Day 2 - It walks...

So after poking MamaV with sticks, Juan the Soap Elf abandoned all common sense and went in with a sniffie of tea tree/cedar wood that MamaV has been working on. MamaV's first intelligible words of 2011 were "Needs lavender".

Then she scooped up the essential oils, some Polysorbate 20, and a pipette, stepped on Juan the Soap Elf, and raced to the soap kitchen where she tested the blend in some liquid soap.

We're hopeful that she'll stay on this path of productivity. But if not, we'll keep the poking stick handy.

Where's Mama V?

Sorry, Waldo. No offense.

Mama V seems to have a craft fair this Saturday (9/11/2010) in the "Little Italy" section of Schenectady. To be honest, we're a little worried that she won't make it.

We've seen evidence of soap making as seen in a (since deleted) hastily captured early, early morning shot:

The coffee indicates Mama V was nearby.

But will she be ready?

Latest Ramblings

Tropical Vacation wafts through the soap room. The new mold arrived and was christened. Mama over-estimated the volume so instead of 25 little bars, she created 50 FABULOUS bars. Word on State Street is she ordered 4 pounds of new fragrance.

After the alpha batch finishes curing, it'll be dressed up and sent out to hustle.

Mama has also been bombing again. But these are successful. Mama Has a new technique in mind to create Bath Bomb Pearls. So far, we're not seeing the pearl part, but we love bath bomb testing so we're not telling her.

The Creature - She Walks!

When last we saw MamaV, she was a bit outside our realm of comprehension. Not exactly around the bend but nowhere near sane. In the interim, the dog died, her church closed, several fish swam to the light, and her grandmother went home to Jesus.

But MamaV is better now. If one of her "sassafrassing" soap molds ever arrives, she's all set to soap her face off. We even caught her folding waked paper in the shape of her old log molds. Will she soap? One can never tell.

MamaV is on a break

Since the Mabee Farm festival, MamaV also did a WONDERFUL show with TightKnit.org. It was well run, well attended, and just a lot of fun. Mama has pictures somewhere, but we can't find them.

Right now, MamaV is dealing with a family issue. Mama's Daddy had a stroke. Mama is an only child (can you really blame them for not wanting more?). It's a roller coaster and not in the good vomit when it's over way.

Us elves are busy cleaning the soap shelves and ordering new supplies while she's distracted. If you see a bleary eyed woman driving a purple box around Schenectady, please just pull over and let her pass.

Mabbee Farm Report

MamaV dragged herself home tired, beaten, and elated.


Mabee Farm is an old Dutch farm (the oldest standing home in the Mohawk Valley) that sits right on the Mohawk River. MamaV didn't take the tour, but she said "It's wicked cool!" Yes, she's a knuckle dragger.


Mama's Soap Tent overlooked the river and the skydivers. Sadly, we trusted Mama with the camera. Every time a skydiver landed (3 per plane, one plane each hour), MamaV would stand out in the field, jaw agape, looking skyward. Had it been raining, yes, she would have drowned.


This was MiniV's first excursion with Mama. As you can see, she had a little bit of fun. She crated the display and cheerfully greeted customers. When PapaV arrived to whisk her away, she asked to stay a little longer.





After they left, Mama was a little lonely. But, in the tradition of a kajillion animated movies, the Farm provided a little friend. Unfortunately, said friend wore out his welcome by pooping in Mama V's tent. NOW we finally understand why MamaV has hand sanitizer, cleaning wipes, and Lysol wipes. We're sorry we've called you a "paranoid clean freak" behind your back. MamaV did manage to snap a picture of her friend. He never told her his name. He just pooped and left.


It was a beautiful day in a beautiful setting. Mama sold soap and
made friends. The event organizer for a Downtown Schenectady function was very interested in having MamaV demonstrate making soap.




Is the world ready? Probably not.

Hiding (Again)

MamaV has a craft fair this weekend. It's a charming little event over at the Mabee Farm in Rotterdam on the Mohawk River. It's outside. So MamaV needs to (finally) use the EZ Up that's been sitting in the back of the Soapmobile since July.

For those that haven't seen MamaV in action, she works alone. Setup, sales, and breakdown. All by herself. If you've ever set up an EZ Up, you know that it's a 2 (or more) person task.

MamaV has decided she's going to set it up alone. So, armed with a mudslide, Mama fearlessly traipsed outside. Our biggest regret is that the video camera's battery was dead.

Mama pushed, pulled, pinched, cussed, and slapped. Bless her heart, she got the thing standing. It wasn't right, but it was up.

Heaven help Mabee Farm!

Who's turn is it?

