Vegan chocolate cake!

Hey guys!

With the baby coming and us doing spring/early summer cleaning I can’t help, but think about the upcoming baby shower.

During the planning process my friend shared a delicious recipe with me that was shared with her by her friend. This takes me back to when I was planning my cousin’s baby shower. She had a Vegan friend and we wanted to have some foods that would make her feel comfortable in eating. Of course there were different degrees of Veganism. Some are strictly on this and some are a little more lenient on that. One of the food items I had a great time making were Vegan Tofu spring rolls which included almond butter as part of the dipping sauce. It was delicious. The Tofu was marinated in soy sauce and freshly squeezed orange juice. That was a new flavor for me and I love how refreshing it was especially with the fresh crispy bean sprouts and other veggies. I’ll have to look that recipe up and post it. Oh and part of having some Vegan friendly foods were Vegan friendly desserts.

I contacted a few places for desserts and they all sounded so great, but were out of my budget range. I also considered trying to make them, but some of the ingredients were pretty expensive. I ended up buying some prepackaged cookies and macaroons from Sprouts. I bought a few boxes to test out first and I think I threw about 3 boxes away. Not so tasty. Anyways it was a great experience with trying different types of foods.

So here is the recipe from Joanna K.

Vegan Chocolate Cake recipe

Cake:

1 ¼ cups Flour

1/3 Cocoa Powder

1 cup Sugar

½ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/3 cup Vegetable Oil or Canola Oil

1 cup Warm Water

1 ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Mix all the dry ingredients together, and then add in all the wet ingredients. Preheat oven to 350’. Bake for about 30 minutes. When it’s done, let it sit for about 2 hours before putting the glaze or frosting on top.

Glaze:

½ cup Sugar

2 tablespoons Soy Milk, or Almond Milk, or Coconut Milk

2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

4 tablespoons Vegan Butter (You can use Earth Balance. They sell it at Sprouts/Henrys, and sometimes at Vons and Ralphs.)

In small pot, mix all the ingredients together in medium-high heat until it’s all melted. Then you can let it sit for 10-30 minutes so it’s not too hot, and pour on top of cake. If you don’t want to use the glaze, you can use store bought frosting that is vegan. Pillsbury and Betty Crocker have some vegan frostings. The vanilla and chocolate fudge frostings are vegan, just not the milk chocolate.

Enjoy!

Paying it forward

Hi saw this on fb and thought it was a great way to share the kindness. Just the thoughtfulness rally warms my heart so if like to share this with you :)

I'm participating in a 'pay it forward' initiative. The first five people to comment on this status with "I'm in" will receive a surprise from me at some point in this calendar year! Anything from a book, a gift card, any surprise. There will be no warning and I will try to find something that I believe would suit you and make you happy! These five people MUST make the same offer on their post, IG, FB etc... and distribute their own joy. We can do more nice things for each other in 2014 without any reason, just to make each other smile and show that we think of each other. Here's to a more enjoyable, friendly, and love-filled year!

Pregnancy Announcements

We're expecting again!!

I really can't explain to you how I feel. The only word I can come up with was excited! We will be welcoming another miracle and Em will have a sibling. So we kept it hush for a little bit until keeping it hush was stressing me out and we ended up telling my family a week earlier than expected. I wanted to wait for the ultrasound photo, but after I told them I was relieved. Even though there could have been complications which I always worry about I shared the great news with family regardless of the outcome. 

Recently I've been really fatigued and one day I realized I was a few days late. This didn't worry me too much because it fluctuates here and there. I was curious just to find out although there was a good chance it might not come out positive. So I grabbed my wondof pregnant strips and the first strip was 2 lines---positive! Then I ran to cvs and tested on the expensive digital ones. Pregnant! After my second positive result I shared this with my husband. He said great. The next few days before my first appt I tested again and they were all positive :) amazing news!

So began my search for really cool pregnancy announcements. I saw a few I liked then ended up just using what I had and I came up with this :) 

Either way we are super excited  to add 2 more feet to our little family. 

It's here!!

My Tote arrives!!

So a box arrives at my house and I wonder what I ordered from amazon again. I should have realized it wasn't an amazon box when I looked at it, but then again I was too tired to focus on it. It was probably some molds I bought a few days ago. 

I bring the box in and look at the sender. Golden tote! Wow that was fast. I ordered on a Friday and got it on the following Tuesday.

