making soap

Well had my 2 days off. Got the olive oil fine, started making soap, made 5 kilos or 5 different soaps and realised I had forgotten something vital! Preservative! Wonderful planning eh! Its not like you can just pop to the local tesco and buy grapefruit seed oil either so that was that. In about an hour I am back at work. Boo Hoo! Still its friday I suppose. gotta look on the bright side havent you!

Days off work, hooray!

I am off work today so easy to find the time to blog. Had a good holiday. We ripped kitchen appart, wallpapered ceiling, painted it and nearly got kitchen back together again. Also had to take up floorboards upstairs to put new light fittings into kitchen so whole house in chaos. Got to try and sort out the house in the next couple of days too. Well make the most of 2 days holiday etc. Bedrooms are terrible state since we had to take up floorboards in both back bedrooms to do lighting so house is all chaos again! There is piles of stuff everywhere and dogs lying all over it making clean clothes and sheets etc stinky!

Intending to have mega soap making over next couple of days and then with luck will finally launch business. need to start to find outlets now. Considering some companies I know locally since a good customer so maybe they will try us out. Other than that have to rely on vegan society etc. Gotta sort out lab testing and also officially register the company cos so far have not yet done that. Its all such fun!

A friend went to visit a mine which is now open to the public so not actualy a mine anymore. Sounds horrible that mine! I didnt know they still use canaries. I did know pit ponies were treated badly. The worst conditions now are the brick kiln ponies in India ( and similar areas). The problem is often the pony has badly fitting saddle and harness which makes wounds and they get infected. Thats besides the heavy loads they have to carry. They rely on charities like the Brook Hospital who care for them and provide better harnesses etc. When I first heard about it it actually made me cry - anyway these ponies are often owned by kids of only about 14 who have to make enough money to care for several generations of familly. You can see why the animals come second once you realise the conditions the people have to suffer. Brook helps both owners ( by re-educating them) and the horses and ponies by treating wounds and giving better harness etc. Its still a terrible life they have to lead. Sounds an interesting place to visit tho. My Grandfather went down the mines in Wales. He was not very old when he worked there. On his first day there was a bad fall and his best friend died next to him. His older brother got him a job as a page boy in Brighton ( so he must have been quite young I think). Anyway years later he died from lung cancer which they reckon was directly related to the pit he spent only 2 days working in! That was about 1920s/30s I think.

Will be making much more soap this week. Didnt make any over weekend since chaos everywhere. Intending to remake cinnamon with more fragrance also several others which have ideas for. Have 40L of olive oil which is main ingredient so intending to go for it and then assuming all goes well to get certified and start up selling. I feel its time now. Also I can now get trade prices for all sorts of fair trade stuff so am considering a second company. Its terrible you know cos I keep going off at tangents. Having spent years trying to come up with an idea to go self employed I am finding them round every corner. Have decided to forget coconut oil for now since can buy cheaper from chester! maybe in the future tho when I need more or larger quantities. Also now have a sustainable source of Palm oil from columbia so no problems with guilt over orangutan habitats! had to do that since greenpeace keep emailing me about the indonesian rain forest being murdered for soap! Mine is sustainable tho!

difficulty writing

I am not doing very well really since cant seem to find anything interesting to write. Just the same boring stuff going on in my life as usual. Have today bought 40L of olive oil. Arrives next week so will have to stay in all that day. Its exciting tho cos now I will finally get the soap products sorted and hopefully get them safety assessed which means the business will be up and running. Seriously considering a second business right now in fair trade clothes. Altho I know lots of people do this already in doing the research for the soap supplies I have discovered lots of other stuff that is very inspiring. Probably cheaper to start up too tho I think it may in the end mean a smaller turnover. Having said that there are lots of soap makers out there. Tho hopefully soap being a comodity rather than a luxury will mean there is room for us all. Time will tell with this one. I intend to try spending bank holiday designing a company logo. (In between doing DIY ofcourse cos we are trying to get these kitchen cupboards in place and do the ceiling at last. )I need that to move forwards. I have never been good at graffic art. Used to share a house with this guy who is brilliant at it so maybe should try and contact him. I will see how it goes over bank holiday cos really have no money to spend paying someone to design a logo if I can make one up myself. I need to start selling soon cos its breaking the bank doing all the reseach for this tho to be a success I really must perfect the product first else will just get a bad name and the business will end before it begins. Its a catch 22 situation. I have started to get good feedback from my panel of volunteers tho and am intending to remake most of my current soaps in accordance with their suggestions. Well thats what I got them all involved for really. No point doing market research only to ignore the results is it!

