Things are hopping...

at Frog Hollow. Sorry, I just couldn't resist!

Starting the day after Thanksgiving, our Christmas tree farm starts to get busy and this year was no exception.

Contrary to the forecast a few days before, the weather was spectacular and folks took advantage of it to take a number of trees out of here.

Others were content to tag theirs in order to return later and cut them in possibly more inclement weather.

It is so nice to see old customers returning year after year. (Those who stuck by us in the lean years which had resulted from some nasty droughts.) Seeing the kids returning each year and how they've grown is always amazing, but the one's who are now grown with their own families is even more astounding! Our own son was less than a year old when we started and now he's in college, so I guess it's pretty amazing to them too!

It's also nice to meet all the new folks who are just discovering us. We have a lot of development going on relatively nearby and those new "neighbors" are finding us.

We were so far out in the "boonies" 20 years ago when we moved here and although we're still well off the beaten trail, civilization is coming to us!

What happened to the gourds?

If you've been following the saga of the gourd trellis, you may have asked yourself, "What are they going to do with all those gourds?"

Well, this is my first attempt at making a container/bowl from one of them.

I scalloped the top and painted fish all around the surface.

Originally, I was going to make a kind of aquarium out of it, and that may come later on another on, but after the fish were done, it just looked nice that way and I softened the design with some metallics.

Then, I went on to one we were watching all summer. It was caught between two of the cross beams and wound up flattened on both sides, sort of like a canteen. The design is a rub on that we got at A. C. Moore. As soon as I saw it, I knew where it was going to go.

I think it turned out great with a lodge look to it. There is a bear on one side and a moose on the other.

I had drilled holes around the top and had a couple ideas how to finish it. Then I remembered the pine trees outside. Duh, we live on a Christmas tree farm!

The needles will discolor with time, and that won't be a bad thing, but meanwhile they are bright green and throw off a lovely fragrance.

The natural coloring of the gourd just seems to be the right backround and a little stain brought it all out.

Yep, we took a break from the soap yesterday and worked all day and into the dark out in the shop on these babies. I took a break from time to time to work a bit on the magazine. Back to work (soap) today although we may have time to play with another gourd in between! I know Bob is impatient to see one or two made into bird houses so we really need to reward all his hard work with a few of them.

If you want to see the ones Tina made, check her blog. She may not have them up just yet, but they'll be there soon, I can guarantee it.

Change is good, change is good...

So, you may ask, "Where has she been?" Well, we've been doing a couple of things at once.

The big thing is that we have been trying out the big soapmaking equipment. From time to time, I decide that it doesn't really make that big of a difference because, after all, we can make 8 or more regular batches in a day. With Tina helping, we are like a "well oiled machine" and just pump them out very easily. We've been making soap together since day one and there is this strange little ballet that we do - each anticipating the next move of the other.

This new equipment is throwing us for a loop because it calls for a completely different dance. Weighing such large quantities of soap - mixing large quantities of lye, daunting. Risking much larger quantities on each pour. You get the idea. It also seems to be pretty picky about at what stage of trace we pour the soap. The much larger mass in the molds causes worries over heat building up and causing other problems.

To the left, I'm mixing a batch in a 5 gallon bucket with a mixer on the end of a drill. (See my Crocs?) The trace takes much longer and that comes as a surprise.

The finished product, though, is very nice - uniform and a LOT of one soap. It will be so nice to have large quantities of some of the varieties - and all in one shot.

The cutter (to the right), although sometimes hard to push through all that soap, just does such a nice job. It's pretty impressive looking, don;t you think?

I've used the same setup for 6 years or so. A great mold and cutter arrangement that my husband, Bob, made for me. We'll still use that for some of the soaps that aren't the best sellers and it's very comfortable.

Yesterday, we made 4 regular batches of various types of soap along with one giant batch of lavender.

The big batches are still pretty touch and go. The lavender is a marbled soap and I can't wait til it comes out of the mold to see how that turned out.

Along with all the soap action, Tina changed the deadline for The Essential Herbal and we're also working on the preliminaries of putting the next edition together. It will be nice to have enough time to proofread it properly etc.

It will be easier as time goes on. I just keep telling myself, "Change is good, change is good!"

