Preparing for Market

Here's my Market display at the Urbana Farmer's Market! I'm on the third row facing east.
My lovely Mum! :)
Goat's Milk Soaps
Beeswax Candles

Update

I've been really bad about updates here recently, am trying to get back on track. I've changed my work schedule so I'm only working Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Champaign and have Tuesdays and Thursday to devote to soaping and candle making (amoungst other things of course!).

We've enjoyed a wonderful spring and early summer. I don't ever recall having such moderate weather. Usually we jump from snow to smothering humidity so I'm not complaing at all. The downside is its made all the plants etc much later than usual. This spells delay for the bees as well. Generally we expect our first honey "flow" late May. This year it was mid June, almost a month later. We are expecting we'll be able to take honey off our hives this week and will possibly have it at Market this Saturday!

The goats are doing very well. Babies are growing like weeds and the does have settled into the summer routine very amiably. I'm now milking all four and we are awash with milk. Time to do some serious soaping! :)

I'm happy to have a more relaxed schedule for summer and hopefully will be able to devote lots of time this week to making candles for Market Saturday.

Wrapping Soap

We wrapped lots of soap in preparation for Market.

The heart shaped bars are very popular

My favorite soap. So of course its blue.... :-)

Soap pictures

My soap "curing" rack is full!
Fresh mint soap still in the molds - makes the whole house smell so good!

Soapy Weekend

The flow of time is unstoppable of course, but to me it always seems to run faster on the weekend. I had a very busy one getting work done in preparation for the Farmer’s Market that will start in May. I’ve been soaping like a maniac. Not that I know how a maniac soaps, but anyway.

The whole house smelled lovely from all the essential oils in the soaps! I love soap making, it’s truly something that relaxes me and creating the various soaps is very enjoyable. There are so many new soaps I want to create! I have lots of new ideas for this season and it’s hard to focus on making the old favourites first. :-)

Batches that were made:
Lavender and Oatmeal - a creamy bar soap with organic Scottish oatmeal and lavender essential oil.
Clove and Oatmeal – another bar with the organic Scottish oatmeal, this one has ground clove and a spicy blend of essential oils.
Prairie Sage – my personal favourite! So of course it’s a blue soap with my special blend of oils…. Mmmmm.
Patchouli – a deep earthy soap that’s very creamy, this bar is either loved or hated – no middle ground.
Garden Mint – lots of mint! But as Pliny said “Mint reanimates the soul” so it can’t be a bad thing. I made this in the characteristic cream and green soap again, but couldn’t do layers with this batch. Maybe next time.
Lavender Luxury – the heart shaped luxury soap. This time I have a bunch of “broken hearts” where the mold didn’t fill completely and I’m missing corners etc. Still smells wonderful though, there’s a reason this is called the luxury bar!

Now, I only have about 50 more batches to make and I’m ready for market!! :-) I’ll post pictures soon.

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