Stumbling Blocks or Five Surefire Paths to Failure

Click here for Day One: Examine Your Starting Point of 'Designing your Best 2011!"

Click here for Day Two: Determine Your Values
Click here for Day Three: Visualize Your End Point
Click here for Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration/Word for the Year (and a wee small contest!)

We've all been there - excited, rarin' to go and totally pumped up about a new goal or commitment that we make. And then a few weeks later, we find ourselves not keeping that commitment and within a few months, we pretend we never made the commitment to start with. I've done that. Everyone has done that. It's human nature to make Big Hairy Audacious Goals and then let them slowly dwindle into nothing as life and time hammer us. I am going to touch upon the Five Surefire Paths to Failure when setting goals and give you tools to overcome each of these stumbling blocks.

1. You made a goal because your sister, husband, brother, mother, teacher, boss thought you should make it. You never truly committed to it.

I fall prey to this stumbling block often. I have a huge advisory board of people, all carefully vetted and chosen to help me along my path in business and life. Over the years, some of those advisers have given me downright bad advice. But, it sounded good at the time so I followed it. But ultimately, their goals weren't the same as my goals and so I let those goals go. 

The way to overcome this stumbling block is by doing exactly what we've done for the last three days: Determining our Values, Figuring out our Dream Future and using these tools to Create SMART goals.

2. Your lifestyle is years away from allowing you to reach the goal.

Yes, we all want to find time to work out 60 minutes per day, six days a week and cook healthy home cooked organic low fat veggie-filled meals daily  (or is that just me?) but the reality is that very few of us, unless we're independently wealthy or it's our job to look good (a la movie stars) have that sort of schedule that allows us infinite amounts of time or resources.

Look at your goals. Do you realistically have the resources (time, money and/or support) to achieve your goal? If you are a Mom, working 2 part time jobs and getting your soap business off the ground, perhaps making a goal to become President of the Neighborhood Association AND the PTA isn't a wise goal. You are lacking in the 'time' resource part of the equation. But, what you could make a small, reasonable (yes, realistic!) goal around is becoming more involved by attending one Neighborhood Meeting per month and going to one PTA meeting per month.

3. The goal is so big, so hairy and so audacious that there is no chance of meeting it.

In business school (well, at least the one I went to!), they taught us to dream big and make HUGE goals that were so big that they inspired everyone around us to help us reach those crazy, insane goals!  I went along with this and have some insane goals from that time period of my life. And that's okay. But for yearly goals, we want those goals to actually be achievable in a year.  Take a look at your life (see step 2) and get real (see Day 1 of our Planning Your Best Year Ever series). There is absolutely no shame in downgrading or simplifying your goals. My goals for next quarter are laughably simple because my life is changing so radically with the addition of our baby boy into our family. But, laughably simple or not, they are still goals that get me along the pathway to my ultimate dream family and business life.

4. You always break promises to yourself. Why will this one be any different?

This is a toughie. Ultimately, lack of willpower is a character and practice issue. When you lie to yourself, it's easy to lie to others. When you break promises to yourself, it's easy to break promises to others. You are the most important person to always keep your promises to. Willpower and keeping promises to yourself is a daily practice. It is not easy. It is not a born, innate skill. It is a learned skill. It is something that is often a 2 steps forward, 1 step back type of practice. But every single 2 steps, 1 step gets us more along the path of ultimate success with willpower. 

Wondering how to strength your willpower muscle? I wrote an article about it here.  Additionally, there are tools you can use - simple things like setting Outlook calender reminders for your goals, buying Apps for your Smart Phone to put your goals into or gathering up a team of helpers (your kids!) to help keep you on the straight and narrow. 

You are important. You are too important to continue breaking promises to yourself. Deliberately use 2011 to strengthen your willpower so that you can bust through any mental barrier set in front of you as you move through your goal list for 2011 successfully.

5. You don't have a written plan in place with a support network.

This is my number one dynamic duo success tip. It did not originate with me. Many wiser people (including Jesus in the Bible) found that there is dramatic power in groups. I've written about this concept of Accountability Groups before (here, here and here). It is such a valuable success tool that this post would be remiss in not pointing it out, again. The concept of an accountability group is simple. Choose 2 people (not 1, it's too easy to let things slide when it's only one person you're disappointing) and commit your goals TO PAPER and share them with one another.  Make up your weekly and monthly plan and have it, on paper, to share with your accountability group. Check in with one another and give yourselves consequences and prizes.

