I normally try to get this weekly round up out on Sunday evening but yesterday was Mothering Sunday here in the UK and there was no way this was going to get written last night. I had a lovely day actually – woken by very excited children at 7am and brought a card, flowers AND chocolate in bed.
Lilies & Apple Blossom
A quick 5k run at 8.30 was followed by an extremely good breakfast at a local cafe Caffi Gwynant, a long walk in the hills:
Beautiful Snowdonia
and the day was rounded off with a roast dinner at home with my mum and her partner. A glass of wine turned into a couple more, and while we managed to get the washing up done, writing wasn’t really an option lol…
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. The week started, as it so often does these days, with a soapmaking session… Four loaves of Bewitched:
Bewitched colours ready to go
Bewitched in the mould
And I also made two loaves of Castile.
Castile in the mould
Castile isn’t one of my best sellers, but I have a small (and growing) group of return customers, so I always make sure it’s in stock.
Unfortunately I don’t have any photos worth sharing of the cut of these two yet, but here’s a new photo of Bewitched from a batch that’s just finished curing…
Bewitched Handmade Soap
I sent out a couple of wholesale orders last week – one to the shop at Storiel in Bangor, and one to Siop Ogwen in Bethesda (which reminds me I really need to update my stockist list), and I also spent the best part of one whole day wrapping and labelling bathbombs…
On Thursday we woke up to an unexpected dump of snow, and soon after we got notification that the school was closed. The kids were thrilled, me not so much – another day’s work missed, but we baked a couple of Lemon Drizzle Cakes so it wasn’t all bad 😀
Lemon Drizzle – yum!
Did you see my Happy Mail on Instagram or Twitter? The super generous Terry of Oldways Soap agreed to trade soap with me, and this is what our postie delivered last week:
Aren’t they gorgeous? Five varieties of soap (one of which has already joined me in the shower) PLUS a bunny each for the children (who were utterly thrilled – far more than they ever are with any of my bars lol…) Terry is an expert at the Hot Process method (which I tried for the first time a couple of weeks ago) and she’s given me some hints and tips for my next batch which I’m looking forward to putting into practice soon.
So other than sending out the usual stream of retail orders for soap and bathbombs, that was my week. This coming week is going to be very busy – I have a bathbomb making workshop on Saturday morning, and then a craft fair on Sunday, both of which I need to prep for. I also have a few wholesale orders to get out this week, I’m making soap tomorrow (Tues) for a change, I have a networking meeting on Wednesday morning, AND my grading for my next kickboxing belt is on Thursday. Plenty to write about next week lol…
Thanks for reading, back soon!
Vickx
The Soap Mine 
Beautiful soaps – love those colors!
You are busy busy busy!! I don’t know how you do it all!
Sly
Lol, tell me about it! I was supposed to be going to a monthly networking group tomorrow but I’ve had to decided to give it a miss unfortunately as I’ve just too much to do. Maybe next month!
I’m interested to hear the HP tips! Good luck with the next batch!
Sarah : )
Ah you’re far more expert at HP than I am! I’m scouring YOUR blog for tips!!
Interested in Terri’s hints : )
I have also been playing with oven cook lately (whatever it is officially called)
Oooh oven cook? Sounds great (although my husband whinges to the moon and back when I cpop my lemongrass and clary sage – claims it makes the oven smell for days. He might be right 😆). Anyway, have you written anything up yet? Would like to know more 😉
It has been so long that I am actually hunting down my own last post – OOPS!!
Oh my goodness – how do you fit it all into a week?!! The soaps as always are utterly gorgeous.
Is this your first bath bomb workshop? I have quite a few people come to my market stall to say they have tried bath bombs and failed, so my guess is your workshop will be oversubscribed very quickly. And good luck with the craft fair.
Jo
Hey Jo! My weeks are getting crazy busy now – I think the main problem is I have to fit everything into the hours of 9 – 3, and it’s just not long enough lol! Yes, Friday’s my first workshop and I’m really excited about it – will let you know how it goes 🙂
BUt Vicki! YOu didn’t shar pictures of the lemon drizzle cut! LOL!
Happy Mum’s Day to you! Glad to hear it was a good day! I ask this question to everyone I hear that makes Castile soap. Does your Castile bubble look like snot? And I’ve Castile bars that have been curing for years and they are so horribly drying! A couple of friends swear they are amazing, but others say the same as me that they are just overly drying.
The cut lemon drizzle didn’t hang around to be photographed! Hmmm, not snot no, but it’s def not bubbly. I definitely don’t find it drying though – I guess everyone’s skin’s different.
I am interested in this – I have my first castile waiting – ready for June. I used dual lye which is supposed to help the bubble thing, but hadn’t heard about the drying on skin before – my skin is super dry so that will be interesting. I can’t touch coconut oil (gloves on for that) because it is so drying to my skin.
And yeah – LOVE a good lemon drizzle cake : )
I just bought some KOH to make liquid soap an shaving soap – interested to hear it might help Castile bubbles 🤔I find coconut oil very drying too.
That’s what I was afraid of. I really want to like Castile soap but I’m not sure why my skin dries and the bubbles are snot like. Weird!!!
Aw, sweet of your family to treat you to a special mum’s day. Those lemon drizzle cakes look yummy! What a nice way to spend a snow day!
I just realised I didn’t respond to your comment all those months ago – so sorry Lisa! *waves* 🙂