A slight pause in transmission...

I know you'll all be devastated (whistle, whistle), but I won't be around for a short while as I'm off to Portugal again, & that means there won't be any new croaps for a while either. Boo hoo! I'll have severe withdrawal symptoms again when I come back, as well as a brain overloaded with ideas and no time to do anything about them. Awwww, shame innit? :-)

Chocolate cheesecake

This one is supposed to be a chocolate cheesecake! I tried to do a whipped top but when I added the FO it made the whipped soap go runny so I couldn't pipe it as I'd planned. In the end, I just slapped it on & poked at it for a while (technical terms). I'm hoping it will hold its shape & not disintegrate overnight. Fingers crossed as it smells gorgeous!

This is it before I covered the top with the "whipped" soap. Interesting how it's discolouring - it's supposed to go a chocolate brown so it was a bit of a shock when I cut it & it was a fudge colour in the middle.

An interesting gentleman

For the past 10 months, I've been a partner in running a small leather goods shop. The past 25 years of my working life have been spent in a first-floor office so everyday life at pavement level has pretty much passed me by. Opening the shop hasn't exactly been a roaring success but I've met some very interesting people, a few of whom have become friends now.

One regular visitor is Gordon, a gentleman in his 80s who pops in for a coffee and a natter on a regular basis. He enjoys going to Sussex University to sit in on lectures, and has a passion for understanding all the things that make us human. He carries a book around with him called "Why Love Matters" (Sue Gerhardt) and is on a quest to understand more about how we develop as humans depending on how a mother's love is given during the first 2 years of life. He has several blogs going, but this one is his current passion - check it out and leave him a comment :-)
Gordon's blog is here

Why the croap crown is mine.....

I wanted to have a go at a "round" soap and finally managed to find somebody eating Pringles, so I stole the tin and had a go. Eek! - I've no idea what went on in that tin during gel, but it's a very weird- (and rude-looking) soap to me. Or is that just my dirty mind? :-) It smells good though - a mix of strawberry-coconut with milk.
I suspect it got too hot during gel - anybody knows the answer, please let me know!
It doesn't look too disgusting cut, but I might have to set the cookie cutters on it. We'll see.....

First funnel soap!

I discovered this fab new technique and thought I'd give it a go. I'm gobsmacked at the result, to say the least. It looks completely different cut than it does in the mould, and no two slices are the same. I scented this one with "Blue Amberwood" and as it's a discolouring FO, I'm hoping the "cream" swirls will eventually go a browny colour. So far it's gone a bit of a strange yellow but we'll have to wait & see.

In the mould

Cut!

I'm exhausted, and still no soaps......

I still don't have any soapies to post here as I've been away in Derbyshire for a few days staying with my friend Joy. On Friday we went to Buxton and met up with our friend Zoe (we all know each other from the Fresholi forum) and to finally meet in person was great. It was a lovely giggly day despite the hideous weather. On Saturday we managed to produce 5 batches of CP soap and very proud of ourselves we were too. Joy showed me how to make whipped soap, so watch this space. Sunday we went to a trade fair at the NEC in Birmingham. Picture it - 2 grown women going a bit giddy when they found a cake decorating place that had silicone moulds perfect for making soap in. At one point certain people were brought a chair as they were a bit overcome by it all (and it wasn't me) :-) It was good fun but very tiring and we came away with some great ideas.

My only problem now is too many ideas (and a head about to explode with them all) and not enough time to put them into being. Drat.

I haven't fallen off the edge.........just yet!

I didn't realise it'd been so long since I posted. Well, I've been away hiding in Portugal for a few weeks, contemplating my navel and wondering what to do with my life. My dream would be to live in Portugal and make my croaps, and if I can make some sort of money from it - great! When things were going well for us a few years ago, we were lucky enough to buy a house there and there's just something very special about it. The house almost gives you a big cuddle when you go back - sounds mad but I know what I mean. Might be something to do with the resident spirit we have (and yes, I know her name, which part of the house was hers and a bit about her family - courtesy of her granddaughter who turned up out of the blue one day last year after living in France for 40+ years!). My friend even commented that the house was happy to have us back and had seemed very sad when we weren't there. So here's a pic which doesn't really do her justice but I love her anyway


We also had a visitor who brought us her kittens last time we were there. She hasn't been seen for a few months, but 2 days after we arrived she appeared (sadly without kittens this time). After a few weeks she was having a bit of trouble with the word "feral". We called her Suki which I'm told means happy in Japanese - suits her really well.



And for those friends of mine who doubted that the Croap Queen took her crown with her so it couldn't be stolen while she was away, here's proof! Hah!