I open the box to see an invoice, a thank you card and 2 look cards. I'm pretty sure I got one of the items on each card. The lace black with the baseball white sleeves I've seen a few girls on YouTube get that as a surprise as well when I was looking into golden tote so seeing that I knew it came with a cami which was nice.

I looked at the pieces and got worried I over estimated and should have gotten mediums. I tried the dress and it was a little loose on the sides but the length was good. I paired it with a belt and it was ok. It'll probably come in handy later on.  I wore the black cami and it fit perfectly. I wore the tee and it surprisingly for snugly. Not really what I picked, but it looked ok.

So a recap. It cost me a little over $60 with tax and shipping. Which comes to about $20 a piece. Dress I would guess maybe $25, blouse $18, and cami $8. My estimated would be $51. I really want this to work out so ill try one more box and see where that takes me.

Box Subscriptions

Hey guys! Do you guys love getting stuff in the mail? I sure do! Well not those advertisements for life insurance or that I'm pre-screened for credit cards.

I used to write to a few pen pals back in the day, but now that we've all grown up it's been more difficult to pull out a piece of paper and pen our thoughts down then take the time to mail out the letter. I did like the element of surprise from friends though.

One day while I was googling something online I ended up looking at monthly box subscriptions. I've heard of monthly subscriptions to make up brands etc, but I didn't know they had things like shaving boxes and stuff to comfort you during your monthly visit from Aunt Flo. One of the subscriptions that caught my interest are the clothing surprise bags. I'm not really good at picking my own clothing nor do i have too much time to go shopping and trying on clothes I thought it would be cool to try this out.

 I started at www.boxsubscriptions.com to check out what was out there. Then I checked out myboxsubscriptionaddition.com which reviewed some of the boxes. Reading though I figured out I’d like to try to Golden Tote site. A lot of you who know me know I have no style. I stay at basic colors and basic designs whenever possible. This has been cost affective for me in the last  few years.

How I went about ordering my Golden Tote

1.       It asks me to chose between the $149 for 5-7 items and $49 for 2-3 items. I chose the $49 so I can get a feel of how this whole surprise grab bag works.

2.       Chose an item. I had a few options. The one I would have liked was the playful zebra blouse, but that was out of stock. I'm sure if I had registered earlier it might have still been available. I picked the Breezy Open Back Dress. It was short so I figured I could wear it as a tunic with some leggings. Then it asked me if I was happy with my selection and gave me the option to proceeded to the next step or start over. I proceeded.

3.       Select style profile.  Name my profile. Then indicated my top size. When I got to what size jeans I normally wear I was stumped. I’ve usually work 7-10 since my body has been fluctuating over the years. A few weeks ago I went to the mall and was checking out these cute Levi brand jeans and they didn’t have my 7-10. They had like 24 and up and I'm like huh? I don’t know my waist size at all. Post preggie I never measured myself so I ended up not grabbing a pair of Levi's. Now here I am really curious to find out what my jean size is. I measure and I think I'm about a 40 which isn’t in between their options of 24-31. And I wonder if this site is for those skinny model types of girls because I'm a beautiful curvaceous woman, but none the less I forge on. I pick the 31 and continue because there is a red asterisk so the field has to be filled out. Then there are a few more Qs and it also asks if there is something I would never wear. I put it jeans so they don’t try to pick anything out for me especially when they don’t fit my measurements.

Then there are 3 style types to pick. The first one was a little glamor-flashy for me, but I did like 3 pieces. The second one had a little bit of a more hippie-bohemian sort of feel to me. I liked 2 pieces. The third one was like me being Goldilocks and sleeping in the bears bed. Baby bear’s bed was just the right size! This look was more of a wear to work and still wear out classy sort of feel. I liked most of the items.
 

Now it’s been added. Then I review my purchase and check on shipping info. Now I had to search for discount codes. The discount codes I used didn't work so I just paid the total $60.63 with tax and shipping.
 

Then you had to create an acct. I was having issues with using the mobile device to open up an acct so I had to log in to the computer and sign up. the mobile act seemed like I can only log in through FB, but the computer version let me us my email address.

So I'm looking forward to getting my tote!

Hey :)

Hey guys! I know I promised to new DIYs every week, but with all the new things going on I'm having a hard time getting those organized. I would like to say that for now I'll just have a new post....can't promise, but I'll try to have something up :) Have a great rest of your week!!

DIY 16: Screen Print Tees

Along with stamps I really liked screen printing in Art class. We did it the regular way with building a frame and going color by color. I wanted to try something a little easier.

