Halloween Weekend Show

Come on out and visit us this weekend….Saturday October 31 & Sunday November 1, 2009….and get your holiday shopping done early!

We will be at the 3rd Annual Home & Heart Marketplace which is located at Tim's Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, AZ. We have various scented handmade soaps and lotions. We have gift bags already made up to make your shopping even easier.

Admission into the marketplace is FREE to the public!

Words to Live By

Life isn't fair, but it's still good. :)

Bronze Star

Our son was awarded the Bronze Star yesterday. We are so very proud of him and all his accomplishments!

Holidays are approaching fast!

No matter how prepared you say you will be, somehow time slips by you and next thing you know you are far behind. I have already purchased a couple small things for my daughter, but the older your kids get (she is now 21) the harder it is to buy for them. And husbands?? Oy Vay even harder there!


I really want to be ahead and ready this year. Any tips on how to go about that? For one I thought the few things I have purchased I should wrap and tag NOW and start a pile. Because even if you are ahead on buying….well then there is allll that wrapping!

So here is my thought, start buying now. What to buy you ask?? Well pay attention to what your family says and looks at right now…. I noticed while shopping the other day my husband stopped to turn and look back at something…well I am going to go back and get what he spied, one idea down and then it will be one present purchased.

Anyone have any gift ideas? What is the “thing” for teenagers this year? I have 2 teenage grandsons I haven’t the first clue what to buy for them, I seriously doubt they will appreciate my soap, lol.

My Indoor Kitty Caught a Bird??

My kitties are indoor only kitties. I live on a very busy street and I dont want to lose one of my babies, so they cannot go outside, and have never been outside in the 3 years we have had them. Simon the Siamese there up top is my big baby. He is attached to me like glue. On the bottom right is Miss Lily. She is our "special" kitty and asks for nothing but an occasional love, she is very sweet. Then there on the bottom left is our big bad bruiser Charlie. He can be a pill, but we adore him as much as the other 2.


Well tonight around 7ish....after dark.... my husband takes Mr Bills our pup out for his business, and I hear him say "Charlie get back in" so I look over thinking why is my cat outside??!! But he isnt, only his front paws are out the door. So they all come in and my husband is quite calm in asking Charlie what do you have? Over and over he asks....so I finally look over again...hmmm what IS THAT in his mouth and why is he growling? I go to get the kitty to take outside to release what this is....and a bird...A WILD OUTSIDE BIRD...drops out of his mouth!!! I am shocked, trying to grab him and the dog that are trying to get at it while while DH is trying to find a paper towel to retrieve it to get it outside.

What was a bird doing at my back door....how did the cat know this...and how did he snag it in seconds while DH and the dog were coming in the door?? How insane is that? Plus it shows how that is all total instinct being he has never been outside to see or stalk a bird before.

So DH took the bird outside. I do hope he is OK, I dont think Charlie had him long enough to do any damage, but I feel bad. Ah Nature....so cruel. :(

Words To Live By

When you have doubts....just take the next small step.

Fun Soaps

I needed a break from it all, so I made some "fun" soaps this weekend. I am quite happy with my attempts....only one failure...not too bad.


Here is my watermelon scented soapsicle. Should have made the green a little deeper...but I like it.





Here is my rocket soap. I scented them Ginger Lime, I really like the way they came out.






Here is a watermelon loaf soap slice....complete with soap seeds. :) (should have photo'd before I bagged for a better picture.)

Here is my boo boo for the day. I made freesia scented soapsicles. My purple looked good until I added the pink, which looked so awesome it made the purple not so great, but I still like it. I got to the last one...#10, pulled it out of the mold....OOPS...the top didnt stick, lol. Thats okay. 9 out of 10 is all good in my book. :)

Words To Live By

Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

Reaction to Cinnamon??

I was going to post this weekend about the soap rockets I made, but while they were cooling I poured my cinnamon cold process soap. Cleaned all up...took my gloves off....to find my right arm all angry blotchy red. I had no clue what happened, I never felt a burn or tingle, I even turned my glove inside out and found it bone dry. So nothing got in the glove, I am guessing I had a reaction to the cinnamon. I tried to take a picture, but it is hard taking a picture of your own arm so it is blurry.

Thankfully a couple hours later it was all gone, but gave me a scare. I didnt know if I had gotten lye on me or what...my hubby said I would have known if lye got on me, but since I never felt a thing and it went away, I must have an allergy to cinnamon? This was a body safe scent, and I used way under the manufacturers recomended amount, so I am glad I did that or I guess it could have been worse.

On a better note we had a tent at a local function. Didnt do great, but didnt do bad either. Here are some pictures of the set up.

Tweeting on Twitter

I find it hard to gain a following on Twitter, it has finally picked up and I have almost 40 followers. I say WOO HOO to that as it makes me happy to finally start gaining followers, but I see that is chump change to some peoples numbers. So it is a slow going build up which is ok, and here is what I have been learning on the way……

Post something everyday even if it is something small, it can be funny…a quote…or just say hi.

Don’t follow people in hopes they will follow you.

Don’t feel obligated to follow someone that is following you.

Follow who YOU want to read from everyday.

Make random comments. Do a search to find a few posts to comment on.

