Drop swirl challenge

sunshine~n~breezy is my entry for the monthly Soap Challenge Club. Hosted by Amy from Great Cakes Soapworks, this months drop swirl challenge is a technique that many talented soap makers use with great effect, each cut bar revealing its unique beauty.

After watching Amy's tutorial over and over so many times, making notes, planning, deciding, changing my mind just as many times as the weather, I eventually got on with it.

The recipe I used is my standard recipe of olive, palm, coconut, rice bran and castor oils with avocado butter, fragranced with lemongrass, ylang ylang and patchouli essential oils, and I used yellow oxide, blue mica and titanium dioxide, plus the usual additives of kaolin clay, coconut milk and sodium lactate.

In the tutorial it is suggested to use a recipe that is slow to trace, to keep temperatures of oils and lye solution low (33 degrees Celsius) to allow maximum time to work and a fragrance that will not accelerate trace.

My normal temps for oils and lye solution are in the lower 30's (90° F)  and my recipe is reasonably quick to trace. So I upped the temps to 40° C (104° F) and hoped for some time to swirl.

Wanting to achieve a drop swirl that would go right to the bottom of the mold, I kept the batter at a light medium trace and poured a double pass of each colour from quite a height.

And that is where my challenge inside of a challenge started! You see, I am what you would call being challenged in the "aim and hit" department. I throw a ball, aiming straight ahead and it somehow ends up behind me. Going bowling, people in the next lane end up wishing I would just sit down and quit with this practice makes perfect motto. So pouring batter into tall skinny molds from a serious height, we're talking potential disaster here!

Now I don't mind that my lack of aiming skills provides family and friends with the rolling on the floor laughing knee-slapping kind of entertainment, but this is stepping up to the plate for the mother-of-all challenges, where the objective is to get more batter in the mold than outside of it. I need to score big time here, batter everywhere but in the mold will be taking the "drop" part of this challenge to a lengthy clean up - no laughing matter!

So for the record - with minor spillage - I aimed, I poured, I conquered!

I so enjoyed this challenge and am looking forward to participating again.

Best of luck to each entrant.

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.

Colloidal oats and oatmeal milk - a favourite additive in my soap

The very distinct and medicinal fragrance of Tea Tree oil is softened with French Lavender essential oil, giving this soap a softer more powdery fragrance.

Kaolin clay, colloidal oats as well as substituting 50% water with oatmeal milk makes for a creamy, luxurious bathing experience.

creamy, loads of cocoa butter

love the top and the new slim size of the bars of soap

new packaging, a few changes to come

the new look of 'pristine'

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.

xxx

Peter Rabbit, carrots and soap

Our parents warned us about going blind if we did not eat our carrots! Well mine had to constantly, I literally despised peas, carrots and broccoli, no matter in what form or in any disguise my Mom would dish it up. Not even Dad's take on the story of Peter Rabbit, desperately squeezing under Mr. McGregor’s fence to 'borrow' some eye sight saving carrots, moved me into eating carrots without me pumping my lips with enough air pressure to fully inflate the tractor tires of a carrot farmer. My Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail come in the form of two older brothers, and while I have many food related stories and fond childhood memories to divulge about them, none actually feature them also having to sit at the table and "finish those veggies or no pudding"! Either they were more adept at feeding their 'unwanted' vegetables under the cover of a tabletop to the pets; maybe they had wisened up to the fact that getting past Mom's rules was futile, wasted time that could of been spent playing (not to mention that sitting on your butt for ages is not good for your blood circulation or your mood); or food that was meant to be eaten hot tasted far better than when cold. Being boys, they were probably just constantly hungry!


organic carrot puree for natural colour



I'm sure we have all heard of the numerous health benefits of carrots. Getting their name from the ingredient which gives them that beautiful orange colour - beta carotene, great for healthy .... yup... younger looking skin as beta carotene is an important antioxidant nutrient. Its antioxidant action helps to act against age accelerating free radicals, fighting cell damage in the body. These antioxidants, potassium, Vitamins A, C and K and other nutrients contained in carrots nourish the skin, preventing dry skin and other skin blemishes.

 



blend of citrus and floral essential oils



Now I don't know if Mom, as a young mother 40 or 50 odd years ago, knew about antioxidants and free radicals, or had even heard of them, or if she even knew why they are so good for us, just as I don't know for certain if substituting carrot puree for the liquid part in soapmaking has any skin benefits. What I do know is that it makes a good bar of soap with a beautiful, natural colour.

