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Simple Christmas Decorations

December 17, 2013 Leave a Comment

I’m a simple gal at heart, and I enjoy things that are natural, handmade, whimsical. Here is a little tour of some of the decorations around my home that fall into one or more of those categories.

Orange slices are easy to dry. I put the slices onto parchment and then slid them into the oven as it I pulled out supper, allowing the heat to slowly dry them out as the oven cooled. The next morning I forgot they were in there and preheated the oven! Oops! They got a tinge crispy on the edges, but I got them out in time.

Simple Christmas Decorations

Here they are, strung up with thread and on the tree. They really catch the light.

I never could find a topper I liked so my husband created one out of a piece of copper pipe scrap from a plumbing job. The idea was to look like a giant tinkertoy. Mission accomplished! As an added bonus, the rays all pull out of the center circle and store within the center pipe.

I didn’t add much to the mantle, just some cedar from the woods outside, a string of lights and some carved wooden reindeer.

I found this wooden nativity set years ago in a local artists co-op. I can’t remember where the wire trees came from (Pier One??) and I made the little angel hanging on the clock out of wool. My sweet neighbor made the Noel banner for me as a gift. The quilt in the background is one that I made.

This banner is so cute! I love the simplicity of it. I bet a lot of you crafty gals could figure it out and make similar ones.

What’s winter without snowflakes? Some years the only ones we see are the ones we make and tape upon the windows. We’re snobby snowflake purists: they *must* have six sides. I very much like this birdcage. Only quiet and clean (read: fake) birdies currently live in it, but I’m not opposed to putting in some real ones someday.

However, I don’t think real birdies would don on mini Santa hats.

A month ago I managed to drag a cabinet in from the basement and give it a good paint job. It’s not made of real wood (too bad!) but it still does the job. You can see my scrappy candy canes up top, and the top two shelves hold my collection of children’s Christmas books.

For our Advent calendar, I traced a free mitten pattern from the internet and cut out 24 mittens. On the back of each is an activity for the day, such as creating Christmas cards or enjoying hot cocoa or playing music downtown.

For our dining chandelier, we draped more cedars and then added paper chains and a little touch of gold garland.

Our Christmas cards are hung on a string with mini clothespins.

A friend made these snowflakes for me. Aren’t they gorgeous? I’m still amazed by them; they’re glass!

Here’s another birdcage with the birdie escaped! We decorated the cage with vintage (read: thrift shop) Christmas ornaments.

Some projects are ongoing, here a little, there a little. Like some wool felt gingerbread men. Just three of them.

I still need to sew on the binding to a table runner I made from my scrap collection. Maybe I’ll finish it in time for next year 🙂

And why not decorate with sticks? I want to hot glue them into star shapes.

These ornaments-to-be are from clothespins cut short. They’re awaiting some paint and personality.

I hope you are enjoying some quiet time this Advent, creating some lovely things for your home and family. None of it really needs to be complicated or expensive. You can see how I decorated my kitchen here.

Blessings,

How To Juggle Multiple Sourdough Starters

December 5, 2013 6 Comments

I’ve been feeling the need to update my post on whole wheat sourdough bread, mainly because baking with sourdough is far, far easier than the recipe I left there. And now that I’ve been at it for several years, I’ve also gotten to a nice rotation in juggling multiple sourdough starters. I get most of my starters from Sourdoughs International, and I’ve been very pleased. Each one has a different personality, a different flavor, and even a different scent! Some work really well with heavy whole wheat (such as the Russian or Polish Rye), and others work better for white or wheat/white mixed breads (such as the French or Italian). Some ferment and rise very quickly, within a few hours, and some take all day.

I realize that *real* bakers weigh their ingredients, but I’ve really enjoyed just following the recipes in Classic Sourdoughs (also available via Amazon). Furthermore, I really like just eyeballing the flour and water mixture for consistency, and I learned that through the book, too. I almost never use baker’s yeast anymore at all, and when I do, it’s always kind of a bummer I didn’t have my starter ready.

I keep all of my starters in the fridge. I’ve kept and rotated four at a time for a while, but I got kind of bored and dehydrated a couple. After a nice long baking sabbatical, I added a Polish Rye to the group, and currently I am keeping and rotating three (one Italian and a French, along with the Rye). At the ready for rehydrating when I’d like are a Russian, another Italian, an Alaskan and a South African. I love having so much variety in my baked goods at home! The nutritional value AND the money savings are bonus!

This is how I rotate my starters; all of these pictures were taken on one single morning.

