My soaps...almost ready for my Etsy shop!

Just wanted to share the soaps I've prepared to sell in my Etsy shop in the next week. I'm hooked! I absolutely love making each and every bar and love using them even more. So far I've got Autumn Oat & Honey, Amber Romance, Tea tree and Cashmere & Cotton.
I'm going to have to do an update post here pretty soon about the happenings around the homefront. Lots of happy things to report! A busy but blessed autumn season.

A Tale of Two Soap Makers...

I've been quiet lately, but not idle! My company has stayed fairly busy lately so I've been working, tending to sick children here and there (all of them just fine now), playing with food and textiles when I've had a chance... but the coolest thing I got to do/make was natural soap!

My friend Cindy and I had a soap making adventure earlier this week (that she detailed quite nicely on her blog).

Neither of us had ever made cold pressed soap and I really thought it would be a lot more difficult, but with the instructions we followed it was pretty simple and straight forward.

We were a little nervous about handling the lye, but found that it was really not that scary.

(We still, however, took that part out to the garage.)

Came back inside to mix in the oils,

...poured it into our fancy, wax paper-lined molds,

... and swadled in a blanket for the night.

Cut...

...and then place on a rack to dry for 2-6 weeks! I can't wait. It smells so good!

If you've been thinking about it, but haven't known where to begin, check out the link for the instructions above or another help we had was the book Natural Soap Making by Susan Miller Cavitch.

Two batches down and hopefully a few more before Christmas is upon us!

 

Not promised tomorrow.

It's been fairly slow-paced around here this week after a couple of days of chaos last week. My husband had to rush to make plans to fly out to Oregon last Friday with his brother.  His step- father (who really was "dad" from age 1) has been battling cancer along with other health issues for a few years now and he passed away Saturday- just hours after the boys reached his bedside. He was still so young.  Another reminder to me that we're not promised tomorrow. Or the next minute, for that matter.

So I've tried to be more aware this week of how I spend my time, my words, my energy...

 Grabbing all the hugs and kisses I can get from the kids,

Relishing those nightly phone conversations with my sweetie while he's gone,

Enjoying the day at home with my sick, stuffy-nosed boy,

Visiting with my neighbor for an afternoon,

(Spending less time on the computer!!!)

thanking God for every moment He's given me.

So while I've not been dragging my laptop out to blog; I did take a few snapshots of life this week.

A rainy morning...

The rain smelled and sounded beautiful.

A new candle I got from the artisan market downtown.

It really does smell just like real apples.

Perfect for a rainy first day of fall.

Got a few projects done (Which I will share later).

And a few got started.

Hello kitty!

And time to call it a day.

I'll share some of the things I'm working on in my next post. I have really had a lot of fun playing around and creating things this week. The only nice thing about Nate's absence this week is that I can spread my various projects all about my kitchen table (instead of my desk in the dungeon) and not clean it up every night!

Oh! I will also share some of my recent vintage fabric finds that will be added to my Etsy shop soon... Very cool finds indeed!

Reflections of summer

 It's been a  good summer.

A little camping...

A little gardening out back...

Watching our new kitty grow...

More time w/ the kids...

A few projects were completed...

I made the tote w/out the cat "applique"...

So here we are at the end of it -just like that.

Autumn is going to be good.

 

A night at the fair

The weather was cold and evetually wet...

The food was expensive and I'm convinced could cause a heart attack on the spot...

But it was a night spent laughing and playing with my husband and kids and I relished every last bit of
it.

And after a night of thrills, fair food, and then rain...we were ready to head home and warm up.

I love nights like this one.

They make me want to hit the "pause" button and hold on just a little longer.

A Saturday afternoon

Saturday my husband was out of town.

So I, along with child #1and #3, set out on a mission to find pretty places to photograph.

We had so much fun exploring places we didn't even know existed.

I'm not a professional photographer by ANY means, but I do love both old and pretty things and taking pictures, so why not?!

This was my first time really venturing out with the purpose of finding things to photograph.

I love altered art and mixed media so maybe this fall when I have a little more time, I'll work with some of the pictures I took.

But that's not really even what I sat down to write about.

I just realized how many details I miss every day because I don't take time to look.

Somehow just looking at the world through a camera lense causes me to see details that I don't normally take notice of.

It was so nice to just take the time to "stop and smell the flowers" and enjoy exploring the world around me with my kids. The sky was gorgeous, everything was so green, the temprature was perfect...

And you know, I didn't even hear any "I'm bored" exclamations until a few hours into our trip.

What a beautiful day.

And what a wonderful God that created it.

I wanted to thank Peaseblossom Studio for adding my Vintage Zero fan to their treasury. What a beautiful layout!
I also wanted to thank Dandy Bread And Candy for featuring my retro timer. What a cool blog! Right up my alley. Full of anything and everything vintage. I had so much fun browsing through the posts today.