Bread dough ornaments and Gingerbread house

Hi everyone, hope your holidays were fabulous and fun! We had fun this year baking lots of cookies, yum! My son and I also made bread dough ornaments and put together a gingerbread house. I think we'll make this a tradition. The bread dough ornament recipe is soooo easy...

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water

You just keep kneading it and adding flour, or water, depending on the consistency, until it feels like bread dough and doesn't stick to your hands. Then you can have all kinds of fun creating! I baked it at 225 degrees for several hours until they were hard. Here are some pics of my ornaments. I'll post my son's special bread dough creation with you as soon as he finishes painting it!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

It's been a few years but we finally got a significant amount of snow! Quite a bit actually....blizzard like conditions. The snow started on Dec 18 and didn't let up until about 8pm the following day. It's soooo pretty and Nick and Scully have enjoyed the heck out of playing in it! I've spent most of my time indoors, warm and cozy. While I love the snow, I don't like the cold, hence my reluctance to hang out in it and shiver my tooshy off. Here's a few pics taken with my cell phone. Not the greatest quality but ya get the main idea.









Christmas is right around the corner...just 3 more days! My shopping is done for the most part and my packages all sent. The house is decorated so the only thing left of course is ..... cookies! I've got all the stuff now I just need a kick in the pants to make them all. I want to make a bunch because some cookies I'll be giving out as gifts. So much to do....so little time. I also have to wrap presents still. Ugggg.

Made some soaps with curly cue embeds in it. The scent is Inspire and although it is lovely...it is a bit soft so it'll need a nice long cure time. Here's a pic:

Honor Roll!

For the first time my son is on the A/B honor roll. I am very proud of him because he's been working very hard for this! To commemorate this special occasion and show him how proud I am of his achievement I bought him a large giant cookie decorated just for him. Here's a pic:



I hope he'll be able to keep this up!! I'm very happy!:-) I love you bunches boo!

That time of the year.....to get sick

Well everyone...what did I expect..to dodge the sick bug forever? I mean really, what was I thinking, I was immune??? NEVER. It will eventually attack us all in some degree or another. In other words I was sick all weekend....bummer! And it was one of those OMG it is GORGEOUS fall weather outside -- crisp, cool, not a cloud in the sky, sunny, ya get the idea? And I spent all of it inside nursing a nasty cold that hasn't let me sleep much so I'm a walking bit** right now. Oh how lovely for my family. Actually I've been keeping my distance from them so as not to infect them and shower my yucky mood on them. They should be grateful!

In spite of my grumblings and clogged up respiratory system I made soap. Where I got the energy I don't know...but I made 3 batches, unheard of for me in 1 day. So I will share my pics as always.

Spiced Pear



Snowflake



Vanilla Bean

Beautiful fall day!!

Wow what a lovely day we've had today! Nicholas, Luis and Scully have been outside almost all day playing baseball. Scully is the ball chaser and keeper, Luis is the pitcher and Nicholas is batting. They are having a blast and the weather outside is just perfect for it, crisp, cool, and sunny! I'm posting a couple of pics here.

Also I made another batch of soap last night that came out really nice. I scented it with coolwater fragrance, a very masculine smell but lovely and refreshing. I'm posting a pic of that soap here too. Would write more but it's too pretty outside to be stuck inside sitting at my computer all day. Have a great day everyone!

The boys playing baseball


The ball keeper


Coolwater Soap

Learning as I go

So, what's new, I've got a new soap to post. It's scented with Spiced Plum and smells absolutely delicious. My hobby is so much fun and I learn something new every time I make a new batch. The scents, colors, recipes,....FUN! When I'm feeling antsy, bored, or blue, I concoct a new recipe and whalla....a new soap is born. For the first time since my soapmaking adventurs started I've had a couple of batches seize on me, you know....soap on a stick. When this happens ya gotta move, move, move or you're in trouble with a bowl full of hardened soap. I've managed thus far to move fast enough to get it in the mold, thank goodness..but just barely!

Aside from the soaps I also baked a cake from scratch. I don't bake very often, it's just not my thing. But the other day it was a dreary day, raining, cold, and overcast gray skies. I wanted something sweet but didn't want to venture outside in the rain. So I used what I had in my pantry and made a lovely chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. It came out quite yummy and pretty too. Simple mind you, I'm not a baker, but a pretty color.

