On Efficiency..and Efficacy

Hi Everyone!   Today we're going to get up close and personal.    Or, as some might say here in the Deep Deep South...."All up in yo FACE"!  hee hee....oh well.

As you may or may not know, things are heating up and escalating if you will in Cassia's Kitchen.   After a busy busy Christmas season where we sold out of inventory, it appears that the majority of our business is now wholesale.   I am delighted but somewhat s t r e t c h e d by this, and the downright agonizing process of quantitative and qualitative assessment has been brewing on the back burner.....and now there is no good reason to not buckle down and get that sharpened pencil out already.  ouch. and oh my...and deep sigh...

My husband the Contractor/Golf Teaching Professional has been underfoot a bit lately (I say this smiling; you can see my molars between tightly clenched teeth, lol)  and the little blue vein on my forehead has been strangely protruding and whatnot...   I say this jokingly but you know the feeling right?  Am I horrible?  Yeah yeah, I know.   For those of you who do not work at home, you might be tempted to drift into a daydream but let me tell you, it is great and I wouldn't really want it any other way, but it really is not very sexy.  lol...

Anyways, he's been running a background check on my endeavors; silently but nonetheless presently.   Being a contractor and having quite an arsenal of tools, he is always trying to increase his bottom line by keeping costs down and maximizing his own use of sweat equity by doing things the Most Efficient Way.

SO.  He got all up in my face last week not once, nor twice, but three days in a row  for about two hours each day.  He effectively halted production which then produced the resulting tightness in my neck and shoulders and subsequent trips down to the chiropractor.(OK I am mostly joking but mildly serious too)..all in the name of efficiency.  And.....efficacy:

Noun

efficacy 

1.  Ability to produce a desired amount of a desired effect.

[Synonyms

• efficacity

[edit]Related terms

• effect, effective, effectiveness, 

OK, I am sure  you get the point.  

So after 3 days of torture, he got me to give him $300 and he went down promptly to Home Depot and came  back with this:

Brinkmann Turkey Fryer

with a 30 quart stockpot.   Here is a closeup

He proposes that I heat my oils in this.  It actually does fit on my stove under the microwave!  But HIS plan is to get me on the front porch of the cabin behind our house where all my packaging materials are.    Immediately I flashed on a picture of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies making her famous lye soap out in the woods near the bootleg still....but quickly dismissed this horrific self portrait.  (Besides, I don't rightly know if I  will ever possess that spry old lady's svelte silhouette, lol).   The other things he purchased were two of these bright orange monstrosities:

 that he modified by way of adding a spigot

Cool, eh?    He keeps me thinking B I G G E R,  I tell ya!   He was talking about how nice it would be to make a big batch of lye water to keep on hand.  To me that is not hard at all to make, but what I really would like to make is a Master Batch of Oils to keep on hand that are already premixed and all you have to do is scoop out however many ounces or pounds of oils that you need and they are already premixed.     

Joe wants me to heat my oils out on the porch but we have such extremes of temperature, and I just am not sure I want to do it that way.  But at least we will have a deep fryer for turkeys come Thanksgiving!?

He also bought some sorely needing shelving material, enough to put shelves in the cabin out back so I can put product out there instead of on the counter space in the kitchen.   W H E W!   That was a blessing!

This little room in the cabin has a really cool office space that I plan on making my shipping center.   It has a phone line but no DSL but we can get wireless internet access.  That is a blessing too.    Joe will make me some more shelves in my next room......now promise you won't laugh?     Some of you have heard me go on and on about my post consumer packaging hoarding habit.  I really just cannot throw a box or a bubble wrap or a brown kraft shred of paper away if I think I can re-use it....and believe you me, I have N E V E R had to purchase such items for my business.   Here's  a peek:

Actually my assistant, Chanda, got it all organized after the Christmas rush and now it's all nicely and neatly stacked along the walls.

Please don't shudder when you see the main room of the cabin, though......as I still have not done inventory yet and there are cases of glass and spray bottles and practically a whole pallet of ribbons......sheepishly blushing; I have a passion for ribbon now....

We sort of just hurled stuff into this room trying to get the main house downstairs ready for Christmas but now it's time to clean up, and count every stinkin last piece..

