Soft Soap Tutorial

I’ve really been putting forward an effort to reduce and reuse.

Now, I’m a biiiiiig soap addict. People give me scented soaps as gifts and when I see a lux bar glistening on a shelf, it’s all mine baby! Tickles my fancy, it does. I’ve found that a lovely way to scent my lingerie is to scatter the spent soap bars amongst my drawer of lacy lovelies.

As I was cleaning out my delicates drawer, I found I had a crazy hot ton of soapy scrap and I decided to find a way to reuse them: soft soap!

You will need: ½ cup grated soap, 2 cups water, old saucepan, clean jelly jar, essential oil (optional)

I piled up  what soap bars I had. I wanted to make about a half cup of grated soap, and I wasn’t sure if it would make enough, so I kept a new bar of soap nearby.

Then I grated them with a cheese grater. The older pieces make soap powder while the newer ones will be slick slivers. Needless to say, put down a plate or towel. Of course surface cleanup is easy with a little water!

Threw them in a sauce pan.

Added 2 cups water. Yuck… looks like used bath water lol. I scraped in  about a tablespoon more of soap. It felt like it needed it.

Brought it to boil over low heat. Stir often. I used a heat-proof plastic spoon. I didn’t want to use a wooden one and risk it always tasting soapy haha!

Stir and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add perfumed or essential oil. About 5 drops should do. I added an oak moss blend. Keep stirring.

Pour into clean jelly or pasta sauce jars. Let it cool to a gel. It’s a good idea to give it a good stir with a fork for ease of use.

Once it cools (I’m mega impatient, so I popped them in the fridge), you can use this for anything you would use regular soap for. A good hand soap, shampoo (rinse with a good cleanser like lemon or scented vinegar), bubble bath gel, countertop cleansing gel, hosiery soap on laundry day, etc…Just needs a good shake before use.

This is such an easy way to use up old soap and save money.  Instead of spending a couple of bucks on one plastic bottle of liquid hand soap, you just use what you have and create a lot of a versatile product. You can substitute tea for water (try mint or chamomile), add sugar once cooled to create a foaming hand scrub, or kosher salt to create a pan scrub and degreaser. 

Porch Flower Quickie

Boy, oh, boy is it getting a wee bit warm now. I keep telling myself, 'this is better than it beeing freezing' and trying to believe it.

But! It is the wonderful first of may; Beltane in some circles. And my loverly gardenias are blooming once again.

Also, look what the house crew did to my poor porch peas, after I neatly tucked them away safe and sound. They still managed to find them and break apart the roots.....horrible.

Late night postage... yes, after a thirsty girl drink (or two)

I've had a good night.

My close friend is soon to be married, and I am feeling optimistic for the near future. But it gets me to thinking very deep thoughts, ones that had never occured to me in my folly-filled youth (ha).

I always took for granted the goings-on and relationships that occured around me amongst couples. Always observant, never partaking (not of them, I mean... of coupling off, myself). It's funny, this observing.

It's a lot like watching the news from another country, yet never visiting the place. The jealousy of watching a simple act of affection like hand holding or cuddling combined with the dread that every relationship ends with the stuff of nightmares. It's vicarious amour.

As a relult of my proxy-viewing over the course of my none-too-shabby lifetime, I am mature, yet inexperienced. Educated but not practiced. Does this put me at an advantage or disadvantage? I am wise with a clean slate.  I am speaking strictly of relationships, not sex. I'm in no presumptive position to assume that they are always connected for every couple.

I wonder these things, but do other people think them too? Do they have the same challenge as I, going into it at a later point in time?

It was always that all of my friends were dating someone all the time, always, since I was thirteen and I was the one...just not. any thoughts? I'll probably regret this very personal post in the morning, but it actually feels very releasing to put these words down, knowing that some awesome person somewhere in the world will read it and maybe feel or understand me in some way.

Oh! And hey, I just got a twitter, @hedgebanknun. Still figuring it out a bit, but slowly getting the hang. And check out the lovely portraits my talented sister did of me! I'll have a look-about of the makings of a boudoir vanity involving portraits in a future post.

Gah, I need to hit the hay. G'night world.

A Saturday well Spent

I recently had oral surgery so I haven't been able to have much fun recently, what with being either too medicated or in too much pain to think clearly :(

This has made me quite housebound, so I've been trying to spruce up with the much dreaded "spring cleaning". We have a big old white lilac tree in the yard, which overhangs my new walled garden. It always overgrows (which leads to the always hilarious smack in the face with a bee-swarmed branch)  but I put off trimming it until it blooms. This year I was able to get five huge arrangements out of the trimmings.

I think the lovely fresh smell of spring will keep a perk in my step as I finish my tasks...

Updates in the Garden and other Lovelyness

I have been the victim of some aweful computer sadness. Namely, I cannot update this blog from my puter. Hopefully the Blogger app will allow me to post the updates I've been aching  to share for the past month :)

Yes'm the walled garden is completed and I've (very) slowly been transplanting my long awaited seedlings into it. My porchflowers are also blooming, and even more pictures will follow.

There also is a soft soap tutorial coming soon!

Yay!

Pictures below show: Johnny jump up and kiss me, forget-me-nots, columbine, and the completed wall garden

I'm Back?

It has been a very, very long time since I’ve updated this blog for one reason or another. I started it, had ideas for it, and then never followed through.

Looking at my life’s patterns, that sounds about right.

The purpose of this, I’d hoped, was to help myself organize and manage my oft disorganized and mismanaged life, interests, and experiences. But like all things electronic-based, I got lazy and stopped updating.
 {… I haven’t been on my Facebook page in four years, so as I’m rather unsocial most people prolly figure I’d died :(  …}

But, there are lots of things I plan on exploring these upcoming months. I won’t promise I’ll update every week, but I will make a large effort to do better now.  I last updated back in July and those were rather seasonal things, weren’t they? Well,  it is too cold at present to eat ice cream and it rains more often than not if it’s a warm enough day to grill, so the pizza’s off the table (literally) for now. I will however show you some lovely updates in the garden as soon as I can.

Thanks, xoxo

Porch Flowers

As I await the finished garden, my baby plants ready for transplanting to their new home are less and less of babies and some have started to bloom!

A corn poppy

A selection of the back porch. I found these pretty plant stands on the cheap at Hobby Lobby.

Blue Star Creeper

A type of morning glory. The seed company mixed up the type of seed so I have no idea what this is called. I was expecting Heavenly Blue lol!

My flowering thyme and bountiful pots of herbs brimming with almost bursting buds :)