also, totally unrelated: i love the new iOS 5! the changes and updates were actually awesome ones. coolest thing ever? location reminders. now my phone can remind me to do shit when i arrive at or leave from a location?? holy crap, disorganized forgetful people unite, because finally we’ll remember to take over the world!

• recipes. it just didn’t occur to me to run all of them through soapcalc on a lazy day so i would have all of them ready to go when i needed them. why did i think of this? because this morning, after having received all of my crap yesterday and managing to withhold my excitement until today, i had to do exactly that. and it took such a long time for me to decide which oils and butters and fragrance combinations i wanted to go together that i didn’t get to actually make any soap until the day was almost over!
• testing those recipes. i didn’t think about how i was going to make test batches with my new oils and butters, i was just so excited to get started making stuff! i guess it was a good thing that i got started so late today afterall, so the batch i made today will be ready to test tomorrow.
• packaging. still haven’t decided on a) the packaging, whether it will be parchment or wax or brown paper or boxes or wraps or twine or or or! and b) the design of said packaging. what to do?!
• figuring out fragrances. three huge and very important things i neglected to take note of beforehand were
  • fragrance flashpoints, which were not the hugest deal because each bottle has it listed. but the
  • vanilla content of each fragrance was super important, because it affects which recipe, color, and additives i’d be using. why didn’t i write this down when i was shopping for the fragrances!? it would have saved me so much time going back to each page to take note of this. same goes for the
  • maximum skin exposure percentage! this is crucial because i want to make sure my soaps are safe and as mild as possible. another super time consuming and annoying thing i forgot to just write down the first time.
• the name!. i guess i have until the end of the week, when all of the soaps are actually DONE, to decide what to call them. but it’s the sort of thing i should really get solid on pretty soon, since i need to start with the packaging and the marketing and all of that crap. whew!

i guess i did pretty well on preparedness, in general, but these little things set me back so far today. i wanted to have a 3-batch-per-day production plan going on, but i ended up with just this one. sigh. but i’ll keep working hard and hopefully i’ll be ready to make some serious dollars (and get some super moisturized skin!!).

so anyway, i’m back to update the template, and to get things organized and in order for my new project: soapmaking!

forever, i’ve wanted to make soap. and jessica and i did a long time ago, but it was just the lame-o melt and pour kind. i wanted to make REAL soap, real nice hard bars with oils just for my skin and scents that make me excited to take a shower. i think i never did it when i was younger because i was scared (you know, of all the measuring and the lye and the mess), i didn’t have my own space, and i never researched it thoroughly enough to know how easy it really was. recently, though, since i’ve been unemployed, i realized that now is the time. if i don’t do it now, when will i? so i dove in.

let me tell you, it’s even easier than it seemed when i read through the many photo tutorials available online. once i made that first batch i knew i was destined to make soap, too. soap and yarn. what else does a girl need in her life?

so watch out for kittenlogic bakery bars, which is the tentative name. i’ll be posting up my photo tutorial along with all the new stuff i make. i’m really happy about this development in my life, and i’m feeling so positive about it especially because of how wonderful and encouraging the boy is. i miss the craft world, i miss everyone being online and all of the comments and collaboration and support. i’m going to try to keep myself out there from now on, and who knows? maybe some of us, who wish things would go back to the way they used to be, will find ourselves together again.

but there are a lot of completely valid concerns about this as well. what about people who are underage and can’t pay the fee (just by my estimation, i would put that at about 75% of the community)? are their other options? an entrance questionnaire? a flagging system? more mods for the forums (which i rarely visit)? what to do?

if you use blogskins in any way, you should weigh in on this. the thread is here, and there’s a lot of intriguing stuff being tossed around. i personally love blogskins and spend a lot of time on the site. i want what is best for it so i can keep going there and enjoying it! i’m really interested to see where this all leads.

oh!!! almost forgot!!! myles did mention that the experimental updated blogskins site design that was unveiled a while back might be implemented in the next few weeks!! he really does listen to his users, and does want the best for the community. even more of a reason to go tell the man what you think!

i’ve only ever tried to do it twice before, with the extra singles from a couple bobbins, and they came out terribly because i really needed tension. now that i have it, i just went for it last night, and although there are some weird little coils and beehives throughout, i think the final yarn came out really nice. right? for a first try!

so like, i don’t plan on doing it very often, but i just think it’s responsible of me, as a spinner, to at least know how to be able to do it. there are two other bobbins i started long long ago that i will navajo ply, and after those, i don’t see much of it in my future.

in other news, the cats are getting along well. snooki still growls sometimes, but it’s brief and there’s not much passion in it. i think nick is trying to get her to play, because i had this little catnip chicken toy in a box in the basement (he was afraid of it for ages), but the other night i went downstairs and it was on the complete opposite side of the room. today, i went down there and he was loafy, with the toy right in front of him, and she was loafing a few feet away from him. i don’t know if that’s progress or just a coincidence, but i like to be optimistic.

