Category: Vintage Sara’s Soaps ‘n Such

Yeah, whodathunk it? The soap production is slowing down a little. I’m making some handcrafted soaps in preparation of my show next weekend, but, despite the oils and lye calling to me from my storage area (“Sara… Ohhhhh Saaaaara” – See, there they go again), I’m resisting the urge. One, I’m seeing the end of my lye and don’t want to place a bulk order this close to our move. That’s just a hazmat hassle I don’t want to have to think about. Two, my five-year-old daughter is on her Spring intersession (a 3-week break from her year-around school) and wants to do things with me. She’s having to forebear some soapmaking and wrapping, because it needs to get done before we can go to the beach next weekend and, let’s face it, the kid’s got her priorities in order. She’s yearning for sea and sand as much as I am!

So, in an effort to include her in things I want and need to get done, she’s been helping me wrap soaps, do dishes and when she makes a mess in the living room, she picks it up and vacuums if necessary. This morning before I’d even finished my morning cuppa, she was asking me when we’d be doing dishes. After slowing her down… and slowing her down… And, “Can I please just finish my coffee before we have to worry about that?” After all that, we got productive. (Um, no, she’s not available for rent, lease, borrow or loan, but you can use her as an example for kids who don’t want to work around the house.)

Another one of my projects that I’ve been wanting to take on is really very simple – fairly healthy breakfast sandwiches for my husband to carry with him to work. I’ve done these before and he liked them “OK”; fat-free cheese slices are apparently very plastic-y, whether they’re melted or just unwrapped. I got the original recipe out of Lean and Lovin’ It by Don Mauer, a local nutritionist who’s put out some great lower fat, lower calorie recipes that still taste good. The original recipe calls for:

English muffins
Egg substitute
Fat-free cheese slices
98% fat-free deli ham
Fat-free buttery spread

Not bad, but… My main thing is, the first time I made these, I trimmed down the ham slices so they’d fit the English muffins better and ate the trimmings. I can’t eat cold deli meat while I’m pregnant, though, so in order to avoid temptation, I opted for Canadian bacon, just like you’d get at that place with the golden arches. So, my variation has…

6 whole wheat English muffins, split into two halves (good for fiber and protein)
6 ounces of egg substitute
6 2% fat cheese singles
12 slices of Canadian bacon (a serving is 3 slices with 1.5 g fat/serving)
Buttery spread
Fresh ground pepper
Olive oil spray (I have an air pump for oil)

This recipe does well with an extra pair of hands or the ability to form a 1-person assembly line. First, start browning your Canadian bacon in a pan you’ve lightly spritzed with the olive oil, about 2 minutes per side. While that’s going, begin toasting the English muffins. As the English muffins come out of the toaster, spread them lightly with the buttery spread (whipped butter is perfectly OK for those who prefer natural products). I find it helpful to put the halves back together while I’m waiting on the bacon so the butter really melts.

Place two slices of Canadian bacon on each English muffin, one on each half. Pour one ounce of egg substitute into the pan and cook it for two minutes, flip it, then cook it for a minute more. Add pepper as desired to cooking egg. While that’s cooking, place a cheese slice on one of the slices of Canadian bacon on the English muffin. Add cooked egg to sandwich, close it, let it cool a bit, then slip it into a plastic baggy.

Repeat until you have 6 sandwiches.

When you’re ready to eat it, open the bag and pop the sandwich in the microwave for 30 seconds or until cheese is melted. Add a piece of fruit, and you’ve got a good, pretty healthy, portable breakfast for 6 days.

I have no idea what the fat and calorie count on this would be; I haven’t checked. Both of mine have given it two thumbs up and enthusiastic “Mmmmmm’s” while nodding happily. I’d guess I spent a total of $10.00 on the ingredients for this (just guesstimating), and I only used up the English muffins. I still have many cheese slices left, a few pieces of bacon and over a cup of Egg Beaters left, so I didn’t use all $10 worth of ingredients. Can’t hit the drive-thru for that!

Late February and March have been busy months for me as I’ve been keeping up with my honey products and learning/practicing/perfecting my swirls. Some batches have turned out great, others are nice and then there was that batch that nearly seized on me. Hey, it doesn’t matter how it gets into the mould, as long as it comes out as good soap.

I’ve been receiving some tremendous help and guidance from a soapbud named Irene. I tell ya, that woman can do swirls that’d make your head spin! She’s really expert at it. I have managed to pretty closely copy one of her amazing creations, found in this Dragonfly Soap.

