Good morning - Nutmeg Naturals will be at the Holiday Gift Boutique on 11/27/11 at Spector Furniture in Ansonia, CT. The event runs 11/26 and 11/27. If you are in town, stop by for some great local crafts!
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=214379131936144
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
First craft show
Wow, it has been a while since I've blogged. Things got busy! The new school semester started in September and my courses have been keeping me pretty well chained to a textbook, calculator and computer. Throw a craft show and a freak October snowstorm into the mix and that pretty much brings us to today.
We did our first craft show mid-October. Could I have chosen a larger show to do? It was a 2 day, outdoor event with 30,000 people coming. Sales were so-so but we broke even, not bad considering that most of the vendors around us said they did terrible. Other items of interest: the mud and deep fried pickles!
Several days before the show, it just rained continuously, resulting in a huge mud pit at the show. Cars were getting stuck during set up, and the highlight came when the truck carrying hay (to help soak up the mud) got stuck in the mud! I had pictures of this, but unfortunately the computer containing the photos has crashed.
Our location at the show was a good one - facing all the food. We were directly facing the deep fried pickle stand all day...we eventually caved. While our vendor-neighbors refused the try them, they actually weren't that bad. Let's just say we all did a lot of eating that weekend!
More to come soon...
We did our first craft show mid-October. Could I have chosen a larger show to do? It was a 2 day, outdoor event with 30,000 people coming. Sales were so-so but we broke even, not bad considering that most of the vendors around us said they did terrible. Other items of interest: the mud and deep fried pickles!
Several days before the show, it just rained continuously, resulting in a huge mud pit at the show. Cars were getting stuck during set up, and the highlight came when the truck carrying hay (to help soak up the mud) got stuck in the mud! I had pictures of this, but unfortunately the computer containing the photos has crashed.
Our location at the show was a good one - facing all the food. We were directly facing the deep fried pickle stand all day...we eventually caved. While our vendor-neighbors refused the try them, they actually weren't that bad. Let's just say we all did a lot of eating that weekend!
More to come soon...
Friday, September 2, 2011
What I've been up to this week
It has been a busy week. First, hurricane Irene hit the state Sunday. We were without power for only a day, and we were able to clean up our flooded basement fairly easily. All in all, we were lucky. I know people who still do not have power! Fortunately, everyone is safe and no one was hurt.
Next, I started the fall semester this week. I am taking two difficult courses which I expect will be eating up a great deal of time until December. It will be interesting to juggle school, work, and soapmaking!
Last night, I made a rose water and French pink clay soap. It is still in the mold, and quite hot at the moment, but I have high hopes for the soap. Not sure how much of the rose water scent will remain after interacting with the lye, but I have been wanting to make more natural soaps lately and this will fit the bill nicely.
Finally, I have ventured into making bath salts. Talk about instant gratification! Not like knitting, where completing a project could take months, or even like soap making, where you must wait for saponification and curing to occur. Nope, bath salts are pretty much done in 5 minutes! :) I purchased some absolutely gorgeous pink Himalayan salt and mixed it with a blend of lavender and peppermint essential oils. Packaged them up in these adorable quilted 4 ounces jelly jars. Love these! And so easy!
Next, I started the fall semester this week. I am taking two difficult courses which I expect will be eating up a great deal of time until December. It will be interesting to juggle school, work, and soapmaking!
Last night, I made a rose water and French pink clay soap. It is still in the mold, and quite hot at the moment, but I have high hopes for the soap. Not sure how much of the rose water scent will remain after interacting with the lye, but I have been wanting to make more natural soaps lately and this will fit the bill nicely.
Finally, I have ventured into making bath salts. Talk about instant gratification! Not like knitting, where completing a project could take months, or even like soap making, where you must wait for saponification and curing to occur. Nope, bath salts are pretty much done in 5 minutes! :) I purchased some absolutely gorgeous pink Himalayan salt and mixed it with a blend of lavender and peppermint essential oils. Packaged them up in these adorable quilted 4 ounces jelly jars. Love these! And so easy!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
New stuff, continued
Well, so much for waiting until tomorrow to post pictures! I apologize for the messy looking soap molds, but what's inside them looks great, I think!
