NewOrleansLady

Great....thanks for taking the time to make the tuturial. Those would look great for Mardi Gras in Purple, Green and gold. That reminds me I have to change my porch lights from red and green to purple green and gold since tomorow is 12th night. Thanks again.

Oh you're outside of Tupulo....we drove thru there when we drove the Natchez Trace a few years ago. That was the coolest weekend ever. Closest one I have is Cajun and they're a good 2 hours west of me.

What is "that stuff"....the powdered store bought stuff? I had a friend that owned a carpet installation company and when I was replacing carpet in a previous home he explained what that stuff does and also the damage "steam cleaners" do. When we pulled up the carpet all we saw was the powdered stuff on the concrete (it went thru the padding even and not sucked up totally by the vaccuum) and mold from where the "steam" just stayed moist. It was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen. I had my own steam cleaner so I used to clean the carpet once every couple of months. That's why my present home will never have carpet in it. Where I use the stuff now is a 8'x10' throw rug so the kids aren't on the bare ceramic tile when they play. I can fit it in my front loader washer & dryer and get it clean as a whistle.

just mix the cobs with pretty potpourri in a dish. I also have a dyson and use store bought carpet powder (I only have a small rug and rest of house is wood & ceramic) so I don't know why you couldn't use cornstarch scented sprinkled on carpet. I've never done it so I'm not recommending just throwing it out for consideration.

OH, welcome to the addiction. soapmaking is therapy for me and man I need some. Haven't made soap in forever. Just haven't had the time. You'll love it. Now be sure and get your safety gear in order so dh doesn't regret getting you the books! lol

Okay, how much you selling them for???? I love love love the N'awlins one!!!! Getting ready to get to DS's house for the game. Should have some Buccaneer booty kicked all over the dome by the end of this one!!!!! Who do the Colts play today? PS....your brother has good taste in women!!!! lol

How precious! Did you think to give her a red nose to wear herself????? lol I say that cause I saw a guy yesterday on the side of the road after being in a wreck wearing a red apron with some company name on it and he's watching the tow truck guy try to bang out his front wheel well so he could strap his front tires. The guy's standing there with a frickin' red clown nose on. Can you imagine what the cop must have been thinking as he's taking the guy's statement!!!!!! I wanted to yell out my window....C'me on Dude take off the nose!!!!!!

I'll have to check out the price of LouAna coconut oil to see if I get it any cheaper since it's made down here. Haven't made soap in ages so haven't been keeping up with prices for large quanties of OO. Just the amounts I cook with.

How does it react to warm water?

It was me! Sorry I didn't answer this sooner but my 'puter was at the doctor! I used the water bottles from Wal Mart. The ones that are flavored. I could use a twist tie to gather all the sticks (I think I could fit 10 or 12 in the bottle neck with no problems) I would twist about 5 times and drop the sticks in (holding onto the twist tie) I would then make sure the twist tie stuck up a little thru the neck of the bottle. Screw the top on and lay the bottle on it's side. Two or 3 times I would twist the bottle and slosh the liquid to make sure all sticks were fully covered. Lay in the solution for 24 hours. Then I unscrew the top....pull out the sticks by the twist tie but now I could twist it around the neck of the bottle and screw the cap back on and stand the bottle up. The excess solution falls right back in the bottle. There's only about maybe 3" of solution in the bottle so the sticks are raised up above it. I let them drip for a good 24 hours. Then I pull the sticks out and lay them out to totally dry which would take probably another 24 hours. You can keep reusing the solution over and over and just add more to the bottle when it gets low. No waste at all and I recycled bottles. The only secret I had to this is I have access to a roll of twist ties and not the little short ones like on bread wrappers. I've seen them in catalogs like Uline I think. My DH had gotten his from his step dad who worked in a bread factory.

I ordered some from Salt Works...got the colassal ones. Made me a rock potpourri bowl with christmas lights and it's gorgeous. The small lights heat up the rocks and release the scent....the led lights don't heat up but they're prettier. I know they wouldn't sell down here so I just made some for me and Bobbie. I used to do the same thing with jars and potpourri. Those big pumpkin jars worked the best.

