No, Really, I Meant to do That! and Pirates

So, my parents volunteer to take the kids for a sleep-over Saturday night. I was going to just work at the store Saturday night and all day Sunday, but I was invited to see a movie with a friend. And who can resist a good Pirate? We went to the late show of Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I've always had a soft spot for Johnny, ever since the very first Nightmare on Elm Street when I was but a young, impressionable teen girl. As for Orlando, he's really just a boy. He was quite the fetching elf in Lord of the Rings (and I've always had an eye for elves - thanks to an old friend of mine by the name of Sean), and I can see the appeal to the younger crowd. But I'm not a fan of Orlando's looks - in the other movies I've seen him in (including the first two Pirates movies) and in the one interview I've seen he's just too... too... slimey looking and goofy looking both at the same time. But my oh my... He most certainly was a pleasure to behold in #3. In my eyes, he actually came ahead of Johnny dear. He seems much more manly. Perhaps there's a chance for him after all...

Now, because of going to the late show (and I did some shopping first at Chapters) I didn't get home until the wee hours of Sunday morning. And I slept in a tad since I didn't have any children that needed feeding. What bliss, to be able to wake up to your own internal clock, listening to the birds singing in the trees outside the window. That's my idea of the perfect alarm clock. After I had a nice breakfast of homemade steel cut oats with chopped up apples, freshly pulverized flax seeds and just a drizzle of maple syrup from a friend's maple shack, I headed to the store. I had grand ideas for making a couple of batches of soap, doing some paperwork that has been piling up, and picking the kids up in time for bed. The soap sprites had other ideas, unfortunately...

We're completely out of stock of our Sun Island soap. So I decided to make some as the first batch. This one takes a bit longer to melt, as I add some beeswax from a local apiary and it has a very high melt point (which is one of the reasons it makes a lovely candle - it takes a long time to melt so the candle lasts a long time, but I digress). For those that have used it before, you're used to a bold red swirl (made from french red clay) in the cream-coloured soap. I mixed the red clay with a touch of water so it would be a smooth paste. Put it aside. Measured out my essential oils of Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Benzoin (not really an essential oil but a resin), and Peppermint. Put it aside. Mixed all the other ingredients (including olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, unrefined fair-trade shea butter, avocado oil, and the aforementioned local beeswax) and started stirring. Realized after 1 minute that it was already starting to thicken so I poured some of the soap into the red clay paste and gave that a brisk stir to make sure the clay was well-incorporated into the soap. Went back to the big soap pot, and it was already like custard! So, in go the essential oils and I now have what appear to be instant mashed potatoes that smell eyes-watering strongly of eucalyptus. By the way, this mashed potato appearance is NOT supposed to happen... By the time I managed to get the essential oils mixed into the soap, I knew that not even Orlando or Johnny would be able to entice this soap to allow a red swirl into its midst.

So this batch of Sun Island Soap will have a thin layer of red soap in between two layers of cream coloured soap. And those customers that don't read this post will be none the wiser...

Thought of the Day:
"Man worries... it is our natural state. We fear the future, are rarely content with what has passed, and dread death."
What do you think about this quote? I think there are far too many people that this statement is true of. I try not to worry, as it takes up time needlessly. I do not fear the future - I say Bring It On! Bad things happen - Learn from them. Embrace life - all of it, not just the good times. Everything we experience makes us who we are, so how can we fear it? How can we not be content with what has passed? And death, it's just the ending of one chapter. All you need to do is turn the page for the next chapter to begin....