Soap. the finished product ready for the faire

Here they are, labeled and everything!

did I get any photos of the craft faire last weekend?

 nope!  of course not...  dang.

I am hitting up another faire this weekend though, so I will be sure to take a picture or two!

livin in a camper, crossin th river

This was taken from the summer of 2008.

I lived in this here cute 16 ft camper for most of the summer.

On the opposite side of the river from the rest of town 

(Dawson City, YT)

Here I was, a lot of days,waiting.  Looking at this... 

there are worse places to be waiting!

That mighty Yukon river rolls along still,  in my heart.

and here is a random page. a list of things:

 I did get my cycle beads (the first note on the list)

and here's a little painting of them!

 

and what are Cycle Beads?  This is my review, and a link.  

Natural Family planning.  Menstrual tracking.  in a Pretty way!

for more, click here:

and Feel free to leave a link with some wisdom or whatevers from your old journals!

closing up the garden

 

One of the last carrot harvests.

I will miss my garden veggies.

But I am kinda looking foreword for the fun and comfy part of winter.

The lack of a garden to tend means that all that energy can go into indoor stitchery and such!

dancing around in the new snow!

The beets and Carrots got a heavy layer of leaf mulch in efforts to extend their lives underground!  

Still, i am getting carrots from under the snow, and we have already seen -20 C.

I did leave some carrots in there intentionally so that next fall, i can attempt to save their seed. As carrots are biennial and you can not save their seed until they flower in their second season!

goodbye my crunchy and flavourful garden treats... 

soon we'll see your face again!

potato stamps for my tea lids

For the loose leaf teas, I used a lot of baby food jars with the lids spray painted green.

I wanted to somehow stamp the lid tops, how to make a quick stamp....

Just like in kindergarten!!  potatoes!

and just like in kindergarten, I made a couple mistakes... 

the 'F' (fairytale tea) and the 'S' (sleepy tea).  

Backwards

The "F" was changed to personalized painted tops.

I just left the dang "S" as it was...

 

happily used Stamps

The kiddo had fun with the paints!  

Paper is never her preferred media. 

the forehead is her canvas.

she enjoyed paining my forehead. 

I sure liked it too- it felt so incredibly soothing!  

She must have been painting on my 3rd eye chakra... 

I am pretty sure she can see it.  (i have reasons, but that is for another post)

I guess my 3rd eye is off balance?

 

...or maybe she was just making art that day

baby painting

whenever this one paints, the forehead gets it too!!

i think she's going for the 3rd eye. 

I'm a busy elf

I have been a busy elf preparing for the Santa supermarket Christmas craft faire...

 Assembling Tea Blends

these little quilts get turned into magnets

 I am enjoying pencil crayons!! 

They are where its at.

They gotta be really sharp though.

Calendula, comfrey, chamomile and chickweed doing a solar infusion

(mostly calendula and chamomile)

This smells wonderful. I can't get enough!

 melting down beezwax

 Calendula Salve

smells deliciously soothing.

Lip balm - turned out really nice! minty.

yes sir.   

Its been fun preparing everything!  

I have no idea what is going to sell.

But whatever doesn't gets to be instant xmas presents!

The Soaps are the main thing...

and then we felted some of it.

 this night was fun and productive 

happy Christmas creating!

~old journal entries~ random thoughts and recipes

 

PEACH BUTTER?! yum? sounds like! I never tried it yet... 

but now am reminded to!  

The squashed plant on the left is Twin flower. 

my very favorite plant in the wild.

This is what I have decided to name my li'l buisness. 

Twinflower Creations and Soaps!

I recently made the final logo.

it's at the printers getting made into stickers!

I don't know about you, but the following post represents how I feel about 40-70% of the time.  

I feel like I am going through a transformation of sorts right now. 

Turning into the kind of person I want to be!  
Finding new creative outlets.  

Feeling strong.  

(for today...)

Doodleations.

Do you journal?
I encourage YOU to share little bits from your past journals in the comments!  If you are moved to photograph them and post on your blog, leave a link!  I'd love to see how yours looks. 

Journal entries are like blog posts that you can hold in your hands!  

for more old journal entries:

{this weeks thing}

this has been happening a lot lately...

 for whatever reason.

felting soap

This happened one night.

soap + felt.

Together with a friend, its a much more rich experience.

Felt and colors and the scent of homemade soap is meant to be shared

The experience of having your hands swell right up, soap and water logged!

the hands are partially MADE of soap, really REALLY friggin clean...

and wine, 

and soapy wine glasses

are meant to be shared...

 

 :0 )

soap making!

yes. remember last winter when I bought all the soapmaking supplies...

well, they've finally blended themselves together and become soap!
Its been a fun learning process which has made my house smell so nice.

Making Soaps and Scents is a pretty good book featuring recipes with ingredients that I could find in my small town and area. 

a scale is needed actually.

this recip is from that book.  Its my base. makes a nice soap.

BASIC VEGETABLE SOAP

12  oz. coconut oil

12  oz. olive oil

20  oz. vegetable shortening

heat/ melt these together

16 oz water

6 oz. lye

mix these together (WITH SAFETY GLASSES, GLOVES, SHOES, ...lye will BURN YOU!)

the lye will quickly heat up the water.

when each of the two mixtures reaches 97-100 degrees F, pour lye mix into fats (carefully) in a steady stream. mix (about 15-30 minutes) until trace. Using a stick blender speeds things up considerably.

Add your choice of fragrance or essential oils, and any other additives now.

pour into molds. cover with wax paper or saran wrap and let it sit for 48 hrs. 

cut into bars and let it cure for 3 weeks.

enjoy!

lye/water mixture

 

oils heating up

lye and oils together, blending with a stick blender

Trace:   "when the mixture turns opaque and liquid soap drizzled off the spoon leaves a trace on the surface"

 my DIY soap mold made from an old drawer and lined with wax paper.

The first batch I ever made turned out great!  Its easier than I thought to make a good bar of soap.

 This was my second batch.  Lemon poppyseed, Calendula chamomile, and lavender lime.

this calendula chamomile bar is REally nice. Calendula is my new favorite herb.  

Its kind and good for the skin, or any skin related problem.

It would be really nice for a baby or young kid.

 

The brown is a coffee/chai bar!  she smells nice and the coffee exfoliates.

This is my fourth, latest and best soap batch yet.  

made with goats milk!!

and featuring my new natural color pigments given to me by a very special person.

There's an "antibacterial bar" with tea tree and mint... 

any ideas on a better name for it than "antibacterial bar"???

That doesn't exactly have a nice ring to it.

and this is the green Forrest bar (juniper, pachouli, cedarwood...)  and blue n purple Lavender bar.

 


i am happy with it.

This is the main thing I am going to sell at the Santa Supermarket Christmas Bizarre here in our little town!!