i have a yello belly!

Made ace bath bombs with natural colouring dye. Unfortunately I ended up with a yellow ring round my belly and round the bath and it wont come off the bath. It will wear off me! Other than the yellow bit ace bath bombs! best not to use turmeric by the looks of things.

INGREDIENTS:
500g bicarbonate of soda OR Sodium hydrogen carbonate.
250g of citric acid.
Water as needed!

Race is on till xmas to make this work and where then?

xmas markets and tons achieved

Well life is too short. Done lots on monday to wednesday when not at work but spent the last 2 days wishing my life away again. Trying to sign up for a Christmas market on Towcester but dont actually know how to pronounce Towcester. Toe cest er? Or Towster?? Who knows. It could be a bit embarrassing tho doing a market in a town you cant pronounce the name of. Still got a few months yet to sus out the pronunciation. Spent all of Monday at interview for dream job which didnt get. Looked round Camden market and didnt buy anything which was very difficult but being broke and in trouble and trying to pay off debts would be silly to spend what havent got. Then tuesday made soap and cleaned the house but in the opposite order. Wednesday decided no way will afford accountant next year so best get off 4rse and do the company books. Not a great surprise to find lots gone out an very little come in tho have actually now sold £39.95 in soap!!!! Not a great amount I know but very encouraging for me. This entrepreneurship stuff is dead hard maan! Starting to wonder how I will ever get this company off the ground and actually trading. Then delivered some soap to local florist who is selling for me and came home and had encouraging email froma site who sell stuff like mine saying someone would call me but they havent and not sure whether to be cheeky and just go for it or just forget the whole thing!. Then wednesday afternoon spent hours and hours till 7pm wrapping and labelling soap and individually pricing to sell when do get a stall somewhere. Seriously knackering is the word for it. I need to buy a bar stool for the kitchen so I can sit whilst doing all this hard work. Anyway having wrapped everything. Made 4 new bars of soaps ( curing ready to cut next week) and sorted out curing cupboard have now decided need more to actually do a stall than just bars of soap so going to make lots of bath bombs since over last few months of playing for us seem to have perfected and now dare I say it as good as Lush ones. Well I think so and so do several others who have tried them out. No longer using basic recipe off internet either have altered. Just need to decide which are best recipes and then get safety assessment and hopefully will have about 100 for the xmas market on 7th December. And need to buy some nice looking baskets to present them in on this stall. Then last 2 days back in dreary office doing boring work which just gives me nothing back and doesnt even pay very well. There has to be a better way to live really there does. Got to enquire about local University markets too since a very long time ago in the 80s I sold lots of stuff like hand made jewellery and screen printed Tshirts at one and could do that again one day a week or fortnight. I think this will come together eventually really I do but so far I have laid out nearly £4000 and got £39.95 back! Still they say you need to speculate to accumulate................we will see.........Luckily have very nice partner who is encouraging me all the way. Well he may not be rich but he has lots going for him in other ways or has now I have gone and invested all my savings and lots of money each month from wages in this slightly mad idea. Maybe it will eventually pay of who knows. In meantime have caught up with reading other blogs and am now intendingt o get round to properly subscribing to them. Oh and has lots of problems with 1&1 internet ecommerce site not working so emailed em and complained and they said they couldnt find anything wrong but when logged back in they have fixed it all so hopefully by monday might even have online business going! Reminds me of that song..............things can only get better.............cant remember for life of me who sang that ( probably very uncool band) but who cares. Today is friday and cant wait for weekend this week. Not that anything has changed there!

