100% Coconut Oil Soap for Laundry Butter & Laundry Butter Recipe

I have to look up this recipe every time I think about making 100% coconut soap so that I can make laundry butter - which I haven't done because I'm waiting for my mold to come in to pour the 100% mixture into to make stain sticks a long with my soap bars. That mold should arrive tomorrow (fingers crossed) so I'm putting this recipe where I can find it - in my blog.

Before someone asks, and they alway do:

YOU CANNOT MAKE SOAP WITHOUT LYE.
YOU MUST HAVE LYE TO MAKE SOAP.
NO LYE = NO SOAP!
 

Please remember that lye is very caustic so handle it carefully. Wear protective eye wear and rubber gloves. Long sleeves are nice if you are like me and always manage to splash a tiny bit of lye water on your arms. If this happens, rinse with cold water (not vinegar as many like to say), and it will be fine. I mix my lye and oils in my sink so that I can stay away from fumes and in case of a lye eruption or me spilling my oils (frequently) my mess is contained to the sink.
I use plastic pitchers from the Dollar Tree for my oils and for my lye water. I use long handled plastic spoons to stir. I've used small wooden sticks to stir the lye water mixture and the wood bends almost immediately. You should also only use glass or stainless steel  or plastic, and please don't use the same items for soaping as you do for preparing food. Why take the chance?
Original post is from Mommypotamus.  
Original recipe called for essential oil but there is no point since the scent will not show up in your clothes.
The recipe is:

Laundry Soap (1% superfat)

Makes approximately 44 oz. of soap.

• 33 oz coconut oil, 76 degree*
• 5.9 ounces lye (NaOH)* 
• 12 oz water

Slowly add lye to COLD water (I use half water and half crushed ice). I purchase my lye from Ace Hardware. The brand is Rooto and it is 100% lye.
Melt your coconut oil.
When both your lye water and oil has cooled to 110 degrees - 120 degrees, add lye water to your coconut oil slowly and stir with a stick blender in short bursts until you reach trace. When it is the consistency of thin pudding, pour into your mold.

Coconut oil soap needs to be cut pretty quickly. Instead of the normal 24 hours, you should unmold and cut your soap within a few hours. Otherwise, it will be too hard to cut. Remember, this soap is only 1% superfat so it will be drying to skin but it makes a great laundry soap.

This is the recipe for Laundry Butter.
Original recipe from Fat Farm Girl.



To make Laundry Butter Cream Soap:

*Grate 6 ounces of 0% SF coconut laundry soap
* In a stainless steel pot with a lid, bring 6 cups of distilled water just to a boil, then take off the heat
* Pour grated soap into hot water and stir to dissolve completely
* *Slowly* sprinkle in 1 cup of borax, and stir until dissolved. *Do* *not* add to boiling water or with the soap when the water is super hot, or it will crystalize and you'll never get the crystals out.
* Stir in 1 cup of washing soda (made by baking 1 cup of baking soda @ 400F for 30 min.) and stir to dissolve. 
* Cover pot with the lid and let the mixture gel at room temperature for 3 to 6 hours until completely cool and set. Don't try to speed up process, or you'll end up with more crystals.
* When mixture is completely cool and gelled, use the stick blender to emulsify, making sure to get the bottom of the pot where some of your borax may have settled. Blend until the soap is the consistency of thick, creamy mayonnaise all the way through and all clumps are gone.
* At this time you can add any EOs that you'd like. Some essential oils survive the washer better than other. Some scents stay better if you use a clothes line rather than a heat dryer. Lemongrass is my best seller.
* Bottle into 2 one quart canning jars, tamping lightly on a folded towel to expel air bubbles. Store at room temp.

This recipe can be easily expanded. I make mine in 6 gallon batches to accommodate five flats of quart-sized jars. From start to finish, I can turn out a full batch in a 6 hour day.

The perks of Laundry Butter are:

Compact size: 1 jar washes approximately 160-175 standard loads in either front loading or top loading. washers. Unlike liquid soaps, you don't need a 5 gallon bucket to store a year's supply, and every jar weighs right around 3 pounds, making it ideal for college students and apartment dwellers.

Naturally phosphate free, making it gentle for the environment.

