girl to my right clapping for me. Thank you sweet little girl who claps for anonymous runners when they are tired. 

2) The two kids in front of her. Did that little boy just do a trust fall? 

Awesome.

Okay, had to sneak in a gratuitous cat photo of Stu. 

And one of Lou too. Is he staring into your soul or what? Maybe it's just me.

Ok, back to business.

New soaps!

Gardener's Scrub

Peppermint Pumice

Anise with Dead Sea Clay

And, sadly, one of our chickens died. 

RIP Blanche. 

You were a good chicken to us.

Well, that's all for now folks.  

In the meantime, catch us at the Flagstaff Community Market starting this Sunday May 27th and running until Oct.14th. We'll have some soap waiting for you!

Get Yer Free Soap Here!

I am fast approaching the one year anniversary of this blog and, in honor of that, I am giving away one of these Valentine's Day gift sets from my Etsy shop!

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment here about something you are grateful for today. I will randomly pick a winner this Friday Feb. 10th and announce it here on the blog. The winner can then pick out which gift set they would like and give me their address deets. **Comments are now closed**

This is open to anyone, whether you live across the globe or next door.

Click on the links below to check out the goods! And, a big thank you to all the readers of this blog out there.  It's been a sweet experience this past year.

Okay, on to the soap...

Soap Gift Set for the ladies

Soap Gift Set for dudes

Thanks for entering and see y'all back here this Friday!

Beverage of Champions. And some soap.

I had been feeling a little under the weather this past weekend and so I guzzled a few rounds of my go-to 'imkindastartingtofeellikecrap' beverage. And I felt better. So, I thought I'd share.

I'm not really reinventing the wheel with this drink, it's our version of the classic hot toddy. But, we do take our beverages seriously in this house. Matt taught me the recipe (as he has educated me on most beverages that involve brown liquor), but I just tweak it a bit when I'm feeling sick.

It truly is one of the best drinks to have on a cold winter evening and it's as simple as it gets.

Sweet Pine Hot Toddy (serves 2)

Fill your kettle with water and put it on the stove.
Slice a lemon in half and juice one half into each mug.*
Drop a small spoonful of honey into each mug.*
Pour a little brandy or whiskey into each mug (or leave it out if you prefer).
Once water is boiling, pour into mugs and stir. Put a lemon slice in if you're feelin' fancy.
Serve.

*You might want more of these things in your toddy. I like mine more lemon-y and Matt prefers his a little bit sweeter. Use my proportions as a starting point.

If I'm feeling sick I always add cayenne to mine and might even steep some freshly grated ginger root after I pour the water.

Ah, yes, I did mention there would be some soap. I had to share a photo of the palmarosa soap I created a few weeks ago because I tried it out the other day. I am LOVING this soap. It has a very unique scent and isn't overly floral--it's like an herbal, clean, soft rose if you can imagine that. I colored it with rose clay and it turned out a wonderful muted pink. I only made a test batch this round, but expect to see it in the shop soon.

 Have a beautiful week!

Canoe Love

Matt and I took a quick overnight trip down to Bartlett Lake with the canoe this past weekend. Remember the canoe?

I feel pretty official now because I have a Arizona fishing license and a really nice life jacket. We didn't catch a damn thing, but we enjoyed our time paddling around, doing a little bird watching and spending time together without any distractions. And laughing at the really bad techno music some other campers decided to bump into the wee hours.

We didn't bring my usual camera, but just the ol' point and shoot. Here are a few shots:

And in soap news, I just listed a new gift set in my shop. It includes a bar of my soap, a hand knit organic cotton wash cloth and a wooden soap dish. These were really popular at my last craft show so I decided to offer them in my shop. It makes a really sweet gift.

Have a beautiful week!

Crafeteria 2011

What fun! Check out some photos of the event here. And here are some shots of my display table.

My chalkboard signs are cute, no?

I was really happy with the simplicity of it. It maybe took us 20 minutes to set up and break down. We sat there eating candy while we watched other vendors set up some elaborate displays that took over an hour or so. They looked great, but that's just not my idea of fun. And Matt had the great idea to use the drawers from his old sewing machine to hold the soap. Seriously, how is this guy so smart?!

We stayed with our friends overnight and the next day had a great brunch at the Coronado Cafe and went antique hunting at the Brass Armadillo where we scored some serious treasures.

It feels good to have a craft show under my belt. And it is an amazing feeling to see customers get really excited over what you make. So, a huge thank you to all who came out and supported hand made that evening! And thanks to Matt for being such a huge help that night and for your general level of awesomeness.

What I Have Been Up To

It's been busy over here! I've been making soap like crazy for the holidays and doing various experiments creating other products. Here are some of the highlights:

Beeswax container candles. Did some burn tests to figure out the right wick size. Think I got it.

Created my first shampoo bar and it has been selling like hotcakes in my Etsy shop. I love this one-it smells so good! Great shaving soap too.

Whipped Shea Butter. Still a few kinks to work out with this one, but the feedback I have got on it has been super positive. 

Felted soap. 

In other news, I turned 30! It was awesome. Matt and I went here for the first time to celebrate and had a blast.

And the last of our garden got dug up this week.We got a small, but mighty carrot and beet haul. Seriously, they taste like heaven.

And I will be here in a few weeks. If you are in the Phoenix area-please come! It looks like it will be super fun. My first craft show...I'm really excited! 

Soap + Fall = Awesome

It's been an amazing week in these parts. I've felt really inspired by all the autumn goodness that happens this time of year.

The light is golden. The air is crisp. The leaves are bright, bold colors. Oh, and we got our first snow!

I have been picking up little pieces of  "autumnness" around the neighbor hood to take photos for my Etsy shop. I am really pleased with them.

I thought you might like to see 'em too. Happy Fall!

Lemongrass Eucalyptus Soap 

Unscented Soap 

Lavender Orange Soap 

Orange Grapefruit Clove Soap 

Mint Spruce Soap 

Fir Needle Spruce Beer Soap 

Wild pony land! Here we come...

We are off tomorrow to the Outer Banks of NC for a family vacation. Yay!  Wild ponies await us. As does my extremely awesome family. I don't get to see them nearly enough.

But, before we shove off, here's the week in pictures...

My peach melba nasturtiums were finally blowing up. That is, until a freak hailstorm destroyed them. Yay flagstaff!

Welcome Lucy. Chicken #3. She's a gentle soul.

Playing around with new soap scents. It's fun. And stinky.

Taking some new shots of my soap for Etsy. Cue the pine cone!

Oh! And I just made a fresh batch of my coffee soap which will be all yours for the latherin' in about 3 weeks. We really like that bar around these parts. It's gritty. But nice.

So, have a great week out there! We'll miss Flagstaff, but to the ocean we go!

I Say Wedding. You say Soap.

Wedding. Soap! Wedding. Soap!

Okay. I'm done now.

My friends Hillary and Tyler are getting married in a couple weeks and they had asked me to make them their wedding favors (!). Hillary and I put the final labeling touches on them the other day and they turned out great.

Hillary got an original stamp made by the same Etsy seller that made my Sweet Pine stamp. He seriously rocks. Check out his shop!

Here are some photos from the soap labeling frenzy. 180 favor bars (lavender, mint spruce, lemongrass eucalyptus, fir needle and spruce beer, & orange grapefruit clove) done!

Thank you Hillary and Tyler!  xo-Jess

Hill bustin some labels out. No big deal.

Beer helps increase soap labeling productivity

Oh snap! How cool are these?