Soap making

Our family came home with a few souvenirs from our trip to Williamsburg. One of my favorites, was the homemade soaps. The girls and I decided we wanted to learn how to make this age old craft. So we checked out a movie on soap making from the library, along with several "how to" books.

I found a bulk dealer online for the Lye, and found the rest of the ingredients at our local Healthy Life Market store. We were all set...several weeks ago. Why was I not jumping into this project with my normal enthusiasm? Could it be the fact that the Lye arrived with caution stickers all over the box? Or the two page warning in the soap book describing how blindness, burns, caustic vapors, and even ruined floors and counter tops could occur while using Lye? I mean, it turns into soap right? How can this stuff be so dangerous? I was pretty intimidated therefore, putting the whole project on the back burner. The girls and I were watching a movie yesterday when I jumped up declaring "It's time!"  Now this is not going to be a tutorial on soap making. It is by the grace of God that this stuff turned out even remotely nice. I pretty much just dumped it all in a pot and then proceeded to stir, for what seemed to be an eternity.

The princesses eventually got bored with the non exciting, rather monotonous stirring, and ended up in the pool. It was a pretty easy process, and I came out of it without any major Lye accidents.

They still have to cure for several weeks, but I think they look so pretty, and they smell WONDERFUL!