HI everyone - I'm back home now. My mother in law passed away, not unexpectedly, but still - very hard times.
Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts.
The soap, as I mentioned before, is a nice distraction. And yes, the soap was just fine after it's elongated stint in the frig. The pumpkin batch (with pumpkin puree) looks fabulous - but so far, as with most pumpkin FOs (from what I read/hear) it smells mostly of spice and not of pumpkin. Time will tell if any actual pumpkin smell re-emerges.
The other batch is a maple syrup one - looks average, smells a bit like burnt sugar...lol
Of the other, older batches - "christmas tree" one is finally mellowing out - it is the only batch I've ever had to leave out on the porch (when it was fresh), or else DH threatened to go to a hotel!
(note to self - less FO on that one next time!) The gardenia finally backed off a bit, too - that one was driving
me right out of the house for a while too!
On a lighter note: I mentioned to DH that I thought I was about done making the soaps for the Christmas season. I thought he'd be glad to hear that, but he objected, and thought I ought to keep making a few more batches. Go figure!!