Soaps That Make ya go....Eh...

Soaping can have its frustrating moments. Sometimes you get a soap that just makes you jump for joy, and sometimes you just think...Eh, I can and have done better!

This week I made my Sweet Love soap as I realized Valentines is almost here and I cannot be out of Sweet Love...but my coloring just did not come out right.
The hearts don't stand out like they should, and add to that the green colored soap wanted to solidify fast and be cranky and not swirl like usual, instead it just flopped  to the side. 

The soap smells wonderful, and it looks nice... but it just doesn't have that "pop" of color like it normally does.
(I am always my own worst critic. )

When embedding my hearts and suns I always have left over soap, so I took some of the left over heart pieces and rolled into balls and threw into the left over soap and poured into a mold. Again....Eh! 

Same thing, green soap flopped to the side and the balls dont have enough color to pop...but my bargain bin fans will be very happy with this addition.

BUT...all is not lost, at least in my opinion...

More left over soap (from making the hearts) poured into another mold, and I LOVE this batch. 

I did an "in the pot" swirl, where I poured the colored portion back into the main pot and poured into the mold. I think it came out great!

Enter to win a bar of soap from this post. 
The winner can choose from of one the above bars of soap, either the hearts, dots or swirls.

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Cats Adjusting to the New House

So we have made the move back to grandmas house and the kitties were brought over for all of our first night there. Simon, my big bad bully siamese...was a big ol coward in the kennel for quite some time. He took a lot of coaxing to come out and explore.

After a couple nights they were all settled happily on their house.

I caught Charlie outside, he has become a master at opening the door, so I put lil pups harness on him and took him for a walk to get him familiar to how the outside of the house smells in case he does escape.

At this house we have a fireplace, and for some odd reason Charlie is obsessed with the vents in the brick. I dont know why he likes to sit and stare at them....odd kitty.

So all in all I think they are getting settled in, at first I wasn't sure as only 1 of the 3 seemed happy here, but now they are all into their routines and playing again.

Soap Room Update

Room is all sheet rocked and taped....all ready for texture and paint....and move on in! :)

The Hubs took out the old window and put in a new one for me.

New Years Eve Snow

Now that I have it figured out how to post pictures again (I was somehow temporarily disabled) I can get caught up on posts. Living in Arizona you don't get much snow, especially where we live. But this year I just thought for sure we would have a white Christmas. It has been about 25 years since we have had one... and I think we are due....well it didn't happen, but new years eve we woke up to this.

I know most people wouldn't call this snow, but this is what we get when it does snow...and I will take it. Before the sun came out it was pouring down snow pretty good, sadly it stopped.

Lil pup didn't much care for it. 

So who did get a white Christmas, and how much snow did you have?
 

Papa Murphys Pizza

We are probably one of the few who have never ate a Papa Murphys Pizza...For one we couldnt grasp a pizza that you had to cook that you didnt buy frozen and two we have a favorite pizza place in town, so if it aint broke....

We had been moving all of Christmas week, so on New Years eve I wanted something quick and easy to make since half the kitchen was in one house and the other half in another. On a whim I went to Papa Murphys to check them out. Boy am I glad I did. I got one of their specialty pizzas that has white sauce, artichoke hearts, spinach and chicken...YUM! Was this ever good!! It comes on the pan to cook it on so it really couldnt have been easier.

We went back again the night our grandson slept over...and knowing he wouldn't care much for this pizza I was happy to find a premade "make your own" pizza kit. They have cheese or pepperoni, he wanted cheese....

...and he did a great job putting it together...

There was also a dessert pizza...I guess we scarfed that down before we could get pictures...and let me tell you, it was GOOD!

So I am sure we will go back again. What is your favorite pizza topping?
 

Soaping Studio Construction Has Begun

We have recently moved back into Grandmas house and will be turning the detached garage into the studio...I am VERY excited about this.

Here is the big ol ugly "before"....

This wall will cut off the room making the studio side temperature controlled, while leaving a portion left as storage for containers and the sheet sets.
 

 The ceiling is all insulated...

 ...and sheet rocked.

Stay tuned later in the week to see the progress. :)

Meatless Monday - Cheese Tortelloni

What to make for dinner? The Hubs had to work late so I looked in the cupboard to try to find something quick and easy, that would keep until he got home. I saw the bag of tortelloni we bought on our last Costco trip....

So how to fix this...boiling it sounds easy enough, but now what do we put on it?? I quickly googled the few things I had on hand and combined a few recipes I found....

1 diced onion
a few cloves of garlic
1 TBL basil
olive oil

I sauteed everything in a pan while the tortelloni cooked....tossed all together...YUMMO!