Something for my sore muscles

ARRRRGGGG I hate getting old and some of the things that go with it. For me the body aches are the worst part. So a few years ago I started making different soaks and bath teas to relax my ouchys. I decided to make some for my shops.

I just love this stuff it smells awesome. When I am tired and my muscles ache I fill my tub with warm water . Then I fill a cotton bag with the herbs and salt and drop it into the tub to dissolve the salts and release the beautiful scent. The salts relax my muscles and the scent relaxes me. It is the perfect end to a long day.

The combo of dead sea and Epsom salts relax and sooth sore muscles and help detox the skin. I like the rose petals and hips the oils from them seem to help soften my skin. The wild rose and oak is such a awesome warm calming scent.

The resealable bag holds 1 lb. of salts and a reusable cotton bag to fill with the salts and petals. Just fill the bag and drop into the warm tub let the salts dissolve and soak you aches away.

Super Bowl Sunday

How do you spend this day? Is your family sporty?

My Son and Husband are sports guys so Super Bowl Sunday is an fun day for them. My Son and his wife and the babies will be coming over tonight for a little Super Bowl party .

Today I am going to do a little house work and a lot of cooking to get ready for tonight. My Hubby Jose has a weird menu made up filled with junk food and beer( ah well it's once a year). So I better get my bootie in gear. I need to start the chocolate and Carmel cupcakes for little Brenden. He's 2 1/2 and he calls them "baby birthday cakes"

I am having a Super Bowl Sale in my http://GingerbellsGifts.etsy.com shop
FREE SHIPPING!!! till midnight
add Super Bowl in the notes to seller and I will refund all shipping costs...

Upcycled Cuties

A neighbor of mine knew that I make candles so the other day she brought me a bag of frosted tumblers that she had saved from the store bought candles that her daughter in Law likes. She said she thought it would be a bummer to just throw them away and I agreed with her.I cleaned them up and this is what I did with them.

She gave me 9 tumblers and here are the four I made yesterday. I am so missing spring that I had to decorate these to remind me of why I love spring.

The Enchantment candle is Green Clover and Aloe scented.
The Happiness and Love Candles are Sweet Sugar [pink sugar] scented.
The Hope candle is Exotic Night Blooming Tuberose.

I scented these to go with the new soaps I listed this week end. I think the 2 together would make a awesome gift. I made one for myself too. I have a few others that I will be finishing over the next couple of days.


On my work table.....A pretty shabby chic beach themed photo frame and candle. I may list them as a set.

Let the soaping begin!!!

I just love getting new scents it is one of my favorite things about making soaps and candles.
In the mail today I got....
Spiced Orange..OMG this is yummy and will make some awesome soap and bath soak.
Bonsai...A beautiful unisex spa scent.
Pumpkin Brulee....need I say more.
Mandarin Basil Lime.. is another beautiful unisex spa scent that will make some excellent Olive Oil Soap.
Zanzibar Clove.. A rich and beautiful clove that will become a soap and milk bath.
Wild Rose and Oak....Beautiful, rich, woodsy and sexy. I love it.

This is just the start of my Fall and Winter scent line I have 10 more new scents on the way; Yummo.

Today I made some Ginger Milk Olive Oil soap and it smells like heaven. I am keeping some for myself. I also made some Pumpkin spice Honey soap that is very nice. I'll try to list them tomorrow.

I am one happy soaper.

Blog Feature

Today I was featured in a lovely bath product review blog http://thebathfairy.blogspot.com/ .
This is a well written and informative blog if you love bath and body. Check out her review if you have time and leave her a little comment to let her know what you think; I am sure she will appreciate it, I know I will.

My blog needs some love

Well things have been busy in the Casa De Gonzalez lately and my blog has been really neglected. So I thought I would give my blog a little love and do a show and tell.
I did a trade with Nat of http://Natsbears.etsy.com she makes the most beautiful kaleidoscope canes and she loves my hand cream and I love her canes so we traded. I have been making some very pretty beads with her canes. yesterday I used some of the beads to make the watch and bracelet you see on my blog page. I will be showing you more of the things I am making with her lovely canes I have 7 different cane designs to work with. so if you are looking for some beautiful canes to use in your polymer clay creations I highly recommend this Belgium artist. She makes cool cane and she's a very nice person as well.
I made this awesome honey soap last night and I love it the combination of the honey and the orange/ vanilla scent is so yummy I am keeping 2 bars of it for myself. I used some of it this morning and I really enjoyed the scent and the rich lather. I like that it is sls and detergent free making it super nourishing for my skin.

New candles

Well I just love the look of the palm wax that I made these candles with. It is the coolest wax it is clean and long burning. The finish looks like the candles are covered with crystal snowflakes. Beautiful finish that the photos just can't show.

I always feel a need to pretty up paraffin wax pillars because they just look plain to me and the finish on them is so slick looking. But with this palm wax the finish is so interesting the simple shapes enhance the pattern so no further embellishment is needed.

I have started listing these in my bath shop today. I will be doing gift sets mostly I think; I haven't really decided. I have 8 different sets ready to list right now in some lovely scents. The photos are just a few of the sets I have finished.