This soap is scented with a delightful Fresh Cucumber scent. This one has gone fast; I only have three bars left. I made another batch today, but this new batch I scented with Magnolia fragrance. Yuuuummmy!!! Great Spring scents all around!

The other creation that went up tonight is Midnight Lilac, a beautiful lightly floral scented soap. Why midnight? Imagine walking through a lush garden with the light from a full moon pouring silver over all the plants and flowers. This soap is midnight dark with gentle lavender and silver swirls.

Midnight Lilac is a limited time offer; once these bars are gone, that’s it. So go ahead and get yours. It’s the perfect complement to warming Spring days.

Ya know you want to. Yep, that’s right. You want to grab a tube of my newest lip balm, Bee My Honey, a fabulous honey and shea butter all-natural lip balm. Shea butter contains vitamins A & E, both of which are great for the skin, and it also has sun protection properties. Honey lends its sweetness to this nourishing lip balm, and its humectant property also draws moisture from the air to your lips, helping to prevent them from dryness and chapping.

Can it get any better? Of course, it can! This lip balm also contains beeswax that came from honeycombs belonging to a beekeeper right here in North Carolina – Goldsboro, specifically. Yes, you read that correctly. Not only is my beeswax an American product, but it’s also a product of my home state. Not even Burt’s Bees uses American, let alone North Carolinian, beeswax (they import it). The honey I use in these lip balms is from a beekeeper in Georgia. Of course, North Carolina has great honey, but I needed something very dark for one of my products.

Now that the sun has set and the temps are rapidly dropping even farther below freezing, the beautiful winter wonderland will become a giant sheet of ice. Our schools are delayed by two hours tomorrow, which is what I was expecting. We’ll hit some trouble spots where it’s shady, but I don’t anticipate a whole lot of hassle. I’m just glad that DD won’t have to make up yet another day of school, and she’s glad to be going back.

She took some pictures this morning of our lovely snow-draped back yard, but this one is the best. She’s only five but already showing promise of being a great photographer – just as long as she holds the camera steady and keeps her fingers from in front of the lens.

After we napped (well, DH couldn’t settle, I dozed and read and DD napped hard), it was time for… SNOW CREAM!!! Snow cream is a mixture of clean snow, egg, milk, sugar and vanilla, and it’s soooooo good. Tradition says that you can’t make snow cream from the first snowfall, regardless of accumulation, but every significant snowfall after that is fair game. While we ate our snow cream, we watched A Goofy Movie. For some reason, an allusion to Easy Cheese in a conversation made me both want to watch that movie and eat Ritz crackers with Easy Cheese. As much as I’ve groused about the winter weather and the make-up days, I’m going to miss the beauty of a snowfall and the sweet coldness of snow cream when we move to the coast.

What a great, fun day! After a few days of grousing and griping about our seemingly never-ending winter, we got hit with our second snowfall in as many months – pretty unusual for NC weather. Well, my choice was to either sit inside where it’s warm and bemoan the snow (though enjoying its prettiness, albeit out the back door) or live in the moment, bundle up and head outside with my husband and daughter. The choice was easy. After all, is there a whole lot that’s more fun than playing out in the snow with a child? We built a miniature snowman, but most of our outdoor fun is in snowball fights. I tell ya, Special Forces personnel practice for months to be able to dodge projectile missiles like my daughter can dodge snowballs!

This morning first thing my daughter and I grabbed our digital cameras and took some pictures from the back patio. My first impression was of this lovely winter wonderland. Snow- and ice-draped trees started to glow in the early morning sun that was just struggling to break through the heavy, grey clouds.

The second thing I noticed was a sole pink hyacinth, one that had, being as eager for Spring as I’ve been, poked its head up early, beginning to bloom and blossom in response to a brief spell of milder weather. Its white, yellow and lavender sisters are still in sprout stage, having not yet formed buds. I’m hoping this frigid spell with temps bottoming out in the mid-teens won’t do irreparable damage, because I’ve been anticipating their spicy sweet scent coming in the back door as the weather warms enough that we can open windows and doors again. Anyway, this one pink bloom was covered in snow, its pink hue barely discernible beneath its cold, white blanket.

For now, though, it’s time for me to slip into warm bumwear, grab lunch and curl up in front of the fireplace to enjoy a good book and the beauty of our urban winter wonderland, now marred by hundreds of muddy footprints and decorated by a 14″ snowman.

