Grandma's Lye Soap

I think that maybe I should have called this soap Not Grandma's Lye Soap.  This soap is definitely an improvement over the lye heavy soap that Grandma used to make.  In the past making soap was a kind of guessing game.  It was almost impossible to know what your lye concentration was, so the soaps often turned out with a bit too much.  Everyone has heard the stories about how Grandma's homemade soap took your skin off.  Today we have modern scientific methods of measuring lye, so our soaps are very accurate.  This soap is made with 100% lard.  I hesitated for a long time to try animal fats in my soaps, but I love it.  It makes a very hard, white bar of soap that lathers very well. This soap also lasts a long time because it is so hard.

So give a bar of gentle and creamy Grandma's Lye Soap a try today.

Birthdays, Holidays, Soap, Sick Kids, and Homeschooling

  I just realized I have not posted to this blog in a very long time.  It seems that I lost track of time. I don't know how I could have manged that.  I spent most of the weeks leading up to Christmas desperately trying to fill orders, plan birthday parties, buy presents, cook food, prepare for a week long trip to visit my family on the other side of the state, and take care of whole bunch of sick kids.  Murphy's Law is always lurking in our house.  I survived December, but succumbed to illness myself while visiting my family (sorry for the unintended present).  We finally drug our exhausted, sick, and fed up with the holidays selves through our door, and collapsed.  We only got to collapse for about 10 hours, then the kids had to be at school.  Back into the swing of things, full tilt. Homeschool, school, work, clean, cook, and repeat.  Needless to say the two little ones are both sick again.  I did manage to make some soap and will post pictures soon.  Someday I will have time to make more, I think.

My New Soaps- Lavender Soap, Peppermint Soap, and Chamomile Calendula Baby Soap

    I try to create at least a couple new soaps every week, (not always an easy thing with 5 kids).  This last week I created Lavender Soap, Peppermint Soap, and Chamomile Calendula Baby Soap.

Lavender Soap - This soap was made with my basic soap recipe. I added Lavender fragrance and Ground Lavender Buds. It smells so good, and the bits of lavender give it a very natural looking appearance.











Peppermint Soap- The Peppermint Soap is made with my Basic Soap Recipe, except I replaced the water with peppermint tea and added dried peppermint and peppermint essential oil at trace.  This soap turned out a beautiful tea color with specks of brown and orange.  I think its beautiful, and it smells very strongly of peppermint , almost like a good strong cup of peppermint tea.  Great for waking you up in the morning!  I can't wait to give it a try.  This soap is 100% natural.




 


Calendula & Chamomile Baby Soap-  My Calendula & Chamomile Baby soap is made with mostly olive oil.  I used Chamomile tea as the liquid , and added Calendula infused olive oil, dried Calendula petals, and dried Chamomile at trace.  Took a little longer to trace due to the olive oil and longer to get really solid in the mold, but it turned out great.  It is unscented except for the Chamomile tea and Calendula oil.  I love the little pieces of yellow calendula in the soap. It is very mild. Great for babies or for you face.  This soap is 100% natural.