I know I made fun during this post, and I am really grateful to my husband for taking the time out to troubleshoot areas where I am needing to maximize my own efficiency, efficacy and bigger picture thinking.  Thanks, Honey!  I love you, and thank you for all your hard work!

Thazz All, Folks for today, but thought you might get a kick out of this post in some ways.....

Toodles for now!  

What ways are YOU thinking about your own EFFICACY and EFFICIENCY this year?   Does your spouse help you to see a bigger picture?   How does this help you?  Please comment!

Pictures Worth 1,000 Words?

Hello everyone!   It's redundant, I know to always say "Sorry I haven't written in such a long time!".  So for today I thought it might be nice to snap some pics which will say much more than I might on this gray Saturday afternoon!  Ready?  

There's a big pot of vegetable beef stew simmering and it's a while before I have to add the other veggies, so....here's to update you on what's been happening with us here in Cassia's Kitchen!

As of last Friday,  the kitchen was all cleaned and semi-organized.   I had put away all  my Christmas fragrances,  that' a bit like taking out the Christmas Tree if you know what I mean!

My kitchen island counter is where I do most of my designs and where I "cook" hot processed soaps, and there were untold countless scraps of soaps for curling and chunking and embedding and sugar scrubs laying all around.  It made my neck and shoulder ache with stress just to see the disarray.   

I had made a couple of new designs and they were great, but enough is enough!  Time to clean it all up so that  peace can reign again.   Or some reasonable facsimile thereof....heehee.

See that funny looking glass piece all taped up?  I do alot of cutting there and in December I broke the glass and am looking for a replacement piece.   Yeah, funky....I know.

My new little baker's rack is filling up with fresh soaps and most are nearing the time that they can now be wrapped and sold!   Top shelf is Wasabi Intensely Fresh Men's Soap.  I have this wrapped to die for elegant and sorry, but I have to shudder (shutter?) at the photograph on this listing.....so much to do!

Fourth shelf down is my new Unscented Shea Butter Soap; some of  my friends just do not like to bathe with fragrant soap!  Unthinkable to me, but everyone has a preference!    Oh, and right next to it is a new soap that is beautiful to behold and smells well, heavenly plain and simple.  It is made with Bitter Almond and Honey Essential oils which heretofore I knew not existed but let me tell you, this has to be a real treat for both your skin and your senses too!   It will be ready to wrap and sell in about 2  more weeks!

Move on eastward in my 16 x 40 kitchen to my Laundry Center.   More racks of goodies:

Over the washer are some new Black Amber & Lavender Soaps which will be ready for Valentine's Day.  Why not pair these with the ever so wonderful soy candles for luxury and romance combined?

Right next to that, I have a new Frankincense & Myrrh Soap which is kind of a funny story.

Wanna hear?  Sorry, you'll have to let me chronicle this near fail.  =)

So I have wanted to add Goats Milk for it's healing and soothing properties for the longest.  So I added a generous serving of powdered goat's milk powder to this soap and then not thinking was going to hot process it to move it along for sales.    It began to turn a dark amber color which would foil my plan to make a gorgeous light lavender soap with swirls of purple.   So I just added a bunch of colloidal oatmeal to it and it looked so dark changed the fragrance selection to frankincense & myrrh.    

Next time, I will do what the experts do:  I will put the batch in a cold area with fans turned on it to keep the dark brown color from occurring.  More on that later.   Me, I am not a particularly Rustic Girl in terms of what I want the soap to look like.   So the brown soap really does nothing for me....although alot of customers at the boutiques are asking for Brown Soap.   (yuck) (but whatever, right?)

Just in time for Valentine's Day!   Love Spell Cold Processed Shea Butter Soap!  Looks and smells lovely!  Pink; to be exact, Honeysuckle Pantone 21-20 will be the Color of the year, and I think this is a good match, although I just found out about this after the fact! heehee.

Poor husband ...the laundry table is full of soap.   Sorry, honey.   Here is some Dark Chocolate Rose (right) and some luscious Dark Chocolate Coffee Cocoa Butter Soap that is filling my house with the most delectable aroma!   I can't wait to get my wet hands all over it!

