Canadians welcomed here

Commenter Ikkinlala asked if Canadians were allowed to enter my giveaways, and I just wanted to let her, and other Canajuns know, that the answer is yes, of course! In fact, I believe Diane is in the drawing, and she hails from Great Britain. I'd never discriminate against my fellow Common Wealthers (being a Canadian living in the U.S. personally...well, I have dual citizenship, but it's only recognized by Canada as such).

My opinion is that if I weren't prepared to shell out the money to ship outside of, as well as within, the U.S., I should state so explicitly on the giveaway posts.

Hope your Tuesday is as pleasant as mine is so far!

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Tuesday's Random Thought

If a blog is posted on the Web, and no one is there to read it, will it still make a sound?This was meant to be a little like Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts. I had a much longer, ponderous write-up to go with it, but really, I lost interest in it half-way through, and knew everyone else would too. ;>

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Giveaway reminder, and lovely thank-you notes

Just wanted to remind everyone who hasn't entered the Winter Blues Giveaway yet that they have until Oct. 1st to do so. The second My Vice Giveaway will end November 1st. Bon chance (the kids have their last French class on Wednesday)!

The Operation NICE blog has some beautiful, free Thank You note cards that you can down-load and make someone's day with. My gratitude to Suzanne for bringing that blog to my attention.

Hope your Monday is filled with good things!

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

A variety of things

First of all, the first 2 photos are in response to Gracefruit's post asking about one's favorite pots and pans. This top one is a cast iron chicken fryer that is good for pretty much everything we need to fry.This next one is an all-purpose 6.5 quart pasta pot that boils water really fast. It's light-weight so I'm thinking it's aluminum with a stainless steel coating. I think we'll be really sad if it ever broke for some reason.We spent a good part of the day yesterday processing apples and peppers to dehydrate them. I washed everything, dh sliced, and the kids ran the apple peeler as well as placed the slices on the dehydrator trays.Here are the peppers, all dried and shrivelled.The kids, bagging them up.Well, back to cleaning bathrooms...

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Papermaking, an art and a good time

I must thank Gracefruit again for doing a swap with me! It's propelled me to make paper which I hadn't done in a while. I find that I really love it. I vacillated between wanting to surprise her and announcing to the world what I'd made so far. Guess which side won?

The first little batch I made I'm calling "Sun and Sand." It's a yellow-tinted paper lightly scented with Bramble Berry's delightful Seashore fragrance. I made it so Elizabeth could on to summer for a little longer.

The second batch is called "Chamomile Blues." It's a blue-tinted paper, scented with Bramble Berry's Chamomile fragrance oil, and is flecked with bits chamomile which we grew and dried. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.

Here are a couple of photos, but they don't really do the actual papers justice. The top one is the paper drying on a piece of glass.This next one is a close-up, but it's hard to see the flecks of chamomile.I'm brainstorming on the next theme.

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Harvests, etc.

I didn't have a whole lot to write about, being out of the house most of the days this week, but seeing how Little Shadow Creations needed a non-giveaway post to comment on (*grin*), I thought I'd oblige.

This is just a small portion of the apples that we either harvested from our trees or got from our friends C and D's trees. They may not look like the Stepford-Wives-perfect apples you find at a grocery store, but these look this way because they've never been sprayed with nasty stuff.Besides, the dehydrated apples that came out in the end were pretty perfect, and so amazingly tasty:We dehydrated twice already, and may have to do more as there are still 3 large baskets full of apples in the garage.

I also need to rhapsodize about our bell peppers. We've had a very nice crop this year. Just look at these beauties:And last, but not least, I'd like to mention a great site that I found from Suzanne's blog (which is always a treasure) - Operation NICE. What a terrific concept! It wouldn't kill anyone to be a lot nicer to others. Luckily, nearly everyone that I've met in the Blog World have been wonderful human beings.

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Giveaways Galore

Autumn is making people very, very generous!

I just won the Carmindy book at The Soap Bar blog!

Aside from my own Winter Blues and My Vice giveaways, there are several more I'd like to share with you:

Little Window Shoppe has a giveaway on sleek, professional make-up brushes.

As I mentioned yesterday, Gassner Custom Soaps has a body and hair care giveaway package that I would sure love to win.