Another weekend over

Life just goes to quickly. Or when you have a dau off it does. I really do like working a 4 day week. Its weird cos that extra day just makes so much difference. This week I am going to have to do the full five days. Sunday we finally got round to this bootfair. Sold everything we could and possibly a few extra bits that were there simply to make it look good. Hopefully wont regret any of it. made £125 profit ( ???) but it will all go to the house/ food etc. Help us to pay off the electric bill from last winter maybe. WE are meant to pay by DD but it seems we have used loads extra - or maybe its down to price rises. Either way we now owe over £300 which is not good. Soon they will send red letter and no idea how we are going to pay! probably means hugely increased DD and there isnt anything left we can really sell now. Ah well at least we should be ok for not going into overdraft for food this month! And loads of lettuces growing which means we wont need to buy any. Wonder if you can make lettuce soup! Hmm.

a boring day at work

Work was gloomy today. It seems to me everyone moans all the time when it rains and when the sun comes out they all moan cos its hot. Whats wrong with them all? Anyway have a goodbye lunch tomorrow with a mate who is emigrating to sunny spain. Got to call in and buy some supplies for soap making and also visit to the art shop and buy some ribbons and some fabric paint to do up last years canvas shoes. I have 3 pairs I want to update that I think will make it till the end of this summer so decided rather than buy new I shall update what I already have. Then got to call HM customs to find out if its worth buying organic oils from abroad rather than from UK dealers. Depends on import taxes as to whether I do so or not. Suspect may turn out to be cheaper and easier to simply buy from an importer. Anyway looking forward to tomorrow. Sadly I am working friday. Still may as well make the most of a day off eh!

Tuesday

It was a hard day. Not too sure why really but it seemed that way. A good friend has his ;leaving (the UK ) do thursday which should be a good get together and good day except for the fact he leaves the UK at the end of May for ever. I suppose he will be back occasionally but really wont ever live here again. Wish I could move abroad. Somewhere with less taxes maybe but a stable govt. As much as any govt is stable these days. Made 2 more types of soap at the weekend and am currently investigating exactly what is needed ( and how much cash!!!) to certify soaps. Seems pretty straightforward to get vegan soc or viva certs ( so long as no animal testing or products etc) but the UK lab bit is going to be expensive. M posted off lot s of soap samples to people today. Course could be good or bad. Who knows? Finally did questionaire to go with em too. Now I will get some feedback but maybe will be bad. A bit worrying really. Still its the way to find out isnt it. If you dont ask you dont get and then you never really know. He who dares etc!!!!

bootsales almost and seitan!

I only seem to get time to blog on a weekend recntly. I suppose I should be glad cos that does mean i have a life. Well sort of! Anyway here I am again. Really wish I could spell you know. And typing accurately wouldnt go amiss. Anyway..........

Went looking for boot sales today. Took absolutely hours to find them. Well found one eventualy. Not at all where we were directed but it looks ok. My dad has given us loads of "junk" from his sheds. Some we want to keep and will be very useful. The rest we are going to try and bootsale. Not sure we are really likly to find a buyer for his 52 sweet tins. Some really are collectable but most of the are just old(and not that old )roses and quality street tins! Still the thought is there. Tomorrow we are going to investigate what is meant to be a really big boot sale in Leamington Spa. Its just up the road really so may be worth the effort.

Then we BBQd some Seitan and have to say having tried it twice now I hate the stuff. There not trendy but its just yuk!

Will try to write again tomorrow.

Oh and found out what I do is called "manifesting".

Thats when you say it and you make it happen.

Wild. I have done it for years but didnt know thats what they call it. Well maybe shouldnt make it public but it works really and why not. As a very good friend told me "Make it happen" Why dont you?

what a weekend

Well this has all become back to front now timewise but I need to do a bit of catching up. Had friday off to go to what turned out to be a very interesting inland revenue course. Learned lots about being self employed and it seems much easier than I thought it might be. Very encouraging anyway. Except the woman who taught it seemed to treat my idea like a cottac=ge industry where she thought I could only sell thru craft fayres. Infact I intend to make lots of money and give up my boring job in sales! Anyway it was helpful.
Saturday we put up rest of fence. Dogs finally got to run in the garden. They were really into it. Sunday visited parents, general familly stuff. Monday lovely weather and we sat in the garden and planted beetroot, spring onions, radishes, spuds, runner beans and all sorts of flowers. Also finally mowed front garden ( have yet to do the back!) and planted flowers in a bed in the middle. The bed was originally a hole which was proably meant to be a pond since the last owner of our house seems to have built ponds all over the place. Anyway filled in with compost and planted with flowers which I started off in seed trays in january. Feeling quite pleased with myself right now. Also my broad beans are much bigger than the ones on sale at the local nursery! Very good bank holiday. Cant wait for the next one.

4 day weeks

You know I do like to do a 4 day week. I had one last week, one this week and also have one next week. What I really need is a job that still pays ok but only wants me to work for 4 days! I could handle that. I would obviously prefer 3 days or none but 4 is so much more handleable than 5 days! Mind you must be ok here cos havent started looking yet! On other hand am doing my own thing along side so maybe thats it. Came to the conclusion my shampoo soap is rubbish but makes great normal soap. You just feel like you have used soap to wash your hair. Its a bit like the shampoo / conditioners in one where your hair just feels greasy afterwards. I suppose its better to feel greasy than dry tho! Reminds me of my punk teenage years when we used to plaster our hair in soap to spike it up! Shame but I suppose its just a bit more of the learning curve I am currently climbing! Intending to remake all the current soaps in next week. I have made this cranberry soap but I may aswell just give it to everyone since i cannot use a whole kilo very quickly. Its good soap just not in my opinion saleable. We now have 6 different soaps on the go in our bathroom. Still at least we wont stink I suppose!