Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

...these are a few of my favorite things!

This past week, I encountered lots of my favorite things. One of my favorite things is knitting, so starting off, I finished another hat. This one dh, the fuss-budget, actually liked and decided to take it even though I was knitting it for myself.
Then, a lovely package arrived in the mail (not brown-papered and tied up with string, but the contents were equally wonderful) from Michelle (Blog of the Soap Pixie). Michelle made a bevy of lovely things for me! Clockwise from top left: a pretty card, a folder of bookmarks and tea bags (details below), a bar of her very pretty soap with a cool and cute packaging (she'll be selling these soon, so keep an eye on her blog for it!), a box of mini-cards, a lavender eye-pillow, and a dazzling holiday bracelet (that I've been wearing ever since I received it).
Here are the mini-cards close-up. Is that ever sweet, or what?
And here's the nifty folder with all the bookmarks and tea bags! Ds#1 already has dibs on the frog bookmark. :)
A day or two after Michelle's package arrives, Joanna's Product Body box of goodies got here. I was running out of Whipped Shea, and bought a couple of jars of that plus their new holiday scent gift box.
Tadaaaa...the holiday scent gift box opened up...obviously the gift was for myself. ;)
Sweet Jo gave me some extra goodies for free: see the cuuuuute pink bag with the following yummies? She also gave me (see first photo) a Hyacinth Bath Bomb that smells intoxicating and that I intend to use as soon as I can spend some quality time in the bathtub.
Another wonderful thing that came in the mail is Carrie's Home for the Holidays laundry soap. I wanted to get more before she sells out because it's my absolute favorite detergent right now! Carrie, always the dear, sent along a couple of little gifts for the boys - I can't show you exactly what they are because they don't get to open them until a couple of days later. ;)
A close-up of the pretty, embroidered towels that Carrie includes:
And last, but definitely not least, I spent a lovely Friday morning with my IRL and blog friend Cake (Whistling Leaf Blower). She checked out our garden, such as it is in the winter, and also brought me my Pay-It-Forward/swap gifts: a psychedelic bookmark for the boys, a pack of cosmos seeds (one of my favorite flowers), a mistletoe sprig, a jar of pear chutney, a pebble hair clip, 2 felted soaps (woohoo!!!), and a coin purse made with the top of an orange juice container (very cute, very creative).
Here's the coin purse, opened up:
I just loooove this hair clip!
So there you have it, some of my favorite things indeed! It was a good week, and with the weekend gone, I look forward to another good week.

What has been some of your favorite things recently?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Thankful Thursday + Pay-It-Forward update

I'm thankful for being able to indulge in ceramics as a creative outlet. It is such a satisfying art, and I enjoy working on clay along-side of my boys. More homeschool quality family time!(above plate made by ds#1 and bought by the wonderful Carrie-Gigi of Mud Puddle Girl and Under the Willow Gifts)

And speaking of ceramics,
1) I’m almost ready to list some ceramics and other goodies for sale on Etsy! and
2) the little gifts I made for the Pay-It-Forward Giveaway are done.

I've already given Sherrie and Minka theirs, but am ready to start packaging up and sending out the rest.

Little Shadow Creation gave me her mailing address, and I know I have Michelle's but I'll need it from the rest of you:

~ Blonde Duck (whose book Twelve Tales of Christmas is now available at Amazon!)
~ Alli (Ocean Treasures)
~ Elizabeth (Gassner Custom Soaps)
~ Cake (rake, shovel, hoe)
~ Amber (Amber's Ambry)

And I have to ask: Trisha (Suds to Love), was I giving you something or are we doing an exchange? I can't remember and I can't find a record of my original post on this. Please let me know if you read this post; thanks!

p.s. FYI, my contact e-mail is under my profile (I'm in the middle of changing e-mails, so I have 2 profiles to the right)...if you can't find it, it is "skepticgal (at) gmail (dot) com"

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Happy June, and happy to be back

Can't believe it's June already! I had wanted to be back before now, but blogging is like exercising: the longer you abstain from doing it, the harder it is to get back to it.

So what went on in my month of May?

Well, I...

1) turned 45
2) finished my sweater3) created a Twitter account for my dog4) worked on (and finished a couple) of the Pay-It-Forward giveaway gifts
5) processed 9 chickens
6) weeded, and weeded, and weededand last but definitely not least,
6) received gifts from Sherrie and Elizabeth (and Elizabeth is having a sale this month!).
First a heady Mocha soap from Sherrie...mmm...we're almost done using it in the kitchen (and it makes me want to have hot chocolate every time I use it)Then, a lovely trio from Elizabeth, who remembered that her Dreamsicle Lip Balm is my all-time favorite! I can't wait to use the Whipped Soap; it smells so cheerfully divine. And the doll is simply adorable: reminds me of those wooden, nesting Russian dolls.And what about the rest of you? How was your May? :) I sure missed visiting your blogs (I did try to sneak in a few reads here and there).

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

All hail the Queen!

The Soap Queen, that is (a.k.a. Anne-Marie Faiola)!

I had to interrupt my self-imposed exile from Blogland to give the Soap Queen a shout-out for the lovely gift she sent. This is what arrived via FedEx yesterday:Talk about cute and great smelling soaps! These are soaps that Anne-Marie made during the taping of her new YouTube educational videos on the art and craft of soap-making. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about these videos. I bought DVDs from Brambleberry on how to make cold-process and melt-and-pour soaps and have learned so much from Anne-Marie (who has a great video presense and is a wonderful teacher). The YouTube videos will be so helpful in supplementing my education.

This is her schedule (click on image to enlarge); check it out!On a tangential note, I have a few things made (and nearly made) for some of the participatns in the "First Responders/Pay-It-Forward" giveaway/swap. I'm excited and will be dropping by the recipients' blogs within the next week or two to ask for your snail-mail addresses!

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe

To quote Phil Collins...

Uh oh, I missed again. The Thankful Thursday post, that is.

I am thankful for my very patient blogging friends who are awaiting some sign from me as to what my Pay-It-Forward giveaway/swap gift is for each of them.

Minka was the easiest to do as she requested something online (dear soul didn't want me to have to mail her anything overseas). So I've made something using my very basic Print Shop program (read: nothing fancy...how I wish I had Print Shop Pro!). But I could only save it in formats that Blogger doesn't upload.

So, Minka, if you want to email me (my email's on my Profile page), I can email you a PDF attachment of your gift. :)

Everyone else, I'm working on your gift...thank goodness I have a year to complete the task!

Happy weekend to all!

"He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home." ~ Johann von Goethe