Soap Crafting - Step-by-Step Techniques for Making 31 Unique Cold-Process Soaps by Anne-Marie Faiola

Book description: - The Soap Queen, Anne-Marie Faiola, shows you how to make perfect cold-process soap that is better than what you can buy at the store! Simple instructions and great photography walk you through every step of 31 exciting recipes, making it easy to master the techniques you need and produce the soaps you want. You'll find chapters on colors (neon, oxides, mica), molds (milk jugs, yogurt containers, pipes), food (pumpkin, coffee, beer, avocado, oatmeal), and building (embedding soap in soap, funnel pour, swirling). Faiola offers everything you need to make your own soap, safely and enjoyably!

My very first experience on handmade soap making was about 1 year ago. I got to know few mothers who shared with us on this beautiful art and since then, I have fallen in love with it. For a person who used to bake regularly, soap making to me is just as fun as baking. I can decide what kind of soap that I want to make, what shape, what kind of color, pattern etc. Just like decorating a cake, it's entirely up to your own creativity. 

Soap making is actually difficult at all. It's a delightful hobby, and with the many benefits of the handmade soap, it's definitely worth making the soap for your own usage. Actually, handmade soap are getting more and more popular nowadays, especially with many home makers doing it as business selling handmade soap to families and friends. It's easy to make your own soap. I know few friends who making this at home through self learning. 

Soap Crafting - Step-by-Step Techniques for Making 31 Unique Cold-Process Soaps by Anne-Marie Faiola, is a very good book especially for a newbie in soap making. It explains the soap making techniques and the safety guidelines (this is very important!), the equipment needed and tutorial on how to make a basic cold compressed soap. There are few soap making techniques but this book is more focus on the cold compressed method of the soap making technique. Besides soap making techniques and equipment, it also explains on the oil choices in soap making. Different kind of oils and its benefits are explained in details, allowing us to decide what oils to used in our soap depending on our purpose and needs for that particular batch of soap. 

Making a cold compressed soap is actually very simple. It's just like baking, where you mix, cook and whip. This book provides detail steps, along with the picture to guide you from beginning until the end. It also has tips inserted in the right place. And most importantly, there is this Soap Safely section to remind you, on preserving the safety during the soap making process. As one of the main ingredients in cold-process soap is sodium hydroxide, also called as lye. Lye is a caustic material commonly used to clean drains, brine lutefisk. Dry lye, or lye water, and fresh soap is harmful to our skin, our eyes. Thus it is important for us to have the necessary safety precautions when dealing with lye. And throughout the whole book, the safety precautions are being reminded to the readers again and again. 


When it comes to soap crafting, color and fragrances can't be excluded. There's a chapter explaining the colorants, and another chapter on using essential oils and fragrance oils. Included in the book is also 31 cold-process recipes, showing how the author plays with the colors, patterns and molds in soap crafting.

Picture of the soaps available in this book. Love the beautiful swirl patterns shared by the author! 

I like the way the author presented the recipes. The step-by-step guides is simple and easy to follow. For each of the recipe, the purpose and benefits of the soap are clearly stated. Any preparation that needed to be done prior to making the soap mixture are explained. Pictures along the step-by-step guide, and details explanation on how to pour and swirl to make the desired patterns. 

Whether if you are looking for trying a new hobby on soap making, or wanted to learn more on creating different patterns and designs on soap making, this book is definitely for you. 


Note: I receive the ARC of this book from the publisher via Net Galley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Gingerbread house, yule log making & Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas time! This year, Little Sprout's mama invited me over for gingerbread house and yule log baking session!

Little Sprout's mama pre-baked the gingerbread cookies a day before. So what I need to do is just to assemble and decorate the house and the choo-choo train! This year, Little Sprout's mama try using the royal icing, which is different from what she used last year. And the results? Little Sprout's mama complains the house is not as steady as last year! Which make the assemble work more time consuming. Anyway, I enjoy myself decorating the house with all the candies and sweets prepared by Little Sprout's mama!

Unfortunately the house and the choo-choo train did not survive the trip going home from Little Sprouts' house. Next year (if we going to make the gingerbread house again) I'm going to try with different packing.


