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

[Bettacreek]

My Dr's nurse (who seems to get my preference for homeopathic a whole lot more than Doc does ) told me to take Vit. C at the first sign of a UTI, along with my other stuff. Worked great!

Hmmm...painting naked. Couldn't do it. First, if I caught sight of myself in a mirror Second, I don't want to have to explain to DH how I got paint on weird places

DUH!! Now that's a dunce moment for me. I KNOW that ascorbic acid (Vit C) is awesome for UTI's. Not sure why it didn't click, lol. I've done so much research on UTI's specifically because of the cats, and here I am with a UTI and relying on my nursing education instead of combining that with my previous self-education. Thank you so much for mentioning it!!

As for painting naked, well, I don't get naked with lights on around George, so no biggy, lol. I'm just weird about people seeing me... Too many stretch marks and all that.

 

[pinkfox]

i paint semi nekkid...usually in my underware...i generally get so much paint NOT on me that i couldnt wear my painting clothes for more than a few hours without becomming a paint hazard myself (leaning against a wall ect) so ill paint in my underwear (or shorts and a tank top) and then hop in the shower fully "clothed" pain usually comes out easily while still wet, so it doesnt have time to set before i can get it in the washing machine and its much easier to get paint of skin thn it is to get it out of fabric. i do have to be carefull though as im allergic to latex so i tend to stick with brands i know are lower latex content and dont bother my skin as much.

 

[Bettacreek]

Yup! And, with as sweaty as I was, the paint just wiped off. Even the partially dry spots came right off with an easy wipe. My hands, however, are a different story. I still have paint on my hands, but it's not too bad. At least I can pretend that I've done a lot of work, since my hands have paint on them, lol.

 

[Bettacreek]

Finally got the birds 100lbs of feed. They were on limited rations yesterday and this morning, because I didn't want to run out, lol. So, they were fed the last of the 50lb bag when I got home, and they devoured it like they haven't eaten in three years. I managed to get the feed into their room, but have to let the large trash can dry before putting it in there. My knee is killing me. Driving over there, it was hard to use the clutch because it was hurting that bad... Then to add an extra 100lbs to the 150lbs already on that knee just didn't feel so great. But, it's in there now so it's all good. I'm hoping to get over and try to get some more compost for the garden. The heat isn't half as excruciating today as it has been, but I'm still being lazy... The thought of having to get gas is actually what's holding me up! I'm just being too lazy to walk into the store to pay for it! I don't get myself sometimes... I'm all up for shoveling compost into the car and all that, but too lazy to walk into a store. What gives?!

Tomorrow we're supposed to be going on another bike ride. Another 3 hours on that bike, ugh! My ass is already starting to hurt just thinking about it.

We've got two November shows set up for this year, but I really need to get some more in before then. Online sales are slow as heck and aren't bringing enough in for me. I've been on a very tight budget lately, living on $88/week. George's birthday is this Monday too, plus we still have to pay the vendor fees for those two shows... One's $30 and the other is $50. Luckily, that's for both of us, but we tend to pay them from one person. Usually Leanne has been paying it, because I've been helping her out with her stuff. Now though, with their bike accident, she's been missing out on a lot of work and is struggling with money as well. I'm hoping that the shows go well. The last one, I was the only person to sell soap, and it was a very slow show. Our booth actually did the best, but we hardly broke even. I'm really hoping that it's a good omen that I actually sold some stuff and actually did make a little bit of money at that slow of a show. Hopefully it means that the faster paced shows really help me sell. I changed up molds, packaging and labeling on the soaps, so I'm thinking that with this, I'll do much better. Shows before these changes usually just got me enough to break even, but I liked doing them, so I kept going. Now, with the improvements, I'm feeling good about sales. Especially since someone had actually personally recruited me for a monthly show. I'm still debating on that one. It's a bingo show, with small spaces and I can't imagine that the income would be very great with a set number of people and them being regulars. Of course, if I'm wrong, it could mean that I get some great regular customers. The only thing is, my soaps last a lot longer than one month, so if I am marketing to the same customers each month, they probably won't be purchasing on a regular basis, unless it's for gifts. Closer to holiday season, I'm sure that'll be great though.

 

[hqueen13]

Can you arrange to only do some months at the bingo show rather than every month? I could see where every month would get to be a drag, unless you could be innovative and offer something exclusive each month to really get people hooked. But that is a lot of work to come up with marketing plans like that!!
Best of luck!! I am collecting recipes to corner the market on all things not soap lotion bars, lotion, body butter, chap stick. I'm trying to find a recipe for home made bath salts, but I haven't gotten that far. I saw a recipe for an oatmeal bath, and I didn't save it (stupid me!) and now I have an idea how it might really work nicely! Gah!!

 

[Bettacreek]

I find it best to make your own recipes to be honest. An oatmeal bath can be anything from straight oatmeal to having an ingredient list 20 ingredients long. The best way to formulate a recipe is to look around online, find some ingredient ideas, then see what you can find locally, then go from there. After you really get into it, online ordering is better than locally, because it's cheaper to buy in bulk online for most things. Right now, I have a milk bath type deal that I like, but it's not what I was looking for. I wanted a nice bubble bath with all of the goodies in it, but cocoa butter kills the bubbles. It's still really fantastic, but I could've easily just skipped the SLSa and had a regular product instead of a bad bubble product, lol.