Behind it, purple soap, is a mishap in the Color Lounge arena - yet again!  I used my Brambleberry Lab Colors Aqua Mist and Emerald Green to try to create a eucalyptus color but alas, it reacted with the lye and turned purple.  Now I know what to reach for when I want Lavender  ha ha!  

The beautiful green soap is awesome.   I never made cocoa butter soap before and let me tell you, the consistency of this soap is different from anything I ever made.  It is absolutely very very .....searching for words.......homogenous, and .........for lack of words...."fatty".   It could not help but be good for your skin!

I was going to show you more pictures but I think I will save it for another post.   The subject matter is vastly different.   

I did successfully make some liquid castille soap and even some puppy shampoo this week!  I am wholesaling both of these to local vendors.

Au reviors, mon amis!  Je t'aime!

One day, very soon, I will reveal what all the French Vernacular is all about!!!!!!!!   

But that

Will 

Just

HAVE

TO

WAIT!!!!

=)

Ga-Lee Kheow Wan Guy

Good evening, lovelies!   Today I made this:

Bamboo Sugar Cane Shea Butter Soap;  mmm! mmm!

I am in love with this Trapp Designer fragrance and will add it to my Asian Inspired Line.   

 Bamboo Sugar Cane is notes captured from the heart of the sugar cane with a burst of citrus, enhanced with a touch of green bamboo.   Bamboo is this beautiful exotic green kind of tree that grows in Southeast Asia and I am in love with it's beauty.   It just calls to me!

So!  To celebrate my success at using my new Brambleberry.com Baltic Birch mold that has been gathering dust for this 3 months.... and I, being afraid to use it, decided to just bite the bullet today and DO IT no matter if I failed the batch or not!

Let's celebrate with a little Recipe, shall we?

I bring you "Ga-Lee Kheow Waan Guy"

The GaLee = Curry

The Kheow is = Green

The Waan = Sweet

and the poor "Guy" is that poor unlucky chicken who gave his life that you may

EAT!

So let's say it again:    

GaLeeKheowWanGuy!

with a sing song voice, of course!  That's the tricky part!

Let's get started:   You need:

Some "Guy"  breasts; 2 Big ones.  

No, not trying to be a smart bottom.  That just came out.

 Brown rice

 NEVER EVER buy the Thai Kitchen brand; you'll be

paying twice what you need to.   Go to the Mexican Food aisle and

get theirs, much more economical.

 Chicken Bouillon

 Thai Fish Sauce

 Available at all Kroger's stores

"shrooms"

Bamboo Shoots!  There's that bamboo again!

Got that?   Oh, and you need 

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

Chopped Cilantro or Thai Purple Basil.

Start by boiling the Guy Breasts in 1/2 of the coconut milk mixed with some water.

Cover the pot so you don't lose water and burn the chicken, I mean, GUY.

Add some chicken stock  (about 1 Tablespoon)

and squirt some Fish Sauce.

WHAT?  YOU DON'T LIKE FISH SAUCE?   GET OVER IT,   (Where you were already duly chastised) 

Every Thai dish has fish sauce; it is their salt equivalent.  

I am sure it is loaded with minerals as well; the origin being the sea.

When chicken is fully cooked (about 1/2 hour of simmering)

remove from pot and shred finely with a fork.   

(Confession: I just LOVE to sip a little coconut milk; kind of like a kid stealing a cookie from the cookie jar.  Coconut cream is really good for you; today I was doing some light reading about the balance between seratonin and dopamine and the brain (I would post the link but now I can't find it) but they were talking about the benefits of coconut oil.  Coconut oil is also good for hormonal balance.   Young ladies like me find this fact of particular interest....lol.   Oh, I love it!  The Thais cook with it and it is in alot of their desserts as well.  Talk about decadent!)

Place back into pot and add 2 Tablespoons of the 

Curry Paste (more or less to taste)

My husband is informing me, as I type, that tonight I 

did not add enough.  We like it hot around here....

After adding the Curry Paste, add the brown sugar and the

rest of the Coconut Milk.