Over the years, I've had a variety of differently structured accountability groups. My current one is comprised of three businesspeople (two guys and me) and we use DropBox to upload our goals and our progress for those goals to every other week. We speak on the phone every other week about our goals and meet in person 1 time per month to talk about our goals.

We have PAINFUL consequences for not meeting our goals. My consequences range from buying each smoking member on our staff cigarettes for the week to donating $250 to a charity I abhor. We also have celebrations and rewards for meeting our goals (as if the reward of meeting the goal wasn't enough). Mine all revolve around cupcakes (no surprise).

Additionally, the important people in my life know about my goal and verbally give me cheering on to help me make the goals. In some cases (like date night with my husband weekly), they're part of the goal! It's important the people you are close with understand your goal so they can help support you in it. For example, if your spouse knows that your goal is to make yoga at 4:30 p.m. on Mondays every week, they will be less likely to expect dinner on the table by 6 p.m. on Mondays. 

These are the major stumbling blocks I've experienced in my life as I've made goals, broken goals and succeeded in goals. If you have any stumbling blocks and great solutions, please share and post them here. I love group learning and I know there are more solutions out there than just the five I've listed.

Tomorrow is the big wrap up and a fun contest to kick off the New Year right! As for tonight, celebrate responsibly ... =)

Naiad Soap Arts Project: Snowflake Soap

Buy everything you need in the click of a button! 

Kit does not include the snowflake cutters or scale.

Materials: 

• Snowflake 5 piece cookie cutter set
• 2-3 oz Bramble Berry white soap base
• 17 oz Bramble Berry clear soap base
• Super Pearly White Mica
• Shredded Iridescent Glitter
• Liquid Blue – non bleeding
• Fragrance of your choice – I used Bramble Berry's Santa's Spruce for this one.
• 2 cup capacity containers or glass microwave safe measuring cup
• 1 cup capacity pyrex containers or glass microwave safe measuring cup
(if you have two, 2 cup capacity pyrex containers that will work just fine!)
• 8 in. x 8 in. Glossy Silicone Square mold
• Scale that weighs to a tenth of an ounce
• Clean cutting surface
• 2 Plastic droppers – one for fragrance, one for soap
• 1/4 Teaspoon measuring spoon
• sprayer with rubbing alcohol
• food thermometer
• cup with just under boiling water
• plastic wrap

Directions:

1) Melt 5 oz of clear soap in 2 cup microwave safe measuring cup – about 1 minute. Add about ¼  teaspoon of shredded glitter and set aside.

2) Melt 1.5 oz of clear soap in 1 cup microwave safe measuring cup - 20-30 seconds. TIP: add a little white soap or more mica to make it more opaque! Add ¼ teaspoon of Super Pearly white Mica.

3) Pour clear soap with glitter into the bottom of the silicone cake pan – spray with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles.

4) Pour pearly soap over the clear soap in a thin horizontal and vertical lines about 1 inch apart. TIP: – make sure soap is not too hot at this point or your lines will bleed into each other and you will get a solid sheet of pearly soap. 

5) Using your wooden skewer or toothpick start slowly at one corner creating swirls in the soap using long motions in a diagonal to the cake pan. Time permitting do lengthwise lines perpendicular to the cake pan as well. The soap will form a skin quickly so work as fast as possible. No matter what happens the swirls will be perfect! If you have air bubbles spray with rubbing alcohol. Let soap set at room temp for about 20 minutes.

6) Now that the first layer is all set up, we are ready for the second layer! Melt the remaining 12 oz of clear soap in a clean pyrex about 2.5 – 3  minutes

7) Mix 10 drops of BB liquid non bleed blue plus ¼ teaspoon of super pearly mica – you can add more or less blue to your liking but we want it dark so that there is nice contrast with the pretty swirls you just made. I like the non bleed blue here. After time a bleeding color will muddy up the swirls. Add 6 -8 ml of your fragrance oil. Really scent it well since the first layer is not scented.

