ONCE A WEEK

SOAP

Smoked Ribs, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob, Salad

Getting to 'trace' with soap

Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob

This new blogger, I am not having fun with! I can't move my pictures around and blogger won't load them in the order I try to put them, sooo, I get this mish mash sequence of pictures! Ugh....

A couple of weeks ago, Caitlin and I decided to 'make' one day a week. Our first week was...

Canning Pickles. We put together Refrigerated Pickles and Dill Pickles. We forgot to put horseradish in the Dills, ( just something to rachet up the flavor, oh well next time.)

The pickles came out amazingly! It's hard  to let the jars sit and the spices to do their magic, but patience is a virtue, so I am told.

The second week, we made SOAP. I love homemade soap, I love making it and the only thing I love more, is to make SOAP with Caitlin. Of course, while making two basic batches of soap, we are planning our next batch....Goat Milk, and what essential oils to use. It is endless our plans and Caitlin has already found a local source for that goat milk!

Two year olds can be sooo funny! Gus walked into the kitchen and told his Mom, "I going to the library to pick up books and I have my mask on!" Cuz, you know all the germs out there. 

Kids, they will never know how much sunshine they spread in this crazy world.

After replacing all our appliances , I have been cooking and Eric has been smoking. 

I will say this stay at home thing, it has allowed us to cook some yummy, comfort food. And right now, I need comfort food a couple times a week!  The other thing in the kitchen happening is making dishes from scratch that before would of  been bought ready made at the store, like potato salad and all salad dressings. The hits have been, potato salad, cole slaw, and several salad dressings. The one pictured about, not so much, its Creamy Cucumber, needs some work. 

Are you cooking? I would love to hear all about your kitchen experience. 

holidays

tis the time of year it’s hard to post all the sewing and knitting projects that i have completed.

so much “do it yourself” fun happening here, but since i have many viewers and not sure if any of the recipients of said projects are popping in on the blog....well, i will just have to wait till after the 25th before posting my busy november and december projects/gifts.

i can show you some small gifts that were tied up with ribbon and given to some very happy colleages. 

handmade dish/hand clothes filled with homemade soap; honey oatmeal bar and a lavender bar.

the day is approaching where family will be picked up at the airport, lots of soul warming food made,

talks around the table, movies watching, dinner out, and all sorts of family gathering for 2 days.
2 days i look forward to, it’s like making it to the summit. i really try to keep things calm and not commercial at all and for the most part i am successful.
i want this christmas to be even calmer, i want to savior it all, i guess  what i want is a slow christmas.
hope your holiday planning is meeting your’s and your family’s needs.
happy holidays.
ps: do you celebrate the winter solstice day and if so, what are some of the special things you do for this day?

A BREAK IN THE WEATHER

we had a short break in the weather yesterday, no snow, was to be warm but was not, though good “cleaning out the beds” weather and the dumpsters were here in the neighborhood!

eric and i went out around noon, realizing it was not going to get any warmer or done by a twitching of our noses. neither of us are young anymore, our backs always a nagging imposition and eric’s hands getting arthritis, but out we went because two sets of hands no matter how poor, cuts the work time in half. eric took care of the heavy stuff and i cut down the knee high stalks and pulled iris beds apart.

we were satisfied after only 2 hours of work time spent and in the house we went to warm up.

chilled to the bone we were crawling around the wet ground and into piles of unmelted snow. oh mid-november can be a bit late for yard work!

by 6pm we both were still chilled to the bone and getting stiff. under quilts we went with dogs there too, lots of quilts, homemade quilts, cozy quilts, oh november, how i love to settle in and prepare for the slow months ahead of me. that is once i get past december!

my mind is filled with homemade gift ideas for christmas and working i have been doing. not a stressed, frantic work but at a pace i am comfortable with, a pace that satisfies my soul. 

honey oatmeal soap was made on friday, cut early sunday morning, now curing till the week of jolly holly christmas.

of course we are to celebrate thanksgiving first, a favorite holiday for me. nothing better than friends, family and good food!

are you preparing for the holidays?

or just starting to tuck in for the slow months ahead?

snow is on the way again with high winds, so glad we spent the day outside yesterday.

LIVING AS SIMPLY AS I CAN

I really like the simple things in life. I am no longer interested in acquiring STUFF.

This includes fabric and fibers. 

Oh I'm sure I will buy fabric that stirs my heart, but I am DONE stock piling fabric.

{tulips}

Seems now I just want to spend my days at home fluffing the nest. This includes tending a garden of flowers and veggies.

{ davenport }

Living simply is not about perfect but about the PROCESS.

