I went on a soap binge last week.  It was every night in the kitchen - mixing and stirring and cooling, and stirring again and cooking.....well, you get the picture.  I wanted to use some of the herbs from my garden in the soap, so I started with Lavender.

I had two lavender plants in the garden.  Had.  One just up and died - it was either the French or the English lavender plant, I have no idea.  But the other one is growing great!  I cut off some of the stems and put them in the dehydrator overnight.  Then I put the dried lavender in the food processor with a cup of sugar.  I found out that if you use sugar, the food processor will actually chop the herbs - otherwise they just swish in a circle and stay their original size.  You can see the pieces of lavender in the soap above.  I know, lavender is not blue, it's....lavender.  Well, I don't have any lavender coloring.  Yet.  So, anything I make right now is going to be either blue, green or red.

Next, I decided to use the rosemary growing in the front flower bed.  I had already sent it through the dehydrator and  it was in my spice rack.  

This has sugar in the rosemary also, but you can't tell it in the soap.  It completely dissolves in the hot soap.  I ordered this huge bottle of lavender essential oil, so I thought I;'d made another lavender batch. I was going for a pale pink, but the red dye must be really strong because you can tell it's really dark.  Don't worry, you won't turn hot pink or red in the shower!

The next batch just had to be oatmeal and honey.  I like the texture of oatmeal in soap - it's like using a loofah.

I used a cup of oatmeal put through the blender until finely chopped and a fourth cup of honey (in a 2 pound batch).  I had soap all over the kitchen.  Once it's sliced into bars, it sits on the counter a couple of days to dry out and cure.  Now, if you know Mike, then you'll totally understand the next picture.  I came into the kitchen and he'd arranged some of the soap together into a "flag".  That's when I realized I'd made red, white and blue soap.

I've given soap to people at work, friends, family, and cousins.  I've actually boxed some up and sent to Mike's brothers and their wives.  Happy Labor Day!   Now, Mike and I are down to about 8 to 10 bars!  Oh my gosh, I'd better start making some more!