Thursday, August 20, 2009

Bio-Glycerin for Plants

I have been doing some reading and came across a few pages that talk about using Bio-Glycerin for fertilizer, aphids, and spider mites, and weed killer. Before I attempt this I think I need to go to OSU and see what the Nitrogen, potassium, and PH level of the glycerin is. Then again I could keep researching and find some answers for myself and those that read this blog. Lets see where my search of the WWW leads me.

I have found there are to types of bio-glycerin. The first is NaOH which makes a great bar of soap because it stays in more of a solid form. NaOH bio-diesel is made from Sodium Hydroxide (lye) It has a jelloish texture. Since it is caustic from the lye it is recommended for weed killer. Remove any remaining methonol before using. While it is heated up to liquid dilute it with water. From making soap I have found that 1 gallon of glycerin to 1 1/2 gallons of water makes a nice soap, but I think you might need to add more for it to come out of a sprayer.

Then there is KOH bio-glycerin which stays in the liquid form. KOH bio-diesel is made from Pottasium Hydroxide. I understand is good for fertilizer if diluted down because it is less harmful to the plants. You also need to remove any methonol that might still be remaining in the KOH glycerin. From everything I have read the fertilizer works best if you add the bio-glycerin into a compost pile.

As for the aphids and spider mites I can only find companys that sell pesticides made from bio-glycerin. I am going to take a guess that it works the same way Dawn detergent does.

If I find out anymoe I will keep you posted.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Hazards of Everyday Soaps and Detergents

When you are washing the dishes do you think, "Am I polluting Mother Earth?" Does it run through your mind the chemicals you are using in your life, around your children, and in your home everyday? What are you doing to the planet when you get behind the wheel of your car? Maybe you think about turning off the lights, or unplugging the appliances. Then your mind wonders off and it is just an after thought. "Is the electricity I am using damaging the Earth?" How about, "Where does my garbage go when I throw it away?" "Should I be recycling?" Then there is the question of, "What are all of the pollutants I am using doing to my body?" That is a scary question if you really think about it.

I have really started to think about all of these issues, as I venture into going green with Bio-diesel soap made from bio-glycerin. I envision a future for all of our future generations to come. This is not a far-fetched dream if we all work together and make it a reality. Baby steps lead to giant leaps.

Lets start with the hazards of our dish detergent, laundry detergent, and body detergent. Yes I call it detergent because it has so many chemicals it is no longer soap. Lets start with why the detergents are harmful to your health, and can cause severe skin irritation. Have you ever thought to yourself, "Why is my skin so dry, tight, and scratchy?" Then look no further, the criminal for your scaly-crawly skin is alkali. The most common irritant in soap. Other ingredients in mass-produced soap are DEA, BHT, Isopropyl Alcohol, and Triclosan (very harmful and found in anti-bacterial soap). All of these ingredients are also skin irritants and harm you in other ways. Plus there are several other chemicals in your detergents that i listed earlier in the blog. If you find these ingredients listed on the label it is not soap IT IS DETERGENT.

The most common ingredient in conventional soap is Sodium Tallowate, which is the process of combing tallow(beef fat) with lye. The reason tallow is so popular is because it makes a hard bar of soap, it is cheap, and very plentiful.

These chemicals are also hazardous to your health because they leak into your bloodstream through the skin and pollute your system. Another way they enter our system is being on the dishes we consume food off of. The number one cause of household poisoning is from dish detergent just for this reason. There is also the fact that they emit gases that we inhale, causing respiratory problems such as; asemtha, bronchitis, and emphezema. On top of this bomb of ingredients we have three huge killers; petroleum, phosphates, and chlorine.

The miscreants of daily detergents and cleaners are petroleum, phosphates, and chlorine. These are very common ingredients found in daily dish cleaners and laundry soaps. All three of these ingredients are harmful to us and the planet. When these chemicals get into our system they cause health problems like; cancer, infertility, and birth defects. Does this have your mind racing? Stop for just a moment and think what it is doing to the planet.

Petroleum based products have their own impact on the plant. It boils down to this; OIL + PLANET= GLOBAL WARMING. The petroleum based products are contributing to the depletion of non-renewable resources. They are also causing dependability upon imported oil. If everyone switched to a Eco-friendly soap that is not petroleum based, we would save 82,000 barrels of oil a year.