8) Spray the first layer of soap thoroughly with rubbing alcohol and pour your blue soap over it – make sure the blue soap is not too hot, you can use the food thermometer to make sure it is about 120 degrees. We don’t want to melt the first layer! Spray with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles if necessary. Let that set up for another 20 minutes or so, until it is completely set up.

9) Yay! Our soap is ready for cutting – remove the soap from the cake pan by gently peeling it up starting at one corner, and pulling it away from the cake pan. Lay it on your cutting surface with the swirl side up.

10) Using the 4 inch (the one in the middle) snowflake cutter from the set cut out 4 snowflakes from the sheet. Press on all edges until the cutter is completely through the soap – a small plate works well to press the cutter into the soap.

11) Using the small detail cutter in the set cut six times on each of the six sides. You want the two pointed side of the cutter to be on the same plane as the first indent, and the single pointed side to be facing the center of the snowflake as shown TIP: use the wooded skewer to pop the tiny piece of soap out of the cutter! Do this for all 4 snowflakes.

12) Next fill in the cut outs with white soap. First lay out a piece of plastic wrap on your table and gently press the soap onto it, swirl side up. We want a tight seal between the bottom of the soap and the plastic wrap so that we don’t get bleeding on the back of the snowflake.

13) Melt the remaining 1 oz of soap. Lightly spray cut outs with rubbing alcohol.

14) Get the cup of hot water ready. Using a plastic dropper fill the cut outs with white soap. It is ok if you don’t fill them all the way – it looks pretty like that! If you get a little white soap on the face of the snowflake just wipe it away with your finger tip while the soap is still liquid. Make sure to clean the plastic dropper in your cup of hot water!

15) Spray with rubbing alcohol to remove air bubbles. Let set up and let the rubbing alcohol completely evaporate from the surface of the soap.

16) You are finally done – a what a lovely reward! They are pretty from the front and the back!

Save all of the leftover soap – you can use it in another project or re-melt it with a little more blue to use as the second layer of another sheet of snowflake soap!

Shrink Wrap or package in a poly bag with ribbon!

You can even use your wooden skewer to make a hole in the tip of one of the snowflake sides and string a ribbon through it for a pretty “soap ornament”!

Chunk Into Goals - Planning 2011

Click here for Day One: Examine Your Starting Point of 'Designing your Best 2011!"
Click here for Day Two: Determine Your Values
Click here for Day Three: Visualize Your End Point
Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration/Word for the Year (and a wee small contest!)

Today is where Day One, Two and Three come together in one glorious whoosh of activities.

1. Read through your Values. Is there anything in your Values that isn't currently being actively fulfilled or worked on? For example, if Family is a value of yours but you never see yours, a goal around family time seems like a natural. Write down possible goals for the areas that have holes in your Values system.

2. Read through your Essay from yesterday. Where are you on that path way? Write down 10 concrete baby steps you could take in a year to get you closer to your dream house, body, partner or whatever you wrote down.

3. Look at the following categories and pick 5 (only 5!) to work on for the year:

Financial
Spiritual
Physical/Health
Fitness
Leisure Time/Recreation
Career
Family
Public Service
Business
Health
Artistic
Learning/Intellectual
Living Environment
Personal Relationship
Psychological/Attitude

Write down possible goals for each of these 5 categories. You can write down potential goals for each of the categories but the bare minimum is to write down goals for your top 5 categories.

Putting it all together

Do any of the above categories have a natural fit with the answers from #1 (Values) or #2 (Essay)? Now it's time to make some tough choices. What are you going to choose as your Top Five Goals for the year from all of the options (1, 2 & 3)? At this point, don't be surprised if you have 5 or 20 worthy potential goals. Remember, goals need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant, Time Oriented). I've written a few times about what a SMART goal looks like. If you need a refresher, here are 3 posts on SMART goal setting (here, here and here).

You should come out of this exercise with 5 worthy goals for 2010 based on your Values and your Idealized Life Essay. With the knowledge and understanding you gleaned from Day 1 (our ruthless self-assessment day), you'll be well on your way to being 100% successful with your goals in 2011. Tomorrow, I'll be taking a short break to post a fun winter tutorial (soap!) but on Friday, I'll be back with a post on overcoming obstacles and pitfalls when on your path to achieving goals. 

