Project #2: Melt & Pour Soap

I've been making Melt & Pour soap (M&P) for several years now. It is so easy and fun!

This year all the women at church are getting a bar of soap for their birthday and my mom volunteered us to make some. I have lots of bulk soap, fragrances and color on hand.

I often have people ask me how to make M&P soap. It must seem difficult, but it is very simple. Any beginner can do it or a child with adult supervision.

First: Prepare your area and gather everything you will need. Personally, I use the following.
*Scale
*Microwave safe bowl
*Silicone spatula
*Metal straight edge spatula (for cutting the soap)
*Soap molds
*M&P Soap base
*Fragrance oil or Essential oil
*Soap dyes and other additives
*Plastic wrap or something to wrap soaps in (soap for my own use gets put in a large pretty jar in my bathroom)

When I first started making M&P soap I just bought base at Michael's using a 40% off coupon. They sell a 10# bucket for $39.99. Now I use natural base from Wisteria Lane. I've been really pleased with the products I've purchased from them.
I could also use the Amazon GC's I earn from Swagbucks to get base for free!

Next: I use 2 pound cavity molds. Cut up the soap base into small cubes and weigh to make sure you have the right amount for the mold. Put all the cubed base into your microwave safe bowl. Melt in the microwave on high in 30-60 second intervals. Do NOT allow the base to boil and do not over stir, to avoid bubbles.

Once the base is fully melted you can add your fragrance. I add 1 ounce of fragrance oil to 2 pounds of base. If you are using essential oils you will need much less.
At this point you can add any additives you may like. Do NOT use food additives that will go bad. I like to add extra glycerin, mica, glitter, shea butter, vitamin E, jojoba beads, seeds, etc.

If you add seeds or other additives that you want to suspend in the soap you will need to wait to pour your soap into the molds until it starts to get thicker. I try to pour it when it gets like pudding. If you wait too long it won't settle into the mold, you'll get strings. But, you can always warm it up a little in the microwave and try again.

If you don't put anything that needs to be suspended then you can pour immediately into the molds and let cool.

Finish: Once cool you can cut the bars if you have a mold like mine. Otherwise, just pop out of the cavities and wrap. You can get as creative as your imagination will allow when it comes to presentation.
I wrap in plastic wrap and put a label on the back with the soap information for the recipient.

Enjoy!

A Green and Cheap Birthday

I wanted to post about how to have a wonderful birthday celebration without breaking the bank. A lot of these ideas are also better for the environment because they include used and homemade items.

Kelsey will turn 6 in a month. I've already got her birthday (almost) done.

In our house we only have "friend" bday parties on the even bdays. This cuts down on cost AND how much crap my kids have!!! Of course, another way to do this is to post "no gifts please" on the invites, but most little children LOVE to bring a gift. I also limit how many children they can invite. I find that inviting about 6 kids will give us around 4 in turn out.

GIFTS for dd
16" Bike ($10 from Goodwill)
2 Color Wonder Sets (2/$10 from Walmart Black Friday)
Wooden Doll Highchair (traded at Once Upon A Child-value $5.50)
Gymboree terrycloth swim cover (traded at OUAC-value $6.50)

This gives me a total oop of $20. However, since I sold dd's outgrown bike on Craigslist for $15 it brings my oop to $5!!! We do need to possibly replace a tube in one of the tires of her "new-to-her" bike.

You will notice that the only new items she is getting are the Crayola sets. My kids have been getting used things for gifts all their lives, so this is not an issue for them. I highly recommend not making a big deal out of used vs. new or putting more value on new in front of your children. It is learned behavior to prefer new.

For the party:
Cake mixes are CHEAP! I get them year round for about $0.50 a box. I can get tubs of frosting for just as cheap. I bought the nice jars of food coloring paste at Michaels years ago with a coupon for about $10. I need to replace them, but they lasted over 10 years. It's a great deal and they make beautiful colors!

Activities: This varies greatly by age and number of children at the party. We usually do a little game and craft. I find that an hour and a half is a good amount of time for a party. Longer tends to make for bored children who rome the house looking for things to get into. This is long enough for a game, craft, food and presents.

Party favors are sometimes hard. This year I found a great deal at Lillian Vernon. I bought two packages of 4 little purses with bead necklaces. It was less than $1 per purse/necklace combo! They are cute and come in a variety of colors. I bought them with my Christmas purchases to get free shipping.