Less messy than either the powdered or liquid laundry soaps.

Very economical: it's not just multi-purpose, it's also super-concentrated. One Tablespoon washes a standard load of laundry. *And* the jar is recyclable. I give my farmer's market customers $2 off when they bring their jars back.

It's good for people with skin sensitivity. I have severe skin allergies, and this is the one soap that doesn't make me break out in hives.

Re-Batch Cranberry Pomegranate Soap

A while back, I made my ugliest soap to date. It didn't start out exactly ugly, but the fragrance was black cherry and the fragrance didn't stick. At all. So I re-batched it, which I hate to do, and it got uglier but didn't really smell any better.
I also made a lavender-herb soap, which smelled okay, but it was pretty blah in color. A dirty oatmeal color which was not my intended result.
I recently read about the oven method of re-batch and decided to combine a few ideas - I put my shredded soap into two cooking bags. The black cherry in one and the beige lavender-herb in the other. I added 1/2 cup water to the dry black cherry soap and just a few drops to the new lavender soap. I placed them into casserole dishes and placed them in a 170 degree oven for a few hours until the soap was melted. When melted, I opened the bags, added my Cranberry Pomegranate Fragrance Oil and my mica which had been mixed with 1/4 cup oil. One mica was a rich burgundy color and the other was gold.
Score!!!! The soap looks and smells so much better.
Here it is. It still has to cure and I have to clean it up a little, but it sure beats it's predecessor.

A Very Cheap Soap Mold from Hobby Lobby

Pics of my latest soap. Island Escape (because I used Island Escape fragrance oil). It isn't coming out the color I had hoped for. Can't see any pink or orange/yellow, just the usual color of yellow-green. The pic of the single cut bar of soap is Cucumber Spearmint and has real cucumber in it, but it looks a lot like my Island Escape, with has no cucumber in it. Back to the drawing board of natural soap colors.

FYI, this "Soap Mold" was an unfinished rectangular box from Hobby Lobby. It's around 13" long and retail price is $6.99 and with the 40% off coupon it was $4.20. I removed the top and hardware and it's almost the same size as one of the $40 wooden soap loaf molds. I line it with freezer paper, put a one inch ribbon between the freezer paper and the wooden box, and use it to pull the soap up and out. Easy Peasy.  This mold holds 44 oz.

Island Escape

Island Escape

Cucumber Spearmint

My new "Grand dog", Rebel, a Labradoodle.

Photo Book for my hubby.

New photo book!

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Grandsons

Peaches

Peaches is sick and only has a few months left, unless we get a miracle. Here is a Selfie of the two of us - not a great pic of me but it's a great one of Miss Peach. Update: I think that two months was optimistic. Miss Peach died on March 24 of a heart attack. She died while I was holding her and I'm sure she is having a great time with our Dutchie and Tabitha.

Hang in There Handmade Card

I haven't posted in years. What can I say? I'm a slacker! I received scrap booking supplies for my birthday several months ago. I've tried scrap booking and I hated it. It's just plain boring to me. But I did discover card making and I love card making. I've made about 80 cards and given away close to 40. I just enjoy making cards. Here is my latest card, Hang in There.

The Perils of Facetime

My daughter, Kimmie, has impeccable timing when it comes to iPhone/iPad Facetime. Tonight she called as I was stepping out of the shower. Not only do I have dripping hair and no make-up when she calls. I'm also naked. I felt the need to decline so my grandsons wouldn't go blind and be scarred for life.
But I'm curious. If I wear makeup for 14 hours a day, how does Kimmie know to call during those other 2 hours? It's always when I look the worse that she wants to request Facetime? And instead of the two inch face on my iPhone, I get to have a 10 inch face on her iPad.
And now you know why I didn't answer the phone naked!

Scenes from Colorado

I'm in Co Springs right now, enjoying Kimmie, Michael, and the boys, Reece and Aiden (aka Beau). I arrived Thursday, went to the Royal Gorge on Friday, the zoo on Saturday, and we are going to Golden CO tomorrow to visit Thomas the Train. Here are a few pics.


Kimmie and the boys, on the Royal Gorge Bridge


The boys helping Grandma up the hill (I was Nana for 4 yrs and suddenly I am now called Grandma)


Well, if you are going to take a photo, I'm going to pose for you.