Great changes may not happen right away, but with effort even the difficult may become easy.

-  Bill Blackmun

Visualize Your End Point

Click here for Day One: Examine Your Starting Point of 'Designing your Best 2011!"
Click here for Day Two: Determine Your Values
Day Three: Visualize Your End Point
Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration/Word for the Year (and a wee small contest!) 

"If you don’t know what you want, don’t say you never had a chance" Napoleon Hill 

Have you ever started out on a trip and not gone to your trusty Garmin, or MapQuest or iPhone to figure out what turns to take? If you're like me, you haven't. We all love the magic of technology when it comes to actually getting to our destination and without getting (too!) lost. In order to get that accurate road map though, we need to know our final destination. We need to know the exact address of where we're going. 


It's the same exact way with our goals. We need the final destination in mind. And not any destination. We need the specific address - the very specific final goal. Do you want to live in a new house? Don't just say you want to live in a new house. Say "I want to live in a new house with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a pond for my dog to swim in and a 5 acre yard for my son to run around in. I want that home to be in this specific neighborhood. I want this home to cost XYZ." 


Do you have a weight loss goal? A fitness goal? A business dollar amount goal? A new partner goal? Anything and everything you want in the future can AND SHOULD be incredibly specific. 


For this exercise, we are going to do a free form writing exercise for 20 minutes. The goal is to not let your pen leave the page. Not once. Keep writing. Even if it feels like gibberish.  You can write longer if you want but if it feels like just forcing yourself to write each and every word, just give it 20 minutes for me.  I want you to answer one very specific question:


In 10 years, when my life is ideal and I have reached all of my goals, this is what my life looks like.


If you read my idealized future essay, it is incredibly specific. It details getting up in the morning, the sheets I have (yes, they're high thread count), the state of my white hotel-like bathrobe (fluffy and soft!), my polished toenails in slippers, what I see when I leave the bedroom, who is waiting for me at the table (yes, it involves children - plural!), what we eat at breakfast, how the conversation goes, what the emotions are at breakfast (enthusiastic children, loving partner, healthy breakfast food) how I get to work, what car I am driving, where I drop the children off at school. 

It's all the details plus the global stuff - how much we travel as a family, how often we see grandma and grandpa, how my business functions with and without me, how long my staff stay with my company etc... If you read it, it reads like the most perfect idealized life in the entire world. It is absolutely reaching for the stars and more. Much much more. And as kooky as it sounds, just dream with me for 20 minutes. Just do it so you can work on your final destination and get that end point for your personal road map clear.   

Ready. Set. Write!

Determine Your Values

Click here for Day One: Examine Your Starting Point of 'Designing your Best 2011!"
Day Two: Determine Your Values
Day Three: Visualize Your Ending Point
Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration/Word for the Year (and a wee small contest!)

My Values

One of the reasons that goals are not achieved is because the ideas behind the goals aren't all that fully formed. The initial excitement wears off as soon as real life starts to wear you down. Sometimes, the goals aren't the right goals. Maybe the goal to become an Engineer was your parents' goal and not yours. And more often than not, your goals aren't being made for the right reasons.

Making a solid base for your goals success starts with a figuring out the 'Why' behind your pursuit in life. Why do you do anything? What's important to you? And, the most important, how do you want to live your life in the future?

If you've never done a Values exercise, they're quick, easy and painless to do. I think they're fun! There are a lot of ways to come up with your values but this is the one I like to do. Set aside at least 15 minutes for this exercise but don't short change yourself. Take as long as you need to make sure you come up with values that are very reflective of who you are as a person.

1. Write down five people you respect and admire; an alternate method is to write down the five people who have had the most positive impact on your life.


2. Write down six qualities for each of these five people (so you'll have 30 adjectives written down ideally).


3. Circle the adjectives that you think resonate most with you and your life. Aim for five or six values. 

Bonus: Ask three people close to you if they feel the values you've chosen for yourself ring true. I did this with 8 close friends and they all had valuable feedback for me. 

That's it - it's that simple! You have a great start on what your values are as a person. I have three sets of values that I live my business, personal and family lives by: one for my company, one for myself personally and one with my husband for our family.

