As a wedding gift my grandmother gave us a box full of batteries, note pads, pens, stamps, envelopes, highlighters, light bulbs, planner, and towels and washcloths (kitchen and bathroom). It was amazing. Some of those things are so cheap until you have to buy them all at once. She saved us so much money that I didn't realize I had to spend.
@@rosaliac.386 It was amazing and I highly recommend it as a wedding or housewarming gift. I also forgot she put it all in a laundry basket, that is still holding on strong 14 years later.
Personally loved the original. The new one would feel more cosmic if the colours were reversed (dark outside with light in the middle) but right now it feels more like a whirlpool than a galaxy.
Something happened the moment we went from 2 to 3 kids and it became quick overwhelming.... that Christmas my mother inlaw came up with a coupon book with different amounts of "kid free time" we could call, say we are turning in a 4 hour kid free coupon, drop them off with her and had that amount of time to do whatever we needed/ wanted without kids. Not gonna lie I used the 2 hour coupon to take a nap 😅 best coupons I've ever received in my life!
This past year was full of some really hard financial hits, all 4 of my kids are in their young 20's so I said this year for Christmas let's just do like a second Thanksgiving, we'll all get together and have a beautiful meal, eat a bunch of food and dessert, listen to Christmas music, play board games, watch a Christmas movie and just enjoy our time with each other, they happily agreed. They were happy they didn't have to stress about money and buying gifts too. And we ended up having the best time and think we may continue this tradition. Not a single gift was exchanged except love, fun, memories and happiness. Idk maybe next Christmas of finances are better I will change my mind but we truly just enjoyed spending time together without the stress of having to buy gifts.
I’m a big fan of homemade gifts! Most of my friends/family are getting handmade mugs this year (I do wheel thrown ceramics). For my partner, I’ve spent all week handcrafting a miniature whimsical little dwelling (for a little cat figurine they always keep in their pocket for good luck) out of a seashell ring holder with a tiny window and housewares inside of it, all handmade by me from fabric scraps and balsa wood and embroidery and beads. I really put a lot of love into handmade things and I see you do too!!
Love both versions! Would stub my big toe all over the kitchen to make something that pretty! As for Christmas plans I just moved to my new duty station in Spain, would have been alone but my neighbors insisted on adopting me.
Seeing the Sea Glass turning green in that first batch had me very nervous but the soap frosting is such a beautiful blue… I am excited for this soap release and this is definitely one that I want! I love galaxies and stars so much. Might have to make sure I get in early to get more than one bar…
I absolutely love how this soap turned out! The colors make a very lovely blue marble effect, I would definitely buy a soap that looked like this one. 💙
I’m an illustrator, but for me painting skies, it always looks good to have a deep, purple blue be the base and have spots of brighter purple, maybe bright blue-green, and even some dark pink. Just a thought! Love these videos, Katie!
Aww.. I have a daughter a small handful of years older than you and Stella Luna is her favorite childhood book! Great reminder about gifting help. I used to do a paper tree on the wall with paper presents that had little things like that on it. keeping kiddos so mom and dad could grab a dinner, or a nap..baking things, cleaning things. All the adults got to pick a gift from the 'tree' :) it went out of favor as the kiddos grew and life got more hectic, but it was really awesome once upon a time ago.
Each of our 3 sons, 3 daughter-in-law's and 4 Grand Littles are getting a "Gift Certificate" for a project in their goodie bag. We help them with projects throughout the year, but these are for the bigger projects that they might not want to ask for help with. I can't wait to see what they come up with for us to do, it will be interesting for sure!
This soap turned out so pretty!! I loved that you mentioned Holo Taco because I was thinking the drizzle reminded me of the shimmer toppers she makes. I also love the accidental Stellaluna reference, that was one of my favorites! I also think the scents you used would smell great in a lotion or a perfume of some sort too!! I love your videos Katie and watching your positive attitude, it brightens my day. I don't really have plans for Christmas, but you've got me feeling a bit more festive than I was. Thank you for all that you do!!
My parents, 82 and 81, live around the corner from me. We will do Christmas Eve dinner together, my mom cooking her favorite meal to cook. Then Christmas morning, we will go to my brother's to watch my nephew, 12, open his prese to and have breakfast. Then we will have leftovers for dinner on Christmas day. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! Be safe.
A note on the cleaning as a gift thing for anyone who may need to be told…. It only works as a gift if the person actually wants your help. You should not “gift” your help to someone as a way to tell them that you think they’re a slob and need to clean up. Just putting it out there!
I convinced my mom to let me buy a premade christmas dinner to help her not have to make everything from scratch. (She won't let me help, lol, so this is my solution.) We'll go over Christmas morning and open gifts, eat lunch and then go home. Now that the boys are older (19, 18, 16, 14), it is much more lowkey and just us spending time together.
That's a great compromise that gives her permission to take it easy on herself! Hopefully as you all get older, she'll learn to be okay with potluck style. It's the best way to go!
