Stop & Chat - December 30

The Commissary has a coupon section up front. WOOT!

I dunno what I think of the title for this series. I'm rolling with it, though, because I like the idea that I stop at the end of the day to chat with my bloggy buddies! SO! On with my December 30th!

South Korea Bound! And Arrived... December 26-30

Our view of the city.

Oh, hi there! I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but I disappeared from the blogosphere because I finally left for over yonder, which I can now say is South Korea! WOOOOOO!!! I've had to take a few days to try and settle in and get accustomed to the time difference. It's 3:15 in the morning as I type this, so I would say I've failed at the second part. I'm also not settled in at all; the contents of my bags are strewn everywhere on the floor. In short, I have failed in all aspects of this move. Ah, what can you do!
I contemplated writing an entire post about how my travel day(s) went and my thoughts on that, but I still get upset and panicky when thinking about it so I'll instead do a semi-quick synopsis.

Blogmas - December 25: Merry Christmas!!

Today was another busy day for me. I worked on soap and making labels and packaging and labeling soap that wasn't ready to package for Mom to package and label once it's ready. I also took some time to take pictures of some more noteworthy soaps that I knew I would want to write about eventually. I know I won't have time to post anything while here, but I'll have a bit of free time once over yonder and I'll want something to do during my scheduled down time over there. :)

Blogmas - December 24: Family Day!

Today I saw my Mom, Dad, and my brother for the last time until I get back from over yonder. I fly out while they are visiting family.
I spent several hours after they left packing. I'd say I'm between 85-90% packed. Probably less. I just want to have time to really think about what I'm bringing with me. I also don't want to have to scramble for anything at the last minute so the more stuff that's packed the better.
After I'd done as much as I possibly could to pack and clean with my sanity intact I made my way downstairs to work on some mass soaping.
I ultimately made two more batches. One, a CPOP soap that behaved well until I cut it later. It's a bit crumbly and it smells really weird. Almost rancid. It can't be scorched goats milk, as this was not a goats milk soap. I've used all of these fragrance oils with no issue. I don't know what went bad this time.
My second batch was a hot process soap. I used up the rest of my milk & honey fragrance oil, then filled out the rest with green tea and strawberry. The soap is colored a deep brick red. I used oats this time but ground them up to a very fine texture. I was a bit put off by how scrubby my last milk and honey batch went, so that's why I wanted to make this batch a bit less abrasive.
I won't be able to make as many batches of soap as I was hoping to. I realized while messing with my last batch that I only had lye for one, maybe two more batches. Oh well. I guess the soap I've made so far will have to tie the family over until I return :)
After the soap, my sister and I spent some time watching some behind the scenes stuff for The Hobbit, then set up our VHS player and watched some old, old family videos. I haven't watched any of this stuff for over 6 years. A lot of the videos were things that I no longer remembered. Like one of my birthday parties being mermaid themed so we had to wear trash bags on our lower halves to represent the mermaid's tail and fins until we found our crown. Then we became human again. Yup... Don't judge younger me.
We couldn't get through the last of the videos as it's getting close to eleven... and I'm tired. Tomorrow is Christmas but I'm not sure I feel the spirit right now. This will be my first Christmas ever without the rest of my family. I'm here with my sister, yes, but over half of our family is missing! All because of my ticket. Oops.
On one hand I'm feeling Christmasy because of all these holiday movies and home videos we're watching, and the Christmas lights and music. However, I also know that tomorrow will not be special in any way over here. We will wake up and go about our day like any other, because Christmas for our immediate family was early. It's also bittersweet knowing that these are my last days here, but I get to see my husband soon.

Anyways, off to bed for me. I don't know when I'll next take the chance to comment and respond, but I'll make up for it once I finally get around to it.

Do you have old family videos that you watch every so often?

Blogmas - December 23: Scrambling

Remember all that cleaning I'd done? Yeeeeah...

I woke up right before 7 to an email that very quickly had me scrambling. I have my date and time! And it's a lot closer than I expected it to be!!

Blogmas - December 22: I'm Running Out of Titles

My soap that had the scent die off. Pretty, but no scent.

Today was a lazy day in this house. I went downstairs around nine and brought my laptop just to make sure I spent some time around the family. I worked a little bit on my Sniff My Tarts haul, but it was hard when I had my family looking over my shoulder the entire time. "What's that?" "Oooooh, you have a blog?" "Is this on Tumblr?" (from my sister) "What do you write about?"
It's that reason why I tend to work on the blog upstairs in my room. I don't mind them knowing I have a blog, but they can be kind of nosy in a way that makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. I just want to make the world a more smelly/polished place, dangit!

Dessa's Homespun Scents - Cranberries & Cornbread

Scent Description: Traditional tart cranberries with our old fashioned cornbread and baked them together in a cast iron skillet.
Weight Melted: 0.81 oz. I cut this in half, thinking I would melt half upstairs and the other half downstairs. I never did that.
Cold Sniff: 4/5 Pleasant sweet berries with a hint of spicy bread.
Warm Sniff: 4/5 The bread became a little more dominant as this melted but it was still a slightly sweet spicy bread. No tortilla chip smell. The cranberry was a nice addition to this.
Scent Strength: 1/3
Scent Throw: 3/5 This filled the bedroom and some of the upstairs hallway. I should have melted the whole tart at once and the entire house would've been filled!
Melting Power: 3/5 I got about 9 hours from this half tart before I called it quits.
Repurchase: Yes, so long as when I melt the next full tart I buy it performs as well as I am thinking it should.

Blogmas - December 21: *Insert Star Wars Theme Music*

 Nope, no pictures. Unless you really want to see the ginormous pile of groceries we picked up today.
Today started off like any other day. I woke up earlier than the sun and earlier than anyone else.
Where that differs, however, is why I was up so early.
Star Wars, that's why!

Blogmas - December 20: Soapy Soap!

I get stuffed animal buddies when I play video games.

I got nine hours of sleep last night. I woke up right before nine feeling very refreshed and a little confused. The sun was up! I didn't have a headache! Nobody woke me up!

Haul: Brambleberry December 2015

When I found out that I'd be staying stateside for a bit longer, I figured I should stock up on some secondary soap making oils. While I did that I bought a few bits and pieces that I've been wanting to try.