Cinna-Pear Spicy Pear Pear Sparkle I like Christmas Pear, too.

I found some cardboard boxes at a local box store that fit a dozen perfectly. But had to buy 250 at a time. At one point I had shrink wrapped them and then later found out it was the kind that suck the scent out so went back and undid all that work. Not only did it suck the scent but the color as well. Years ago I had found some tubes I think from BCN that held 6 or so. They were great this time of year to sell as teacher gifts and you could also put bath salts in them.

I love the blend of lavender & chamomile to spray on my pillow....sometimes I put just a touch of spearmint.

Sales were up this year....dropped votives and added oil warmers/oils.

I'm sorry....when I wrote this I was thinking of my big 60# tanks not my presto pot. The presto pot's spigot never get clogged.

You heat it up with a heat gun.

Check out taylored concepts...don't know if there's is a dupe or just their own version.

I don't have my scent list right here but I think the stress relief is from TN and the sinus relief may have been from Taylored.

JS's Hot baked apple pie is a great seller for me.

I save my pharmacy pill bottles. The FO doesn't melt it and it holds the scent and no leaking. You can use a cotton ball for more scent. I keep one on my desk with "sinus relief" scent in it and when I'm clogged I give it a whif. I also have one "stress relief" for when MIL gets to me. I've had them for over 9 months and still smell strong.

I use masking tape on every container to write the scent and supplier & date if it's a test. No way to get confused. I used to do the write on a piece of paper in front of the container until DH came in and pushed them over to make room on the counter. Totally screwed me up. I make votives in the 8 strip molds and I put tape on the last one with the FO. I even put it on the pot for when I need to do repours. I wrap my scale with Glad wrap. Very see thru and protective. I tried the freezer bag but found it was a little cloudy cause it wasn't right up against the screen. I save my newspaper and use it on the floor under the drip spout or if possible I turn the presto pot so the spigot is over the sink....fill the sink 1/2 way up with hot soapy water. Any drips form a big clump you can just pick out. Get in the habit of when you plug in your melting pot the next thing you do is check to make sure the spigot is closed. I didn't when I turned on my big 70# melter....luckily I was only gone a short while but even 1/2 a pound of wax is a mess to clean up. Buy stock in Goo gone or De Solve it cause it's the only thing that will remove red dye from around your cuticles. Oh the black cherry thing.....yeah been there done that.....had no nose hairs for about 3 months and headache for about 3 days. To answer the question about putting the dye first....if you pour the dye first and picked the wrong one you can always pick a scent that matches the dye you poured by accident. If not you could have brown pink sugar!!!!

I have used JS's 5050 waxes for the past 3 years or so....however long they've been out. I love both the votive and the container. I use ultra wicks from Fil Tec, previously I used zinc. You can see my % info in my sig line. Freight is a big cost to me seeing as I'm in New Orleans and JS is in Ohio so you know I must love it to pay those freight prices. I've tried other 5050's but none were better for me to change even if I could save on freight. Scent throw hot and cold is outstanding.

The uncut ones were perfect for LSU>>>> LSU>>>>>> LSU>>>>> You could make a fortune selling these in LA! the yellow they kinda mellowed out once cured and cut but still great. Man if you swirls were more like tiger strips it would really be perfect. You could do some red/white "tide rolls"!!!!! AS always, beautiful work.

I always do power burns...just because I know they will. I always have a candle burning in my shop so I can show them how it's supposed to look (wick height...melt pool etc). I also put in instructions (mine is 8x11 sheet...wouldn't fit on postcard size...with the last one saying "Candles are like children (and some grown men)...neither should be left unattended under any circumstance!!!! And you can't hold their hands. I've said before the woman that was quite educated caught her pillow on fire by having the pillow case too close. Now you would think a woman with a collage degree, professional type job and raised 3 kids would have enough common sense....but obviously not! Be prepared for "It doesn't smell at all" only to find out they are burning the candle in a room with an open window! I've had every complaint and every one of them had an explanation of the customer doing something wrong. Once they know better they appreciate the verbal instructions and keep coming back for more since they find out how a really good candle smells when it's properly burnt. It's just really hard not to just bitch slap some of them!!!!