I once took a big pack of batteries to a white elephant Christmas party (with a tag that said, “Gift not included.”) and, I kid you not, a fight almost broke out for those batteries. 😂
Our Christmas plans: We just moved from FL to NY so my dad is spending the night on Christmas Eve, the littles will be so excited for that sleepover. Making cookies for Santa, wrapping presents on Christmas Eve, and of course watching the grinch. Later on Christmas Day we will visit my mother in law’s and grandma’s house!
My daughter and her husband are hosting Christmas dinner this year. First time cooking a turkey so fingers crossed that we all come out okay on the other side 😂 All joking aside; her hubby is a pretty good cook.
Right now it's just me, my husband, and my mom. None of us are materialistic, but we all get a lot of joy out of giving and we also enjoy having lots of things to open, so we always buys tons of little practical gifts. It looks pretty to have a mound of presents under the tree and it's fun for the unwrapping to take 3 hours even if what we open is all boring adult stuff. One year my mom got me a few dozen pairs of underwear and just wrapped 2 in each box until I had like 20 boxes to open of just underwear. I personally also love wrapping presents it's one of my favorite parts of Christmas, so having lots to wrap is a huge bonus.
My uncle used to gift all of us nieces and nephews gas gift cards when we got our licenses - best gift ever! 1 it relieves some financial stress of buying gas when your still a broke teen/ young adult and 2 it made us ensure we had that little bit of freedom that teenagers already crave.
I know it wasn't what you were going for but I still really like the colors on the first one! I've used that sea salt one before and boy does it change colors
No traveling this year. I've done enough back and forth the past week cause got my baby boy in the hospital so unless it's for fun when he gets out ,nope! Sincerely hope you and yours have a wonderful season 💖
I make home made candles every year for my co workers. I also sell them. I am so with you on home made gifts. I also make beautiful beaded ornament drapes with crystals from Austria and seed beads from Japan. I think gifts mean more when they are of your creation and not a trinket bought in some store. For christmas Eve, we are playing games as a family, board, card ,dice etc. Then snacking all day long. Just being a family, with no stress. I also love your idea with coupons to help people. I give away ornament beading lessons. Fun for everyone who wants to learn.
my winter wish lists in recent years has been like 40% nerdy hobby stuff (dnd/pathfinder and knitting mostly) and 60% clothes/underwear bc i need new stuff and cant be bothered to spend my own very limited money on it (underwear is expensive when you need to replace all of it bc it's been too long!). my birthday is super close to christmas so my mom just splits my list in two. i'm an only child and on my mom's side the only grandchild, so i've grown quite spoiled by them especially bc i don't tend to get gifts from my dad's family (they have their own kids and grandkids to give gifts to)
This is the first Christmas that my fiancé and I will get to be in the same place! We've spent every Christmas so far with our individual families, but this year we get to spend Christmas Day with his family and then go down to my parents'. We're so excited to actually be together to celebrate Christ's birth! Practical gifts are the BEST! My Mother in Law is amazing about that, and they're always so thoughtful and it's clear she pays attention to what everyone's said and what they actually need. I'm looking forward to getting some new practical things at my wedding, too! Though, as always, the best gift is just getting to spend time with people. I also love experiences! Every year growing up, my sister and I would get show tickets in our stockings. It was something my parents would save up for, and we were usually high up in the balcony, but I will cherish the memories of getting to see live theater forever.
I love gifting experiences! One of my besties is super hard to shop for, but we like to go on cruises together. So, I buy her cruise excursions for her birthday and Christmas. 💗
We rented a bounce house for our grandkids from Christmas Eve to 12/26 as a gift- their parents are happy with them making memories with their cousins instead of a toy or something that will end up broken or tossed aside. I am also making them blankets and they always get a book
Christmas this year will be interesting: Saturday - spending with my mom and Sunday - spending with bonus/ chosen family Monday - morning with hubby and kiddo Afternoon with in laws
For christmas, since my siblings and i grew up not really getting much in terms of gifts (something small from parents and grandma and 1 aunt but the rest of the family never bothered).. we started to make it our thing to get each others good gifts over the last decade. Our system is simple: everyone makes a list of things they actually want to get with enough stuff at different price points that we can pick depending on our budget. Appart from my sister and i, the others don't ask for things that are easy to find through small businesses or hand made but they get things they want and need rather than useless things you guessed they might enjoy. We list the books we've been wanting and which versions, give some vague ideas too to leave some room for creativity. For the kids (my 2 nephews), the parents make a list, we try to do second hand or useful things and sometimes a few of us group together for bigger gifts rather than overwhelm them with lots of things. For their birthday we got them a trampoline and then a few books to open on the day itself.
also i love the idea of chores or voucher for help as a gift. I might suggest that to my siblings who live close to each others, i live in another country so that wouldnt work for me unless they want until my summer visit XD
12:41 that is so true! I had to remake some batches last night because it didn’t go to plan. My strawberry swirl got all weird on me so I had to make a new one and it looks better already
I'm working overtime this week (at a bakeshop). I have made cookies at home for friends and family. Christmas Eve, we moved our friends game bight to. We're doing a secret Santa. My husband and I are doing dinner and games up at his parents' house. Then, in January, we are traveling to do Christmas across Statelines. 😊
Lovely soap, and the scent sounds like it would be wonderful. My Christmas plans are I have to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I know that doesn't sound like fun, but I will try to make the most of it. I have a couple books to take with and read. I work at a E-Commerce fulfillment warehouse in Loss Prevention, so even though the warehouse is closed both those days our team has to be on sight in case something happens. Merry Christmas to all!
