another yummy location

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peace, love and spreading the yummy,

Curds and why?!

It's the next day. The soap has set...and as you can see...there is a layer of oil....and the lovely curdle! lol

As I said in the previous post, this is the 4th, 8lb batch that failed. I will have this figured out Friday. I think the culprit is a lovely coconut milk FO. We shall see......
I will whip up a small test batch and see if it curdles.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

this and that

Well.....today was yet ANOTHER attempt at copacabana (my pineapple & coconut) lovely that use to work. But the last 4 yes, FOUR...8 lb batches curdled!

At first I thought, maybe I just got mixed up and mis-measured. Tried it again. Same outcome...

Then I thought, well, maybe I mis-measured again?! (blonde) So I tried it again. Same outcome...

THEN I thought I'll have someone else measure and I'll fragrance.......SAME OUTCOME.

So today, was the fourth attempt. I ran the recipe thru the soap calc, carefully measured, fragranced and yet again......Can I just throw it out the window?! lol

Seriously. 32 lbs of soap. Makes me crazy!!

Apparently it's an additive. I must have fragranced with a mix of pineapple and coconut and then I found a lovely blend of the two (a different fragrance oil) and have been using that. I suspect it's the culprit.

Tomorrow is festivities with the family...and stuffing ourselves with turkey and the trimmings and ending the night by playing a card game called GUTS. A family favorite! hee-hee

So Friday will be test day. A small batch I'm switching out the suspected FO and see if it curdles.

I will keep you posted!

Happy Thanksgiving! Eat, drink & be merry! :)

peace~love and thankfulness,

been a little naughty?

Maybe you've seen these before, maybe you haven't. I ran across them on etsy, so this is definitely not my idea, but who ever thought of it first...all I can say is.....GENIUS!

What better stocking stuffer than a sack of COAL? Or soap, that is! ;)

Handmade soap made to look like coal. hee-hee I LOVE this idea!

You can use black soap die, but it would probably take a lot to really pull off a deep black color. Activated charcoal is what I used to bring it to this shade of black.

And the smell....well, like Christmas of course! It's a cute gag-gift....but in the end, it's still yummy soap, so the smell had to be the blend of the holiday tree, smelling fresh of Balsam Fir...and gingerbread men, hot out of the oven, with grandmothers pumpkin pie looking sweet on the counter, with a few cranberries & figs thrown in there somewhere. It's luscious and makes me smile ever time I smell it.

Each sack holds roughly 4 oz of soap. The roughly chopped pieces are placed into the bag and cinched at the top. It's stamp reads: been a little naughty? Sack of COAL.

I can see these in many a stocking...so get to makin' some lumps o' coal soapers! It's fun, pretty easy and will make those that receive it, smile.

peace~love~happiness

adorable pastry soaps

I first saw these adorable soaps at jabon-soap blog. They are cute little coconut milk based soaps, set into pastry paper and topped with calendula flowers, rose petals and coffee beans.

And so, I'm sharing my, albeit, not perfect, attempt. :)

I'm posting the recipe found on Nuria's blog
800 gr Olive Oil
150 gr Shea butter
50 gr Castor Oil
225 gr Coconut Milk
122 gr lye
Vitamin E

I doubled the amounts, for a double batch.

First I chilled my coconut milk in the freezer until it was almost frozen, but still in the slushee phase. I slowly added my lye.

Measured out my oils- added my lye mixture and stirred into the oils....until incorporated.

I put out 4 Rubbermaid bowls, to pour off a bit of raw soap into each container, to scent.

I decided to scent with lavender EO, rose absolute, vanilla absolute and a lovely EO blend that I make called zen blend.



I then chose my botanicals or toppings for the soap cakes.....I went with rose petals, coffee beans, calendula flowers and lavender.

Ok, first thing I realized is, you want to put these in the paper, AFTER the soap has begun to set up a little. Where it starts to thicken and you can scoop it like thick applesauce....if not, you end up with too runny, raw soap, that wants to leak out of the papers. You can see how loose the soap cakes are with the lavender on top...

As I plugged along, I realized that thicker soap was important, and thankfully, soap thickens on it's own- so this problem took care of itself and I was able to spoon out portions of soap and top with the botanicals.