What a great treat for me and for new customers! Last Spring, a sweet family bought some soaps from me – all bee-themed, containing honey, and two of them were moulded in my honeybee and comb mould. Back in early January, I guess it was, the father contacted me about participating in a Bee Festival in April. He’s a beekeeper and was interested in the fact that I use bee products in my soaps. After several emails and a few phone conversations, he asked if he could take some of my soaps with him to some Beekeeper Association events, and I agreed.

I’m excited about a new group of people getting to experience and try my products. The two products I’ve got in stock currently that feature honey are my Oatmeal & Honey Goat’s Milk soap, made of the finest glycerin bases available (American made), and containing real honey and oatmeal. Rick has also hooked me up with some superior, rich, dark amber honey from a beekeeper in (I think) Georgia that’s going to rock in this soap.

The other exceptionally wonderful honey-containing soap I carry is the Soap of Milk & Honey (& Oatmeal!). Just like the biblical Land of Milk and Honey contained good things for its settlers, so does the soap of the same name have all sorts of great, skin-nourishing goodies for its users. Goat’s milk is rich in vitamins A, D and E (all fabulous for healthy skin). Following that comes the rich honey, bringing with it its own antibacterial and humectant properties (meaning it will draw moisture from the air to the skin, making lotions unneccessary). Then comes the oatmeal, which helps soothe troubled, itchy skin.

Using some of these great products Rick gave me – namely, the honey and some beeswax – I decided to try a variation on my lip balm recipe. I’m going to be offering Bee My Honey, a fabulous honey and shea butter lip balm with many nourishing ingredients and the lightly sweet taste of honey. Those should be ready for purchase late this weekend after I’ve gotten them labeled. I’m still debating on making some with added flavors. I’ve got some new ones, including Cafe’ Latte’, Grape Soda and Toasted Coconut, in addition to Chocolate Devil’s Food and Cucumber Melon.

When I make products containing beeswax and honey, I’m going to do everything possible to ensure that these ingredients are American-produced, preferably from North Carolina. After all, the honeybee is our state insect. (Burt’s Bees, now based in NC, imports its beeswax from Ethiopia. And you thought you were getting a completely American product, didn’t you?)

I’m offering those customers from the beekeeping community a special offer. Use coupon code “BeeHappy!” at checkout and save 15% off your order. You’ve still got two months to use this coupon, but, hey, why wait?

As you know, I’m all about creating great and wonderful and new things. OK, admittedly, not everything comes out great and wonderful – some soaps turn out ugly or maybe just not at all what I’d planned. There’s one creation I’m working on, though… One thing that’s great and wonderful and precious and miraculous. Check it out…

Yes, sir, that’s my baby! 🙂 I’m 15 weeks along and enjoying the joys of the second trimester – the increased energy being the biggest one. (Hey, I’m a business owner, and life starts getting busy in the Spring!) Not loving so much the fact that, overnight, my favorite Chico’s jeans went from having to be hiked up to “Holy crap! I can’t get ’em buttoned without sucking in hard!” Unfortunately, the growing baby bump doesn’t allow for a great deal of effective sucking in.

Our little family of three’s very excited about the baby coming, as are our own families of origin and friends. My dear friend and soapbud Shawna is sending me her old maternity clothes, which is a blessing, and God continues to provide wonderful things for us. We’re getting excited about moving, too, though I’m not relishing the packing part. The new start at the coast will be wonderful, though I still won’t be able to enjoy the fruits of the sea like I’d want to until after the baby’s born. (No albacore tuna, mahi mahi or snapper for this mommy-to-be – too much mercury.)

Being pregnant certainly makes soapmaking more of an adventure than it’s been previously. Certain essential oils are off-limits to me because they affect estrogen, lavender EO being the biggest culprit. Guess what’s my favorite to soap and my best seller? Of course, my Ooh La La-vender soap. My nose is sensitive to my fragrance oils, and not in a good way. Oakmoss Sandalwood is my favorite to soap, but the first batch I did with it, I nearly puked. Not promising. Fortunately, I received a bar of OS soap in a recent swap, and it smells sexy to me, thank goodness. So, I haven’t developed a scent aversion to it, which I was afraid of. The hard part is, a fragrance will smell wonderful when I’m soaping it, but 24 hours later, I’ll want to be as far away from it as possible.

I’ll have another picture or two in a few weeks when I go for my anatomical ultrasound. Hubby and I are still largely undecided about whether we want to find out the sex of the baby or not. I’d like to this time so I’ll know if we need to haul down the 18 million bins of girl clothes when we move. He can understand that. However, he wants to be surprised like we were with DD, and I agree that was fun. So… Who knows? We may not find out until August.

