Prayer Request for My Mother

My mother has been having an irregular heartbeat problem the past few days. Her doctor upped her medication and she will need to wear a heart monitor for a day or two. If you could pray for her, I would really appreciate it.

Soap and Bubble Bars -- Recent Progress

Here's some of what I've been up to with making soap and bubble bars. Photos are included. As always, you can click them for a larger view.

• I've tried making some bubble bars, and while they make a tremendous amount of bubbles and smell great, I still have to figure out some things. Some have turned out too hard and dry, whereas others have turned out too crumbly and fell all to pieces when I sliced them. I sometimes get whiffs of a faint, detergenty odor when I use them. I had problems with colors changing or fading with some of the bars. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if I just need to find or concoct another recipe. Here is the recipe I'm using (I found it here):

  
  

  • 5.25oz Baking Soda (about 2/3 cup)
  
  
  • 5.25oz Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate (SLSA) (about 2/3 cup)
  
  
  • 2oz Cream of Tartar
  
  
  • 1oz Glycerin
  
  
  • 1oz liquid surfactant (I use Cocamidopropyl Betaine.)
  
  
  • 1oz fragrance oil
  
  
  • Colorant
• I came up with an almost dead-on imitation of the Lush Blue Skies Bubble Bar scent and made soap with it. I hope I can replicate it again, because I kind of lost track of how much of the different fragrances I used (it consists of patchouli, frankincense and cinnamon, in that order). I think I know in general how much I used of each, but I'm not sure. I think it went something like this: 1 TBSP patchouli essential oil, 1 1/2 to 2 tsp of frankincense oil (which is expensive stuff, BTW) and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon fragrance oil (I probably could have gone with a little less, like 1/8 tsp). I used a hemp oil soap base and it turned out really nice. Now, I can enjoy my Blue Skies bubble bars with soap that matches! (The soap looks green in the picture because the hemp soap had more of a greenish color than it usually does. I added some blue coloring to it, but you can't really see that in the photo.)

  
  

• I made some really awesome Oatmeal, Milk and Honey soap. I used Sweet Cakes' OMH fragrance oil, two pounds of their goatmilk soap and two pounds of their honey soap. I mixed the goatmilk soap with about 1/4 cup of colloidal oatmeal (purchased from Well Naturally), poured it in a loaf mold, let it set for about five minutes, and then poured in the honey soap. I pulled a knife through to slightly mix them enough to get a nice marbled effect. Then, after the soap hardened, I sliced the loaf with a crinkle cutter. It came out wonderfully. I think the next time I make it, I will use a little more colloidal oatmeal -- maybe 1/3 or even 1/2 of a cup. This is my second batch of OMH soap. The first batch was almost as nice as this one...it didn't look quite as pretty. The main differences were that I used one pound less soap, a little more colloidal oatmeal, and the honey soap I used was from a different company, so it was a much lighter color (which means the marbling effect was not nearly as dramatic).

  

  
  

• One thing I tried with the bubble bars was to make an OMH version of it, with colloidal oatmeal, whole milk powder and honey powder (all purchased from Well Naturally) added to it. I thought it was going to come out awesome. Looking at this picture, you can see why I thought so:

  

  However, I ended up disappointed with the result. It was very crumbly and fell apart when I tried to slice it. Also, the white in the bar didn't stay white and turned a kind of putty color, which ruined the swirl design (the oatmeal, milk and honey fortified part of the bar was a tan color that was supposed to swirl with the white part of the bar). As I mentioned earlier, I have had problems with the color changing in some others I have made as well. This is strange because some I've made did not change to a putty color.

Here are some more photos of soap and bubble bars I've made --

Rice Flower & Shea with embeds:

Two-tone layered Sandalwood soap:

These are the Cranberry Spice and Lilac bubble bars respectively. They did not change colors:

These are the Pink Sugar bubble bars. Like the OMH bubble bars, they ended up turning into a putty color for some reason. They also turned very hard, which makes them more difficult to crumble and dissolve:

Personality

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations. A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you. You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair. Neuroticism: You have medium neuroticism. You're generally cool and collected, but sometimes you do panic. Little worries or problems can consume you, draining your energy. Your life is pretty smooth, but there's a few emotional bumps you'd like to get rid of. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

(Via the newly married Jen.)

Goings On

Hi there! Just thought I'd check in and let you know I'm still alive. Here's the rundown on what's going on:

• My mother is doing better and is on medication for her blood pressure. Thanks for your prayers.
• I was very miserable the last week of January with back pain. I ran out of pain medication just as my back started acting up really bad. It was my own fault...I lifted and carried a 40 lb. box of melt and pour soap. I was careful and it was only for a short distance, but I paid for it, nevertheless. I went to the doctor to find out the results of my spinal X-ray and to get another prescription for pain medicine. I have mild osteoarthritis with disc loss in one of my vertebrae, which explains the pain. It's not anything severe, but I need to be careful, try to do some ab strengthening exercises and lose some weight. In general, I'm doing better, but I still have bad days (like today).
• Betty has finished her beginning obedience training. I'm not going to do the intermediate and advanced classes...I just wanted her to learn the basics. She minds me pretty well now and she doesn't dig as much as she used to.
• I haven't budged as far as weight loss goes. I've been too busy and consumed with other problems to even try. Maybe next week... (Prayers would be appreciated here, too. This is a health issue more than it is a vanity issue.)
• When I'm feeling good, I have been experimenting with making bubble bars and soap. I'll post some more a little later about my latest successes and failures.