Country Magik

The logo is here, the logo is here!

2009-11-05T21:52:00.001-08:00

I still need to figure out my graphics software and do some fiddling, but it is done! And I have brand new biz cards and a banner for my Artfire shop to boot!

Run, run as fast as you can!

2009-10-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Boy, was he ever wrong! Not only caught, but turned into wonderful (but inedible) soap. Of course, at the end of the folk tale, the gingerbread man ends up eaten by the fox. This gingerbread man will someday meet his end after getting you soapy clean. Meanwhile, enjoy his yummy-smelling gingerbready-goodness!

Want your own? You can go to the Soap Queen here for the video and list of ingredients. The complete kit is available at Brambleberry.

Don't want to do it yourself? Mr. GBM himself will be in my Artfire store very soon!

Soap crayons

2009-10-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were a little kid going to school for the first time and Mom got you the jumbo crayons for your first day?

They're baaaaack! Bigger, sudsier and smellier than ever! What, your crayons didn't suds or smell? Ok, they smelled but only after the mean kid put them in his armpit......

These smell like ripe summer strawberries which is a whole lot better. A whopping 2.5 ounces of soapy goodness each. In bright Lemon, Apple Green, Blueberry, Grape and Raspberry mica colors.

Almost as good as naptime...and you don't have to share!

Veteran of the Mica Wars

2009-10-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Yet another case of "it seemed like a good idea at the time"

You know them, the little zip baggies full of powder that litter your workshops. Samples sizes offered to get you hooked on this one or that one. I know you've fought with getting a little spoonful out to use......

(If your thinking of something other than mica powders for coloring soap or cosmetics, you really should go somewhere else.....Please.)

So this weekend I decided to put the baggies full of pretty colors into little plastic pots to make them easier to use. I went to the big blue W and got a couple of 24-count boxes of little pots from the beading craft section. Easy to see each pot while keeping them corralled. I sequestered myself in the upstairs studio and proceeded with the transfer process. I am sharing my thoughts on Round 1 for the sake of others. Yes, only halfway through, *sigh*

1) For gods' sakes, wear a dust mask! No seriously, I mean it. Your dog and husband will thank you for not breathing in mica particles and spending the night hacking up a lung. I am thinking about procuring some of these CUTE masks.

2) Wear something that looks pretty when it sparkles. Wash your eyeglasses with water afterwards BEFORE you wipe them off.

3) If the mica has 'Sparkle' in the name, this is code for 'lighter than air particles capable of traveling long distances'. Do not shake the container, or the bag, or even breathe in the general vicinity. Tiny, tiny, tiny taps to settle the powder in the pot or even just poke it with the corner of the baggie.

4) To transfer, cut a corner off the baggie. First though make sure ALL of the powder is residing in the other corner. Or at least a majority, the stuff is stubborn.

5) If you want to reuse the label on the bag to label your pot, peel the sticker off and apply to the lid BEFORE you cut the corner off the bag.

6) Mica loves to live in the bag. It is happy, it doesn't want to move. It will not respond well to flicking, shaking, tapping or other abuse. Rub the bag between your fingers and give it a good massage to loosen it up. Everybody loves a good massage.

7) Mica expands on contact with air. It doesn't look like there is that much in there until you start pouring and find yourself scrambling for another pot. And every color take up a different amount of space. Really, it's one of those immutable laws of the universe.

8) Oh, and wear gloves and keep a damp paper towel handy. Unless you like people to think you have a horrible skin condition. And don't rub your nose.

That's it, except of course for the really important stuff that I have forgotten and will have to relearn in Round 2. I now truly appreciate the hard work our deal----err, that is vendors go through to repackage this stuff in the first place.

If you recognize the BOC song title borrowed for the post title and the classic animated film it was used in, shame on you! Nice people don't watch that kind of stuff! Not that I've ever seen it, or owned a copy on tape and on DVD and the soundtrack. The 'sequel' was meh. I'm sorry I seem to have wandered, what were we discussing again?

Taking the Artfire plunge!

2009-10-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

I did it this time.....I actually listed a couple of soaps for sale.

Country Magik Artfire shop

Since they are currently offering no fees and making a big push for the holidays, I just had to.

It's a lot of work to take pictures and come up with a description and there is room for improvement. But baby steps first!

Started with a couple of MP bars:

Hummingbird & Lily cameo in Burgundy and in Yellow (and I would have posted pictures here but Blogger is having issues).

Have to work on listing some HP bars, and making more soap!