Lookie Lookie!

This is pretty exciting.

After we found out about the Farm Show, we decided we are going to have to make a LOT of soap.

With all the other things going on this time of year, we needed to find either a fabulous amount organization or a better system for making a lot of soap.

It just so happened that our brother decided a few years ago that soap making might be a good back up for him since layoffs seemed to be in his horizon. He decided to get into it in a big way and went ahead and bought this bulk soap making equipment.

He made one batch and decided maybe it wasn't for him... so this has been languishing in his basement for some time. He and his wife brought it up last evening and now we have to find a place to lay it all out.

I'm sure it will work out perfectly, but if all else fails, we'll be setting it up in Tina's basement.

Getting the hang of this will be something like learning to make soap all over again, although screwing up a batch of this will be a lot more expensive.

I just love it when a plan comes together!

Exciting News

OMG, OMG, OMG!!!! This is pretty exciting news. Lancaster County Soapworks, Etc., my soap company, just received an acceptance from the Family Living Dept. of the Pennsylvania Farm show to display and demonstrate soap making. 8 days in January - 400,000 people. Better get crackin'. So scary, so cool!

As we so often say, you just never know what will result from the events you participate in. When we did the farm days at Amish Farm & House, we met a quilter who suggested we contact the woman who takes care of that Dept and gave us her name and address because they were looking for a soaper.

We'll be making soap everyday and doing two stage presentations. Oh, and selling! We'll probably be able to take all Tina's publications along as well. This should be great!

Well, there's lots of planning to do and lots of soap to be made - YAY!!!!

FALLing...

Wow, I am just falling behind terribly. Did you ever feel that you had so much going on that you just didn't accomplish anything? I am, of course, but it just seems that I'm not.

While I'm "falling" behind, I did manage to get out and take some pictures of our fall skies and leaves. These are some Sassafras leaves still hanging onto their branch.

I swear the sky isn't this color of blue at any other time of the year. I just love it and always remember one particular bright yellow Gingko tree at the top of a hill at the Renn Faire. Something about that glorious yellow against the bright blue sky always made me so happy!

I have a lot of things I've been saving to finally post and I'll try to fit as many in here today as possible!

At the moment, I'm trying to list a necklace for a charity auction and I'm new at this. I know there's a way to show more than one picture at a time, but I just can't seem to figure it out.

I managed to get some soap listed, but I only needed one picture to pretty much cover the description. The necklace is another matter.

My little fantasy figures seem to be pretty popular. You may notice I've never shown them on my website except in the gallery. That's because they seem to sell as soon as someone sees them and they really do take some time to make.

And then there's the gourd harvest.

I took pictures of each wheelbarrow load as Bob took them in. This is one of three, so you can see we got a pretty nice number off that crazy arbor.

Now we'll see how they dry. Some of the tiny ones and even a few of the medium sized ones are ready to start playing with already. I can't wait!

This is the Bayberry that Bob got for us this spring. The babies seem to have survived pretty well. They were tiny twigs that seemed to have dried up when he put them in their "nursery" this spring. He added some sand to the bedding mix so they would feel more at home.

Spring a year ago, Tina and I planted one lonely little plant down in the woods, thinking that would be the perfect evironment. We forgot how fragrant and, apparently tasty they were to the deer. It was chewed to the nubs almost immediately and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to grow them at all.

Bob proved us wrong - YAY!

And, not to be forgotten, the chicken update.

I brought this egg in the other day and thought it seemed a lot larger than usual. Then I put it in with the others and saw I was definitely right! I suspect we'll have a double or possibly triple yolk.

Can you see the one I mean? What's that Sesame Street song? "One of these things is not like the others....."

Quick update

Well, if nothing else, I guess I should at least check in and let you know I'm still kicking.

I've been busy with any number of projects. A couple of soap orders had us hopping for a while this month. The shop is shaping up for the Christmas tree season. It'll feature soap, jewelry and Tina's publications - along with some other goodies we have come up with. I did hit the torch and before I even managed to take pix, a friend/customer showed up and bought them all. I guess that's a good thing. Then there were a couple of ugly days that somehow kept me in the house, not accomplishing much of anything.

