Costa rica part 1

I am back! I thought you all would like to see some pictures so I will be posting some cool ones over the next few entries. On our trip to Costa rica we initially flew into the main international airport outside of San Jose. We rented a car and drove as far down to the Osa peninsula as we could and then had to take a boat the rest of the way. There are very few roads on the Osa peninsula. We spent a lot of our time hiking in the Corcovado national park and snorkeling around Cano island.

This photo below is of a Tapir. It is in the horse family and is huge for an animal in central/south american rainforests. They are nocturnal animals and we happened to see one during the day in Corcovado.

This is a Coati we spotted on the Corcovado beach.

A beach picture in Corcovado.

I think this is a gecko. Geckos and lizards were everywhere and are basically as common as squirrels or chipmunks here in the states.


After the Osa peninsula, we took the boat back to our car and drove to the other end of the country where we stopped at La Fortuna, the town near Arenal vocano. This picture below is from the eco thermales hot spring that we went it. It was really amazing...how I wish I had a hot spring to go to everyday. So relaxing.

Okay that is all for now, but I will post more soon.

New Soap

Well no luck getting Dylan to take pictures, so instead you will have to check out my bad photography skills. I have a few more new soaps that the pictures are just way too bad so I will have to hold off on them. All of these soaps are made with a newer recipe I have been using that has olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, castor oil, and shea butter. I really love the silk lather that the shea butter provides.

The first soap below is scented with pink sugar. Unfortunately, the FO had and orange tint to it and it turned my soap a funky could instead of pink. So, I am trying to come up with another name for the soap...any suggestions?
This soap is scented with green tea and cucumber FO and the green comes from French green clay. I sprinkled some sparkles and spirulina powder on top.
This is my sandalwood soap. I colored a portion of the soap white with titanium dioxide and another portion with heavy gold mica. Too bad the mica turned green. I still like the look though.

Chamomile soap made with chamomile tea and chamomile infused oil. I also sprinkled a bit of ground chamomile in the soap and on top.
Lemon Poppy Seed Soap. I tinted the lye solution with calendula petals and at trace mixed in poppy seeds and a lemon FO.

Vacation!

I am leaving for Costa rica on Wednesday!!! I am so excited. I will attempt to blog while there, but we are going to some very remote places so I may not have access to a computer or internet.

Hopefully, I can get Dylan to take pictures of the many soaps I have curing on the rack before we leave. Last weekend I made a chamomile soap, green tea and cucumber soap, pink sugar soap, sandalwood soap, and some soy mocha cafe candles. So that is at least 10 picture that are due. I really like how all these soaps have come out. The scents are all great too. I think I will be keep them as permanent scents in my line. I will probably start making my Halloween/Thanksgiving soaps when I get back. I am planning right now to make the following scented soaps pumpkin pie, cranberry, caramel apple, apple pie, and brown sugar.

Tomorrow I am going to try to make nag champa soap, neroli soap, white tea and ginger soap, and coconut lime verbena soap.

I have been tagged!

I've been tagged by Trisha over at Sud's To Love

These are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you
2) Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading)
3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below)
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up

Random items:
1) I dislike cooking.
2) I play with proteins at work that I purify from bacteria and then label them with fluorescent dyes so that I can measure distances within the protein.
3) I have two wonderful kitties (Maya and Toshi).
4) I have been learning wheel thrown pottery since February...I am still pretty bad though. ;)
5) I love to travel and wish I could take more than one trip a year.
6) People who do not use their directionals (turn indicator) really annoy me.

People I'm tagging:
1) Anhoki
2) Morgan Street
3) Great Cakes Soapworks

There are many other blogs that I love and read regularly, but I think they have all been tagged recently.