I think both look good. You may need to think of the blues as "grey" in the designs when you plan them out. You tend to like the vibrancy of the colors but blue is more tone based of a color then say red. For red the more "black" that's added the more the red gets muted (or browned) as it gets mixed with the black, and the pinker, or peach it goes when mixed with white. Blue tends to stay pretty faithful when mixing black or white. Again the first bar wasn't bad, different then your aim, but not really bad (I love blue and dark blue soaps)
Keeping red and black/white separate pops the reds vibrancy when used, but blue seems to be unique. It does lend some of its properties to purple but red does as well making it more of a versatile color.
My Christmas plans are definitely a bit more chaotic then originally intended. Celebrating with my partners family for Christmas, and then I have two friends families that I will be celebrating with afterwards. Definitely happy about all the love I get to experience 🥰. Happy holidays to you and your family!!!!
Even if you consider this batch a fail, you can't consider it a failure for 2024. You can't start the year that way. My mom and I but things for each other that we need...I know that I am getting a new water pillow...I wish we could shop small for things like this but we couldn't. I am looking forward to getting this pillow since my old one sprung a leak several months ago. Water pillows are so good for your neck and back. My mom and I spend Christmas together just her and I...it is a small quiet Christmas.
Christmas eve is gonna be at my Aunt and Uncle's this year, my newly married cousin doing the hosting duties! Very exciting. Christmas itself will be lowkey as my brother and sister in law are spending it with her family this year, so just my parents and sister. 💚 Merry Christmas to your family! Side note, this soap is SO cute. That scent mix sounds wonderful.
We are staying local for Christmas but have 3 separate events over 2 days. Christmas is weird for me because this is the 2nd year without my parents. Year 1 was a blur of grief and now I'm trying to establish new traditions with my family. 😢 It's hard to be merry and bright
My holiday season is mildly stressful, I missed my last two entirely free days for shopping due to a chest infection, BUT last year and the uear before I had covid for Christmas so this is an improvement. And i should be better by the 25th
That blue moon mica is absolutely gorgeous 😍✨️ I thought yhe original doap looked wonderful. I'm looking forward to cooking this Christmas. Mum and Dad are away on holiday so its just us kids (we're in our 30s lol) my little nephew is 6 and is crazy excited. He is making me excited with his joy.
My niece and nephew (6 and 4) are going to be in a Christmas pageant. My niece is going to be an inn keeper/angel and my nephew will be one of the kings!
I am staying home for Christmas this year. But I have been toying with the idea of sitting on the beach for a bit. I haven’t done that since I moved to SWFL 20 years ago. My favorite beach and the businesses around it took a lot of damage from Hurricane Ian. They have done a lot of revitalization, so I am anticipating good things. I can’t stay long in the sun because I “burst into flames,” but it really is a beautiful beach to spend a little bit of time. If I am so inclined, I can also wander down to the Gumbo Limbo Lounge (or whatever The Ritz renamed it) for lunch.
I think the colour pallet before soaponification was so PRETTY!. It looked exactly like an Aurora Borealis. (Northern lights) and it would work with your theme XD
We are going to enjoy Christmas morning together with our family here in South Korea and then FaceTime with family in the States. My husband and I have bought more of our kids gifts from small businesses this year. Thanks for the inspiration.
Our plans for Christmas is no plans. When I was a kid, Christmas was the most chaotic and exhausting day of the year and it was rarely enjoyable because we were carted from house to house to house in some ugly uncomfortable outfit and never got to actually enjoy the gifts and time with family. So my husband and I don’t go anywhere. We take our time and relax in pajamas all day while our girls enjoy themselves.
1) I actually thought you were going for aurora sky in the beginning..... I love it 2)i tried one year to do handmade but I suck at handmade 😂 cause I'm not artsy at all! Wanna try soap and candles as a handmade maybe for next year 3) for Christmas we're just traveling our country, South Africa whooa, cause we always go overseas so it's nice ❤
I didn’t see anything wrong with the first soap. I liked the colors of the second soap, but I felt the first soap had more depth because of the different colors.