d’s mom fled the state a couple months ago, and is an asshole so she left her elderly cat. you know my family is all crazy cat people, so since my mom already has two, i knew i had to take her.

my sweet old girl is 14, and her name is schnookums, and i have affectionately nicknamed her “snooki” in honor of jersey shore. she’s always been pretty scared of everything, so i have her spend a lot of time in her safe room when i can’t be right near her. when i can be right near her, i make sure she and nick don’t fight (because she’s a big hisser!), and let her explore.

last night, there was a sleepy standoff on my stairs, but they both tolerated each other from about 4 feet away. today, little girl was in my office looking out the window, and boy wanted to come in to sleep in his favorite sunny spot. she hissed at him when he came in, but he did a creepy walk and laid down and started falling asleep anyway, so she was like “alright, whatever then,” and started dozing off herself. i ruined the moment when i tried to go clean her litterbox, because apparently no cat can resist shitting in a freshly cleaned box. sigh.

so i’ll be a lot more excited about this once i can leave the two of them together alone, but for now i’m happy that i’m able to give her a home so she doesn’t have to live the rest of her life in a shelter. she’s a good girl and deserves a good life.

the yarn in this post isn’t by her, though, i just started rambling as i often do. the fiber i spun that from is by girls like boys like fiber, who is quickly becoming one of my new favorite fiber artists. i love this yarn, named “man in the moon,” because it’s so different from what i usually do. variety is nice sometimes.

it’s been the best spinning weather lately though. i’ve just been all cuddled up in my sweatshirt and have been going for it. btw, why the hell was it like 90 degrees early last week, and now it’s so cool out i have to turn the heat on? is this really the fall or is october just faking me out?

anyway, i’m going to bed early because this freaky ass weather has been ruining my life as far as allergies go. i can’t even breathe anymore. but before i go, i have to leave you with the new funniest commercial ever. little kid commercials usually annoy the shit out of me, but this one is totally worth the watch.

flash forward to now, and look at what i’m spinning. thin sock yarns are all that i spin anymore. how did it happen?

i remember that for a while there were frequent, occasionally nasty debates in the spinning community about whether art and novelty yarns had any value or any use outside of art or trim applications. some of the master spinners there were saying that with the influx of new people picking up spinning, there were many people who could only spin art and novelty yarns, and that they were sort of doing a disservice to themselves having only that skill. i remember someone (there are always some high and mighty douches in forums) making the comment that one shouldn’t be allowed to even call him or herself a spinner if he or she could not spin a yarn to certain specifications. they said, if someone asked you to spin a laceweight 2-ply yarn, could you do it? if you can’t, don’t even call yourself a spinner.

of course this person (these people, actually, since there were a few who agreed with the original toolbag) was extra rude and insulting about it, and though i completely disagreed with them (i think anyone who can make fiber into any kind of yarn should be considered a spinner, regardless of how well they do it), the point was made. so, though i saw myself primarily as a novelty yarn spinner, i secretly became obsessed with spinning the perfect sock yarn.

and here i am today. with this yarn i’ve posted today, i think i’ve finally reached a point where i believe that i’m really good at it, and i can kind of move on. sure, i’m still going to spin thin sock yarn, because really, how many chunky crazy pom pom/sequin scarves and hats and shawls can you really make? but it’s no longer a quest to validate myself TO myself as a spinner. it’s just become what i like to look at.

i desperately desired some chocolate for dessert this evening, but only had a box of devil’s food cake mix. i added some chips to the cake mix, thinking that would be enough, but what i really needed was some chocolate icing. i haven’t made a buttercream in years, but i remembered generally how to do it, so i just started mixing things and tasting it and it came out AMAZING.

super easy chocolate buttercream icing
6 tbsp salted butter, softened
1/3 cup (about 2 1/2 blocks) unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk (whole, please)
2-3 tbsp heavy cream

with a hand mixer, beat the butter on low until it’s smooth and creamy. add the melted chocolates and vanilla extract, and continue blending until fully incorporated.

add a cup of the confectioner’s sugar, 1 tbsp of the heavy cream, and half of the milk, and mix on a medium speed. icing should be pretty thick, but not thick clumps that stick to your beaters. if this is happening, add a splash more milk. add the rest of the confectioner’s sugar, milk, and cream, and mix on medium-high until smooth and fluffy. if it’s too thick and not spreadable, add milk only by the teaspoon until it has reached your desired consistency.

this only makes about 2 cups of icing, which is enough for 12 cupcakes (since it’s SO rich), but if you want to ice a whole cake, you’ll need to double it. so yum.