new connections

Well I seem to be getting worse and worse at blogging. My life has become very hectic. I have actually made two different soap sales and am meeting someone tomorrow who is a florist who is interested in stocking my soaps. The trouble is it has become obvious I am rubbish at the storage and logistics side. Spent the whole of wednesday and thursday nights reorganising my storage so i can find everything and know what type of soap most need to be made next. I havent had time to make any more yet but suspect i will do so tomorrow after the meeting. At least now we have got round to wrapping some of it we can start to cut some of the large bars which really should have been cut last week or even the previous week and then left to dry out further. When they are cut they take much more space up since have to be lain out to dry and I keep running out of space. It was all getting a bit much but then I decided why am I stressing out. This is meant to be fun and fullfilling .......the fact I still work fulltime means no time for the soap or for me but its going to change. I do not yet know how I shall make it happen but I intend to do my best to and i believe it will all work out so it must. Got ripped off by the labels guy who has charged me £500 more than he quoted!!!!! Well a lesson to be learned here- always get a written quote! So I am learning but this is the painful way. I wont get caught out like that again and not sure I shall be going back to him either. Depends on how it all goes I suppose cos we now have a great design and logo and infact my company has been born! The new ecommerce website is started but yet to go live and I have enrolled for the webdesign course. Also have a job interview for a new job which I am hoping may come off since it sounds much better than my current boredom boredom unfulfilling boredom that is my working life. Made friends with the local scrap man who came and removed loads of metal - well I would rather give away than let skip company have it when we are paying them for the skip itself - let them have the s5it we cannot get carried away since thats the point and they wont make much out of us! Well other than the extortionate hire of the skip itself of which we will probably need another 2-3 skips!

Except for the fact I completely enjoy blogging, I should probably give it up due to never doing it very often! Still perfection is something to be aimed at and never achieved.
I also read part of a new blog Owls Wings which I find very inspiring and interesting so will be going back there. Need to catch up with Tatty too since have been very slack reading blogs recently.

Godaddy website tonight!

Another whole week has gone and loads has happened. I found out whilst looking for a freeware shopping cart for my new business website which I built using GoDaddy`s website tonight package that it is possible to write to the admin file of the account. While I am no expert its obvious to me this must threfore be insecure so anyway I contact Godaddy who help me to secure my Linux site but cannot do anything with my Bsoaps site ( on website tonight) so I have closed it down and now waiting for an authorisation code to move elsewhere. Spent days checking out ecommerce packages and came to the conclusion I will sign up with 1&1 since not only are the "green" apparently but most of the ethical companies seem to use them and also they have a great package for small companies which is only about £6 a month which is very good so going to try them out next...........assuming ofcourse I am able to get away from GoDaddy! I have checked out some forums and it seems that might not be as easy as it should be but we will see. Even if they give me the codes to authorise moving the domain it could still take me 48 hours to get up and running. Anyway tonight I intend to set up the bsoaps.co.uk site on 1&1 and then just move the godaddy site as soon as I can. Unfortunately the soap labels ( finally recieved last saturday) have bsoaps.com on them which is a bit of a cock-up to say the least. If I can get both sites pointing at the 1&1 account tho it wont matter and will be much better really since it will mean anyone searching for me should find me. Boiler man is coming saturday and we still have a skip outside the house waiting to be filled and it will be in his way! Hoepfully he will still be able to put it in without moaning too much about lack of access. I will finally get my labelling gun saturday to add batch codes and BBEs to my soaps so I will actually be able to start trading one week later than originally intended but its not such a bad result in the end. I am quite excited about the whole affair tho need to quit my day job to concentrate on my own company and cannot afford to yet! Also have had several quotes for getting a professional website built - cheapest is £1000 + VAT so enrolling tomorrow/saturday depending how it goes for a course at local tech to learn to build them myself. Means by about this time next year I should be able to do my own website design rather than rely on packages and templates. Whole thing has become very exciting. Its so weird tho that my idea to make hand made natural soap has escalated to the extent I now have a company and am about to learn to build websites. Ofcourse if ok at it I will also be able to do other peoples and make a living from website design. Weird year this has been I have to say. And still 3-4 months left..........whatever will happen next? My mate (currently living in Salisbury ) is moving back to the midlands too so that is great cos we will get to see each other much more often - I feel the pub calling.............

