Honey Almond Lotion

Filled bottles all lined up and ready for caps and labels

I made some honey almond lotion to give as gifts...it has been a while since I shared the love so I thought this might be fun.  You have to work quickly to fill the bottles.  I actually had a mini-catastrophe when a bottle spilled and got all over my lab notebook.  FYI the lab notebooks is where I write down all my recipes, tweaks and notes for all the bath and body products I make.  Fortunately, I wiped it off and and while some of the writing smeared, it is still pretty legible, and now I have one very moisturized sheet of paper!  Here are the bottles lined up and cooling. 

The toughest part about this project of course is sterilizing EVERYTHING before you get started!  Because of the effort it takes to clean everything, I tend to make larger batch sizes because it is a lot of trouble to go through for just 8 ounces!  I typically make a 30 to 40 ounce batch, and believe it or not, they are all accounted for or given away in 2 to 3 days time...I can't keep them around long enough, especially now that the colder weather has set in.  Why are these called honey almond?  Because they are scented with a blend of essential oils that together smell like honey and almond!  Oils used in this batch include olive, virgin coconut and grapeseed oils!

Creams Galore


 How did you spend your Saturday morning?  I'll tell you what I did if  you tell me what you did!  I taught a lotions and creams class today full of enthusiastic students who asked relevant questions.  While each class does take many hours of preparation (outside of class time), it's a wonderful feeling to be able to share your passion and hobby with others. We had a fun time making these luscious skin savers.  Each student got to customize their creations by choosing their scents and colors.  As you can see, green was a very popular color choice today, and there were several different shades.  Here are some of their creations!  Check out my upcoming classes sidebar to see where I will be next.


Jars of shea butter cream and lotion made in class



Students showing off their colorful body lotions

Ms IT at work

Bebe is often called Ms IT (IT is an acronym for information technology).  She is Ms. IT because she loves all computers - whether they are desktops or laptops.  Of course her favorite part is the keyboard.  She likes to lay her head on it.  here are a few shots of Ms IT hard at work at the Mister's computer station.  They share computers, and only when he is not around:-).  When he is around, she hangs out on the ottoman under the desk...I'll get a photo of that soon I am sure! 

Ms IT is lery agile - almost like a cat and she jumps here, there, and everywhere.  These are definitely not staged shots for those who are asking!




Ms. IT sitting at her desk and getting ready to work



oh oh...busted!  making her way back down!

Pink Grapefruit massage bars

I heart massage bars of all kinds - especially soapy ones.  Check out my last post back in January on these pumped-out massage bars.  This mold does look like a hedgehog, but it's nothing to sneeze at -  the quilted texture is just perfect for a spa-like experience and it's a very hefty bar at 6 ounces!  I made 15 of these beauties for an upcoming swap scented with Pink Grapefruit fragrance oil.  The smell is divine and I can't wait for my swap buddies to try this!

Massage bar on steroids - check out the nubs!

Fleet Week

Fleet Week is a annual San Francisco favorite event featuring a naval parade of ships, and a spectacular air show with the blue angels!  There are other air performers as well, but most people attend for the blue angels.  It's a very family friendly event and a great way to spend the day outdoors if you can brave the traffic and get yourself there!  This year's blue angels airshow was particularly challenging to get to as more than 1 million extra day visitors were in SF for this day due to the Hardly blue grass festival, the America's Cup sailing event, and the SF Giants playoff game.  SF city officials didn't do a great job planning this weekend, but hey, I also understand that they don't want to turn any income/tourist revenue away. 

My friend Jen took some amazing pictures on her iphone and shared them with me, and now I am sharing them with you!  I didn't take any pictures - I was hosting close to 100 corporate guests (for my day job!)  In the photo collage (I'm really impressed with the photo quality from a cell phone I have to say), the top left image features the blue angels as they are getting set to split up and create the trail seen on the top right.  I love the bottom picture of the collage where you can see the blue angels flying above the golden gate bridge, the ships, and my favorite part of all is the lone seagull sitting on the leftmost pole.  I know it's hard to see since the image is small but double click on it for a larger version. 



Photo collage courtesy of Jen T.



Blue Angels in tight formation - requires a lot of precision! from Jen T.