savoy052

Made another Shampoo Bar, this time with pureed carrots and coconut milk. I kept the oils as simple as possible. I am leaning toward using more and more olive oil in all of my products as that is what this area offers, instead of importing more exotic oils from elsewhere. Well, all of my bars also have Coconut Oil and Castor Oil in them, and most also have Shea Butter as I am in love with Shea Butter. So, I am not giving up importing entirely...!! This shampoo bar has: Olive, Coconut, Castor, Carrot & Jojoba Oils. The liquid is a 50-50% split carrot purée and Coconut Milk. The essential oils are Bay Laurel, Lavender & Ylang Ylang. Sounds like a beautiful scent combo. Right? Wrong. It is a really odd scent. Not pretty. Won’t do this one again. Oh well, it’s all part of experimenting. I like the colour. Must come from the carrots and carrot oil although it is not a carrot orange. As you can see, it is more yellowy than orange. I loved working with the Carrots (first ...

I have been admiring Tierra Verde Handmade Soaps for some time. I go over and over the wonderful photos on the blog http://tierraverdesoaps.blogspot.com/ and on the website http://www.tierraverdesoaps.com/ . They are just my kind of soap… all natural, simple, skin loving, Essential Oil soaps. The packaging is beautifully simple and ecological. So, recently I got some!! Here is the package I received!! From left to right - Sweet hand-written card from Michele, Warm Cedar Shaving Round, Orange Honey Drizzle with Oats, a sweet heart sample of Patchouli Vanilla, Creamy Coconut with Lime and Clove. The truth is I love them all! As I have yet to perfect a shaving bar, I was most intrigued by the Warm Cedar shaving round... so I tried it first and it is awesome to shave with! I love the scent. Cedarwood with Patchouli... I am a Patchouli addict so I adore this one. Subtle yet lasting. The bar is hard, the suds are thick and abundant and it makes shaving a treat. It is also the P...

Here I am at the market in Lorca on Sunday. I still have not had a proper cover/ shade/ toldo made for the stand. Just threw a bedspread over it and clipped with clothespegs. I was actually on my way to the seamstress yesterday who will be making the cover when I injured my leg. I am rather incapacitated for a few days (hopefully that is all because I will go CRAZY if I can’t move around). So, I can’t drive and couldn’t make it to the seamstress. Some other images of my stand on Sunday. My car with the stand loaded on the roof-rack! I did want to tell you a little about Lorca though… Not sure if you all know that there was a bad earthquake there about 1 month ago. Lorca is only 45 minutes from where I live but I didn’t feel the earthquake at all. Anyway, one thing is to see images on the web or TV but it is another thing entirely to be there and see the devastation caused by the earthquake. There are over 8000 people without homes now because so many of the buildings have been a...

This is the market stand a friend of ours built for me and I am SOOO pleased. The table goes underneath and I still need cover to go over it, to provide shade. I hunted down material for the shade. It is not easy to find things in the collection of little villages where I live. The first quote was 20€/ meter!! Finally I found some good cloth in "Naturalmente Mediterraneo" green for 6€ per meter (2.80m width) and I have someone making it for me. In the meantime, I just throw a colourful cloth over the stand and secure it on with clothespegs. I have had a few people request more detailed photos of it, so here they are. All the parts, disassembled. The tall parts on my roof rack. The rest fits into the car. The feet. The main supports, the "legs". They go into the feet. Nuts & Bolts Support Cross Pole Top - (the cat you can see in the photo is Selena and yes she has a crooked lightening tale like a witches cat) Hooking the legs into the feet and top Securing th...

I made this soap because so many clients have been asking for a natural soap that will deter Mosquitoes. I used the base recipe that I like the most, and added Essential Oils that deter Mosquitoes. Just waiting for it to cure but I have a feeling it will sell out quickly! Really at a loss for a name here… I am not interested in cutsy or comical names. Just want a simple straight-forward name for this soap? There has to have a simple translation into Spanish as well… any ideas? Xo Jen

Market Arch at Sunset Long, wonderful day yesterday with 2 markets in the same day! Arrived at my regular Saturday market super early to fight for my spot. Last Saturday someone had taken my spot and instead of being cooperative about it, he had been rude! So yesterday, I arrived 1 hour earlier and was all set up by the time he arrived. I was actually shaking as I stood up to him and his “bodyguard” (not-literally a bodyguard, but rather the market supervisor that just puts his cousins and their cousins wherever he likes). No-one usually stands up to them as it is a bit of a family mafia there… but I don’t know what came over me. The market supervisor tried to kick me out of the market when I said I wasn’t moving my stand. I said I wasn’t going anywhere and I moved CLOSER to him when I said it. I still can’t believe it. Anyway, it all worked out. All the neighbouring stands were rooting for me! I stayed. I ended up actually working things out with the guy-who-stole-stand-spo...