How far down did you say it was?


View of the canyon floor (Arkansas River) with camera zoom. Several years ago we rafted the rapids but the river is too low to do that now.


View of the Royal Gorge and Bridge from the canyon. Scared of heights? Not for you!


View from the bridge


The "Great White Hunter" at the zoo


Such a drama queen! But he comes by it naturally.

Free eBook Reads by Lietha Wards

If you are interested in reading free eBooks, and that means LEGALLY free eBooks, with the permission of the author, you really need to try the writing of Lietha Wards. I found her on the website Scribd and I've read all ten of her books. She cranks them out fairly quickly and she is really good. The books could use a little bit of editing but basically, they are better than many of the romance books I've read. She has a lot of talent. There is a vampire romance, a historical, and several contemporary books.
Give them a try. The books have all been available online for 1 - 6 months and have between 3900 and 10,000 reads EACH. Pretty impressive for an amateur.

Blondes are the Best - Blonde Jokes

I didn't make these up. I'm just repeating them because they are funny.

Blondes Are The Best!!!

A blonde and her husband are lying in bed
Listening to the next door neighbor's dog..
It has been in the backyard barking for hours and hours.
The blonde jumps up out of bed and says,
"I've had enough of this".
She goes downstairs.

The blonde finally comes back up to bed
And her husband says "The dog is still barking,
What have you been doing?"

The blonde says,
"I put the dog in our backyard,
let's see how THEY like it!


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two Blondes With Hammers...

Lynn and Judy were doing some carpenter work on a Habitat for Humanity
House. Lynn was nailing down house siding, would reach into her nail ,
Pouch, pull out a nail and either toss it over her shoulder or nail it in.

Judy, figuring this was worth looking into, asked, 'Why are you
Throwing those nails away?'
Lynn explained, 'When I pull a nail out of my pouch, about half of
Them have the head on the wrong end and I throw them away.'
Judy got completely upset and yelled, 'You moron! Those nails aren't
Defective! They're for the other side of the house!'

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Did you hear about the two blondes who froze to death in a drive-in movie?

They had gone to see 'Closed for the Winter.'

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You might have to think twice about this one.

A blonde hurried into the emergency room late one night with the tip
Of her index finger shot off. 'How did this happen?' the emergency
Room doctor asked her.

'Well, I was trying to commit suicide,' the blonde replied.

'What?' sputtered the doctor. 'You tried to commit suicide by shooting
Off your finger?'

'No, Silly' the blonde said. 'First I put the gun to my chest, and
Then I thought, 'I just paid $6, 000.00 for these implants...

I'm not shooting myself in the chest.'

'So then?' asked the doctor.

'Then I put the gun in my mouth, and I thought, 'I just paid $3,000.00
To get my teeth straightened I'm not shooting myself in the mouth.'

'So then?'

'Then I put the gun to my ear, and I thought: 'This is going to make a
Loud noise. So I put my finger in my other ear before I pulled the
Trigger.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A blonde was driving home after a game and got caught in a really bad
Hailstorm.. Her car was covered with dents, so the next day she took it
To a repair shop. The shop owner saw that she was a blonde, so he
Decided to have some fun... He told her to go home and blow into the
Tail pipe really hard, and all the dents would pop out.

So, the blonde went home, got down on her hands and knees and started
Blowing into her tailpipe.. Nothing happened.. So she blew a little
Harder, and still nothing happened.

Her blonde roommate saw her and asked, 'What are you doing?' The first
Blonde told her how the repairman had instructed her to blow into the
Tail pipe in order to get all the dents to pop out.
The roommate rolled her eyes and said, 'Uh, like hello!
You need to roll up the windows first.'

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
These are just too cute not to pass on!!!!

A blonde was shopping at Target and came across a shiny silver
Thermos. She was quite fascinated by it, so she picked it up and took
It to the clerk to ask what it was.

The clerk said, 'Why, that's a thermos..... It keeps hot things hot,
And cold things cold.'

'Wow, said the blonde, 'that's amazing....I'm going to buy it!' So she
Bought the thermos and took it to work the next day.

Her boss saw it on her desk. 'What's that,' he asked?