We're also redoing our bedroom, painting and replacing the carpet that has been there since we moved in (20 years ago) and that we were planning to replace immediately. I guess since we have the whole house to ourselves now and can actually empty our bedroom and still sleep and find our clothes it was time to do it!

I'm definitely planning to put some time in on the torch tomorrow. First, Tina & I will be taking a shelving unit in to a friend who will be opening her shop on Friday. I'm anxious to see what all has changed since I saw it last. I'm sure this is a very exciting time for her.

Maybe I'll post some pictures of the shop at Frog Hollow (ours). And if all goes well, I'll have some new glass to post about.

Leaves, gourds, glass and soap - whew!

Well, all things change and again, we walked through the woods at the end of another summer. We just experienced our first frost of the year and most of the leaves are down.

Last year in the beginning of November, I posted my favorite picture of our woods. In that picture, I was looking out from inside the woods and this time, I'm looking in.

It's a week or two earlier in the year in this picture and yet everything is bare.

If you've been following the progress of our gourd arbor, here's what one good solid frost will do to a summers worth of gourd growth.

It may look a bit sad, but all those lovely gourds hold a promise of lots of fun when they have cured.

Bob and I are having something of a disagreement about how to cure them. We've been all over the internet and opinions vary on the proper way to do this. Some say harvest before the frost, some say leave them on the vine all winter. I suspect they will be cut soon and laid on some bread trays in a non-freezing area (the garage). It's sort of a compromise. We'll see....

Inspired by all the leaves and color leading up to the frosty aftermath, I finally put the leaf beads that I showed earlier together into a necklace.

It's 20" long so it hangs nicely on sweaters and looks nice under the collar of a shirt, coming around in front of the buttons, if you know what I mean.

I followed the basic idea of a necklace in a special jewelry edition of "Belle Armoire" magazine. The first three leaf beads are strung on softflex along with single beads. Then another pass or three is made through the larger beads - looping between the large beads every time. Finally another pass attaches 4 more of the leaf beads as well as a few more loops.

Here's a section of the necklace. Various sizes and colors of beads and pearls are used throughout the necklace. I made something of a "bead soup" and tried to string the loopy parts as randomly as possible. The colors did turn out very well and although this wasn't my first idea of a three tiered necklace, it can probably be worn for many more occasions than the original design could have.

It's kind of a celebration of fall. Although I'm not really looking forward to winter, who knows what that may inspire?

One more thing we did today was make some old fashioned "lye soap". Now, all the soap I make is "lye soap" and in fact any real soap you will ever find will be made with lye. But, one of my customers said she had tried something from someone else labeled "Old Fashioned Lye Soap" and asked if I could make it for her. Basically, she wants what I make only cut somewhat chunkier and wrapped more primitively.

I felt that old fashioned also called for the use of Lard instead of all the lovely tropical oils I usually use.

Soap making would have actually been one of the traditional chores of fall. Along with all the butchering, the lard would have been rendered and made into the family soap supply for the year. I've always talked about that in soapmaking classes, but never actually made lard based soap before. So I hunted it down and finally made the soap. Other than the fact that it seemed to take a bit longer than usual to trace, it reminded me of the bear soap I made earlier in the summer.

Two cultures meet

One interesting thing I saw yesterday but forgot to write about, probably because I didn't have a picture to prompt me.

Near the end of the day, a group of folks arrived. From their dress, they appeared to be strict conservative Jews and possibly Hassidic although all the men and boys did not have the "locks". Most men wore Yamulkas and many appeared to be wearing the prayer shawls - the fringe hanging out beneath their shirts. The women were well covered.

Anyhow, I'm mentioning this because when they approached the Amish Pie wagon across the way from us, there was a look of "kinship" that seemed to pass from one group to the other... Two groups whose dress and customs set them apart from the rest of the world. They seemed much more animated and at ease with each other than they did with us "Englishers".

I resisted the impulse to whip out the camera to record the meeting of the cultures because it would certainly not have been appreciated by either group, I am sure. I will, however remember.

A Fun Two Days

For the past two days, we have had the most enjoyable experience, participating in the "Harvest Festival" at The Amish Farm & House on Route 30, east of Lancaster.

