The Week in Soap: 9th July ’17

The highlight of this last week was a Soapmaking Demonstration that I did for the lovely ladies of the Tremadog branch of the Women’s Institute last Tuesday. I made a batch of Botanica (fragranced with Lavender, Lemon & Lime essential oils) and totally forgot to take a snap of it in the mould, but did take a pic immediately post-cut:

I get so excited when I get the opportunity to do a demo – it’s such a pleasure to be able to witter on (in an informed manner of course 😀 ) about soap to a captive audience! I’m actually in the middle of writing a post made up of tips for giving a soapmaking demonstration, and I hope to be able to share it soon.

The next evening was spent giving my regular Wednesday soapy talk at a local hotel.  It usually starts around 8.45 / 9pm, after the guests have finished diner, and I’m usually home by 10.15 (it’s less than 5 minutes drive away)  I’m never sure how big an audience I’ll have – sometimes there can be up to 20, and occasionally as few as 6, but I always get interesting questions which keep me on my toes!!

On Friday I found out that I’ve been accepted as a stall holder at a huge Christmas Fair that’s held locally over three days in early December.  I got quite giddy – it’s the first time I’ve applied and I’m really excited to be ‘in’.  I’ll have to be so organised over the summer and early autumn to make sure I have enough stock.

I had big plans for a Friday night soaping session, but after I’d done all my prep (melting oils, mixing the lye) I dropped a rather heavy dining chair onto my left foot, and thought I’d broken a toe.  The pain was excruciating, and my toe quickly swelled up to more than twice it’s size.  I’d already mixed the colours for a double batch of Tutti Frutti, so I decided to take a deep breath and carry on through gritted teeth:

That was enough. By this point my toe was throbbing painfully and I could barely walk so my soaping session came to an end and I was persuaded to sit down and rest.

I usually spend a large chunk of Saturday in the office, wrapping and labelling, but this week I just did a few hour in the afternoon so that Dean could go off and start dismantling a greenhouse that we’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on for free (yippee!!) The owners just want it out of their way and didn’t want anything for it. We’re so very grateful – I will certainly be taking them soap as a thank you gift.  This was it before it was dissembled by the way, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we can reassemble it without too much difficulty!!

I didn’t break my toe – by Sunday I could walk fairly easily, and by today (Tues) it feels almost back to normal albeit still pretty black and blue.

Oh I nearly forgot – here’s a cut pic of the Luscious Lavender that I made last week (with apologies for the rubbish lighting):

Hope you all had a great week, thanks for reading, back soon!