One thing I wanted to do this year was to really push myself and explore my artistic side. Writing and photography have always been loves and comfortable, but drawing and sewing have been really pretty scary. For the last 20 or so years, until this past year, I’ve spent my Christmas Eve with Marsha and…
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Out of my comfort zone
Reviewing Our 2010 Soaps
This year Dave and I decided to bake all of our bread this year. I started with the HB in Five group attempting to bake through the book. Dave made a variety of wonderful breads from other resources. It was fun and healthy and we’ll do it again in 2011. If you’d like to read…
Read MoreThree More Soaps
We made three more soaps over a month ago. I’ve been wanting to post about them, but just haven’t had the time. The first is Lily of the Valley Olive Oil Soap. This recipe is the same of the Calendula Olive Oil soap except I left out the calendula and added lily of the valley…
Read MoreHappy Acres Baking
The last week has been busy with lots of baking. I finally finished my biscotti baking with six different kinds. I baked the Triple Cinnamon Pecan biscotti, and the other five were just variations on this basic recipe. The top light one is the almond biscotti with no substitutions. Knocking out three batches in an…
Read MoreShea Mango Body Whip
I’m still looking for that perfect body whip and I think I found it! The Mango Body Butter I made several weeks ago is great, but it’s really a butter. It whips up nice, but doesn’t stay soft. I still like it, but I want something that stays soft. I had made one for my…
Read MoreDark Chocolate Peppermint Biscotti
It’s time to start baking biscotti and what better day than yesterday when it was cold and snowy. So I got a couple new ingredients together for this batch. Please refer to my basic recipe. We bought some King Arthur Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa so I just had to try it. Then I came across these…
Read MoreMaking Paper Cloth
I’ve been wanting to do this since I purchased Kelli Perkins’ Stitch Alchemy many months ago. Since my craft room/woman cave is almost organized, I thought it was time to play a bit. What is paper cloth? It’s making a material using a base of material – could be muslin, canvas or even some of…
Read MoreShow and Tell
I’ve been working on organizing my craft/woman cave. I have put together three shelves and a new craft table and organizing all of the crafts into bins and storage boxes. I’m almost done! Yeah! The other day I brought up from the basement all of my sewing stuff. I know I’ll never sew down there…
Read MoreHB in Five Master Recipe
I know I’ve not kept up with the HB in Five baking group. I really intended on baking my way through the book this year with them, but it just didn’t happen. I did bake a couple loaves this past week to have with my vegetable soup. If you’ve still not tried this technique and…
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