 



rice milk and kaolin clay add to the silky feel
 



I've got to wonder if being a soapmaker herself, had she known that carrots are not only healthy but also can be used in soap, if I might have seen less of them on my plate!  

 

...makes for a good soap


Bless all mothers who without even knowing, "just know it's good for you because I said so"!
 

 Greetings from Cape Town

 

 

x Cynthia x



oat bastille soap

Although bubbles are so good, I love a soap that has more of a creamy lather and can quite happily forgo a bar of soap that has a needless abundance of bubbles, especially for a facial bar.

As we all know, a Castille Soap, although very creamy can feel somewhat slimy (an acquired liking for some). And thats where a Bastille Soap steps up to the plate and is more to my liking.

oat bastille soap

With a minimum of 70% olive oil for its gentle cleansing properties, it allows a soapmaker to have more play with the qualities of the finished soap with the remaining 30% blend of oils.

oat bastille soap
 

 Although not scented with any essential or fragrance oils, the added oatmilk and colloidal oats imparts a subtle fragrance. The verdict is still anxiously awaited on whether the Kaolin clay which was added on the spur of the moment will be a future additive.

Which is your preference, a Castille or Bastille soap?

Greetings from Cape Town

 

x Cynthia x

highs and lows

Over the last couple of months I have had some very unwelcome inhabitants in my soap kitchen. Sometime in a soap makers adventures these little gremlins are present and quickly move on to greener pastures, leaving in their wake a batch or in my case batches of soap that you end up fragrancing your garbage can with. Yup, they are unsalvagable ..... is that a word ...... the ones that result in undesirable or unusable soap. All my mantra's, soap dancing, various genre's of music, silent prayers, loud ones too, and a plethora of threats thrown in for good measure probably had them in fits of laughter, entertaining them to bits and ensuring their stay to be lengthened. And some culprit was feeding them as they went from gremlins to devastating ogres. There were so many different issues that my silent nervous breakdowns were having a hard time categorising themselves.

"Jasmine" in all its glory sporting a crackled effect.

Let me just add here that these are part of restocking my standard line, no new ingredients, techniques or going out on a limb with a different or untried recipe.

"Chai" with an overly zealous attitude to outshining all participants in the crackle contest.

So in between the restocking with a batch here ....hmmph....... and there passing a quality control test, new products in the pipeline that I am hoping to branch out with have also been thrown into the mix; (thanks to all the willing human guinea pigs), sourcing jars, bottles and containers and designing labels etc. And a new addition to the "family" in the form of a website is ready to go, awaiting photos of products. 

While watching available stock levels dwindle, I went from panic to frantic to sabbatical. Not having lined up any markets gave me a certain peace in the decision, and I enjoyed the respite, allowing me to play with test batches of colour, fragrances, palm free recipes and infusions.

 

Last week I upped the ante and started soaping for real and threw out the challenge to the first restock soap that if she plays nicely with me she will get a new name.

Take a bow "Mucking Afazing"!



I'm typing this in a whisper, but I think the soap gremlins have left the building.

 

Greetings from Cape Town

Cynthia

 





marigold

I wonder if there is a soapmaker who has not added Marigold petals to their soaps. As soapmakers we all know the fragrance it gives to a soap, the natural color it imparts, as well as it's beneficial properties.

These hardy, robust, non-fussy plants bring sunshine and color to any garden. Marigolds are used in many cultures for festivals, rituals and daily worshipping.

Also called Calendula, it is the October birth flower, meaning the first day of the month. This refers to the fact that the Marigold blooms at the beginning of a month throughout most months of the year.

marigold

During the conservative Victorian era, it was considered totally inappropriate to express feelings of love or affection, and it is said that the 'language of flowers' originated in this period, enabling a lover to convey a hidden romantic meaning.

marigold

The meaning of the Marigold flower symbolises sorrow or sympathy.

Go figure that the hidden message would be "My thoughts are with you"!

For you, a bunch of marigolds!

Greetings from Cape Town.

Cynthia





adzuki bean powder

Some more Asian inspired ingredients used in this batch, and used some finely ground Adzuki Bean powder for a mild scrub, gently exfoliating the skin. The powder is reported to have been used in Japanese skin regimes for centuries to enhance the complexion, drawing out impurities and promoting circulation.




The alluring earthy spicy fragrance comes from a blend of patchouli, amyris and sandalwood essential oils.

