Sunday Funday :)

Poor Handsome Hubby got stuck working today.

So I....

Decorated the little I do for spring

The little girl in me just loves pastels and sparkles, well, and the big girl too....

I made Honey Shampoo

Stored in a clean gallon jug I saved

I baked bread

I wanted to make my first batch of Kombucha, but ended up arguing with this

darn frikkin' lid until I gave up. My sweet father-in-law made me the lid for my 2 gallon crock. So I quickly got it stuck. I am a bit accident prone.

 I am going to wait for HH to come home and see if he has better luck with it. If not I am going to find a small saw and get it out, darn it.

I made a batch of soap and experimented with a cinnamon orange scent :) I'll let you know tomorrow how it comes out.

Here it is cooling ever-so slowly 

Then I went for a run/walk (I have found if I run one lap, then walk one lap I can convince myself while walking that I am not THAT tired, and will run the next lap. Then I can always walk one more to finish up. Its a good way to trick myself into working out :)

Here are some lovely things I encountered on my walk

It is wisteria, and it smells divine

Then I found out that they make seed pods, see, like this

So now I am determined to grow a plant or 5 for myself! Instead of taking a cutting like I had planned.

I took a picture Friday on my run/ (Okey.... okey, its really just a very slow jog. But run sounds better and I am getting there. slowly.) walk around the park. I think it turned out really cool and want to see if anyone can guess what it is!

Here it is:

Any clue what this could be? Take a guess in the comments!


What did you do today?

New beginnings!

Getting ready for the Spring!

HH came home Saturday from work and was upset that I dug up 3 2x5 spots in his beloved grass. When I explained that the vegetables that will be grown int he additional space will feed us, and the grass simply takes, he declared "We are married and have to talk about these decisions first!!!"

Hehe... after he had time to cool down he realized we have a huge yard (almost 2 acres) and MOST of it is grass. Also the corner of the yard he had so graciously granted me to put the extra garden happens to be in shade most of the day.

The book stated to make permanent walk ways so you never step on the garden and compact the soil.
Also to lay something over the walk way to help prevent compaction form the sides. I will cover these with hay soon. 

Oh silly husbands! He is the one, after all, who gave me a gardening book as a valentine (I was thrilled to see how well he knows me :). And it was this book that inspired me to expand!!!

I am working on the deep bed method. They still need to be built up some, but its a start!

I also will be starting school back in the Summer! I know I have mentioned on here that I am wholly unsatisfied with my current career.  HH pointed out that it will be a while before we can afford to live off the land (I have to be able to buy the land first, and the acreage I want will not come too cheap).  With paychecks in my line of work being so irregular, and his not reliable, it is time for one of us to make a change.

I would like to say I am excited about this venture, but, eh.... so so.
It will be 2 years before I am eligible to get  a job in the new field. I know that is not a very long time, but it feels like an eternity!

I really just want to work on the land and sell  things I make and some produce. I figure the money I save us will make up for the loss of income. That is a bit of a dream at this point, but we all have to have dreams, right?

HH sees that as me being a stay at home. We always said who ever was making the most money when we had kids, the other one would stay at home (Yes, I would be fine with a stay at home husband).
Well, we are planning on (hopefully) starting our family soon and suddenly that has changed... Hmm... baby jitters? For the baby that's still just a twinkle in our eyes? Silly husband...

I will admit that since I have always worked, the idea of not working scares the pee-waddlen out of me!!! To be so reliant on another. It is hard to relinquish that control. To this day I still bartend one night a week because of the irregular nature of my paychecks, I like the added security of having a job where I can bring home cash in pocket at anytime.

Did any of you make the transition from 2 incomes to one? How did that work for you? Emotionally and financially?

Family soap

My sister in law came over yesterday so we could begin our soap experiments :)
( bwhahaha....)


I made my first batch of home made soap using the cold process about two weeks ago

It is drying (curing). It makes for a longer lasting, milder soap

I love it! It is so pure and natural, even my husband will use it. He has struggled with eczema and psoriasis all his life, so that's a pretty good endorsement.


I LOVE making it. The process does not take very long. And besides the lye is easy peasy. Be careful when you use lye, it is pretty noxious stuff(no small children or pets around, and I would recommend adding the lye to the water outside).

The pure soap above is great for all sorts of uses. I plan on using a bar for home made laundry detergent soon....

The soap contains glycerin, which naturally occurs during the saponification process. Glycerin is great for skin and hair.  Why make soap when you can buy it so inexpensively (my last commercial soap was actually free) ?
Because in commercial soap they extract the glycerin to sell separate (they make more money that way) and replace it with chemicals to make it sudsy. I'd prefer the natural, valuable stuff thank you very much. Besides, it is really not very expensive to make.

 I was supposed to make the first batch with my SIL, but the I want it now kid came out in me and I couldn't wait!  So instead we got together yesterday and made some with different ingredients.  We made some with honey which turned it a much darker golden color then I was expecting!!!!

See? Looks kinda yummy though

I have some jasmine green tea around, so we got it into our heads to make some with it. I think it would have been pretty cool, except we were almost an ounce short of lye for this batch. We ran to the store, but alas, they were all sold out. So we thought we could dump a little bit of the oil and make it work. And it did, sort of....

When we finally reached the trace stage (where it looks a bit like pudding and is ready to be poured into a mold) we added the green tea. It mad it this neat speckled light tan color.
We then secured it to sit over night, all cozy under some blankets so it would cool slowly.

This is what I saw when I woke up this morning

 Weird.

I am going to un-mold it and see if the oil can be drawn out.... maybe, maybe not. I'll let you know how it goes.

**** UPDATE****
I cut the soap and have set it to cure. Hoping it would dry out properly and become usable. It is!!! It still has a while before it has cured properly, but it is looking good. My niece told me it looks like granite. Kinda cool :)