DIY 16: Screen Print Tees
You'll need:
contrast paper
pen
exacto knife
fabric or multipurpose paint
brush
cardboard
image

Draw an image or copy an image on the back of the contrast paper in the opposite position you want the image to look like and then cut out.

Remove the sticker backing of the contrast paper and position it to where you'd like on the t-shirt.

Put a piece of cardboard under the shirt and fold in the sides. This was discourage any accidental



paint smears.

Dip the brush in the paint and dab. Let dry and paint at least another layer. Let it dry for at least 2 hours.

After a few days I put this through the machine wash and it came out great! No smears. I did line dry instead of putting it through the dryer.

This was a very fun and easy project. Have fun!

DIY 15: Eraser Stamp

One of the activities I remember doing in high school art was making stamps. I made one of bamboo leaves and another of a bear hugging a heart both carved in rubber and mounted on a wooden block. Last time I cleaned the garage I found it so I'm pretty sure it's still in my stuff stored somewhere. Here is a quick diy to making your own origional stamps with a few items.

DIY 15: Eraser Stamp

 You will need:
Flat eraser
Exacto Knife
Pen

Ink pad for later


You don't have to do this step, but I like my work surface to be as even as possible so i tried to cut it down to a rectangle shape.

And you know I never do anything exact.

So I had to do more trimming to get the shape I liked. Then I used the pen to freehand an image.

Since I wanted to keep the outline when I stamp I traced on both sides of the lines (except the inside of the heart) with the exacto knife. Then I trimmed the outside edges. In the inside I made small circular cuts then started trimming closer to the outline.

Then you're done! Enjoy your handmade original-often imitated, but never duplicated stamp :)

DIY FAIL: Men’s soap gift set

In my many years of searching for DIY tutorials I have never seen someone share their DIY fail experience. If you haven’t either then you’re in luck. I try and fail constantly. It’s like when you’re at your favorite restaurant eating your favorite meal and wondering damn what is their secret sauce/recipe/ingredient. You really want to try to make it yourself at home and it doesn’t come out like how they made it. Yeah that’s how I feel at times.

After trying out soap making for the first time and spending about $30 on materials I wondered if there was a quicker, less expensive way to make good quality soaps. My thing is keep it simple…do what you do with the basics. So thinking basically I need: premade soap and a mold.

My idea for creating this craft was to simply melt down the man soap (the smell of this bar is awesome) and reshaping it into a mustache mold. Then shrink wrapping them individually in a cute little jar with a cool little gift tag. The results weren’t as anticipated.

Ingredients:

Bar of soap

Mustache mold

Glass cup

Spoon

Pot of water

Knife

Shred the soap. Don’t make the mistake I did when I cut the soap in half (this was difficult to do) and try to cut them into cubes. Take your time, be patient and thinly slice the soap. Then put them into the glass cup. Put the cup into the pot and turn on the heat to boil the water.

The method I used was similar to my candle making one where I’d boil a pot of water and place the glass cup in it and watch it melt. It wasn’t happening for the soap shreds. A few minutes passed and nothing. The soap wasn’t melting (not till later did I realize that I was probably drying up the soap not moisturizing it.)

After a few more minutes bubbles started to form which carried the water particles into the cup. Great I thought. Now the water was mixed in there. My friend asked if the water was supposed to be doing that. I answered idk. Then it hit me. Maybe I needed some water to help the soap dissolve. I poured in a little water and guess what it did? The contents of the cup started to bubble. Great! FAIL.

I turned off the pot and took out the cup. Although the mixture was dry there was still some liquid soap in there. I used a spoon to mush what I could and poured it into the mold. There were also small clumps. I put those in the mold too. That wouldn’t hurt I thought. I tossed the rest of the clumpy soap. I waited a few hours and the soaps hadn’t dried yet. Ok I’ll leave it in the freezer overnight and that still didn’t get it into a hard texture…it was still jelloish. So I tossed it and rinsed out the mold.

Boo Hoo. Didn’t work out, but I’ll keep trying. There has to be a way of doing this. Later on I found out its called hand milling aka remolding current soap into a new shape. I’ll work on it and get back to you guys.

This is the type of don't try it at home sort of things :)

DIY 14: Reclaimed Candle and Extra Surprise Inside!!

This is a pretty easy and cool craft.

To create a reclaimed candle you need:

First you'll want to melt the candle in a pot of hot water.

While the candle is melting put a little E6000 glue on the bottom of the wick and glue it in the middle of the jar. Give it a few minutes to dry.