I have been trying to capture a picture like this for some time, but the light was never right, or the clothes line was too far away. Today, as we walked on the grounds, there was the wash hanging above the road between the house and some of the outbuildings. The sun was still pretty low in the sky and it made a nice composition with the windmill.

Our mom was always fascinated by the Amish clotheslines. Usually they are a line strung around two pulleys. One pulley will be on the porch of the house and the other will be attached to an outbuilding or large pole.

The clothes would be clipped onto the line and then it would be moved out, making room for the next piece. Usually, the clothes are hung according to size and since the families are often large, it is a sizeable amount of laundry and very picturesque as the items range out along the line. Traditionally, wash was done on Mondays, so The Amish Farm & House hangs out their wash faithfully on Mondays. I suspect with the size of the families, washday often runs into Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday if necessary!

The windmill is a familiar sight in our county. It is often used by Amish families to pump their water from the well.

What a pleasant bunch of people. The folks who work there seem to enjoy their work and each other. The visitors were as fascinating to us as the Amish lifestyle and the crafters'demonstrations were to them. I have no idea how many languages I heard being spoken in the past two days.

We put our crafters' tent up in front of the Blacksmith's Shop, the white building to the right. The bell was actually rung today at 10:45 along with all the church bells in the Lancaster area to commemorate the murders of 5 Amish school girls last week at that time.

The vine is a Hyacinth Bean Vine. That was the vine we grew up the whole way to the top of the second story of the addition to our shop at the Renn Faire well over 12 years ago. It was a great year and so it always brings back happy memories.

The little white bulbous thing on the left of the roof is a lightening "rod". It certainly wasn't on the highest point of the farm, but at least we got a good view of it!

On Sunday, we made three batches of soap, explained and answered many questions. It was nice to find that the old "patter" still comes just as easily as it did years ago.

We were asked to return again today and just couldn't pass it up even though we really needed to go on a supply run. We took the soap back that we made yesterday and very slowly cut it and trimmed it so there was always soap in various stages on display.

On Sunday, the potter/gift shop manager was across the street from us. Today, however, her spot became an Amish Bakeshop.

Shortly after we got there and set up, an Amish family came in and began putting things out on the tables.. Pies, cookies, canned goods, hotpads and many more lovely things.

Later in the day, the "pie wagon" arrived. We heard the clopping of the horse coming in the road behind us and a short time later, the man who drove them there came in pulling the converted buggy. He parked it right across from us where we could study it and exclaim about the wisdom of the design and then the yumminess of its contents!

The crowds were more sparce today and we took our own tour of the grounds...

It is hard to believe this little piece of Heaven is right off a main highway and now surrounded by a strip mall and a Target center. Somehow, when one walks through the doors of the farmhouse and into the back yard, all the hustle and bustle of the outside world melts away and we are surrounded now by a quiet farm yard.

There are so many things to see.

Flowers are at their peak everywhere. The trees are just beginning to change so this is a very colorful time of year.

Chickens are casually wandering here and there until a child starts to chase them (they seemed to be accustomed to that!) An escaped goat kid is searching fruitlessly for the way back into the pen with all his siblings and cousins.

It seems everywhere one looks there is beauty and the signs of the seasons. Where better to see those things than on a farm where life depends on what is growing, needs to be harvested, needs to be preserved or must be planted?

I really enjoyed being there, meeting and interacting with the other crafters, staff and visitors - all the while being made to feel welcome.

A few more comments and some pictures

This is just a happy picture. Bob had picked a huge bucket of apples off the tree outside the soap studio and they were sitting on a bench on the porch. I came outside at one point and this is what I saw. I thought, "A is for Apple and B is for Butterfly."

It said to me that the season is winding down. Somehow it is a harvest picture to me. I love the colors together. It's my new screensaver picture.

A couple of things more about the shootings of the girls in the Amish school and then I'll go on to more cheerful topics.

First, I find it interesting that we here in Lancaster County refer to the Amish as "our" Amish. There is a very protective attitude toward those whose life has been so horribly defiled. I think part of it is that many of us who are natives here have similar or even identical roots. If ancestors of ours had made different decisions, we would have been Amish ourselves. When our grandfather's family came here 7 generations ago, they were members of the Anabaptists fleeing Europe looking for religious freedom. The head of that family became the first Amish bishop in this County.

