Friday, March 16, 2012

Yellow Friendship Rosette Soap Tutorial

Today I had to make some soap samples for Out of the box sampler that I will be sending in for the Easter Sampler so I thought I'd make a tutorial to go with it. 

What you'll need:


 
Melt & Pour Glycerin Soap Base (I used white)
Essential oils (I used Coconut Lime Verbena & Lemongrass)
Soap Dye (I used yellow)
Silicone Rosette Mold

All of these items can be purchased at your local craft store.

You'll also need:
1 kitchen knife to cut the soap
A microwave (or double boiler if you don't have a micro)
Pyrex measuring cup (or any microwave safe bowl)

I needed to make 25 rosettes so my portions were large but essentially I just over sized the following:

8-10oz Melt & Pour Glycerin Soap Melted
10-20 drops Coconut Lime Verbena Essential Oil
10 drops Lemongrass Essential Oil
10 drops yellow soap dye

First cut up the soap and put it into the Pyrex measuring cup

 Put it in the microwave and cook for 1 min, remove stir an repeat until melted.


While you're waiting get the mold ready



Get your fragrances and dyes ready to go


Now that everything is melted
add the essential oils




Add the color

Stir and then pour into the mold




Now it's time to wait, let it set.  If you want to speed things along you can put it in the freezer. 





Once set remove from the molds and enjoy your very own
Yellow Rosette of Friendship

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Fog Smog

It was really foggy this morning so I snapped this picture on my way to work.  Stephanie Abrams was asking for Weather out your window pictures this morning so I also uploaded it to the Weather Channel website.  Without further adieu:



Friday, March 9, 2012

Introducing lanyards!

I think I've mentioned that Tyler's sister-in-law recently started a new job.  Well part of her job requires her to wear and ID badge so she asked me to make her a lanyard.  I must admit that she had a great idea, so I've added lanyards to my ETSY shop.  So here you have it my first lanyard.





I quite like it if I do say so mysel. :)  You can see more at my shop: MJsbaublesnbubbles

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Helping out can be fun

So this week I started helping out Tyler's Sister-in-law because she started her new job. I've been getting up at 4am so I can drive across town and watch her 6yr old twins before school. I have to get them up, hepl them get ready for school. Feed them breakfast and then drop them off for school by 7:15. It's a challenge especially on days I work, but family is important and I'm happy to help. To be honest I've had a lot of fun getting the girls ready for school and doing their hair. I took some pictures of my little fashion plates today. I never thought I'd get so much enjoyment out of helping out, but it's been a lot of fun. I don't have to take them tomorrow and I have to admit I'm going to miss the e chicklettes.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

More Roses

Today is my friend Lei's birthday.  So to celebrate I made her one of my famous (well not so famous yet) Soap Rose Bouquets.  It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  It also smelled wonderful.  I fragranced the dark purple ones with Plumeria.  The lavender ones are lavender patchouli.  (I used a bar of the this one today..... LOVED IT!!!) The purple one's are sweet pea.  Lei was really surprised by her gift so I was happy.  Tell me what you think:

I also had fun with hot glue and ribbon to wrap the vase

Lei's favorite color is purple hence the single color scheme

Extreme close up!

I'm happy with the results


Not bad for a Monday nights work!


Catching up

With the arrival of March or to coin a phrase from Homer Simpson: "Smarch" comes Spring Break and the arrival of insanity here in Panama City Beach.  While by no means an excuse for my hiatus from blogging I'm latching onto it as an explanation for my laziness. 

Last week I got to help Tyler with some of the yards he does every week.  I did all of the mowing front and back and he edged, weed eated, and blew everything off.  (I refuse to use those tools, they are too loud.) While the work was strenuous I couldn't help but appreciating the sense of accomplishment I received by completing such a menial task.  Not to mention the praise Tyler heaped on me for what he considered to be a job well done.  Now I'm not sure if he was just praising me so I would help him again or if he really meant it, but I blindly accepted the accolades because it made me feel good.  So without further adeu, here is the front portion my completed yard:




It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.


Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?

With Silver Bells &
Coco Shells &
Pretty Maids All in A Row

It's February 28th

My strawberries are going crazy

I've already eaten several this year.

I'm looking forward to many more

My Pineapple Sage is flowering

The blooms smell just like pineapple

I've been putting the leaves in my ice water

The chocolate mint has never looked better

The Kentucky Mint has gotten so big.

I wish I knew what these little purple flowers were

They have been going crazy.

I love the Viola's

They have been going crazy all winter.



It seems crazy to me that it's Feb 28th and I have all of this foliage.