Once the candle has melted use a potholder to grab and pour the candle glass. As usual I was messy, but it's an easy cleanup.

Once you've poured the desired amount in give it time to dry and once dry it will be a solid color. Use the chopsticks to hold the wick in place.

SURPRISE INSIDE
Adding the surprise is easy. Below I have already glued the wick to the jar. I'm adding a set of earrings and aluminum foil.

Wrap the earrings tightly in the aluminum foil. After the candle has melted pour a thin later into the new jar and then place the object on top of it. Then cover and fill the rest of the jar up.

Use chopsticks to prop up the wick and let the candle dry. The transparent color will dry to a solid one. The person receiving this will melt down the candle and pick out the foil.

Getting checked

One of the things that keeps me in check are my friends. I don’t have many and I have different levels of friendships. I have some that we meet up for lunch every year only on eachother’s birthdays to friends that I speak/text/message/email on an almost daily basis.

When I think about friends it reminds me of the inspiring words of TLC

People say I act a little funny, I wouldn't change not for no money
I'll be a friend as long as you're a friend to me, yeah, yeah
Even though I might seem easy, it don't give you no cause to deceive me
It's not the way I want my friends to ever be

What about your friends?
Will they stand their ground? Will they let you down again?
What about your friends?
Are they gonna be low down? Will they ever be around
Or will they turn their backs on you

I know how hard it is to make new friends. Especially when you’re an adult. Trust me I’ve tried. I think at times we are so familiar with the people we know now we don’t want to open up to other people. It’s like I’d meet people and i'ts nice to have some common interests, but a friend to me is someone who isn’t just like me, they show me that we have common respect for eachother and have the opportunity to build eachother’s trust.

To be honest, in the beginning of my relationship I shunned my friends. I feel guilty about it and realize it all now, but back then I didn’t. I was so busy working on a new relationship that I didn’t see the ones I had with my friends were falling apart. I’ve lost a few friends along the way. Probably because they realized I wasn’t worth hanging onto and calling me to do things anymore. I seemed too busy and they found other things and then they became too busy for me.

Recently I've experienced a loss. My world was rocked and I still am working on getting both of my feet back onto the ground. It's such an earth shattering experience that's left me feeling sort of socially awkward. I've been to 2 play dates and I've had to confess that I haven't been feeling so up for chit chat when there were still so many things for me to do. I'm really glad my friends understand. One of my friends had also expressed she was dealing with some issues and although we met up not being 100% where our physical bodies were, we still took the time to try and connect with each other. So here are a few tips to help keep your friends close.

MY FIVE QUICK TIPS TO KEEPING FRIENDS

1.Write your friend’s bday on your calendar. Wish them a happy birthday and they will appreciate that you cared. I can’t always make it to lunch with friends on their bday, but I try to work out a schedule with them when we are both free to catch up.

2. When your friend is having drama and you know your opinion will sound harsh start your conversation with something like “You know I love you right?” “You know all I want is the best for you” “I’m always on your side” “I support you 100%” give it a few seconds for them to lock those words in their heads then keep it real with them. It’ll show them that you care too much to see them hurting.

3. Send notes to your friends. Like you used to do in middle/highschool. You can text them stuff like “Have a great day” “Just wanted to say hi”  Someone put a little cuties orange on my desk and put a stick under it with “Orange-u glad we’re friends.” Freaken CUTE! I would probably add onto that and write something like “For a SWEET friend like you.” But make sure the fruit/candy etc that you’re using is sweet. It’d be weird if it was sour or tart. Oh oh. Or even wrap some sweettarts together and do something like “You’re the sweet to my sour. I’m glad we’re friends.” That would be cool too.

Well you don’t even need to buy anything. Sometimes I’d take a sticky off that person’s desk and write a little message. “I came by to say hi” “I realized your chair might be lonely so I came to visit it” “ one of my co worker friends actually saved up all my notes ive ever written on her desk (since she’s super busy I don’t get to say hi too often) and I thought that was sweet.

I think people appreciate that other people care. I know during some of the days when it seems like its dragging a note from a friend can bring up morale. Or even a note with “Good job on ----.” Makes you feel like you’re a value to the team.

4. Know that you don’t have to attend very party your friend hosts. The same goes the other way. Don’t get butt hurt because they couldn’t attend your child’s first birthday or that Halloween party you’ve been planning for a while. Everyone is busy and part of being a friend is understanding. So understand at times things come up and it’s ok. You expect your friend to understand that and they expect you to as well.