'Why, that's a thermos..... It keeps hot things hot and cold things
Cold,' she replied..

Her boss inquired, 'What do you have in it?'

The blond replied......'Two popsicles and some coffee.'

+++++++++++++

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

A blonde goes into work one morning crying her eyes out.

Her boss asked sympathetically, 'What's the matter?'

The blonde replies, 'Early this morning I got a phone call saying that
My mother had passed away.'

The boss, feeling sorry for her, says, 'Why don't you go home for the
Day? Take the day off to relax and rest.'

'Thanks, but I'd be better off here. I need to keep my mind off it and
I have the best chance of doing that here.'

The boss agrees and allows the blonde to work as usual. A couple of
hours pass and the boss decides to check on the blonde. He looks out
from his office and sees the blonde crying hysterically...

'What's so bad now? Are you gonna be okay?' he asks.

'No!' exclaims the blonde. 'I just received a horrible call from my
sister. Her mother died, too!'
Blondes Are The Best!!!

The Most Over Used Words in Paranormal Romance

Now I'm not going to say what books I've been listening to on the iTouch lately. I have about 20 to read that I've already purchased by various authors, so I'm not going to name any names. But they are definitely NOT the books by my favorite authors. Those ladies can do no wrong (most of the time).
But I have decided to publish my list of "Most Over Used Words/Phrases In Paranormal Romance. This also includes regular romance novels, too, or at least the racy ones. So here they are:

• liquid heat
• velvety softness
• black eyes
• silky hair
• possessive mate
  
• emerald/sapphire eyes (depending on the heroine's eye color)

and the most over used word of all time..... BONELESS

Don't get me wrong, I love my romance and paranormals for escapism. But after reading the last several hundred I've come to the conclusion that we "mundane" humans can never have the kind of love, relationship, orgasms, etc. that the loftly paranormals experience. They wear me out just reading about them. These people can go at it all day long and never tire. I must be missing something in my normal life and after talking to some of my girl friends, I'm not the only one. Not once has someone said to me, "Those vamps/weres/fairies/witches/elves (well, you get the idea) have nothing on me"!
Since I'm not a writer - I have no patience for dialog. Those quotation marks and new paragraphs are a pain in the rear - I really shouldn't complain. But for all of you fantastic writers out there, please remember.... Languid is an acceptable substitute for Boneless.

And, oh yeah, stop calling all of those heroines "Little One". I've been short all my life and was once a tiny little thing. Did men call me "Little One" as a nick name? Heck no! They called me "Shorty", like Indiana Jones' sidekick!
I would love to be able to write though.

Notes to my favorite authors:
Carrie Vaughn - Cormac, not Ben!
Kim Harrison - Not Pierce! I like Al, he has charisma.
Karen Chance - I'm just not sure about Mircea. But Dorina and Louis-Cesare? Thumbs up!

Reece's Self-Decoration

Kimmie walked out of the room for just a few minutes and when she walked back in, this is what Reece looked like.
He is obviously showing his artistic side.
Luckily, he didn't try to decorate Aiden, too!



This photo isn't as recent, but I can't post a photo of one grandson without posting one of the other. Notice how the hands are blurry. It's almost impossible to take a picture of Aiden that something isn't moving and blurry!

Now What?

I really have been enjoying the iPod iTouch that Bill bought me for our anniversary. Well technically, this is the iPod he bought me to replace my anniversary iTouch because I found that 8 gb wasn't big enough. Anyway, I love listening to audio books on this thing. I listen to it when I walk, when I do housework (not that I do very much housework) when I sort mail for that first hour in the morning. I've listened to lots of books in the past 4 months, including several great series such as:

1. Patrica Briggs - Mercy Thompson (walker/coyote shape shifter)
2. Rachel Caine - Morganville vampires
3. Karen Chance - Cassandra Palmer books
4. Kim Harrison - The Hollow series
5. Gina Showalter - Lords of the Underworld
6. Carrie Vaughn - Kitty books (werewolf radio host)
7. Rachel Vincent - Soul series

In addition to these audio books, I've read all books (or at least 90%) of the above authors, Marjorie M. Liu, Sunny, Susan Mallery, Suzanne Brockmann, Maureen Child, Robyn Carr, Rachel Caine, Mary Janice Davidson, Lynsay Sands, Katie McAlister, and plenty of other authors that I'm forgetting right now.
So the question is.... What do series do I start on next?
I have some Christine Feehan books to get started on my iTouch and Laurell K Hamilton books to read. I've held off because once I get started on a series I can't stop until I finish all of them, which gets a little bit expensive in audio books.
What to do, what to do???