The values you decide on are what are going to guide you through choosing well thought out goals that really resonate with you and your life. These values will be the filter with which you judge your potential goals: "Does this goal fit within my values?" Or, these values will direct your goals. For example, my core value that drives everything in my life is my Family. If my goals aren't aligned with the idea of Family at the center, then it's time to reevaluate those goals and the value. Am I just paying lip-service to the idea that Family is a value? Or do I need to change my goals to fit my values?

Here are a list of possible Values that will hopefully get you thinking about things that describe your favorite five people. It is by no means a comprehensive list - just a little zing! to get your creative juices flowing.  Ready. Set. Write!

Designing Your Best Year ... Ever!

I feel a bit like Oprah with that pronouncement but so be it. The reality is that having your best year ever requires work and planning. And that's what we're going to do for the next five days.

Day One: Examine Your Starting Point
Day Two: Determine Your Values
Day Three: Visualize Your Ending Point
Day Four: Chunk Into Goals
Day Five: Stumbling Blocks
Day Six: Public Declaration (and a wee small contest!)

Long time readers of this blog won't be surprised by this subject matter. I write about the same thing this time of year, every year. I choose not to feel anything but professorial in this consistent repetition though. Greatness doesn't come in a day and gentle reminders are always a good thing. I read a lot of personal development and business development books yearly so everything I'm saying today and the rest of the week is an amalgamation of what I've been reading this year (and my entire life). So if you're reading this and feel like you've read something similar before ... you probably have. =)

If you're looking back over the year and wondering why your year didn't go as planned, congratulations! You're in good company. Many use the end of the year as a time for reflection and planning. And the first step to making next year different is to do a full autopsy on 2010. It's time to figure out what is going to make your plans different this upcoming year so that your goals really do become your reality.

Step One: Get RUTHLESS. Today is not for the weak. Today is for a clear, level-headed assessment. Pull out your calender for the last year. Make a hot drink. Get in a quiet space. Grab the tissues. Grab a pen and paper. Find thirty minutes. Plan for an honest assessment; don't spare yourself. Being kind to yourself has a place in most of your days but this is not that day.

Step Two: Look at the goals you set out for yourself last year (Didn't set goals? Not to worry. If you had set goals, where would you expect to be today? There's still a place for you to have an honest self-assessment, starting with "Why didn't I set goals? What held me back?"). Which goals did you make? Write out your 2010 goals (or resolutions) on your sheet of paper. Check the goals off or put a line through them if you successfully completed them.

Step Three: Look at the goals that are left without a check mark or a line. Spend a minimum of FIVE minutes on each goal, writing down, free-form like a journal, what happened with that goal. Answer these questions:

(a) What happened? What physically held you back? What emotionally kept you from making this goal?
(b) What could you have done differently?
(c) Is the goal still important to you?

If the goal is still important to you, go back to (a) and write out all the corrective actions you should have taken and that you can take in the upcoming year. If you notice that all of your answers to (a) are things like "So and So did XYZ and so I wasn't able to...." turn the mirror on yourself, and take a hard look at yourself again and take personal responsibility for what you could have done. (I've railed on this subject before. If you'd like a personal kick in the pants, read this blog post).

Step Four: Re-read all of your answers. Are there any patterns? Is anything jumping out at you? Now is the time to really mine the reasons that you didn't make those goals and ensure that whatever needs to be changed for next year really and truly does get changed. Answers can range from: "I'm terrible at setting goals. Of course I wasn't going to lose 120 pounds in one year!" to "I didn't make it a priority in my schedule" to everything and anything in-between that.

Step Five: Now is the time for your grace. You were ruthless with yourself. You objectively looked at what went wrong for the last thirty minutes. Now, let it go. That was last year. This is now. You've done the play-by-play. You know what went wrong. You can fix it in 2011. And now, we can start this year off with a clean slate. Pssst: are you still feeling down? Yeah, you were pretty hard on yourself. Quick picker-upper? Write down all the things that you DID accomplish in 2010 that you are proud of, whether it was a goal or not. There. Now are you feeling better? 