5. Wow it’s a little hard for me to get up to 5.

Their drama doesn’t have to mean it should be your drama. If you have an active friend who gets into other people’s businesses and you’d rather not see that side of your friend let them know politely. I’ve had friend vent to me and I help them filter it out. I think when people have drama issues they need someone to mainly listen and sometimes ask for their opinion. Am I over reacting? Did this really happen? Is she he them really that ratchet? Did you hear anything about it?

My thing is if you’re comfortable enough with me to pour your feelings out I’ll listen. I don’t like to listen to profanity though. I can understand what you’re saying and feeling without using the same 4 or 5 letter words repeatedly (sometimes even after each word it gets repeated) and I ask them to tone it down. Most of the time it works, but sometimes when you’re telling your story it just comes out naturally because of your frustration.

My mom always told me if im frustrated I can come to vent to her. She wont try to judge me whereas if I poured it all out to someone else they might think im just babbling in confusion.All im saying is if you’re the type of person who doesn’t like drama ask your friends to leave it at the door. It is healthier for both of you to focus on your friendship and not gossip that other people are saying about you. Part of being a friend is focusing on eachother and not worrying about what other people think about your friendship.

With issues of: Why are you friends with her. I say: I don’t know her that well. I know you longer, but from what Ive seen of her its whatever. I don’t have drama with her. if you want to vent to me about her that’s fine, but I'm not going to let it go anywhere. Its just between me and you. if she happens to start talking about you ill let her know that you are my good friend and I'm not in the mood to listen to it. If she still wants to be cool with me she should respect that.

Baby Shower Game: Baby Mad Gab

I've been to many baby showers and played many games. I did attend one that my clever friend Jazmin was co-hosting. She made up a baby related version of Mad Gab. So when I was hosting my two cousin's baby showers I wanted to do the same. Here are some of the cards. Hope they aren't too difficult to guess!

Icebreaker: Positive Thoughts

I came up with this idea for a unit meeting since it was our turn to create an ice breaker and bring refreshments.

My positive thought that day was waking up to see my daughter sleeping so innocently. It was tough going to work that day. Thinking about what a miracle it has been to have her.

DIY 12: No bake Lego cake pops

I haven't been making cake pops in a while because there has been so many other projects I've been interested in trying. But when a friend asked if I could make lego cake pops for her son's birthday I was excited.

I usually do the old fashioned way. Bake, add frosting and mix. This time I wanted to have a quicker method.

DIY 12: No bake Lego cake pop
Ingredients:
Mini cupcake w/ frosting
lollipop stick
treat bag
Styrofoam block
fondue white chocolate (easier to color than milk chocolate)
icing color
bowls

Scrape off 2/3 of the frosting. If it has sprinkles and you don't want that in your cake pop strategically scrape off those bits. Break the cupcake in half the horizontal way. Take the bottom piece and put it on the top so the frosting looks like the inside filling between 2 cake pieces. put into a larger bowl and squish and mix well until it forms into a brownie type of ball. Form it into the shape of a tater tot.

Melt the white chocolate as directed by the bag and after it's been colored add some of the icing color until your desired color. Dab the lolly pop stick into the mixture and then into the lollipop. The mixture is so liquid you can just pour it onto the cake pop. Quickly add an M & M piece on top. Let it dry.

 Use a toothpick to draw a face using the black icing.

Let it dry before putting on the treat bag. You can also add ribbon and a tag if you'd like.

 

I also made an aquarium version of the No Bake cake pops

Product review: Garanimals Fill-Up Frog Organizer

A product I had hopes for, but didn’t come out as I expected was the Garanimals Fill-Up Frog Organizer. It was a great idea. Bath tub toy storage. Instead of cluttering the corners of the tub with toys we could disguise the clutter by putting all the toys in a cutely designed frog.

When I bought this I didn’t pay attention to the dimensions. Most of the things I shop for come in either Small, Medium, large, 2T or 3T so measurements aren’t really my thing. Looking at the package  I assumed it was big. The package said the dimensions was 20’ x 16’. I liked that it was made of mesh which allows the toys to drip dry.

I follow the directions and place it on the tub wall. It didn’t stick very well in the first place. Once I was able to get it to stick I realized the suction cups were too stretched out. They needed to be closer so the opening of the pouch wider. When I tried to put the toy ship into the pouch it was too big to fit through the opening. I tried a few other toys and only about 2 fit in. The rest of her toys were still piled up on the edge of the tub. Fail.

