gippersmom

LOL...I'm tellin ya, you shoulda greased the poles! LOL... The people you bought it from probably took it down in the night, and then sold it to some other tourist for a discount since it didn't have the bag...J/K (although, I wouldn't put it past them!) I would go more with the rowdy drunken kids taking it. That really stinks, when you have to take all your stuff in every day, but nowadays, it is so much different than...well, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth (I guess that is the "back then") that my kids are always referring to...LOL. MY friend is in a RV camp ground, and she says that she remembers times when she could leave all her stuff out (chairs, etc) and nobody would mess with them, but now, she has to lock up everything when away, or there is no telling what will come up missing. Kind of takes the fun out of an outing, doesn't it? Especially if you have little kids, that canopy would almost be a necessity...(it would be for me, because that would be where I would spend most of my time...LOL) I hate the water, I don't swim, I hate the sand in my pants, LOL :tiptoe:

I'm gonna try it queen, because I am looking for something that will last longer than the "water spritzer" body sprays...if I make it last longer, then my kid will not complain about it and will continue to use it...oh, and if it 'asts longer, then he will have to use it less...ya know?

Great! Thanks for shedding some light on my otherwise dim path...LOL... Too hilarious! Well, I'm off to see if I can find another dead thread to dig up...LOL See ya there!

Okay, Queen, you know I'm an idiot... do I add water to this, or like, say if I am wanting to make 10 oz, of spray, do I use 9.5 oz cyclo, 2.5 oz almond oil, and 2.5 oz of FO?? (Why do I try new things??sheesh, like my poor brain wasn't already cramping from the other things I have been trying!) BTW, thanks for coming to my rescue again...lol...does it seem like we are hijacking threads? LOL...I figure, if nobody else wants to talk, between you and me, we can bring all the dead threads back to life...LOL

oh Queen, you are toooo funny! I like your take on the better idea...kind of like when I Was little and went to the nursing home to visit with my mom, she told me all I had to do was "smile and nod"...well, that's what I did, and it worked most of the time, until I did it one day to this little lady, and she handed me a rotten banana...evidently she had been saving it, as that was the only "treat" they got in there....it was so sweet of her because after she gave it to me, I remembered that a few weeks earlier, I had said that I loved bananas...later in the car, my mom asked me what was up with the rotten banana, and I told her about my earlier conversation with "Miss Rose" and my mom explained to me the depth of her gift...she also told me now that we were in the car, I didn't have to eat the banana. I haven't come up with a surefire way to keep people from steeling your umbrella, other than greasing the pole...that is what we do if we are leaving it out....lol...if the thief comes up and grabs the pole, their first instinct will be "yuck"...why would they want an umbrella that is tarred and feathered with who knows what...lol... You have to make it obvious though, that what is on the pole isn't suntan oil...very important, it has to have a "blechk" factor or they will still take it. Good luck! HTH for next trip to the beach!

So, Ladysj, do you make a "sample" batch first, to see if the FO is going to blend well? Or do you go back in after adding the stubborn FO and add FCO? I'm amazed that cyclo as a stand alone will make a clear spray! I'm excited...what ratio of cyclo would you recommend? And do you add distilled water to yours or do you use witch hazel or alcohol? I am trying to keep my costs down, because, after all he is a kid and tends to go a bit overboard with sprays, so I am sure he will be finished with a 6 oz. bottle in a week! Thank you so much for your help!

I am new to the body spray thing...my son loves those "Bod" and "Axe" sprays, and they are so ridiculously strong, they really aggravate my allergies. He asked me to get him some spray at the store, and I thought, why not make him one! I had some CME, but it was only a small sample...and it didn't quite make it clear because the FO was colored....?! I have cyclo, poly 80 and 20, and I Read in one place, to use poyl 20, and in another place to use poly 80. Boy am I confused! I just want to make a simple body spray that isn't too weakly scented, but that is clear, is it possible? I was also wondering about preservative....like I Said, this is new territory for me, I Was strictly CP soap maker until ths past week when theQueen talked me through a sugar scrub...lol. I appreciate any help, because I want this to be something that he likes, so he doesn't feel like he has to use those yuckers anymore....so even though it is for my kid, I still would like it to be clear, but at the same time, I don't want to compromise his safety by adding so much junk that we may as well buy the other stuff...am I being silly? TIA.

