Bombs away! - Happy New Year :D

The little hens were a present from my daughter. She found
them in the Good S. but they are more my thing. The
heartshaped candle holders are Danish and were still in
the box. I like this type of simple Christmas decoration.

I finally made bath bombs.  I've wanted to do them for the longest time, but somehow it seemed too complicated.  It isn't.  It's really easy.  In fact it's almost too easy.  I used a very simple recipe from The Excellent Living Guide.  There are many guides and tutorials on the Internet and most of them are good.  Now I am not the greatest bath bomb fan, but my sisters really like them, so I thought I'd have a go at making them as presents.

I had managed to get myself some Citric acid and I found that to be the hardest part of the whole thing.  I am now the proud owner of 25 kilos of the stuff, so I can make them for years to come.  The most wonderful thing about the bath bombs is that they don't swallow up all my EO's.  The recipe that I used is:
1 cup Citric acid
2 cups Baking soda
2 tsp. oil (like Olive or Grapeseed)
1 tsp. EO

The real trick to this is to blend the oils with the dry ingredients and then have some water in a spray bottle and carefully spray a bit of water and stir well with a wire whisk.  It doesn't take much to moisten the mixture enough to be able to make the bombs.  And that is fairly easy.  Just scoop a lot of mixture into both parts of the mold, squeeze together very hard and gently release the bomb from the mold.  Tapping the mold can help with this.  Let dry for about a day.  Store in a dry place and use.  I read that they don't keep very well.

Now I have one of those plastic Christmas ornament types that I've seen used as a mold and I tried that.  I didn't like it.  Firstly it makes a very large bath bomb.  Some may like that, but I don't.  So I came up with using some plastic packaging from a type of coffee.  I don't use it myself (strictly Nescafé in this household) but my cousin has been collecting these as small soap molds, for which they also work well.  The resulting bombs are smaller than those traditional ones and they look a lot like the French Macarones that I like so much.

From this recipe I can make 8-9 bombs of that size.  I made a few batches, one with Lemongras and Annatto infused oil, one with Lavender and Alkanet infused oil, one with uncoloured oil and Peppermint EO.  The fourth was my failure, it had Palmarosa EO and a mix of Annatto and Njoli oil.  The mixture was a bit too wet, so that the bombs had sort of semi-fizzed after a day.  I haven't tried them in the bath yet, I think they'll work for me at home, but they are not pretty.

I threw in a bit of corn starch, maybe half a cup, into one recipe.  It can apparently aggravate yeast infections, so beware of that.  I have also read that milk powder can be used and I have that somewhere so I may try it one of these days.  In another batch I used about the same amount of Epsom salt which is good for sore muscles.

Those candleholders are very typically Danish and
are most likely from the 40's or 50's judging from
the box. I don't dare to have living lights on the tree
so I decided to hang them up on a thin wire circle and
hang them in the window. 

I thought it appropriate to end this year with a bang.  We do that here in this country.  On New Years Eve the population goes completely insane.  Everyone can buy fireworks and almost everyone does.  There are  several tons of fireworks fired up around midnight.  The noise is unbelievable, there are fireworks absolutely everywhere and finally a thick smoke envelops the city.  We have a fantastic view over the city, so we prefer to participate in the madness only as spectators with our closest relatives.

I wish everyone a happy New Year.  I am thankful for the year that is almost at an end and I thank you all for a most wonderful year of getting to know you, so many people all over the world who share an interest in making soaps.
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In the spirit of Christmas

The cookies jar is another find at the Good S, but the
candle thing (what is that called) is German, but bought
in York, UK when I was a student. My uncle has one that
is white and big. He must have bought it in Prague where
he studied, but this was the biggest I could afford.

Bluegras is the Icelandic common name for Geranium sylvaticum.  It alludes to the fact that it was used for centuries to dye cloth blue.  Sometime after 1780 an old woman died in Iceland and with her the knowledge.  She didn't share it with anyone and the art was lost.  Just before 1980 another woman in Iceland was the only one left who knew her craft.  She had just been diagnosed with cancer when she told me that she was going to teach me how to wash, starch and iron the traditional priest's collars.  It wasn't a request.  All priests in Iceland prayed for her partly, I'm sure, because they feared that the knowledge would die with her.  I also prayed fervently because I wasn't at all sure that I would be able to supply the collars as perfectly as my aunt had done for decades.  My great aunt lived another good twenty years and by the time she died in her 90's she had taught others.

Knowledge and passing it on is what keeps civilizations going.  Traditions, recipes, ways of doing things, stories and wisdom is passed from one generation to the next.  I have a feeling that grandmothers have passed along the majority of the knowledge until there was printing and books.  Now the internet is this wonderful source of knowledge that one couldn't even have dreamt about before.

I am very grateful to the many women (and few men) who make soap and blog about it.  The knowledge that they share so generously has become a constant source of delight for me.  I eagerly wait for every new post and photo and I try to find new blogs every now and then.  And new countries.  I am also grateful for Google translate.   I know that the translation isn't perfect, in fact at times it makes foreigners speak the weirdest English, but how else would I have an inkling what bloggers in countries like Russia, Japan, Chile, Turkey and Spain are talking about.  As it is I have learned so much from so many people that I have never met, nor am I ever likely to.  I love that and I am grateful to every one of them.

I have a favorite recipe that I have never given to anyone (well, no one has ever asked so it's not like I said no, even if I would have wanted to).  It is my German grandmother's Christmas cookies.  My mother has made them every Christmas for as long as I remember and so have I ever since I had a home myself.  I usually make a double recipe because they are quick to go.  In the spirit of Christmas I would like to share it.

150 g. /5.3 oz. Hazelnuts (or Almonds if you prefer)
125 g. /4.4 oz. Dark chocolate
175 g. /6.0 oz. Icing sugar
2 egg whites

Grind the nuts and the chocolate in an almond grinder.  Blend the dry ingredients, siv the sugar if it is lumpy.  Whisk the egg whites stiff.  Fold the dry ingredients into the egg whites.  Don't stir.  It will look like it is impossible to do but it will get there.  Make little tops with a teaspoon onto a baking paper and bake for 7-10 minutes at 175 degrees C.  Let cool on the baking paper.  Store in a cake tin.
The cookies sometimes keep their shape, but sometimes they go flat.  Either way they taste wonderful.  Crunchy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside and they are of course absolutely essential for reading comprehension during the holidays.
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Purple is (also) the colour of Christmas - Alkanet and lavender soap

The goblet is a favorite find that I got for less than a dollar.
The other mercury glass pieces are modern and not as nice,
but I felt it needed company. Mercury glass is called poor
mans silver in Danish. I think that is so neat.

The pretty purple or lavender colour that should come from Alkanet infused oil has eluded me until now.  I am very happy with this colour.  I used a lot of infused oil and I also used a decent amount of lavender, having recently received a large shipment of EO's.

