Autumn has landed!!

Gibside Farmers and Craft Market 1.10.11

        Well here we are in October...I can hardly believe it!!
It's been a little while so I though i'd let you all know what I've been up to lately...apart from making masses of Christmas goodies which will very soon be listed in my Folksy and WowThankyou shops (watch this space), I have been back to Gibside's farmers and craft market (near Rowland's Gill - Tyne and Wear)...I thought you might like to see.




        This time I brought with me some special one off Autumnal goodies, including Brambleberry Swirl soap and a bushel of Apple Bubble bars.

Brambleberry Swirl soap & Apple Bubble Bars

        A bit premature maybe but I also had my new Halloween goodies too, Pumpkin Spice soap and some wee Caspar Bubble bars (very limited numbers left, once they are gone, they are gone - exclusively to Gibside Market!!). Brambleberry and Turkish rose Madder soaps were the hit of the day, selling almost half of my stock of each (hurrah!!). These will be coming back next time (October 15th) as well, with some extra Halloween flourishes...there may be spooky bunting, maybe even the odd lighting up pumpkin or two...you'll have to pop along and see...

Pumpkin Spice soap & Caspar Bubble Bars.

        I took the opportunity to take a couple of pictures of the beautiful setting as well, beginning to look lovely and autumnal with the Horse Chestnut trees and season veg barrows.

Hopefully the weather will hold for next time...

Take care all, wrap up warm ;o)

TTFN xxx

Ohh, new stuff....

Well, another busy day at Oakwood Towers...I've been waiting in for my deliveries of new supplies...still one more to come, shouldn't be long now.

To keep myself entertained I have been coming up with some new products and re-vising some of my older receipes to give them a new lease of energy for the run up to Christmas. I'll get to the new ones in a bit but first to the revamped ones.
I have been working on including some luxurious ingredients into my Natural soap range to make them even lovelier. The first one for a re-vamp is SOS Facial bar.

SOS facial cleansing bar with Bentonite clay

 

 

 

 

 

It is made with 2/3 pure olive oil, shea butter and coconut oil and enriched with Avocado and Jojoba.. It also contains Bentonite clay and this is deep cleansing whilst being gentle on the skin. There are essential oils in there to to help sort out any spots or oily areas, these include Lemon, Lavender and Tea tree.

I decided however that this little bar was far too unassuming for it's effectiveness so I have made it more dramatic by adding another combination skin saviour - activated charcoal powder. This gives it a beautiful black colour as well as helping draw out excess oils from the skin, as well as providing a bit of scrub. I mixed it into half of the soap while it was liquid, then poured them into the mould in layers and swirled the black and white liquid soap together. I always love texturised tops to handmade soap so I had to do that too. The end result is below. I will cut this in a couple of days, I'm hoping it will be lovely and swirly black and white inside. I'll cut it into chunky blocks as before, fingers crossed it looks good. This will be fully cured around the 10th September.

SOS # 2 - just poured and glossy.

Next for the re-vamp will be Buttered Rose:

Buttered Rose

I'm really pleased to have at last found UK supplier who sells Madder Root, a dried plant root used to give colour to natural wool as well as soaps. I have been dying to get my mits on some for ages. The plan is to infuse some of my oils with the madder root and then use them to give a gorgeous natural red swirl through the middle of this bar. I am also changing the essential oils a bit as well, so the new version will be creamy and red swirl fragranced with rose geranium, black pepper and cardamom. Reminiscent of Turkish delight I'm hoping :o) Watch this space for further updates...

I have also been concocting some all new bubble bars. These have done so well since I brought out a selection earlier this year, I've decided to add to the range.

First of all we have Japanese Plum - A plum coloured bar with handpainted flowers on the top for prettiess. The fragrance is decribed as "A warm spicy Oriental accord with top notes of fresh lemon and tangerine, leading to a spiced heart of clove, cinnamon, ripe plum and tuberose resting on a base of rich incense, patchouli, soft moss, amber, caramelised sugar and vanilla" It is trully lovely, a girl could become addicted!!

I have added lashings of Rice Bran oil to moisturise and the majority of the foaming ingredients are naturally derived and made from Coconuts.

Japanese Plum Bubble Bars

 

 

Secondly...Mystic Bubble Bar. A turquoisey blue with sea green mica for a bit of mysterious sparkle. Fragranced with a blend described as "A sumptuous blend of pomegranate, raspberry, and plum underpinned with spicy pink pepper, and grounded in a base of patchouli and frankincense."

I have added a good gloop of coconut oil for moisture to this one - just crumble under running water, lie back and relaaaaax...