Second, I am impressed by the news coverage. There is truly a lot of respect shown to this very different way of life. The funerals yesterday and today have been allowed to be what they should be, solemn, private events. Roads have been closed and State Police have guarded the routes to insure the privacy of the events.

At the same time, the customs of the Amish are being discussed reverently, not as usual... as a joke. The Amish belief in forgiveness seems to have stunned some of the news people and I doubt very much that they will leave here without having been touched in some way by the ideals of these peaceful people.

On Monday, I was putting the finishing touches on the magazine (Essential Herbal, Nov-Dec 2006) and Tina was making the soap that needed to be made that day. That day, we took a break to go up to her house to get a picture we needed and that was when we found out about the shootings.

On Tuesday, when we were cutting the soap, Tina let out a gasp and said, "Look at this!" Do you see the little girl's face in the soap? This soap was poured almost exactly when the worst was happening that morning... Give you chills? It did us.

Evil vs. Innocence

In the past two days, we have been extremely busy. We wrapped up the magazine in record time (and I believe it is one of the best so far) and made another 6 batches of soap. This all took a lot of concentration and the normally blaring television was turned off early each day.

Yesterday around noon, Tina and I went up to her house to download one final picture. Before taking care of it, Tina needed to check her email. Almost immediately, her SO, popped on and asked if we were anywhere near the Amish shooting. What?

We quickly turned on the silent TV and were confronted with a horror almost incomprehensible. I find it very difficult to write about this, but suffice it to say that a people of peace and innocence were defiled by evil. The depth of the feelings of the whole community was demonstrated by first responders who left the scene in tears and a colonel of our State Police who needed to collect himself during his reciting of the events at a press conference.

I think the worst part is that the victims were so young, innocent and totally defenseless.

When I think of innocence, I remember when our son was small, probably around the same age as some of the youngest victims. We, for some reason, were driving through the battlefield at Gettysburg. He saw the cannons along the road and asked what they were. It brought home to me how gently and carefully we had raised him when I explained that they were used to kill people during war. He looked at me with shock on his little face and said, "What would they ever want to do THAT for?" That day marked the beginning of his understanding of evil and perhaps mine of innocence.

This act, so contrary to the Amish way of life, must have been just as totally surreal to the little victims. For some, the first time they looked evil in the face marked the end of their lives.

And, you know, everywhere in the world there is killing, senseless and evil. Nothing is solved. Nothing is accomplished. "What WOULD they ever want to do that for?"

Better late than....

Okay, Okay, I have an excuse!

We went off delivering orders on Monday. Here are a few of the seasonal offerings we saw at an Amish roadside stand (one of our delivery spots.)

Ya think it's Autumn? Everything on his front porch screamed FALL!

Little gourds, Mini Indian corn bunches and mini pumpkins. All sorts of wonderful things to put together into a nifty Harvest centerpiece.

While we were out, we took samples of our new Holiday scented soaps along. We called on a few of our customers to show them the new soaps and, bingo... new orders.

We took a look at the shelves in the shop and realized we better get cracking making soap! Here's the result:From left to right, it's Wise Guy, Apple Snap (seasonal), Bayberry (seasonal), Chocolate Fudge (special order), Holiday Spice (seasonal) and finally Lavender. 6 batches is a lot to do in one day, but we still need more! We'll get these all cut, trimmed and tucked away and then go for another marathon day! (Quick, before it's time to get the magazine out next week!)

But, on to the beads...

These are what I would call the inspiration beads for something that has been requested. I made all these "party in a bead" some time ago. Actually, I should post the earrings I made from a pair of these (that match) but I don't have a photo right now.

A friend/customer saw my earrings and asked me to make a bunch more for her to put in her shop.

Of course, as soon as I have a request - and for something I really love to make - I lose interest in making that type of bead!

These are the only "set" I managed to produce and I really like the color combo and the design; however, the sizes certainly bear no relation to each other! I call this bead "Oceangoing", by the way.

So, not to be swayed from the torch, I worked some more with these colors and produced:

These guys!

I do love this style. I've been making a lot of them in different color combos and other people seem to like them a lot too.