Come on, 'fess up. We know that someone was supposed to be watching MamaV. Instead, we get home and she's holed up in the kitchen. Instead of the nice, sedate Vanilla Sandalwood (with a nice tan swirl), she's all over this aloe, vinegar, salt thing. While it sounds soothing, it is definitely NOT vanilla sandalwood.

So...who was watching her? Next thing you know, she'll be tapping the box of margaritas...Oops. Too late.

We're back. It's 8:20 PM and MamaV has finally passed out in her room with a mudslide.

Finally, we have proof. Proof that MamaV MUST NOT EVER BE LEFT TO HER OWN DEVICES!

*Caution - The following video is VERY, VERY disturbing. It's a grown woman talking to soap, for goodness sake!*

Liquid Soap Paste

Oh, oh, oh, oh, OH!! MamaV is happy dancing around the room! Why? Well, remember a couple of days ago? We mentioned that MamaV had made liquid soap. Mama confided her terrifying nightmare - in her dream, she opened the cooler (after fighting off zombies), lifted out the crock pot, and still had oil.

She awoke screaming. OK, not screaming. But she gasped really, really hard.

So today, MamaV screwed up her courage and approached the soap cooler.

No zombies in sight. *phew* She opened the cooler, lifted out the crock, and...

Paste, glorious PASTE!! Sooo smooth! Such a screamingly sweet translucent color! Oh the rapture! MamaV now has 5 16 ounce baggies of paste languishing in the soap fridge (and one 14 ouncer - so cute, The Runt!).

Oh happy day!

Later, Mama may allow us to see the coffee bars. They smell heavenly.

Something's in the kitchen - it's making soap!

Mama got her groove back. Yesterday, she made a list of 7 soap choices she wants in place by 9/1 with a wish list of 5 additional scents. Last night, she acted and finished one plus one not on either list.

Mama V's Soap List (as copied from her purple notepad):

1. Sandalwood Vanilla - White swirl of kaolin clay



2. Strawberry & Cream - Strawberries and cream in freezer, pink kaolin for color...Swirl?



3. Scrubby Vanilla Coffee



4. Frank & Myrrh - Silver mica swirl!!



5. Suger Plum - Alkanet?



6. Mandarin Bergamot



7. Beer Soap

Already, number 3 is crossed off. Mama chose to use leftover coffee from yesterday morning as the liquid. The entire house smelled of strong roasted coffee.

Then her eyes fell on the emergency coffee bean bag. She planted a row of whole fresh coffee beans into the mold. We're dying to see the final version!

The liquid soap took us all by surprise. Mama hadn't listed it. But MiniV is almost out of bubble bath, so we should have expected it.

We can't wait to see what this weekend brings!

Thursday June 12, 2008...not a creative day

Sorry, but MamaV has been working us half to death. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are some soaps...

We love the rows of soaps before their makeover. The scent is intoxicating.

Liquid Soap!

Mama got an idea. We hate that. Mama wanted to try liquid soap. She's in the soap kitchen giggling happily right now. It involves the crock pot, goggles, stick blender, and a cooler. We're afraid.

This is what sent her into peals of laughter. We'll post more tomorrow. Now, we hide!

Gone Soaping

Mama has been a little tornado of activity! She's been snapping pictures, lining soap molds, mixing oils, and sewing skirts. We suspect she'll skip work today to soap. And that's OK with us.

Mama needs to make a Strawberry Shea (that she's been paper soaping for a year now) and Lavender Vanilla.

That's all we know right now. We'll keep you posted!

Sooooo close!

Mama is working on a Mother's Day Gift Set. Originally, it was supposed to be bath bombs but this happened. So Mama grabbed her trusty hammer and pulverived the bombed bombs into pretty, sparkly dust. Later that night, she escaped our watch and created matching bath salts. The two together are a fizzy, salty, sparkly, lavender delight! But a gift set has to be more than a hot bath. Mama took to the tub to ponder it and another light went on! So now Mama has all the components in her mind. She just has to get knitting. Yes, we're worried, too.

In the non soap world, Little William is still in the hospital but is doing well. Also, yesterday was Colin McCarty's memorial service. It was beautiful. Please remember that life is precious.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy News

Little William is recovering. Thank you.



MamaV wants pictures on her blog. She's not sure what pictures she wants. She just wants pictures.

So this post is a picture test. I'm sure we'll look back at this post years from now and just roll our eyes.


This is the V Family cat. She's pretty but not very bright. In this picture, she was trying to get us to open the gate so she could leave the yard.

This is a picture of MamaV's craft fair setup. We hope it inspires Mama to get off her tushie and send in some applications today!