Phosphates are another ingredient that causes Mother Earth to cry out in pain. Not so much her as the creatures of the ocean, lakes, and streams. It is used in dish detergent as a water softener, but not in laundry soap. In the 1970s the U.S. government recognized the problem of phosphorus pollution. By the 1990s the phosphate filled laundry soap had restrictions put on it, and the phosphates were phased out. The same recognition was not given to dish detergents though. The reason phosphates are so harmful is they stimulate and propagate the growth of weeds and blue-green algae in the water. In turn this changes the oxygen and other gases of the marine ecosystem. This causes the aquatic life to suffocate and go belly up. It also makes the waters unsafe for humans and other animals. If consumed the phosphates can cause diarrhea, nausea, and skin irritations.

Chlorine bleach is also added to detergents for its sanitizing benefits. It causes many health problems including; skin irritations, respiratory problems, and stomach disorders because it is highly corrosive. When combined with other cleaners it creates toxic fumes that not only do we breath, but are proved carcinogens and that pollute the environment.

This is just some of what I have found on the dangers of our daily cleaning detergents. I am going to keep researching, and I am also going to post on the hazards of other daily household cleaners. Thank you for your time and attention.

Go Green!!!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Bio-Diesel soap made from Bio-Glycerin

Hello Earth friendly people and animals. We are Shauna and Cindy of GreenHouse Effect Soaps. For years we have been polluting our earth with emissions from the oil companies. One result of using crude oils has been the GreenHouse Effect on our planet. This has left us to come up with alternative solutions to save our planet, and eventually reverse the effect we are having on our planet. We all refer to it as Going Green or being Eco-friendly. One method of doing this has been producing bio-diesel gas.

What is left over from the extracting the gas out is bio-glycerin or bio-glycerol. This process is called transesterification, used vegetable oil is broke down into esters (bio-diesel) and glycerol (glycerin). Bio-glycerin is the major byproduct obtained after producing Bio-diesel. Bio-glycerin in its crude form has a many uses, starting from manufacturing soaps to various cosmetic products. Glycerin is one of the most important byproducts of bio-diesel. Now making use of it will reduce the actual cost of bio-diesel produced in any given unit. The glycerin in crude form can be used to make soap, degreaser, cosmetics, lotions, candles, etc…. I have decided to take the glycerin and make environmentally friendly soap. It is 100% Vegtable Oil Base.

Glycerin is a humectant, which means it attracts moisturizer to your skin. Glycerin is also highly hygroscopic, which means it draws moisture from the air absorbing it. Diluted with water it will soften the skin by attracting moisture to it. It is a natural, sweet tasting, and thick liquid that congeals into a gooey paste. It melts at a high boiling point. Bio-glycerin melts down at 150 degrees. You cook it there for 10 to 15 minutes to boil off the rest of the alcohol. Use protective gear when doing this for the gas is poisonous.

Glycerin is an alcohol and is found in plant oils and animal fats. Pure glycerin has the chemical formula C3H5 (OH) 3. Pure, clear glycerin is the byproduct of soap making. After the fats and oils have been treated with lye to form soap, the glycerin is then purified and distilled. It is clear or solid color and colorless. Bio-Glycerin (crude form) has the chemical formula of C3H8O3. As I said earlier it is a bi-product of bio-diesel. All of the alcohol is distilled from the oil; the rest is cooked off in the soap making process. My soap is alcohol free.

There are a few big differences between pure glycerin and bio-glycerin. The first is the hardness. This is due to what pure glycerin has in it; Propylene Glycol, Sorbitol, Glycerin, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Myristate, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Triethanolamine, Water, Titanium Dioxide., and its chemical formula is different. There is the glycerin content all so. Animal fat and plant oils are 7% to 13% in glycerin content. The second is the color. Bio-glycerin is used cooking oil that is processed into bio-diesel. All of the particles are strained from it, but it is still the same color of the used oil. It is 85% bio-diesel and 15% crude glycerin with no chemicals added to make it hard. This is why the soap is kind of soap.