I love Stargazing by NG. Such a pretty fragrance. I feel your struggle with the blues. I did some landscape soaps this month and it feels like none of my blues and teals turned out the way I wanted them to unless I added neon blue to anchor them. But maybe it's just me being too picky LOL Christmas will be a quiet affair at home, since not everyone is in town this year. Other than some tea I picked up for my dad from my favorite tea small biz (Friday Afternoon Tea!), all my presents are handmade. My dad is also getting some candles. Mom is getting some charcoal bastille soap. Brother is getting pumice soap and homemade surf wax. Everyone else will get soap from my hoard 🤭
Hi, Katie! Love your work as always. I'm doin g my solo thing; today meeting a bestie at the mall for fun memory times (we never shop at malls where I live) being obnoxious at the perfume counter, etc. I do visits and drop presents on porches all Christmas Eve and then video chat with faraway friends and family opening their gifts. I already got one gift; a brand new laptop! Making a small rib roast just for myself and hoping it snows.
Blues are my arch nemesis😑. Shelly, Chefs kiss to those embeds. -Christmas Eve: kicks off with church, of course. Later that evening our 2 adult kids, kid-in-laws & grand-toddler will come over to spend time together, eat all the big spread of food & sweets I’m making, & open gifts. Both kids will take home a pan of my homemade cinnamon rolls. (When my kids were growing up I always made homemade cinnamon rolls & hot chocolate for Christmas morning.) -Christmas morning: Nehemiah & I will exchange gifts to each other and just spend the day with each other.🥰 -The weekend after Christmas Nehemiah, myself, son & DIL will be traveling from NW Arkansas to North Texas to celebrate Christmas with my mom & siblings. I’m making everyone an ornament out of one of my dad’s old shirts. This is our 2nd Christmas without him😞
We just have a perpetual Christmas. Our grown children are not able to all come on one day. It is slightly better spacing them out but the cleaning and cooking never end. People go on diets in January because they are just too tuckered out to cook. LOL. I liked the soaps especially the tops and the glitter. I would like to sign up for the email list because I can use all the help I can get. Thanks for doing that for us. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy the kids, yours are now old enough to ditch the boxes and actually like the gifts.
I usually work on Christmas and hurry to go help my Mom, but as a result I fail, I am tired and nervous and no one is having good time. So this year I will try having fun at work and bring some good mood at dinner.
We're not big on presents over here either. My dad can't be bothered to wait to give us the cool things he buys us lol. We make Christmas about time together and making cookies most of the time. We usually do an adventure with my grandparents (prioritizing time over stuff) like one year we rode the Durango Silverton and it was decorated to be the polar express, were hoping to do the aquarium probably next year, and it's so fun! This year, me and my husband are going to visit his family as his mom is struggling with some serious health issues and we want to go spend time with her as much as we can as she's going through this, it's bit of a trek as they're two states away, but we'll try to make the road trip fun too. His family is super big into presents and we end up with BOXES full of stuff... some of it I regift if it's more useful to someone else or other wise share when I can. They've been getting a bit more minimalistic the last few years, which has been nice as I don't have a whole lot of space for things
As a wedding gift my grandmother gave us a box full of batteries, note pads, pens, stamps, envelopes, highlighters, light bulbs, planner, and towels and washcloths (kitchen and bathroom). It was amazing. Some of those things are so cheap until you have to buy them all at once. She saved us so much money that I didn't realize I had to spend.
OMG the ultimate adulting care package, that's so sweet❤🥺❤️
@@rosaliac.386 It was amazing and I highly recommend it as a wedding or housewarming gift. I also forgot she put it all in a laundry basket, that is still holding on strong 14 years later.
Personally loved the original. The new one would feel more cosmic if the colours were reversed (dark outside with light in the middle) but right now it feels more like a whirlpool than a galaxy.
I really honestly love the original colors. It’s like a moody rainy night. I love it.
Something happened the moment we went from 2 to 3 kids and it became quick overwhelming.... that Christmas my mother inlaw came up with a coupon book with different amounts of "kid free time" we could call, say we are turning in a 4 hour kid free coupon, drop them off with her and had that amount of time to do whatever we needed/ wanted without kids. Not gonna lie I used the 2 hour coupon to take a nap 😅 best coupons I've ever received in my life!
This past year was full of some really hard financial hits, all 4 of my kids are in their young 20's so I said this year for Christmas let's just do like a second Thanksgiving, we'll all get together and have a beautiful meal, eat a bunch of food and dessert, listen to Christmas music, play board games, watch a Christmas movie and just enjoy our time with each other, they happily agreed. They were happy they didn't have to stress about money and buying gifts too. And we ended up having the best time and think we may continue this tradition. Not a single gift was exchanged except love, fun, memories and happiness. Idk maybe next Christmas of finances are better I will change my mind but we truly just enjoyed spending time together without the stress of having to buy gifts.