I have had Alkanet root infusing in Olive oil for a few weeks now.  I figured it would be convenient to have it in a 1 liter bottle, ready to go when I feel like it.  I then just top it up since the Alkanet still has a lot of colour in it and keeps turning the oil a dark red.  I learned this from someone in fabric/yarn dyeing, just to give some credit to whose who deserve it.  I just can't remember exactly who to thank.

Lavender is a classic scent.  It's not one that is at the top of my list of favorites, but many people seem to like it a lot.  And "vive la différance".  I love the colour though.  The colour that the church uses for this time of the year is purple, so in a way it is a very Christmas-y colour and a very sophisticated one.  I have to admit that I stick to the traditional red, green, gold myself although I used to be more adventurous, way back in the olden days when I was hip and cool.

The recipe is similar to my recent ones, but with a little bit of soybean oil.  The oz are approximate and I did discount the water quite a bit.

Olive oil 40% 280g / 9.9oz   (out of this 75g/100g was Alkanet infused)
Coconut oil 25% 175g / 6.2oz
Lard 25% 175g / 6.2oz
Cocoa butter 5%  35g / 1.2oz
Soybean oil 5% 35g / 1.2oz

Water 30% 210g / 7.4 oz
Lye 99g / 3.5 oz

I did two batches, one with 75g and one with 100g of Alkanet oil.  I can't tell the difference between them.  I put Lavender EO in this and sprinkled some buds on top.  The soap turned a very pretty blue and seemed to stay that way for the longest time.  Then it started to turn lavender and a really nice one at that.  I'm very pleased.   I don't know if I can repeat that, but I'll be sure to brag about it if I do.

Now I need to stop making soap and start to bake the cookies for Christmas.  Eating cookies is necessary for me at Christmas, especially when reading the Christmas books.  I practically loose my ability to read if there are no cookies.  Books are a very common gift in Iceland and the bulk of all books that are published here come out in the month before Christmas.  We have plenty of time to read since our Christmas starts at six o'clock on the 24th and we then have two more day off.  The 24th is the main holiday.  It is when we light candles, all the church bells ring and we sit down to dinner in our finest clothes.  After dinner we open presents and there is always a book or two in there.  In addition I cheat a little bit and usually have a stash of my own that I have gathered just in case I don't get any for Christmas.

For this year I have 6 volumes of an old magazine, dating from 1907-1912.  I found them in a black plastic bag, sitting in the rain destined for the trash (what is wrong with people?).  I also have two books my husband gave me, one about medicinal herbs and one about dyeing with herbs.  I got hold of a book about kitchen cosmetics from the seventies and three volumes by Regine Deforge starting with "La bicyclette bleu", not in French though.  But now I think I'd better start baking those cookies.

Simple soap

That little enamel jar with a lid has holes in it, but someone
had put a sticky bandage on it.  I thought that was so sweet.

Simple soap is what got me started in the first place and here is one.  I wanted to do another milk soap and this time a soap that I could recommend for pregnant women and babies.  So no fragrance.  Kind of silly since I have been getting more fragrance and now have a lot.  But that is what I suddenly wanted to get back to.  A simple soap.  Very simple.

It is the kind of soap that I like to think my paternal grandmother would and could have made.  The ingredients would have been readily available to her even if they lived on an isolated farm in the north.  I like the thought that she made soap.  They had to be pretty self sufficient and it would fit with what I know of my grandfather who was very innovative in his farming.  In those days it was considered strange to have goats, pigs and ducks in addition to the traditional sheep and cattle.  But my grandfather was a very strong  character, intelligent and ambitious for himself and his family.  My grandmother... I wish I had known her.

I really think that it is such a shame that we don't get to know our grandparents when we ourselves finally reach an age where we start to be truly interested in our forefathers and mothers.  Or am I the only one?  Now I have so many questions!  I am fascinated by the past and how people lived then.  I know a little bit, but not the every day little things that interest me.

I love that photo of my dad and his mother and siblings.
She obviously sewed the dresses and probably the pants
as well. The sweaters of Icelandic wool were knitted
by her, but the kids probably knitted their own socks.

I never got the chance to know her.  She died ten years before I was born with her two youngest daughters.  She was thirty five and they were two and seven.  On December 12th 1948 an avalanche hit their farmhouse and buried it.  With my grandmother and her little daughters died also an old aunt, her daughter and the daughters son.  In all, six people died and one survived.  My grandfather was buried for four days in the snow.  The three older children were away at school.  My father was the oldest at fifteen, his brother one year younger and their sister was ten at the time.  The photo of the three of them with their mother is the only photo that exists of her.

So I made this soap to be simple and pure.  Something that she might even have made and passed the recipe on to me if things had turned out differently.
It is a small recipe, 500 g:

Olive oil        45% 225g / 7.9oz
Coconut oil   30% 150g / 5.3oz
Cocoa butter 10%   50g / 1.8oz
Sunflower oil 10% 50g / 1.8oz
Castor oil         5% 25g / 0.9oz

Milk 38% 190g / 5.3 oz  infused with M. maritime/chamomile
Lye 72g / 2.5 oz

I wanted to use some gentle herbs that won't harm a babies delicate skin so I put a few tablespoons of the Icelandic substitute for chamomile, Matricaria maritima in the milk and warmed it.  I then froze the milk and carefully put the lye in, a little at a time.   It turned a beautiful yellow colour.  I also added a bit of sugar water to the milk.  I like the way it increases bubbles.  I then put the soap into the freezer to prevent heating.  The result is a very softly coloured yellow soap that has no scent whatsoever.  There is a lovely simplicity in an unscented soap.  The absence of scent is the ultimate clean.  Pure like the country air and the bubbling trout river that runs through my grandparents land.

My father would have been 77 today had he lived.  He died on December 10th 2006.  I still think of him every day.

I like to remember them all at this time of the year.  I wish I had had the chance to know them.  But since that is not possible I like to give my thoughts to them around this time in an attempt to honor and celebrate their lives.  Not only my grandmother and her daughters, but also the little branch of the family that died with them.  My great aunt and her daughter and her brave nineteen year old grandson, who died after three days in the snow with the two year old in his arms.

December

This wonderful reindeer that I got from my colleagues. The
small candlesticks are so typically scandinavia. They
ended up in Afrika with some other stuff so our older
daughter she could get some Christmas spirit from home.

I love this time of year.   Or more specifically I really, really like December and Christmas time.  Not because I like cold weather.  On the contrary I dislike being cold intensely and am of the firm belief that being born here was a terrible misunderstanding in high places because I like sun and warmth and lush plants and animals running around and all that summer stuff.  So if it wasn't for Christmas I would wither away and die in the intense darkness that surrounds us at this time of the year.

December is a special month.  My birthday is today and my father had his birthday exactly one week later and a week after that it is my husband's birthday.  My husband and I had our first date in December and we always celebrate that much more than our wedding anniversary.  And then we have Christmas which is a three day holiday here and New Years is two.  And we always try to take the week between the two off if we possbly can to really get time to read and enjoy the holidays as much as we can.