Some good ideas for an oatmeal based bath product:
Corn starch/arrowroot powder/basically any starch (I've never used cornstarch, I can get arrowroot locally for a decent price, so I've always stuck with this)
Milk - any dry milks will do... I just use regular milk, but you can use coconut milk powder, goatmilk powder, etc
Baking soda - buffers pH and critical in any fizzing products
Citric Acid - lowers pH and critical in fizzing products
Clays - you can use just about any clay. Pick one for either the color it adds or for the benefits it provides. You can NOT, however, make ANY kind of claims on your products.
Herbs - use them for label/eye appeal. Herbs aren't going to add much to your product, but they help sell your item, and they can add some texture. Use EO's or FO's to actually add scent


Now those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head and typically the ones I use. Your best bet is to grab some ingredients and toss them in the tub. Find the ones you like and stick with them. Use lesser amounts of the super expensive ingredients. Don't get too fancy, because your product is going to sell more on marketing value than by the $100/lb products that are in it just wasting space and money. I honestly used to make the bath bombs with all the fancy ingredients and then found that the basic bicarb/citric acid bombs sold better anyways. Go figure, lol. Do a good bit of research, research is your best friend. It'll help you save a boat load of money and wasted ingredients. A crafting buddy is good to have around too. I have one girl online I'm working on the bubble bath with. We are basically experimenting and sharing our recipes and what we like/dislike about each recipe. I trust her and she trusts me not to just "steal" a recipe, but it's a nice way to cut on wasted product. We're in essence making the same product, but have different ideas about it and are going different ways with it, but are bouncing ideas around on the fundamentals of the product (basically, the SLSa amount, lol).


As for soap, once you get into the other stuff, you'll be doing soap before long as well, trust me! I originally started because I liked the idea of soap. Never made it because of the horror stories and the hoops you have to jump through to get the lye. Soap is simply awesome. You can make thousands of different recipes, it's no where near as limited as some of the other products. It may seem daunting at first, but do your research and it'll come easily. I did research it for a few years before diving into it though, and it does take a lot of experimentation and start up cost to get it started, but then it's awesome. I've been making soap for a few years now, and just recently started getting into colors and other variations, lol.

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks for the thoughts, Betta!

The oatmeal bath recipe that I found actually recommended putting the oatmeal into a cloth bag or tying up a scrap of fabric, and soaking it in the tub, and periodically squeezing it out. I really like that idea, and think I could include other things like dried herbs (which I can grow myself) that would make it nice and fancy. And of course for some stupid reason I didn't save the link...

I would also like to get into doing my own bath salts, but I haven't figured that one out either. How do they scent/flavor them without them being WET? Obviously adding herbs is easy, but beyond that?? My good friend gets me some "muscle salts" at Whole Foods that are made locally and they are green, and I just don't know how they do it.

It sucks you can't make any claims cause there are SO many health benefits of so much stuff out there!

 

[Bettacreek]

You just need to keep your FO/EO down, mix it and let it dry in an open container. I don't do colorants in them, but that's how people color their bath bombs... They color the salt instead of the other stuff.

As for it being in a "filter", it depends on what you have in your ingredients. If you're using larger herbs, then yes, I agree to use some kind of sieve. If you're making powders (including colloidal/ground oatmeal) it's not necessary. Organza bags can be used and can be quite nice looking, or you can do tea bags. I bought 50 teabags to play around with, but haven't done much with them yet. I use my hot glue gun to seal them... No glue, just the heated tip.

 

[hqueen13]

Huh, who knew. Thanks for the tips! If I can find that recipe for the oatmeal I'll have to share it with you!

 

[Bettacreek]

I have to re-cook my laundry soap. It seperated this time! Ah well, I'll get my canner out and cook it up with that. At least then the canner will be here, though I don't think I'll be canning much from the garden! One bell pepper looks like it's doing alright, others are coming along, but the banana peppers are garbage. I might just stuff a ton of green beans in there and can what I can, then I'll have enough green beans to last a lifetime, lol. I'll have to buy banana peppers this year I guess. Ah well. Next year, I'll know to transplant before blooms start, and I'll do from seed myself, to save on the money. HOPEFULLY then I'll have some home grown peppers for canning. I'm guessing by next year we'll be moved, so I'll have to start all over with the garden again. Now I know when the compost starts though, so I can start on that as early as April, then it should be done long before anything goes into it, lol.

I've also weighed out the cornish x. It looks like I have 3-4 over 5oz that look like they might be hens. I have a few more over 4.5oz that look like they should be hens as well. I'm going to let them go another week before I start making the final cuts, so I can sex them better. I'll keep the heaviest birds, since they're the fastest growing. Ironically, they also seem to be the ones who do the best free-ranging. The ducks are starting to make their goofy teenage noises as well. I'll be picking out all the hens and one drake for breeding. I'm going to try getting them to lay over winter this year, with artificial lights, since with only 8 ducks, I won't have much duck to eat, so I'd really like to get them laying quickly. I'll eat the first eggs of course, then start setting them as soon as possible.