Queen, you better slow down on those juleps, isn't that your third one? As usual I agree with you on the forum! I love it too! I've already learned a lot not just from this thread, but from other threads as well (like how to keep your tent from blowing away at shows) I had my own idea, but learned there actually might be a better idea than mine, can you imagine?? LOL..

Darci, I am very interested in your idea!! So, the pvc pipe (what size is it around) and it just hangs from the tent vertically? Hmmm...I might have to try this! It makes perfect sense! My mom and I were trying to figure out how to keep the table cloths from blowing up on the tables and we decided to make a wide enough hem in them that we could insert concrete rebar (some might not know what that is, but it is a steel rod that goes in concrete, it comes smaller than a twizzler but it is strong) Anyway, mom said we wouldn't have to use the whole length of rebar, just cut it in pieces, insert it into the hem of the tablecloth and voila! No more flying tablecloth. Now Maggie, did your husband use velcro down the whole length of the pole? Or only just a little stick of it here and there? (I am a detail freak...sorry ya'll) Thanks for the great ideas!

Hi Queen! Actually my mom said the mixture was dry, not that it was drying. She felt it should be a little more liquidy, constency-wise. (Don't know how she came up with this idea, as she has never used a sugar scrub) I should have just told her, no it is supposed to be that way so it does't fall through your fingers. LOL. I am going to take your advice and just make smaller batches, OR make a large batch, and then add various levels of sugar to them....that way, she can choose from #1, #2 or #3 jar as to the consistency she prefers. IT could be that after they cooled all the way down, they did stiffen a bit more. I'm not giving up, will be in the test kitchen again today! I can't believe this is the happiest I have ever been that it is Monday! Packages!! Yaah!

Thanks for the tip Mary! I would personally be concerned about staking a tent, although, it would robably be the most effective, I would be worried someone would trip over the spikes, stakes, or the cords going from the stake to the tent. People are just looking for a reason to sue, and it wouldn't be that they would want to sue you, per se, but they could rightfully sue the venue, which is probably why a lot of them are prohibiting staking of any kind. I know there are a lot of people who have fretted over what to do about their tent...I know the places online that sell Easyup tents and canopies also sell real tent weights, I think something like $45 for 4 of them. Does anyone have them? I would be curious to know if they are anything more than glorified sandbags.

I was thinking of another thing to add to your pre-retirement repertoire, working on a "rich southern accent" lol....You know, learn how to talk like the girls did in Steel Magnolias....it almost sounds like a cross between Rich South and Martha's Vineyard...lol (Maybe you could do that while sipping the juleps!) I just got a mental picture of you sitting on a front porch, with your feet up, sipping juleps, and listening to a record that is saying "Ah paaahhked thuh caaaah in thuh hawbuhhhh" I put up business cards everywhere too! Funny! My husband says I'm "pimping" myself...lol. I hope it goes really well for you...I was thinking about another lady somewhere else who posted pictures of her craft show tent and set up...she had these really cute shelves, so I emailed her this nice email and asked her if she would mind telling me where she got them, because I felt that imitation was the nicest form of flattery, not to mention the fact that I live in Florida and she lives in somewhere waaay up North where it's probably still snowing...lol. She never answered. Oh well. It was only a shelf for Pete's sake, not her grandma's secret recipe for removing toe jam! Anyway, I figured out my own thing, you know, necessity is the mother of all invention, and I must say, I have a very cute little setup. I am a little bit of a freak about things coordinating and matching perfectly...I think I put as much thought into what fabrics to use for my table cloths as I did which oils to use in my sensitive skin soap! I have a report card on the scrub. Of course, I love it, so does my daughter, 2 friends came over and they loved it, my son's GF came with one of her friends (who licked it, even though I said, don't eat it) you see, you can tell people, and they just don't believe you, like when Suave came out with that strawberry shampoo (yeah, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I didn't believe something could smell so good and not taste equally as good...it didn't take but one little lick to figure out I was wrong on that one! Anyway, everyone loves it...but my mom says, it is too dry. I'm trying to attach a picture so you can see how it turned out....I told my mom I didn't want it to be runny and drip through my fingers, but maybe I did make it too stiff?? Maybe I should try less sugar in a few and see how that works. Tomorrow I get the rest of my supplies, and my new scale, so I Will be back in the lab...lol...will let you know how it goes.