Some other fun party favor ideas are: homemade play dough, gak, silly putty, treats/candy, craft projects, stickers
At the Dollar Tree you can find some fun little things, too. The plastic whirly flyer things are fun-its just a propeler with a stick. Bubbles, puzzles, capsules that grow in water, etc.

Salem will be 3 on his next birthday.
His gifts will be a toddler scooter and a helmet. My mom will buy the helmet new and I have already started looking for a used scooter. I'm hoping to pay no more than $10-15.
I also found him a nice wooden rocking horse for $18 on CL, but I already gave it to him. He was turning all our furniture into "horsies" and so I couldn't wait!!!

I'd love to hear your ideas for keeping gifts inexpensive and under control.

Holiday Baking and Cooking and Candy Making

I love to create things in the kitchen. It is so satisfying! A couple of days ago I spent most of the day in the kitchen and these are some of the things I made.

Caramel
This was a disaster. I guess we overcooked it because it was hard. Jordan took a hammer to it and broke my 9x13 Pyrex dish! Geez.

Carrot Zucchini Spice Bread (Pampered Chef Recipe)

I love this recipe and it is super easy to tweak. I add things like puree's and ground flax and part wheat to it.

Ritz Cookies
These are sooo easy and a big hit with everyone. The only problem is that they take more time to make than to eat. Spread peanut butter on the cracker and dip in melted chocolate bark. YUM!!! I can do 2 sleeves of crackers with one package of bark.

Microwave Fudge
Another easy recipe. We discovered this last year. One bag of semi sweet chocolate chips and a can of sweetened condensed milk. I got the canned milk for free and the chips for $1 making this a very thrifty treat to give or keep!



Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches
These aren't exactly hard to make, but they take an ingredient I never buy-Marshmellow Creme. I have made them twice-once when I was a newlywed for Eric's birthday and then this week. You can add food coloring to the filling!



Jellied Cranberry Sauce(Ball Canning Book)
I started making my own cranberry sauce last year. I will be honest, I have always loved that jellied stuff shaped like a can, but after tasting this we won't go back to that HFCS crap! I can control what kind of sugar is used in this recipe. I got the cranberries on sale for $1.50 a bag and just used the sugar in the house. I can get 4 half pints for around $2. This years turned out a beautiful bright red!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas is sucha magical, wonderful time of year. I especially enjoy watching my children frost cookies and open packages and put up paper decorations on the wall.

We had a great Christmas this year. My daughter, Kelsey, has dubbed it "the best Christmas ever!" This isn't a surprise coming from her. She tends towards the dramatic and days are either the best or the worst.

We seemed to get everyone toys they like and will play with a lot. That is always good. I can remember years where we had several misses or those "must have" toys didn't last long before breaking.

THis year hubby and I went to Walmart at 4:50am on Black Friday. People were mostly very pleasant, things were in stock, but the line wrapped its way through the entire store. It was totally worth it, though! I ended up getting most of the kids gifts for really good prices. I even did a price match for a toy that was on sale at Kmart. Worked like a dream!

Here are the things we (and Santa) got the kids:

Jordan-12
Scooter ($15)
Basketball ($11)
RC helicopters ($18)
Bakugan Gauntlet (grammy)
Bakugan 7 in 1 toy (grammy)
Starter Warm up Suit ($3)
Socks & T-shirt (around $8)
DS Game (I dunno, Eric bought it)

Kelsey-5
Pink Guitar ($15)
Littlest Pet Shop sets ($10 garage sale)
Crayola Glo Board ($15)
Bucket of Pink Girl LEGO (grammy)
LEGO people set (grammy)
Princess & the Frog color & sticker book (grammy)
Danskin Warm up Suit ($3)
Pink Sweater (? sale at Kohls)

Salem-2
Manny the Motorcycle Guy ($17.50 price match!)
Wooden Tool Box set ($18 Target clearance)
Little People Amusement Park (grammy)
Parachute with beanbags ($25 Lillian Vernon)
Plush Pirate play set ($8 LV)
Crayola Color Wonder ($5)
Starter Warm up Suit ($3)

They each got some fun things in their stockings, too, that they really enjoyed.

Luckily, we have been paring down on belongings for awhile. We got rid of more right before Christmas to make room for the new. Even still, I now have a bin of Pet Shop toys and a bin of Little People toys. Dang, those toys take up a lot of room!

Now, Eric and I mostly exchanged DVD's and stuff like that. I did make him two homemade gifts. He got a pair of flannel PJ pants from me that I started last year. They are made out of Yoda fabric! I made the waist too big, though, so not sure what to do to fix it. I also made him some chocolate sandwich cookies. Mmmmm!