One Bubble at a Time has a giveaway every Friday! How cool is that?

Not quite a giveaway, but it is nonetheless, Spotted Cow Soaps is looking for people to test-drive her Whipped Body Frosting.

I've probably forgotten some others I've seen, but the kids are invading my personal space and I can't concentrate. So, I'll add on as I see more!

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

I love autumn. But, I realize that some of you aren't as in love with the fall, knowing it's the harbinger of dark, cold winter days.

So, to cheer you up, I'm going to do a Chase Away the Winter Blues Giveaway, snuck in between the My Vice Giveaways.

Included are a box of St. John's Wort tea, a pretty Jennifer Louden (a.k.a. The Comfort Queen) journal, and a funky pen to jot down all those cool weather thoughts. Post a comment and see if I can help you chase away the winter blues!

I'll use Random.org again to pick out a lucky recipient on October 1st but probably won't announce it until Oct. 2nd.

Edited to add: Gassner Custom Soaps was busy putting together a giveaway of her own while I was typing this post up; but stay away from hers because I want to win that one. Bwahahaha!

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And in different news: Gracefruit and I are going to do a swap - her fabulous soaps for my handmade paper and variety notecards! I am so excited! Uh oh, does that mean I have to get off the computer and make paper now? ;>

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"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Spotted Cow's generous donation to a good cause

Linda of Spotted Cow Soaps shared a story about a young family in need after a scary and harrowing time of giving birth. You can read more through her post and links.

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Halloween Soaps...get yours now

Instead of handing candy, why not give kids something that not only won't rot their teeth, but will help them want to wash up after touching sticky candy?

Tadpole #1 made these yummy smelling skull and crossbones soaps.

[caption id="attachment_61" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Halloween Skull Soaps"][/caption]

Each set comes with one skull and one crossbones (weighing a bit over 1oz), and costs $1.50 in a clear plastic baggie or $3.00 if you want them in a cute, handmade Halloween fabric bag.

These are the bag choices:

[caption id="attachment_73" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Halloween Soap Bags"][/caption]

They make adorable party favors!

Carrie-Gigi is so sweet!

Carrie-Gigi of Under The Willow just gave me a Friendship Award - thank you!! It's wonderful to be so loved. :)

I am having a hard time choosing a single recipient for this because I've met some incredible people through blogging. Well, I'm going to go with Meg this time because I really hope to meet her in person in the next month or two.

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Heidi's Green Giveaway!

Heidi of Soapaholics Anonymous is having one cool and green giveaway: Breezy Babies bamboo diapers! Wish I had babies to try these on. Go enter now!

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

What have we been up to?

Oh, a lil' of this, a lil' of that.

I set up the telescope Saturday night and while we couldn't see the Great Red Spot, we did see the 4 largest moons of Jupiter. Our own moon was nearly full and was so bright that we felt like we were staring at the sun. Could see the craters on the southern edge really well though.

Sunday, we picked up lamb from the processors (many thanks to our friend, C!), and then picked tons of apples from C's trees, and some grapes from C's mom's little vineyard. I forgot to take a photo of this year's crop of grapes, but it's not as huge as the one from 2004:And then Ike blew through. We were worried we couldn't get home as we only had one route to get home with the bridge being closed, but luckily no large trees came down on the roads we took, although many trees did come down all over the county. In fact, as of today, there were still thousands without electricity. We were lucky to have lost power for only 20 minutes.

Monday morning, I rescued an oven bird that had crashed into our window. After propping it up in the sunniest spot I could find on a cool morning, it recovered enough in about an hour to fly away.

Monday night, inspired by Gracefruit's jamming, I made grape jelly with the grapes we had picked (and the boys and dh had processed).Not as pretty as I'd like (a bit too cloudy), but I'm pleased that it went smoothly and well, and, boy, do the grapes smell fabulous.

And the rest is pretty much the usual - out most of the day the past several days with homeschool stuff. Whoever thinks that homeschoolers don't get enough "socialization" has never met a homeschooled child. Even with a homebody mom (I have always wanted to be a hermit when I grew up), my kids end up interacting with a lot of people all the time.

