Orton to Start for the Bears

So yeah this ain't got nothin to do with soap this time. I am so glad to know that Kyle Orton is the Bears choice for starting QB. About time, although I know that Angelo ain't gonna let Grossman sit out the entire season. Too bad that, because Rex has given me and the rest of the Bears fans (and Coach Smith I believe as well quiet as it's kept) about all I can take. With the fumbles and interceptions, bad decisions and general inability to run simple offense effectively, it's about time the Bears camp saw things the fans way.

Even when they benched Orton during his rookie year, I liked him. Yeah he was making mistakes but so do all rookies. I believe Kyle Orton has what it takes to be a good competent QB. Maybe he won't be the next Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, but so what. If they give him a fair chance to show what he's got during the regular season he'll be good. Unfortunately, the OL won't be helping him too much, but I'm guessing that since Orton is taller than Grossman, he'll be able to stay in the pocket to take advantage of what little protection the OL can give him. In any case no matter what the rest of the offensive positions are like, I'd rather have Orton lead the team than interception-the-poo. I mean anytime teams blitz you constantly in a preseason game you know the word has been out on you that you can't take the pressure. He even let the 7th round draft pick QB outplay him and that's sad but not surprisingly.

People who want to defend Grossman always bring up the 06 season, saying he led the team to the SuperBowl, but he didn't. The defense and special teams did the bulk of the work, while Grossman coasted along. The OL was in better shape, so his mistakes weren't as glaring with a winning season. It all became very clear when he totally f*d up at the Super Bowl. Fumbling snaps and otherwise making an ass out of himself, he needed to be let go in this off season which brings me to my next gripe.

Jerry Angelo sucks. He can only draft defensive players. His offensive picks are usually busts. In this last draft he should have been picking offensive players in the higher rounds not in the 7th round were the busters roam. Instead he picked a dude with a bad back who is out for the season which officially makes him a bust, and he picks defensive players surprise surprise. The Bears brass does not like to spend money on its offense which is the lamest thing I've ever seen. How can you expect to be a winning team without effective offense. This brings me to my next gripe.

The offense itself is not creative at all and very bland and vanilla. Orton can run the offense I believe but doesn't have a whole lot to work with. The same old plays over and over with no deviation make for a very predictable and defendable offense. Poor Orton. Seems he will have a short rope with which to hang himself should he prove not the be the next pro bowl QB they were hoping for.

At the other offensive positions are also "?" but this is the issue. Since the Bears don't see the need to spend money on offense they will suffer. Since Jerry can't seem to pick a good offensive player to save his life (or the life of his team) then hire someone to help out with that. Lovie Smith is a good coach but the people he has around him are lame and are hindering what could be an otherwise threatening team from being just that.........a threat in the NFC.

Okay so I'm done with that. I can't wait to see how this season turns out. I figure they'll win about 7 or 8 games. If they win more than that I guess that'll be bootleg good news. If they lose more than that, maybe they'll think about offense more. I doubt it though.

Bergamot and Rose Soap is Mine All Mine!!!!!!!!!

Okay so I got off my lazy butt and finally figured a formulation for the new base oils I bought. I like to play around with the base oils if I have never worked with them before to get a feel for how they behave during the soapmaking process. So I made a test batch which I had already decided wouldn't be up for sale, but my own personal batch. Well, it turned out so good I might rethink it........nah it's mine! I had some palm oil that I added to the list of base oils I used.

Babassu, palm kernel oil, castor, coconut, and palm. I didn't try out my colors nor did I test my new fragrances. I soaped some older fragrances I had around. I decided to make a blend of Bergamot which is a citrus type smell, and rose which is floral. That blend was awesome! Too bad I don't have any more of either of those fragrances. Can you tell I got a new crinkle cutter too? I'm so excited. I can finally start making some to put up for sale.

The soap was rock hard the next day. I believe it was the palm kernel oil that did it. It was rock solid in the bottle and now I see why people sell it in flakes. Anyway I had to give it a hot water bath just to melt it enough to pour into the crockpot to melt it.........crazy. Plus palm oil is hard too, and coconut oil is solid if you get 76* melt point of the 96* one. I don't bother with fractionated for soap making. Too expensive for no reason.

