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Hi!
We escaped the house looking for a waterfall and a place to do some panning.
We didn’t find our intended waterfall… Jeff did find a couple of specks of gold though!
Dropped back via Sharons and she took us on an adventurous walk down to see their local falls!!
Off to bed now but thought I’d at least share one photo!
Cheers!

Hi!
Lets start with soap!!
This was the slab in the tupperware container that I made up at the show demo on the weekend.
I took it out of the mould today and cut it.
Really pleased with the bold swirls and chunky size!

Then today I FINALLY got delivery of a package I had been waiting for for I think an eon!!
Its a new loaf mould with dividers so I can do some interesting techniques more easily!

This is called a Taiwan Swirl!!
I’ll have to take a few step by step photos of it next time. The colours are divided longways into strips. The you run a paddlepop stick up and down crosswise.
Then… you run the stick along the outside edge a couple of times which pushes the design thus:

Its going to kill me waiting two days until I can cut it haha
The mixture drops in the mould a lot as the dividers are taken out so I had enough mixture left over to fill a couple of dragonfly moulds

This little fluffy-bum hasn’t been well. She’s been slow since we brought her home. She drinks well but doesn’t eat. The other day in the wind I noticed the poor girl being pushed over by it!!!
So decided she needed to be inside at night and hand fed. She ate a bit to start with, then went off everything but green stuff.
She is so light to hold!
Today I had a breakthrough! I’ve been putting her in the veggie patch for a while with me and thought maybe she’d like the compost – worms…
There was a half hearted attempt at them but not much
So… I took her out and voila! She found this horrible big SLUG and worried at it and pecked it until she finally gulped the whole thing down! (Shudder)
But good!! So I picked up an old cardboard box and found more slugs under it … then she got the hang of worms!! I’ve created a monster! I helped dig but she sucked back so many!!! One we found was huge… I tried to take it away because I like the big worms… but she actually snatched it and ran off with it!! Made me laugh. First bit of real animation I’ve seen in her!
Sadly one of the other new chooks has a cancerous growth on her leg and tomorrow is her last 🙁 Hate this part of owning chooks. She is in the smaller cat carrier inside in the warm tonight
The other three are fine. One I have named Dora. She has found a route over the fallen tree debris and happily just wanders around the back paddocks the naughty girl!! At least she returns.

Rocket seeds ready for collection!

I have a couple at least of these Goldilocks pumpkins growing well

Plenty of beetroot happening – I am still stocked up ok on pickled beetroot but its nice to know I have backup 🙂

That self seeded tomato that popped up out the back is wild! Produces beautiful large cherry tomatoes.

Lots of lovely fresh food is on the table daily. I am not much for photographing meals!! 🙂 Too eager to be eating! Anyway- fresh dug potatoes, that lovely corn and the first stuffed tomatoes of the season!! I have really missed those!

They only take a few minutes under the grill to be ready.
Really enjoyed dinner tonight!
Hope everyone’s week has started ok. I am sure so many of you are affected by lockdowns and closures… and empty supermarket shelves.
Here’s hoping we hear more of people trying to help others out and sharing where needed instead of this grabby me me me attitude we keep seeing reported!!
The next few weeks are going to be ‘interesting’ indeed.
You all take good care!
Cheers!

Hi there!!
Yesterdays show day was a success!
Sharon and I had a great day talking to people about goats milk soap and doing our demo!
Sharon even unexpectedly sold a goat!! (No we didn’t bring one)(Hence the unexpectedness)

Sharon had a big basket of lovely pure natural bars of soap and a smaller basket of her lovely creative soaps – some from classes and others she made. Lots of people were interested in the workshops so hopefully there will be more dates locked in soon!

I hogged most of the space with a lot of soap. 🙂
Again it was rather nice seeing it all displayed out!

The dragonfly soap sold well, so did the lemongrass essential oil soap, the chocolate soap and, interestingly, the honeysuckle that I thought was a bit strong.

People also really liked the slabs of soap!! So, note to self… will do more of those!

Our demonstration went well!! Sharon got momentarily sidetracked with the headset mic and swung into some karioke YMCA with actions to a slightly unsuspecting audience… but then we got into it haha

Margie and her friend Chris came along which was awesome and Kirrily turned up with her new fiance (wow) to buy soap and cheer us on.
Sharon did a great job of explaining the basics while we put together our mixtures. (We pre made the lye and had all the ingredients pre measured)

Sharon made a wonderful tray of soap with some natural clay colours and allowed people in the audience who were interested to come up and decorate the tops with dried flowers or poppy seeds…or both!
I on the other hand went for a complete contrast with one of my loud happy hippy 70’s mixes – will have to take a snap tomorrow!
I also brought along a loaf mix so people could have a go at cutting it!
I rather liked this effect!

