We have been so busy with craftacular coming up.. so many great soaps are both in the shop here and on the racks curing. Here is just a little preview!!

This is Jackie Oh. She is a pumpkin soap made with pureed pumpkin and swirlled with imported Royal Mahogony Cocoa Powder from our friends at www.CocoaSupply.com. It smells like pure pumpkin deliciousness. The high content of cocoabutter in this bar really shines with the pumpkin. Im so proud of her.

This dark beauty is Snap. As mentioned below, it smells like yummy gingersnap cookies. It is made with a hefty dose of espresso to help improve circulation.

The Breakfast Bar: You should know a 500lb woman lives inside of me (and she is slowly making her way out) and I will add coconut milk to just about anything, including my oatmeal. Then top that off with a coconut milk steamed latte and its absolute heaven. But whats interesting is as many of us who have had skin issues know, oats are so amazing for your skin so on top of gobbling it up, I try to include oats in as many products as I can. Coconut milk adds moisturizing qualities that are enhanced by a 13% cocoa butter addition. Coffee is said to increase circulation and help draw toxins from your skin. What does that mean to you? It means when I threw in that can of coconut milk and added my good whole oats then included that in my cocoa butter rich soap recipe and topped it off with some good old Bustelo, I not only sacrificed a yummy morning treat for weeks of smooth moisturized skin– it was for a DAMN good reason! The sweet aroma is due in part to the high cocoa butter content and the sweet coconut milk and oats in this bar.

These are just a few that I have put up in the shop. And yes, I am totally exhausted, but its so worth it. My house smells amazing. Im listing half of each batch on etsy. The rest are coming with me to Craftacular on December 6th at the Metropolitan Pavillion. Be sure to stop by and say hi and feel free to bring me snacks (two years ago I almost passed out from not eating all day because I was so busy wrapping soaps!) Speaking of Craftacular, the Cutest Boy in the World surprised me with this today!

Yes those are Monkeypoo HOODIES! Thats me

and Gabby modeling them. He also got me two t shirts!! Im so excited I could hardly contain myself.

Hello lovelies!! Wow this week has been so productive that I pretty much forgot that today was the day we found out whether or not we got into BUST’s Holiday Craftacular. Pretty much the hottest holiday craft show in NYC.  The good news is, we are in. It will be Monkeypoo alongside my sisters in the Bridge and Tunnel Craft Society, Qassa Inc, and Elkie Soto Designs. Come find our booth, it will be the one that will smell like heaven.

Today is my first day working for myself, and I hit the ground running. Current vendors have been contacted and local people who were literally stopping me in the street asking me to go full time have been contacted. Everyone has been so supportive. For years I have built my soap company while trying to hold down a full time job.  Too many times, the soap company did really well, and I had to chose between MY company or sitting at a desk typing briefs for someone else.  It was always a scary but amazing dream for me to go full time with my company and finally give it the chance it deserves. My soap is amazing. And its mine. And it deserves a chance.  Im excited to get my soap out there so people can experience, what has become my baby, my soap recipe! I feel like how Mrs. Fields must have felt when she knew she had THAT cookie recipe.

This friday, Leila over at ingredients supply.com brought me over about 10lbs of coca butter and dinner and drinkage. Im so lucky to have such great people around me and totally excited to get more involved in her company which is selling .. get this.. chocolate and coffee supplies. So, yes, part of the job description over there is to try chocolate and coffee products, and as Leila and I will tell you, that is pretty much our specialty in life, period. lol. If there is one person that knows her good chocolate its her, which is probablyl why we are best of friends. Her company has been supplieing chocolate makers for over 30 years and she certainly knows her chocolate stuff.

At any rate, this is all very exciting and I promise to keep you all updated! 

BTW, my new office that is in my bedroom facing the window is FIERCE!

Love, peace and poo

Jessie

Let me make one thing clear. I am a MEAT EATER. Im sorry, everything is better wrapped in bacon to me. With that being said, this chili is vegetarian but you do not miss the meat AT ALL. Im not sure if its because of the bbq sauce in the baked beans or what.. but who cares. Its delish. The first time I made this was in New Orleans at my moms house. I saw the recipe in one of my soap forums, but I modified it a bit. My friend Lexie was coming over and she is a STRICT vegetarian.  This was something we all enjoyed and it freezes very well. Its also even yummier the next day! Lots of protien from the beans. Vegetarian peeps make sure the BUSHs beans are not with Bacon! If you are a meat eater go ahead and be a big whore and throw in the kind in with the bacon. Its on the crock now so this pic is it when I first threw it in.. better pics soon to come if I can take a moment to stop stuffing my face with it to shoot a pic. That may be highly unlikely so dont get your hopes up.