That was fun! Excuse us while we try to harass Mama into creating a picture tutorial of something...

Exciting Times!

Mama is happy again. Yes, her bath bombs must not be discussed. We all have that rule down pat...but then she had an idea. Not one of her scary ideas. One of her logical, non-explosive ideas.

Mama took the beautifully scented and colored bath bomb powder and matched it to bath salts.

B-R-illiant!

Also, Mama's new light box should be here tomorrow. So RIP ghetto light box. You served Mama well but it's time to make way for professionalism. See, up until now, Mama has been using a beer box, spray painted white, covered in PapaV's old wife beater undershirts. It worked very well with the old camera but the new camera just couldn't handle ghetto light box.

Mama also wants to share a recipe with everyone. It's made using common ingredients that can be found around Schenectady.

MamaV's Cocoa Butter Lip Balm

Ingredients:
* Queen Helene 100% Cocoa Butter 1 oz stick (found in Rite Aid near the other Queen Helene items but on the bottom shelf)
* 2 TBSP Coconut Oil (WalMart - in the salad oil row near the lard OR virgin coconut oil from the health food section at Hannaford. Price Chopper does not carry it.)

Instructions:
* Fill a large heavy bottomed pot with around 2 inches of water
* Place Cocoa Butter stick (can grate first for faster melting) and Coconut Oil in a Pyrex Measuring cup.
* Set measuring cup into the pot of water - do not get any water into the measuring cup
* Simmer water until everything melts
* Pour into mold of choice (the ice cube trays that make sticks of ice work really nicely!)
* Allow to cool

This recipe is really forgiving. It's also a great starting point for dabbling in lip balm!

MamaV says "Enjoy!"

Bombed Bombs

Bath Bomb Poetry

Mama handles bath bomb
Bath bomb crumbles
Mama cries
Citric activates
Mama cleans mess

But it smelled awesome! Lavender Vanilla. Mama has promised to return to her small batches.

Bath Bombs, Lavender, and a Crash

Just before dinner last night, Mama stood up with a crazy gleam in her eye. "Bath bombs" she announced and flounced off to the soap shack. We just looked at each other and sighed.

Mama has been working on a bath bomb recipe since last summer. Bath bombs are basically just baking soda, citric acid, and oil. What that list fails to mention is that they're fickle creatures. Too much oil and you end up with a warty mess. Not enough, and you have powder. Some days, the citric fizzes for no reason but others, it just sits there and refuses to fizz.

Mama's recipe incorporates cocoa butter. She's a bit of an addict when it comes to cocoa butter. But she also cleans the tub around here. So a cocoa butter ring around the tub is not an option.

So Mama measured out her ingredients, set the cocoa butter to melting, and all hell broke loose. The bath bomb pixies were buzzing low and loud. First, the bombs wouldn't mold. They kept breaking in half. Then, the citric set off. Finally, Mama jammed some bath bomb powder into a half round mold that was unfortunate enough to be standing nearby.

Her planned batch of 6 bath bombs may have yielded 4 half rounds. She's guarding those rounds like a dragon guarding her clutch of eggs.

Then, with that frame of mind, MiniV dropped the new laptop. You know, the one whose warrantee expired 32 days ago? Yes that one. But we're very proud of Mama. She stayed away from all power tools and calmly handled the situation. We're posting this by carrier pigeon.

All Clear!

Phew!

We hate when Mama gets determined like that. But now the shack smells lovely. Now she just needs to make labels, package, photograph, and share the love. Ha! Like that'll happen anytime soon!

Mama V's In The Shower Lotion Bars have a great new shape! Remember when they'd snap in half 3 days before being used up? Not anymore. Mama was sick of fishing ITS Lotion Bar bits out of the drain so she set her brain on it and *bam*! New shape. Instead of a flat oval, why not do a half round dome? Brilliant.

This Weekend's Soapventures

Mama is having a bit of a midlife crisis. Her 2nd Etsyversary is coming up and she hasn't listed anything new and exciting in a while. Also, due to her soap phone change (from a local number to a toll free number), her packaging is outdated.

This weekend, Mama is aching to use the new camera. But to do that, she needs to relabel existing stock. So we asked isn't it just easier to make new stock?

Mama tried to hurt us.

We ran away.

Now we're hiding but Mama appears to have ordered new labels...but they definitely won't be here for this weekend. But then we noticed that she had lined the soap molds and mixed some oxides with oil...definite signs of soaping. What will she make? Will there be new nekkid soaps on Etsy next week?

Is that the bath bomb mold we see?

As long as Mama doesn't look for us in the food closet, we'll be able to update as we see it...Plus we have cookies!