I have taken the leftover glycerin, and have made soap. It is a great product to use because most of your soap today contains ingredients like; Sodium tallowate, sodium cocoyl isethionate, sodium cocoate, sodium laurel sulfate, water, sodium isethionate, stearic acid, coconut fatty acid, fragrance, titanium dioxide, sodium chloride, disodium phosphate, tetrasodium EDTA, trisodium etidronate, BHT, FD&C blue no. 1, D&C red no. 33. My soap only contains the bio-glycerin, sodium hydroxide (lye), and fragrance oils. The apples and cinnamon contains oatmeal and honey

There are a lot of benefits to the lye in the soap. To start with, it is a natural hardener for the soap. It has a natural chemical reaction called saponification+ Water (milks, herbs, teas, coffees) + Fat (oils) + Lye. Reports have also said that it helps with the itch of bug bites, poison ivy, poison oak, body lice, and athlete’s foot, eczema, and psoriasis. If you have a sunburn and lather a nice amount on the burn then wash, it relieves the burn by pulling the heat out (first hand experience). I am no doctor so I CAN NOT recommend you use the soap for these ailments. I am just sharing with you what others have reported. When adding lye use protective gear also. The lye is very caustic.

I use no artificial latherers – my wonderful recipe contains its own natural oils that allow the soap to lather remarkably without the need of chemicals. My proportion of glycerin to sodium hydroxide also dictates the ‘hardness’ of the bars of natural soap. I don’t add chemicals to harden the soap of any type. Some natural ingredients will harden the soap, while having a adverse affect on the soap’s ability to clean, rinse, and moisturize. One of these natural ingredients is beeswax. Beeswax leaves a coating your skin that repels the water off your slick skin. If this is what you are looking for in soap then by all means go for it. If you want a soap that cleans you completely to the point of taking the grease and pine pitch off your skin; leaves your skin so soft that you do not have to use lotion; and keeps you feeling clean and fresh the whole day, then try a bar of mine.

“Saving the Earth one soap sud at a time”

Twitter: Greenhousesoap

Friday, July 24, 2009

Jefferson Oregon 52nd Annual Mint Festival




Hi everyone,

Cindy and I are at the Jefferson Mint Festival this weekend. It is going to be so much fun. Live music, parade, great food, lots of vendors, and the Mint princesses having frog races. If you are in the area you should come join the fun. Here is a little more information about the festivities. Hope to see you there!

The first Mint Festival was held in 1957. The Lions Club, which was chartered in 1951, wanted to create a festival to celebrate the abundance of mint being farmed in this area. This idea gave the City of Jefferson the distinction of being named the “Mint Capital of the World.”

In 1958, as “gimmick” to draw a crowd, Lions Club member Monte Weddle came up with the idea to have a frog jump. The frog jump was modeled after the famous frog jump in Angels Camp, of Calavaras County California. Rules were obtained and revised to fit Jefferson’s needs and Mr. Weddle served as the announcer for the frog jump for the next 25 years.

A princess court has been a long standing tradition. In the past, prospective princesses applied to serve as members of the court. The four or five girls that were selected would work tirelessly to sell tickets as a fundraiser for the festival. The top ticket seller was named “Queen of the Court”.

This Royal tradition continues but with a new change. In 2006, a decision was made to include princely presence to the court. The Royal Princes and Princess’ duties include traveling to other nearby festivals’ parades to represent Jefferson and its Mint Festival.

In the past, the Jefferson Mint Festival included a parade, a dance, quilt show, horse shoe tournaments, and a market place with food, crafts, rides and game booths. This tradition continues with the addition of new activities such as the pancake feed put on by the Jefferson Fire Department and a classic car show.

The Lions Club sponsored the Mint Festival from 1954 to 1987. The Jefferson Community Service organization chaired the festival from 1988-1991 with the Lions Club taking over again from 1992-1995. Since 2002, the Greater Jefferson Improvement Association (renamed Jefferson Area Chamber of Commerce in 2005) has sponsored the event.

The Jefferson Area Chamber of Commerce, along with numerous volunteers who care for our community and continuing tradition, have generously stepped forward to give festival goers an event they can be proud of and look forward to year after year!

Saturday July 25, 2009 schedule of events
  • 5:30 am Hot Air Balloon Launch (Jefferson High School)
  • 6:00 am Jefferson Fire Station Breakfast (Downtown)
  • 9:00 am Swim Meet (Wallace Park Pool)
  • 10:00 am Parade (Downtown)
  • 9:00 - noon Car Show Registration
  • 12:30 - 1:30 Frog Jump Registration
  • 2:00 Frog Jumping Contest
  • 2:00 Horse Shoe Tournament (Wallace Park)
  • 3:30 Grand Prize Raffle and Car Show Awards
Entertainment

mint_fest_09014006.jpg

Can you make money online?: MY PTC SITES

Can you make money online?: MY PTC SITES
Learn about ways online to click your way into cash. Great part time job.