Stay tuned; tomorrow we'll get to work on 2011 by starting at your very core, your foundation, your base: your values.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you had (are still having!) a fantastic holiday with your loved ones. My family is a bit spread out this holiday:

Hi Mom and Dad in New Zealand!

Hi Erik and Cherris in San Diego!

And, hi from me and Chris in Bellingham! 

Whomever you celebrated with today, I hope you had a fantastic day filled with a lot of laughter and joy. We spent the day with my in-laws and were so excited to see that Santa had written little Annamarie (that's my very young sister-in-law's name) a note. I've copied her note as well as Santa's response below:


Dear Santa,


For Christmas I would like a huge pack of gel pans and a CD player. Is it true that if people don't believe in you that they will get reindeer poop? Please write me on the back. Please. 


Thank you,


Annamarie




Dear Ana,


Thank you for the shortbread and candy cane. The reindeer also liked your treat - very thoughtful. I'm sorry you didn't visit me this year, however, because your request is very late.


People who don't believe get a life without mystery for Christmas. Reindeer poop is rare.


Merry Christmas,


Santa

Naiad Soap Arts Project: Bird on Branch Mini Cakes

Oh, I said I wasn't going to bake this year but this project with the bird.on.branch mold has been waiting to be created for some time now and the holidays and a cold rainy day finally inspired me to get it done! (the rain does not make for great pics so please excuse that!) You can find my original bird.on.branch mold at Bramble Berry. Originally intended for soap making, the mold material is PERFECT for molding chocolate so I have two - one for making soap and one for making chocolate. I have provided a gluten free vegan recipe for the cake as well as links/resources for vegan chocolate and cream filling if you want to make this project all Vegan.

This is a lengthy post so read the whole thing before you begin. :)

Ingredients:

• 12 oz of white chocolate (I used Guittard melting chocolates)

or try the vegan white chocolate
• 1/4 oz food grade cocoa butter 

• Oil based food colors in green, yellow and red

• bird on branch soap mold from Bramble Berry

• small paint brush, medium paint brush, clean and never used for paint

• small ceramic or glass microwaveable containers for melting chocolate in microwave or double boiler.

• shallow pan with water to keep chocolate melted (optional)

• protective gloves or hot pot holders for handling hot containers

• whipped cream, or chocolate mousse. (for Vegan frosting check out the book Babycakes)

• Chocolate (or vanilla depending on your preference) cake cooled and cut into pieces. You can use homemade, store bought or boxed cake, or try my gluten, dairy, egg free chocolate cake! (see recipe below)

• 8x8 inch cake pan

• cooling rack

Chocolate Cake Gluten Free

Modified from Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods to make the cake, soy, dairy and egg free as well!

• 1-1/2 cup Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour

• 1 cup Brown Sugar

• 1/2 cup Cocoa powder, unsweetened

• 1 tsp. Baking Soda

• 1 tsp. Baking Powder

• 1 tsp. Xantham Gum

• 3/4 tsp. Salt

• 1/2 cup Almond Milk (use rice milk for nut allergies)

• 1 cup Virgin Coconut Oil melted plus more for pan

• 4 Tbs. Applesauce

• 1 tsp. Vanilla

• 3/4 cup warm strong brewed Coffee

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your 8” x 8” cake pan with coconut oil. In a medium bowl mix together dry ingredients with a whisk until blended. In a separate bowl combine Almond Milk, Applesauce, Coffee and Vanilla and stir well. Add your wet ingredients including Coconut Oil into your dry ingredients and stir thoroughly. The mixture will be thick. Transfer to your greased pan. Spread out so the mixture is even. Bake for  30-35 minutes turning the pan 180 degrees halfway through baking. Cake is done when an inserted toothpick or knife comes out clean. Take the cake out of the oven and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife along the edge of the pan and invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely.

Cutting the cake for the mold:

• Using a serrated knife cut the edges and top off of the cake.

• Cut the cake in half

 

• Cut each half into three equal rectangles

• Cut the bottom off of each of the rectangles and then slice the rectangles in half. You should be left with pieces 2 inches wide, 3 inches tall and ½ inch thick. These will be the middles of our chocolate covered cakes. You should get 12 slices total.

