Mold or Mould?

The differences between British and American English have been causing me some difficulties recently, specifically the words mold and mould.

Very soon after starting this blog I had to decide which to use. Mould is correct in British English, but American English and (so it seemed to me) the rest of the world use mold. Now, by a long shot, the majority of my readers are not British, so I went with mold. It didn’t sit well with me, and I really don’t know why I made that decision.  I’m British, so why wasn’t I consistent in my use of British English? I wouldn’t dream of writing color rather than colour.

Anyway, it was my mum (not mom 🙂 ) who drew my attention to the error of my ways. She just said, almost in passing ‘How do you spell mould?’ and I knew immediately what she was talking about. Once I got over the surprise realisation that she actually reads what I write (thanks mum!), I had a bit of a ponder, and did some googling.

According to the Grammarist.com:

‘American English has no mould, and British English has no mold. In other words, the word referring to (1) the various funguses that grow on organic matter or (2) a frame for shaping something is spelled the same in both uses, and the spelling depends on the variety of English.’

This much I knew.

However, it went on to say:

‘Australian and Canadian English favor the British spelling, though mold is fairly common in Canadian publications.’

This I did not know, and I was clearly wrong in my assumption that the rest of the world uses mold.

To cut a long story short, I will be using mould from now on, and thanks mum for prompting me to think this one through!

I’d love to know where you’re from and which spelling you use – please do leave a comment and let me know.

Oh, and because I know why people really read soapy blogs 😀 here’s some recent mould action:

Parisian Flora (Lavender, Rose Geranium & Ylang Ylang EO’s):

Magic Mojito (Spearmint & Lime EO’s):

and Jellybeans (FO):

Cut pictures to follow soon.

Dandelion Zebra Swirl

This month’s soap challenge over at Amy Warden’s Great Cakes Soapworks is the Dandelion Zebra Swirl, created by Vinvela Ebony and named after her blog Dandelion Seifee. It’s not something I’ve done before, so was keen to give it a go.  It should look like this:

To create this design you need something like a flexible cutting board (which is what I used) cut to fit exactly inside the length of the soap mold.  Once half the base colour is poured, you insert the thin cutting board into the middle of the mold and pour alternate thin layers of the coloured batter down the cutting board. You then carefully remove the cutting board and pour the rest of the base colour (being careful not to disturb the coloured layers)

The reason for that rather convoluted description of the process is that I was concentrating so much that I completely forgot to take any ‘during’ photos <facepalm>

I have ‘before’ pictures:

I have ‘after’ pictures:

But no ‘during’ photos.  Sorry :-s

Anyway, here it is: my first attempt at a Dandelion Zebra Swirl.  The green (chrome green oxide) and red (pigment) colours thickened up a little more than I would have liked, but the yellow (lemon drop mica) stayed nice and thin.  It’s fragranced with Apple Pie & Custard FO.

All in all I’m really happy with the way it turned out.  Thanks as always to Amy for organising the challenge, and I’m looking forward to seeing all the other entries!

Hazelnut Soap

I’ve been wanting to make a hazelnut soap for a while, so recently I ordered a small amount of hazelnut oil and spent some time on SoapCalc working out a recipe.  I ended up using coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, castor oil, shea butter and 17% hazelnut oil.

I used a Hazelnut fragrance oil, and I knew that it would darken up the soap a fair bit, so I didn’t use any colourant for the bottom half, and added some titanium dioxide to the top half.  I love the simplicity of it, and it smells amazing!

Market Set Up

September was my first month of regular markets, and it seems I’ve neglected my blog a bit – apologies!

I’m currently committed to three monthly markets – there are more out there that I could do, but I think I’ll wait until it all becomes a little easier (as it surely will when I’m more organised and the preparation becomes second nature) before I agree to do any more!

I did a bit of Pinterest research on the best way to set up my stall, but please tell me I’m not the only person to pin, pin, pin and then fail to go back and read it all, let alone implement any of the advice!! 😀 Still some work to do on that score  I think…

Anyway, I thought I’d post some pictures of my set up at the last two markets.

This was my stall last Saturday.  Tables were provided,  and were smaller than I expected, so I was careful not to make it look too crowded.  Notice the rubbish bin to the right of the picture?  Arrgghhh!! I persuaded the organiser to cover it with a tablecloth soon after this photo was taken!

The following day was a different market, and I had a dedicated gazebo area and a larger table. I tried to keep my booth as uncluttered as possible with boxes and other paraphanalia out of sight (those you can see in the picture belong to my neighbours):

The display stands are simply cardboard boxes covered with random fabric, but they do the trick:

I know there’s probably a lot I could do to improve the look in general – some kind of backdrop would be good as a start.  Time to get back on Pinterest I think!