I’m a big fan of homemade gifts! Most of my friends/family are getting handmade mugs this year (I do wheel thrown ceramics). For my partner, I’ve spent all week handcrafting a miniature whimsical little dwelling (for a little cat figurine they always keep in their pocket for good luck) out of a seashell ring holder with a tiny window and housewares inside of it, all handmade by me from fabric scraps and balsa wood and embroidery and beads. I really put a lot of love into handmade things and I see you do too!!
I absolutely love how the soap came out! The new intended design is pretty but I do like all the colors in the original. 😊
I thought both were gorgeous, definitely not a fail!
The colors when you were pouring it are perfect for an alien soap! 👽
Love both versions! Would stub my big toe all over the kitchen to make something that pretty! As for Christmas plans I just moved to my new duty station in Spain, would have been alone but my neighbors insisted on adopting me.
Seeing the Sea Glass turning green in that first batch had me very nervous but the soap frosting is such a beautiful blue…
I am excited for this soap release and this is definitely one that I want! I love galaxies and stars so much. Might have to make sure I get in early to get more than one bar…
I absolutely love how this soap turned out! The colors make a very lovely blue marble effect, I would definitely buy a soap that looked like this one. 💙
I’m an illustrator, but for me painting skies, it always looks good to have a deep, purple blue be the base and have spots of brighter purple, maybe bright blue-green, and even some dark pink. Just a thought! Love these videos, Katie!
Aww.. I have a daughter a small handful of years older than you and Stella Luna is her favorite childhood book! Great reminder about gifting help. I used to do a paper tree on the wall with paper presents that had little things like that on it. keeping kiddos so mom and dad could grab a dinner, or a nap..baking things, cleaning things. All the adults got to pick a gift from the 'tree' :) it went out of favor as the kiddos grew and life got more hectic, but it was really awesome once upon a time ago.
Each of our 3 sons, 3 daughter-in-law's and 4 Grand Littles are getting a "Gift Certificate" for a project in their goodie bag. We help them with projects throughout the year, but these are for the bigger projects that they might not want to ask for help with. I can't wait to see what they come up with for us to do, it will be interesting for sure!
The first version is so Aurora lights! Love it!!
This soap turned out so pretty!! I loved that you mentioned Holo Taco because I was thinking the drizzle reminded me of the shimmer toppers she makes. I also love the accidental Stellaluna reference, that was one of my favorites! I also think the scents you used would smell great in a lotion or a perfume of some sort too!! I love your videos Katie and watching your positive attitude, it brightens my day. I don't really have plans for Christmas, but you've got me feeling a bit more festive than I was. Thank you for all that you do!!
It looked like the Northern Lights when you were pouring and the colors more green! So beautiful!
I really liked the first batch. But it's your craft at the end of the day ❤
The colours as you were pouring them look like an aurora 😍
My parents, 82 and 81, live around the corner from me. We will do Christmas Eve dinner together, my mom cooking her favorite meal to cook. Then Christmas morning, we will go to my brother's to watch my nephew, 12, open his prese to and have breakfast. Then we will have leftovers for dinner on Christmas day. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! Be safe.
I love my battery box, got it for Christmas a few years ago. It's great because you always know where your batteries are
I love the original soap! It's beautiful!
A note on the cleaning as a gift thing for anyone who may need to be told…. It only works as a gift if the person actually wants your help. You should not “gift” your help to someone as a way to tell them that you think they’re a slob and need to clean up. Just putting it out there!
I convinced my mom to let me buy a premade christmas dinner to help her not have to make everything from scratch. (She won't let me help, lol, so this is my solution.) We'll go over Christmas morning and open gifts, eat lunch and then go home. Now that the boys are older (19, 18, 16, 14), it is much more lowkey and just us spending time together.
That's a great compromise that gives her permission to take it easy on herself! Hopefully as you all get older, she'll learn to be okay with potluck style. It's the best way to go!
It gives me more of an ocean and mermaid vibe, which I love. If I i could buy it I probably would.
That Sea Glass is giving Aurora Borealis vibes! That would be a gorgeous soap!
I once took a big pack of batteries to a white elephant Christmas party (with a tag that said, “Gift not included.”) and, I kid you not, a fight almost broke out for those batteries. 😂
I love it!
Batteries are on my Christmas list every year 😂
Our Christmas plans:
We just moved from FL to NY so my dad is spending the night on Christmas Eve, the littles will be so excited for that sleepover. Making cookies for Santa, wrapping presents on Christmas Eve, and of course watching the grinch.
Later on Christmas Day we will visit my mother in law’s and grandma’s house!
The green colour in the beginning reminds me of the northern lights! So pretty
My daughter and her husband are hosting Christmas dinner this year. First time cooking a turkey so fingers crossed that we all come out okay on the other side 😂 All joking aside; her hubby is a pretty good cook.
It’s still 2023, your in the clear for 2024😂
This collection goes up in '24
@jessicaderstine4061 great input!