Sometimes, it's just hard to sit and make anything over and over. On the other hand, sometimes it's so easy to just make a set because the design is new or inspiring.

I only managed to produce one bead like the one to the right. I've done this exact bead in a set before and really love it. It's called "Wild Salmon"! I've made a vessel in these colors, too. I guess I'll have to finish off this set and the one above. Both are made with my favorite pale emerald green and I'm really taking a liking to the silvered ivory that "belts" the half and half bead above,

As the seasons change

At the end of Summer, we have some of the most luxuriant growth on our plants. So, before the frost, I thought I'd take a few pictures.

I've been trying to grow sunflowers in front of the shop for some time now and something always seemed to get in the way. One year, they were doing well and some creature came along and just chopped them down. It may have been the resident groundhogs or maybe just a bunny with an itchy chin.

I gave up and then this year, my husband and son decided to plant sunflowers on the side of the one bird cage/aviary so the birds would have some nice shade in the heat of the summer.

It worked very well, and while they were planting, they planted some seeds in with the gourds and a few in front of the shop.

This one is a result of that planting. It is a little later blooming than the enormous ones in other places in the yard, but it is also perkier and quite attractive to the bee in the center, who waited while I came inside and grabbed my camera.

Another plant that has challenged me for years is the Rosa Rugosa. I fell in love with this rose and with its juicy hips one autumn, years ago, at the Cape May, NJ. The brilliant color of the rose alone is reason to grow them and I love the texture of the leaves.

My sister and I felt we had to taste the fleshy orange hips. After trespassing across a hotel lawn to acquire a few, we were pleasantly surprised to find them pretty good. They are touted as a good source of vitamin C and, sure enough, there was a hint of citrus fruit in the flavor.

The juicy red things in the second picture are the hips. I have the definite feeling that rose hip jelly is somewhere in our near future!

I have purchased a few of these over the years, but it seems I often make the mistake of planting certain plants in the path of future construction or in a place that is too distant to inspire the babying they sometimes need to get a good start.

Again, this time, my husband (the one with the greenest thumb!) decided to buy a number of these plants and populate a hill with them. He is hardy enough to get out in the bright afternoon sun and weed them! The hillside is doing quite well and if all goes well, they will have taken over so completely by next summer that the weeding will be a thing of the past.

Just as a teaser, I expect to take a few things out of the kiln today worthy of blogging, so, until tomorrow....

The rain is gone.... for now

Well, the rain was gone (it's returning later today though), we did a bit of exploring yesterday in the woods and in the pond.

A few weeks ago, Tina and I had found Spiceberries starting to ripen on the trees in the woods. We picked as many ripe ones as we could find thinking they'd be a great addition to the still experiments. Then, we decided we'd be back in the next week or two to clean up all the berries still ripening. One week led to another and when we checked yesterday, they were gone. I guess the birds and animals in the woods think they smell as tasty as we did.

On our way back up the path, we saw another plant that we didn't know, but it held these bunches of berries.

We brought a sample up to the shop and began consulting field guides. Seems these are Black Haw berries.

From what we could find, the bark of this plant is a substitute for cramp bark and also, some people make jellies with the berries. There was one ripe (black) berry in this bunch and we both tasted it. It was pretty bland.

As we passed the pond, there was a disturbance on the surface and when we looked closer, there were a large number of fish swirling, then stretching out in a block, swimming a bit and then swirling around fallen leaves, etc. The "disturbance in in the rough little oval I drew on the picture.

When we moved in the pond was clear and housed a large school of big goldfish. In the winter, on a warm day, the fish would swim around the top of the water and we could see them from our living room window.

A flock of ducks - bought as day old chicks in a box which looked much smaller than it was - had taken their toll changing the chemical make up of the pond. Bass (carnivorous fish) had been added and they ate most of the resident goldfish. Duckweed which had been clinging to other plants we added over the years had taken over the pond.


This is a huge discovery. My husband, Bob, has been working on the pond for the past 2-3 years, trying to bring it back to its former glory. He added a few "goldfishy-type" fish this spring and they seem to have multiplied.

It's difficult to get a good picture of the "gang", but here they are. There are a number of apparently adult fish in their full colors and the more immature ones seem to be mostly drab colors, but by this winter or spring, I'll bet we'll have the colorful display we loved 20 years ago!

