Christmas plea

Hello everybody! Long time no see...

First of all, let me say I will be posting this exact same thread in 3 different forums: Soaps-n-Lotions, Bubblin' Bath and Crafts and Soaper's Crafts. And the only reason I'm not posting it in NW Soapers is because, ever since the “fracture”, I've been unable to log in in there.
Some of you may feel somehow betrayed because of it. The reason why I'm doing it is simple: I want ALL my soapmaking friends to know how I feel right now. If some of you don't like it, my apologies.

So...It's finally Christmas. Time for celebration. Yipppeeee!!! Yet, somehow, right now, I feel like the loneliest man in the World.
Why?
Well, a few days ago, after more than a year not making a single batch of soap, I finally put together the money, and got to work. Now, after seeing the results, I came to realize 2 things: first, how much I have learned from all of you about soaping since my last batch in 2009, and second...I have nobody to share my results with.
Why is that? Well, because, as it stands, if I want to share those results with you, I'd have 2 options: to post the same thread in these 3 forums, and risk somebody being offended by it, or to choose which friends to share it with, which is simply not gonna happen. There's just too many people on these 3 (4) forums I owe what I am today, for me to be able to make that choice.

So that brings me to the purpose for this post. Like I said (and you all know) it's Christmas Eve. Can we PLEASE find it in our hearts to forgive those who have offended us, and/or to apologize to those we have offended, and go back to being ONE BIG, HAPPY SOAPMAKING FRIENDS' FORUM?

In WW1, English and German soldiers found the strength to stop killing each other in the trenches, and celebrate Christmas together. Do you guys think we can do the same?

Sorry everybody for the rant. I just had a crappy year.
Merry Christmas to all.

Bernardo.

Ino, i am so happy to hear from you and also that you have made some soap. . . i am soo curious to hear more too. . .
i wish you had a great xmas. . . i know great is all relative. . . My xmas this year would have sucked by most accounts but it was spend with friends. . . Working hard throughout the whole of xmas day. . . Painting the last of our new rental house. . . So i am thankful for what we have done. . . it needed to be livable after yesterday and it qualifies but barely. . .
i have barely soaped myself in the past few months. . . but with moving into the new place every weekend i am looking forwards to starting to soap again. . . i am the king at putting things off some times too though. . . at least i am brimming with excitement though. . .
i so do understand and appreciate your posting this. . . i have honestly been out of it for the past few months. . . my memberships at our friends forums expired got renewed and expired again as i didn't always log in. . .
What happened before is really past and gone as far as i'm concerned. . . i bear no lasting grudges or ill-will. . . I never were really directly involved in any case. . . i suppose the internet is fluent enough for some kind of balance to establish itself at some point. . . which ever and where ever that balance would be i'd be ok with it. . . for this forum i set out to be fair and respectful to others opinions. . . As long as people come here. . . And post here i'd also be around i think and hopefully posting more in future. . . as i would also post elsewhere. . ..
I have just been thinking of you this xmas weekend and about your harp... I'm hoping to be soaping and cutting soap soon and my thoughts had been going towards a project... will see what happens...

Hey Riaan, I'm so glad to finally have some news from you. It's been a while...
I did make a batch of bar soap (nothing special, other than the fact that I used purified BDG, so the soap was almost white, which means I could swirl it ), and I'm aiming to make a liquid soap with the leftovers.

I did have a great christmas, with friends (and later on, hugging a bottle of Argentinian hard cider for the remainder of the night ), and I'm happy to learn you did too. We deserve a break every now and then, don't we?

Congratulations on your new place! You do understand the need to post pics...don't you?

I knew you wouldn't hold a grudge. I hope nobody does. I don't really know what happened, so I don't want to look like I'm not giving the issue the importance it may have. I know you guys wouldn't take such an action without a very good motive.But I just want us all to be together again, so we can all discuss things as a whole. Now I just found out that Mike seems to be MIA, and NWS is closed...

What Billie and you did with your forums is amazing, and you both get all the respect in the World from me. But I'm sure you'll agree with me that the results are not there. If it was up to me, I would LOVE to get all the members from SMF () here. I think all 3 forums are much better set up, and the atmosphere is beyond comparison. But the fact is that most people will rather stay there, and deal with all the BS, just to have access to the member base.

You mean the "Tankalike"? It's still running strong...
But I've been thinking for some time about a much more elaborated version of it. One not designed for cost, or ease of construction, but for pure performance, including some features that not even the original Tank has. I don't think I'll be making a tutorial on it (as it's looking like a complex build), but I'll post pics, if I ever have the money to build it...

So, that's about it. I hope something will happen. I hate seeing my friends mad at each other. In any case, I'm happy I'm back here, hopefully for good.

I'll see if I can post pics of the soap today...

Rome wasn't build in a day and it wasn't build by one either... NWS also existed for a while until it picked up and got to be what we knew...

Speaking of NWS... I have really wondered about Mike too... ! with all that happened I do hope that he is OK... he really has disappeared from all radar and I would really like to know that he is doing well... one thing to be peeved off but that fades eventually and if anyone knows more about him it'd be cool to know that he is OK...

I am hoping to walk through the house this weekend or next and to take some pictures at last... it was still a mess at the end of last weekend and i didn't feel like showing it half done... getting shelves from IKEA this week to set up a soaping workspace in garage... hopefully that'll be done as I can't wait... I have frozen chicken fat... and breast milk that has been promised me... my previous breast milk soap was pretty damn awful looking but now after 6 months aging it feels awesome... too bad so many people refuse to touch it when hearing about the breast milk inside...

will get everything sorted soonish and i'll be posting pics for a change...

Hmmm...didn't know that. I thought NWS was created after the SMF "debacle"

I'd like to have news from Mike as well. But for what people say, he's been absent for a while. I can only hope he's ok...

Wow...! Ikea is in Taiwan too? Is there a place on Earth where they don't have a store?

Chicken fat? I'm glad somebody got over the yuck factor...
Believe me: you will love it!
I would LOVE to make some breastmilk soap! Who knows? Maybe I can find a donor in the future...

hmmmmmm I might be wrong... I often am... hehe! But I thought the SMF debacle as you call it breathed life into an already existing NWS... the way I had it it was created after a dish debacle... who knows...

I have had that chicken fat solid frozen for a while... I'm assuming it would be OK... Hope it is... I'd have to render it anyways... hmmmm I am pretty experimental... if you can eat it why not use it? emu/chicken... can't see why one would be better than the other...! Interesting to see their fatty acid make up compared too... or ostrich for that matter... isn't it about the fatty acids anyways?

I am so hoping to be hearing from you more regularly again... and I hope this will be the last crappy year for quite a while...! I'm also dreaming of the same kind of forum you describe... I am resolute to be more active in the new year!! I hope you'd be too... and that so to would be all of our old guard... To a very happy, prosperous and busy new year!!

Hmmm...I've never been to the Dish, but for what I read from you and several others, that place seems even nastier than SMF...

If the chicken fat is frozen, you should be ok. Just make sure to render it in the microwave oven, so it won't get brown...

I'd think it's about the fatty acids, and maybe any other substances that may be present. But we only look at 8 fatty acids, when in reality there's many more. I wonder how those other FA affect the final soap...

I'm hoping I can stay for good. Right now, my life is still pretty stressful, so I'm not sure I'm gonna have the time (or the energy) to be here and in the other forums regularly, but I want to. Let's see what the new year brings us...
I hope so, for all of us. We've definitely had enough crap for a lifetime...

I'll drink to that! Very happy new year for you too, my friend, and everybody in here. And let's hope 2011 brings us the prosperity this year has denied us.