bank holiday

Well bank holiday came and went far too quickly. We managed to achieve loads and have a skip that is half full of rubble and glass from our numerous sheds and greenhouses that we do not want. The garden is being retrieved. I seem to have managed to get covered in cuts and bruises tho which is not good. How I got half of them I really do not know. I have also put down an impromptu path made of bark chipping. Shame really cos it isnt done right so will eventually need to be redone. It was really an emergency since it was too muddy and slippy to be carrying glass panels from one end of the garden to the skip. Bearing in mind the garden is 83m long its a long walk with each pane of glass! Anyway was too dangerous so went and bought 6 bags of bark chipping and have to say it looks ace. We are going to add some edges and keep the path like this since it looks really good with the sort of rustic garden we have. We are also intending to rebuild one of the sheds on the boundary line since that way we can define our boundary and hopefully stop next door neighbour from stealing any more of our garden or chucking any more of our roses. The roses are on our land but are on her side of the fence since we put it up infront of the leylandii ( which are also ours) when we moved in since was winter, very rainy and we needed to secure the garden for the dogs. Anyway they are My roses and I intend to keep as many as I can. We have removed nearly all the leylandii now and have only about 10 left to cut down. WE are also considering cutting the apple tree down since if left where it is it will eventually destroy the fish pond with its roots. Oh and we have loads of gold coloured goldfish now since lots of teh babies are changing. The pond is now looking really good. The whole garden could be brilliant if we ever get to sort it out. Everything takes so much longer. I wish I could just wave a magic wand or wriggle my nose like Genie and just make it all happen. M found it very funny when next door neighbour is trimming the leylandii one minute then he comes along and cuts same tree down. yes not nice to laugh but shes nasty and a garden theif and also very nosey. Apparently shes one of these strange people who like leylandii and hate deciduous trees. Well they are our trees and they are being replaced with nice indigenous hedging come november time. Also we get all this free wood to burn on the woodburner. Alright has to be weathered or whatever its called first but in the end its all free wood! We are building a store for the wood too which we really need since have a pile that is about 10m long and 3m wide so far and more to come home.

friday at last

Well its Friday. Weekend is nearly here. Loads has happened in the last week. I am very happy. They are going to give me Vegan Society certification for my soaps which will open doors for me I think. That also means when I have the meeting next week to finalise my lablels I will be able to include the sunflower logo. Not really sure it will sell my products better but its worth a try and at least I may get listed on the ethical sites now! hey I am happy and its nearly the weekend since the weather is looking good and we are intending to cut down about 15 trees and reclaim our garden. We have a problem with nosey old bag next door in that we put our fence up on the outside of our trees ( to keep dogs in etc) and she is now gradually nicking our garden so we have to act now and get it back before she plants more of her stuff in it. The original fence is actually still there so we are going to cut the trees to the ground and put our fence up immediately next to hers! Any plants she has put in will either be bent over or she had better move them. In some parts we are currently looking to lose 2ft of garden so we really need to get round to this. There is one bit she nicked the day we moved in and while I am willing to let her get away with that rather than take her to the civil courts ( makes it much harder to sell your house tho she has nicked about 18 inches of our garden and its about 10 ft in length in the dog leg bit) she has planted (non-indigenous) hedging tho so not all bad. But she aint getting any more! She has also which has really infuriated me removed loads of hedging roses which were really ours but are currently behind our hedge. They were still on our land tho. Anyway going to move the fence and plant blackthorn ( sloes in future) hawthorn, hazel, dog roses etc and they are good for wildlife, make a great hedge, we can coppice to keep in check and burn the wood(bonus) and she absolutely hates all those plants so I will get real satisfaction planting them!!!!!!

Trouble is I bet I will be knackered come monday with all the gardening we have to get done. Its one step closer though. I havent looked at weather forcast but its hot today and a few showers wont stop us anyway. WE will just have lots of tea breaks! hopefully we will not have to kill any deciduous trees. There is one that may need to be pruned but I think we can get away with not cutting it down completely. I hate leylandii and they are not only allowing next door to nick our garden they block out most of the sunlight. They will probably stay in the middle garden cos its nice and secluded and shady and where we sit and have BBQs and sometimes if on holiday we have breakfast there, but I think they will all go at the bottom end.