Almost like ice cream cake!!

Anyway, it was a long day but pretty fabulous all around. I really enjoyed sharing a stall with Sharon and people were so enthusiastic about our soaps so that was really nice!
I know Sharon sold well and I am happy to report that I sold nearly $400 worth of soap yesterday!! Can you believe it??
The best thing? So. Much. New. Space… in the library to fill… already planning some more creations!

Hope your weekend was as marvellous as mine!
And here are some veggies just to show you that normal life stuff is still happening in the background!

Cheers!

Hi!
Tomorrow is the local agricultural show and Sharon and I have set up a stall among a small group of people who will showcase their particular skills/wares.
As well as (hopefully) selling some of my ridiculous stash of soap, we are booked to do a demonstration of soap making.
I have also a couple of loaves of soap to cut to show people!
We were in the paper today but the link is for a paid subscription… will take a snap of the article to show you later!

I honestly meant to find some time to do a post that wasn’t soap… but looks like I will have to plan for Sunday to finish catching up on that post processing!

I tried another pebble soap – I timed it this time. Took me 50 minutes to dab the loaf full!!! In comparison, it would take only a few minutes or so to fill normally!
Still… its a very pretty effect.

Big events are being shut down on the mainland due to the Coronavirus. They cancelled the Grand Prix but the football is still going ahead!
Anyway, our little show is still on. Last I heard there were 4 confirmed cases in Tasmania.

Well.. I have an early start and a long day tomorrow!
Fingers crossed for some sales – will drop by to let you know how we went!

Cheers!

PS – another soap experiment in the making…

Well this looks a bit weird hey?
Someone (probably me) was up way too late one night since she had overslept for 4 days… and found some new soap techniques
This pebbly kind of design was an exercise in patience. (Because we all know how super patient I am)

Looks like some creepy alien is going to hatch out of those eggs

I did another one tonight and timed it… Took me 50 minutes to fill the loaf mould!
You have to make the mixture pretty thin. I separated into 3 squeeze bottles and you dab the base colour in spots over the bottom of the mould. Then squeeze the second colour on top of the first dot and then squeeze your third colour on top of that.
THEN you repeat. Many times!!

As you can see, if I cut the usual vertical way I’d get an interesting pattern (as seen on the side) but miss the pebbly design that runs horizontally.

Mind you, I only cut one lot as it really hadn’t set enough to handle easily – but I was too excited to wait longer

Above are thin slices from the very end and bottom – not very aesthetic and since the process takes forever, I want the best look out of the soap I can get even if I am taking some of the soap away.
As you can see below – quite the difference!

Anyway, I am pretty happy about how the design worked out and will cut the rest and tidy them up once its hardened up a bit more!

In the background I am working on some of the latest photos but not quite ready – so those stories will have to wait.
We’ve been out in the yard a bit and today FINALLY did a very very overdue tip run. Yay!

Hope your week is going along well!
Cheers!

Hello!
I am feeling a lot better today! Even went into town for a short while!

Nothing much done with my photos but I did get thoroughly over excited about cutting this loaf of soap!
Not bad for my first embed!!

I think I need to buy more embed moulds.

Hope everyone has had a splendid weekend!!
Cheers!

Hi!!
We had some fabulous rainy gloomy days. Would have been perfect to post process a zillion photos and make soap… but…
Have been crook in bed!!
Think maybe food poisoning? Ugh. Who knows. Anyway, no need for sordid details apart from being happy I bought toilet paper BEFORE the Big Australian Meltdown over poo-tickets.
Seriously – people are having fisticuffs in the supermarkets over it!!
What is going to happen when there is a REAL shortage? (Of anything)
Really shows how badly behaved and selfish people can be which is a bit disappointing.
Even in our little town, the supermarket is being stripped of toilet paper!! I went there for something else a few days back and people were lined up with their trolleys full!! I asked the checkout lady if I got bonus points for NOT buying it 🙂

Anyway, I’ve got the hand washing thing totally covered – since soap covers many available surfaces in the house!!
Above was my last attempt at the ‘kaleidosoap’
Getting better-ish. Will have to develop another tool for this at some point.

This is an odd one – the red colour just disappears in the loaf!! I wrote to the supplier and they said its something they hadn’t come across in 30 years of soaping haha – of course!! Its a neat effect but I did want three distinct layers of colour!!