The Social Whirl!

What a weekend. I have no pictures to share, but just had to write about this.

We are usually boring homebodies - just ask our son - so this was a very unusually social 3 days.

First, the usual Friday dinner was even more lively than usual. Our son brought a friend, Molly, home with him this weekend and for a change, I prepared a meal that even Rob could eat. We all sat down to a large pan of stuffed shells with meatballs on the side and laughed and kidded through the entire meal. Lots of reminiscences, some a bit shocking but all funny. As Rob gets older, there is less and less censoring, so the kids got a pretty vivid picture of who we were way back when. I think they were entertained and Rob didn't seem to be "too" embarrassed by his crazy family.

Saturday, it was the Sizzlers' meeting. It seemed that life had gotten in the way of most of the "regulars", so the core group was Rachel and me. Luckily, we were joined by Lesliediana from Arlington (yep, Virginia) and two Traci's who we met at the Lebanon show.

I really don't think I have had so much fun with a group of women in ages and that's saying something because most of the Sizzlers meetings are a blast. We snacked and bonded and just laughed uncontrollably most of the afternoon. Then my darling husband, Bob, grilled some burgers and we sat down to eat even more. Someone asked when the stripper was coming, just as Rob and Molly returned from their travels. Rob walked into the room and one of the Traci's said, "You must be the stripper!" You have to know our reserved son to imagine the expression on his face! Molly was quietly amused.

It was one of those wonderful things that happens when a group of relative strangers just clicks. At first, I was worried because many that we were expecting weren't able to come. I wish everyone could have been there to enjoy an uproarious day. We even discussed beads and jewelry!

So, I thought I could take a deep breath on Sunday and recover. Tina and I went early to pick up some stain for her wicker kitchen set and worked a bit on that. Sometime in the middle of all this, Rob and Molly headed back to school. Then, I had promised to mow the yard and I came home and zipped around taking care of that. A quick shower and off to our next gathering.

I had almost forgotten that we were invited to an "impromptu surprise wedding reception" for some friends in the afternoon. Our friend, Brian, often invites a group for dinners. It's always fun, but this time, he had a purpose. He is the head steward on a cable ship and was out at sea when Kelly and Scott were married this summer. When he called to invite us, he told me they had served cupcakes at their wedding and didn't have a proper cake, so no top layer to freeze and eat next year on their first anniversary. He planned to correct that!.

We all brought cards and some small gifts - in our case a box of assorted soaps. It was nice and again it was a group of casual friends who got along great.

After dinner was finished, we prepared for Brian's usual fabulous dessert. He entered with a two tier wedding cake. Kelly and Scott were overwhelmed, but did the traditional cutting of the cake and attempted to smear cake and icing on each others' faces... They are an adorable couple and its clear they know how to play together.

Anyhow, that was my weekend. It was so nice to enjoy family, new and old friends getting along and having fun together. I feel like I packed a good portion of my annual socializing into one three day period - now, sigh, back to work.

Rain, rain....

Rudy's expression pretty much says it all. We really needed the rain, but you know, enough is enough! The past few days, we've received some much-needed rain, but the inactivity is taking it's toll on all of us.

Today will be much better, clearing on the horizon and nice cool, clear weather for a few days.

We made some soap on Tuesday and really need to make some more, but just seem to be putting everything off.

I haven't even lit the torch for days and days. There seem to be so many things I need to do, but I just am not doing them.

Family for dinner tonight and a Sizzler's meeting tomorrow, plus kids home for the weekend from college.

I'll take a big breath on Sunday and dig back in!

Stuff

Lots of things going on, nothing really Earth-shattering.

Yesterday, we went to visit (and feed!) our son at Ursinus College. It's not a very long trip - only 1-1/2 to 2 hours and I really don't know why we haven't visited him more since he started last year. Part of it is that he comes home pretty often. Apparently the driers at school don't work! He does his own laundry so I really can't complain and it's good seeing him and meeting the friends he brings along.

I snapped a picture of the cooling towers at the Limerick nuclear plant. It's pretty close to Collegeville, so it seems he's moved from the shadow of TMI to the shadow of Limerick.