I just love making things that smell good............Hum looks like I was leaning little to much when I took photo # 3. I will have to retake that one.... { Note to self}, Wine and photo taking don't mix

These are to pretty to use

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I love making pretty soaps almost as much as I enjoy using them. I like this new style I made last night. These are a little more labor intensive carving the flowers and applying them on to the soaps for a 3D look but I enjoyed doing it. The drips are a little messier then I like but I can live with that. And to top it off they smell divine.

As much as I love using them I am often told at shows that my soaps are way to pretty to use and often the best sellers are the pretty but less fancy bars. I always tell people as pretty as they look they are even better to use. I am on a mission to get people to pamper them selves and use the pretty soap, tee hee hee.

I have been making some really pretty palm wax candles the last couple of days. Palm wax is a cool wax when it hardens it makes a beautiful crystal like star burst pattern on the surface of the candle. I really like them each one looks different and special. yesterday I made cinnamon scented and today I have been making sweet pea scented. I will post photos in a later post.

Please don't eat the soap!

I love the little pastel cakes at the bakery and since I am on a diet I shouldn't have them. That doesn't mean I can't have them if they are made out of soap.
So I made these big 6 oz. soap cakes they smell awesome. I like the new scents too.....
Almond Pastry Oatmeal Soap
Pink Sugar Shea Butter Soap
Pomegranate Shea Butter Soap
Blue Hyacinth She Butter Soap.
I have several other new scents in my soap shop to check out.

I will be adding Palm Wax Candles to my shop in about 2 weeks. I really like these vegan candles and have enjoyed testing them over the last couple of weeks. I love the testing part of my craft....

I love my new soap mold

I bought a new soap mold that I just love. It's not a fancy shape its a classic beveled oval what I love about it is how much easier it is to use then my other molds. It is made of a really high quality silicone the soap slips right out. Also because it is so heavy weight it doesn't warp like the hard plastic molds so it makes a lovely smooth bar of soap. The beautiful shape makes a wonderful base shape for embellishment and fits perfectly in the hand.

The soap in the photos are simple looking but the look really fits the awesome Strawberries and Cream scent. This soap smells like the yummy strawberry cream savors candy. I am not a big fan of food smelling soaps but I have to say this one makes me crave strawberries. YUMMO!

I have been testing a lot of different M&P soap bases lately to add to my cold process soaps. I wanted a base with high quality ingredients like the ones in my CP soaps. After a lot of trial and error I am happy with the one I have chosen and I think my customers will like it too. I know my soap testers are giving it rave reviews. I love testing soaps it's good clean fun(ha ha).

I have several new scents that I am testing too. The next new soap I will be adding is a Blackberry Sage blend Shea butter soap; I really like this fresh scent. I also will be adding some new herbal bath tea blends and milk and salt soaks too. I just got a big shipment of excellent organic herbs to blend into these bath luxuries.

Wabash Valley Herb Faire 2008

This is a fun little festival that happens in our town every Mothers Day. It is a Herb and art themed festival on the Wabash River.

This will be the second time I have done this festival. The first time I sold very well and picked up a boutique spot for about a year that was profitable. I had to skip it last year because my tent top needed fixed.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays nice and I can keep my tent sides up and enjoy the crowd.

I have one more festival scheduled for the first weekend in June them I am done with festivals until the fall.

I have been having fun making bath soaks today. I made a nice peppermint/ chamomile salt foot soak that is great for tired feet. I also made a English rose milk and oatmeal soak. It is so nice for softening your skin and smells good too. I really enjoy making and using them. I think I am going to go use one of the foot soaks right now for my tired toes.

Grand Opening

Well Now I have really gone over the deep end and opened a second shop dedacated to bath and body items and candles. It is http://gingerbellsbathshop.etsy.com check it out and feel free to tell me what you think.

I decided to open a second shop to showcase all the personal care items I love to use and make. I will still be carrying some in my main shop but as they sell I will phase them out of that shop.

Every day for a while I will be adding new items that are exclusive to the bath shop. Things like herbal tub teas, milk and soothing salt soaks, foot bath soaks and lip balm just to name a few items.

Right now my house smells awesome I just made some beautiful Chai tea milk bath and sealed it up in giant tea bags for the tub.

Hopefully separating my shops will help me on my quest to become more organized when it comes to my least favorite part of my craft journey; the business side. So dear reader please wish me luck.

Rose themed treasury...

I acquired anther treasury tonight. It is rose themed and I was inspired by the beautiful English rose scented goats milk soap I made today. I am really happy with the treasury. Here is a link please check it out of you have a few minutes. http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=36812

Yummy new soaps

I made these olive oil soaps yesterday. I thought it would be nice to show them before and after cutting. I also made coordinating body frostings.

The scents are beautiful and my house smells so good.

The lavender colored loaf is Banyan fruit/Vetiver and is topped with rose petals. The smell of this soap is beautiful.

The 2 tone blue is Blue Sugar scent and is a very sexy scent.

The peach and green soap is a beautiful jasmine blend that makes me think of our trip to Mexico. When we were there the wild jasmine was blooming I would pick a few flowers every day and leave them in our car; the heat in the car would warm the flowers and perfume our car with the exotic scent. Amazing smell and memory.

These will go in my supply room to cure for a couple of weeks to get ready for my next craft show. Today I will be making several batches of spicy/ woodsy scents and I will cut them tomorrow.

I love the olive oil soap it is my favorite it is so creamy and rich it leaves my skin feeling wonderful.

Well I am off to get my mold ready and fire up my soap pot and get to work.