I am liking this chunky effect

Today I finally got up out of bed – actually I had to go to a different bed at about 5am as I was so sore from being in our bed so long!!
Anyway, got up to see how vertical suited me and it went pretty well.
I did a couple of mild domestic tasks and went outside – so nice to enjoy fresh air!! Also had a much needed shower…. and made soap!! haha

I’ve been dying to put this new one together – I had pre made ‘tube hearts’ to embed into a loaf and had enough extra to cut to pop hearts on top.
The theory is when I cut the loaf, it will show a couple of hearts in the middle…
Can’t wait to see if I’ve got it right or muffed it!

Cheers!

(PS – totally write and tell me if toilet paper is the hot commodity in your town!!)

Hello!
We had a nice couple of days so got out into the yard and cleared some of that macrocarpa (burned a lot of the rubbish) and then spent a day doing a few things in the garden.

I was not intending to have a winter garden – apart from the garlic. Just thought I could bed everything down and wait until spring. We’ve just hit autumn and some of the food will continue for a while yet, but it was such a dreadful summer. I think I’d prefer to give it mostly a break

However it is hard to resist a fantastic patch of broccoli seedlings that appeared in the compost, so I relented and cleared a patch, added the cow-poo-straw and transplanted 6 of them.

I am afraid they are going to have to sink or swim – will keep them watered until they establish (or not) and they can look after themselves.
I’ve popped on some netting to thwart the cabbage moth…
So, I might get some I might not but won’t put heart and soul into it!

And lets face it – if they do fail to thrive, at least that mulch will break down and be gorgeous and ready for spring!

This area has been bugging me for a while. Was past time to get weeding and rip out all the parsley and fennel thats long gone to seed. There are plenty of new plants popping up so no need to save them

My wheelbarrow on overload!

Once I had everything cleared I dumped a whole heap of that straw onto the area.
I’ve got some more plain straw ordered – so hoping to top up a lot of the beds over winter with it.

Dug up some self seeded potatoes that were in the way! Not a bad feed for doing nothing!!

Little pumpkins on their way! Will the season hold out long enough?? Dunno. We’ll soon see I guess!

Carrots for the zucchini slice that we had last night for dinner.

These tomatoes are growing rather well – in the middle of all the fallen wood in the yard! Not in a garden. I’ve even picked some ripe ones!! They’ve had no attention at all!

Some of the smaller pieces that Jeff was cutting into more fire friendly sizes.

The weather turned gloomy again today. The wind has kicked up considerably.
I do have some indoor plans. This month I am working on de-cluttering and organising the library. Its time to get tough on all the ‘Stuff’
One month – one room.
With luck I’ll be able to work out a better set of shelving space for all the soap too! (I made another couple of batches today and we are now at soap space crisis haha)

Anyway – its a goal.

Finally getting to eat some corn!! Unbelievably late this season! The kernels are small but its so very sweet!

Hope your week is going along well!
Cheers!

Hello!
I’ve been up to my eyeballs this week with visitors from the USA!!
My friend Franz married a lovely girl, Meg, from the US and has been living there for quite a while.
This is their first trip back to Australia as a family.
We had such a great week – and got their adorable daughters addicted to digging potatoes haha!

Anyway, I’ll get my act together over the next couple of days and catch you up on all the news from my end of the world!!

Sleep time for me and a slow Sunday coming right up!
Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend too!
Cheers!

Check out this armful of gorgeousness!
I popped up to Sharons a couple of days ago and got to cuddle the very new additions to their farm!
Lottie named them Star and Papa-Loco
!!!

Twins – boy and girl. Papa-Loco takes after his mum…

And Star takes after her Dad!

On the soaping front – I made a couple of gift boxes for Valentines Day and posted it on the local noticeboard but had no takers. Oh well… Unfortunately the markets didn’t fall on the right day for me to have a stall.

But they look pretty so will try them on the next stall I do to see if I get any takers…

I’ve also been watching youtube 🙂
Experimenting with a kaleidoscope effect. I bodgied up a tube and bent some wire to pull up through the soap.
First time was pretty cool

I borrowed Sharons tube mould and had a go with a bigger batch and a tool that I melted together out of bubble blowing wands.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of using a fragrance that made the soap mix thicken up super super quickly – I practically had to spoon it into the tube!!
I still got a reasonable effect but there is a LOT of room for improvement.

Could possibly dub these Austin Powers soaps because they are totally groovy…

The leftover mix I popped into the dragonfly moulds.

I got a few orders in with some amazing fragrances and new colours – I’ve had a go at some already. Very keen to make more BUT – friends are due in on Sunday evening so I better get the bedrooms organised, do a bit of housework, organise some meals and bake a cake!!
(And write a list of places to go and things to do!!)

Glad I finally have some tomatoes to feed guests. Feels all wrong without picking boxes of tomatoes daily at this time of year!!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!
Cheers!