Yeah, I agree Darbla...believe it or not, I make two soaps, colored totally different, and they are both scented with that FO, and some people say "oh I love this one..." or Oh this one is my favorite.." and they each have the same FO..just different name, different color...is that bad of me? (It's a little trick I learned a long time ago, from my mentor....on determining factors of what people choose. )It is quite hilarious, and often times entertaining, especially when you see a woman with the "pink" violet soap in her hand and her husband says "smell this green one"(the green violet one) and she says "eww...I don't like that one at all"...You guys should try it some time. Like, one will be called pretty in pink, and the other is called a walk in the park...funny how people are drawn to things based on a visual "implant". LOL. At any rate, I agree, I don't use the name violet lime at all. It deserves a much better name than that.

I don't make candles, but I do make CP soap. I love Violet lime FO in soap, and so do a lot of my customers. One of my customers came by one day before I even had this one named, and she said I should name it the Big "O" cause she said it was better than sex....:rockon:LOL....on the other hand, my daughter says it smells like Pine Sol...??? I like it, it is one of my favorites and you are right, some of them, the initial whiff of them, is not to be trusted....I always go back for a second and third sniff, and even then, some of them smell very pleasant once they are in product....also, I think their FO's are extremely strong, I have noticed I don't need as much of CS FO as I do of others, and that is good on my wallet!

I have been to lotioncrafters, I bought my scale from them (it hasn't come yet, but will be here monday) Yeah, here's another good laugh for you..when I am making my sugar scrub and I took my percentages I am measuring out my stuff with my crappy little digital quisinart scale, and I needed (example) 42 grams of something...well I hit 40 then it went to 45, and I said, well I must have put too big a chunk on so I Took it off and went back down to 40....I looked at the scale, of course, it goes to the .5 gram....sigh...so I had to spend more time back at the calculator trying to tweak my stinking recipe to be divisible by 5...lol....that was fun. Now I know why everyone said to get a good scale that goes to the .01 gram. I know I won't be trying lotions until that scale gets here. When the scale comes, I think my phenonip is coming with it....I guess I went a little crazy with that late night ordering, I think I ordered preservatives and emulsifiers from every place that was listed on the forums..lol. I am one of those kind of people, that is kind of like a gnat....you can swat at me, but you ain't gonna get rid of me that easy! (I am working on trying to become something other than a "wax drip" lol....lol...Isn't it funny how I can have such a tough shell about some things, but then I am such a chicken about trying new things.... (Perfect example, when I needed new glasses, I got a two for one deal, so I picked out a pair of glasses exactly like my old ones...and then I picked out the same exact pair for my sunglasses...lol...not kidding, I didn't even know it!) I guess I hate change. Wow, you are so lucky to be retiring in 3 years!! Are you going to still make lotions and potions, or are you gonna travel, or just sit around drinking mint julips and get fat? lol... Maybe you should get one of those little counter things, that says, only 1,046 days left...My parents have been retired for 15 years, and they do more than I Do!! lol. I just hope I look as good as they do, and can drive, and move around as good as they can when I am that age! (I guess first I better hope I get to be their age!lol)

Yeah, Dana Mae, I noticed that too...I guess that was my sign from God that I needed to stop being such FO pig...lol.:embarasse

OMG...they have so many great FO's and the prices are great!! I think I'm gonna get into trouble...I am starting to understand what everyone is talking about being a "FO HO" I just can't get enough FO's...lol. My husband is going to kill me! But at least I'll smell good!

My husband is self employed and has been for 9 years. I just started off again with my soap, so I am sure I will take a huge loss this year, but I hadn't really given any thought to the SET....yikes...forgot about that, I probably have to pay one on my portion too, don't I....

Hi everyone, I am new here...can someone tell me where bert's is? (Like I need more FO's)lol....I just can't stop buying them! TIA.