This, though is what I've been working on lately. I was asked to make 12 aromatherapy vessels for a well-known essential oil company and thought I'd give it a shot.

Originally, I resisted because I would really prefer not to do anything resembling production. There's enough of that in the soap business.

I can't seem to do more than 3 or 4 at a sitting, but I did get them done. They are the Caliente glass that I love.

I broke down and ordered a few other colors. Probably not enough of any of them to do another full order, but plenty of experimenting. Some are reducing colors. In other words, the metal in the glass rises to the surface when they are flashed in a reducing flame (propane heavy rather than oxygen heavy which is called an oxidizing flame).

I'm also working on an autumn necklace which will include all the leaves I made a few weeks ago. I wanted to make some acorns and some oak leaves to add to it and while we were visiting the campus yesterday, I found some fallen acorns to use as models.

I have tried making acorns before, but they look more like a male body part! Maybe with real models in front of me, they'll look like what they are supposed to be!

On the other hand, the oak leaves I have made before actually have turned out pretty well. We'll see.

Today, we're probably going to make some "seasonal" soaps for the holidays. A bayberry for sure and probably something apple-y and spicy for fall.

Tina already reported on the Colonial Day show we did this weekend. I was saved by some prior orders that I have to deliver at the show and actually, the jewelry went all right, but nothing like what we had imagined.

I'll try to get back on a routine of posting again. It seems I often forget my camera and I really don't like to post without a picture!

I did want to mention the memorials yesterday and how touching it was watching the people who had lost loved ones 5 years ago. Yesterday, as we drove down to Rob's school, I was surprised at all the billboards and signs in memory of the disaster and I was also surprised at how raw and close to the surface all those memories and emotions still are. Even though I didn't lose anyone close to me, we as a nation lost our innocense once again.

The Egg & I

Lookie what Bob brought in to show me today!

He came in from letting the chickens out for their daily roam around the area with his hand closed. I hesitated to accept his proffered gift, because we have different ideas about what one should hold in their hand! He turned it over and Wow!

We were like new parents! Well, not that excited, but pretty pleased that the chickens have finally produced an egg.

It's pretty small, I have it in an egg box with two "large" size regular chicken eggs. "Our" eggs will increase in size and number soon. How cool is that?



Here's the gang. I forget if I posted an actual picture of our own little "flock".

We've gotten used to each other now. They roam during the day and know enough to come in to their coop for a safe night's sleep. Just as it gets dark, Bob goes out and shuts the door.

Between the chickens and the gardens, we're becoming a bit more self sufficient. It's a nice feeling.

Well, I'm off to make a number of vessels for an order. Just finished all the soap beads and they're ready to go out. I have a set or two of regular beads that I want to finish up before "Colonial Day" in East Berlin on September 9. Plus, of course, there's always soap to make and wrap.

Okay, okay!

So, I saw that Tina bugged me to post my angel.. Just remember you can click on any picture and it will come up larger in its own window.

Since so many people call my fairy beads angels, I thought I'd make a real angel. She's dressed in white, with goldstone stripes thrugh her skirt, a goldstone halo and a bit for sparkle in her wings.

I'm not sure how many of these I might do. I seem to be on a white kick at the moment and made a victorian lady before the Gem Miner's show. She's mostly ivory, but has white "fur" around her hat and skirt hem as well as her muff. No picture of her today.


What's really been taking up my time this week is making a bunch of soap beads. They were ordered last week and I've been trying to get them done ever since the show. I have a lot of trouble doing the same thing over and over, but I did make a plan to do one color each day.

Now they're ready to be engraved and then they just need to be popped in the kiln to round off the corners of glass and set the enamel. Once they are made into charms, they are ready to go out.


I feel like I have to do something to break up the monotomy when I have a bunch of soap beads to do and there is a charity auction going on here for a place for women to get a fresh start called "Milagro House". I thought, since I often donate soap to them, it would be nice to make something for the auction.

This purple winged heart seems like something that might be appropriate. I even sifted purple enamel over it and it looks pretty cool. I think that special charms are called Milagros (miracles), I may be wrong, but this just seemed right. I want to make it into a pendant, maybe with a few crystals added, and I think it will be perfect.