I love the lingering, sensual and inspiring to the senses fragrance it leaves on my skin. Then again, I am being biased, as I know it comes from my dwindling bottle of precious (read expensive) Sandalwood.


Warm greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.

Cynthia
xx

rice milk in handmade soap

Rice has traditionally been considered a source of beauty in Asian countries. Many of their beauty products have rice based ingredients added, from rice powder/flour to rice milk. As the folklore story goes, the female workers who spent many hours in the sun working the rice paddies, would use the water that was left over from washing the rice to bathe in and wash their faces.

(http://kids.britanica.com/comptons/art-90734>)


Today, starch and oil from rice are extensively being used in cosmetics and hygiene products. Rice bran oil has gained a strong and loyal following with many soap makers, having a good source of Vitamin E and antioxidants and imparts a silky smoothness to soaps.

Liking the soaps that I have made where I have used rice bran oil up to 5% of oil weight, I was curious to see what rice water or milk would do in soap.  Steeping my brown rice in mineral water, stirring every now and again, I left it overnight to find a very thin textured, off white diluted liquid the next morning. Referred to as rice milk by some, and rice water by others, I decided to treat it as a milk and freeze it in ice trays, reckoning the starch from the rice would produce sugar which might make a 'very hot' undesirable lye mixture. It stank, it HEATED up, it caused me moments of frantic panic and scrambling for a second lot of ice cubes for the ice bath, all the while leaving me very sceptical that I would have a successful batch of soap, let alone that it would add anything to the soap.

Rice milk soap unmolded and cut.

Nice and white, lemon, bergamot and peppermint essential oils.

Rice milk soap after 8 week cure.

It's smooth and silky, creamy and lathers like crazy. The rice milk is an ingredient I really loved working with and will try it again (hopefully more prepared for the lye reaction) with an essential oil blend that will keep the 'milky white' look!

Greetings from Cape Town!

what's not to love!

Tea Tree essential oil is one of those EO's that you either love or hate! And I have to say it's an EO that I love using in my soaps. I have to admit though, when I used it for the first time way back when my eldest son's skin broke out in his teenage years, the tea tree oil soap was branded as 'Brendon's pimple soap' and no one in the family liked the smell! Then it became 'Quinton's soap', and by that time it was being used not only by Brendon and Quinton on their faces, but also in the shower as well by all the males in the household. I was still not sold on this medicinal scent, especially as I had all the other gorgeous EO combinations to try!

When my youngest son Rowan glided (his transition was a walk in the park!) into his teenager years, aside from the legs that just seemed to never intend to stop growing and an appetite of jaw dropping proportions, his battle with acne was the most traumatic. As his face, neck and back went from 'to be expected' to 'bad' and 'worse', we progressed from doctor's appointments to 'acne' and visits to a skin specialist. Over the ensuing years, so the soap ingredients started to change. This soap recipe originally started out with olive, coconut and palm oils and was a plain white soap. In conjunction with the medication that Rowan was taking, on advice from the skin specialist, the recipe was loaded with moisturising oils and even butters (who would of thought!) at various stages of the medical treatment.

Today, the three boys are all grown men, and although their skins are past the 'tea tree oil for problem skin' stage, the clean medicinal scent has grown on the whole family.

Olive, coconut, sunflower, palm, castor and sweet almond oils, tea tree essential oil, parsley powder for some colour (go green!), throw in some 'waste not bits' and we love it!

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa!

black and white sea salt bar

(my blog posts are as erratic as my hormones)

It's a case of pre-christmas hecticness.

Made with coconut oil and some extra castor, avocado and sweet almond oil, fragranced with lemon, lavender and rosemary essential oils.

Some grated coloured soap bits and sea salt and they are good to go.

Next salt bar I make I think I will add more salt (this was 400g salt to 800g oils), or maybe just a courser grain of salt .... to add that extra bit of scrubbiness.

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.

Don't fix something that ain't broken!

It has been a while since I posted here, but that hasn't meant that I have not regularly read the posts of the blogs that I follow and of course been inspired.

Over the last month I have been fighting a nasty influenza virus, and just when I feel I have shaken it off it comes back to bite me on the butt! More in the ears, throat, head and (sore) body than on the butt - the butt side of things I do believe is from sitting on it too long!!

I did however muster up enough energy (been completely out of it) to make four new batches of soap....  When I say new, I mean taking a tried and tested recipes that work perfectly well and tweaking them - a little bit more of this, a little less of that and so on. You probably get the picture.