The yule log is actually decorated swiss roll. I wanted to try making swissroll some time back but do not have the gut to make it. Whenever the recipe calls for 'folding the dough with beaten egg white', naturally I will hesitate to give it a try. As I fear I would spoil the cake during folding process. But after a hands on experience on making swiss roll or the yule log, I have more confident now! And I definitely would try making swiss roll back home. :)

Another challenge on making swiss roll is the 'rolling' part. Both me and Little Sprouts' mama have no idea the correct way to roll up the cake. But I think we did it correctly, hehe. There's some cracks but it's at the bottom and we can cover it easily by using the frosting. Another lesson learn for me is, do not be too greedy and apply too much filling. It will overflow from the side. >.< Anyway it's a good experience learnt and I have so much fun! Nothing can beat when the whole yule log finished within the next day despite it's too sweet to our taste. Hehe.

Actually my baking sessions with Little Sprouts' mama started somewhere mid last year. That time I requested Little Sprouts' mama to teach me to make cream puff. After that, we get together few more times for some baking fun. Last few times, since I have got back to working world, we have the baking session during weekend. Thus while the mommies are busy baking in the kitchen, Lynn and Hao are busy playing and watching TV with Little Sprouts and Little Sprouts' papa in the living room!


Thank you Little Sprouts' mama for the fun baking session as well as sharing many baking tips with me! And also thank you Little Sprouts' papa for babysitting the kids!

Wish you all a Merry Christmas! 

Making Zongzi or chang

Zongzi, or Chang, is a special food that Chinese eats during the Dragon Boat festival. It is made with sticky rice that usually wrapped in pyramid-shaped with reed or bamboo leaves. I love eating zongzi, especially it is only available during the Dragon Boat festival, which is only once a year. In the past, where my mom will buy the chang from the market and I will happily eat it as much as I like. Sometimes my aunt will give us some of her homemade chang too. However these few years back I don't get to eat chang as much as I like. Why? The price of chang has increased so much that I will only buy few to eat, and still the filling is so little, far from satisfactory as compared to homemade chang. Last year, I was very lucky to get some homemade chang from Mamarazzi. And this year? I'm actually very lucky that I get a chance to learn to make the chang myself! 


When I get to know Mamarazzi has her change-making marathon started, good thing it is before my new job started, and after I just completed my freelance job, talking about just the right timing for me! 

Mamarazzi helped me buy all the ingredients needed, including marinating the meat for me. She also cooked the meat and mushroom, and fried the soaked glutinous rice with spices. So what I just need to do is to wrap them into chang. 

First, I have to learn to fold the bamboo leaves into con shape. Then fill it with the rice and other ingredients. Let me tell you, it's not that easy to make the leaves into con shape. But once I get the hang of it, it's not that difficult too.

Then wrap it to become pyramid shape and tie it tightly. 

And then put into a pot or rice cooker and cook for 2 hours.

These are all I get after 3 hours standing there wrapping the chang! Mamarazzi said me not bad because none of them burst inside the pot. Consider very good at a first timer. Hehe this is because I have good sifu here who shows me step-by-step and tips on how to wrap the chang. :D 

Before going home, Mamarazzi 'poison' me into making kee chang at home. Just need to soak the glutinous rice and bamboo leaves? Really that easy? Mamarazzi definitely know how to tempt me. LOL! Could not resist the temptation, I made the kee chang last weekend. :)

I soaked the bamboo leaves and glutinous rice the night before. Before I want to make the kee chang, add 2 tablespoons of the alkaline water to the soaked rice. Mamarazzi taught me to add some pandan leave into the kee chang to enhance the flavor. I make the simplest one, plain kee chang without any fillings.

After standing there for 3 hours, and additional 2 hours cooking time for 2nd batch, these are what I get. This time I was not so lucky, as without the fillings, the kee chang is smaller in size. Seems like I did not tie them tight enough. Quite a few kee chang bursting inside the pot during cooking. I managed to save some but still I lost about 3 of them.

Kee chang drizzled with honey, requested by hb. :D

As this is my very first attempt on making chang, I did not give to any friends, but only to family members. With the first experience, I know what I can improve next year. Though it's time consuming, but it's cheaper to make it myself and not to mention, I get to choose the fillings that I want to put. And not to mention I have improve on the wrapping too! Ok so I should not complain why it's so expensive outside, talking about the long hours and those kungfu on wrapping the chang. Hope next year I get to make more and better version that I can give away some to friends. Learn to make chang is always an item on my wish list for many years. Thank you Mamarazzi for making my wish come true! And this year, I get to eat the chang as many as I like. :D

I read, I think, I share

I have been reading really a lot lately. PC time has been reduced to minimum and most of the personal time I have is spent on reading books. Usually I can finish reading one book within 2 weekday nights. I read after sending the kids to bed.