Happy to be back soaping again. Peace out!!!

Negative Feedback Makes Me Feel Sick!!

Okay I just got my first negative feedback for the first time ever, either on Etsy or in person. It makes me feel literally sick to my stomach. I'm not angry at the person, but I guess what I am disappointed about is the fact that I was not contacted first by this person. I would have been more than happy to do whatever I could to make sure that each and every customer walks away satisfied with their shopping experience. I know this isn't always possible, because not everyone is going to like what you sell even if they buy it. Doesn't mean I can't strive for that though.

For any buyers out there whether you buy from Etsy or any other place, here's a tip. Never ever walk away from a shopping experience unhappy and then spread a bad word about the people you bought from. Always if you can get back to that person/store and tell them that you are unhappy with your purchase please do so. This is especially the case with small business owners and businesses where the person(s) in charge are accessible to you. If they are unaccommodating, then fine they are asking for a bad rep to be spread about them. A seller cannot know that something is wrong if you don't tell them so. You may be surprised how amicable and approachable some small business owners are. So buyers give that a try before you walk away angry or disappointed.

Torn on Fragrances!!!

Ok so since my last post I came upon a couple of dollars that will help me get some of the things I need so badly such as fragrances. Well, now I'm torn as to which fragrances to get and who to get them from. My three choices are New Directions Aromatics, Brambleberry, and Wellington Fragrance. I can't decide. They each have their pros and cons. For instance New Directions has some of the lowest prices for their pound of oils. However, they do not have the colors I want not even titanium dioxide to help make my soap white. They have colors but I am leary of FD&C colors as they tend to be unstable in HP/CP soaps. I am going for powder pigments such as iron oxides and ultramarines. Even if they did, their shipping is higher than the other two places. Brambleberry is also reputed to have excellent fragrances for soaping, they also have some other tools that would be useful such as a wavy cutter, and pour spouts for their bottles. They have the colors I want also. The drawback is that the oils they have while sounding great seem to be stand-alone and not ones that are simplistic enough to blend well with other scents. This is important to me. Maybe I'm just being anal about it though. Finally Wellington fragrances has a pretty good deal on prices as well, but they tack on a $10 fee for minimum orders. It's trifling to say the least. It adds at least $20 to the whole order when paired with the shipping which is actually reasonable.

My other issue is that I am trying to budget this money out. There are other things I need to purchase such as packaging for soaps, more shipping material like box mailers, business cards, and labels. So all the money can't go on just scents and colors no matter how much I'd like that. I have also had to back out of getting another lotion base which I would have preferred from NDA. Simply because they have a lotion bottle there to die for. It would look so good, but the drawback to that is how smart of me would it be to purchase another lotion base? My lotions aren't doing so well (although I have a sneaking suspicion as to why), so is it smart business to buy yet another lotion base? Maybe not. I was thinking shower gel since so many people seem to like those in many cases better than bar soap. However that drives my costs up by another $30+ because if I buy lotion or shower gel I will need the bottles to go with it. I would still have a few dollars left over after all that even with the extra cosmetic bases tacked on. I guess my frugal nature is really having a hissy fit about spending more than $20 at one time. I have to be so careful about my expenditure that it is almost unfathomable to me to consider spending more than $30-40 online at once let alone the amount I will have to spend now. Meager to other soapmakers but a big yet necessary step for me to take. I whined and pouted about not having the money to buy this and that, and now that I have a bit of pocket change to spare for this exact purpose I'm sweating bullets.

I'm trying to purchase most if not all the things I need online at one spot to save on shipping. I want other things too like what about things for my masks? They are lacking in additives and I wanted to add at least two different kinds of clay to the mix. I was also considering natural colorants that would double as things I could effectively put in the clay masks. Colored clays would work well for this but so would ground herbs like parsley and maybe tumeric. I may have to get some things at one place and a couple others somewhere else. www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com has other things I wouldn't mind getting, but I will never waste time and money buying FO's from them again. Their clays and ground herbs were good prices so I guess that's might be my next mission.

Maybe writing this out will help me in my decisions. If I can re-read this maybe I can get a clearer picture of what I need to do.