1 bell pepper chopped
1 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 can garbanzo beans (drained)
1 can black beans (drained)
1 can chickpeas (drained)
1 can kidney beans (drained)
1 can of Bush’s baked beans
1 can of corn (drained)

1 can diced tomato not drained

1 tsp of salt

1 tsp of cumin

2-4tbs of chili powder (depending on how hot you like it)

1 few dashes of hot sauce (I like franks red hot)

Throw it all in the crockpot. Combine. Set it on High for 5 hours or low for 9. This is a good one to put in the pot in the morning and go to work and have dinner ready. Serve with sour cream, corn chips and a sprinkle of cheese.

In an effort to not spend this fall the way we spent last fall (crying over boys and forcing ourselves to only listen to Ricky Martin because we couldnt listen to anything else) my Wifey (Leila) and I decided to go apple picking. Seriously, why the hell arent we gay?!? Really we would be the best friggin wife and wife team ever. I was feeling blue because I was broke ASS after buying plane tickets THREE TIMES in three months so Leila of course as per usual, took care of me, and invited me apple picking complete with apple cider donuts. Apples are the one joy that I get when Fall comes, cuz lord knows that first day of having to put on a jacket (which was today, btw) makes me want to cry. Perhaps I have seasonal depression. Who knows. After the kids picked apples from the trees and filled heavy ass bags with them we schleped them to the car. Trying to figure out what we could do. Then it occured to me. Holy shit. Apple Butter. So wifey and I drove to the cooks supply store near her and got some jars and split the bag of apples and proceeded home to start our crockpots and slow cook the hell out of those badboys.. 

The recipe was as follows:

2 cups of sugar (this was way too damn much.. I say cut it to one)

8 apples cored and peeled and diced

2 tbs of cinnimon

2 tbs of crushed allspice.

Mix all that yummy goodness together and throw it in the crock. Cook on high for one hour, then low for 7 hours. At about 5 hours it will start to look mushy. Hit it with a stick blender to smooth it out and let it continue to cook. Your house will smell like Santa is in your attic with his elves (not in a creepy way)  and you will feel happy and want to do corny things like bake sugar cookies and knit. I promise. Yeah I said it. I hate on knitters cuz I cant do it.. adult add wont let me count stitches.  Anyway after this I had two jars of yummy apple butter that we have been eating with homemade bread and its pretty damn amazing. Just another reminder of how far we have come. Take THAT Ricky Martin!

 Gabby scoping an apple at the top of the tree.

  Wifey Leila

Me doing this pose for the third time because we couldnt get my camera to work. Yes I cut my own bangs. Dont judge me.

This week has been a little crazy, Im getting ready to head to California (Napa Valley, what what) for a family wedding. The kicker is I am going to see my sister for the first time in 20 years. I know, everyone is all pissed and confused as to why that is, but lets just say my family is colorful to say the least.  I am also going to be connecting with the lovely Ms. Laura of Flying Colors Tatoos! Im so excited I can hardly contain myself. This is well worth the alpo dog food lunches I have been having to eat in order to pay for this thing at the end of summer.

Another little slice of heaven that was bestowed upon me, this time by Ms. Veronica was Panda Bread a friggin LOAF of bread made to look like a panda with chocolate and green tea! I seriously had to smoke a cigarette after Veronica sent me this. I think I may still have that afterglow going on. Hit that link and get the instructions which were translated from Japanese to english. Hope your Grams to oz conversions are good. Im so down to do this, its not even funny. I mean, I think I get aroused just writing this post.. does that make me creepy? Say yes. Its ok because if getting excited over food that looks like animals is wrong, I dont want to be right. 

OOF, what a productive weekend!

Monkeypoo has been absolutely crazy busy. I finally got around to making a logo. A poo. Yes, a poo. I wanted a loveable poo and didn’t know if that could be pulled off.  When my desktop got a nasty virus, I lost photoshop, so I couldn’t even begin to design it.  Well, thank god for my awesome neighbors downstairs. My machine is now fixed and photoshop is back, so I got down to bidnass last night revamping logos and banners and stuff and I’m pretty much loving my little poo. I think I need to make a poo plushie.

 I also just listed some superyummy avocado soap that was created when I tweaked my recipe a bit.. I was trying to incorporate more cocoa butter in the recipe without losing lather.  I also wanted to increase my olive oil content without making the soap too soft.. A few batches were ok, but the winner is definitely the Avocado soap I made using a tweaked variation of the original recipe. This variation has 11% of cocoabutter, which is soapmaking land is quite a bit and has a supercreamy lather. I tested it in the shower and it is exactly what I wanted! Success! It’s so mild too, this may just be my new fav. Perfect for the upcoming colder months. 

