Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap is what's up

I have been filling my soap curing table up in the last few weekends. My latest creation combined a few things I have been wanting to try - the honeycomb pattern and the oatmeal in the middle.  I used a very popular fragrance oil: Oatmeal, Milk & Honey that can be purchased from Brambleberry.

I just unwrapped this 5 pounds of cold process soap today and cut it.  It is still very soft and needs 4 weeks to cure.  The color will change a bit over the 4 weeks, and it will shrink a tiny bit. This is a blend of oils I worked up when I started making my Chocolate Mint Spa Soap.  It has a good proportion of coconut oil in it and cocoa butter as my moisturizer.

This is the soap on its side.  You can see that I put the bubble wrap on the bottom of the mold and poured right on top of it.  You just easily peel the bubble wrap off and you get this neat design.  There is a layer of oatmeal in the middle of the soap.

This is once I first pulled the freezer paper away from the sides.  It was just poured yesterday.  Untouched and uncut.

Here is what I had curing before this weekend.  Pictured in the back: (cold process/hot process) Orange Patchouli Coconut Milk. Round pieces are cold process Apple & Peach Cobbler Goatmilk soap with raspberry seeds.  My favorite that is curing towards the front is a cold process/hot process Creamy Coconut soap.  I specially formulated it for my mother-in-law with mostly Coconut Oil, coconut milk, and mango butter.

Back at the banjo

It's been awhile since I posted.  I have made 3 videos in the past few weeks that are of clawhammer banjo playing.

If you have a minute or two and want to catch up, here you go!

This song is called Cluck Old Hen.  It's an older sounding song played clawhammer style.  Played on Deering Goodtime Openback Banjo.

Here is a clawhammer version of Cripple Creek for the bluegrass lovers.

Last but not least.  Blackberry Blossom played Clawhammer style.

I would also like to plug my favorite banjo maker, Chuck Lee. One of these days I will have one of his handcrafted banjos to play for you. :)  He is a real nice guy who lives in Ovilla, TX and makes the best darn banjos around. I have had the pleasure of talking with him and playing one of his banjos at the Acoustic Music Camp in Arlington, TX.  His son, Nate Lee, is an amazing mandolin/fiddle player.  I have heard him play there in Arlington a few years, Overton Bluegrass Festival, and CampBluegrass in Levelland, TX many moons ago.