 

Product Stats based on my experience:

Name: Garanimals Fill-Up Frog Organizer

Objective: Bath toy storage

Expectations: It would hold up all the bath toys currently hanging out on the rim of the tub

Observations: cute design, suction cup took a little time maneuvering around, pouch opening small. There were only 2 suction cups so when you reached into the deep pouch the organizer would move or come off the wall. Maybe if there were 2 additional suction cups on the bottom to make it more secure.

Refer this? If you have mainly regular sized bath toys NO. If you had small or thin ones, YES.

Where is it now? Donated

DIY 13: Mesh Bath Toy storage
This is wishful thinking, but I hope to make this soon

Past projects

Hey guys!

I just wanted to share some of my past DIY projects. I have many new ideas that I don’t have too much time to upload past DIYs photos and write out instructions, but I will make an effort to put some up soon. Although I’ll be looking forward every once in a while I’ll glimpse back.

Product Review: Step 2 Neat and Tidy Cottage

One of our favorite toys is this Step 2 Neat and Tidy Cottage.

I was in search of play houses for a few weeks when I came upon this one. One of the main concerns about getting one of these play houses was the price. A lot of the play houses were in the high $200 almost $400 range and that's something that wouldn’t be feasible for us right now. I needed something that looked sturdy and had enough features that it wasn’t just a few pieces of plastic put together.

Product Stats based on my experience:

Name: Step 2 Neat and Tidy Cottage

Expectations: Play house for outdoor play

Observations: On the outside the shutters open and close, the doorbell has the ringing sound, a mail slot and the waist level door is easy to push in and out. The inside has a wall phone (non working), little counter with a faucet, burner, sink and also one seat on each side of the sink. The floor of the cottage is made to look like stones. This is one of the features I like. The reason is the gaps between the stones catches little pebbles or dirt the kids track in. Although this doesn’t make it as easy to just clean I set the water nose to Jet set and power spray the dirt off easy. When I do this though I have to tip the cottage over and there is definitely some weight in doing that. it’s good that the cottage doesn’t easily tip over for safety reasons. It’s also water resistant. The “windows” are so open I can see all the kids. The kids love to go in and have lunch.

Refer this? Yes!! Highly recommend it. All the kids love this!

 Although this was a gift from her uncle for her 1^stbirthday (I coaxed him into getting this) I would have gladly shelled out money to buy it.

DIY for your TT

Hey guys! So I decided I would love to share a new DIY with you on Thursdays. I realize what Thursday are: thirsty thursday (TT), Asian night at the club ….. however Thursdays make you feel…I hope you feel so much better by enjoying a new Thursday craft.

The reason why I picked Thursday is because it’s Friday eve and some of us need a pick me upper during the workday. Something to look forward to. Plus you can plan your craft on a Thursday, buy supplies either thursday night or friday then begin the craft friday without worrying about going to work the next day. I know some of you are like really? Spend my Friday nights crafting? Well… for many years I did and I admit I enjoyed it.

So beginning tomorrow April 3, 2014 I will be sharing a weekly (or more if time permits me) craft with you. During the rest of the week if I’m able to post I’ll keep my banter to the most important stuff :)

Thank you again for listening, following, making comments (keeping it real with me) and letting me keep it real with you!

DIY 11: Shea Butter Bunny Soap Bar

Soap making is so much fun. I've thought about it here and there when I'd see the supplies at Joanns, but I guess I just wasn't interested enough to pick it up before. Now I don't think Joann carries shop making supplies in their stores at all. There is a small selection at Michaels though. So I'm happy.

I wanted to keep it simple. I bought a full silicone sheet of bunny molds (since Easter is on it's way) for about $5 at Walmart. I cut the sheet in half so I saved 12 bunny cavities for food and another 12 for crafts. This is what I used for 12 bunnies.


Here are the ingredients I used:
Shea Butter Soap Base
Cucumber Melon Soap Fragrance
Soap Colorants
Mold
Cup to melt the soap in

For the 12 molds I used about 10 tiny blocks. Cut them up, placed them into the microwave and melted them for 1 minute then added 15 seconds if needed. Stir it up well. Add a few drops of the fragrance and a few of the colorant. I put a lot of peach, but it came out very faint. I wonder if this is because I used a white base instead of a clear one. I let them dry for about 45 minutes before I popped them out of the molds.

Gifting
Saran wrap the soaps individually or you can shrink wrap it for a more professional look.

Here are a few other photos of soaps I've made.

This was the first time I've tried soap making. Have fun!!