I have one rule about Christmas preparation, to do only the things that I take pleasure in.  It used to be customary here to do a complete cleaning of everything before Christmas.  That included the closets and top of the kitchen cabinets and basically every nook and cranny.  I am blessed in that my mother wasn't much of a housewife and neither am I.  So this never made much sense to me.  When I was about twenty I had girlfriends who said that the scent of Ajax was necessary for them to get into the spirit of Christmas to which I replied that they should put some in a bowl, put it on the radiator, turn off the lights and light some candles.  Who is to see dirt in the dark of winter.  For those not in the know, Ajax is a particularly nasty smelling cleaning product.

I couldn't resist drying the leaves on the Japanese maple.
They were really bright red, but the colour didn't last.  I
used them anyway with the pretty larch cones I picked.

Like in many Nordic and European countries we start celebrating on the first Sunday of Advent which was last Sunday.  I always make an Advent wreath which has four candles that are lit on consecutive Sundays until Christmas when all four a are lit.  I think that tradition is German in origin.  I wasn't brought up with that, but started to make my own the first year I had my own home.  I always make a fresh one each year.  The look can vary, but this years is very simple.  I have learned one thing about making those and that is to get big and thick Church candles for my wreaths because they burn for a long time.  I have had two catch on fire, which probably isn't much for over thirty years.

This is always my first Christmas decoration.  Following that I put a green (fake) pine garland in the kitchen window and decorate it with lights and bits and bobs.  All sorts of strange stuff that has accumulated and doesn't fit anywhere else.  Some of it is my daughters handiwork from kindergarten, some is little gifts from people I care about, a lot of it is something that has been there for ever and I have no idea where I got it from.

I was going to write: But the point is..., but there really is not point to this post other than to get an excuse to sit down in our conservatory and watch the birds as they fly from one tree to another.   We have pond in the garden that we keep unfrozen so they can take a bath, something that is essential to their survival in winter.  The sun is about to set, exhausted after a five hour stint and I have lit a lot of candles.  I sit with my computer in my lap, one dog to my side and the other warming my legs, my husband in his easy chair reading.  I have a cup of coffee and some cookies and a stack of magazines that I didn't have time to read on my last business trip.  Perfect!  And of course this is the point.  To enjoy life.

Oh, and the soap!  But of course peppermint EO and crushed candy canes on a milk soap with a teaspoon of TD.  I just had to do it.  Christmas has to be full of clichés and a little bit corny.
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Lemongrass and madder - Unexpected combo

Those Russian ladies are always cute. I have no idea where
I got them.  Is that weird? The braiding I got in my favorite
flea market The Good Shepherd for about 4 dollars. I used
some of it on my little daybed that I recovered. That post
is still a draft :)

Trying to match fragrance to colour is a challenge, especially when one is committed to using natural colours only.  This combo may or may not be repeated.

I used Madder root for this soap and this time I used a bit more than I have done previously.  The colour is more of a tan than the warm red that I was hoping for, but that may suit the scent better.  Although somehow I guess Lemongrass should be either yellow or slightly green. Which reminds me, I need to try dried Parsley soon!

But I love Lemongrass scent, it lasts so much better than lemon.  The soap smells lovely and I used dried bits of Lemongrass on top.  Tha may not be such a good idea because it was a bitch to cut.

This recipe was the same as the one I used for the Palmarosa soap apart from the colouring material and the scent.  I think I need to wait to use the soap before I decide what I think about it.  I may learn to like it yet.
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Annatto - A silky ray of sunshine in the middle of winter

I dug out my tablecloths to use at the wedding, so I have
rediscovered their beauty even if I hardly ever use them.
I bought the lamp shades for an old and rather ugly
light fixture but they were the wrong size.  Typical.

I've been wanting to try to use Annatto seeds to colour soap for the longest time.  I finally did and I have to say that the result is a very pretty yellow.  Much mellower than unrefined Palm oil.  I have read that the colour fades, but I'm willing to accept some fading.  That's only natural...with natural colours.

This soap also has silk fiber.  I just had to try that after Hellen at Strenua Inertia gave me that tip.  I have quite a bit of silk left over from sewing the wedding dress and pulling a few threads is very easy.  I can't wait for this one to be ready, I've never tried silk soap.

The scent is the classic combo, ylang ylang and orange essential oils and I put dried flowers on top to pretty it up.  It hardly needs it though.  The colour is lovely, the scent is to die for and I have high hopes for this one in the skin caressing department.

The recipe was a simple but trusted 40-30-20-10


Olive oil 40% 200g / 7.0oz
Coconut oil 30% 150g / 5.3oz
Lard 20% 100g / 3.5oz
Cocoa butter 10% 50g / 1.8oz

Water 30% 150g / 5.3 oz
Lye 72g / 2.5 oz

I used about one tablespoon of Annatto infused oil and put some silk tread into the lye.

This soft yellow colour is the same as the colour of the sky this afternoon, just before the sun set.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We are having dry and cold weather now and it is so nice to have clear skies and sun, even if it is only for at few hours.  I love this time of year, the advent starts on Sunday and I have bought everything I need for the advent wreath which I make every Christmas.  So making that and baking some cookies is the plan for this weekend.
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Milkmint - A milky white and minty soap

One of my friends is and artist and I just love the colours
she uses. I don't wear much lace, but have a hard time
resisting buying it and this scarf made it home with me.

I am so proud of this one.  I think I wrote somewhere rather nonchalantly that some soapmakers try to get their milk soaps very white.  My attitude was rather like: "As if that matters".  But I had to try.  But midway through the experiment I decided to cheat and put a little bit of Titanium dioxide in there.  I didn't quite trust the soap that I painstakingly made to be as white as I wanted.  But I am pretty sure that I wouldn't have gotten it this white if the bases hadn't been very white...Or would I?  Well I'll never know.  But I don't care.  I think this is my all time favorite soap.  At least right now.  I tend to love best the latest soaps.

I had read somewhere, probably in the book I have about making milk soaps, that the trick is to dissolve the lye very, very slowly in the frozen milk and not let the soap heat up too much.  So I did that.  I half froze the milk and put a bit of the lye into it and stirred until the milk was almost completely thawed and then I put it back in the freezer.  I waited for it to freeze again and then I put a bit of the lye into it ...  Repeated this many, many times until all the lye was dissolved.  Obviously the last time the lye/milk solution should be at about room temperature and so should the oils.  I combined the two and the soap came together perfectly.  I added some TD and Peppermint EO.

I got the brilliant idea to crumble some dried mint on top.  I had the last mint of the summer that had gone to flower and I had dried that even if they say that it should be picked before flowering.  I think it's my German genes that make me ignore advise like that.  So I put it on top of the soap.  It was so pretty.  But I made one mistake.  I put the soap in the freezer and I think that resulted in the pretty green and purple herbs on top turning brown.  OR, it could have been that I wrapped it too soon.  Oh, I could have cried!  But not for long.  Chuck it up to experience.  I'm going to make that again and this time not put it in the freezer and absolutely not wrap it too soon.  But the smell is lovely.  I really like peppermint essential oil.  It is nothing like artificial scent.  Just pure and fresh.
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Palmarosa - Perfect for pre-Christmas tension

The cups and saucers were my grandmothers. I never
use them, they are too small. But I really love them.