With internet, it is very easy to get free eBook to read. However some of them come with condition - writing review. I do not want to flood this blog with many book reviews, whether it is due to obligation, or just because I want to share a good book. Except those that I must post here, I have decided to write the book reviews on another blog - I read, I think, I share. It is also serves as a record, of the books that I have read (though not all). Since I read mostly eBook, if you are interested on any of those, welcome to ask a copy from me.

Reading eBook

Hb gave me a smart phone recently for my last year's birthday present. Yes for last year birthday even though it came one year later. LOL! Alright won't talk much about why it came one year later, back to this smart phone. First thing I install is an eBook reader app.

There are lots of free ebook readers app out there. I got the one with more free fiction ebooks for the readers. Hehehe. I just don't feel worth it to pay USD$5-10 for an ebook. Not to mention some are even cost more than $10. I rather buy the paper copy from BookXcess with much cheaper price and more selections. Hehehe. Alright back to eBook reader, after comparing a few, finally I decided to install Kobo ebook app  on my phone. And right after register an account, I download one fiction book to read (will blog about this book in another post).

I have few ebooks in PDF format but I never complete reading any one of them. Why? Because whenever I open it subsequently, it always back to page 1. Zzzz.... Don't expect me to remember which page I stop reading previously. And sometimes I may need to leave my place halfway when reading. Upon returning, I have to search through the whole page to search where I stop. So after few attempts, I just gave up.

However reading ebook from smart phone is totally different experience. First there is bookmark. And it will always open back the same page where I stop last. As compared monitor screen size and smart phone screen size, obviously it is easier to look for the paragraph where I stop last much easier. Most cases, I will finish reading the whole page before I stop because it won't take you much time to finish a page (the screen is so much smaller). Some readers come with dictionaries feature, so you can check out those new words easily. Some come with night reading mode. You can also set the font to be bigger or small size. You can also read more than one ebook at the same time and switching them as you like to. More important, I can read whenever I go without carrying a book with me! I can read when I'm waiting for my food to come at the restaurant, in the car during traffic jam if I'm not the one who drive etc. Basically I can make use of the waiting time to read. But the down side is, the phone battery run out very fast if I keep on reading non-stop. Hehehe. But so far can last until I finish reading the whole book. Anyway, I'm happy to find another source of reading without spending money. ^_^

Btw, even if you don't have any smart phone or iPad or other ebook readers like Kindle, you still can install most ebook reader application on your desktop and read the eBook from your PC too! Some ebooks are in PDF format where you can read without the ebook reader. Some only available in the specific format for that you need to reader for it. So if you want to get some free books to read, you can always install the ebook reader app on your PC and download the ebooks to read. Some you can just read from the website too without having to install the app. But then you have to stay online to read. Most of the ebook reader apps are free. You only pay for buying the ebooks. Since it's free, you can always give it a try and get a free ebook to read. I have not tried install one on my PC at home so I can't share on this part. But if you don't like it, you can always just uninstall it.

My colleague asked me "How come you are not playing games on your phone?" Oh I have no interest on the games. I prefer to read! And yes, I'm still reading the paperback books the old-fashion way! I still enjoy reading the "real" books. :) I have bought quite a few books from BookXcess and BBWS recently. I definitely want to read all of them. Btw reading eBook from phone can be very addictive, even more addictive than  reading paperback. Because since it's not a physical book, I won't realize how much I have read and how much more to go. I will just continue reading and reading, until I did not realize it's been hours since I have started reading. LOL! eBook is another way that I can read anytime and anywhere. And I wish there are more fiction books available as free ebooks! :D

Happy reading!

Going for Orchestra Concert

I love music, especially classical music. I listen to classical music since I was young as my father likes classical music too. Ever since I learn about the orchestra from the piano lesson, I have been wanted to attend any live orchestra concert instead of just listening from the CD or watching it from TV. I was very curious about different instruments and how they work together to perform a master piece. However there was no orchestra hall in Malaysia at that time. The only chance to attend orchestra concert was at overseas.

My dream finally came true when we visited Austria as our family holiday trip about 10 years ago. Austria, being the home of some famous composers like Mozart, Johann Strauss, visiting to the orchestra concert is definitely a must! Not only we went for the live orchestra in the famous music hall, we even got the chance to watch the famous ballet - Romeo and Juliet at the famous Vienna State Opera House in Vienna! We were so lucky that we managed to get the cheapest ticket for the evening concert on the same day! Despite cheapest, but after converting to MYR if not mistaken should be around RM50-RM100, can't remember the exact amount now. The performance was outstanding! Since we were sitting at the side, and top tier, we could not view the full stage (oh well, it was the cheapest so couldn't expect too much. :D), but to me, most important, is I get to watch the live performance from the famous opera house in the world! I enjoyed it very much actually.

