is where I landed today! And it also signals my third birthday blogging.Has it really been more than three years since I spilled my guts to the world???

Yes, happy birthday to me…

No cake this year because my so called lovely bacon has run off to join the circus instead of baking the weekend away. He’s back today,but it kinda spoils everything don’t it?

*bawwwwl*

Do you feel sorry for me yet? heehee.

I am, however, happier this birthday compared to the last. Mainly because I have got out of the toxic work environment that was my last workplace. With bacon moving jobs as well, we’re both better off financially as well, which is always helpful.

I am thankful for little joys, for friends made over the past year, little changes made in my own lifestyle and an inner happiness that I seemed to have acquire over the past year. I no longer look back in anger or strive for things I cannot achieve. I guess I am at peace with myself, another sign of old age! I used to believe that you can achieve anything that you put your heart to, but I have learnt that it is not nessacarily true. You just need re-routing, which is what I am doing with my life - re-routing.

So far I’ve got a watch, some gift vouchers and a toileteries gift set. I’m not materialistic at all with presents, all I ask for is that if someone’s giving me a present to be thoughtful about it and actually get me something you think that I will enjoy, rather than some crap shit even if it is expensive. Not to sound ungrateful, but giving a crap present just shows how unthoughtful and uncaring the giver is. Bizzarely enough my parents and the mil bought me a very similar card. Hmm. I’m off to work today, but am looking forward to my buffet lunch. Not sure where bacon’s bringing me tonight, but it better be somewhere really, really nice! And I want a really, really nice suprise present as well! *HINT HINT*. Yes, he reads this blog, he just never leaves any comment. Just like a stalker.

So, happy birthday to me. I have grand plans for celebrating my next in the land of Mars milkshake.

Can’t help myself, these are just so adorably cute!!! Couldn’t stop smiling when they came out.

Bottom (cake part) is scented with vanilla essence..just like real cake! Topped by jellied orange soap and an orange segment. YUMZ.

Packaging will probably be in an organza bag. With a big notice DO NOT EAT ME!

I’ve got all these ideas all coming in now…all excitable. This weekend is the last weekend I can spend soaping - next weekend is mayhem as my home is invaded by a hoard of relatives!

I called in sick today due to swollen,teary eyes. Hey, I think I’ve actually set a record here because the last time I called in sick was in january with tonsilitis - in my previous job I was sick every other month!

Anyway, my eyes are feeling better now but it’s still crying without any provocation from me. Not sure if it’s the hayfever working overtime or its just me rubbing with dirty fingers. Not nice.

As bacon usually works from home, whenever I am sick we would go out for a nice lunch - snotty nose and voiceless throats including. However, bacon had chosen to run off to the circus with the blokes, and I am all alone with no one to whinge at to bring me soup or tea….or just whinge.So I’ve spent the morning creating packaging, and here’s what I came out with:

Organza bow

The rustic twine

Twine on black

Obi twine

Yellow on wax

Simple black bar

My favourite is the last one, Simple black bar. I love the contrast of colors of the board with the logo and a tiny bit of the soap is visible (excuse the shoddy plastic wrapping). What would you, as a consumer, choose? Which packaging would entice you to splurge on a bar of handmade soap? Seeing that I created all of it, I really need help to decide, as I love all of them.

Yes, I know the website name is visible. No, it has not been officially launched, the weight/pricing/description is still work-in-progress, but I have actually started selling and needed to come out with packaging on the double. If you would like to purchase anything, please add it on and click cash on delivery when checking out - I will invoice you with the total price including shipping. Yes, shipping and checkout is also slightly mad at the moment. SIGH. Trying to doubly function as my own helpdesk which is getting slightly crazy.

Official launch will be in mid-end july.Any offers of help in configuration/ideas is very much welcomed.

Feedback (or purchases!) on the actual site is very welcomed. Please visit http://www.cleanducky.com

And vote here for your favourite packaging!

Presenting my first bulk order…

10 kissables blush lipbalms - 4 Orange blossoms, 3 Strawberry Sunshine & 3 Cherry Blossoms

All prettily wrapped up in organza because she’s giving them away to friends, which hopefully will return to buy another 10 more each.

Go me!

Just today, I’ve made one large soap, three bath bombs, one bath bar and a batch of lip balm. Running out of time to clean the house..arrrgh.

Here’s a sneak peek of what I’ve been working on the past week.