Why mess with something that is working? If only I could say my mind was fuzzy from medication; if only I had some kind of explanation that, if not for my peace of mind, then to at least convince anybody else. Silly. Silly, silly, silly is all I can say!

Sadly, two of those batches not only ended up as a disaster, they also landed in the trash can. The third batch, 100% olive oil, I unmolded when it was still too soft, and the last batch is a salt bar, which hasn't come out exactly how I envisioned it - will post pics at a later stage.

In the meantime, mostly to make me feel better about my own soap making abilities, I'll add some photo's of this season's efforts.

Petitgrain e/o, with poppy seeds and finely ground oats.

Orange, palmarosa e/o, honey and beeswax, with calendula petals.

Patchouli, orange and lemon e/o.

Sweet orange, rose geranium and lemongrass e/o, calendula petals.

Geranium, lavender, patchouli and petitgrain e/o.

Spring (I hope) is around the corner and with it comes soaps with slightly varied fragrances. I am looking forward to both!

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.

It's cold out there!

There is a blustering, cold wind blowing outside, so I am off to have a hot bath ......

the essential oils of sandalwood, cedar wood and lemongrass, combined with the earthy colours of the soap, are sure to warm me up ......

And then off to bed, with a warm glass of Horlicks.

Hope I don't have nightmares about the price of sandalwood EO......

My kind of Monday!

Wow, wow, no I mean WOW!!! My very first blog award.

After a couple of days under the weather with influenza, I was going through a ton of mails when I came across an email from Claudia, who informed me that she nominated me for 'The Versatile Blogger Award'. I can tell you that I feel much better, and it has got nothing to do with the medication I am taking.

 Thank you so much Claudia, not only for making my day, but also for the nomination.

The rules of the Versatile Blogger Award are:
1 – Make a post and link it back to the person who gave you the award (and include their website address)
2 – Share 7 random things about yourself
3 – Award 7 recently discovered bloggers with this award and contact them to let them know they have won.

I am so chuffed and have been on cloud nine since I heard, so I hope I get these rules of the award done properly.

You will find Claudia's blog at http://alegriamediterraneo.blogspot.com 

Seven random things about myself:

• I believe behind every face their is a story worth being heard.
• Any day now Johnny Depp will realise that following my blog is what is missing in his life.
• Somedays I say things to my children and I sound just like my mother, even although I always said I wouldn't. Wisdom does come with age.
• One more pair of denim jeans will never be too many.
• Apart from my Stud Muffin (dear hubby), my children, my dog, tea, pineapples, grapes, strawberries, figuratively chatting a hind leg off a donkey, walking on the beach collecting pebbles and seashells, I also love roasted garlic and mushrooms.
• I have 1 husband (thankfully), 2 brothers, 3 sons, 4 sister-in-laws, 5 koi fish and 6 followers on my blog (okay, that one's not so random).
• I love hats, even buy them with the best of intention of wearing them but never do, as I can't stand having anything on my head.

The blogs that I nominate have been recently discovered by me, although some of them have been around for some time. In the spirit of paying it forward, may these blogs accept, if not the award, then my deep appreciation for sharing a piece of themselves.

My nominations:

• http://xrenka.blogspot.com
• http://sanganatural.blogspot.com
• http://tmateria.blogspot.com
• http://seifenbrise.blogspot.com
• http://purali.blogspot.com
• http://lavarie.blogspot.com
• http://jabonesnaturalesdemayte.blogspot.com

So I'm off to inform these bloggers that I have nominated them and I hope you follow the links to Claudia's as well as my 7 nominated blogs. Enjoy the blog hopping, I know I always do.

just natural soap

My journey into soap making began as a response to personal skin care issues. I discovered that using a soap made with natural ingredients that I could pronounce, compared to the commercially bought product which ingredient list was completely confusing with chemical components that were mind boggling, put paid to unwanted skin reactions and personal issues that I had endured for many years.

