365 Days of Creativity - Day 6 - Holy Habaneros

About a week ago, I have a message from my sister-in-law ... she's experiencing some incredible pain in the muscles of her legs.  Pain that the doctors are suggesting to be treated with some heavy-duty meds.

She doesn't really want to go that route ... and I can understand.
Completely.

So ... I jump online and begin researching alternatives to medication in the treatment of deep tissue pain.

And on one of my favorite sites for alternative medicine, I find what appears to be a pretty amazing idea:

Capsaicin Cream

I locate a recipe and send my husband to the store for a pound of habaneros.

which he chopped for me ♥

so I could then cook them in olive oil in the slow cooker for the next 24 hours.

When finished, the whole, visually volatile mess is run thru the blender ... 

'cuz, ya know, it certainly ISN'T HOT ENOUGH AS OIL ALONE!

After blending, I strained out all the little particles ... thought about feeding the pieces to the chickens and changed my mind ... they love me and I didn't want to ruin that relationship  ;)

The strained oil is then blended with organic beeswax and poured into these cute little jars to cool.

For all intents and purposes, this stuff sounds amazing!  We've listed it in our online store.

For those wanting to know what this stuff does and how it's used, here's more info:

Deep Tissue Capsaicin Cream, good for arthritic pain, deep tissue pain, bursitis, fibromyalgia, diabetic neuropathy, joint & muscle pain, and post-herpetic neuralgia.

When applied to the skin, capsaicin cream has been found to deplete substance P, a neurochemical that transmits pain. Capsaicin is a natural chemical with desensitizes a person to pain, providing a temporary reduction in a person's overall pain levels. When used regularly, capsaicin cream will provide prolonged pain relief.

Recommended dosage is .025% capsaicin cream, applied to the skin four times a day, directly over the areas of muscle or joint pain. Amount may be increased to no more than .075%.  Those sensitive to capsaicin may experience a stinging or burning sensation as a result of the capsaicin infused oil, this is a normal reaction to the capsaicin oil.

When using, wear gloves when applying ... or wash hands immediately after coming in contact with the cream. Do not use with a heating pad. Do not apply immediately after a hot bath or shower. Avoid getting in eyes or other mucus membranes. Do not apply to broken skin.

Ingredients: organic habanero oil, Grade A virgin olive oil, organic beeswax.

* Please note, this product has not been evaluated or approved for use by the Food & Drug Administration for its healing or medicinal properties.  Use of this product should not be lieu of your doctor's advice.  In case of a harsh reaction, such as inflammation or skin blisters, discontinue use immediately.  Always seek medical advice when experiencing internal pain. *

365 Days of Creativity - Day 4 & 5 - Shhhh!

On Monday, I was accepted as an Official Designer for Fashion Week San Diego.

YAY!!!

So, life's a little exciting around here at the moment.
And on Day 4, I spent most of the day working on 2 designs for San Diego ...
can't show them to you, 'cuz it's a S.E.C.R.E.T!

For those that know me, you know how much I love sharing on FB the stuff I'm doing in the studio.
Day 4 ... notsomuch ... 'cuz no one's supposed to know about any of it until like, October.
The kids have been sworn to secrecy ... bribed with candies for the next 6 months!

Now ... Day 5 ... that's a completely different story.

I can tell y'all about today ... until the cows come home.

Except, there's not much to tell ... we chopped about a pound of habaneros.  Okay, not "we" ... my husband chopped them for me ... and now they're marinating in the slow cooker for our next project.

which will be shared with you ... tomorrow.

Until then ... hasta la manana!

365 Days of Creativity - Day 3 - Vanilla Cream

Vanilla Cream Massage Oil Body Bars ...

we revised the recipe, replacing the majority of the shea butter with illipe butter and moderately increasing the amount of vanilla flavor ... creating a scrumptious treat for your body, mind, and spirit.

Illipe butter is the fat obtained from the nuts of Shorea stenoptera, a wild crop in the jungle of South East Asia. It is pale yellow solid fat after extraction, which turns quickly into green color. It has recently been introduced as a cosmetic raw material and is used in various skin-care preparations such as nourishing night creams, sun products, hair masks, and lip balms. It is the exotic butter that comes closest to matching cocoa butter in triglyceride composition. Illipe butter is recommended to heal sores and mouth ulcers. It reinforces the skin lipidic barrier and helps maintain skin moisturization, practically reversing the damage to the skin caused by the environment.