Some new stuff
Took yesterday (Friday) off from soap making, but back at it today. Today I made an all natural activated charcoal soap, swirling it with my favorite soap recipe which is a rather pale creamy white. No titanium dioxide used, so we'll see how it turned out. Also left it unscented. Apparently, that wasn't enough for me! I have had this mold my father-in-law made for me that I had yet to use. It is solid wood, but kind of an unusual shape, so I wasn't sure what to do with it. I have been jealously looking at the great stuff everyone has been making using molds like these http://www.brambleberry.com/Baltic-Birch-36-Bar-Wooden-Mold-P4708.aspx from Brambleberry, so I decided to use the mold from my father-in-law to make a pretty design on top, which will be the front side of my soap...if that makes sense :) I made one of my old standby recipes - just 2 pounds - mixed the lye and fat mixture together with no scent, and poured that mixture into cups with some pretty fall colors. The colors I used were black (activated charcoal), rust (I hand blended colors to create this), red bourdeaux, and gold sparkle mica. To the main soap mixture, I added pumpkin spice fragrance which smelled out of this world! Poured in the scented mixture into the mold and made some pretty designs on the top with the aforementioned colors. I am sooo excited to see the result, but don't want to let myself get too excited yet! Pictures will be posted tomorrow :)
Happy Saturday!
Jen
Happy Saturday!
Jen
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Back to soapmaking!
So my summer course is finally over and I now have time again to make some soap. Mom has been very busy making tons of batches, but unfortunately, she only has a camera on her phone so I don't have many pictures of her soaps to share. We are gearing up for fall. We've got one confirmed craft show in October that last year had attendance of 30,000! We're just about confirmed for another craft show that will be in a very busy local mall in September. Finally, I was contacted by someone asking if I'd like to participate in their craft show in December so I may be doing that as well. In addition, Etsy sales are coming along nicely. However, I'm feeling extremely uncertain as to how much product we need. I've read to either expect to make 7 to 10 times your entrance fee, or 1% of the attendance of the show. If anyone has feedback on their own experiences, I would love to hear!
Last week I made a great Chai Tea recipe, similar to the Chai Latte I am currently selling. The new recipe, however, is my own creation and is completely vegan. Sprinkled a little bit on cinnamon on top.
I love the way the way soap mixture fell way down through the scented tan colored mixture.
This past Friday, I gave a shot at making some milk soaps. I haven't been making any milk soaps since my class, but was ready to dive in! I made one loaf of soap made with local yogurt and local honey, and another with coconut milk scented with almond. Results of the yogurt/honey soap are below:
The cut soaps are below
The soaps have an interesting, kind of nutty smell to them. I washed my hands with a small piece after cutting, just to try it out and pH test the soap. Even though it is a fresh soap and needs a lot of time to cure, it felt creamy and nice. The soap turned out a bit more rustic and not as smooth as what I am used to, but overall still seems like it will be a nice one. My husband loves the way it smells, and I like that it is made with local ingredients.
I'm still on the fence about the almond coconut milk soap. The smell is improving as time goes by (it was almost too almond at first), but this soap was really a huge challenge to make. It came to trace incredibly fast, and I was about 5 seconds away from having soap in a bowl. Because of the fast trace, I had a lot of difficulty getting it into the mold. The result of the cut bars is some air pockets on the sides that I am not wild about. I think the soap is ugly, but I've used it on my hands and it is fabulous. Maybe folks can overlook its ugliness? :-)
Made some Nag Champa today, with another recipe I created with soap calc. Wish me luck! Have a great week everyone!
Last week I made a great Chai Tea recipe, similar to the Chai Latte I am currently selling. The new recipe, however, is my own creation and is completely vegan. Sprinkled a little bit on cinnamon on top.
This past Friday, I gave a shot at making some milk soaps. I haven't been making any milk soaps since my class, but was ready to dive in! I made one loaf of soap made with local yogurt and local honey, and another with coconut milk scented with almond. Results of the yogurt/honey soap are below:
The soaps have an interesting, kind of nutty smell to them. I washed my hands with a small piece after cutting, just to try it out and pH test the soap. Even though it is a fresh soap and needs a lot of time to cure, it felt creamy and nice. The soap turned out a bit more rustic and not as smooth as what I am used to, but overall still seems like it will be a nice one. My husband loves the way it smells, and I like that it is made with local ingredients.
I'm still on the fence about the almond coconut milk soap. The smell is improving as time goes by (it was almost too almond at first), but this soap was really a huge challenge to make. It came to trace incredibly fast, and I was about 5 seconds away from having soap in a bowl. Because of the fast trace, I had a lot of difficulty getting it into the mold. The result of the cut bars is some air pockets on the sides that I am not wild about. I think the soap is ugly, but I've used it on my hands and it is fabulous. Maybe folks can overlook its ugliness? :-)
Made some Nag Champa today, with another recipe I created with soap calc. Wish me luck! Have a great week everyone!
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