Right now I'm in the process of finding a new job as an administrative assistant. It's not going to be easy finding this job for the kind of money that I need, close to my house but I am ever hopeful that God will help me find this job that I so desperatly need. Of course, working from home would be my ideal situation, but really, how many legit "work at home" jobs are out there? Not many I'm sure. If anyone reading this knows of a legit full-time, good paying job that can be done from home let me know. I want to be employed by someone - not own my own business.

Well, that's all for now. Here are a couple of pics for you:

New Soapies

Just wanted to post my new "Autumn Spice" soap made a few days ago and the cut pic of my break the rules soap.

Autumn Spice
















Break the Rules Soap

Summer day in October

Today was just like a beautiful August summer day. Not a cloud in the sky, hot outside, just lovely. I can't believe it's almost mid-October. Geeesh, the weather here is soooo unpredictable!

My soaping adventures continue...... Yesterday I made a soap that totally morphed into weirdness and I don't have a clue as to why. Then today I go to look at the soap (scented with a dupe of Estee Lauder's Pleasures) and it's morphed yet again...actually much better. I just don't get it???? Then tonight I throw caution to the wind and make a break the rules soap and decide on 3 colors and hope for the best. I think I got great colors!! Here goes...

This is the funky soap....notice the weird middle?


This is what it looks like cut


This is what it looks like today, one day later.
Do you understand?


And here's the soap I did tonight ;-)


Soaping sure is a learning experience. I thought I'd share my break the rules soap recipe with you all. This recipe is for a 3 pound batch/superfatted at 15%. Here goes:

Coconut Oil 1020 grams (36 ounces)
Cocoa Butter 340 grams (12 ounces)

Water 397.9 grams (14 ounces)
Lye-NaOH 198.9 grams (7 ounces) (lye concentration of 33.3%)
Fragrance 1 ounce (2Tbsp) per pound of oils (this recipe would take 6 Tbsp.)

I added powdered milk to the water (follow instructions on the brand you buy)

Melt your oils and let them cool (I usually add my fragrance to the oils but you can add at trace if you like). Then mix your powdered milk with very cold water until well mixed. Add your lye to the milk slowly, stirring as you go. The solution will likely turn yellow but don't worry you'll still get nice soap, just keep your nose away from the lye solution. Let the lye solution and oils reach room temperature or close to it. Now add your lye/milk solution to your oils and start whisking and stick blending until you get to trace. What you do with it from this point is entirely up to you. Add 1 color, 2 colors, whatever you like. Let cure for 4-6 weeks.

Happy soaping! ;-)

Last night my highschool friend Judy and her daughter and my son and I went to my old highschool's homecoming game. Judy and I have been going for the last 2 or 3 years so it's sorta become a tradition now. It's always fun to go back there and relive memories in my mind of all the football games I attended while in highschool. Now I'm going to date myself.....ready......it was almost 30 years ago. Yep, I was class of 1980, a great year!! I had some really good times in highschool going to games, pep rally's and dances. The music of the 70's was the best! I just can't believe that time has flown by so incredibly fast. I now have a son who will be going to highschool next year. My baby is growing up so fast....the time has just whizzed by. I can scarcely believe that within 3 short years I will hit 50!!! OMG! I still feel like I'm in my 20's (in my mind anyways-my body tells me otherwise ;-)). We won the game last night. We totally smeared the opposing team. I mean really, we had 4 touchtowns already in just the first quarter!!! And it rained sporadically throughout the night so it was pretty much....umbrella's open...umbrella's closed.....umbrella's open....umbrella's closed....you get the idea. We had a really good time anyways. Judy and I thought that we would see some fellow classmates from our class because on Facebook they said they were coming but sadly we didn't. Oh well, there's always next year.

Today was a beautiful crisp fall day. Nicholas went with his friend to an apple orchard to pick apples and make apple cider. I took Scully to the Vet where he got some more shots. When I came home I had planned on going to one of the many festivals going on around town but decided not to. What's the point when you can't spend any money right? So I stayed at home doing nothing. I had planned on making some soap and that didn't happen. I was feeling mighty lazy and sort of blue...don't know why. It was just ....one of THOSE days. I'm sure you all have had them.

I have a couple of new pics of my dear puppy Scully (one with my dear son) I thought I'd share with everyone. They were taken a couple of days ago.