We had a sobering event last week. A DDoS attack.
It appeared briefly on Thursday afternoon and the website was unavailable for an hour.
On Friday afternoon, the website disappeared again. I needed a password to change our server, but the company who hosts the website (not Zeald, the website provider, who worked tirelessly all weekend to fix things) keeps gentlemen's hours and doesn't work over the weekend. I couldn't get the password until 9 am Monday. It took two minutes to fix then a few hours for the change of server to kick in.
I couldn't do any work all weekend so we had a great time watching season 4 of House of Cards and being grateful that it wasn't an earthquake, a drone attack, or a bomb and that we were all fit and well.
For the curious, a DDoS attack simulates millions of computers trying to access a website at the same time. This puts tremendous stress on the online infrastructure, and can make access to a website difficult, or impossible.

Gorgeous heart soaps Make these gorgeous heart soaps filled with roses. All you need is our heart of roses soap mould, some M&P soap base, mica for colour and essential oil for fragrance. Red mica and geranium essential oil go well together. Clear M&P will give brighter colours than white or goats. Each soap will take about 20 minutes to set so if you have an evening free and only one mould, you could still make a heap of them. They are just so lovely. One of our favourite moulds.   LOVE soap Or make a Valentine's Day gift with our LOVE mould. You'll need the mould, clear M&P base, red mica and a fragrance: rose fragrance oil is nice. Mix the mica and soap base and pour that into the letters first. Let it set, then pour clear M&P into the rest of the mould. Very simple, but really effective.

Organic beard oil (Makes 100ml) For a gift, put in 20ml dropper bottles. 40g organic argan oil 30g organic jojoba oil 30g organic hemp oil Combine the three oils in a beaker then fill 5x 20ml dropper bottles.

Colour blocks for M&P soap Each block will colour 1kg of M&P soap to the shades shown: clear (left) and white (right). Very easy. Just melt the block along with your clear or white soap base and stir gently to blend.

Turtle in a red cap It wasn't until I looked at this mould carefully that I realised the turtle had a cap. It looks really cool. This mould was poured in two parts. 1. The hat: clear M&P and red mica. Pour this into the hat part of the mould. Leave to set. 2. White M&P with green mica and a fragrance of your choice. Mix this and pour into the rest of the mould. Leave to set. Unmould carefully.

Our favourite sheep in black Quite easy to make with M&P soap. Pour white M&P into the head. Once it's set, pour clear M&P mixed with black mica and fragranced with whatever you fancy. Once set, cut off it's wee legs and pour white M&P into the holes. Unmould once it's hard.

A great Xmas gift idea. Send a gorgeous pot of French clay. Three to choose from, with instructions for use on the label. The pic shows the green clay. Clay mask recipe: 2 tbsp clay. Mix with enough water to form a paste. Apply to your face and leave on for 15 minutes. Wash off.

Delightful honeycomb M&P soap Yesterday I made a great little M&P soap that could be a good gift idea. It was poured in three parts. 1. The bee was made from clear M&P with gold sparkle mica. Pour that into the bee part of the mould and leave to set. Doesn't take long as it's so small. 2. The white honeycomb part is just white M&P. Pour carefully and scrape away any soap that is on the hole part of the comb. Leave to set. 3. For this, use clear M&P and add 1 tsp of honey and half a tsp of litsea cubeba essential oil. This gives the clear soap a yellow tinge and a lemony fragrance. Leave to set.

Bubble cakes Dry ingredients 240g baking soda 240g sodium cocoyl isothionate (SCI) 45g cream of tartar (you'll need to get this from the supermarket) Wet ingredients 30g glycerin   30g cocamidopropyl betaine 30g lauryl glucoside Extras 1 tsp rose essential oil, cosmetic grade 1 tsp red mica Method 1. Stir dry ingredients together. Add the rose essential oil and stir in. 2. Melt wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients. 3. Put on some gloves and knead the wet and dry ingredients until they stick together. 4. Divide the ingredients in half. Add the red mica to one half and knead in to blend. So now you have a lump of white and a lump of red ingredients. 5. On separate pieces of clingfilm, flatten each lump into a rectangle about 5mm thick. Place one rectangle on top of the other and roll up into a log. Cut slices and leave to dry overnight. To use, place a slice in the bath under the running water.

Now stocking NZ kaolin clay. Make your own kaolin face mask. Take 2 tbsp kaolin, mix with enough water to make a paste. Apply to your face with your fingertips and leave on for 30 minutes. Wash off. Clay in CP soap MIx 30g into about 1kg of soap mixture when the soap is at trace.

New in today: Calcium bentonite from NZ!! We love having NZ-sourced ingredients. Bentonite is great for soapmaking and skincare. To make a mask, mix 1 tbsp bentonite clay with enough water to form a paste. Apply to your face, or skin generally. Leave on for 30 minutes and wash off. In CP soap, I would use about 30g for each 1kg of soap.

Dead Sea mud powder Our Dead Sea mud is no longer available, so we have imported the powder for you to make the mud yourself. This is much better actually, as if you are using it immediately, no preservative is necessary. If you want to keep it for longer, you can choose what preservative you use. To use: Mix with water to form a paste (about equal quantities of powder and water), apply and leave on the skin to dry for 30 mins. Rinse off and moisturise.

Shaving butter (Makes 300g) Ingredients Step 1 96g cocoa butter deodorised 48g coconut oil 12g almond oil Step 2 2 drops rosemary essential oil 1 drop peppermint essential oil Step 3 96g aloe vera gel 1 tsp white clay Method Melt Step 1 ingredients. Let it solidify. When it is hard, add the Step 2 ingredients and whip. Add Step 3 ingredients and whip again. Spoon into containers. To use: Apply a thin layer to the skin and shave.

Beard oil, organic Beard oil, organic (Makes 100ml) For a gift, put in 20ml dropper bottles. 40g organic argan oil 30g organic jojoba oil 30g organic hemp oil Combine the three oils in a beaker then fill 5x 20ml dropper bottles.

Most of us can't afford the real thing, so we've just managed to buy some sandalwood fragrance oil from our favourite perfumerie in Grasse, France.