It came about because of a Tweet a soapmaking friend posted to Twitter, then it snowballed from there. I received some information about a credit card processing company that provides a virtual terminal that will enable me to accept credit cards at markets, shows and on my website. Well, I already could accept credit cards on my website, but they had to go through Paypal. For a while, I’ve had the sense that some of my customers would rather wait more than two weeks for a check to arrive to me in the mail and clear the bank before they ever received their purchases, as opposed to enjoying the relative speed of paying with a credit card through Paypal.

I’ve been thinking for several months about setting myself up to accept credit cards at shows and markets. After all, it’s easier for some people – particularly at First Sunday – to pay by CC than to find an ATM. I’m always being asked if I take credit cards, and now my answer can be a resounding “YES!” I’m excited about this, because it will make life easier for my customers and give them a greater level of confidence when buying from me online.

It’s one thing to create a great product. And it’s another to know it works most of the time. Part of my “let’s get something accomplished today” schtick was laundry. It wasn’t even altruistic laundry; it was selfish laundry. Simply put, I was out of black socks and my favorite dark blue jeans were dirty.

The other night, one of our cats had gotten spooked by a loud noise and, being the very vocal calico that she is, spent the next few hours making us aware of her displeasure. (Yes, I’m going somewhere with this.) Hubby was quite impressed that she was able to hiss and eat at the same time. Finally I went outside and found some freeze-dried catnip in the pot on the porch. Ahhhhh… Stoned cats don’t growl, hiss or scream, so quiet returned. Well, when one cat’s in a crabby mood, the other picks up on it, so the other cat was also letting us know how upset she was that her sister was in a, well, catty mood. Unfortunately, that cat prefers expressing her displeasure by peeing on clothes, namely mine. The victims this time were a dress and my red satin, fleece-lined VS bathrobe.

Now my point… The red robe went in with the darks, and instead of using the All liquid that hubby had bought while we were waiting for soap to dry out, I dumped all the rest of the first batch of homemade laundry soap into the machine (barely eking out the 2 tablespoons needed). He says the true test of how good the stuff is is how well it gets his nastiest work uniforms clean (so far so good). I put it up against cat pee, and when I moved the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer, there wasn’t the least little hint of cat pee. It really, really worked!

Finally my shreds from the soap I’d made for laundry last week had dried out enough that I could grind them to powder. That soap will get a body clean, but it has no skin-conditioning properties at all. Anyway, I did my 2 parts soap to 1 part washing soda to 1 part Borax, and it’s great. I had wanted to add a bit of essential oil, but all the ones I’d want to use I can’t right now, so I just left it unscented. The mixture (using just 3 bars of soap) made 4 cups of laundry soap – very natural, very environmentally friendly laundry soap. The beautiful part is, I’ve still got 5 bars of that soap leftover, along with some excess powdered soap from today’s batch. Each full load only uses 2 tablespoons of the mixture, so figure 2 tablespoons per ounce, and 4 cups is equal to approximately 32 ounces, so for maybe $2.00 or so, I’ve got soap to do 32 loads of laundry upstairs right now, ready to go. I’m so excited, because this is a little way I get to use my talent and savvy to save my family some beaucoups bucks over the course of a year, and do my part to help preserve our natural resources.

In an effort to keep my stock rotating and fresh, and as I look at what I have currently and look back on last year’s selling trends, I’ve decided as we go into 2009 to phase out my handcrafted Goat’s Milk Soaps and two styles of my handcrafted glycerin soaps: Just Plain Soap and Two-Toned Swirled soaps. I still plan to stock many of these fragrances, but I prefer to make my soaps from scratch now. Doing this ensures a high-quality, at least 96% natural product; and it enables me to make larger batches at a time in approximately the same amount of time. This will ultimately drive down costs over time, which is always a good thing, as I hate raising my prices when the cost of soap base goes up.

I will continue to carry most of my existing “fancy” glycerin soaps – cats, flip flops, the funky sliced soaps and so forth. Those are delightfully creative endeavors for me, so I won’t give them up. I’ve added a purely charming soap to my website, Be Joyful! Be Joyful! is a fun smiley face glycerin soap bearing the utterly uniquely feminine scent of the same name. Be Joyful! was the first Sara’s Soaps ‘n Such exclusive fragrance creation, and now, 7 years later, it continues to appeal to customers. You can just see yourself smiling back at it, can’t you? You can’t help it; it’s that cheery. I gave a bar of this to a friend of mine one day last year, and she told me it still sits in the soap dish by her sink so it can give her a lift first thing in the morning. C’mon! Give it a try! Let it lift your spirits, too.