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Brown Sugar and Oatmeal Soap

Feb
15

Now THAT is a lot of soap!
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Twelve pounds, to be exact, cut into 72 bars.

The sales conference for fall books is coming up, and my publisher asked if I would send “swag” for the marketing team to hand out to promote my book. I’m excited that they’re excited about my book, so I agreed to send along a box of homemade soap. They wanted something homemade that would represent something I did in the book. The sales reps at the conference would probably rather get pies, but that won’t ship well, so soap it is.

The recipe I chose is a simple one, and likely to appeal to most people. This soap smells delicious–and is so pretty with swirls of brown sugar.

If you’ve never made soap, you can! Check out my Hot Process Soap in a Crock Pot tutorial. You can do it!

Here’s the recipe.

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Crisco — 9.6 ounces or 272.155 grams
olive oil — 9.6 ounces or 272.155 grams
lard — 6.4 ounces or 181.437 grams
coconut oil (76-degree melt point) — 6.4 ounces or 181.437 grams
distilled water — 12.16 ounces or 344.73 grams
lye — 4.463 ounces or 126.524 grams
1/3 cup ground oatmeal
1 ounce fragrance oil
1/2 cup brown sugar

This yields a 2 pound batch of soap. I usually add the fragrance oil as the very last thing, but because the brown sugar won’t be completely incorporated–just gently turned through the mixture to leave swirls, add the brown sugar last.
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Pretty! I hope they like it!

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Tastes Like Spring

Jan
30

Temperatures climbed close to 70 here yesterday. The breeze was warm and the sun felt hot when the clouds cleared. I love it when I have men here working in this kind of weather. They get sweaty and sometimes they take off their shirts.
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In this kind of weather, the whole world feels frisky and full of hope. Everything is possible, even catching that last chicken.
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Grass wants to grow.
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Existing gardens stretch and whisper of work.
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Gardens-to-come dream of being built.
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New trees want to bud.
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Lovers pine.
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Dogs relax their guard.
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Sheep dot.
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Goats lumber heavy with babies.
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The farm tastes like spring, full and rich, yet under the bright, clearing sky, men still don’t take off their shirts. As if they are the only ones who did not get the memo.
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I guess you can’t have everything!

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The Slanted Little House

"It was a cold wintry day when I brought my children to live in rural West Virginia. The farmhouse was one hundred years old, there was already snow on the ground, and the heat was sparse-—as was the insulation. The floors weren’t even, either. My then-twelve-year-old son walked in the door and said, “You’ve brought us to this slanted little house to die." Keep reading our story....



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