Happy Halloween!

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Oats, Goats & Honey.

Last time I tried to make Oatmeal, Milk & Honey in the summer, I had a huge disaster on my hands.  After the process of mixing the lye-water and oils, the emulsification heats up and turns into soap.  Several factors can accelerate and intensify this process; milk, honey and some fragrance oils will do this as well as pouring the oils and lye-water when they're still a bit too warm can compound the situation along with warm air temperature.  Well... this one time, in my kitchen, I had all of these factors going for me and found myself with a volcano on my counter.  This thing went in to instant gel, which normally takes an hour or two.  I stuck that puppy in the freezer but it was too late.  The inside got very hot and started to expand and broke through the more solidified surface creating a big, ugly, hollow log of usable but ridiculously ugly soap.

Needless to say, I sort of chickened out from making another for a while.  On the first cool night of the fall, I froze some goats milk before adding the lye and gave the oils and water substantial time to cool down to my satisfaction.  Everything went as planned and I stuck the big ol' batch under the fan and all was well.  As these bars have cured, they've gone a nice rich brown and they look beautiful.  I'm so proud... *sniff*  These puppies will be ready for sale in just a couple more weeks.

First Attempt at Whipped Soap.

Aside from a slightly thinner than I'd hoped for "batter" and slight discoloration from the fragrance, I think it was great success, I liiiiike!

I used Tahitian Vanilla, which smells yummmm and decorated with some cranberry seeds.  I've gained much inspiration from this experience.  I recently screwed up my first batch in a long time and must re-batch.  Since it was Black Raspberry, I've got an idea how to turn the first third of the batch (it was a biggie) into cupcakes.  I'm taking pictures along the way, so look for that soon.  Now...  behold the first whipped cupcakes that were not a complete disaster, but not as pretty as I'd have liked...

New Website ...Finally!

Well, it's just the basics for now, but I wanted to have a solid base in place so that I could play around with it a bit more at my leisure.  Without further ado, I give you.....  (drumroll)

www.sudstress.com

Etsy Front Page. Part 2.

Thanks to Justine for providing me with the picture of my soap on the etsy front page. I totally missed it, but it's another gorgeous one.

Thoughts colliding in my head like a horde of mexican jumping beans after a quadruple espresso.

The biggest event that transpired since my last post (besides my Graves Disease coming out of remission - but that's another post) was Peter's three week visit with me, here in Atlanta.  It passed like the blink of an eye and when our efforts to prolong the trip were financially thwarted (one way tickets are NOT half the cost of round trip) I begrudgingly took him to the airport this morning after a 5:30 a.m. wake up call.  We sat silently holding hands most of the way, 'The Greatest' providing quiet accompaniment on our drive in the predawn hour.  Having missed the cut off for baggage check, Peter missed his flight from Atlanta to San Francisco....  again.  With the extra 20 minutes this gave us until his next flight, we sat with coffee and shared a bagel as I remarked about how natural it felt just being next to him before he left me for the security check line.

Oh my sweet Carolina.

Making  my way back to the car, I felt fairly stable as opposed to the anguish I had been anticipating and I pressed the unlock button only once, glad not to be in tears.  As I sat in morning rush hour, Love Is Hell began to play.  Just three days prior, these songs had cascaded from the same speakers as they did now, but with Peter at the wheel and me beside him.  He mentioned how the music complemented the scenery as we drove south on the Blue Ridge Parkway through the trees whose leaves were golden beneath the sun.  This brought the first tears to my eyes.  Upon arriving home, the coffee he had bought for me still in hand, I walked into my apartment which no longer carried any sign of his presence.  Silently greeted by the pot and pan soaking from our romantic dinner just hours ago, the indentation in the sheets from where he had slept, the couch where we cuddled and watched movies; I was overwhelmed with sadness over how empty my home felt.  

You were holdin' me, little honey, kissing my soul.

The last time I saw Peter this past August, we agreed that our experience with each other seems exponentially better with each trip and this was no exception.  There comes a point for me in the early stages of relationships where the "flaws" that make a person human start to become visible beyond the veil of idealism through which I initially see a person.  I thought for sure the terrified heart underlying the commitment-phobe in me would latch onto these things as it has in the past eliciting a sigh of relief, comforted by my old patterns.  The patterns that create distance between me and another thus avoiding the risk of getting hurt.  I feel triumphant that I was aware of this notion and consequently able to break through that internal wall in order to finally get to really involve myself in experiencing another person intimately.  I am literally amazed that three weeks of constant contact left me wanting more.  This is the first time that I've gotten my space back and was not relieved to have it all to myself again.

...when you're living in the darkness.

Peter and I got to do so much that we missed doing back in June which wrapped up yesterday with Dialog in the Dark which lets you explore an hour without sight.  I always wonder which parts I'll remember more than others because they're always different than the moments I think I'll remember at the time.  While he was here, we went to the Starlight Drive In, The Georgia Aquarium, Thrashers game, Dialog in the Dark, Agave, Thumbs Up Diner, The Brickstore, Asheville, Mt. Mitchell, Mt. Pisgah, Blue Ridge Parkway, camped, cooked wonderful dinners and breakfasts, wandered through the farmer's markets of DeKalb and Asheville, went for several walks, toasted marshmallows in the mountains and a lot of other stuff I won't mention.

The Gym Smelled Like Cheese.

Well, I ended up going to sleep and hitting the snooze button until about 11:30 a.m. when I actually became aware that I was hitting the snooze button.  Not bad considering that every time I've been to sleep around 6 a.m., I end up waking around 2:30.  I got a pedicure, got my hair thinned out, had my eyebrows waxed, washed my kitchen floor, took some clothes to salvation army, did laundry, cooked dinner, went to the gym - which smelled like feet cheese, and now I'm about to drink a glass of wine and watch a movie because I'm really not going to be able to sleep tonight.  "Why?" you ask..  because I'm picking Peter up from the airport at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.. er, today, technically.  He's staying for three weeks.  Neither of us have a clue what'll happen afterwards, but we both agreed that this should be our next move.  I'm not nervous right now, but my heart will be racing in about 7 hours. 

We're going to go camping in Western North Carolina and cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway.  

Sidenote:  last night as I was trying to go to sleep, I read a few stories in The Idiot Girl's Action Adventure Club.  This is a book I've read before and remember enjoying.  This time it felt a little flat.  The humor was forced and rather cliche.  I wonder what the difference is.  I think the book fit more into my life when I was into coffee, cigarettes and gossip.  I am still into coffee, but have since quit the other two.