Barking up the wrong twee is made out of pure tea tree essential oil, perfect for spotty backs and pimply face.

Citrus slices embedded in clear soap. Scented with lovely pure orange and lime essential oil. Yumz

Yummie lip balms. Made from bacon’s bees. Actually, it’s bacon senior that used to own bees, and these are his own beeswax. Yes, literally home made beeswax. It really is fab, when I manage to make a good batch ;). Do not fret, made a lovely batch today that’s good to go. My bestseller, even though I have not started marketing them officially yet!

Ok I think it’s enough teasing for the moment ;).

I know I have broken my promise of updating this blog at at least once a week. I am very late, but here’s what I’ve been doing since last week:

Setting up a website to retail all my goodies and yummies - thanks to the Dreymall people this is now up. Still require tweaks on it as my shopping cart is not working and my fonts are all over the place , but it’s looking better than before!

Thanks to dreybee, design on the site looks exceptionally professional, and we’re in the process of churning out branding stickers and packaging. Lookin’ good - should be sorted by next weekend. If you’d like a shopfront as well, please do get in touch with them before the end of the promotion!

Trying to formulate the perfect lipbalm. Did quite well with the first few pots of lipbalms, but seemed to be progressing backwards with more balms going Pete Tong. Argh. Doesn’t help that I’ve got outstanding orders now.

Churning out bars and bars of soap. Now, this is one area that I am getting better at…heehee. With bacon acting as the indentured slave, I manage to get quite a number of bars out, all looking adorably cute. My faves are the swirlies:

Don’t they look just edibly cute?

Work’s been maniac as well, which doesn’t help. I am writing this on my lunchbreak whilst I eat my sandwich, and I have taken to bringing notepads and pencils with me just so I can jot my thoughts down when I’m on the bus, whether its work-related or business-related. How sad is that? I even have to put a ban on myself from soaping the past two nights just because I think I am overdoing it and feeling extremely tired the day after. Thinking about making soap from scratch as well from olive oil ect, will be reading up on that this weekend, so that’s goodbye to my time on Wii Fit and bed…

By the way, as I am trying to get this off the ground, anyone with ideas for my soap designs/flavors are more than welcomed. If I do sell it, you get a bar of your creation as well :).

Inspired by a sweltering hot English weekend. Smells of summers in California,where sugarfree iced tea with a squeeze of lemon welcomes my parched lips in the 100deg. afternoons.In the land where iced tea is looked upon with scorn and disgust, I can only fondly recall the smells of the american version of Teh O ais Limau (iced lemon tea in Malay). Of afternoons spent hiding away from the warm sun that I now so desperately seek.

Ingredients: Clear Glycerin soap, real brewed tea (giving color and smell) and lemon essential oil. Embedded with clear glycerin ice cube.

For those of you who’ve been wondering what the heck have I been making that looks suspiciously like food, here’s what wikipedia says:

Bath fizzies are composed primarily of sodium bicarbonate and/or other soluble carbonate, sesquicarbonate, or bicarbonate, and citric acid and/or other organic acid, which create an acid-base ‘fizzing’ when the solid reacts with water as it dissolves, producing carbon dioxide gas and strewing its interior contents, which can include aromatic elements or possibly small fragments of sparkling glitter, into the bath.

Bath bombs come as a large single-use tablet or ball, distinguished from other fizzies which come as grains.

The bubbles tickle as they nucleate on, and then release from, the skin and hair of the bather. Bath bombs may be considered therapeutic to the extent they contain essential oils to help a bather become energized or calm, such as mint or lavender. They can also contain cleansing agents like sea salt or surfactants.

I have been a big fan of baths ever since I discovered Lush and the cold winters. It is now a daily thing where I lay in my bath and spend about 30 minutes reading a book or a magazine. It is also due to this fact that I started making my own, as I add good-for-you stuff in my bombs like essential oils and butters.Those that come from the shop are usually very drying to my skin and sometimes I even come out with itches.

If you wonder how they look like, look no futher! Apologies for the horrible video quality as it was taken on my phone late one night. If the bath bomb looks familiar, well, thats because it was made from my jello mould :).And oh, say hi to my color changing ducky and my radio ducky

I have spent the past few weeks working with the good people at The Dreymall regarding my dream shop.Yes, there is no denying that The Dreymall is run by my good friend dree and her business partners so I get preferential treatement blah blah :).

