July 2015 – Coastal Carolina Soap Blog

Weekend Ta-Da’s

Last week was the week of frustrating unpluggedness (is that a word?). Tuesday evening, my darling younger daughter in a fit of pique threw her sister’s beach ball across the living room to her, knocking a cup of water over onto my laptop, rendering it inoperable for a few days, especially considering it was spread out in parts on the kitchen table. At the same time, I was working on backing up all the files on my old, very slow desktop computer in preparation for having the hard drive replaced and upgraded. That means I was stuck cooking and traveling. Hey, there are worse things.

I put my laptop back together Friday, and Saturday, my oldest and I headed up to my parents’ house for a cookout. Sunday saw me back in the garden. I have so many cucumbers, enough for at least two more batches of pickles. I also harvested more basil for pesto, which I whipped up Sunday afternoon. In the quiet moments, I worked on my older daughter’s birthday present – a scarf in Gryffindor gold and burgundy – and finished another project. (Yay!!!)

Scarf picture — A glimpse of the Gryffindor scarf I’m knitting for my older daughter

Our weekend ended with a visit to the kittens. In two weeks, I’ll be able to bring my new one home. They’ve gotten to be so playful – climbing, tackling, and chasing strings. One little one kept exploring the crack under the door, and Momma Cat was not happy with that. Momma went to carry her back to a safer spot in the room, and the kitten was ducking and dodging, trying to figure out how to scoot by her. So funny! Of course, there must be the requisite weekly kitten pic…

There will be more wonderment this week, including some fabulous new soaps that are soon to be ready for your enjoyment. Stay tuned…

I Never Thought This Would be Me

Pinterest can be my worst enemy. Pictures of lovely architecture, House Beautiful-worthy living rooms free of clutter and toys. Clever organizational tools put together from thrift store finds. And all this from home educating moms of seven kids who seem to be able to do it all. Seriously, Pinterest is not the website for the insecure.

Our living room is cluttered – painfully cluttered. The girls don’t seem to understand the basic concept of “pick up after yourself when you’re done.” It gets cleaned about three times a year. Other than that, though, I think we are doing well. I never really expected to be doing anything like homesteading. but over the weekend, I was told that I am enviable. OK. That’s pretty nice, though I never expected to be.

We had another weekend of glorious productivity. It started with restocking these beer soaps. On the left (the greyish green) is all natural basil and lime. Essential oils of Thai basil and lime blend together in this delightful blend with notes of licorice, pepper, and lime. The tan soap is Sweet Cinnamon & Clove. This was the first beer soap I ever made, and these bars go quickly.

These are just a few of the cucumbers that came out of our garden. We ended up harvesting about twelve pounds of cucumbers, all of which became delicious bread & butter and dill pickles.

Picture of cucumbers — Cucumbers fresh from the garden

picture of pickles — Bread & Butter pickles

After the cucumber harvest, my youngest daughter and I harvested the first batch of basil for homemade pesto. This was so fabulous on chicken and pasta, topped with home-grown tomatoes!

A friend of ours hooked us up with a lime basil plant. I thought, What in the world am I going to do with this? I was looking up basil recipes online and saw one for strawberry basil popsicles. A local indie popsicle business makes something similar, and I thought the lime take on the basil would be delightful with the strawberry. I blended in a bit of vanilla yogurt, and wow!!! It’s like a virgin strawberry daiquiri on a stick!

picture of popsicle — Strawberry Lime Basil popsicle

And no weekend would be complete without a visit to the kittens. Momma Cat is doing great, and my kitty co-parent/friend and I were both surprised to discover that she tested negative for FIV, Feline Leukemia, and worms, which is quite miraculous, considering that she was a completely outdoor cat until three weeks ago. The girls and I placed a few kittens on the bed to give the tiniest one of the litter a chance to nurse without “the chubbies” pushing her out of the way.

Kitten pic — Worn out kitten. I love her little face!

I don’t consider myself as that enviable. I am simply a woman who enjoys playing in the kitchen when I’m not making soap or enjoying kittens. Cooking, like soapmaking, is sweet alchemy – taking a variety of different ingredients and putting them together in fun, creative ways to make something new. It’s even more enjoyable when I can make something completely new to me, stretching my skills.

The next post will contain suggestions for making DIY easier and doable. I’m not selfish with my recipes, as most of them come from outside sources. Comment if there’s one you’d like.

Getting Back to Basics

Once upon a time, I was a suited-up professional working in a healthcare environment, punching a (mostly) 8-5 clock. Some days I worked until 7 or 8, and I was on call every single weekend. I was rocking the soap biz on the side, working markets one weekend a month. We lived in a townhouse in a nice urban area and could walk to the grocery store if we wanted. Unfortunately, it was uphill coming back. In fact, making soap was the closest I came to doing the neo-hippie-slash-homesteading thing.

A couple of years after leaving that position, it became very clear to us that we were going to be trading urban life for coastal rural life. I was pregnant at the time, so finding a new job wasn’t high on my list of priorities, but making a home was. I had visions of biking places, eating fresh-caught fish on a regular basis, and having our own little garden spot where we could grow our own fruits and vegetables, enough for our family. One out of three ain’t bad.

In the six years since we moved, my business has taken off in unexpected ways, and I have changed in unexpected ways. I never dreamed I’d be home educating my daughters. Our “little” garden spot has had really bad years and really great years, but those great years haven’t yielded just enough for us to enjoy, but enough to share. This year, it’s giving us some to can, too. That’s another thing I never expected to be doing – putting up my own canned goods. We tend to gravitate towards condiments (cranberry mustard, jellies, jams, and butters) and dessert stuff (pie fillings and chocolate sauce), although we have made and put up pickles, Brunswick stew, and chicken soup. These, too, we are able to share.

jars of chocolate sauce — Jars of homemade chocolate sauce that Mary made. Taste better than Hershey’s!

When we lived “in the city,” I didn’t own a working sewing machine; I’m on my second one since we moved, one that my fellow business owner said is “a good one for children” (thanks, Sarah), but which is most definitely a step up from my Singer. I used to sew; when I was a teenager, I made pillows for myself and for gifts, and I’ve done some of that since being married. My long-time customers have seen the bags I’ve made for gifts or to hold bars of soap, too. I’ve made a messenger bag and three purses. Most recently, I’ve sewn curtains, a rather large project, as they’re covering a sliding glass door.

Soapmaking. Canning. Sewing. Knitting. (My oldest daughter is over my shoulder, or I’d show you what I’m working on for her.) I look around at all these things my hands have made, at all the ways I’ve stretched myself to create a warm home and the ways we’ve worked together as a family to achieve it, and I am pleased.

(Next week, look for pictures of homemade pesto and more pickles. I wish I could share our bounty with you.)

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