Right now it's just me, my husband, and my mom. None of us are materialistic, but we all get a lot of joy out of giving and we also enjoy having lots of things to open, so we always buys tons of little practical gifts. It looks pretty to have a mound of presents under the tree and it's fun for the unwrapping to take 3 hours even if what we open is all boring adult stuff. One year my mom got me a few dozen pairs of underwear and just wrapped 2 in each box until I had like 20 boxes to open of just underwear. I personally also love wrapping presents it's one of my favorite parts of Christmas, so having lots to wrap is a huge bonus.
It looks beautiful! It reminds me of a pre-dawn morning, like the sun hasn't come up yet but the sky is just starting to lighten.
I'm all for handmade gifts soaps, candles, quilts anything someone makes you is 10 times more special
Omg that second soap 😍 the first one looks good, but the second absolutely blows it out of the water! Those colors are just an absolute DREAM
My uncle used to gift all of us nieces and nephews gas gift cards when we got our licenses - best gift ever! 1 it relieves some financial stress of buying gas when your still a broke teen/ young adult and 2 it made us ensure we had that little bit of freedom that teenagers already crave.
I know it wasn't what you were going for but I still really like the colors on the first one! I've used that sea salt one before and boy does it change colors
No traveling this year. I've done enough back and forth the past week cause got my baby boy in the hospital so unless it's for fun when he gets out ,nope! Sincerely hope you and yours have a wonderful season 💖
I make home made candles every year for my co workers. I also sell them.
I am so with you on home made gifts. I also make beautiful beaded ornament drapes with crystals from Austria and seed beads from Japan. I think gifts mean more when they are of your creation and not a trinket bought in some store. For christmas Eve, we are playing games as a family, board, card ,dice etc. Then snacking all day long. Just being a family, with no stress. I also love your idea with coupons to help people. I give away ornament beading lessons. Fun for everyone who wants to learn.
my winter wish lists in recent years has been like 40% nerdy hobby stuff (dnd/pathfinder and knitting mostly) and 60% clothes/underwear bc i need new stuff and cant be bothered to spend my own very limited money on it (underwear is expensive when you need to replace all of it bc it's been too long!). my birthday is super close to christmas so my mom just splits my list in two. i'm an only child and on my mom's side the only grandchild, so i've grown quite spoiled by them especially bc i don't tend to get gifts from my dad's family (they have their own kids and grandkids to give gifts to)
This is the first Christmas that my fiancé and I will get to be in the same place! We've spent every Christmas so far with our individual families, but this year we get to spend Christmas Day with his family and then go down to my parents'. We're so excited to actually be together to celebrate Christ's birth!
Practical gifts are the BEST! My Mother in Law is amazing about that, and they're always so thoughtful and it's clear she pays attention to what everyone's said and what they actually need. I'm looking forward to getting some new practical things at my wedding, too! Though, as always, the best gift is just getting to spend time with people.
I also love experiences! Every year growing up, my sister and I would get show tickets in our stockings. It was something my parents would save up for, and we were usually high up in the balcony, but I will cherish the memories of getting to see live theater forever.
I love gifting experiences! One of my besties is super hard to shop for, but we like to go on cruises together. So, I buy her cruise excursions for her birthday and Christmas. 💗
I absolutely love your Jersey, a simple but gorgeous design with just the right balance of the colours, love it
We rented a bounce house for our grandkids from Christmas Eve to 12/26 as a gift- their parents are happy with them making memories with their cousins instead of a toy or something that will end up broken or tossed aside. I am also making them blankets and they always get a book
Christmas this year will be interesting:
Saturday - spending with my mom and Sunday - spending with bonus/ chosen family
Monday - morning with hubby and kiddo
Afternoon with in laws
For christmas, since my siblings and i grew up not really getting much in terms of gifts (something small from parents and grandma and 1 aunt but the rest of the family never bothered).. we started to make it our thing to get each others good gifts over the last decade.
Our system is simple: everyone makes a list of things they actually want to get with enough stuff at different price points that we can pick depending on our budget. Appart from my sister and i, the others don't ask for things that are easy to find through small businesses or hand made but they get things they want and need rather than useless things you guessed they might enjoy. We list the books we've been wanting and which versions, give some vague ideas too to leave some room for creativity.
For the kids (my 2 nephews), the parents make a list, we try to do second hand or useful things and sometimes a few of us group together for bigger gifts rather than overwhelm them with lots of things. For their birthday we got them a trampoline and then a few books to open on the day itself.
also i love the idea of chores or voucher for help as a gift. I might suggest that to my siblings who live close to each others, i live in another country so that wouldnt work for me unless they want until my summer visit XD
I love that you started talking about Holo Taco as I was painting Holo Taco Modest Moss on my fingers!
In the middle of this I was thinking those colors really remind me of the Northern Loghts!! So Beautiful!
I like the first version 😍
12:41 that is so true! I had to remake some batches last night because it didn’t go to plan. My strawberry swirl got all weird on me so I had to make a new one and it looks better already
I'm working overtime this week (at a bakeshop). I have made cookies at home for friends and family.
