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

[Bettacreek]

Bringing the incubator over tomorrow, hopefully. It all depends on the weather, which is why it didn't make it for the ride today. Hopefully tomorrow is rain-free so I can get the beast over here, plug it in and get the correct temps on it. I'm SOOO excited. Starting with button quail first, then moving onto chickens (probably before the button quail even hatch, lol).

Forgot to mention that I've also added another item to my little line of products. It's a "kit" to make laundry detergent. I figure if I've got the laundry bars available, I might as well make up the rest of the kit for people who've never tried it before. I figure if it doesn't sell, it's not really any loss, since it doesn't really go bad and I'll eventually use it up. There was no initial investment technically either, since I already had to purchase the product for myself. So, it's a no-lose situation, lol.

 

[Bettacreek]

I made an awesome score today. I was looking for a chest of drawers for the boys' room at the BF's house (which I didn't find), and found not only a cute little rack for displaying my soap ($3) but also found a hand crank, metal shredder (for cheese). I've been looking for one for laundry soap for a little while, and just now found one. It was $12, but worth it in my mind, because it won't be half as much of a PITA to grate my soap (or even cheese blocks for mac and cheese, lol). A woman there had mentioned her grain grinder that was like it. I didn't see any there though. :/ Found canning jars for $0.50/ea which I may go back and get. That's a savings of over $0.25/jar from brand new ones, and the used ones are hard to come by around here.

I also got my swap box from a soap/candle/body product forum. Total of 11 different items. I'm stoked. Two lotion bars, a bubble bar, bath bomb, bath milk, some different soaps, an air freshener, liquid soap (makes me want to get KoH to make my own, lol) and body scrub. I've used the lotion bars, the air freshener (my car smells delicious) and the liquid hand soap already, lol. And, the cool thing about this swap is that everything in it is scented with essential oils only. Plus, I get to have reviews of my newest product (salt bars), so far, they've been good. Someone even said that mine was their favorite out of the entire box! Now praise from majorly seasoned soapers just has me glowing, lol. I can't wait to offer these bars up for sale.

 

[Bettacreek]

Lavender Candle, ready for sale

Black Ice, uncut loaf

Mineral Sea Salt bars curing

Back is the P./S. mint scrubby soap, middle is OMH and front is OMH with oat bran

Mineral Sea Salt bars ready to be wrapped

Black Ice soap ready for sales

Dragon's Blood Salt Soap ready for sales

Honeysuckle, cut and curing

Honeysuckle, wrapped and ready for sales

Clean Cotton Laundry soap, cut and curing

Lavender Buds, wrapped and ready for sale

Lilac, wrapped and ready for sale

Peppermint Spearmint scrubby, wrapped/ready for sale

Oatmeal, Milk and Honey, wrapped/ready for sale

Pine Needles, wrapped and ready for sale

Vanilla, wrapped and ready for sale

Left to right, Marijuana, Fresh Bamboo, Candlelight Wine and Pomegranate Black Currant. These are yet uncut (have to bring my mitre box over to get them cut)

 

[BarredBuff]

Marijuana soap?

 

[Bettacreek]

Yeah, lol. It's just fragrance oil of course, but I thought I'd give it a shot when I found an ounce from another soaper for dirt cheap (wow, an ounce of marijuana for cheap, I sound like a druggy, lol). I think it'll sell more as a gag type thing than for someone to actually use it as a soap. Ah well, whatever the people like, ya know?

Figured I'd update on the incubator as well... Set it up and that baby is holding tight to 100F (stupid thermometer only goes in full degree increments, not tenths of a degree). I'm ready to order eggs now! This Wednesday I'm hitting the auction to see what I can find, plus trying to do some trades of soap for eggs, which I've gotten some interest on already. I really want pekin ducks (meaties), silkies and button quail. I figure that the silkies can be sold (chicks and eggs) and I can eat some of the eggs, once they start laying. Button quail are obviously profit bringers only, and the pekins can be meaties and eggers (sale and eating). I can also pick up fertile eggs for dirt cheap at the auction, hatch em out, and sell them. Even if I have to take them back to the auction to sell them, they'll bring some kind of money back.

I've also got a soaping room now... A big spare bedroom that I can set up all of my soaping supplies. So I have to make or purchase a real drying rack. I've finally checked my lye supply, and have enough lye for at least another 60 8 bar batches. My fragrance oils will last me a little while as well. Which is all good news, because I had to sink about $70 into castor oil and cocoa butter. But that will last me for awhile... making 112 batches from the castor oil, and a LOT of lotion bars and lotions with the cocoa butter. I already traded out almost all of my lotion bars that I had for the show. I believe I have 2-3 left. That order will be here tomorrow, so I'll have plenty of time to get more made before the show on Saturday.

I'm very excited with the changes I've made with my soaps, and the addition of lotion bars and candles. Even my labels look so much nicer now. My friend and I both believe that the changes (better labels, more evenly shaped bars, colorants) will drive sales up at the show. I sure hope we're right.

As for school, I did finally get a letter... Dismissing my claim. I just don't get how they can dismiss someone without having any cause. So... Back to the drawing board. Right now I've just been coasting, doing soaps and such and spending time with the kids. During school, I felt like I didn't have time for them ever, which really sucked. I swear they spent more time with the darned daycare lady than they did with me. I am debating on whether I should just work for a little while, then go for RN school, or if I should try to finish up LPN school. It'll be difficult finishing up my LPN in another school, especially at the very end of a program. RN school costs the same as an LPN program, and people are telling me that if I finish up LPN school elsewhere, I'll have to pay the full $15k tuition again... Seems silly to do that when I can just go for my RN, spend the same amount of money for schooling, and make 150% what I would as an LPN.

 

[Avalon1984]

Wow! I love all your soaps! Looks very neat. What do you use to cut it so that it looks like a clean straight cut?

 

[Bettacreek]

I had to buy new molds (my old molds were plastic and I melted some of them with soap that heated), so I decided to put a little bit of money into it... I spent about $200 on molds, including five loaf molds, a mitre box and a cutter (and some individual bar molds for salt soap). The mitre box is made specifically for those loaf molds, so it makes perfect 1" slices of soap. I used to hand cut the soap, which made some really ugly, uneven bars. Since I like soaping so much, I decided that the investment was worth it in the long run, especially since that mitre box and cutter will last years and years.

 

[Denim Deb]

I dunno, I think doing it w/one of these would be more fun.

 

[Avalon1984]

I had to buy new molds (my old molds were plastic and I melted some of them with soap that heated), so I decided to put a little bit of money into it... I spent about $200 on molds, including five loaf molds, a mitre box and a cutter (and some individual bar molds for salt soap). The mitre box is made specifically for those loaf molds, so it makes perfect 1" slices of soap. I used to hand cut the soap, which made some really ugly, uneven bars. Since I like soaping so much, I decided that the investment was worth it in the long run, especially since that mitre box and cutter will last years and years.

That sounds good! This is how I do my beekeeping too. Everytime there is a modest profit, I grow it a bit more and make things a bit easier. Gotta keep chugging along.

Now how do you come up with these flavors? Does it just come to you?

 

[Avalon1984]

I dunno, I think doing it w/one of these would be more fun. [url]http://serve.mysmiley.net/fighting/fighting0090.gif[/url]