Pink Saturday

Just the word, homemade, gives me a warm feeling inside. To me, homemade is synonymous with love. Thus, my never-ending quest to find more and more things that I can make myself...at home. Take my soap for instance...



... I have been making it for quite a few years now and use it exclusively for my face and body soap. My children have grown up using it. My oldest son even took some with him when he went off to college. I love using it because it has no dyes, perfumes or artificial additives. I make it from three simple ingredients; lye, lard, and water. And in the process, glycerin is naturally created and remains in my soap. Glycerin is a great healer for skin problems, but it is removed from most store-bought soaps and sold as a separate product.

I did a lot of research and had a few failures before being rewarded with a beautiful batch of homemade soap. But after having pooled info from many books, websites, and talks with my Aunt Edith, I feel like I have my craft down to an art. I have written up the instructions step-by-step so that I won't forget what to do. In fact, the last time soap was made at my home, my sweet Neil took a day off from work and made it using my instructions. He hadn't been around home when we made it and I think he just wanted to see what it was like. So, while homeschooling was going on inside, he was outside stirring up the lye. He was able to follow my five easy handwritten steps and came out with the beautiful soap you see in my picture above.

I know this may seem crazy to some, but maybe interesting to a few? Let me know if you want me to and I'll make a post with my scaled down, tried-and-true directions for Sherry's Homemade Lye Soap. Want to try a bar before making up a batch? If you have a Cracker Barrel restaurant near you, go into their country store and they sell lye soap that looks and smells just like mine. I was amazed that they sell it for $5.99 a bar! I make 42 bars for less than $10.

I am so excited! I have met a new friend and fellow-soap maker this week. She has a brand-new blog called Gerry's Soap N Stuff, and it is just beautiful! Hope you can go by and visit her and tell her that Sherry @ A Happy Valentine sent you, won't you please?

And while you're out visiting, please drop by Beverly's place and tell her how happy she makes us all with her hosting talents for our Pink Saturday.