Christmas Eve, we moved our friends game bight to. We're doing a secret Santa. My husband and I are doing dinner and games up at his parents' house. Then, in January, we are traveling to do Christmas across Statelines. 😊
The world always needs more teal! 💚💙
My whole family rented out a beautiful log cabin bed and breakfast in Glen Rose. So excited for the fire place, hiking, fishing, and board games. ☺️
This soap is SO PRETTY. I love it. Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas to you and your whole family.
Lovely soap, and the scent sounds like it would be wonderful. My Christmas plans are I have to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I know that doesn't sound like fun, but I will try to make the most of it. I have a couple books to take with and read. I work at a E-Commerce fulfillment warehouse in Loss Prevention, so even though the warehouse is closed both those days our team has to be on sight in case something happens. Merry Christmas to all!
Sounds kind of peaceful. I hope you have some friendly coworkers or as you said, a couple of good books to read to make it a nice day. ❤
I think both look good. You may need to think of the blues as "grey" in the designs when you plan them out. You tend to like the vibrancy of the colors but blue is more tone based of a color then say red. For red the more "black" that's added the more the red gets muted (or browned) as it gets mixed with the black, and the pinker, or peach it goes when mixed with white. Blue tends to stay pretty faithful when mixing black or white. Again the first bar wasn't bad, different then your aim, but not really bad (I love blue and dark blue soaps)
Keeping red and black/white separate pops the reds vibrancy when used, but blue seems to be unique. It does lend some of its properties to purple but red does as well making it more of a versatile color.
My Christmas gift to my co-workers this year was to volunteer to cover the holiday shifts so they could be with their families.
My husband and I are having our first baby on the 21st so we will be spending Christmas soaking up being a new family!
I'm SOOO excited for this collection!
Yeeesss, looking forward to seeing chill, vlogging vibe Katie again 🥰
Happy Christmas to you and everyone at Royalty Soaps! ❤❤
My Christmas plans are definitely a bit more chaotic then originally intended. Celebrating with my partners family for Christmas, and then I have two friends families that I will be celebrating with afterwards. Definitely happy about all the love I get to experience 🥰. Happy holidays to you and your family!!!!
Even if you consider this batch a fail, you can't consider it a failure for 2024. You can't start the year that way.
My mom and I but things for each other that we need...I know that I am getting a new water pillow...I wish we could shop small for things like this but we couldn't. I am looking forward to getting this pillow since my old one sprung a leak several months ago. Water pillows are so good for your neck and back.
My mom and I spend Christmas together just her and I...it is a small quiet Christmas.
Love your sweater! Soap looks fab and watching the process with errors is super interesting ❤
Christmas eve is gonna be at my Aunt and Uncle's this year, my newly married cousin doing the hosting duties! Very exciting. Christmas itself will be lowkey as my brother and sister in law are spending it with her family this year, so just my parents and sister. 💚 Merry Christmas to your family!
Side note, this soap is SO cute. That scent mix sounds wonderful.
We are staying local for Christmas but have 3 separate events over 2 days. Christmas is weird for me because this is the 2nd year without my parents. Year 1 was a blur of grief and now I'm trying to establish new traditions with my family. 😢 It's hard to be merry and bright
I genuinely love the original. I hope you still sell it, because I want it!! 😂 I know it’s not what you were envisioning, but it’s beautiful!!
My holiday season is mildly stressful, I missed my last two entirely free days for shopping due to a chest infection, BUT last year and the uear before I had covid for Christmas so this is an improvement. And i should be better by the 25th
That blue moon mica is absolutely gorgeous 😍✨️
I thought yhe original doap looked wonderful.
I'm looking forward to cooking this Christmas. Mum and Dad are away on holiday so its just us kids (we're in our 30s lol) my little nephew is 6 and is crazy excited. He is making me excited with his joy.
My niece and nephew (6 and 4) are going to be in a Christmas pageant. My niece is going to be an inn keeper/angel and my nephew will be one of the kings!
I am staying home for Christmas this year. But I have been toying with the idea of sitting on the beach for a bit. I haven’t done that since I moved to SWFL 20 years ago. My favorite beach and the businesses around it took a lot of damage from Hurricane Ian. They have done a lot of revitalization, so I am anticipating good things. I can’t stay long in the sun because I “burst into flames,” but it really is a beautiful beach to spend a little bit of time. If I am so inclined, I can also wander down to the Gumbo Limbo Lounge (or whatever The Ritz renamed it) for lunch.
I think the colour pallet before soaponification was so PRETTY!. It looked exactly like an Aurora Borealis. (Northern lights) and it would work with your theme XD
Stellaluna was my favorite book as a child. 🥰
When it comes to cool colors, I wouldn't be afraid to add lots of blacks, it helps a lot
Beautiful!! Merry Christmas! 🎄☃️
My Christmas plans are moving into our newly bought home and unpacking everything 🤣 I’m so thankful though!
