New Project: Liquid Soap!

I just realized I have not posted since before thanksgiving! (gasp) I have been THAT busy and I want to take a moment to sincerely thank each and every person who has bought from my shops in the past year. I am eternally grateful for your business as it has helped me and my family thru some insanely rough times I wont bother to get into here. Just know each dollar you have spent has HELPED me tremendously and it was all VERY appreciated. Thank you all SO MUCH! ((HUGZ))

I wanted to let you guys know all the exciting things I been up to since the "busy season" is pretty much over. Sales have went down to usual numbers and now I have time to catch up on some things I been dying to do like make LIQUID SOAP!!

I had quite an adventure making liquid soap yesterday I had done my homework for sure but you never know how something like this will go till you jump in with both feet. So I jumped!

I had what was supposedly a fail proof idiot proof recipe in hand that had been tried by others with success. This made me feel at ease a little bit more.




I mixed my potassium hydroxide and oil and stick blended the daylights out of the mixure till I got something I was pretty sure was trace...then I blended more. I wasnt taking NO chances with this one!! Everything I read said if you cant get the potassium hydroxide and the oils to trace then it WILL separate on you later on down the process.

The only part of this process that I dont think I fully "got" was the fact you really do have to keep this stuff HOT! I put it in a double boiler set up and had the water just below simmering...that wasnt enough, I needed to keep the water boiling the whole time. Once I turned up the heat I got better results.

I figured out from the "test" globs I took out of the "paste" I was cooking that I needed to BOIL the water that I was testing the globs in. So I had a ton of boiling water around the house yesterday LOL

I finally got tired of cooking this "Paste" I was supposed to be making after about 7 hours of cooking so I boiled yet more water and poured it over the paste I had made. I boiled this for about 15 to 20 minutes.

I broke up all the chunks of the paste in the boiling water as best as I could. This was the hardest part was breaking up this stuff so it could dissolve and thus make my liquid soap. I went and watched a movie and when I came back all I had to do was hit the whole mixture with my stick blender and it blended just perfect. AND to make it even better for my ego, it was just a WEEE bit cloudy. I was shooting for 100% clear, but you never know when this stuff sits for a couple of days it may be as clear as commerical dish soap! I am OK with partly cloudy though, as long as it isnt milky I am happy.

I have tested this so far in laundry : works AWESOME!
Dishes: I was amazed! It took the tea stain off my tea pitcher and commercial dish soap wont touch it unless you SCRUB with a scratchy pad. All I had to do with my soap was rub!

You could put this in a foamer bottle and make foamy soap for handwashing too! So many applications for this stuff the possibilities are really limitless and I am so rejuvenated and excited to be able to KNOW I can definitely make this stuff now!

I have in the works a new product I wish to announce here today! This week I hope to be unveiling my newest invention: ~JIGGLE SOAP!~ This will be similar to Jell-o as it will be jiggly and squirmy but it will be soap you can take in the shower with you. This will be 100% chemical free unless there is a fragrance oil to scent it but those are always pthalate free at least. This will also be 100% vegan! I will be making an experimental batch this week. I know it wont be till at least wednesday cause I have no car to get supplies till then...UGH!! but be on the lookout! I will most likely announce it here when I get this made. I am super duper excited!!!

I will also be coming up with an original recipe for shampoo. I am still researching oils and deciding what I would like to see a shampoo do, so that will be coming up in a couple more weeks as I get time. its definitely a top priority of mine to release a completely natural shampoo that works great!

I am so excited about all this, cant you tell! (jumps up and down and claps hands)

And, I am rapidly approaching 1,000 sales in Maylee's Garden on Etsy ! As of right now I have 982 sales. A lot of sales came in the past 2 months, I remember recently having my 777th sale and being all excited about it...and here I am staring at the big 1,000! I feel SO successful right now, and to make it special, I am gonna do SOMETHING nice for the person who buys that 1,000th product. I dont know what yet, maybe free shipping, free goodies...not sure. But I promise SOMETHING nice will happen to the 1,000th customer!


Again thank you ALL for your continued support of my little business. I truly enjoy cranking out all natural goodness for you all so we can all be healthier. I am so proud of what I have accomplished, and I could not have done it without each and every one of you who have supported me along the way.


THANK YOU!!!!

Help Me Feel Better Cause I Am Turning 35 Sale

I am turning 35! AHHHHHH!!!!

I thought I felt bad when I turned 30 but this has got me!





The ONLY thing in the universe that could make me feel better about this is....SHOPPING!!






In order to shop, one needs money. So I am having a sale in my Artfire shop YAY!!!! All profits will be used to make *ME* feel better about turning 35 tomorrow. ALL items are marked 21% off cause I remember that week fondly.....Price already marked down no need to wait for a refund or any of that crap like on Etsy, oh gosh there I go on Etsy again...anyhoo! Sale ends when my birthday ends. Midnight August 21st. Have fun and thanks in advance to all the compassionate shoppers !

Good news For us

Where to begin! My luck has really changed this week! I got a wholesale account with a local lady who sells at Mellwood Arts Center She will be stocking her boutique with my soaps and perfumes! YAY! So if you live here in Louisville I will let you know when she opens for sure so you can stop by.


I won the Artfire Facebook contest! Thanks so much to my facebook friends for helping me out! Thanks again to HarmonArt for letting me write about their awesome shop full of ceramic and gourdament goodness! Thanks also to everyone that seen my link here on the blog and "liked" my comment. You have no idea what this means to me. I NEVER get to shop for stuff I dont need ya know? And this is a great oppurtunity for me to do that. Of course I am buying for the kids but I am getting some stuff just for *ME* too! YAY!


My husband and I are collaborating with my mom in her evil plan to move us to her property to make him mow grass and make me paint stuff around the house for the rest of our lives. I am OK with this as long as mommy makes lots of chocolate pies in return for the labor.

We have agreed that YES we are moving, and YES we will do it as soon as we get the money together which shouldnt be too many more months away. We have a rare opportunity right now to save a lot of money and we are taking advatage of it so that we can eventually OWN whatever we end up living in with no more housing payment! That is my goal. Then we can be rich! I think mom secretly wants to be closer to the baby and she wants us to be there cause she is lonely without dad but she wont say so.

Behind my moms house is a virtual family trailor park. This all started when my uncle bought a house in the country...then I got divorced from my first hubs and mom and dad couldnt deal with the drama and moved on my uncles property next to his house...then a few months ago my cousin (uncles daughter) moves a trailor and her 3 kids behind his house...and here we are looking to move behind moms house beside my cousin LOL. I dont think the land can hold another family member so all you guys back off the last spot is TAKEN! LOL It will be SO NICE to live so close to family! Maylee can play with her cousins and I can get to know mine better, it will be so nice. I cant wait!

So thats my "happy" blog post. Things are changin', times getting better and better. I am so blessed. Maylee also learned how to say "kisses" last night, and she has started giving kisses as a game this past week. Maybe that had something to do with our luck changing LOL. I would like to think so.


I have some new articles up on HMN too if you got time for more reading of my writing LOL. Now you know I couldnt go thru a whole blog post without spamming SOMETHING I do !