Cocoa butter is obtained by pressing crushed seeds of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao. Cocoa butter is a well-known, valued ingredient in chocolate. In cosmetics, it is valued for its melting point, which is close to body temperature, its greasing and lubricating properties, and emollient virtues. Cocoa butter also provides skin conditioning and thickening attributes.

365 Days of Creativity - Day 2 - Ice Dyeing

Last week, with the arrival of my tax refund, I placed an order for new fiber reactive dyes from Dharma and some raw bamboo/cotton & hemp/cotton yardage.  At our local thrift store, I found a number of blank, white men's t-shirts and baby onesies that I could add to my newest passion:  Ice Dyeing.  Since it's more cost effective to dye projects in large quantities, I rummaged through my overstock and discovered about a dozen of my Made in Oregon t-shirts that, for one reason or another, hadn't sold.  I added those brilliant white t-shirts to the steadily growing pile of stuff needing color.

With the equivalent of about 20 yards of fabric, I decided the best way to tackle the prep work was to throw it all in the washing machine, split over two loads.  First the fabrics were washed in Synthrapol to remove any sizing or fabric softener residue.  Then, the fabrics were soaked in a soda ash mixture for about half an hour before being wrung out and placed into the two dye tubs.

This time around, I decided to layer the fabric, ice and dyes.  Seven colors were used in the first tub and four in the second tub.  Each 64-quart tub held about four layers of ingredients:  fabric, ice, dye, repeat ... then covered with a lid and allowed to sit overnight so the ice could melt and do its job.

 

This morning heralded in the grand reveal:  opening the tubs, rinsing off the fabrics, and surveying the results.

I have to admit ... they look pretty damned cool!

365 Days of Creativity - Day 1 - Gypsy Skirt

I dug into my endless supply of Thrift Store Treasures to create today's spark of creativity.

A women's pair of size 18, mauve colored silk pants was the first item to be dismantled into usable pieces of fabric ... followed by over-sized t-shirts, a beautiful cotton velour top in a dark camel, and a remnant of lightweight, cotton madras plaid.  Offcuts of pink and white, patchwork stretch lace and a chunk of synthetic suede in a light mauve completed the color array.

All of these pieces of fabric were then lovingly cut up and stitched together to create one of our signature Gypsy Skirts ... in a women's size large.  I figure this will be perfect for the new store that's opening out in Lincoln City the first weekend in March.

365 Days of Creativity

Lately, there are some days when I have ended up being a total "slacker" ... complete days filled with nothing more than lounging around the house in my jammies until noonish, drinking tea, and simply enjoying the world for all that it is.

There's nothing wrong with this, but I have a greater drive than that ... resulting in a mental admonishment that I could have done more with today than I managed to do.

So ... I'm setting myself a goal of sorts ... 365 Days of Creativity.

Starting Now.

And I will be posting these creative accomplishments on my Fan Page. One a day for the next year. If you're interested in seeing my progress, you can head on over to my page this evening and check out the photos. ♥

I am addicted to soaping ...

I've discovered a new passion that combines my love of organic products with my passion for baking ...

soap making!

Yummilicious loaves of freshly baked, body beautiful goodness that smell and feel incredible in the bath!

Granted ... I've only made 4 loaves of hand-crafted goodness in the last month ... but each is better than the last.  And I'm beginning to modify standard recipes as though I were creating baked goods.

Visually appealing ... scentsationally enticing ... a plethora of aromas and textures that are a delight to the senses.

Last night, upon seeing the abundance of raw organic pumpkin in the pantry, I felt the urge to create another loaf ... Spiced Pumpkin Pie ... with chocolate.  I had once created bread with these ingredients ... I figured the combination would be amazing in soap.

I located a basic recipe for pumpkin soap online and revised the recipe, using the baking knowledge I possess ... then running the whole recipe thru a lye calculator to determine the amount of lye & water needed to make my vision a reality.

