Two more batches before the big move

So Sunday night I couldn't wait any longer and I HAD to make some more soap before we clear out of here. Unfortunately I had already packed away my molds and most of my ingredients.

This is literally all I had left to use: two bags of frozen, pre-measured goat's milk, avocado oil, golden jojoba oil, rice bran oil and white beeswax. And I had to make a slab mold using a cake pan and some freezer paper. For the other batch

This is the first soap I've ever made that didn't contain palm and coconut oil and at least one butter. Yay for experimenting!

I also had a box of two kinds of Tazo teas that I forgot about at the back of the cabinet. I thought I'd experiment with them too, since I wasn't even sure how the soap would turn out anyway. So I cut open the tea bags and mixed them in with the oils and popped them in the oven to infuse for a while.

You can see by the scrapings how chock full of herbal goodness the soaps will be. :)




This batch has Tazo "Zen" tea with peppermint and spearmint EOs:


The "Zen" tea contains green tea, lemon verbena, spearmint, lemongrass and "natural flavors." Sorry for the blurry photo. I was in a hurry and very low on light.

And this batch has Tazo "Calm" tea and bergamot EO for fragrance:


The "Calm" tea contains Chamomile flowers, hibiscus flowers, spearmint, lemongrass, rose petals, blackberry leaves, safflowers, peppermint, sarsaparilla, lemon balm, licorice and "natural flavors."

I just cut them today and they smell so good! But they are very soft and will take some time to cure. Hopefully I don't destroy them while driving them down to their new little soapy home. :)

First snow!

We had our first snowfall of the winter on Saturday!


See the snowflake? See it??? Snow!


My favorite little red berries. Looks like I will not be around to see them get eaten or wither on the vine. I had wanted to take pictures of them as they completed their life cycle, but now I will have to find a new plant in my new yard. :)


The rosemary Greg gave me, so cute with its little dusting of snow.


Some beautiful little seed pods.


And by the end of the day, this was the view form my living room window. So lovely.

Now if it could hold off until we have everything moved into our new house, that would be great. :)

Super fun!

So Cristin at GreenBeing hosted a swap at her store on Friday the 27th and it was so much fun! Here are some pictures of the event:





















Everybody brought five items and laid them out on the tables. After some mingling and snacking, we all drew numbers out of a cup. Then we took turns going up and picking out an item. We went through the line five times until everybody had chosen as many items as they had brought with them. It was super relaxed and very well organized and so exciting to see what people found!

These came home with me:

Embroidered linen table runner.

T-shirt! John and I are going to screen print his Grow design on it after we move.

H&M linen-like skirt.

Jar of buttons! And a sterling shaker set.

Curtains! I don't know if I'll be able to use them as curtains yet, but if not, some seriously awesome aprons and pillows will be happening.

And I bought this t-shirt with the deer on it and just had to model how cute it looked with my new skirt. :)



That's all for now! Back to packing...