Method:
1) Melt your chocolate per package instructions in the microwave or a double boiler. Melt two containers with 5.5 oz of white chocolate each, and one container with 1 oz + 1/4 oz cocoa butter.
 2) Once chocolate is melted, color one of the 5.5 oz containers of chocolate with green and yellow oil based food colors until desired color is achieved. Add red color to your 1 oz of white chocolate and cocoa butter mix until you get a nice dark red.
I kept my chocolate melted in a pan of hot water but you can pop the chocolate back into the microwave at any time to re-melt it!
3) Using a small brush or popsicle stick carefully spread green chocolate into the recessed bird and branch part of two of the mold cavities. Do the same with the white chocolate in the other two cavities. You may get chocolate outside the edges and this is ok. Once the chocolate is set, about 5 minutes, using a small piece of paper towel rub off unwanted chocolate. You can use the tip of your finger to smooth out rough edges as well.

4) once the chocolate is set spoon white chocolate over the green bird designs and green chocolate over the white bird design until you get an even coat on the bottom of the mold. Let set about 10 minutes - you can pop it in the refrigerator to speed up the process.

5) Once the bottom chocolate is set using a popsicle stick or butter knife spread a coat of chocolate on the edges of the mold in the same color that you used to coat the bottom of the mold. The chocolate will be thick enough to stick to the sides. Set upside down to cool, another 10 minutes or so.

6) When the chocolate is set, spread a thin 1/4 inch layer of your whipped cream or chocolate mouse into the bottom of each of the mold cavities. Press one piece of your cut chocolate cake into each mold so that the cake sits below the edge of the mold cavity. This is so that we have space to top off with more melted chocolate.

7) Top off each with melted chocolate. Tap the mold on the counter to eliminate air bubbles around the edges and fill with more chocolate if necessary. Let set up on the counter for 20 minutes or in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

8) When the chocolate is set it should easily separate from the edge of the mold. Press down around the edges of each cavity to release the chocolate. Put a cooling rack on top the mold and flip the mold and rack over to invert the chocolates on to the rack. You may need to gently press on the molds to release the chocolates.
NOTE: The first time I unmolded these I made the mistake of trying to unmold them individually onto my hands. They all ended up falling out and the chocolate cracked so be sure to use a large plate, cookie sheet or baking rack to do this.

9) Use your small brush and your red chocolate to decorate the cakes!

BrambleBerrians Take Over Fred Meyers

It's the holidays so it's time for our Bramble Berry Holiday Tradition: Salvation Army Family Adoption. Bramble Berry Inc. adopted eight families this Christmas season. Eight years and counting, the Bramble Berry staff donates their time (and the CEO’s money!) to help less fortunate families during the holidays.

Kristin in Processing with a cart full of presents!

We're extremely grateful that we’re able to share some holiday cheer with those in need. It’s a fun bonding experience for the entire team (whom we affectionately call ‘Brambleberrians’). You can’t help feeling warm and fuzzy inside. There’s generally tears shed by at least one or two people on staff every year.

Leah in Customer Service deciding on a perfect doll.

As the Bramble Berry holiday tradition continues, we shopped for 20 children and 17 adults on December 14th, buying warm clothes, food, toys and Christmas dinners, sure to bring smiles on Christmas day.

Baby Braiya (belongs to Katy in Pulling) helping pick out toys.

Last year Bramble Berry was able to buy presents for over 20 people. With the increased budget and more people to buy for, the staff split up the family members and disperses through out Fred Meyers. We end up with a receipt as tall as an adult and a check out line around the corner and then several people always blink back tears. Fred Meyers participates in the fun too by providing an expert checker, opening up a special lane. That helps a lot!

The receipt is as tall as me (in heels)!

See The Salvation Army Bellingham Corporation for donation information.

Read about Christmas shopping trips from the past on the Soap Queen Blog, 2008 and 2009

Bramble Berry in 3-D

We have been working on something behind the scenes for month and we can't hold back any longer. We're going 3-D! Or rather, our molds are. Our brother company (really a brother company since my little brother runs it), SoapMolds.com is pleased to announce that we have purchased the entire Heavy Duty 3-D Mold line from Spinning Leaf Inc.

What this means to you:

Bramble Berry and SoapMolds.com will sell the ENTIRE line of 3-D molds (previously, we had a little less than half) with more secure stocking and bulk rate (wholesale) options for sales.

