Bettacreek - New home? Plus a pic of some of the ladies here

[Bettacreek]

Have some computer time and have been desperately researching the various properties of oils on hair. I'm trying to make a good hot oil (for legal purposes, WARM oil) hair treatment. I think I've got my oils picked out, now I just need to do some calculations to get the right amounts of each oil. Have been stalling on the clay mask recipe. Just haven't found a whole lot without having to have other ingredients shipped in, which I cannot afford! So, for now, focusing on the oil hair treatment.
Also hoping to start making my own bread, instead of that garbage, chemical ridden crap they sell at the store. That's my new rant/fascination... bread. Mold won't eat it, so why are we eating it?!

 

[murphysranch]

Betta: I've been away for a few days at my Mother's home.

I wanted to tell you how refreshingly frank your comments were about soap. I've been reading and stock piling supplies, but didn't have the nerve to make any. Heck with it, and just jumped in with both feet. Turned out aok so far. So thank you thank you thank you for your encouragement!

 

[Bettacreek]

Awesome! I'm sure it'll turn out just perfect. It's really not hard or scary at all once you actually do it. I had someone stop at my stand in October to ask what my set up was like. I explained that I just had whatever I could find around the house to use. He was in shock, he was like "are you serious? I've wanted to make soap for years now but never did because all the research I've done has stated that you have to have a proper set up and be super careful". If I had the resources, I'd set up a soaping class so people could understand that it's nothing as crazy as everyone seems to make it sound. The biggest danger, in my opinion, is addiction, lol. So, good luck with your soaping, you'll have to share pictures!

 

[Blackbird]

Jojoba oil!
I use it for my hair.
As close to natural sebum as a person can get, or so I've read.

 

[Bettacreek]

Jojoba oil!
I use it for my hair.
As close to natural sebum as a person can get, or so I've read.

Jojoba oil is supposed to be awesome for hair and skin. Unfortunately I can't afford the stuff! If I had a guarantee that I could sell all of it, that'd be one thing, but I just can't take too much of a gamble with money, not yet. :/

 

[Bettacreek]

So, Friday I had a bunch of appointments and running to do. First was to stop at Domestics to get my support signed over to the assistance office. They made another appointment for me to come back and get my husband for spousal support and up the child support for the boys, since he's now working. Then I had to stop at work for a letter of "termination" stating that I haven't been working since I had no daycare. Then I had the appointment at the assistance office for cash assistance. Right around $400 a month, but I don't think that I'll be getting any payments from them, lol. Next I hit the CCIS (child care information services) where I sat for over an hour calling all the daycares and childcare centers and being rejected (they were all full). Finally someone called back in and I set up an appointment to check her out yesterday. So yesterday rolls around and we head up, everything checks out. She even said that if anyone else needs to pick up the boys, she needs their information, and she requires ID for them to pick the boys up... That was huge in my book, so that conniving little snits like their other grandmother or their father cannot just randomly take the boys. So, the daycare is all set up. As soon as I need her, I just call her and she can take the boys. Now I'm waiting for the next training class at work.
Speaking of the boys, their dad's side of the family, after trying to take custody of the boys, has now decided that they want absolutely nothing to do with the boys. They haven't seen them in three months. No skin off my ass. I feel bad that the boys don't have their dad, but then again, I know that looking at the whole situation, they are MUCH better without the negative influence in their lives. Once they get to be 30 maybe they'll understand that.
As for soap, I have 195 bars of soap for retail purposes. Plus about 20ish bars worth of end cuttings and "personal use" bars (ie, the bars I had to cut to check to make sure everything was cured and the batch that I messed part up when I almost dropped it taking it out of the mold, lol). I'm also laying in bath bombs. It's a little slow because I keep forgetting about them, lol. I'm also working on the warm oil hair treatment and hope to get clay masks done before the show on the 20th. I don't think I'll get to the clay masks, the bath bombs, oil treatment recipe and labelling are keeping me busy.
Archery season is over and I didn't really even get out there. I DO now have a hunting coat, got it way cheap since archery is over, but it's nice, warm and waterproof, and I can just throw a vest over top for orange during rifle.
Bear season is probably a skip this year, which really bums me out, but the tags are $20 and I won't make the first day since we have the show on that day. Jason offered to let me use his rifle, but I just don't think $20 for two days is worth it... Maybe if I could go the first day, but after the first, they're all hiding out or shot. I still have to figure out wtf I'm going to do for rifle deer. I MUST get a deer this year, yet I don't have a rifle and Jas will be using his for himself, lol. I feel like if I don't get a deer, I've wasted the money I spent on licenses and tags ($17 for an archery tag, $20 for the general license, $6.70 for a doe tag). It may not sound like much, but well, I could have at least exchanged the bills for ones and wiped my ass with them and put them to use!

I think that's enough ranting and bullcrapping for now, lol.

 

[murphysranch]

Where in the world you you have 195 bars of soap curing? Oh my gosh - that is just tons! take a pic - I wanna see!

 

[CrimsonRose]

wow that's a lot of soap! LOL

For hair I use plain ol olive oil on mine... works like a dream! Works great on my daughters hair too...

 

[Bettacreek]

wow that's a lot of soap! LOL

For hair I use plain ol olive oil on mine... works like a dream! Works great on my daughters hair too...

I'm glad you say that. Olive oil adds some nice benefits, but I was afraid to add too much of it to the mix of oils because of how heavy it is. I figured it'd end up being hard to wash out and then still leave your hair greasy. Now I can add more to the mix and test 'er out. Testing is why it takes me forever to add anything to the product line, I have to test everything out to make sure that I absolutely love it before I can add it. In a way it's kind of a pain in the arse, but then I know that in the end it'll be worth it. If I don't like it, it raises the chances that people who are paying good money for it won't like it. With the cost of all the "gourmet" stuff, I hope damn well that people love my stuff after putting the money down on it.

I can try to get pictures, but it's really nothing amazing. I have postal boxes flattened out and the bars of soap are all lined on them, each batch gets its own box. I have some on a small book shelf and the rest on a "table" (sawhorses with a big chunk of wood on them). Nothing fancy, lol. But it's clean, critter-free, kid-free and there is enough room.

As for the peppermint/spearmint poppyseed scrubby soap... I finally got to use some in the shower last night. I was prepping for the Steelers game (yeah, GREAT game *taste the sarcasm*) and was trying to rush around and get up there early. I ended up in the shower for over forty minutes, just washing myself over and over, lol. The mints alone would be nice, but the scrubbiness of the poppy seed combined with the tingly of the mint just makes this batch pure ecstacy. I love this soap so much that I actually plan to get more of the oils and make another batch to cut into trial size bars and give them out to anyone who orders after it's cured. I also had to take up a bar of it for the boyfriend and one for his neighbors (good friends of ours'). Of course, it was under the pretense that the guys simply stink so they needed something to make them smell better, lol.
For anyone else who wants to try the peppermint/spearmint with their soap, it's equal parts peppermint and spearmint essential oils, scented to your "taste". I actually used three each of those little flavor oil bottles (expensive as hell, but what can you do? Plus it's so worth it in the end product)... So that's, what, three drams each? I think those things are drams, but the chances are high that I'm miserably incorrect. My recipe calls for 84oz of oil and you use about a tablespoon of poppyseeds per pound of oils, which turned out to be 52 grams for my recipe.

 

[murphysranch]

Betta: how do I know when my soap is cured? They all say to tip your tongue on it and if it zaps, then its not ready. Mine has been sitting around for a week and all my tongue said was "uck - soap". Its 3 oils and lye/water via soapcalc. Feel free to PM me if you want.