Add the bamboo shoots and the straw mushrooms

(any mushroom will do in a pinch)

Or, if you have an Asian food store nearby, they have tons

of delectable (and high dollar) mushrooms available.  It 

adds some authentic pizazz to the dish to use the imported ones.

But they all taste basically the same

Gently simmer the soup for about 10 minutes

and while that is happening, chop your herbs and squeeze your lime and add.

Serve over fragrant Jasmine Rice or, we use Brown Rice.

In Thailand, I never saw brown rice.  Brown is so much better than white; alot of protein and all of the vitamins are removed in the milling process.

One day, I asked my friends why no brown rice was to be had.

She answered by saying that it is a shame to consume the brown, for that is

what the lower class. rice workers and laborers ate.  Still, I never saw it, not even one time,

even when I traveled out into the country to minister to the poor rice farmers.

This is such an easy dish to make!

Serve it with some sliced mangoes for dessert with a fresh twist of lime and fresh limeade.

but that will have to wait for another post.

You might try a skewer of sate but

you'll have to wait for that post too.

"Gin Maak Maak, Na!"

"Eat alot alot, now!"

I might as well post a pic or two of some Thai adventure that I had:

Let's see....here's one!   Oh I love the flora and fauna of Southeast Asia!

Everywhere greenery (with humidity!) and orchids everywhere!

See the Thai architecture?   Yes, I used to live in a house with that detail in it.....

They put the ceilings up high like that so that when heat rises it goes up high...

This was the grounds of the opulent Marriott Hotel where we stayed.....

It was the prettiest place I ever stayed at.......

Go ahead, and click the link.  Would that NOT be an awesome

honeymoon location?  Oh my.......the romance of it...

My daughter was fully charmed with this

"lifestyle" though it only lasted 3 days 

and then we were off to the rice fields up country

where she got along just fine with brown skinned

children who could speak one word of English

nor she one word of Thai!

Oh. my I am getting homesick so for now, 

I bid you adieu and i hope you

enjoyed the recipe!

For a more streamlined version, you can visit

here.

UGLIEST SOAP OF THE YEAR

I did it.......#FAIL

#FAIL

#FAIL

#FAIL

#####fffffaaaaaiiiillllll

I HATE....simply HATE to waste product.

I mean, would YOU buy this soap?

Here is the fragrance description, 

which is named for it's sweetness, 

PINK SUGAR.

See it's pretty little cousin in the glycerin version sitting here so demurely?  

A simply perfect rendition of what the fragrance is like; so sweet, so feminine, 

so beguiling but in an innocent, sweet 16 

in a pretty pink dress eating a big pink cloud of cotton candy sort of way.

The main notes are Vanilla, Sandalwood and Sweet Heliotrope. 

It seems to have a fruity note in there - 

maybe a sweet maraschino cherry too?

Nope, NOT the look I was going for.  What I was going for was a gorgeous 

melange of

swirled chocolate  with  rose swirls.

   

Something you just want to dive 

into and slather all over in a hot steamy shower.

The above soap would look good as a Cold Processed loaf in the

 Christmasy fragrance that I am loving right now 

in the tart clean and fresh fragrance of Cranberry and Fig -   

here is the Glycerin Version and it is beautiful:

DANG IT!  (sorry)

OK, now I have ranted and raved, I feel better. 

Writing is cathartic sometimes;  well, most of the time  =)

So now I have 5 POUNDS of this soap and I have two options:

or,

 add to my Shelter Soap Bucket:  

It's a 5 pound bucket I keep in my kitchen and add

to it all the scraps and scrapings of every batch of soap that I make.  One

Day I will take it down to the Conroe House of Prayer and 

donate it to them as they feed, 

clothe and minister to the homeless in our city.    

It will be a luscious, fragrant and

 good for you melange!

Oh well, chalk it up to experience, and log mistake for 

future generations of soapmakers.

Happy Tuesday, dear reader!   Seize your day!

Toodles!

We Felt You....