Startup Professionals Musings: Entrepreneur: The Unanticipated Challenges

Startup Professionals Musings: Entrepreneur: The Unanticipated Challenges

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Can you make money online?: Daily niche idea. I just started this.

Can you make money online?: Daily niche idea. I just started this.

Replacing petroleum based cleaning product with Vegtable based ones

Switch to vegetable-based cleaning products. Did you know if every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 28-ounce petroleum-based dishwashing liquid with a vegetable-based product, we could save 82,000 barrels of oil a year? This is enough oil to drive a car over 86 million miles! Vegetable-based cleaning products are becoming readily available in supermarkets across the country, particularly those that specialize in natural foods.

Clik the link above and learn other ways you can help keep the Earth green, or stay tuned to my blog. I will be posting much more soon.

Price Drop on Soap

I have decided to change the price of my soap after this last festival at North Bend, Or. It is really heartbreaking to see the way people are having to scrape by to survive now a days. I sold a few bars of soap which is more than I saw a lot the rest of the vendors their doing. One table I watched sold nothing at all. Gone are the days of people coming to the festivals and blowing a wad of cash on things they absolutely do not need.

One lady did call me today though and would like to order some, she just has no money at the moment. Her daughter is plagued by flea bites and nothing works. She believes my soap will. I told her I would make her a bargain, since she has very little money. I also told her till she is able to buy some I would be more than happy to send her a sample, so her daughter could get some relief from the little blood suckers that feast upon her.

So here it is: Large bars are now $4.00 and small balls are now $2.00. I will be able to buy boxes in bulk on the 1st of the month so shipping and handling will also be coming down.

Please visit my ETCY store and purchase your bar of GreenHouse Effect Soap Today.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

ETSY Storefront

I have a storefront now!!!

I found a great site to sell my soap on and I would love for you to check it out. I'd like to invite you to check out a great website that I know about called Etsy. Etsy is an online marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade. You'll find a creative community of independent artists and designers and the very best in handmade goods, craft supplies and vintage. It's an excellent place to find one of a kind items, to give as gifts - or as gifts for yourself! Since you're buying directly from artists on Etsy, you have the special opportunity to form personal connections with the people who create your treasures.

Signing up is free and easy! Just click here:

http://www.etsy.com/register.php?referral=GreenHouseSoap

To view my storefront click here:

http://GreenHouseSoap.etsy.com

Soap, Soap, Soap

Wow, it has been a week. I just started back to work, and am trying to make soap for the upcoming festival on 7-18-09 in North Bend, Oregon. It is July Jubilee Days on the coast. It should be a lot of fun.

Well every night after work this week I came home and made a batch of soap, minus Friday. I made rain, ocean, apples and cinnamon with oatmeal, and coffee (delicious). Then today I made some liquid soap, since my glass bottles came in. It is pearly black, and the scents are rain and sandalwood.

I also made my first online sale to a twitter follower, BDMitchl.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

What is Bio-Diesel

Wikipedia says Bio-Diesel is-

Biodiesel
refers to a vegetable oil or animal fat based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkylmethyl, propyl or ethyl) esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically-reacting lipids (e.g., vegetable oil, animal fat (tallow)) and alcohol.
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Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines.

Biodiesel can be used alone, or blended with petrodiesel.

"Biodiesel" is standardized as mono-alkyl ester.


Blends-

Blends of biodiesel and conventional hydrocarbon-based diesel are products most commonly distributed for use in the retail diesel fuel marketplace. Much of the world uses a system known as the "B" factor to state the amount of biodiesel in any fuel mix: fuel containing 20% biodiesel is labeled B20, while pure biodiesel is referred to as B100. It is common in the USA to see B99.9 because a federal tax credit is awarded to the first entity which blends petroleum diesel with pure biodiesel . Blends of 20 percent biodiesel with 80 percent petroleum diesel (B20) can generally be used in unmodified diesel engines. Biodiesel can also be used in its pure form (B100), but may require certain engine modifications to avoid maintenance and performance problems. Blending B100 with petroleum diesel may be accomplished by:

  • Mixing in tanks at manufacturing point prior to delivery to tanker truck
  • Splash mixing in the tanker truck (adding specific percentages of Biodiesel and petroleum diesel)
  • In-line mixing, two components arrive at tanker truck simultaneously.
  • Metered pump mixing, petroleum diesel and Biodiesel meters are set to X total volume, transfer pump pulls from two points and mix is complete on leaving pump.