In the end, they started to look more like what I had seen, although Nuria's soaps are far more beautiful!



And of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't flub something......I happened to grab the vanilla absolute and add it to the soap that I had already dropped a few drops of red colorant into..which was supposed to be the rose....but turned out to be a vanilla rose. :) These things happen. A lot....... To me. ;)

Also, I asked Nuria if the soap would stick to the paper, assuming it would. She said they would stick, but that she uses two papers, when she fills the soaps. After they set, the next day or so, she easily peels off the paper that has stuck to the soap and replaces it with a new paper. Easy peasy.

Try these adorable little soaps yourself. Wouldn't they be fabulous on a cake pedestal? I'll take more pictures tomorrow after these set.

peace~love~and sharing the knowledge,

a new blog for yummy!

Thanks to Erin with Designer Blogs, such a class act! I HIGHLY recommend her for a revamp of your blog (if you were wanting one.) She's fast, efficient, friendly, everything you could ever want in a blog designer! Smart too!! ;)

Lots of things in the works for yummy. Oh, I can't WAIT to show you what we've got cooking in the soap kitchen. So cute for the holidays too. You'll have to wait for it...I'm still waiting to get it finished. Adorable really...and I'm sure will be in many a stocking this year. I'll get it posted soon so you guys can make some! You'll love it!!

Also the yummy website is being revamped as well. As soon as that's available I'll show it off baby!

Do you like FREE? Yes, of course you do....well, be sure to visit Tammi at myorganizedchaos and see what she's saying about little ol' me! Plus you get to register to get some free goodies......which as Martha would say, is "a good thing!"

The holidays are coming and that means PUMPKIN BREAD! Yay! I've blogged about this scrumptious bread and even shared the recipe.....so be sure to get that! ;) Making that this year to bring to our families festivities. Yum. It's sinful and fat free! hee-hee NOT! REALLY not. Like 3 cups of sugar, NOT! :) But hey, it's good and it's Thanksgiving, which is a time we all stuff ourselves like turkeys! Or maybe that's just me...

Ok dahlings. I'm SOOOO excited to share the latest, albeit novelty item, but still...so cute!

peace~love~happiness,

soaps, lotions & scrubs...oh my!!!

BUSY little bees here at yummy headquarters! Making Lemon Drop Lotions & butter cream sugar scrub...
Sugar Cookie lotion, Land of Milk & Honey butter cream sugar scrubs, Aww Suki Suki soap.....
Lots to do!

On another note...Yummy's Pass the Brewski Soap is in the Etsy Gift Guide....Gifts for Dad! :)



WOOT-WOOT!

Ok, back to work! :)

XOXO

peace~love~happiness,

A little Yummy here and there

Welcome and let me tell you, it's a lovely, cool day here in usually sunny & hot FLA! I love this weather and I'm opening all my windows and will be sucking in this crisp, fresh air!

Today's agenda.....SOAP, SOAP and more (can you guess?) Yes! SOAP!
Citrus oatmeal, berry luscious and candy man. This stuff flies off the shelves! I'm thinking my 8 lb molds need to be bumped up a notch. Not quite ready for the 40 lb slab mold. Can you even IMAGINE?! lol That's one big HUNK of soap!!

Some new happenings......Tammi from My Organized Chaos got her hands on some yummy and is dishing out some reviews of the products. Check her blog out. LOTS and LOTS of info going on there...giveaways, reviews, a 2009 holiday gift guide, she's wheelin' and dealin! She's just reviewed the Let Them Eat Cake, holiday lip balm trio and pucker pot. What did she say?? Well you'll have to read it yourself! :) My Organized Chaos

Also, Paula at Green Colored Glasses who blogs about anything eco friendly and green and you know how Ms. yummy loves~loves~loves earth friendly! Some very cool information here, like crayon rocks made of soybeans, and plastic bags that dissolve in water!

Stop by these blogs and say hi!

TTFN

peace~love~happiness,

Two new locations for yummy

Two more places to 'get your yummy on' :)

Art on 5th
425 5th Avenue
Indialantic, FL 32903

Check it out. Karen is the chic-in-charge. Expect an eclectic collection of watercolors, acrylic and oil paintings, pottery, jewelry, baskets, fabric art, wood carvings, and tikis. Call 724-4490.

and

Shingle Creek Spa
9939 Universal Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32819

Located at the prestigious Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando. Check them out at Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel

peace~love~happiness,

Who needs Mistletoe?!