WE are going to get rid of both sheds and put some new ones up so they will mean we can access the sides of the larger shed to take it down. The neighbour who is nicking our garden likes them( leylandii that is) and wants us to keep them but the rest of the street ( who have lived there all their lives!) all hate em and agree with us so it will only annoy the nosey theif woman. She is too...........nosey. We cant even walk up the garden without her coming up to see what we are doing. She has also broken a whole side of the greenhouse where it was one of the few bits that was perfect. Possibly by accident but more than likely to see what we are growing in it ( tomatoes but I have a suspician she thought it was something more subversive! silly woman!).

The glass was all moved inside the green house and stacked against the bit of glass next to the hole - theres no way it was just the wind or something natural! havent accused her cos whats the point. WE are intending to buy a new polycarbonate one next year anyway. It did irritate me tho. We are intending infact to put some natural willow type screens against the fence once we have moved it. I bought 3 large ones last year in winter reduced in Wilkos but decided not to use yet cos the fence was definitely not in final position and we never trusted this neighbour. Did not actually expect her to do what she has done tho. On August 30th assuming all goes to plan and I have a strange feeling it will I will make my/my soaps debut then at this Creative Arts Fayre in Spon End. I will also begin my tax hammering but that is inevitable until i can give up my day job I think. I cannot afford to give up my day job yet so will just have to put up with paying extra tax until I start to have a real turnover with respect to the soap. I have hardly made any this week ( only 3 bars) since ran out of just about everything but its all been re-ordered and is on its way. Getting 80L of olive oil this time next friday since I am on holiday ( to work for myself!!!) over bank holiday but I am so happy. It seems if you follow your dreams they really can come true. Still waiting to find out more about this hotel that is interested in my soap but its all happening for me at last. Only 2 hours left at work.............there I am wishing my life away again! Gotta get out of this rat race and start to really live again. I suspect its bad for the face this self employment but what the hell...........we all have to get old and wrinkled and I rather be happy and over worked than bored and doing what someone else wants me to do. I have to go to a company dinner after work next week. Dont really want to go but really need to make the effort after I upset everyone when I refused to go horse racing. This time its a chinese which I dont particularly enjoy but has to be done. At least it might mean my job still exists for a while longer or at least till I tell em where to stick it and go self employed.

a great day at work

I had a brilliant day today. Was at work but did very little. Spent the day sorting stuff out. Got this email when I arrived from a business development agency I am registered with about a creative arts fair on 30th August. No idea if I will be ready to Trade but its only £5 a stall so decided to go for it. Rang the organisor who is a woman and explained the situation and she was very encouraging and helpful and even told me who to contact to try and get a grant. How good is that. Also apparently a local hotel is after some soap that is different and may be interested in mine and she knows of a potter who sells all sorts of other peoples crafts and may be interested in my soap. How wild is this. Then after got back to desk after long phone call to sort all this out had another email from Vegan Society about certification so rang both my suppliers. Have to get em to fill a form in for me to state no animals or animal tests in my products. No problem with one who supplies most of my stuff but the olive oil supplier is being a bit awkward. Hopefully they will make the statement else I will have to find a new supplier which is a shame cos it makes lovely quality soap. I do not believe the olive oil has any animal content either its just the hassle of having to fill in a form they do not want to bother with. Ah well if I have to change supplier so be it. I will get certification in the end one way or another. Finished the allergens declaration for the last 3 soaps too so emailed them to printer and its all looking like its coming together amazingly. Also due to 2 requests I made coconut soap last night. It smells and looks lovely but it is not natural since you cannot get coconut essential oil. I will see what its like and get some feedback but not sure if I will want to sell this one really. Just made it cos 2 different mates have asked me to.