Projects we've done with the 3-D molds in the past:

Heart Valentine 3-D Molds
Alien Head Soap
Loofah Soap on a Rope
Soap on a Rope - Basic Instructions
3-D Molds - Trimming
3-D Molds - Layering & Coloring Detail
3-D Molds - Pouring & Fill Line
3-D Molds Set Up

Official Press Release after the jump

Magical Soap Swap Express (Photos)

We're done with the Magical Soap Swap Express and judging from our Facebook page, lots of our fun swappers are getting their boxes as well. It was EPIC! Thank you to all who sent in beautiful soaps (cold process and melt and pour) using Bramble Berry fragrances! It was a smashing success, entirely thanks to Amber's help and organization (judging from the gifts that were sent in for Amber, I'm sure many you swappers talked to Amber and loved her just like we do).

 Our Cold Process entries: Oatmeal Stout and Cranberry Fig. 

Click the links for the recipes.

On a whim one day (in October, right before our 'busy season') I thought it would be fun to have a soap swap with the Bramble Berry fans on Facebook...so I posted the idea (without talking to my team first) to see if anyone would be interested. To my surprise there were 100+ people who loved the idea. Thankfully, my team forgave me for not asking them. I realllllly didn't expect 100+ swappers or else I swear, I would have asked! The soaps started rolling in like thunder and we opened each box with Christmas morning excitement. It was so much fun to see soaps made by Bramble Berry's fabulous customers. Hundreds of jaw dropping soaps scented with BB fragrances and essential oils filled our soaping studio - I was in heaven! Check out just a fraction of the swappy, soapy eye candy...

Cold process category

Cold process category

A few melt and pour entries

Though Amber did (not kidding) 90% of the work, I did manage to swoop in for the last 10% of the individual soap wrapping, boxing up and final shipping labels. Amber and all of the amazing swappers deserve all the praise for the successful swap. Thanks again for everyone's participation. I feel so lucky to be involved in such a close-knit and talented soaping community. Looking forward to the next magical soap swap!  And yes, this time, I'll ask my team before I schedule it.   

Part 2: Using Silicone Molds with M&P - Tips and Projects

In my first post about using silicone molds with melt and pour soap, I gave some tips about using these intricate molds and how to avoid surface flaws.  Today I will touch on using different bases and colorants, how to enhance the designs, and how to make a cute jewelry filled soap purse (click here for the mold).

Using different bases and colorants:

The neat thing about these molds is that they can have a lot of fine detail and a variety of textures.  To get the biggest impact, experiment with your mold to see if clear, pearly (clear base with mica color), or opaque shows off the design the best.  You will find that each will have a very different look depending on your mold.  For the purse, my favorite was an opaque base with pastel color.  For my Typography Soap mold (which I made), I prefer clear with just a hint of color.  There's no hard-and-fast rule about what's the most effective because all designs are unique!

Enhancing the design:

Sometimes you want a little extra "oomph."  I like to use a cosmetic blush brush and some pearly mica to do just that.  First just use the mica in the lid of your jar.  This will be plenty.  Just swirl your brush in the powder, tap it on the lip of your jar to remove any excess and gently brush the surface of your soap.  By going light, you can control the intensity of your color.  See what a difference the mica makes? 

Jewelry Box Filled Purse:

For a quick and fun version of the ever popular "toy in soap" idea, here is a fun way to play up the purse shape. Take a lip butter pot and fill it with acrylic craft gems (you could put something special in there, but I did have some soap seep inside, so keep that possibility in mind). 

Next, fill your mold 1/4 way with soap and allow to form a thick skin.  Make sure to pop all bubbles so your layering isn't noticeable.  Now close the lid on the lip butter pot and gently push it into the soap skin.  Hold it for a few moments to let the soap "grab" and solidify.  Then spray the jar with alcohol and top off with soap.  Allow to harden and unmold!

 

I hope you have enjoyed my posts about using these super fun molds.  It's so incredible what shapes can be made!  You may even want to try your hand at your own original designs with Bramble Berry's Flexy Fast!

Here's a little silicone mold entertainment.  Enjoy!
-Debbie
Soapylove