This year is the first in many that I'm not thoroughly annoyed with stores for starting to advertise Christmas in October.  I realize that Christmas is in fact about fifteen minutes away!  So I've begun to make lists for Christmas.  It is very easy to do my Christmas lists because I write the lists in my Book and I have Christmases past in there too.  The Book is also where I write my soap and cream recipes.  It is a Moleskine unruled which I bought because I couldn't find a squared one.  I always write better on squared paper so I prefer that.  Then I got a squared one and I figured I would just finish the one I had started.  That was in 2007.  So now I have an overview of my lists of presents, people  and food for three Christmases past and a lot of recipes in between.

I have been cutting and wrapping a lot of soaps lately and one of the prettiest in the pink Palmarosa scented one.  Palmarosa smells a lot like roses but is a lot more affordable.  The essential oil comes from Cybopogon martini a grass that is related to Lemongrass.  The benefits of Palmarosa EO is said to be to balance the skin's production of sebum, stimulate cell regeneration and moisturize.  It is also antiseptic.  In aromatherapy it fights depression, anxiety and anger.  It is relaxing and uplifting for the mood.  What a great combination.  In fact absolutely perfect for the preparations for Christmas.

The soap is coloured with my favorite, Rumex oil, at about 20g per pound.  It never ceases to amaze me the way that starts out tan or beige and turns overnight into a pretty pink.  I got the idea to put the rosebuds on the top at the spur of the moment and crushed a few as well.  A friend gave them to me some time ago as a tea, but I couldn't bear to use them.  I really like the result, so I made a few other soaps with similar decorations, but different flower stuff.

I made this recipe with lard and grapeseed oil both of which I find to be very nice ingredients in soaps. The total weight is 741g, a whacky number, but...

Olive oil                34%     250g / 8.8oz   (25 gr of this was Rumex infused)
Coconut oil           24%     175g / 6.2oz
Lard                      18%     130g / 4.6oz
Grapeseed oil        16%     116g / 4.0oz
Cocoa butter          9.5%      70g / 2.5oz

Water 30% 222g / 7.8 oz
Lye 103g / 3.6 oz

I reduced the water from what I have used and I think that worked really well.  I cut it after a much shorter time and now I know why I have read warnings about soap getting to hard to cut.

The fragrance is lovely and I really look forward to using this soap.  I like the decoration.  I have been playing with that and I have gotten wise to the fact that you really, really need to plan the cut and decorate with that in mind especially when using larger pieces of flowers or buds.  These I had to be creative with to be able to cut them without ruining the decoration.

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My gift to myself - Madder root and Neroli soap

That lovely little tablecloth I bought in Slovakia. The
little lantern is from the Good S as is the glass bowl.  What
a fantastic shape.

I love making new recipes for soaps.  Mostly because I get new ideas, but sometimes I just don't have the ingredients that I need, so I improvise.  I try to use all my soaps to see how I like them and I really use them for a while to get a strong feeling for my preference.  I recently have been reaching for the same one, and realized that I really liked the way it lathers andfeels on the skin.  So I decided to make that recipe again, just for me with my absolute favorite fragrance, Neroli.

I also welcomed the opportunity to use Madder root again.  I really loved the colour I obtained last time, but it did fade to very, very light pink.  I therefore used about twice the amount as before.  But this is a facination of natural colours.  They reward me by being different every single time and I never get bored.  This time I got a very lovely peach colour.  A little bit more delicate than I intended, but who am I to argue with nature?

The recipe I used was a bit different from the one I intended to recreate because I didn't have enough Almond oil, so I improvised.  It will be interesting to see if I like the soap as much as the other.

Madder root and neroli soap.
This recipe is for 700g

25%     Coconut oil            175 g / 6 oz
25%     Lard                       175 g / 6 oz
20%     Grapeseed oil         135 g / 4.7 oz
17%     Apricot kernel oil   118 g / 4.1 oz
7%       Almond oil               50g / 1.7 oz
6%       Soybean oil              45g / 1.5 oz

I put about 2-3 tbsp of Madder root into the lye water and let it sit until cool enough to use it in the soap. The soap turned a nice pink which I felt was quite blue pink tobegin with, but it rapidly changed to a much warmer pink, ending in peach.  The scent I used was mostly Neroli, but I added some frangipani that I had left over and some ylang ylang as well.  It smelled wonderful and I do hope it stays.  I put the soap in the fridge to prevent trace in the hope that it would also result in the fragrance holding.

The smell of lye is gone now and it seems that the scent comes through in a nice and gentle way.  That is the way I like it, so perfect for my birthday present which is in a few weeks.  I look forward to it.  I know I'll get a great  present!
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Sugar scrub cubes (or dollops) - A new way to rebatch

I love the enameled electric stove that I picked up for a
song.  I can use it for dyeing. The tablecloth is a simple
cross stitch that I loved and for some reason I started to
buy the milk glass. Nobody seems to want it. 

I've been intrigued by Sugar scrub cubes since I first saw them, but my distaste for Melt and Pour bases (at least the ones that are sold here) has precluded me from making them.  Apparently they could only be made using that.  Oh, the hardship of being a fanatic!  But I had been thinking that since I melt soap to rebatch soap, surely regular handmade soap could be used for those.  Not wanting to reinvent the wheel I started to search the Internet and found the answer on Mayren Abashed's blog: Mayren's Sugar Scrub Cubes using CP/HP Soap shreds the 1-2-3's Method.

She, somewhat ingeniously, had come up with a simple recipe that I had to try.  Her sugar cubes are actually cubes, they look great and she makes them in wonderful colours and adds scent to them.   Me, being the way I am (and not having a cube mold also), made ... well I decided to call them dollops rather than blobs, although that would describe them too.   And I make them scent free also, since I just wanted to try out the recipe to see if I could make them (and I was getting low on EO's).

It is actually quite simple, like the 1-2-3 name suggests:

1 tbsp oils/butters
2 tbsp soap shreds (I grated some of my natural homemade soap)
3 tbsp sugar

I grated some of my soap finely and used that.  I used Olive oil and Cocoa butter and put those into a bowl with the soap shreds and put this into the microwave.  This I then heated in short bursts and stirred regularly.  When everything had melted I took it out and let it cool just a bit and then stirred in the sugar.  Mayren suggests 3 tbsp when using 50/50 hard and soft oils, 4 tbsp when using all liquid.  The sugar mix quickly turned into something like a dough ball, which is what should happen and it was really hot.  This is the stage to add scent but I skipped that.  I guess the colours could go into the oils before the sugar.  Now, since I don't have any small silicone molds, I used a teaspoon to make my dollops and tried to shape them as best I could (hot, hot, hot) and then I rolled them in sugar.  That improved their appearance a lot!