Jack 'o Lantern Soap

2009-10-13T20:16:00.001-07:00

So I procrastinate a bit, and I am lousy at blogging. The punkins (yes, I know that's not how it's spelled) were done last week, but I didn't get pictures. Or write a post. And then I got a mild case of the flu (over a weekend)! So here it is finally.

Glow in the dark jack-o-lantern soap (sans glow):

With glow (after 25 minutes under a fluorescent bulb, 'daylight' photo tent bulb didn't make an impression either):

The brightly glowing blobs in the background? Unmolded glow soap (left) and the raw powder (right) which soaks up even the tiniest bit of light. The eyes and mouth were glowing the following day after unmolding, now.....I got nothing (ok - maybe a tiny, tiny glow).

Mold is one of Brambleberry's Heavy-Duty line. Glow powder and neon orange from TKB. I am sure the glow issue is due to some freakish combo of the color and powder since the "raw" soap is glowing and it wasn't even under direct light.

A word of advice on the neon color: if you think "it just isn't bright enough", Stop. Back away from the bottle and the soap. Look at something pastel for a moment. Then turn back to the soap and reevaluate. It's called 'Eye Poke Orange' for a reason.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

2009-10-01T21:00:00.001-07:00

I love Halloween (aka Samhain aka All Hallows Eve)! Absolutely the most magical day on the calender, followed closely by the Winter Solstice. This holiday isn't just for kids, it's for children of all ages!

A fun soap project for the whole family from the Soap Queen Blog:

http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2009/10/flexy-fast-fall-pumpkins.html

I hope to be able to try out my new jack-o-lantern mold and glow powder this weekend! I will post pictures...That's something else I have to do this weekend...

New slippers

2009-10-01T19:45:00.001-07:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Pulled the trigger

2009-09-26T13:00:00.001-07:00

After almost a year of hemming, hawing and general malaise, I have commited to having a logo designed. Found somone on Etsy that I think will be able to come up with something close to the vision in my head.
I will update with results, hopefully within a week.

Entrepreneur’s Attention Deficit Disorder

2009-09-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.indiebusinessblog.com/2009/09/23/3-step-cure-for-entrepreneurs-add/
Hah! I knew I had a disease! Well another one, at least....

Nothing to see here

2009-09-10T21:35:00.001-07:00

Just doing a little maintenance. Please excuse the dust.

Evil chemicals

2009-08-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Wow.....I lean left but some people are really sheep

http://southernsoapers.com/news/uncategorized/research-before-reacting/

Recycling

2009-08-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

Finally a way to reuse boston rounds!

http://southernsoapers.com/news/all-about-fragrance/recycling-amber-glass-bottles/

Kindle 2 First Impressions on Arrival

2009-04-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

The cover and Kindle 2 shipped in separate boxes. Just the zip-open boxes that are the outer packaging, not inside additional Amazon boxes. The Kindle seems to be fairly secure in its package and it was shipped next-day air so I am ok with it.

It was heavier than I thought it would be. Once you add the leather cover it is probably close to a pound. Doesn't sound like much but it is noticible. I guess it is better than it feeling like some cheap taiwan junk. And still lighter than 1500 paperbacks!

After I plugged it into the wall socket, it took about 1 1/2 hours for the amber light next to the micro-USB plug to turn green. I have no idea how much charge the battery may have already had. The manual says 3 hours for a full charge.

When I turned the Kindle on (actually "woke" it from sleep mode) the free books I had "ordered" from Amazon were already installed along with the User Guide. I had to sync again to get the Welcome Letter and one Mobipocket-format book I sent via email.

I am currently reading "Shadow of the Lion" by Mercedes Lackey from the Baen Free Library. I was reading it on my Palm prior to the arrival of the Kindle and I do prefer the K2. The e-ink display takes a little getting used to. It doesn't quite seem like a real screen.

I have only had the Kindle 2 for slightly more than one day but I can understand now why people are so in love with it.

Currently trying to decide on a skin from DecalGirl so it doesn't look so much like a giant first-gen iPod.

The oven process for soap

2009-03-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

There are 4 videos in this series that illustrates the oven process method for making soap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VSzxN7-20Y

Videos were made by a member of The Dish Forum.

Free magazine!

2009-03-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

The Essential Herbal is giving away a free copy of their March/April 2008 issue in PDF form:

http://www.essentialherbal.com/MarchApril2008forweb.pdf

Farmer's Market coming up!

2009-03-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

The first vendor's meeting for the 2009 Scappoose Farmer's Market was today!

The Market will be in the same location as last year (City Hall parking lot at 2nd & Columbia) and will run every Saturday from May 16th to September 26th. The Sauerkraut Festival will be on September 19th and there is a car show in the Park somewhere in August.