After posting a picture of the beautifulness that is this loaf, I received requests for the recipe.  The two best parts about this soap (aside from the aroma):  it's gluten free and you can have your dessert before breakfast!

So, for all my soap crafting artisan friends, I gift you the recipe ... bon apetite':

Organic Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Soap - 4 pound recipe

16.3 oz. cocoa butter
17.3 oz. Olive Oil
17.8 oz. Coconut Oil
4.0 oz. shea butter
4.5 oz. Palm Oil
4.1 oz. Apricot Kernal Oil
4 tsp. of sugar in the water before the lye
2 tsp of salt in the water before the lye
4 oz. of canned pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon *
1 tsp. nutmeg *
1/2 tsp. allspice *
1/2 tsp. cloves *
1/2 tsp. ginger *
(* these are eyeballed estimates based upon the equivalent of 4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice)
2 Tbsp. finely ground, raw chocolate
1 oz of Vanilla fragrance oil
(you can also use 2.8 oz pumpkin pie fragrance oil, but I chose to keep the pumpkin raw)
9.1 oz. Lye
24.3 oz. of water

Get all of your ingredients and equipment ready (including pre-measuring out all of your additives).

Prepare your lye solution, and set it aside to cool (be sure to add the sugar and salt to the water before you add the lye).

Once your lye solution and oils are at about 100 degrees, slowly add the lye-water to the oils and blend. Only blend until the lye and oils are just barely mixed together...you don't want to take it to trace just yet.

Using a ladle, separate out some of the soap into a large bowl, stainless steel pot, or pyrex pitcher. I separated out about 1/4 of the whole batch (1 pound) into the pitcher.

Leave the separated part for a minute. Going back to the main pot, add in the pumpkin. Make sure it is mixed in well. Also add your Pumpkin Pie or vanilla fragrance oil to the batch at this time.

Take the pumpkin pie spices & chocolate and add it to the separated portion. Mix it well, making sure there are no clumps of spice.

Blend both portions of soap in each of the containers so that they are mixed very well. You should already be well at trace by now.

Starting with the pumpkin portion, pour about 1/2 inch of soap into the bottom of the mold. Then pour about 1/2 of the spice portion into the mold. Pour in a bit more of the pumpkin, and then some more of the spice. Alternate the two until you've filled the mold.

Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, gently swirl through the soap rotating the spoon/spatula around, up and down through the soap, and back and forth. You don't want to mix the colors all together, just swirl the dark and light colors with each other.
Cover the mold with a bit of wax paper and let it set in a safe place.

It is probably not necessary (with this recipe at least) to insulate the mold like you normally would ... though I did. Most pumpkin fragrance oils contain at least a little cinnamon and/or clove essential oil in them, which will really get the saponification process going. This batch of soap will get HOT. Don't worry, this is normal. Also, don't worry about how dark the soap is getting. This is just part of the gel process. The soap will lighten back up as it cools.

Let the soap cool and cure overnight before slicing it.

Though you're going to want to try it right away, let it set at least a few days before you test it...and at least a few weeks before you use it in the bath.

As it's curing, your house will be filled with the wonderful sweet spicy scents!

<3

Back by Popular Demand!

Back by popular demand!

Using the magic that is Rafflecopter, in honor of our 5th Anniversary, Second Star Designs will be awarding a $25 online gift certificate to one lucky Fan when we reach 600 Fans ... and another $50 online gift certificate each to 5 fans ... when we reach 750 Fans on or before February 28, 2013.

♥ MINIMUM OF 600 FANS REQUIRED FOR DRAWING TO HAPPEN♥ WINNERS WILL BE DRAWN ON MARCH 1, 2013♥ 7 CHANCES FOR ENTRIES EVERY DAY - 35 POINTS/DAY♥ SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY♥ YOU'LL FIND THE LINK UNDER "GIVEAWAYS" AT THE TOP OF OUR PAGE

Giveaway opens on February 1, 2013, and runs thru the end of the month. Winners' names will be posted on our Fan Page and must respond within 24 hours or another name will be drawn.

Good luck ♥http://bit.ly/Tin9MS