Now, I tried this in the shower and found that I used up the one although it could have been a bit smaller.  I liked this shape a lot as it fits nicely in the palm without me dropping it.  I liked the combination of soap and sugar and the great thing about sugar is that it does dissolve and doesn't end up in the sea doing harm to sea creatures.  I have read that these sugar cube scrubs will leave the tub slippery, but I didn't find that mine did.  But I'm sure they may do so the next time.  Probably depends on the oils and soap used.

I think these could make great Christmas presents, especially if coloured and/or scented.  I need to see if I can come up with some natural colours that are oil soluble.  I can think of Alkanet root and Annatto, so red and yellow.  I wonder if there is a green possibility?  Maybe clay?

Update:  With the addition of a few drops of essential oils and some colour infused oils, these can be made into the most lovely gifts.  Ice cube trays are very easy to use and much quicker than using a spoon.  Just fill up the cavities and pop the ice cube tray in the freezer for a few minutes and the sugar scrub cubes will  easily pop out.

To make the best of a bad thing - Rebatched Sea Buckthorn soap

Last chance in the garden.  Everything has pretty much
died down, except the Hollyhocks which are blooming
like crazy. This lovely cream colour is just lovely. 

I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that winter is here.  Today is the "First day of winter"  according to the traditional Icelandic almanack.  We have had the most wonderfully mild weather this fall and I've enjoyed that so much.  Almost for the first time that I can remember we have had all the leaves on the trees and bushes turn their beautiful red, orange and yellow colours.  Usually they are blown away be strong winds before we get to see their glory.  I have also enjoyed the last few flowers in the garden that have continued to bloom all the way into the first frosts, among them are some Hollyhocks that are in bloom for the first time.

I made a soap quite some time ago that included a some Sea Buckthorn oil and a lot of other goodies.  It was a great soap (I think) except it was so soft as to be almost mushy.  I waited  and waited for it to harden up, but finally gave up and decided to rebatch it.

It has now been curing and has turned into a very nice yellow soap.  The colour is quite a bit lighter since I mixed this with some whipped soap that was mostly white hard oils, but hadn't turned out the way I wanted.  So that was a lot of hard oils that I combined with all the soft ones.   I've been meaning to post about his rebatch except I lost my notebook so I couldn't find the recipe.  When I found the notebook I discovered that I hadn't written it down in the notebook at all.  So I searched for it on my little computer and I found it.

The combined recipe for this rebatch turned out to be:

Lard                  34%
Olive oil            24%
Coconut oil       22%
Jojoba oil          10%
Cocoa butter       8%
Wheat germ oil   1.5%

The water was 1/3 water and 2/3 a combination of Oat meal tea and Aloe vera.  The additions to the yellow soap were Sea Buckthorn and St. Johns Wort oils along with about a tablespoon of honey.  When I rebatched this I used yoghurt as a liquid.  The precise recipe is hard to figure out, but I like this soap as a gentle bath soap.  The lather is very soft and creamy.
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Farewell gifts

I have a wall where I hang family photos so I am always
on the lookout for nice frames, preferably old.  The
three children are my grandmother and her siblings and
I think she also owned the pearl necklace. 

In a recent post I mentioned that I was making soaps as farewell gifts for a group of people that I have been meeting a few times a year.  I made a soap with Patchouli EO and decided to make a pink one for the women in the group.  I used Geranium and Lemongrass with Rumex oil to make it pink.  This one I used 15 g. to 500 g. of oil and I put the oil in at trace.  It still turned out a very light pink.  And the center, which gelled is a lot darker than the outside.  I don't mind that, but some may do.  The solution is to either wrap the soap to have it all gelled or put it in the fridge.  But anyway, I am pretty certain now that putting the Rumex oil in with all the others will produce a stronger pink colour than putting it in a trace.

I haven't been particularly involved in thinking about packaging and labels, although I've thought about it a lot.   Mostly I'm still thinking about some sort of stamp of a logo.  I have it in my head, waiting to jump out on a pice of paper.  I realize that to sell soap they must be packaged and that is also true for when they are given as gifts.  From what I see from others, they put as much effort (and money) into packaging as they do into the soaps.  I am in awe.

But I had to do something so I got some cellophane bags.  They were way to big (couldn't find small ones) but I solved that by cutting in half and using the bottom for the girl's and the top for they guy's.  So different soaps and different packages.  To make this a bit simple for myself I had cut little pieces of soap and made o hole in the corner, through which I tied a piece of raffia.  I then used the raffia on the outside as well.

Not terribly original, but fast and easy.  I did intended to photograph the packages, but I was finishing them at the last minute.  I made a few extra and figured that I would bring some back and snap a photo of those, but I ended up giving the staff all the extras for husbands or wives.  They were all delighted with their soaps and everyone of them put their gift up to their nose to have a sniff (and we are talking about a few very middle aged men here).  And even if I put all the ingredients on a label on front, the ones they were most interested in were the scents.  So much for unscented soaps!  

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I've been tagged

I was tagged by Courtney Robyn at Courtney Robin's nest.  I love the great community of soapers from all over, although I also kind of like being slightly anonymous.  But I'm happy to play along today.  So here are my answers to those questions.

1. What is your biggest pet peeve?
Airport security - I'm soooooo sick of discussing my cosmetics with middle aged men and being felt up by strange women.  I just don't understand why they can't leave me alone.

2. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Oh, that's easy.  Somewhere (anywhere) sunny and wonderful.  I love Sorrento in Italy and that area.   France is also tempting.  Sarasota in Florida is great.  In my utopia "nothing to do with reality" I'd like to live on my grandparents farm in the northwest of Iceland.  Preferably with them in the house that they built, but was crushed in an avalanche ten years before I was born. My grandfather was very innovative and farmed with all kinds of animals, grew strange vegetables and taught my father about the many different plants that grow there.  I'm sure he would have been the first ,bee farmer in Iceland and we would have a few hives and probably have heated arguments and passionate discussions.  My grandmother and I would make soap and creams and jams and herbal potions and blood saussages.  She was a very gentle and sweet woman, my father told me, and  I would have loved to know them both.

3. Have you ever been searched by the cops? (LOL inquiring minds want to know)
No, but airport security has a special fondness for me.

4. What is the one thing on your mind right now?
My masters thesis, my french classes, my mothers bathroom and my daughter's mirror and....
And of course the next soap.  What do you mean one thing? One thing?  On MY mind?

5. Favorite song right now.
This one is my favorite for many, many years.  It's sung by Gail Davies and Emmilou Harris is in the background.  It's called "It's a lovely, lovely world" and it's the happiest song ever!  I used to ride along in my beat up old car when I lived in Colorado in the early 80's and sing along and just become happy. I never thought much about it's name or who sang it and it took me 25 years to find it again and buy it on itunes. I haven't found anything public with this song and it so deserves to be played more often. I made a slightly sentimental video for our anniversary two years ago (husband kept complaining that I wasn't romantic enough.  After making this video, I hardly need to civil anymore.  I SO won!).  
That video is private so even if I posted that for a bit, it was always going to be for a short time
But do look the song up and if you like it it's cheap to buy on itunes, something like 99 cents.  And that is the best depression therapy I know!

