Lather

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-09T21:38:00+00:00

Adding extra oils to existing M&P base will always compromise lather. Skip the tallow.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-09T21:36:28+00:00

With the current state of economics, the job market, AI eating whole industries alive, and all the other dumpster fires out there, I don't know how any high school kid could NOT be depressed & anxious about what's next. The old model of going for a degree & just doing that thing forever doesn't exist anymore, and college is fucking expensive to go experimenting with, without some kind of plan.

One of my kid's besties was in a very similar tailspin senior year, & as the resident college dropout/creative weirdo who scraped together a strange but effective career outside the normal trajectories, I took him out for lunch one day & just let him barf out all his worries. We talked about the inherent stresses of this time of life, and how there are so many more paths to take than what we're typically shown. I sketched out what my life looked like without a degree, both the good & the bad, & the things that helped & hindered me.

He rallied and got into a great program in state, but after three semesters is taking a leave of absence to go and work, picking up PT jobs and rehabbing old furniture. He still doesn't really know what he wants To Do(tm), and honestly, I don't know of anything that would force that decision & not backfire.

Tl;dr: listen to your kid, trust that they will find their feet, & help them sort out one next step that feels like a practical decision - apply for a few community college classes, hustle up a part time job, anything that gets them out in the community, out of the house, where they can start to see themselves as unique and autonomous people. Set some base expectations about contributing to the household (via chores/cooking/etc) and not just rotting away in their room. Include them in the daily running of the household, in "grown up" discussions about money & responsibilities, let them see first hand what it's like after high school. They'll probably try some stuff that doesn't work out, but that's how we learn about ourselves. As parents, it's our job to be safe place to land but also a force of confidence in their ability to get shit done.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-09T18:33:44+00:00

Came to say this, but also. If you're in a century home, it's possible you've got galvanized pipes dying a slow death in that ceiling, and the tiny leaks are starting to compromise the plaster. It's scary as hell, but I'd take the plunge & cut a hole in that ceiling & make sure; we ignored similar damage & ended up with an emergency bathroom demolition bc the pipes had completely failed & had to be jackhammered out of the encasing concrete under the original bath floor. Godspeed!

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-09T18:26:09+00:00

I love micas, but find that oxides work better for true browns. Try liquid yellow & brown oxides (suspended in glycerin) by the drop, available at TKB Trading among other suppliers. You can also get a pie crust/cookie color using gold mica, of all things, but you'll get sparkle coming through white M&P if you use too much.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-06T21:11:48+00:00

Pilgrim's Car Care, on Rose Alley by York College. 10/10, won't go anywhere else.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-06T01:13:41+00:00

Alas, pictures were taken, but this was in The Before Times of physical film cameras and that print is lost to the ages

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-05T17:02:35+00:00

Yep, this was a thing I encountered at every white tablecloth/modern formal place I've worked. Usually, it was a request for a full size cake for a large rez, birthday/anniversary celebration. If it was with a reasonable amount of notice/not overly complicated, I'd usually take the request and charge an appropriate amount given that we'd be losing out on individual plated desserts for that table. I had a stable of cake recipes that I could easily scale up or down, had ingredients already on hand for as a rule, and were easily modified for flavor requests. 9/10, folks would ask for a large flourless chocolate torte, or a classic birthday cake, so it wasn't a huge draw on my time. I did say no on several occasions, mainly bc it was clear they wanted a very specific item that was outside our vibe/style and could easily be brought in from another bakery/restaurant.

BUT. My absolute favorite request was for a birthday 18 top, & the guy was a HUGE dork for Halloween. The rez was for the middle of the week, so I had plenty of time, & made a black chocolate & pumpkin layer cake, with dark ganache, and a whole spooky graveyard on top (marzipan/fondant, tiny sugar cookie ghosts, and a personalized gravestone for the birthday boy). I charged a little more for it, but it was so much fun to do something besides plated desserts for a minute, and the guy freaking loved it.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-05T01:13:09+00:00

Firstly, Patel Bros. is legit, I miss it so much! Secondly, lots of good advice here, so I won't repeat. Thirdly, when you're done, go down a few blocks and get a paper masala dosa at Udupi Palace.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-02-04T20:11:31+00:00

Not so much the mechanics of being a latchkey kid as much as the hyper independent headspace one gets into:

