Archive for July, 2012

What a way to end the school holidays – mother and daughter in the kitchen together… making soap! Apart from making me realise I’ll have to hire someone else’s mum to teach her how to cook, I thought of how many cool and unique memories we could create together if she decides that she enjoys soaping as well.

This is her watching me make my soap. I’m forever being pestered to allow her to help, so I compromise and let her watch from the edge of the bench. Only rules are she must keep her sunglasses on at all times, and be in long sleeves. Given she’s the resident nudist, long sleeves is only accomplished by wearing my dressing gown. She’s never been splashed by anything before, but I don’t take any chances. Especially as she has a habit of going “oh look” and reaching right over as I’m pouring.

Today though, she stepped up a notch and actually got to pour (more like plop) the soap batter in herself!!

I decided a ‘spoon swirl’ was probably the safest option to go. I pulled out some old spoons and had her practice taking soap (fake and invisible) and tapping on the side of the mold. Of course Diesel just had to come and play too and thought it was awesome that mum was letting him bang spoons in the kitchen!!

I’ll attribute the very chilled out mummy to my previous essential oil blend soap of Lavender, Spearmint and Peppermint. Because I get everything ready and then wait for my lye and oils to finish cooling, I was breathing in deep breaths of a very relaxing blend. It didn’t actually occur to me until after I had cleaned up from Savannah’s soap mess and moved the little glass jar I used to blend. Another wiff and I was like “Ding!”… that’s why!

The near euphoric effect was the reason I didn’t care about soap batter going everywhere, or that she was “splodging” the mixture onto the same spot each time instead of spreading the colour around a bit more. The control freak in me was restrained from trying to force her to do it the “right” way and instead allowed her to do it her way. I didn’t even bat an eyelid when she asked to take some of her soap to daddy’s!

Last night a request for chocolate soap was placed. Given I had peppermint patty (NG)  fragrance oil here anyway, and my previous soaps had moved very, very slow (something about people not wanting to smell like an after dinner mint), I decided “what the hell”. Even if the entire batch just ends up as something the kids could play with in the bath, the bonding experience was worth it.

All ready with the colours and her spoons. Dressed in her soaping clothes – an old jumper, her winter gloves which she never wore and won’t fit her next year, and the sunnies. Thankfully she’s already well learned in the safety aspects of soap and the kids know they aren’t allowed in the kitchen when I’m soaping.

Savannah picked all the colours: Blue, Yellow, Green and Pink.

I later learned these colours had meaning and weren’t just random selections. The soap, it would seem, is the beach! The blue was the water, and the yellow the sand, naturally. The green was not in fact seaweed as I had guessed, but the trees and leaves keeping us cool. I questioned the pink (more red) and was informed it was the rainbow.

*Puts on Miss 4 voice* Did you know that when it rains, and then the sun comes out, it’s makes a long, long, looooooooooooong rainbow?

I had used some cocoa powder for a pencil line in my Lavender Mint soap, and Savannah asked if she too could put some “sprinkles” on her soap. “Not lots like yours mum, just a little bit”. She also didn’t want cocoa powder, so I showed her the sprinkles and the poppy seeds. “The black ones!” she proclaimed excitedly! “They will be all the little rocks!”

Very happy at finally being able to be just like mummy and make some soap, she managed to get half way before struggling to get the soap out of the containers so I jumped in to help a little bit.

At the end I asked her if she had soap anywhere on her. I had already told her how it can hurt her skin and make her itch so wanted to emphasis the point she needed to tell me if there was even a drop on her. “Nope!” she replied, “Not even on my nipples!”

Er…. 

Anywho… the soap looks good. Kinda excited to cut it and see what patterns she’s made. Of course the colours give no indication of the scent or visa versa, but that’s not the point of this batch. For her first CP soap, I have to say she did pretty well! She’ll be spitting out better soaps than me before she’s 10!