wooden soap boxes

My sweetheart husband just finished building my soap boxes.  He even stamped Appegarth Soap 2011 on all the boxes.  They took several hours to make, and he enjoyed building them for me. First he cut all the parts out, then glued and nailed them all together with a nail gun, then he put clamps on overnight to make them all tight while the glue dried.  He plans to put brass nails in all the corners like the one above, and I'll apply a mineral oil to preserve them on the outside.  Before making these I looked up online to see what size the boxes should be, and never could get a basic mold measurement.  So we just got out a few bars of soap with sizes we liked, measured them, and made our boxes in 2 different sizes. 

The 2 smaller ones are 12 x 41/2 inches,  and the 4 bigger ones are 24 x 41/2 inches.  These are all interior dimensions.  I figure I'll be able to get roughly 10 bars out of the small ones and around 20 bars out of the big ones.  I'll need to calculate the volume of soap I need to make to fill each one, so I make the proper size batch.  To start with, I'll make smaller size batches, since I'm still learning and don't want to botch a bigger sized batch.   I still need freezer paper to line them, and a handheld mixer, then will be ready to mix and pour my first batches.  This whole soap making process has really evolved for me over the last month, and I have learned a lot. We've had quite a few rainy days in a row, so this has been a good indoor project.  I have 4 essential oils to start with, Mint, Lavender, Cinnamon and Lemon grass.  I will be getting more scent variety in the days ahead. 

This Spring, I'll be spending rainy days working on soap and spring cleaning my house, and on nice weather days, when we finally get a few dry days in a row, I'll be out planting my garden.  This is the time of year gardening takes over much of my time, especially April and May, I'll be out every chance I get.  June and beyond is weeding, watering, some successive planting, and harvesting.