I love the 3 gift rule something they need something to read something they want, I agree kids don't need loads when they have big families n friends.
We are going to enjoy Christmas morning together with our family here in South Korea and then FaceTime with family in the States. My husband and I have bought more of our kids gifts from small businesses this year. Thanks for the inspiration.
Both versions look nice, though personally i liked the first one more :-) Have a wonderful Christmas
Our plans for Christmas is no plans. When I was a kid, Christmas was the most chaotic and exhausting day of the year and it was rarely enjoyable because we were carted from house to house to house in some ugly uncomfortable outfit and never got to actually enjoy the gifts and time with family. So my husband and I don’t go anywhere. We take our time and relax in pajamas all day while our girls enjoy themselves.
Hi Katie! Where can I sign up for the soap maker email list? I looked in the description box, but didn't see it. And Thank You for offering that!
I have that lovely sea glass color on my wish list.
My Formal dress (aka Aussie Prom) was basically that spacewalk mica as lace and tulle
I love the first one! It reminds me of the northern lights!
1) I actually thought you were going for aurora sky in the beginning..... I love it
2)i tried one year to do handmade but I suck at handmade 😂 cause I'm not artsy at all! Wanna try soap and candles as a handmade maybe for next year
3) for Christmas we're just traveling our country, South Africa whooa, cause we always go overseas so it's nice ❤
Please do more side angles of cutting the soap! Loved seeing it from a different perspective
I didn’t see anything wrong with the first soap. I liked the colors of the second soap, but I felt the first soap had more depth because of the different colors.
Its a gorgeous soap, right up my alley!
I use Sistaco, a nontoxic brand out of Australia, and they have done fantastic shade shifting colors!
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family
Merry Christmas everybody!!
I love Stargazing by NG. Such a pretty fragrance.
I feel your struggle with the blues. I did some landscape soaps this month and it feels like none of my blues and teals turned out the way I wanted them to unless I added neon blue to anchor them. But maybe it's just me being too picky LOL
Christmas will be a quiet affair at home, since not everyone is in town this year. Other than some tea I picked up for my dad from my favorite tea small biz (Friday Afternoon Tea!), all my presents are handmade. My dad is also getting some candles. Mom is getting some charcoal bastille soap. Brother is getting pumice soap and homemade surf wax. Everyone else will get soap from my hoard 🤭
The weather’s been so pleasant I might actually go camping for Yule!
Hi, Katie! Love your work as always. I'm doin g my solo thing; today meeting a bestie at the mall for fun memory times (we never shop at malls where I live) being obnoxious at the perfume counter, etc. I do visits and drop presents on porches all Christmas Eve and then video chat with faraway friends and family opening their gifts. I already got one gift; a brand new laptop! Making a small rib roast just for myself and hoping it snows.
Blues are my arch nemesis😑. Shelly, Chefs kiss to those embeds.
-Christmas Eve: kicks off with church, of course. Later that evening our 2 adult kids, kid-in-laws & grand-toddler will come over to spend time together, eat all the big spread of food & sweets I’m making, & open gifts. Both kids will take home a pan of my homemade cinnamon rolls. (When my kids were growing up I always made homemade cinnamon rolls & hot chocolate for Christmas morning.)
-Christmas morning: Nehemiah & I will exchange gifts to each other and just spend the day with each other.🥰
-The weekend after Christmas Nehemiah, myself, son & DIL will be traveling from NW Arkansas to North Texas to celebrate Christmas with my mom & siblings. I’m making everyone an ornament out of one of my dad’s old shirts. This is our 2nd Christmas without him😞
We just have a perpetual Christmas. Our grown children are not able to all come on one day. It is slightly better spacing them out but the cleaning and cooking never end. People go on diets in January because they are just too tuckered out to cook. LOL. I liked the soaps especially the tops and the glitter. I would like to sign up for the email list because I can use all the help I can get. Thanks for doing that for us. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy the kids, yours are now old enough to ditch the boxes and actually like the gifts.
I usually work on Christmas and hurry to go help my Mom, but as a result I fail, I am tired and nervous and no one is having good time. So this year I will try having fun at work and bring some good mood at dinner.
We're not big on presents over here either. My dad can't be bothered to wait to give us the cool things he buys us lol. We make Christmas about time together and making cookies most of the time. We usually do an adventure with my grandparents (prioritizing time over stuff) like one year we rode the Durango Silverton and it was decorated to be the polar express, were hoping to do the aquarium probably next year, and it's so fun! This year, me and my husband are going to visit his family as his mom is struggling with some serious health issues and we want to go spend time with her as much as we can as she's going through this, it's bit of a trek as they're two states away, but we'll try to make the road trip fun too. His family is super big into presents and we end up with BOXES full of stuff... some of it I regift if it's more useful to someone else or other wise share when I can. They've been getting a bit more minimalistic the last few years, which has been nice as I don't have a whole lot of space for things