 Okay, so by now, you know from seeing my kitchen table that I am fairly divergent in my lifestyle, thought processes and even creativity.   How fractured a picture this must present to the world:

Wikipedia had this to say about divergent:

Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. It is often used in conjunction with convergent thinking, which follows a particular set of logical steps to arrive at one "correct" solution. Divergent thinking typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing manner, such that many ideas are generated in a random, unorganized fashion. Many possible solutions are explored in a short amount of time, and unexpected connections are drawn. Following divergent thinking, ideas and information are organized and structured using convergent thinking.^[1]

Psychologists have found that a high IQ alone does not guarantee creativity. Instead, personality traits that promote divergent thinking are more important. Divergent thinking is found among people with personalities which have traits such as nonconformity, curiosity, willingness to take risks, and persistence.^[2] Additionally, researchers at Vanderbilt University found that musicians are more adept at utilizing both hemispheres and more likely to use divergent thinking in their thought processes.^[3]

Activities which promote divergent thinking include creating lists of questions, setting aside time for thinking and meditation, brainstorming, subject mapping / "bubble mapping", keeping a journal, creating artwork, and free writing.^[1] In free writing, a person will focus on one particular topic and write non-stop about it for a short period of time, in a stream of consciousness fashion.^[1]

Anyways, to CONVERGE back to the post at hand:  there is this trendy little micro niche out there in the soap 

universe:  felt.   Yep, felt.   We have felt taking many forms and not just for children's cheap thrills or crafts anymore.   I have found felt bracelets, felt earrings, felt necklaces; those make me jump out of my skin in a flurry of itchy thoughts.  But in SOAP circles, there is also the phenomenon of felted soap.

Apparently, sheep's wool is very easily formed into felt by a process of wet or dry felting.  Today we will only lightly examine that of wet felting.   

On Etsy  where I have a shop the felt frenzy has reached full force; and here is an example of felted soap:  Cute, colorful, cozy, contemporary.

if you dare to purchase this, please do not tell  me lest I cry.   But here is the link anyways.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/57121594/sale-thru-oct-31-2010-4-felted-soaps-4?ref=sr_list_2&ga_search_query=felted+soap&ga_search_type=all&ga_page=&order=&includes[0]=tags&includes[1]=title

Then on the opposite end of the spectrum you have the posh, the hip, the OhSoTrendy and SoughtAfter 

Anthropologie   (Oh, to one day have product in there, eh?)   Something to certainly reach for anyway.

Here is are pictures of their pricey little soaps:

Anthropologie's Felted Soap

Aren't they adorable?   Yeah, I know, not for everyone.

I  read every single on of their customer's reviews.  Brutal, honest, on the full range of spectrum between delight and total disgust.  

But the romance remained about something new.  Something different; at least to me.   Something visceral; as though my life were lacking somehow in the visceral tendencies.  Ha Ha. 

Anyways, a new search on Etsy revealed that there was, indeed a little wool shop down the road a pace.  Here in Texas, that would be about 25 miles or so.  We found this delightful shop, WC Mercantile, so my daughter and I planned a trip down yonder to explore, find colorful wool, and just dig through scads of Antique Stores in their old downtown district.  You know, the ones with the diagonal parking, right?   Heartland of America!

So after speaking with Stephanie who is herself an Etsy seller, we got a mini education on sheep, wool, roving, spinning, batts, Corriedale, Merino, Tops. Milk, and this sharp little tool called a felter.   $58 dollars later, we emerged with a bag full of rovings and went home.

Here are pictures of my daughter making a scarf with bubble wrap later that night:

And then, here is my very first felted soap:

My final analysis of this $58 dollar divergent journey?   Eh....not sure.   Not sure it fits the targeted Modus Apparendi of Cassia Aromatics.   I already have a few orders, and for sure there will be people who think it's cool.   And sure, the benefits are many:   Soaps last longer, you don't have to use a wash cloth, and wool has natural anti fungal qualities to it that keep the whole item free of pathogens.   And yes, it is mildly exfoliating.   But I don't think I will spend a whole lot of time or money on this.   

The cool thing is that it has it's own "packaging" if you will.   As long as I have been in this business, packaging has been a main hurtle/challenge/goal/quandary for me.   So. there.  

Divergence.  Delight.  Different Ways of Doing It.  Definitely Worth a Try.

Okay, the meatloaf is almost burning, so I must be off.   What are YOUR thoughts on felted soap?

Comment, if you dare!

Toodles, dear reader!