My first batch of soap that I made, more than ten years ago, I still recall with fond memories. At the time I resided in an apartment on the 2^nd floor. With a pot, bucket, spoon, thermometer and 3 oils, recipe and instructions, a pair of swimming goggles and gloves, with mixed feelings of excitement and fear (kids were informed only to come into the garage if I hadn’t returned by nightfall); I set off to the garage on the ground floor. With shaking hands, inaccurate scale, not to mention the difficulty in seeing clearly through misted up goggles which were also interfering with my breathing, I weighed and patiently stirred with sweaty palms, and stood gob-smacked when my alkaline solution and oils saponified. An ice-cream container was used as a mold. I hardly slept that night, my mind was all over the place; did I follow all the instructions properly, did I insulate it enough, did I pour into the mold at the right time, would I have soap. And yes I did. Beautiful, unscented, pure and natural soap. Waiting for it to cure over the ensuing weeks, I lovingly touched and smelt and admired those beauties, checking the calendar every day just to make sure I had calculated correctly when I could start using them. The day arrived, and I fell in love. Twice over.  Making soap is a very addictive and deeply satisfying process. I had created something that was not only a useful everyday item; I was also rewarded with something that was beautiful and good for me and my family.

Over the years I have made many batches of soap, used different combinations of oils and butters, added botanicals, spices and essential oils, only allowing integrity and practicality of ingredients to curb my creativity and imagination.

It’s pure, it’s simple ……

It’s unscented ……

Just natural soap.

The same one the Julian gang still prefer.

This winter thing!

I have this love/hate relationship with winter.

I don’t like the fact that at most times my body is bordering on hypothermia. Spending twenty minutes to clothe myself with layer upon layer of winter woolies therefore restricting me to geriatric mobility is one more thing to put a frown on my brow. And with all this clothing on, taking it off in record time to go to the bathroom, after prolonging the inevitable contact of a cold loo seat, is nothing short of a humongous effort.

Then I love all those favorite comfort foods especially the soups, the guiltless hot pure chocolate drinks, snuggling under thick warm blankets, the log fire, basking in the sun with a cup of tea, boots (I’m a sucker for a pair of boots), the misty days with the foghorns in the distance, and those long hot soaks in a bathtub.

With a mind that feels as if it is hibernating I’ll be marking off the days till Spring.

Excerpt from a mothers CV

While raising three boys I have learnt to cook and bake, figured out how to disguise certain vegetables, have read a gazillion 'how to ..' books, fine tuned my social skills standing next to a sports field, realized that to have an organized nest I need to double up on multi tasking, went through all the grades 3 times over, learnt new words like ‘gnarly’ and ‘stoked’. I donned the “Florence Nightingale’ uniform on more occasions than I wanted to, attended/joined/ PTA meetings and took notes, accumulated handfuls of speeding fines getting to 3 different venues to support each child’s extra-curricular activities, fixed punctures on bicycles, called a whole lot of ‘time-outs’ over the years between the 3 of them, bought a lot of elastoplast, and taken many photo’s to document all the highs and lows. I admired their art, gave reviews on their ‘breakfasts in bed’, clapped and cheered the loudest at school plays, taught them to say please and thank you, to be true to themselves, to do things right. I have laughed and cried, praised and moaned with them; smiled and nagged at them; I’ve been proud, and then, been even prouder.   

Now they are all grown men, 2 with little families of their own. I’m still cooking and baking, still fine tuning my social skills but now on the internet, and learning new words like ‘links’ and ‘feeds’. The ‘how to’ books have been replaced by Google, I still get speeding fines on the way to different shopping centre’s, and as always I love my children.

Based on the above, this is what you now know about me:

·         I don't have the recipe to make daughters

·         I can cook and bake, with the added talent of being able to camouflage certain veggies

·         Researcher

·         Socially acceptable

·         Love sports, especially those that I can stand and chat on the side line

·         Obsessive compulsive organized lunatic

·         I have self-studied

·         Linguist and can use a dictionary

·         Can be a nurse and not harm you in many ways, quite deft when it comes to elastoplasts especially the cute picture ones

·         I have a tendency to speeding

·         I know how to ‘taxi’ therefore

o   I can use navigational equipment

·         ‘Manly’ equipment doesn’t faze me

·         I’m adept at being a referee

·         I can aim and shoot (camera that is, but don’t try me as I might be having a bad day and I own a weapon)

·         Appreciate art

·         Food critic

·         Life coach

·         Emotional woman

·         I have laughter lines and a couple of worry ones too

Can I at least get some response?

Taking over the world one list at a time

If taking over the world depended on making to-do lists, grocery lists, maintenance lists, cleaning lists, gardening and plant lists, art supplies and try my hand at this list, when to do this and when not to do that list, what craft or soap supplies to find, what books to read, where to eat and all the other hundreds of lists I make, I’m afraid Pinky and Brain don’t stand a chance. At the least I will most certainly be their No 1 sidekick, handing them their “list” for the night’s adventure.