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Sushi Soaps

[caption id="attachment_56" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Sushi Soaps"][/caption]

They're finally done!  Since I made these without the boys' help, I posted the whole story, along with more photos, at my site:  http://demetersdance.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/sushi-soaps/

I feel like a mad scientist

I've been experimenting with soap for the past, oh gosh, several months, if you count the time I starting thinking about, and conceptualizing in my head, how to bring this soap idea to fruition. It was quite scientific, short of writing equations, in that I formulated the idea, did rough calculations on how much soap is needed for each stage, how much coloring to use, what coloring to use, how it should be set up, etc. etc. My head hurts just thinking back on it. ;>

But, I am thrilled to say: I finally have it done! In fact, I got it done last week, and sent a package off to Anne-Marie, the lovely owner of Bramble Berry, because she gave me the free Wasabi fragrance that was the push to my getting the idea from just a phantom in my sleep-oppressed brain (who's been reading Macbeth? Not I!) to the full-fledged product.

Mind you, it's not perfect. It has some flaws that I'm not happy with, but if I were ever to do it again, I'd know how to correct these flaws, thanks to PJ's soap kit.

So, without making you read any more of my rambling, I'd like to unveil my soap.

This is an in-progress photo. You can see that I used crinkled aluminum foil to approximate the texture of nori:The "mold" I used made a long enough log to cut into 6 pieces of "sushi", so I packaged 2 pieces each into a box. They're more the size of Futomakis than the California rolls size that I was thinking of.The next two photos are just different views.This top-view shows the contents better. The lump of "wasabi" as well as the "pickled ginger" slices are both soap. Only the plastic grass-thing and the container are not made of soap.Here's a piece of "sushi" in my hand to show you how big it is.And finally, the package that I sent to Anne-Marie. I had to stick tissue paper in there so the pickled ginger and wasabi wouldn't fly all over the place while being handled by the ever gentle (hah!) USPS.And there you have it. My creative effort, and my 4th time ever making M&P soap.

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

My prize from The Bath Fairy

I had a lovely surprise waiting for me in the mailbox on Tuesday when we got home: my prize from The Bath Fairy's Giveaway! What a fun thing to come home to after a long day out. :) Thanks, Bath Fairy!!

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Just a joke

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are busy this week, so I don't have time to do a Thursday Thirteen or anything remotely insightful. But, being that it's Thursday, I want to tell one of my favorite jokes that mentions Thursday. And it's a clean joke too!

Three little old ladies were sitting on a park bench enjoying the day. A strong breeze popped up and ruffled their hair.

"It sure is windy," said the first little old lady.

"Really?" said the second. "I thought it was Thursday."

"So am I," said the third. "Let's go have a drink!"

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

The second "My Vice" giveaway!

Because I really hated to choose just one recipient, this time, I'm going to have two books to give away.

The first is a Shakespeare set: Julius Caesar is one of the books, and the other book has 3 tragedies (Macbeth, Hamlet, and King Lear). I bought this for the boys, but then before I had a chance to open it, I ended up buying the Complete Works volume (which is, by the way, large enough to be a lethal weapon).
The second book is...well, you can see:So leave a comment, and let me know if you have a preference as to which one you want to win. I'll be doing a random drawing on November 1st for 2 lucky recipients! :)

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

And the book goes to....

(drum roll; sound of envelope being opened - since there is no actual sound in the random integer generator being run at Random.org)

You need to click to enlarge the image in order to see the number chosen, but it is "2".

Soooo, Heather, come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price Is...Oh wait, that's not this contest. ;D

And to everyone: come back tomorrow when I announce the next My Vice Giveaway!

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Marr Williams' Banner Giveaway

So many people are having giveaways, it makes me giddy! Over at Smelly Chick's Online Soapmaking Resource (love the name), Marr Williams is going to give away a nice package of: a custom blog banner, a custom Etsy banner, and a matching avatar! What I wouldn't give for some custom banners. 8-)

If you want a chance to win this pretty cool prize, go enter now!

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Quiche day

With so many eggs in the summer, we like to make quiche. Unfortunately, that means turning on the oven, which is not fun when summer tend to be hot and humid in Indiana. So, we don't make them as often as dh would like.