I also love Jean Shepherd's "Slippin' Away", especially this video on YouTube.  I have this song on an old record, but her voice is amazing even at her age.  

6. What talent do you wish you had?
To speak French fluently.  Alternatively, if we can be not practical I wish that I could stretch time. I have it on expert authority that one needs to go very, very fast.  

7. Favorite drink.
Ginger ale, especially the one I make myself, and my husband says tastes like Landi (Moonshine) (which I have never tasted, so I can't say).

8. In one word, how would you describe yourself.
Yeah! - See here's the thing.   One word doesn't work for me at all.  I talk a lot and have done since I was little, I'm told.

So I'm not sure how to tag other people, except to name the ones that I want to tag AND haven't already been tagged by Courtney.  So here is my list in no particular order:

Texia - Sanga Natual

Tiggy - Future Primitive

Potions & Chaudrons

Michelle - Soap Pixie

Hellen - Strenua Inertia

Heidi - Happy Tiny Bubbles

Swanee - By Swanee

Edith - Innoscents Handmade Soaps

Lyn - Lynnz Artisan Soaps and Candles

Miss Polly - Miss Polly Soap 

Those who feel so inclined can play along.  It's really up to the individual, but others can go and check out their blogs all of which I read regularly and a lot more.
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Rose hips - full of vitamin C

I really wanted to make these into a necklace they were so
pretty. And I really would like to be able to make oil from
those seeds. There's so many of them.

Autumn, not at all my favorite season, does have a few redeeming qualities.  One is the crops that are there for the picking.  I'm not a cook, but I love to bake and make sweet stuff.  That of course includes jams, jellies and syrups.  I have posted a few of my recipes but one I haven't posted yet is rose hips.  I picked a lot last year.  I in fact only discovered them here last year as I was walking the dogs.

There is this huge overgrown bush close by my house in no mans land and suddenly it was full of these lovely red fruits.  I quickly realized that they were rose hips and having read about them in Danish magazines for years (decades) I excitedly went a picked a few.  And then a few more and then even more since I started seeing them everywhere.  I think I still have some in the freezer since last year and I guess I'll use those to feed the birds this winter.  My only regret is that I am not able to extract oil from the seeds because there are so many seeds, it's unbelievable.  I did find a something on the internet that was supposed to do that, but It was too expensive.  But it would sure be fun to be able make my own rose hip oil.  I have infused rose hips in oil, but it's not the same.

But this summer was very good and so far the only sign of autumn is in the shorter days, so now we can light candles in the evening (and taking photo's without flash is getting increasingly difficult.  But temperatures are still in the 60's (we call that summer over here) so I have to wait a bit longer to gather a decent crop of rose hips since they are at their best just after the first frost.  And I read somewhere that rose hips have the most vitamin C in the coldest regions so here it must contain mega quantities.  But I have started to collect a few to make into a jelly to join the red currant and gooseberry jellies that I have already made.  I like to make small quantities, so my recipes are usually enough for maybe 6 jars or so.  Although i only had 3/4 of a jar of gooseberries, but boy are they good!

I like to make fruit syrup as well a jellies and one of the advantages of not making jam out of the rose hips is that there are a lot of tiny hairs inside and they used to be used a an itching powder by naughty boys in the olden days (before my time) and most recipes recommend that the seeds and the hairs be removed.  I'm too lazy to do that.  It's just too much work.  So here is my recipe for a jelly where that stuff is just sived away.

2.3 liters / 2 quarts   Rose hips
1.7 liter / 1.5 quarts  Water
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 packet pectin (depending on what you use the directions can be different)
1/4 tsp butter
3.5 cups sugar

Top and tail the rose hips and put them in a pot, pour the water over and let simmer for about 1 hour, or until the rose hips are soft.  Mash this in the pot with a potato masher or use a food processor if you wish.  The pour this into a jelly cloth contraption and let the juice run of for at least an hour, longer if you can.  Squeeze out all the juice.

Now measure the juice, you need 3 cups.  If there isn't enough then add water.

The juice along with the lemon juice is put into a clean pot and this is heated.  Add 3 tsp of sugar to the pectin and set aside.  Add the rest of the sugar to the pot and when that is dissolved, but the butter in and boil the whole thing hard for 1 minute.  Then add the pectin/sugar blend and boil for another 1/2 minute.  Pour into sterilized jars.  Close them when cold.
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Orange dog soap

The old books were used as props for the wedding. They were
stacked here and there in the house. We got them for free at the
Good S. Those fall colours we had this year were fantastic.

I thought I would do an orange soap to keep Jennifer at Jenora soaps company. One of the reasons is that I saw unrefined Palm oil in an asian food store the other day and I just had to have it. I have never used Palm oil because it isn't sold here. I know that there is a lot of controversy surrounding Palm oil and I respect that. But I wouldn't be human if I didn't succumb to trying out a new oil!

I decided for some reason that this would be a good dog soap and that it should go into a tube. I had intended to cut it into long half rounds since I thought that would be a good shape to fit nicely into the palm as I wash the dogs. I did cut a few that way, but some I cut smaller. I have no idea why, but ever since I have been thinking of trying to do a landscape, using this as a setting sun. That would be very patriotic.

The soap is without scent, but with some herbal oils because Bichons have a tendency to have skin problems and I thought it would be nice for my bitches to have nice skin conditioning ingredients.

Recipe:

Coconut oil               25% 125 g / 4.4 oz
Palm oil                     25% 125 g / 4.4 oz
Olive oil                    25% 125 g / 4.4 oz
Soybean oil               20% 100 g / 3.5 oz
Castor oil                     5%   25 g / 3.5 oz

Water                        38%  190g / 6.8 oz
Lye                                       71g / 2.5 oz

In addition to this I added 1 tsp. of Comfrey infused oil and 1 tsp. of Yarrow infused oil, both infused in olive oil. So the SF is a bit more than the 5% that the recipe reports.

But the soap traced very, very fast and I had quite a time getting it into the tube. I was therefore a bit surprised that the soap was quite soft when I took it out of the mould. The colour is a very strong orange-yellow. It is a little bit too saturated for my taste.  The colour is not dissimilar to the Sea Buckthorn soaps that I did some time ago but it is more orange, so not a bad try for an orange soap.  But maybe I'll try to use more socially acceptable colourants next time.
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And my Very Green Soap

That metal circle will be a great frame for a wedding picture
of the kids. I have just the right photo for it but need to
 photoshop it to fit. I also dried some of my Hollyhock.

I actually intended to try to make another blue soap with indigo be cause the first one was a total failure.  I had put the indigo powder into oils and it did not give any colour.  So I figured that I should put it into the water, so I tried that.  Well, that sure didn't work either so I changed direction and reached for my dried herbs in the hope that I would be able to make green soap.

