Tuesday, February 10, 2009

arranged marriage & RoseHipSoap

First, I was happy to be part of something good today, check out Peggy's blog at HiddenHavenHomestead, I told ya I love matchmaking.

She wasn't my hen but was available to a good home and I knew Fred was looking for a bride. I read Peggy's blog and see the photo's, Peggy's home is The Ritz-Carlton for animals.

RoseHipSoap from Sunday night, after it sat for two days. I think it feels good.

I take it out of the casserole dish, I was setting the dish aside, and DROPPED the soap in the floor. Geez Louise!

So I have odd-sized pieces.


Pieces from the floor and some I cut off.

The consistancy is sort of like cakey cheesecake. Is that what I'm looking for? All the rosehips sunk to the bottom.

The bars below were all in the 4 ounce range.

I set 'em in egg cartons, does that sound good?

See my goat heads?

The turkey bodies were good but the heads fell off. I won't show 'em to Franklin.
I can now see that this soapmaking is going to take some practice. Sure wish I was actually working with an expert but I'll just keep hacking away at it.

9 comments:

Claire MW said...

Well, I'd like to try making goat milk soap someday, so I am really glad that I'm learning through your experiences! I don't know anything about making soap, but thanks to you, I'm learning. Lesson #1: Do not drop soap on the floor. :-)

Alison said...

Aw, you poor thing! How frustrating. Of course, all this hard work will pay off, and then you will be the expert and can snicker at Claire's mistakes...bwahahaha!

Christy said...

The goat heads are so cute! Sorry you dropped the soap. That is the type of thing I would do.

Deborah Niemann said...

Don't worry! You'll get the hang of it. I've been making soap for six years now, and I still have a batch turn out imperfect every now and then, but that's because I get bored doing the same thing all the time. Whenever you try something new with soap, you have to figure that you'll win some and lose some. If you go to my block, there is a soapmaking tag. You might find something useful in all the posts I've done on it. The good thing about soap is that as long as you got your lye-fat ratio right, it doesn't matter what shape bars are in -- they all get you clean!

You can also wet all those little shavings and stick them together to make soap balls. Just keep squeezing and pressing until they're a solid piece of soap. Don't get hung up about how much water to use -- just use enough to make them stick together. If you use too much, they'll just take a little longer to dry.

Crazy Chicken Lady said...

The goat head soap is really nice. Would be a great gift. I've always wanted to learn how to make soap, congratulations, on being brave enough to try it. Any suggestions on a good book about soapmaking? Keep it up... btw..where did you get the goat head molds? Do they have chickens? hehhee

Deborah Niemann said...

I've never found any soapmaking books that I liked. In fact, some have info that is just plain wrong, and they make is seem harder than it is. I have all my favorite soapmaking links on this page of my website: http://www.nigeriandwarfdairygoats.com/fun.html

Joanna@BooneDocksWilcox said...

Thank you Deborah for all the info on your site. I'll be studying it all. Your goats are gorgeous.

Crazy Chicken Lady - I can't remember right now where I found the goat heads online. One of the online stores.

Boozy Tooth said...

Hi Joanna!

Crap about the soap incident. I think it's awesome that you're making soap period! I admire your attempts and the rustic pieces are cool.

I'm home from Dallas and just wanted to tell you that I missed you and did my best to follow your blog on my BlackBerry while I was away. It's good being home and getting caught back up with everyone, though I should probably be doing chores and not spending the day on the computer.

It's in the low 80s here today, so Spring is definitely trying to appear. Believe it or not, our last freeze didn't kill the leaf shoots and our trees are already beginning to green up. Should I send some warm weather your way?

diane said...

no offense but that looks like how mine would turn out if i tried it. LOL!! :)