Most of us have dreamt of running our own shops since the days of playing shopkeeper when we were children. With the advent of the internet and push button publishing, dreams have been coming true for many of us wannabe shopkeepers. Even me and drey have tried selling items online via multiply.I would be the first to admit that our multiply shop wasn’t as good as it should be, therefore no buyers for the lunabliss items that we tried hawking.

The problem with many new online shops that keeps popping up like mushrooms is that items are displayed and sold via blogging platforms (just like this one). This is totally marfan (troublesome) as each new post is a new item for sale, and sales cannot be done real time like amazon but interested buyers are asked to request for it via email to the seller. Also, there are no automatic notification when the item has run out, prompting interested customers to continue emailing the seller only to get a dissapointing reply a couple of days after.

I believe that if you are going to run a business, you’ve got to be professional. You’ve got to be prepared to provide the best service to your customers and be at their beck and call. Nothing turns me off more than a horribly designed website. What’s more frustrating is when you are really interested in the items up for sale, but not being able to buy it because the seller makes it so hard for the shopper to purchase it! In the current PayPal world, I am very annoyed that consumers still have to put up with shoddy displays, annoying shopfronts and difficult procedures in purchasing.

In comes the Dreymall team. They have created a easy to manage and customer friendly interface for all your online selling needs. As a seller, it helps you track your shipping, stock levels and is extremely easy to use and manage your prices and items for sale. As a buyer, the clean and intuitive controls helps you shop in a stress-free environment. Once you are done adding items to your shopping cart, you click checkout, where shipping will be calculated and your final bill is presented to you. Easy as 1-2-3. No agonizing waits for emails that you have been accepted as a buyer, no annoying controls to navigate through like other online shops that are on blogging platforms.

Don’t believe me? Check it out here. The team have even provided a test logon so you can just go in an have a look around at what the system can do. You manage your item listings, pictures, prices and shipping all from one easy to navigate system. It is all so clever! I was most impressed with the ability to compute shipping and track shipping rates. It just simplifies life for a small time online shopowner. I am not saying this just because me and dree are friends, but it really is clever - try it for yourself if you do not believe me.

So, if you have ever wanted to own a shop, have a look at The Dreymall now. From now until my birthday, as my gift to you (wrong way round isn’t it?) The Dreymall is even offering a free three month trial on their system. Go on, have a look. Speak with the Dreymall team. If you don’t like the system after three months you can always board the shop up at no extra cost to you at all. What’s more, if you should decide to keep it, setup costs are not expensive at all; unlike many of their competitors.

Who knows, you might be the next amazon…..

Elderflower grows wild in the UK. They flower in early summer, turning into berries later in the summer. Elderflower berries and flowers are regularly used to make cordial (like ribena but with flowers) and also wine. However, I found a recipe for deep fried elderflower, like pakoras or bhajis! I have never had fried flowers of any sort before and was suitably intruiged. I saw the recipe it last year, but bacon was more than reluctant to let me try it, as he had never heard of anyone eating elderflower before. This year I managed to persuade him to be slightly more adventerous, and this morning we went to the woods behind his dad’s place to pick some, as he used to climb them when he was young.

So, we came back with a good lot of elderflowers, and being me, I soaked the flowers without reading the recipe first which calls for no soaking as it removes the lovely floral aroma that it emates. We had a couple of friends over earlier in the afternoon who had never tried elderflower before as well, so I got cooking.

Batter seemed to be fairly ordinary with with the usual flour and milk. Instead of salt, the recipe calls for sugar. Hmm. It also calls for a squeeze of lemon and honey to top it off. Ours is not exactly a deepfrying household as I always end up getting oil splatter all over myself, but I don’t think I did too bad today - everything was cooked, nothing was burnt and I remained splatter free!

Presenting deep friend battered elderflowers:

You cant see the blooms anymore as they were all coated with thick batter. Compare it to the before picture.It was very strange, but in an extremely pleasant way. It smells like perfume, and tasted just slightly sweet with the honey on top being a nice touch as I had blossom honey as well which added slightly to the lovely aroma from the elderflowers.

Would I have it again? Hell yeah, its free food after all; elderflower is very widely available near where we live; and the taste is so pleasant that I would have it again even if I had to buy it from the supermarket, which by the way, they don’t sell.

Thanks to Liz at Gastronomy Domine for such a lovely recipe!