I chose Comfrey, since I have quite a bit of it already dried and still a lot left in the allotment garden.  I think maybe I read that Cocobong has used that and gotten a good green, but I'm not sure, it might have been nettle.  I know that I have read that Parsley is supposed to give a good green.  I tried to put that into oil.  Do not do that.  It's completely pointless.  So now I'm drying some and I will try to put that into the water for a soap sometime.

But back to Comfrey.  I have some of that in oil and also some that I simply dried.  Since the infused oil isn't particularly green I put some crushed dried leaves into the lye water and let it sit for a while and it did turn a bit green, but not a lot.  So I decided that I would leave the leaves in and attempt to make them smaller with the stick blender.  Which I did and it worked fine.  I don't usually like to leave flecks in the soap if I can help it, but if I hadn't there wouldn't have been much colour at all.

Since I had just bought some patchouli EO I decided to use that for the first  time along with some Bergamot and Lemongras EO's.  I have to admit that I wasn't sure what Patchouli was like because I have never had it.  It is very Hippy to me.  Reminiscent of the seventies.  Which is good.  A bit masculine also, and that is good since I haven't done a masculine fragrance in a long time.

I did a very simple soap.

Coconut oil 30%  150 g / 5.3 oz

Olive oil 40%       200 g / 7 oz
Soybean oil 25%  125 g/ 4.4 oz
Cocoa butter 6%    30 g / 1 oz

Water  38%          190g / 6.8 oz
Lye                        72g / 2.5 oz
5% SF.

So the soap wasn't particularly green at first, but when I cut it it was this beautiful grass green.  Alas, it has now turned olive green.  A nice olive, but that green was amazing.  How I miss it!  But these are perfect soaps to give as a gift to a few guys that I have been working with.  There are a few women in that group also, so I now am thinking up a recipe for a pink soap using my Rumex oil for the colour.
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My Incredibly Green Cream

I had dried herbs hanging all over the house in the autumn
and I am always looking out for suitable containers for dried
herbs, face creams, body lotions, lip balms and toners.

I have been making face creams for almost two years now. I really like that and I use no commercially made creams anymore.  In fact, my cousin and I were talking and she was telling me how someone had given her a sample of a well known brand of face cream and she almost threw up because it smelled so artificial.  I so agree.  All those famous brand creams now are about as appealing to me as nuclear waste.

The creams I make are usually made with beeswax as an emulsifier.  That makes a thick, very creamy and slightly oily cream that is very good for the night.  It is concentrated and a little goes a long way.  I tend to slather on lots and lots, probably I use too much, and I really shine in bed at night.  But I have been searching for a lighter emulsifier as an option for daytime.  I ordered some vegetable emulsifier and it came with an ingredients label that said: Sodium Lauryl Sulfate!  That is very irritating to the skin and it is one of the ingredients that I want to avoid.  So I haven't used it at all.

I was really please to read Texia's (at Sanga natural) post about homemade emulsifiers.  She did two recipes and I have made them both and already used one in a cream.  I have a lot of dried herbs and herbs macerated in oil and I figured that I should use all my herbal oils for something.  So I decided to make an incredibly green cream.

The Incredibly Green Cream:

Oil phase - 70g of macerated oils: 20 g. each yarrow (Achillea) oil, chickweed (Stellaria) oil and Calendua oil.  10 g. mock orange (Philadelphus) oil.  And additionally almost 1 tsp. Njóli (Rumex) oil.
Into the oil I added a pinch and a dash of AHA and A retinol.  I don't have a scale that measures accurately in small increments so I eyeball the small stuff.

Water phase - 120 g. herbal tea: I made tea with the following herbs: Yarrow (Achillea), chickweed (Stellaria), shepherd's purse (Capsella), Comfrey and Viola.  I let this steep for about an hour and then I added a bit of licorice extract and niacin as well as the preservative Natrium benzoat.

Making cream is just like making soap, minus the lye.  I warm the ingredients in bain marie and then pour the water phase into the oil while whisking with a stick blender.
I forgot to write how much emulsifier I used, but I think it was somewhere between 10 and 20 g. and I put it into the water phase.

I like the cream very much, so thank you Texia.  I've been using it for about 2 weeks now, both morning and night.  It absorbs well so that my husband's goodnight kiss doesn't slide right off.  It is chock full of goodies for the skin and smells a bit green and I am pretty sure that it has taken twenty years of my appearance already.
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Calendula soap - Triple luxury

That improvised soap mold worked beautifully and I could
easily use it to practice swirls. The heart shaped evening bag
is pretty and the ornate hairband is a little over the top.

Now I know that it's fall again.  My cousin and I just started to make soaps together again after taking the summer off for the most part even though I have made a few soaps on my own.  I can't not do it.  I guess it's an obsession of sorts, or it's just too much fun to not do it.  And there always seem to be some really fund things to try out.

But our joint soap making sessions are ususally fun.  We always manage to agree on what to do and this time she wanted to make calendula soap with her homemade Calendula oil and my dried Calendula petals and her dried flowerheads.  We ended up making it in a tray mold that I had picked up at "The Good Shepherd" a thrift shop charity where I spend all my spare cash.  It isn't really a soap mold, that much I know, but I can't imagine what else it could be used for.  I frequently get asked by the staff at the till: "What is that you are buying?" and very often the answer is: "I have absolutely no idea".  I usually figure it out or find some use for the stuff myself at some point.  But back to soaps.

Very pretty and very nice soap for delicate skin.

We intended to make just one recipe and since we wanted it a bit yellow we used carrot juice and we also hoped that the infused Calendual oil would contribute a bit of colour.  But as it turned out we made a 3 layer soap because the mold required at least 3 pounds of soap and we just made a regular size batch the first time.  So we made the other two a bit different, just for fun.  We could have made swirls, but didn't since she wanted to put dried flowers on top and I have to admit that that looks very nice.

I was asked for cut pictures and here they are, the little hacked up darlings.  It did surprise me that the dried calendula petals came through with their colour so orange, but I don't know if that will last.  We used no fragrance.  Two reasons for that.  I placed an order from a UK company at the beginning of June and am still waiting for it!  This might turn into a separate post about fraud pretty soon.  I've called and emailed... But... later.  Anyway, in the absence of the EO's that we should have received a looong time ago we thought we would make this unscented and therefore suitable for people with allergies and sensitivity to fragrance.

The recipes are:

Layer 1:
Olive oil            56%        420 g / 14.8 oz
Coconut oil       28%        210 g / 7.4 oz
Cocoa butter       6.3%       70 g / 2.5 oz
Sunflower oil      5%          50 g / 1.8 oz (Calendula officinalis infused)

Carrot juice         38%       285g / 10 oz
Lye                                    103g / 3.6 oz
8% SF.

The infused oil was added at trace as well as a generous amount of dried Calendula petals.  This layer turned out to be a slightly yellowish tan colour.

The next layer is almost the same except we added unrefined palm oil which I found in an Asian store and couldn't resist trying even if there are all kinds of ethical issues.  So layer one has different percentages, but mostly the same numbers are layer 1.