Interested in becoming a vendor? There will be another meeting on April 18th at the Scappoose Public Library (10am-noon)

And you can thank the Federal Government...

2009-02-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

for making it illegal for us to sell our soaps with toys in them after February 10th 2009. The heavy-handed response to the problem of imported dangerous toys (aka: CPSIA) requires products aimed at children 12 and younger to be tested for lead and phthalate content. This is testing that is easy for large companies to absorb the cost of, but impossible for a micro-company like us.

We will still be making decorative soap for our teen and adult customers, but unless the law changes before mid-May no toy soaps at the Farmer's Market.

Lessons learned in the garden

2008-08-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

1) Unless you are a vegetarian with 500 different recipes for green beans, planting one row is sufficient.

2) One zucchini plant is more than enough to supply a family of four and half their neighborhood.

3) You must be ruthless and without mercy when it comes to volunteer tomatoes. Mercy only earns you a tomato jungle instead of a garden.

4) The first year is your "learning" year. And if things don't go well next season, the second year is a learning year too.

5) A sense of humor will save you from going insane (at least that's what the voices keep saying).

"Endangered Species Act? What's that?"

2008-08-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

Bush wants some endangered species rules extinct

Oh, there are so many things I could say about the monumental stupidity of this. I will sum it up:

fox + henhouse = bad

I am a BAD blogger

2008-08-12T18:51:00.001-07:00

I am very bad at keeping up with a blog. I hope the internet gods will forgive me.

Soap Fast Broken

2008-03-30T20:40:00.000-07:00

It's been over 7 months since I last made a batch of soap for a variety of reasons. But today that nonsense is over!!

2 batches were brought forth into the world: BB's Arabian Spice and Turkish Mocha fragrances. The Turkish Mocha is absolutely divine and I will need a bigger bottle as it will be a big seller once people get a sniff! Arabian Spice is just like its name, subtle exotic spices that will carry you away to enchanting lands.

Farmer's Market Coming Soon!

2008-03-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

The Scappoose Farmer's Market starts the 2008 season on May 17th! Same location as the last half of the 2007 season in the City Hall parking lot @ Columbia and 2nd.

Look forward to seeing every one there!

More on Palm oil

2008-02-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

A small add-on to the post about palm oil.

There is an industry group called "The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil" and the website can be found here.

For more on the fight for orangutan survival, click here.

Of orangutans & palm oil

2008-02-25T21:23:00.000-08:00

When I first started making soap, I used palm oil in the recipes because most of the sample recipes in books and on the internet have palm in them. Palm oil is messy because it is solid at room temp so it has to be melted, poured and weighed each time. For that reason and that it didn't seem to help the soap a whole lot, I stopped using it several years ago.

Now there is an even better reason for not using palm or palm kernel oil or, at the very least, being extremely choosey about the vendor.

As a member of the Oregon Zoo, we get a quarterly newsletter about zoo happenings. It seems they are finally giving the orangutans new digs, which they have sorely needed since I was young. Beside that article is one that predicts orangutans will be extinct in the wild within ten years!

The reason for this is man's demand for palm oil. Palm is heavily used by the biodiesel industry as well as many other common household items. Massive amounts of rainforest in southeast Asia are being clear cut to put palm plantations in their place. And without that rainforest, orangutans are not the only ones who will suffer.

About Soap

2008-02-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

Having been on soaping hiatus since September for numerous reasons, the realization has struck that the market season is fast approaching. Today was spent tidying up the storage section of the garage. I have 19 bottles of fragrance purchased since September that are crying out to be soap.

The cleanup was inspired by meeting a great bunch of people at the Soaper's Luncheon in Portland yesterday. You can find details and pictures here thanks to Anne-Marie of Bramble Berry Supplies in Bellingham, WA. Bramble Berry happens to be the source of the aforementioned 19 fragrances. And from the sniffies at the lunch yesterday, I sense another order in the near future. *sigh*

Once the soapmaking begins anew, I will post pictures of the latest creations (assuming I get the whole blog picture-posting thing figured out by then).

Entering the Blogosphere

2008-02-24T19:49:00.000-08:00

So I feel compelled to start blogging. It seems the thing to do these days, to be hip and trendy. And the fact that I actually wrote that should be proof that I am neither.

However it does allow an outlet for creativity and to offer information and insight about my small business. I make no guarantees about frequency or general readability of anything in this blog. But I shall endeavor to make it as interesting as I can or, at the least, not painfully boring!