Tweet about one or two of your items, but don’t make all your tweets only about what you are selling.

Just be personable, because I find people jump on to follow…some in hopes you will follow back, but they quickly unfollow. This can be either because they just wanted follow numbers and got yours…or you are hawking your shop too much you have turned them off. So just be yourself, with some of your products peppered in here and there.

Oh and if you want to follow my tweets…..
http://twitter.com/lustercanyon

Using vanilla stabilizer‏

I am by no means an expert on this, and have only used it this one time, but I thought I would blog my observations for future.

When using fragrances that have a high vanilla content, they will discolor your soaps from a range of tan to a very dark brown. It is all dependent on the vanilla content percentage. Some fragrance oils have none to very little so you never notice a difference in color, but some fragrance oils, such as most bakery scents, have a high vanilla content.

There is a product called vanilla stabilizer. It is used to help rid your soap of brown discoloration. You can use it with fragrance oils that have more than 5% vanilla content. (You should be able to get this information from your supplier.) It won’t make your soap white, in fact I have read that it can yellow your soap if you have a real high vanilla content, but it is to reduce the browning of Melt & Pour and some Cold Process soaps caused by fragrances that contain vanilla. (It will not prevent color changes due to ingredients other than vanilla.)

In order to use it you would mix equal parts Vanilla Stabilizer and fragrance oil, mixing well, then add this to your soap mixture as you normally do. So say according to your recipe you are using 2.5 oz vanilla fragrance, you would also mix in 2.5 oz vanilla stabilizer.

For this illustration I soaped the same scent IFT-Vanilla Bean Noel. One batch I used only the fragrance, and the other batch I used equal parts fragrance and vanilla stabilizer. Quite a difference. Obviously the one on the right is the one without the stabilizer.



Personally, I don’t mind brown soap….well unless it creates brown bubbles and discolors my wash cloth…I just don’t find that appealing, but this dark brown vanilla soap of mine produces white bubbles, so to me I only care about the end result being a good safe bar of soap.

What are your thoughts, would brown color discourage you from purchasing? Is having extra additives in your soap worth it to have a lighter shade of brown?

Words To Live By

Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

Success is Ours!!

YAY we found it. A fellow cacher Kristina (on left) and myself (on right) went back out into the desert to find the cache. We found it in 10mins, so not too bad, but I was actually a little disapointed. It was a good hide, in fact quite hard for a night hide, but being a night time hide I expected reflective tape or something needing our flashlights, hence the need for it to be a nighttime hide. Instead it was a matte black box which would actually be an easy daytime hide. Plus another stage or two would have been more fun and worth the effort over just a 2 stage run. BUT...dont get me wrong...I am not complaining, a cache is a good cache no matter what, and FTF on top of it....well it cant get much better than that now can it? :)

Wandering Wyatts Back in Action....Sort Of

As I have said before we LOVE to geocache, and since we started this business we have had no time right now to be off in the desert looking for hidden tupperware. Well last night before going to bed I noticed there was a newly hidden geocache....and it is a night time only cache. Now I myself have wanted to hide one of these, but you have to have the perfect spot for such a thing....and desert is a little harder than say a nice park with pathways.

So off Mr Wyatt and I go, pupper dog on hand as well. So we pull up to the posted coordinates....along with another car...DRAT another cacher?? Nope, it was 2 girls wondering if we were there to check out that red light also. Well I knew this must be part of our geocache, so we explained it was a game, and after being relieved it wasnt a radar or something they went on their way. So here is Mr Wyatt, Myself, and Billy the geopup off to find our treasure.

We found stage 1 alright....a bright glowing red light catching everyones attention as they drove by. We got the next coordinates....well sort of....110 feet-325 degrees from stage 1. OH....now we have to remember how to project coords....ummm....sure! But we actually did, but the red light was getting so many looks, and my allergies kicked in we had to leave the cache not finding the final stage....but we will be back!! I think it will be a great cache, the owner is now modifying it to not be so noticable to Muggles.

I would have took pictures, but it was night time so nothing would have come out. We have no clue what stage 2 looks like, just that we need a flashlight to find.....Ohhhh the FUN!!!!!

B.R.A.T.

I am home sick on the BRAT diet...well isnt that nice??!! Actually no it isnt, but it is what it is. The BRAT diet is basically Bananas-Rice-Applesauce-Toast. But your toast cannot have butter...you can have jelly though.

So after my doc visit I went to Safeway to get my stuff. I met a super nice lady in the broth section (my sub for B-bananas). She was looking for broth to make chicken for a stray cat that is injured that she is trying to befriend to take to the vet....how nice is that?? Then she gave me a coupon for broth and went on her way. I wish good things for her. :)

For rice...somehow that doesnt sound so good right now, but I found a box of Cream of Rice. I usually eat Cream of Wheat every morning, so I am hoping that is the same.

Applesauce....YUM...Cinnamon only though, so hopefully that is ok, and then toast with jelly. I have a jar of jam our daughter made so I know it is good and not full of fillers my tummy wont like.

So that is the jist of my day, and I am most bummed I cannot make stuff. I have a long list of lotions to get made, but I dont make anything when I am under the weather....so my list will wait.