 So I got bit by the sewing bug this weekend. I am back to my nights being up till 2:00 am  sewing or making soap or bentoing (is that word?).  Nikki and I are discussing making a coat, and I’m super stoked for that! I also whipped out the old vintage patterns and there is a skirt in there that I am really excited to make. It’s a high waist half circle skirt with a tie around the waist and pockets.. Im thinking yellow mustard lightweight wool with some lining..

 So the project on Saturday was this little totebag.  I had the bee fabric for about a year and did nothing with it. I also had the floral paisley ish fabric for a year. I remember buying it and adoring it so much.. I saw it next to the blue and was like.. BAG! The outside is really simple, but the inside is tricked out with pockets on the side and a strip of Velcro for a matching card holder… so you don’t have to go digging for your cards, and it making it harder for people to pickpocket your bag (shoot.. we are in recession people! Times are hard on the boulevard!). You cant really tell by the crap picture, but the bag is actually pretty big.  Big enough to fit a laptop. Its totally interfaced so its nice and sturdy. I tend to walk by it and stare at it lovingly quite often.

Last night was bento making night. We usually make the bulk of the bento the night before and chop up the fresh fruit and veggies in the morning so they aren’t all gross from sitting in the fridge. I have to say I love this one.  Bumblebees!

 Gabbys Tuesday Bumblebee Bento

 These little guys are Sesame ginger rice balls on a bed of lettuce stuffed with sautéed veggies. Off to the side is baby seedless grapes, grape tomatoes.  To the bottom left is sliced dried mango. The other box is a simple cold whole wheat pasta salad with a dressing of olive oil and apple cider vinegar and basil with sliced tomato and turkey flowers. On the side is sliced kiwifruit.

Jessie

Its Friday everyone! If I wasn’t so exhausted, I would be totally jumping up and down because this week even though it was short, totally dragged! Excuse the craptastic photos as I STILL have not found my USB cord. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

 Last night Gabby had her first day of a ton of homework so I told her I would handle the bentoing.  So this is what I came up with. The bagel is a whole wheat bagel stuffed with cream cheese and jelly (Gabs loves that ) with Nori for the spikes on the dinosaur.  I got the idea from someone on the justbento blog. This one is not as well executed as the one on the blog (shoot it was early in the AM and I was TIRED when I had to cut and set up those kiwi slices and mama monkeypoo is not a morning person!). I managed to find Kiwis on sale so I sliced some of that up as well.

 I’ve been trying to focus more on the balance of food in her bentos. So I added the kiwi as the fresh fruit and in the second box, made her a salad of fresh greens from the veggie stand, flower shaped beets, sliced turkey and cheese. The little plum tomatoes are decorated with Nori and we had plums on sale this week at the fruit stand so I picked her up a sweet delicious sugarplum.  This is the ONLY way Gabby will eat a salad. Let’s see how much she comes home with.

 I’ve been on the hunt for these little tube things for the bento boxes that hold soy sauce, or salad dressing. I think I may have to venture out to flushing this weekend to try and find us one.

 In other bento news, My friend Nikki sent me a link to this bento being sold at Urban Outfitters (hiss hiss). Gabby saw it and lost her mind immediately.  Even though I hate Urban lots of the time, I may have to go pick this badboy up.

 Aside from an adventure of eating an empanada taster dish from Blend, and watching bridezillas until the episodes started repeating themselves, Joi and Gabby started talking sushi, then Gabby’s addiction to these Japanese erasers which she carries with her everywhere (never know when a miso soup eraser may come in handy).  Then the topic of Gabby’s new Japanese bedroom redo came up as I whipped out the sushi fabric Mary gave me that I haven’t figured out what to do with. So it began. The making of a sushi pillow was absolutely necessary. I mean, HELLO, who doesn’t need to rest their head on a piece of fluffy soft salmon?!? So, using Gabby’s eraser as a guide, Joi totally just cut out a pattern and began sewing. It was all pretty amazing really. She just like that, cut the pattern..sewed it up and stuffed it. I personally was in complete awe as I shoved more spinach empanada in my yab.

 Anyway, once it was done, it was friggin adorable. I was feeling a little insufficient that day.  My brain has been stuck on “website” and soap recipe mode for a while, and my awesome new industrial strength sewing machine has been collecting dust in the corner, giving me dirty looks (fuck you sewing machine, I’ve been SICK!). It actually makes me guilty, and causes me to eat the guilt away with large amounts of warm chocolate mug cake, but know what.. that stimulates the economy because I then have to pay $70.00 a month to the shi shi gym by my apartment so that my ass doesn’t expand to the size of Texas.  It’s the circle of life, my friends.

 Anyway, here are pics taken by me of Joi and Gabs and Nikki in Joi’s constructing the sushi pillow at Stereoette  headquarters aka Joi’s awesome apartment in Long Island City.