Distribution-

Since the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 biodiesel use has been increasing in the United States. In Europe, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation obliges suppliers to include 5% renewable fuel in all transport fuel sold in the EU by 2010. For road diesel, this effectively means 5% biodiesel. A growing number of transport fleets use it as an additive in their fuel. Biodiesel is often more expensive to purchase than petroleum diesel but this is expected to diminish due to economies of scale and agricultural subsidies versus the rising cost of petroleum as reserves are depleted


Historical Background-

Transesterification of a vegetable oil was conducted as early as 1853 by scientists E. Duffy and J. Patrick, many years before the first diesel engine became functional. Rudolf Diesel's prime model, a single 10 ft (3 m) iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany, on August 10, 1893. In remembrance of this event, August 10 has been declared "International Biodiesel Day".

The French Otto Company (at the request of the French government) demonstrated a Diesel engine running on peanut oil at the World FairParis, France in 1900, where it received the Grand Prix (highest prize). in

This engine stood as an example of Diesel's vision because it was powered by peanut oil — a biofuel, though not biodiesel, since it was not transesterified. He believed that the utilization of biomass fuel was the real future of his engine. In a 1912 speech Diesel said, "the use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal-tar products of the present time."

During the 1920s, diesel engine manufacturers altered their engines to utilize the lower viscosity of petrodiesel (a fossil fuel), rather than vegetable oil (a biomass fuel). The petroleum industries were able to make inroads in fuel markets because their fuel was much cheaper to produce than the biomass alternatives. The result, for many years, was a near elimination of the biomass fuel production infrastructure. Only recently, have environmental impact concerns and a decreasing price differential made biomass fuels such as biodiesel a growing alternative.

Despite the widespread use of fossil petroleum-derived diesel fuels, interest in vegetable oils as fuels in internal combustion engines is reported in several countries during the 1920s and 1930's and later during World War II. Belgium, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and China have been reported to have tested and used vegetable oils as diesel fuels during this time. Some operational problems were reported due to the high viscosity of vegetable oils compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which result in poor atomization of the fuel in the fuel spray and often leads to deposits and coking of the injectors, combustion chamber and valves. Attempts to overcome these problems included heating of the vegetable oil, blending it with petroleum-derived diesel fuel or ethanol, pyrolysis and cracking of the oils.

On August 31, 1937, G. Chavanne of the University of Brussels (Belgium) was granted a patent for a "Procedure for the transformation of vegetable oils for their uses as fuels" (fr. 'Procédé de Transformation d’Huiles Végétales en Vue de Leur Utilisation comme Carburants') Belgian Patent 422,877. This patent described the alcoholysis (often referred to as transesterification) of vegetable oils using methanol and ethanol in order to separate the fatty acids from the glycerol by replacing the glycerol by short linear alcohols. This appears to be the first account of the production of what is known as "biodiesel" today.

More recently, in 1977, Brazilian scientist Expedito Parente invented and submitted for patent, the first industrial process for the production of biodiesel.This process is classified as biodiesel by international norms, conferring a "standardized identity and quality. No other proposed biofuel has been validated by the motor industry." Currently, Parente's company Tecbio is working with Boeing and NASA to certify bioquerosene (bio-kerosene), another product produced and patented by the Brazilian scientist.

Research into the use of transesterified sunflower oil, and refining it to diesel fuel standards, was initiated in South Africa in 1979. By 1983, the process for producing fuel-quality, engine-tested biodiesel was completed and published internationally. An AustrianGaskoks, obtained the technology from the South African Agricultural Engineers; the company erected the first biodiesel pilot plant in November 1987, and the first industrial-scale plant in April 1989 (with a capacity of 30,000 tons of rapeseed per annum). company,

Throughout the 1990s, plants were opened in many European countries, including the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden. France launched local production of biodiesel fuel (referred to as diester) from rapeseed oil, which is mixed into regular diesel fuel at a level of 5%, and into the diesel fuel used by some captive fleets (e.g. public transportation) at a level of 30%. Renault, Peugeot and other manufacturers have certified truck engines for use with up to that level of partial biodiesel; experiments with 50% biodiesel are underway. During the same period, nations in other parts of the world also saw local production of biodiesel starting up: by 1998, the Austrian Biofuels Institute had identified 21 countries with commercial biodiesel projects. 100% Biodiesel is now available at many normal service stations across Europe.

