Living the Hippie Life

Now honestly – – what is the difference between a Hippie and someone who is maybe a little old fashioned? Probably not too much right? Well I never really thought of myself as maybe living on the edge of being maybe somewhat of a Hippie until tonight. What happened was this….

I was busy in the kitchen after work setting up for my next project of soap. Now I don’t like making soap – I LOVE it! Maybe it’s a phase that I’m going through or something, who knows but man I’m really digging it!! So tonight I got my things organized and was feeling pretty smug that my first batch actually worked and was curing behind me as I was starting this next batch up.

Getting ready for the second batch of soap

This batch was going to be Lavender & Orange scented with Lavender flowers in it. Yea, pretty cool right? Well I got my things organized and my oil melted and I found myself thinking that this batch was even easier to put together than the first batch. We’ll see how it all turns out tomorrow.  But when it was all done it looked like it was supposed to, so score for me right? The only thing that I did different this time was not to fill the mold completely full and put some in a box that was lined with parchment paper. Now I don’t know if this second box is actually going to work or not – but I also didn’t want to throw it away.

I found an old box to put the leftovers in it. I’m hoping that this will work

And do you know the best part? My kitchen smelled AWESOME! It had both an orange and lavender smell that wasn’t too strong, but still strong enough that you could smell it. After I put both containers under the blanket to keep them warm for 24 hours, I was thinking about what my next soap should be.

The soap has to stay warm to cure for 24 hours

I was talking to Daryl and told him that the next soap that I should make is a lemon grass one. I had bought the lemon grass at the Food Co-op, so it was just a matter of figuring out what recipe I should use. When I said that I had bought the lemon grass he looked at me with a puzzled look on his face. He said that he had never heard of that before and honestly when he heard the words “lemon grass” he thought it was something that you should go to the ‘Farmer’s Coop’ for and pickup some Roundup to get rid of. That’s pretty funny!

So with the soap curing in the laundry room, I was trying to figure out what I should do next. Then I had a great idea. OK, maybe not everyone would think that this is such a great idea but I did! I’ve been on this coconut oil kick lately and have been using it not only in the soaps, but also as a lotion for dry skin. It works really good for that other than it’s kind of hard to get out of the container and not the most user friendly. You have to break it up either with a butter knife or your finger nails. Since I don’t really have the longest nails, I always reach for the butter knife. So I got out my Kitchen Aide Mixer tonight and literally whipped up a batch of coconut moisturizer. And I’m sure you’re wondering how this whole thing turned out right? I mean it’s probably not the most common thing to do on a week night.. or maybe any night right?  Well I’m happy to say that it worked! (yea, I’m even kinda shocked at this!) So now I’ve got a jar of whipped body oil just waiting to be used. I’m sure you can put in some essential oils to make it smell even better – but for tonight it’s going to be in the raw stage. 

Now going back to the original question – does making your own soap and lotion make you old fashioned or a hippie? I know that I’m OK with either answer to be totally honest. My Grandma was the furthest from being a hippie and  I think she would be kind of proud to know that I was making soap. She might not really know just exactly why I’m doing it, but I think she would be proud!