Absinthe Treasury

I was thrilled today to find my Absinthe soap in an Absinthe Treasury -- take a look at all the wonderful handmade things!

We are back from new student orientation at USF. Lots of walking tours in the broiling hot sun, sitting in hard stadium chairs and endless PowerPoint presentations. The kids were separated from us parents right away and spent the night in dorms. I didn't read the pamphlet that said to bring bed linens for the dorms, so I spent a frantic lunch hour driving around Tampa until I found a K-Mart where I got a sleeping bag, pillow and towel for Vicky.

I don't know that the orientation really needed to be two days long, but I certainly learned a lot about the university. They put a lot of time and effort into the presentations. I just wish they spent a little more time on presenting academic aspects, and a little less time on athletics, "involvement" in the more than 500 clubs and activities and weekend party buses to Ybor City.

I'm so happy we're home now. I love to get away and see new things, but within a day or so I miss my routines at home and familiar belongings.

Off to Tampa

I'll be gone 6/16-6/17 because I'm taking my daughter to Tampa for the USF new student orientation. Apparently this is a big deal, the kids see advisors and register for their courses, learn about where they get their meals and stay the night in a dorm. Parents are in a parallel program and don't stay with the kids. Somehow I anticipate a lot of walking in the next two days. This thing starts at 8 am tomorrow. I was going to drive up starting at 5 am, but now I'm wondering if we ought to go tonight instead. I'd still be up driving late though. Argh. I don't do well without sleep anymore. It should be exciting, though.

Graduation Photo

Here's a photo of my baby girl receiving her high school diploma. :)

I've been a soapin' fool lately, trying to keep my inventory up and trying new soap fragrances. I've added Sea Sprite Beach Confetti (shown below) and Lilac to my shops recently.

I just soaped a new fragrance, Celtic Moonspice, which presents an interesting soap swirl challenge. The main soap will turn brown eventually as it cures because of its vanilla content. So I held out some of the soap and tinted it with white pearl mica and swirled that in, but you can't see what's going on with the swirl because the whole mass of soap is white while you're doing it. Thus, it's a "blind" swirl. Now that it's been sitting for a couple of days, it's darkening and the light swirl is holding up. It looks pretty, very delicate and feathery. I wish all my swirls turned out that well!

Today I need to make some more Cuppa Chai soap. It's one of those fragrances that you just can't use in CP (cold process) soapmaking because it turns my soap batter into instant "soap on a stick" when you pour it in. Goes from fluid to solid in a heartbeat. This is a fabulous fragrance that I adore and that sells well, but one I have to make in the crockpot via HP (hot process), then the fragrance gets added after the cook results in saponification. I used to make all of my soaps this way, but I find I really do like the fineness and semi-translucence of CP soap more. Still there's something to be said for the slightly lumpier, more rustic look of HP soaps. Well hell, I just love soap period. I'm addicted.

English Language Fun

Did you ever know someone who left rude notes for everyone else to find, like a snotty roommate or the lunch room martinet? If so, you'll love Passive Aggressive Notes. And to round out your reading pleasure, blogs about the abuse of apostrophes and quotation marks. I would like to see someone do something on random capitalization too, like those sites with random words capitalized and you think you might be reading Elizabethan English until you suss out the content.

The past week was a soaping blur. I have almost caught up on all the soaps that were low or completely gone. Today I added White Peach, Vanilla Latte and Cioccalata e Arance back to the shop.