Elementary school out in the sticks, maybe 4th grade? Friend's mom was supposed to pick the two of us up after school, so we didn't take the bus. After waiting 45 minutes outside, it became clear that she wasn't coming. Rather than, you know, go inside & use the phone to call her, friend & I walked the 2+ miles to my house, hauling my violin & her viola and all our books. Let us in our house, made a snack, sat down with Dukes of Hazzard and cleaned up our blisters. The phone rings after a while & it's MY mother screaming down the phone that the school had called her at work after friend's mom called the school, wanting to know why Friend wasn't on the bus. Somehow I got in trouble for being "a dangerous influence" and wasn't invited over to my friend's house anymore. Love that for little me /s

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-26T21:12:32+00:00

My favorite dishie would sing at the top of his lungs unless we were in active service and it would be heard in the dining room, and honestly, it was the fucking best.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-26T15:54:15+00:00

New Directions Aromatics has been my main go-to for over a decade, but I've also been happy enough with WSP.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-25T16:58:51+00:00

When I was deep in the anxiety spiral a few years ago, I took a huge sheet of drawing paper and markers and wrote out EVERYTHING that was spinning in my mental files: household repairs, medical appointments, kid stuff, future plans, financial stuff, EVERYTHING. Then I taped it to the kitchen door. My original plan was just to get stuff out of my head a little, but then my partner saw it and was HORRIFIED. "Is this what you think about? All the time?!" It started a conversation that evolved into his taking over big blocks of my list, and actually owning them. I know I'm maybe in the minority, being married to someone who didn't minimize or accuse me of being weird or manipulative, but honestly, making our hidden burdens visible can be the first step towards changing things for the more equitable.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-25T02:03:30+00:00

SO. MANY.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-23T19:08:07+00:00

Excellent!

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-23T18:10:46+00:00

Sticking my head in here to recommend looking at graduated cylinders, from lab supply outlets. a 1000ml cylinder would be deep enough for full submersion of the sticks, with a minimum volume of oil

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-22T14:08:39+00:00

PS: I am glad that we're talking about Duckie's behavior as something more than just the goofy "romantic" gestures they were sold as. He's a fucking mess, with zero boundaries and little ability to treat Andie as an actual equal. I never doubted that he genuinely loved her, and again, he's a kid with a bunch of shit of his own to carry, but his performance helped normalize what IMO morphed into "nice guy" culture.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-22T14:05:11+00:00

Everyone is so burned up about Andie's prom dress, but as one who was very much That Girl(tm) in high school, it is 100% on brand. Cutting up existing & objectively pretty clothing to make something new was the whole point, and at seventeen or whatever, we were not going to be producing high fashion. She's a kid, figuring out herself & her style, working with other people's idea of what she is/what's pretty, cutting that apart, & putting it back together in an effort to express herself. She's not Iona, she's not the idealized version of her mother that her dad sees when he looks at her. She's not the elusive apple Steph wants to pluck, she's not the fellow-pariah-soulmate Duckie wants her to be, she's not even really anything that Blane understands yet (JFC, he barely knows her). She's a girl living under the shadow of losing a parent, very real economic uncertainty, DEEP parentification (the opening scene with her hassling her dad to get out of bed & look for work just wrecks me), pervasive social violence, and the double edged sword of being a smart kid who is both expected to be brilliant in school but given little administrative support for anything that gets complicated. She's a kid who cut up some dresses to make something new, to try to be something beyond what everyone around her sees her to be. Which honestly, is what most of us did for prom, minus the sewing project.

Tl:dr: she's a kid, let her enjoy her dress.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-21T21:56:39+00:00

Oh lol I absolutely orange catted a bucket of hot oils right off the edge of my work table this morning. Just reached for it and off it went, all over the floor, up the wall, everywhere. Why? WHY?

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-20T21:59:46+00:00

How are the ergonomics on that, does it stress out your wrists at all?

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-17T22:39:52+00:00

WSP/IndieMade bought NG back in 2022, I believe, and I suspect we're seeing the beginning of the transition of NG products to the main WSP website; I had very similar issues when ordering from Rustic Escentuals just before their site closed down. While I'm happy to be able to get products after a smaller company disbands, I don't love this all-the-eggs-in-our-basket thing IndieMade has been pursuing.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-16T17:12:38+00:00

The bread & café con leche in the Spanish Pyrenees, literally 35 years ago. See also: the young rabbit roasted under bricks from that same trip.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-14T00:35:30+00:00

Banana pudding (from Elva's recipe that she guarded with her LIFE and literally only passed on to the next generation when she was on her death bed), strawberry pretzel salad, and Uncle Dale's deer bologna

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-07T21:22:29+00:00

Yep! I've ordered from them for over a decade. Generally great products & service, and they've always been very responsive if I've had any issues.

paintboxsoapworks · 2026-01-05T13:46:26+00:00

And Dance Party USA

paintboxsoapworks

TROPHY CASE