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...

Positive Vibes for William

Today is William's surgery. 8:30 AM in Gainesville, FL. He's 3. Please send positive healing vibes his way.

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.