Tag: vanilla

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Making Soap and Crashing Computers

(Cross posted on our WordPress.com site also.  Please be sure to sign up as a follower here so you won’t miss out on the fun!)

It’s been pretty busy around here for us these past few weeks.  We’re making sure everything is ready for Donna’s Market this Saturday so that means I have soap, packaging materials, and scratch paper with my soapy brainstorm ideas all over the kitchen!   If you are in our area, please stop by and say hi this Saturday. The address for the market is 18315 Kenmark Lane, Cypress, TX, and we’ll be there from 8-2. Looks to be a beautiful weekend so we hope to see you there and share a joke or two!  We will be bringing a variety of stock with us so you should be able find to everything from unscented, castile, sand soap, teakwood, chocolate, oatmeal, and even vanilla with shea butter.  We will also be taking preorders for the beer, honeysuckle, peppermint, cinnamon, and pumpkin soaps while we are there.  Another scent on your mind?  Want to create the perfect holiday gift?  Just let us know!

I can’t wait to cook up some more this weekend after Donna’s.  There’s a brand new mold and cutter sitting on my table just begging to be tried out.  The cooler weather and the fall scents we have lined up have me playing with pumpkins, dreaming of walks in the woods, hot cider to sip afterwards, and the aroma of fresh baked holiday treats.  Cross your fingers- I might even have gotten the trick of swirling finally!

As you may have caught, we’ve migrated our blog from WordPress.com to our site at texaspioneercreations.com over the past few weeks.  It has been quite an adventure for me as I learn more of the nuts and bolts of how a website really works- and how well I can crash it!  Thank heavens I’ve got a computer geek hubby and decent tech support when I break the computer.  One of the things I’ve learned in this migration- I’m sooo much better at soap math and design than websites!  To those who are the computer geeks out there, thanks a million times for creating these wonderful machines and beautiful websites.  And thanks for not pointing as you laugh when I do something stupid with them.

Our email based followers were successfully moved over but we are still working with tech support to bring over our WordPress.com followers.  If you are currently one of our .com followers, please take a moment to resubscribe to our blog at texaspioneercreations.com so you won’t miss out on our new posts, updates, and the ongoing insanity that is my soapy life!  The online ordering section of the site should be live soon also so that those not in our local area can enjoy some of our soaps in a more streamlined process.  Sign up so you won’t miss out!

I must now sign off so that I can get back to wrapping and brainstorming.  Hope your day is a good one, your tech support friendly, and you find the time for a little fun in it all.  I will see you again soon!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy

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We’ve Moved!

This weekend we officially opened our own website!  It is open to the public now but is still a work in progress.   We can now be found at texaspioneercreations.com in addition to our Facebook page.  My little blog here is making its transition over to the new site and we are working out the kinks for our followers.  Current followers will be subscribed to the new location but let me know if you have any problems with your updates from me!  Please check us out over at our little .com and have patience with me as I get our products loaded into the site, pictures loaded, and the shopping cart secured.   I will keep tweaking it and working on it behind the scenes; hopefully some of my trials will provide a good laugh for us all!  I greatly appreciate both those of you who have had the patience with me as I learn how to make a website and those who let me vent when I swore my computer was from the pits of you know where 🙂  Now for my last soap update on our WordPress.com location.

The sand soaps have been such a hit that I’m working on another tea sand soap.  I’d been debating between two tea blends and haven’t made up my mind.  Perhaps I’ll drag out my second cauldron and whip up both!  I only made a small batch of vanilla for a special request but it seems to be a bigger hit than expected again.  There will be more vanilla coming soon for those who had been interested; please email me if you want to preorder any of them.  Another soap that will be joining the full-time lineup will be our Sage & Citrus soaps.  It seems to be a huge hit for both the guys and gals- especially when we infuse it with our garden grown sage!  I will have more of that ready right around Halloween and currently have only a few bars left on hand.

We will be at Donna’s Market next weekend, October 13, for those who live in our area.  The address is 18315 Kenmark Lane, Cypress, TX 77433.  The market hours are from 8-2pm and we hope you’ll stop by to say hello!  We’re working hard to make sure everything is ready to see you there.  As much as I’ve wished, there is no magic wrapping fairy anymore than there is a housework fairy- darn it!  As for now, I must get back to wrapping soaps and then working on our new site.  Please send me any feedback you have (yes- I mean good, great, and even the bad) about our site and Facebook page.  After Donna’s Market, I should have the final results to post on the secret scents we’ve been working on.

Happy Washing!

Dorothy

Author’s Note:  I am reposting here my last blog from our WordPress.com site as everything is being finished up on the migration.  Thanks for stopping by!  – Dorothy

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Soap garden growing

So this beautiful weather has been great for the soap garden in addition to my spirits.  We’ve been busy here helping those little green sprouts pop up and attempting to keep them weed free.  Well, as much as possible.  The cilantro, sage, and some of the flowers have really taken off now.  With any luck, and no record-breaking drought here in Texas this year, these little guys might actually make it into the soaps!  I’m really hoping to get to work with them soon.

What on earth would possess me to add some of the garden bounty to my soap?  Why not?  There are many items we use in soap making for aromatherapy in addition to their coloring abilities.  Vanilla is a prime example of an additive that both changes the smell and will most definitely darken your soap.  Calendula flowers will create a pretty color while lavender ones can make a great texture change to the soap.  I wanted to use some of the fresh herbs and flowers in soap making while being able to honestly say whether or not they were grown pesticide free.  Growing my own lets me control exactly how they are treated.  If I want pesticide free flowers or truly fresh-cut herbs in my next batch, I just step out back and a cut off what I need.  No guessing or hoping about what might have been added to my botanicals.  Although I do have to guess about the weather for growing them and Texas weather tends to keep all of us guessing!

The sun is rising here now and I must get back to the soap pot.  Hope your weekend is a pretty out there as mine looks to be.  Donna’s Market is going on this weekend and you can find some of my info there at her booth.  She will be taking any orders you may have for me Saturday while there.  I will be in my regular weekly spots until CHA’s Family Fun Day in May where you will find me again!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy