When I become passionate about something, be it prepping, essential oils, CBD, adult coloring or ballroom dancing, I go all in. 

By that I mean I spend hours embracing my new passion, learning as much as I can about it, and spending hours practicing and enjoying my craft.  Reading between the lines here at Strategic Living, you know that my latest passion is soap making.  Hot process, cold process, rebatch, and melt and pour, I do it all.  It is the latter that I do when time is short and I don't want to mess with lye and the associated safety precautions and cleanup.

Melt and Pour soap takes a lot of the work out of soap making.  Because it starts with a premade base, you can focus on your inner creative self by customizing your soap with colorants, fragrance, additives, swirls, and fancy shapes.

For those of you that are new to the soap making world, there is one name that stands out as somewhat of a legend when it comes to making soap naturally.  Her name is Jan Berry and she is a prolific do-it-yourselfer when it comes to DIY body care projects.  When I learned that she was coming out with a book on Melt and Pour Soaps I knew I just had to have it and let me tell you, if there is such a thing as an MP bible (MP is the acronym for Melt and Pour), this is it.

Today I am thrilled to share a brief review and interview with Jan and, in my usual Book Festival style, offer up a print copy of her new book, Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps, in a giveaway. 

The post Easy Homemade Melt & Pour Soaps: Interview with Jan Berry by Gaye Levy first appeared on Strategic Living.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to make soap from scratch.  By that, I mean making soap using only the basics of water, fats, and lye.  Yes, lye.  As much as I had the desire, I was scared of the process and the perceived dangers.  I had visions of suiting up in a sick room outfit suitable for treating a patient with Ebola.  That said, with some time on my hands, I decided to do some in-depth research, mostly to get up the nerve to try.  I read blogs, ordered some books, and watched dozens of YouTube videos.  I convinced myself and I could do this and so I did.  The rest is history.

Something I learned right away was that making soap can be a useful, budget-friendly hobby or it can be a money pit, especially at first. As a matter of fact, I used over $30 worth of essential oils in my first 3-pound loaf of soap, and that does not include the cost of the various fats I used, all of the highest quality. 

My very first batch of soap made with lye turned out fantastic, but clearly, as a hobby, I could not afford to continue to spend that much money when making soap just for the fun of it.   So, after a few months of experimenting, I came up with foolproof recipe for making a budget-friendly soap using commonly available, grocery store ingredients.  This is a basic soap.  It cleans well, is sufficiently moisturizing, and pleasant to use.  The use of fragrance is optional and honestly, there is a simplicity in pure, unscented soap that I find attractive.

With that, let me introduce you to crafting homemade soap using the hot process method.

The post Beginners Guide to Budget-Friendly Hot Process Soap from Scratch by Gaye Levy first appeared on Strategic Living.

For the longest time, I have wanted to make soap but was intimidated by the process.  I envisioned donning my pandemic-ready overalls, goggles, and three layers of gloves so that I could safely work with lye.  I have since learned that with care, I do not have to go quite that far but still, I was just not ready to take that step.

About six months ago, I learned about something called melt and pour soap base.  Melt and pour base is a block of premade soap with nothing added.  All of the work to create soap from oils and lye has been done, leaving the fun part of adding color, fragrance, and molding into bars to you.  The more I read, the more I was hooked so I purchased some supplies and got started. 

There was no looking back.  I have learned that making hand-crafted soap from melt and pour base is addictive and is both a highly creative process and superbly rewarding hobby.  I just can't stop making soap and love giving my precious bars away to friends for no reason at all.  Just because.

One of those friends loved her soaps so much that she asked for more.  And then she asked me to teach her how so she could make her own and give them away to her friends.  So there I was, one day, teaching my friend Nancy to make soap and within an hour or two, she was an expert.  Her husband told me I created a soap-making monster.  Now I don't know about that but with all of that experience behind me, I decided to memorialize a beginners guide to making soap.

Given that pursuing your passions, including hobbies, is part of living a strategic life, I share with you what I know so far about making no-lye soap, along with some tips and tricks that will pretty much guarantee success.

The post Super Simple Goats Milk & Honey Soap for First Time Soapmakers by Gaye Levy first appeared on Strategic Living.

In 2010, prepping took over my life, all in a good way.  Years later, I now believe I have the skills, supplies, and most of all, the mental fortitude to prevail during dire circumstances.  Although I still prep, albeit less frantically, I have moved on in pursuit of new passions.  One of those passions is grown up coloring.

When I first learned about adult coloring (also referred to as grown-up coloring), it was an emerging craze, fueled mostly by Johanna Basford and her Secret Garden coloring book.  As someone who had a day job as well as a full-blown website, I was stressed to the max and wanted something that would allow for private, me-time.  I was also fascinated by the prospect of stashing some low-cost coloring supplies for passing the time during grid-down emergencies.

I jumped in with both feet and now, years later, find that doing so led me to discover that I indeed had some creativity and in my DNA and more important, I could pursue a guilty pleasure without having to spend a ton of money.  Win-win.

With that introduction, let me help you get started with adult coloring!

The post Pursuing Your Passion: Getting Started With Adult Coloring by Gaye Levy first appeared on Strategic Living.