I make the crust - usually using 1/3 whole wheat flour (King Arthur makes a wonderful organic white whole wheat flour that doesn't toughen up the crust) and 2/3 AP flour (I like Bob's Red Mill organic unbleached all purpose). I'd been making oil pie crusts for years and it had worked out well, but recently, for whatever reason, it's been turning out too oily yet crumbly. I haven't changed the recipe - the flour and the oil are the same, so I don't know what's going on. Today, I decided to use the shortening crust. I'm a fan of Spectrum's Organic All-Vegetable Shortening. I don't feel as bad using shortening when I use this one. The crust was so nice and pliable with shortening instead of oil.

And while we're on the topic of crust, I saw a show about roadside diners on Food TV where this gal made a pie and left the edge all jagged. Ok, I know she covered it up with meringue, but the crust still peeked through a little bit, and it was ugly! I always thought I was pretty casual when it comes to looks for food that I make, but I'm not that casual. I love decorated edgea on my pies (or quiches).Dh makes the filling once I've completed the crust. He combines several different recipes for a base and then wings the rests in terms of toppings. This is pre-baking:And this is after they came out of the oven (I never make just one pie crust; if I'm going to dirty up a bowl, I may as well make at least 2 crusts):Them's good eats! ;)

"Happiness depends upon ourselves." ~ Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Giveaway reminder

I interrupt my glamorous life as a farmhand, scrubbing slime out of chicken waterers, and harvesting and shucking corn,to remind you that you have a couple more days to enter the My Vice (book) Giveaway! I'll try to do the drawing early afternoon EST (that's GMT -5). Good luck to all, and remember, even if you don't win this one, I'll have another coming up right away. :)

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Life happens

You have probably guessed that there is no Thursday Thirteen from me this week. I think I'm only capable of doing a TT maybe once a month. I (our whole family, really) tend to be a bit of a non-conformist and eschew routine, which was really bad for ds#2 at first since his autism made him crave routine. On the other hand, I think that our family's avoidance of schedules has helped him learn to be more flexible, which is a great boon to his personality.

Besides, even if I liked routines, life often presents obstacles and diversions that prevent me from doing what I had planned to do.

As I was telling my sister and a friend this morning via e-mail, we were out most of the day yesterday - French lessons, library, etc. - and spent the evening harvesting onions and prepping spaces for the chickens. We moved the 3 chickens that one of our broody hens hatched in Juneto a chicken tractor that friends had bequeathed to us when they moved back to CA. Dh prepared the fowl hut that those chickens were in for the rooster chicks.This is the fowl hut, built by dh, back before it was stained to match the shed it is attached to. This was also back when we had geese (embdens, and huge pains in the derriere).This morning, we moved all the rooster chicks to the hut, spent lots of time trying to coax the other chickens to come down the ramp (they'd never seen a ramp before, and the learning curve is steep, like the ramp), harvested cherry and grape tomatoes (which the kids are now busy processing while I waste time on the computer), and spread out the onion harvest on the cement floor of our screened-in porch.We had a great crop of onions this year: red onions (Red Burgermaster, I believe), Copras (yellow onions), and Candy (sweet onions), mostly hard, large, and very tasty! I love aromatics.

I should probably start thinking about a TT theme for next month....

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Fun, recycled binders

Are they cute or what?

There's a sale on them, until Sept. 9th, at the Green Home store.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

More food

...because one can never have enough!

Last week, I made a granny cake and a banana cake, and also dumplings for chicken and dumplings.For the welcome party that we hosted for dh's department, I made our favorite coconut chocolate bar.We finally had a nice little crop of eggplants this year! Usually, flea beetles decimate our eggplants. Here are a couple of our tomatoes - Brandywine (the red one), which is an heirloom variety, and Persimmon, a pretty yellowish-orange one. Yellow tomatoes are supposed to be lower in acidity.We finally got just enough tomatoes for canning. Here they are all spread out before we processed them.I should have taken a photo of the boys using the strainer. Here it is, cooking down.We got 7 quarts' worth!A lovely little 1 oz jar of our dried tomatoes that the boys worked on.And so you know I'm not completely obsessed with food (hah!), here are the boys canoeing on a nearby lake. It may not be Joanna's lovely ocean, but it's plenty of fun for the kids.
"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)