78 pounds of baking soda later...
So in July when I got the $600 bath bomb order from hell I had about a bag and a half of baking soda. And when I say 'bag', I mean 13.5 lb SACK of baking soda. I'm not sure most bakeries go through SACKS of baking soda like I do. Anyway, I ended up with really good timing and Sam's Club was doing an open house, so I went out and bought six more bags.
This was just in July.
I'm going to have to bite the bullet this weekend and get a Sam's Club membership so I can go buy another 6 sacks. I'm down to my last one at this point. I already have another 30 lbs. of citric acid on the way.
I did a thing with some numbers at Etsy so I could keep track of how many of certain things I've sold... um... yeah. I've sold *79* ORDERS of chill pill bath bombs in the last week. I've sold like 15 dozen chill pill soaps. My 36 cavities are in non-stop use.
Which almost led to a kitchen fire tonight.
This was my process:
Wednesday: Make some soap in the molds. Spill just a tad bit of soap on the spaces between the cavities on all six sets.
Wednesday night and Thursday: Make bath bombs in the molds.
Friday night: unmold the last set of bath bombs, decide the molds are getting scuzzy and need to have the bits of previous bath bombs rinsed out.
- get annoyed that bath bomb mold needs to be rinsed out because it is a *bitch* to manually dry but you can't load bath bomb mix into a mold with even the tiniest bit of moisture in it.
- rinse molds out anyway... they need it.
- realize, "Hey! Silicone molds can go in the oven up to 400 degrees! Water BOILS at 212. Dry the molds in the oven while you pack up a few other things!
- put the wet molds in the oven, go across the kitchen to do some order packing.
- notice, "hey wow, there's SMOKE on that side of the kitchen!"
- open door, prop it open, turn off oven and open it to vent.
- discover that the soap that MELTS at 110 degrees, basically VAPORIZES at 212. Only it's a really nasty smokey icky vapor and it's filling up my kitchen.
- 10 minutes into damage control, discover that not only do I *have* a new smoke detector... but that it actually detects smoke. Only, you know, ten minutes AFTER I figured it out on my own.
So um... yeah... that happened. But the molds were dry when I needed them! However, I think I'll reserve that trick for when they come out of the dishwasher and I won't be creating gassous soap-vapor-stuff in my house.
I'm managing to keep my orders-in-queue numbers under 50 and I hope to get it back under 30 by the end of the weekend, but I'm now officially working two full time jobs.
Oy.
This was just in July.
I'm going to have to bite the bullet this weekend and get a Sam's Club membership so I can go buy another 6 sacks. I'm down to my last one at this point. I already have another 30 lbs. of citric acid on the way.
I did a thing with some numbers at Etsy so I could keep track of how many of certain things I've sold... um... yeah. I've sold *79* ORDERS of chill pill bath bombs in the last week. I've sold like 15 dozen chill pill soaps. My 36 cavities are in non-stop use.
Which almost led to a kitchen fire tonight.
This was my process:
Wednesday: Make some soap in the molds. Spill just a tad bit of soap on the spaces between the cavities on all six sets.
Wednesday night and Thursday: Make bath bombs in the molds.
Friday night: unmold the last set of bath bombs, decide the molds are getting scuzzy and need to have the bits of previous bath bombs rinsed out.
- get annoyed that bath bomb mold needs to be rinsed out because it is a *bitch* to manually dry but you can't load bath bomb mix into a mold with even the tiniest bit of moisture in it.
- rinse molds out anyway... they need it.
- realize, "Hey! Silicone molds can go in the oven up to 400 degrees! Water BOILS at 212. Dry the molds in the oven while you pack up a few other things!
- put the wet molds in the oven, go across the kitchen to do some order packing.
- notice, "hey wow, there's SMOKE on that side of the kitchen!"
- open door, prop it open, turn off oven and open it to vent.
- discover that the soap that MELTS at 110 degrees, basically VAPORIZES at 212. Only it's a really nasty smokey icky vapor and it's filling up my kitchen.
- 10 minutes into damage control, discover that not only do I *have* a new smoke detector... but that it actually detects smoke. Only, you know, ten minutes AFTER I figured it out on my own.
So um... yeah... that happened. But the molds were dry when I needed them! However, I think I'll reserve that trick for when they come out of the dishwasher and I won't be creating gassous soap-vapor-stuff in my house.
I'm managing to keep my orders-in-queue numbers under 50 and I hope to get it back under 30 by the end of the weekend, but I'm now officially working two full time jobs.
Oy.