In 1998 August, when Dewan Filharmonik Petronashosted its very first performance by Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra in KLCC here, without second thought I went for it. And I started becoming their subscriber. I was the regular patron until Hao was born. My favorite still their Family Fun Day program and I'm still going for it. This is the only package that I buy for the whole season and I get a reduced price being a subscriber. In fact, as long as you buy any package for the season, you will become subscriber automatically and enjoy lower ticket price. Discount rate is based on which category of the ticket that you are purchasing, the highest the price the higher discount rate you get. Family Fun Day used to be the only concert that allows children age 3-4 onwards to enter. It is a program specially designed for young children. Each performance there will be a presenter, explaining the songs that going to play, or people performing on the stage based on the theme of the concert etc. The audience will be having so much fun! Other normal concerts if not mistaken are for age 8 onwards. From last year onwards, we have been taking Lynn to the concert! I remembered during that time, that was this Korean series - Beethoven was showing on the TV. The series was talking about a composer and group of people from all sorts of background, who are not musician in profession but due to their passion of music, they get together forming an orchestra. Besides that, I also have the Baby Einstein series which introduces orchestra instruments to small children. All these was pretty good enough to give her an idea what orchestra is about and what to expect. And after taking her to one concert, she loves it! And requested for more! Since then, she's the one accompanying my mom to the concert. I did not go as Hao was still young.

But now Hao is already 2 years old, and hb is alright with taking care of the kids alone at home, so this time I bought 3 tickets for my mom, Lynn and me go to the concert together! I know Lynn will be super happy. Three of us went to the concert together last month. It was a complimentary session for MPO subscriber and I managed to grab 3 tickets for us. I did not tell her that I will be going for the concert with her and po po. And she kept on asking me why I did not go home (because normally I just dropped her to my mom house and went home). Hahaha! She was so happy when I went into the concert hall and sit next to her.

The concert performance for the new 2010/11 session will be starting next month. And the first concert for the Family Fun Day package will be on November. I'm so looking forward to it! If any of you are interested, the tickets still open for sales. It is not just limited to the packages, you can buy single ticket for selected concert too. Click here for details of the concerts for 2010/11 season.

Note: This is not a paid post. Just want to share that besides art, Music is the other area that Lynn is exposed too. I'm planning to start teaching her piano in next few months. I notice she has great interest in music. Probably she has the same passion in music as me. :D And I also hope all these are good preparation for stimulating her interest in learning musical instrument. I found that the more I understand the more I appreciate the musical performance. :) 

Male or female, does it matter?

I'm sure some of us may have made friends over the internet before. The person could be from the same town, or from different country with different culture altogether. We may or may not be meeting up the person. However does it ever matter if the person is same gender as us?

Recently I get to know someone from the internet through online games. In the games, there are male toons and female toons. You can have a male player playing a female toons and vice versa. So it's kind of hard to tell if the person that you know is a male or female unless you ask. So this friend of mine, who is a male, does not make friends with male who play female toons. Once he has a good friend (who plays female toons) but after later knowing he's a guy, he stop talking to him. A good friendship is gone just like that. Well I personally do not mind whether the other person is male or female, as long as we can click well. Isn't that a friendship is more important?

Playing WoW

For the past more than a year, I have been hearing hubby and colleagues talking about WoW (World of Warcraft). Hubby has been a die-hard fan of WoW since he started playing the game slightly more than a year ago. As for me, I used to play another online game with him, until Lynn was borned. Due to the breastfeeding schedule, and also need to take care of the her, I have stopped playing online game with hubby. Also, WoW require pc with better specs, as we only have 1 pc with better specs, so it is impossible for 2 people to play together at the same time.

However now Lynn has grown up. She will be 2 years old this year. So I'm thinking of trying WoW, before the second baby is out. Hubby help me get started. We decided to share on same the account, before we get another new pc. Well, it is not as difficult as I thought. I played Warcraft 3 with hubby before. That is tougher. As I'm not good in this kind of strategic game, and always having problem controlling multiple characters at one time. But for WoW, I only need to control one character at one time. And it is kind of fun and some of the quest are quite challenging. I gotto learn to read the minimap, get know to the direction, places, people etc in the game. Luckily, I got hubby here to help me out and get me more familiar with the game. I actually becoming enjoy playing it. And now we are always talking about getting another new pc so that we can play together, how we can help each other in the game, and the guild also. Hubby set up his own guild end of last year. The guild is his baby. And he is proud of himself in the game as well as the guild. So how can I miss all these fun and excitement with him?