A Tale of Two Soap Makers...

I've been quiet lately, but not idle! My company has stayed fairly busy lately so I've been working, tending to sick children here and there (all of them just fine now), playing with food and textiles when I've had a chance... but the coolest thing I got to do/make was natural soap!

My friend Cindy and I had a soap making adventure earlier this week (that she detailed quite nicely on her blog).

Neither of us had ever made cold pressed soap and I really thought it would be a lot more difficult, but with the instructions we followed it was pretty simple and straight forward.

We were a little nervous about handling the lye, but found that it was really not that scary.

(We still, however, took that part out to the garage.)

Came back inside to mix in the oils,

...poured it into our fancy, wax paper-lined molds,

... and swadled in a blanket for the night.

Cut...

...and then place on a rack to dry for 2-6 weeks! I can't wait. It smells so good!

If you've been thinking about it, but haven't known where to begin, check out the link for the instructions above or another help we had was the book Natural Soap Making by Susan Miller Cavitch.

Two batches down and hopefully a few more before Christmas is upon us!