For me, having these lists is my figurative daily rudder. Without them I am I could say lost, but motionless is the more appropriate description. With my trusty list in my hand I’m a schooner racing to the finish line, the sails billowing in the wind, driving me forward and onward to ticking off each ‘do’ as ‘done’, each don’t as didn’t.

Now, for effectiveness, peace of mind, calm waters, smooth sailing (read as control issues), I have one ‘big kahuna’  list – the mast of my schooner, the one that raises the sails of all the other to-do’s and don’ts.

It’s a beautiful day here in Cape Town, just enough wind for a pleasant sail. Were I able to hoist my schooner’s sails, I sure would be cutting a mean picture on the blue waters. Sadly, I have wasted time looking for my misplaced ‘big kahuna’ list, and without my mast I figuratively more resemble The Titanic.

Good luck Pinky and Brain, I won’t make it tonight.

Loving all 29 of them!

I love celebrating my birthday. I even love the build up to it, counting the days, the anticipation of what the day holds for me. Everyone and anyone who crosses my path prior to my birthday gets informed in one way or another that I am having a birthday soon. For me, celebrating my birthday is all about the great gift of life that was given to me; that by God's Grace I was born.

So, every now and again, you will hear how much time before my birthday. However, today someone very special and dear to me celebrates his, and celebrating this birthday is even better than celebrating my own. Just after nine o'clock on a Sunday morning, 29 years ago, my first-born, shortly after taking his first breath, was placed in my arms. Just as many mothers before me, and many mothers still to come will tell you, nothing can compare with that moment.

On that cold morning, in my arms I held the things to come. Many diaper changes and many more feeding times, bath times, grazed knees and bruises; lost teeth and school clothes, height charts, certificates, progress reports and medals; sport seasons, sport equipment and many sport days; friends, girlfriends, hamsters and bicycles; and much, much more!

I held future laughter and tears, joy and sadness, victories and defeats, milestones and possibilities. Nestled in my arms was a 4.1kg baby boy with 'still a lot of awesomeness to come, still to bring great pride and joy, still to bring a lot of love'.

As I sit here vividly remembering that day, I can't help wondering who gave you permission to grow up so quick. (It was probably me when I wished the 'teenage phase' would pass). Today, physically you are much taller than 55cm and you weigh a bit more than then, so as everyday, but especially today, I can only hold ALL of you in my heart; with my arms I can hug and hold you close; in my voice and in my eyes you will hear and see my love for you. Brendon, you are everything and much more than I held in that nursing home way back then.

 May this day be as special to you as what it is to me, may your year be filled with love as you have filled mine, and may you always know how special and loved you are.

  

Just do it!

So this is my first blog post. On Thursday's, Lumka my charlady is here, which means it's the weekly "big cleaning day" and that relates to not being the best day in my eyes to start a blog. However, according to Penelope Trunk's blog post http://blog.penelopetrunk.com on How to Blog, her advice struck a chord. "Post, post, post," she says, "don't tell yourself you'll do it tomorrow, practice, no one is reading your blog, ignore that, sit down and post on a regular basis".

Having kept journals for most of my life means that writing, and writing on a regular basis comes quite easy, and having no readers is very much in line with journaling. So how difficult or different can this be?

After numerous hours spent educating myself on templates and backgrounds, weighing up the pros and con's of a 2 or 3 column layout, gadgets, colours, followers, RSS, SEO, HTML, choices of software and after many boo-hoo, a-ha and what happened now moments, this is my progress.

Journaling for me has a very distinct process to it. Its not only about putting your thoughts onto paper or expressing your emotions, it starts way before that. Many of my journals have been regular exercise books, covered and decorated; some were bought with beautiful images on them; handmade journals; those with collage covers and my favourite right now is the mixed media art covers. It's about the feeling the journal cover evokes in me, it's the tactile feel of the paper, the sound my pen makes as my thoughts become a living testimony to who I am. Many hours are spent creating the cover, sometimes even more than the amount of time it takes to journal.

On many levels, starting a blog hasn't been more difficult or different than journaling. Both are a creative process that I enjoy and find rewarding. Where blogging will take me is something I will have to wait out and see. So far it has been great. I have become more acquainted with a lot of "buzz words", and although I have seen many that I cannot for the life of me comprehend - I have my own blog!