AliOop, I am so very excited for you! Happy packing, stacking, tossing and moving!
CP soaping has forever changed my relationship to time. Waiting is SOoooo hard! And then you have to start thinking about what you want to be ready a month or two ffrom now.Being impatient and checking on my 2nd (ever) CP batch.
It's a olive oil/beeswax/coffee/water discount recipe. The top is firm and ready to cut but I think maybe I didn't "work" the bottom layer as much so it needs more time.
I'm used to M&P where you have to work like Sonic the hedgehog and it's done in a hour or two. So it's a bit of a anxiety trip.
Also waiting for your tools to be ok to clean is trippy too. With M&P its sooooo "gotta go fast!" So maybe I'll distract myself by making some small M&Ps to give my mind the "congratulations you were productive" achievement.
CP soaping has forever changed my relationship to time. Waiting is SOoooo hard! And then you have to start thinking about what you want to be ready a month or two ffrom now.
My extruder discs that were lost in the mail arrived! Yay! Now to see if I can get them to translate into something. I finally have to make soap dough for the first time. Gonna make a big batch!
Washed a bunch of soap dishes, and kind of rested.
Anyone else get a hard fat that arrives in a big bag that’s stuffed into a box? Any tips on dealing with it? I used to get it in a bucket. So far I’ve transferred bag/box fat to the bucket. Anyway, it’s beautiful fat and I can’t wait to scoop it all out! I may finally be ready to MB some lye and fats too.
Do you have a brand you like?
One of my favorite tool makers also makes a wooden support for milk cartons. She also makes pull throughs for said milk cartons. This makes me hate being lactose intolerant even more than I already do... just sayin.
https://www.wildplantanica.com/prod...-extensions-and-squeeze-bottle-for-easier-cen
Ah! My mistake, your comment was referring to the horizontal milk carton.
Congratulations on your move' how exciting & stressful at the same time.@TashaBird I use the same brand she lists above, but prefer the George's brand since it is usually less money where I live, and it has no additives. I love AVJ for added bubbles and label appeal, but obviously it is a LOT more expensive than distilled water. One of my next soapy purchases will probably be a water distiller machine -- so I can keep soaping even through natural disasters, zombie apocalypses, etc.
Speaking of soapy things, yesterday I got to unmold my Bud log splitter. So excited that I can finally use my small Nurture slab mold to make some designs.
However, soapmaking is going to take a back seat for a bit. Out of the blue, we were approached to see if we would sell our home. We said no, the house is not for sale, and if it were, we wouldn't sell for less than $ (insert ridiculously overpriced sum of money here). They came back with an offer to buy it as-is at that price, no inspections, waiving all appraisals, closing in three weeks. WHAT??? Our market here is insane, to say the least.
We scrambled and found ONE place that we absolutely love, and which we can buy for cash using the sale proceeds. They accepted our offer today. Soooooo apparently we are selling our house and moving in a few weeks. And then we will be debt-free. I might have to call Dave Ramsey's show and scream, haha.
My only sadness is that we cannot bring our beloved chickens. If the buyer doesn't want them, I must find wonderful homes for them, stat.
All that to say, I may not be very soapy or very active here for the next month or so. Then again, the stress of it all may drive me to make LOTS of soap and to seek solace from my soapy friends. We shall see!
Darn tootin' you should call Ramsey! LOL Oh, wow and wow. What a blessing and so thrilling. Many congratulations, @AliOop ! So sorry about your chickens. Will be praying for a smooth and easy transition and move, and chicken adoptions.I might have to call Dave Ramsey's show and scream, haha.
My bag in a box fat comes in 27 lbs. Fortunately my garage stays cool enough it’s solid. But, I think I’ll transfer it to the 5 gallon bucket, for ease of use. I was debating on weather I needed to wash and dry the bucket last night, or just scrape it clean. I washed it.I get lard in a 50 lb “bag in a box“ but it doesn’t melt as I keep it in an unheated back porch room during the cold months. I bring it inside and squirrel it in a corner in the house with air conditioning during the few months that it’s hot. I have a large plastic paint bucket with lid from Home Depot that I fill from the bag so I only have to grab that when I want to soap and not the whole huge box. I just refill the bucket from the box as it gets low.
Chicken adoption update: some good friends want the chickens and the coops! I sure will miss my girls, but I’m so excited that they will have a good home!!Darn tootin' you should call Ramsey! LOL Oh, wow and wow. What a blessing and so thrilling. Many congratulations, @AliOop ! So sorry about your chickens. Will be praying for a smooth and easy transition and move, and chicken adoptions.
Most of mine have come from Target: sturdy, reinforced 1-piece silicone that can't come apart and has with no creases for batter to hide in. Stiff enough to get into corners, but flexible enough to scrape well. $5 each.I ”borrowed” a rubber scraper from the kitchen last week. Now my eggs taste like vetyver FO. Do not recommend. Blech!
I need more scrapers. I have a bunch that suck. Do you have ones you recommend?
Yeah, I have quite a few former kitchen spatulas that are now rosemary-scented soap spatulas (because I use rosemary EO in my henna-indigo hair coloring mix). Oops. BLECH is right! Love to season things with dried or fresh rosemary, but the EO? JUST NO.I ”borrowed” a rubber scraper from the kitchen last week. Now my eggs taste like vetyver FO. Do not recommend. Blech!
I need more scrapers. I have a bunch that suck. Do you have ones you recommend?
You can definitely see the swirl though so that's good! I've been mostly making hot process soap and I usually blend that to medium trace and now with cold process I realize I've got to go really easy with the stick blender. From a lot of the videos I've watched about CP soap making, it looks like a lot of people blend to just past emulsion and when I did that with my last batch the in the pot swirl came out much better.I got to cut my 4th batch today. It's milk and honey FO, with about a third coloured with gold mica and I attempted an in the pot swirl, but once again I used the SB slightly too much, so the uncoloured batter was quite thick. I'm still quite pleased to have some visual interest within the bar at least.
I have enough of the same FO to try again soon. I think I'll use a yellow mica since the gold reads more like caramel to me in the swirls. This time I'll aim to be more patient, and just keep stirring instead of thinking "I'll just give it a very quick pulse with the stick blender..."
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