Non Soap Local Rant

MamaV lives in Schenectady, NY in a nice little house with her happy little family. When she moved to Schenectady (10years ago), the house cost less than $100,000 (significantly less). Somehow, with no improvements, the house is now magically worth $119,000. Her taxes now account for half of her mortgage payment and MamaV is not amused.

So to the government of Schenectady: Fix this. We have 60,000 people living in the city. If only 2,000 pay taxes, that's a problem. Screw the Metroplex and their "Payments in Lieu of Taxes". The homeowners need some help. Or we will sell our houses to the lowest bidder and go elsewhere. Out of Schenectady and probably out of New York State.

Our school system is a joke and driving around on any weekday (when school is in session) shows how seriously school officials take truancy.

Our roads are crumbling. Stop paving half blocks. Would I like a new sidewalk? Sure thing! But you can't afford it. Pave the roads and pave them correctly (I can see the trolley rails that were buried along Eastern. Why are they still there?).

My name is MamaV and I am a tired tax payer.

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?

MamaV Takes Schenectady

Mama put on her "going out" frock and her fancy shoes and hit the town yesterday. She dragged MiniV to "Art on Lark" in Albany where MiniV trapped a platypus, then, they jaunted over to Strawberry Fest on Union in Schenectady, and finally, they made it to St. Anthony's Festa.

MamaV regrets she couldn't bring all her favorites folks to Festa, so she took this video to bring Festa to you. She was there early, so the crowds aren't at all bad.

Enjoy! Festa comes once a year. It's a weekend where stinky old white Italians are allowed to roam the streets with wine, beer, and squid. If you're not Italian, you leave that in the car. Everyone is family at Festa.

Back after a brief interruption

Sorry, folks. MamaV was on a roll there. She nailed the Old Iron Springs festival. It wasn't as cold and rainy as last year. In fact, it was quite the opposite. You know those instructions for solar cookers? They're really just a picture of the building MamaV and her fellow crafters were in. The oatmeal scrubbies were mushy. Ew.

Here's a pic of Mama's table. This was taken on the first day...Before Ghetto Banner.Around 3 PM, temperatures soared and business died off. That left Mama with time on her hands. For those that don't know MamaV, free time is BAD. Mama decided she needed a banner. So after the show closed (at 6 PM), Mama hopped into the soapmobile and found a towel and washcloth. Upon arriving home, she made dinner, bathed the youngest, and whipped up a banner. In the morning, she made a batch of soap and snapped a picture of GB.

MamaV knows it's silly and cheesy, but we all agree that MamaV is silly and cheesy. It's a perfect fit.

Somehow, all the pics of MamaV in her booth have disappeared from the camera. Either she snuck in and deleted them or she really is a supernatural being that can't be photographed.

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!

Welcome to MamaV's New Blog

So MamaV was slowly warming to the old blog on TagWorld. No, she wasn't there every day but she tried to give that little page some love. Sadly, her love appears to have been the end of TagWorld. They're gone. When Mama tried to transfer her site over to the replacement, her spam blockers went crazy. So she decided to allow TagWorld to quietly fade into the internet ocean.

So to recap that blog, soap, bath bombs, birthdays, and dead friends.

Cheerful, no?

We'll start today with a bit about MamaV. Mama lives in Schenectady. Yes, it's a real place. She has a lovely husband (PapaV), and some really fun kids (TeenV and MiniV). She started her soapy journey when PapaV needed something for dry skin. They researched herbs and oils and came up with a nasty, stinky, pile of body butter. But it worked. Mama dabbled in butters and lotions for a long time. But her heart wasn't in it. But then, like a beam from above, Mama had the idea to add face melting chemicals and turn her pot of oils into soap.

A chorus of angels sounded and an obsession was born.