Fabulous little lotion bars that smell like spiced fig & brown sugar yumminess!
We made a cute little label and it's packaged and ready to go!



The REST of the day was dedicated to serious organizing and cleaning of the soap kitchen. ALL DAY LONG! I realized that most of my 'stuff' was in big boxes and so I moved everything to clear storage containers and now I can actually SEE what's what! Major overhaul at yummy headquarters! I'm pooped! I must say....having everything in an organized space makes you feel lighter....it must be that feng shui thing! :)

peace~love~happiness,

to reformulate or not...

If you're like me, you're constantly looking to improve, improve, improve on an already stellar product ;) Case in point, the chocoholic pucker pots lip balms. Yes they are lovely....a beeswax, shea & cocoa butter loveliness with lots of real chocolate but I wanted to make them MORE lip loving...... so off to the lab.

I love using oats in lotions, soaps, etc but this time I wanted to use an oat infusion in the lip balm base. What a difference! I am loving this new concoction! It's not as hard as a traditional lip balm, so this product would not fair well in a lip balm tube, but the little pot, perfect! It's creamy and stays on your lips for a very long time. My lips feel soft, supple and are seriously drinking this lip balm in! I'm the classic-need-to-drink-more-water person and my lips are constantly dry.... So the difference for me is noticeable.

Also made some more lemon poppy seed soap. Its nothing fancy, but is my best selling soap and is hard to keep in stock. It gets its lovely lemon color from the lemon & lemongrass essentials oils- no colorants or fragrance oils here. Just pure natural soap, plain & simple.


I'm also making the most adorable holiday lotion bars shaped like snow flakes and smelling like some yummy brown sugar & fig scent. Think I'll name this one 'Who needs mistletoe?!' and package it in a carry along tin. Pictures tomorrow dahlings....

AND I've made it before, but today will be a shower jelly, shaped in cute little stocking, Christmas tree and gingerbread man shapes. They are wiggly, like jello and hold scent well. They lather like soap and leave you squeaky clean. Lots of fun. Kids love them. Me too! And I found these little corn based eco-friendly containers to put them in. Gotta love that!

Until next time..XOXO

peace~love & always testing,

Rose Bud

Here are the latest soaps out of the soap kitchen. Handmade with olive oil, coconut oil and cocoa butter. A BIG hunk, weighing in at 6.5 oz and topped with rose buds. It smells so sweet, like a bouquet of roses. I am LOVIN' this!

Until next time, XOXO to you!

peace~love~and smelling the roses,

Simply Scrumptious!

So, it's Sunday and I have been in the mood to bake some cranberry pumpkin bread for some time now. A few weeks ago I posted the recipe that I've been making for years....a seriously good, no fail recipe I might add ;)

It's different than any other pumpkin bread recipe I've seen as this one has orange juice in it. The pumpkin spice is YUMMO! Can you smell it?!

Also made today, was more Hot Spiced Apple Cider, A Romp In the Pumpkin Patch and Fubar Soap! 24 lbs of soap cooling in the kitchen- My house smells interesting....to say the least!

BUT, the icing on the cake involved my 6 year old son....sitting in the kitchen with me, playing on the computer (online games) as he often does. Usually it's Disney.com or cartoonnetwork.com but today, somehow, he found another site.....something called bumarcade.com. So he says, "hey mom, look at what Mario is doing to the princess!" and I walk over and look at the screen and see Mario, albeit fully dressed, dry humping the princess! (jaw-drops) GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (eye's the size of saucers) and a further glance of the page I see barely dressed cartoon girls with big eyes and hooters to match bouncing around! WHAT THE ?!?!

I quickly changed the screen and decided it's time for the nanny software that blocks this type of trash. OMG!!!!!!!!!!

I know you can't keep your kids unscathed forever.....but I'm so loving the innocence he still has.....

It seems like the world is in such a rush to taint him. If I could only hold it off, just a wee bit longer.....
Can I get an AMEN?!

peace~love~and having a heart attack,