Well Heck!

Someone needs to learn to proof their posts...
I posted a link to my previous post about Marjorie M. Liu's game that is "couing out soon". Errr, that should have read COMING. I imagine that if I change it now the link to the post will be screwed up so "couing" stays.
Sometimes, I am such an idiot!

Marjorie M. Liu Has a Game Couing Out Soon!

Having read all of Marjorie M. Liu's books (and of course, I've loved them all), I was thrilled to hear that she is getting a game based on the first in her Dirk and Steele novels. The book is Tiger Eye
and I can guarantee that if the game is half as good as the book, it's a winner. The game is available for pre-order on the PassionFruit Games site for a mere $9.99. According to PassionFruit's website, Tiger-Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box is a hidden-object style game loaded with compelling puzzles and minigames, beautiful voice-acted cinematics… and titillating romance. I can't wait to play the game. As much as I love Liu's writing, I know I'm going to be playing this game for hours. I can always sleep later!

Mafia Wars on Facebook

I haven't written anything for a while. I wonder why that is... gee, do you think it might be because I am just a tiny bit obsessed with playing Mafia Wars on Facebook? As far as obsessions and addictions, it's not so bad. It's free to play so it beats gambling. As far as I know, it isn't hazardous to my health so it beats smoking. I have to admit to a cranberry juice with Malibu rum last night while I was playing so I will just ignore the alcohol comparisons.
I love this game. It's a blast! I've been playing for a week and I am a Level 46 Fearless right now. I have $63 million in the bank and I own over 50 properties in the U.S. I am just now expanding into Cuba so it will take a few days to build up over there. I have 140 people in my mafia which helps with fighting and defense (ya got da have a mafia ta move up in da world). I am not sure how I got to be such a good fighter. After the first few fights that were about 20 wins and 20 losses, I improved. Right now I have 1772 wins, 171 losses, and 78 wins in Cuba. So a 90% win rate is pretty good although it's mostly strategy. I tend to attack the people with smaller mafia. I don't imagine that real mafia groups of 10 are going to go up against a group of 100 very often so why should I? I've also put quite a bit of money (what else am I going to do with $63 million and climbing?) into good weapons, armor, and vehicles.
I hear that Mafia Wars is also on My Space but I'm afraid to check it out. I can just see me going from FB to MS every day to play the game and level up. It's already hard enough to play MW and work every day, not to mention laundry, cooking, cleaning, yard work... You would think that with $63 mill, I would have maid, housekeeper, and a lawn service.
You know, I think I will go back to Mafia Wars before the REAL world intrudes.

More Beale Street Photos

Beale Street

Bill and I went to Beale Street in Memphis for the 4th of July. I think it's the first time we have spent the night anywhere except Kimmie's in the last 9 years, so I guess it was time. We had a great time but man, people sure are strange. Obviously, teeth are not a requirement for admittance to Beale St because a whole lot of people seemed to be missing theirs. And I saw some of the shortest dresses EVER on some of the young ladies. I could never figure out how they kept their you-know-what from showing because there was only about a half inch between the hem and their you-know-what. These same young women were wearing stilettos and they looked like they were going to fall off their shoes. But by the end of the night you could tell which ladies had been wearing the stilettos because they were the ones hobbling down the street. haha
We ate at BB King's Blues Club and the food was great. I had a bar-b-que the southern way, with slaw. Bill, who doesn't really like pork, went crazy over the ribs. I'll make a southern boy out of him yet!
We stayed at the Hampton Inn right off of Beale and we had a balcony room that overlooked Third St and Peabody Place so we went back to the room at 10 p.m. (what can I say, we are boring) and were entertained by all of the Memphis police trying to control the traffic and get the minors off the street at the 11 p.m. curfew. The traffic was awful and there were thousands of people milling about so I am so glad we didn't have to worry about driving.