Instead of buying new cushions for this davenport I learned how to make these fitted cushions. No they are not perfect but the process of making and learning was a PERFECT learning experience !

{garden}

Gardening is the unattainable nirvana for me. I am always planning the following years garden. How to do it differently, where to plant for a better yield, using more heirloom seeds, better at not wasting a seed.

It is the perpetual hope that I love about gardening!!

{ homemade dish clothes}

Homemade things tells me I do not have to be a victim to the advertising world of what I need to buy to be HAPPY.

That their is a peacefulness and accomplishment in doing it myself.

{ homemade laundry soap}

Love this stuff, very easy to make and works great.

The other benefit of HOMEMADE laundry soap....

this is safe for our water ways

no toxins in these bottles

and that makes me smile !

{ laundry line}

Drying clothes out on a sun drenched clothes line has to be in the top 5 things I love to do .

I feel at peace with the world and myself watching clothes gentle blowing dry out side on the line.

Oh, yes it makes a huge difference on the electric bill.

Making bread helps me to return to one of the oldest arts of food.

The many kinds of bread and the science of bread making seems endless.

{rag rug}

My newest endeavor, making rugs using the tooth brush method. As many of you know I have a house full of fabric, so I like to use the fabric I most likely will never use in a quilt.

The old saying

Use it up or do without

{ blueberry pancakes}

home cooked simple meals for simple days

{homemade dog food}

I started making dog food more because of my allergies to the puppies.

The benefits has been amazing:

*the fat boy has lost a pound

*the skinny girl has gained a pound

*their coats look so much better

*my allergies are better

*less shedding 

but the surprise benny has been less waste our kitchen.

We save all left overs for the dog food.

I have read several reports that the average household throws out $30 worth of food a week. 

I am sure I have been guilty of this but no more. As long as I have used no onions, it is fair game for the dogs!!!!

This is a few things that I enjoy doing to remind me 

TO KEEP IT SIMPLE !

MAKING SOAP AND OTHER THINGS

The Mixer

The ingredients

Today was soap making day, I have been trying to get this done for weeks. Truth be told," soap making terrifies me", it is really dangerous. But dog gone it I love the soap, I use it as regular bar soap though the best use is for shampoo. Yes my hair has never been better behaved and no dry scalp other wise known as dandruff. My sister claims it cleared up her face. I am sure she was talking about clearing all the blemishes and not clearing her face off. I have heard that this recipe can be grated and use as laundry soap, but I would never waste it that way.

Lye and Water

Olive Oil, Rice Oil and Coconut Oil

The trick to soap making is to get the lye solution and the 3 different oils at 50C at the same time. Since I am now experience in soap making I realized to mix the water and the lye first. Once this dangerous procedure is done I can breathe easy if I have done it correctly. Meaning I did not inhale any of the fumes, or splash any of the lye on me, particularly in my eyes. The first time I mixed water with lye I gowned, gloved and goggled up to the task. However I soon realized I could not see through the 30 year old goggles or feel through the thick thick gloves that was advised to wear. After spending much thought on how more dangerous it was for me to wear all this garb then just to take my time and be careful. I work around deadly organisms on a daily basis, things like hepatitis, Aids, mersa, etc,etc........ And their are ways to be safe called........BE VERY CAREFUL, ALERT, ON GUARD, THINK, MOVE SLOWLY, USE YOUR BRAIN!!!!!!!! So I now use this philosophy (training) when making soap. So far so good

Put in mixer and blend till "trace".

Pour into pans and cure for 6-8 weeks.

You can find a wonderful how to on this blog, one of my favs.

I bet you are wondering why I would put a dirty bucket in my tub? Well silly , of course it is to collect the water from my shower before it runs down the drain. You see I figure I paid for that water and I am going to use it. How? Watering all my pots around the yard. Works great, it is called" Grey Water". A short shower I can collect 5 gallons of grey water. Oh do not mind the dirt, it is not from me, but stuck to the bottom of the container. I should not have left this container sit outside all winter!

These are my new running shoes. Well not really new I found them in the back of the closet and thought great I will start to run again. Running isn't going to well, you see I am too old to be young and too young to be old. In other words my arthritic joints some I did not even know I owned and 50+ year old knees are screaming " Are you kidding me"? I ignore them and keep moving. Moving is not the problem it is when I stop! I stiffen up so tight I know what rigor mortis feels like. Staying healthy never gets easier and the end product is always the same , sick or healthy!

But I do enjoy eating this kind of food on the week-ends.

What's for dinner?

Hi sweetie, you will be home soon making SOAP!!!!