Layer 2:
Olive oil                   52.5%      420 g / 14.8 oz

Coconut oil              26.3%      210 g / 7.4 oz

Cocoa butter               8.75%       70 g / 2.5 oz

Sunflower oil              6.25%       50 g / 1.8 oz (Calendula officinalis infused)

Unrefined Palm oil     6.25%       50 g / 1.8 oz 

Water        38%       304g / 10.7 oz

Lye                         109g / 3.9 oz

8% SF.

To this we also added dried calendula petals and the infused oil went in at trace.  This layer turned out a very pretty yellow.

The third layer was the same as the first except we used water instead of carrot juice.  That layer is quite white and is a perfect backdrop for the dried flower heads we pushed in on top for decoration.

Cutting the soap turned out to be a bit of a challenge.  I hadn't really thought about how I would do that since the mould is larger than any knife I have.  I guess I need to make a wire cutter if I use that mould again.  I had thought that we would end up with 3x4 soaps out of the mould, but when I had cut (hacked?) them up they were way too big so I cut them in half again.  And they look kind of cute, if a bit crooked.
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My bad - Salt soap

Etageres are irresistible to me.  This one is new, but looks
old. It was an impulse buy, but looks good in the sunroom,
filled with whatever little trinkets that needs a home.

Feeling a bit blue and bored the other day, I had the idea to make a blue soap.  I have some indigo and have read that it will make a blue soap.  Salt soap, I thought, would look nice in blue.

Feeling quite a bit less blue,  I took out the bag of the coarse sea salt that I picked up the other day and happily pulled out my oils.  I made a pretty simple recipe, but there was nothing pretty about the outcome.  It didn't have a trace of blue and it was just pure ugly.  But it smells nice, still.   Don't know if it will last.

There is something really sad about ugly soaps.  Soaps should be pretty.   This soap is very ugly.  Even more so than the photo suggests.  I sometimes try to like my ugly soaps.  Try to think of them as ugly ducklings that will turn into beautiful swans.  Sometimes they actually do.  Some of them turn out to have a great lather or smell or feel on the skin and end up as my personal favorite in the bath.  But some are just ugly soaps and there is nothing to be done, but rebatch.  I don't even know if it is possible to rebatch salt soap!

Appart from the failure to turn blue, nothing much went wrong, perhaps I just don't like the coarse salt.  It doesn't have a good feel to it.  Crumbly and difficult.  I need to try it out in the bath to see what it's like.

The recipe was a rather uninspired 30% coconut oil, 25% lard, 20% olive oil, 15% cocoa butter and 10% sunflower.  I put the salt into the soap at trace at the ration 1:1.  The fragrance I used was lemongrass, bergamot and peppermint.  At least it smells nice.  I need to find out more about indigo in soap.  This obviously didn't work.  But what the heck!  Chuck it up to experience.
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Mock orange / Philadephus coronarius - oil infusion

My mother gave me that colander and I use it for all sorts of
things. It's perfect to separate the stamens from the petals.

I have two Philadelphus bushes in my garden.  They are on either side so when I walk into the garden when they are in bloom, the air is filled with this magical fragrance that is so different from any other.  To me it is like the scent of oxygen, if it had any.  Just so refreshing and light and a hint of vanilla.  I have often thought about trying to capture the fragrance somehow and the scent is so unusual.  So this year I decided to collect the flowers and pour oil over them to see what happened.  I have done this with roses and viola, but one of the dogs got into that jar and licked it up!

It is time consuming to collect enough quantity, but I was in the company of eager bees and it was nice and sunny.  The bushes were absolutely covered in flowers so they still looked pretty after I had raided them.  I then tried to isolate the petals from the stamens (the things in the middle of the flowers) and was successful using the old Swedish colander that my mum gave me and shaking it.  Then I put the petals in a jar and poured oil over.  This I let sit for only 24 hours during which I try to poke the petals into the oil.  They tend to float up.  I find that longer time does not work well with Philadelphus petals, they wilt quickly and start to look bad.  When that happens there is no fragrance left in them.  So I strain them out and let the oil sit for a bit.  There are always some impurities and bits that gather at the bottom.  These are water based and and heavier than the oil so they sink to the bottom.  When the oil looks completely clear I pour it into another container.  A turkey baster also works well.

I managed to make two infusions, one with Apricot kernel oil and one with almond oil.  I infused the first 3 times and the second 2 times.  The fragrance that was left in the oil smelled surprisingly of pinapple to me.  It's not the same as the fresh scent of the flowers, especially when I sniff the oil directly.  But when I put it on my skin it smells heavenly.  I intend to make this into a body lotion.  I know that this would never survive a lye bath.

I looked for medicinal uses for Mock orange and found some described for P. lewisii which is the American variety.  I haven't found anything about it's European cousin, P. coronaria, and don't know if they are similar in this respect or not.  But the American mock orange is described as used by native Americans as anti-hemorrhoidal and anti-rheumatic, used as a poultice or in oil.  Apparently the leaves are very high in saponins and can therefore be used instead of soap.  I found that a bit amusing.
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Raspberry/Rubus idaeus - Leaves and berries

They may be a bit smaller that store bought, but what taste.
Our dinnerware is Maria from Rosenthal designed in 1916.
I fell in love with the glass bowls. We use it every day.

I have to admit to feeling a little bit greedy these last few days.  And I am suitably ashamed, as I should be.   The greed has to do with harvesting from nature.  I just have a feeling that I'm missing out and not picking enough and winter will be here soon.

I have completely neglected to pick Birch leaves, and there are so many trees here that I felt I could pick them whenever.  They weren't exotic enough to begin with, but now I want them and I want a lot.  They are good in tea as a diuretic, although I don't really need that as such.  I just want to have a large jar of it.  And then there are the plants that I should have picked in their prime in early summer that are now past their best.  So I am too late.  Oh, horror of all horrors!  I actually have to wait until next spring.  And I am not particularly good at waiting.

But I did find something new the other day and I'm ecstatic.  I found Raspberry bushes growing by the big river that runs through the city.  They are quite close to my allotment garden and seem to have been planted in the 50's or 60's.  They have spread quite a bit in those decades as they are a bit rampant and not something that is suitable to my small garden.  After I found them I visited again, this time with a basket and picked some raspberries.  The berries are almost too ripe, but I managed to get a bowlful.  And they were so good.  I have been eating them with ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.  Very, very healthy.

But I did more than that.  I picked Raspberry leaves.  They have medicinal qualities as so many plants have.  They are particularly good for pregnant women and during childbirth.  the leaves supposedly tone the uterus and pelvic muscles.  But they can also be used for PMS, bedwetting, sore throat, burns and mouth ulcers.  I just love the list of things that each plant can manage to treat.  But one thing is for certain, they contain vitamins C, E, A and some b (niacin), calcium, magnesium, manganese, selenium and iron.  Who needs pills?

But I also was given some rooted shoots and have planted them in my allotment.  The allotment community is planning to plant berry bushes all around the area and that way we should all get our share of berries, Red currants, Black currants and now Raspberries.  I can't wait for next summer and this one is hardly over yet.
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