Mystic Bubble Bar

Well that's all for now, keep checking back for updates on the new versions. They will all be for sale in my Folksy and Wowthankyou shops very soon...TTFN xxx

Another Busy Day at Oakwood Towers

Gosh what a manic couple of weeks!
Apart from attending another craft fair at Gibside last weekend - lovely as ever, apart from the thunder and lightning!! I have been a very busy bee. I'm gearing up for a packed summer of fairs and events starting off on 21st May back at Gibside, then 18th June I'll be at the Ovingham Goose Fair, 72 stalls and counting! - just need to sort out an apron & mop cap as it is a historical themed fair, so stallholders must be in 'uniform' - now don't laugh...be kind x.
After that is the 1st craft fair held at Segedunum Roman Fort in Wallsend (i.e Hadrian's Wall's End) near Newcastle, a two dayer that should be HUGE!! This falls over the weekend of 25th and 26th June - just before the hubby's birthday, wonder if I can talk him into helping out???

Needless to say, I have been soaping to within an inch of my life I thought you might like to see the results of all my efforts and have a sneak preview of the goodies in store...see below.

Extra Gentle Shea Castile with Goat's milk & Chamomile

Marbelled Chocolate Truffle Artisan Saop

English Rose with pink clay and calamine powder

Ginger nut coloured with paprika and cinnamon

Moroccan Hammam Artisan Soap with Rhassoul Clay

Peppermint & Poppy seed soap - Woah bit bright!!

Red Sky at Night Swirled Soap

SOS Facial Soap with Lavender & Tea Tree oil

These lovelies and more besides, will all be ready to wrap in early June, just in time for the big days out!! I have my work cut out I think. See you there if you can make it xx

TTFN

Love, Ceri
Oakwood Soaperie

Gibside Farmers Market and Craft Fair 16th April 2010

     It was my first time here and I must say...I WILL BE BACK!! Hubby and I got up (fairly) early and packed up the car, after what seemed like miles and miles of travelling (well about 10 whole minutes) we arrived early as per usual, thanks to my paranoia about being late for anything.

     We found our spot (after being moved about 3 times) and began the set up. Once the cloth was laid (wish I'd ironed it!!) and the bunting carefuly pinned to Health and Safety guidelines I started unpacking. I think it looked pretty but could do with more height, note to self for next time to take some wooden soap molds to use as blocks under my cloth. What do you think?

See the pretty bunting...

The full array before the carnage...

     We were right in between some lovely (and VERY talented) Bakers who made the most splendiferous pies, pasties, scones, cakes, batenberg, yum yum and more yum!!
     I was wishing I had not been so uncharacteristically organised and made a packed lunch!! We were drooling by 12 o'clock. I hit it off with a lovely lady form North Shore Bakery who is based up in Seahouses, check her out at the next few Gibside Markets and don't forget to ask her for "Breadnberg" our new savoury invention for the day consisting of flavoured bread or scone doughs, we thought sundried tomato and pesto for the squares in the middle, red pesto or parma ham for the 'jammy' bit and filo or thin pastry for the 'marzipan' - she'll know who sent you as we were trouble of the highest order - we really should not be let out unacompanied sometimes ;O) This is why I make soap and not baked goods...it would never work.
    We were trying to justify that if you ate, LEMON drizzle cake, PEAR tart, BLUEBERRY muffins, chicken and TARRAGON pie, and APRICOT tart tatin alongside some CHOCOLATE (for the calcium obviously) that this would be your 5 a day + essential minerals = a balanced diet (erm, maybe not, you see I told you I should stick to making soap!!).

 

Ooohhh, close ups!!

    There was such a huge range of goodies on sale I had to go off for a snoop, on my ventures I found...lemon infused rapeseed oil, hot waxed bears, cookie mix in a jar ready to bake, beautiful ceramic coffee filter things that fit over your mug...genius!! iced puffins, sausage pops, and local beer all being sold in the woodland glade - just off the car park in a country estate setting - beautiful.

    It was about this time, I thought I'd better go help the hubby but he was doing a sterling job juggling the punters like a pro. We had a steady stream of lovely customers all day and by the end we were shattered. come 4 o'clock it was time to pack up and offski's. Arriving home we both decided tea was not going to be cooked by ourselves, so a celebratory Cherry Blossom Bubble Bar bath and a chinese takeaway later and we were almost ready for beddy bies.
   We had a lovely day at Gibside and I'm already planning my next dates with them so watch this space for future dates :O)

TTFN peeps xxx