I don't use a tent, yet because I am only in inside venues...but I already had this one planned out....so maybe ya'll can tell me if it will work...lol. I was going to get flower pots, the large ones that look like stone, use plaster of paris or concrete in the bottom, put a pole in that is a bit bigger than the tent bottom (basically you are going to have to insert the tent pole into this pole when it is time to use it so make sure that your tent pole will easily insert into that pole in the bucket) drill holes in the poles to put a long lag bolt with a washer through it so that when the wind blows, the tent pole doesn't fly out of the "extra" pole. I figured if I put concrete on the bottom, then plaster of paris on top, I could stick fake flowers in the laster of paris, and cover the paster of paris with moss to make it look like a real flower pot....Sounds like a lot of work, but I don't really think it is as hard as it sounds.

Oh Queen, IYou are so right about sharing knowledge. I would rather be known as "the girl who gave us that recipe" than the "girl who is rude and won't even answer a question"...BTW, I did run into a nice person on that other place...so I guess it isn't sodom and Gommorrah after all...lol.. Here's a good one for ya, I stumbled upon a wonderful way to keep from having to line molds, by making a "reuseable, washable liner". I shared it on another forum, and I figured tons of people would like the idea, but I was kinda shocked that only a few were really interested! I posted where to buy the stuff, and even posted pictures of mine...but it seemed that only a few really wanted to know how to do it! Isn't that wierd? I can't tell you how many people I have talked to that their number one complaint about soap making is their hatred for lining molds with freezer paper! (I haven't lined a mold with paper in 4 months) I am soooo grateful for those who have shared, because they are the ones that make forums successful. I too am trying to build a small business so that I can support my addiction (soap making...lol) and as for sharing formulas, I would never want someone to give me their secret formula, unless of course they insisted (lol) I personally enjoy taking a basic foundation and tailoring it to my needs, (once I get through throwing up over the stress of doing something new..lol). I usually make it once as directed, get the process down, and then change one thing, make it again...until I finally get to the point where I think it is perfect. On a funny note...I took some of the scrub over to my mom (she lives next door) and it was in an unlabeled mason jar...I told her, it ISN'T food! I explained it to her...then left..then I called her back and said "you might want to put a label on it what it is, so dad doesn't go in after dinner and think it's apple butter and eat it"...lol. Ooooh...I got some supplies today! What can I do with..... cyclomethicone, tocopher something or other(vit e)lol, dimethicone, hydrovance, and isopropyl myristat???? (I gotta stop surfing the net late at night)

Jooniper, what format does it need to be in? Can't you just view your logo, then click save as and then use that pull down menu to change the format...it should say a bunch of things like word, jpg, btmp,I think it says pdf and that is adobe which is what a lot of people use....that is how I changed mine because it was originally in paint shop pro format. I hope that helps! And you and TexasBrat, don't give up! I was freaked out at first when I Saw that form...good Gawd...it scared me to death..I promptly came back to this board and found out what I needed to check...use gloworm's reference above...it was soooo helpful for me...the only thing she didn't cover was two things in the middle, I think it says something about an allowance, I called them on the phone and asked, and she said that was for if you wanted any extra space around your logo...she said they automatically give 1/8 or 1/4 of an inch space around the logo. Don't be scared!! (Can you believe it, those words coming from me...the biggest scaredy cat in the group!) If I can do it, anyone can! BTW....thanks gloworm!

http://owossographic.com/ Good luck! My advice, make sure you plan out how you want your stamp to look (I planned mine out in paint shop pro) Because they say not to blame them if it's too big or too small, so I made my paint shop pro canvas the size of my bar of soap and went from there. Then I followed all the tips above, and now I can't wait til I get mine! YAAH!

I'm going to try some of these too. I am so excited! I already made my first sugar scrub, but I used the wrong preservative, guess I'll have to leave it in the fridge..lol. Anyway, I have a scale, but it goes to .5 grams...that stinks...how would you handle this, other than the obvious, of course, get a new scale (I ordered one, but apparently it has to come from waaay across the country and I won't have it til Monday) I know...I'm impatient.

Thanks so much for the tips! I just ordered me one!! I am excited! I sent mine as a jpg, I hope that was okay. We'll soon find out! Thanks everyone for all the help, and all your soaps and stamps look bee-utiful!