In September 2005 Minnesota became the first U.S. state to mandate that all diesel fuel sold in the state contain part biodiesel, requiring a content of at least 2% biodiesel.

In 2008, ASTM published new Biodiesel Blend Specifications Standards.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Mitchell's Basement Bargains

Visit Mitchell's Bargain Basement.

Read a book today and enjoy a new experience. Things you will find on his website; Mitchell's Elementary Arithmetic, Memorized Multiplication Table Replaced, Super Comic Dog, Trudene's Cookbook, Corkey the Yorkie, and Home Cooking Recipes.

By Billy D. Mitchell author

Visit his site and find other great bargains.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Silver Falls Nature Store

Hello everyone and Happy 4th of July. I hope everyone has something fun planned for tomorrow. We started our 4th today by going to Silver Falls to waterfall hunt. I also went there to take a few samples of my soap for the owner and jury to decide if they want to sell it in there store. I am very excited about this.

Another thing I am doing today is ordering 4 oz amber glass bottles with a pump for liquid soap. I am going to make up a few more batches this weekend. The scents will be rain (big seller), ocean, and apples and cinnamon with oatmeal and honey (a big seller). To date I have sold 23 bars.

I have a festival in North Bend, Or. on July 18th. Then on July 24, 25, and 26th I will be set up at the Jefferson Mint Festival. I am holding off on Saturday Market till August. Maybe not even then depending on the festivals I have that month. I know I have the Summit/ Blodgett Festival and the Kings Valley Renaissance Fair. I have a lot going on, but am up to the challenge of making my American Dream come true.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Taking it easy

I have been pretty busy the past few days, and have not been able to post. I have been taking a break from the soap for a few days. I have to catch up on what I have let get behind form soap making. I have also been doing a little side work. It was cleaning trash out of someones nasty apartment they moved out of. I am so happy I have my Soap to wash the disgusting grime off me.

I have also posted my first bar of soap on E-Bay. It is listed under Bio-diesel soap. I can not figure out how to post a buy it now, so I had to list it for bidding. Can anyone help me out on posting a Buy It Now on E-Bay.

If anyone else would like a free sample please let me know.

Have a great day all and blog you soon.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Free Samples

I have made enough today to be able to offer 10 free samples of soap. One is gone. Try it for free today.

Help save the Earth one soap sud at a time.

Also there is another soap maker offering a Blackberry Amber Glycerin Soap giveaway. Check her blog out and see if you could be the lucky one to receive the wonderful bar of soap.
http://desertsoapstone.blogspot.com/

Donald Daze Festival

WOW,
Today was a great day. We set up shop in Donald Oregon for Donald Daze today. We had so much fun and met a lot of nice people. It started off with a little parade that had a lot of fun vehicles in it. I really liked the old tow truck.

We sold 16 bars of soap. I think that is pretty good for a turn out of 200 or so people. We also sold a basket of soap made from regular glycerin.

While there we met a wonderful lady from Jefferson Or. and the mayor of Jefferson. They told us about the Jefferson Mint Festival. They want us to come set a booth up there. I am so excited.

For everyone that we met today:

Thank you for having us to your great little town. Hope to see you all next year.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Whew, finally finished

I finally finished my 6th and last batch of soap till after Donald Daze. It has been a real fun adventure reaching 200 bars made. Now it is time for the real fun. I have to wrap all this wonderful soap and get it ready to sell.

The scents I ended up with are: Rain, Black Cherry and Plum, White Lilacs and Lavender, Black Currant and Citrus, Apples and Cinnamon withOatmeal Honey, Sandlewood and Amber for the men, and Vanilla -N- Cream.

Read down to the Third Batch Post to here about the special.

Monday, June 15, 2009

First sample

I sent my first sample out in the mail today. I am very excited for the person who ordered it to try it. I know I have never felt so soft.

Get your sample today.

Pictures

The pictures on the side of the blog are of me making the Bio-Diesel glycerin. The first is of me and all the equipment and ingredients I use. I pour them into a large cooking pan and heat them to the point of boiling off any remaining alcohol left over from making the bio-diesel. After it is heated I pour the water/lye mixture in. I cook for 20 more minutes then pour into the molds. I let the soap sit for 24 hours then pop it out. I then cut the soap into bars.