When I remove a starter from the fridge, it looks like this. It’s probably been a week or two since I’ve used this starter. The separation is normal. I will pour this entire jar into a ceramic bowl, and then “feed” it with some flour and water. I eyeball both measurements, taking care to keep my flour just less than half of how much starter there is, and then slowly whisking in water until I get that pancake consistency. I love using my Danish dough whisk for this, but I did use a large fork for a long time. I cover the bowl and put it aside. I’ll be feeding it again in the evening (second feeding) and a third time the following morning. That following evening is when I will put a dough of something together, to let it rise overnight.

sourdough1

This is a bowl of starter I had begun the day before. All I have to do here is feed it, again just eyeballing it and let it sit until evening. If I forget or choose not to make dough that evening, I simply hold it over until morning for pancakes or waffles or pizza dough or even chocolate cake. YUM. And I really, really, really try not to forget to SAVE STARTER BEFORE MIXING DOUGH. The saved starter (back into a fresh mason jar) gets a little feed and goes back into the fridge until its turn to play is again up.

By the way, the best way to not lose starter is to share with friends 😉

Lastly, I have a bowl of dough mixed from the night before, risen and ready to be scraped out onto the counter to rest for a half hour. Then I put my dough into loaf pans and let it rise until its good and ready to throw into the oven. Depending on the starter, this could be just 2 hours, or 8-10! This happened to be my Polish Rye (a slow riser), and I made a couple of loaves of whole wheat raisin bread. I baked them that afternoon and we had seriously crazy yummo sourdough rye raisin bread to toast for our breakfast the next morning.

I suppose the last photo ought to be the finished bread, crumbs and melted butter on a sweet plate dappled by sunlight. But we ate it all before I bothered to take any photos that would make you drool 🙂

I don’t really plan ahead what I’m going to bake. Typically, I just pull out the next starter and consider what kind of breads would be good with that one. Sometimes I just don’t bake anything at all for days. And when I do bake, it’s in small batches. Gone are my days of pulling out half a dozen yeast breads at a time. Sourdough breads are not only delicious, but they are far more filling.

Juggling multiple sourdough starters isn’t really difficult. It’s just like anything else, simply a learning curve to get around.

Blessings,

Scrappy Sewn Candy Canes

November 24, 2013 Leave a Comment

This sciatic injury has taken away some things I like to do…like pilates, like horse riding, like walks down my gravel road. A month later, the pain is not keeping me up at night but I still have some nerve damage in my leg and foot, so I am finding less active things to do. And yes, I’ve gained five pounds!

We were blessed to be invited to Thanksgiving supper this year. A lovely couple with two children gave us the invite and after I responded, “you do realize there are nine of us…?” we were smilingly and graciously encouraged to come. And all I have to bring is the delicious sour cream jello dish (that I got from Susan’s Branch Autumn book) and my mother’s baklava. I am looking forward to meeting new friends, enjoying some hospitality, and yes…watching football before the game becomes ridiculously unlike what it was and almost still is (don’t get me started).

Soooo…instead of planning Thanksgiving, I’ve skipped ahead to planning and decorating for Christmas. It’s ok. I used to not cut down our tree until Christmas Eve….so it’s not too early, right?

I’ve been wanting to do something with these pretty pink and red scraps for a while. So I piled them onto the table and just enjoyed looking at them, thinking of what to do. Don’t you ever do that? Just *look* at your supplies and find beauty in them?

After drawing a sketch of a candy cane on a piece of cardboard, I used it to trace onto the back of a piece of fabric laid onto another, good sides facing one another. Then I stitched over the chalk lines, leaving an opening at the bottom for stuffing.

I just loved (and love!) working on my featherweight. It’s an amazing little machine. Someday I’m going to get my Singer treadle going, too.

After I sewed onto the lines, I used pinking sheers to cut about a quarter itch outside of the lines. Then I carefully turned the canes right side out, using a blunt wooden knitting needle to help me poke the ends out. I gave them all a quick press to set the stitches.

Then I spent many evenings listening to Little Britches with my children while my 9 year old daughter helped me stuff the canes and sew up the openings. The audio book was excellent but there was one cowboy near the end who liked to softly swear. And yes, it bugged Little Britches, too. But that’s life; we all live around people who say/think/believe/do things that we personally feel are nuts. We all need to learn how to live amongst them….and they need to learn to live around us 🙂

Here they are finished, in a basket I made a few years ago. Don’t they look pretty?!

I have a little list of handcrafts I want to try this Christmas season, and yes, some of the ideas were from Pinterest! If you follow my boards, you can see what I find. Many years ago I had lonnnnng lists of links to share; Pinterest has sure made sharing easy.

Do you have your own little (or long!) list of ideas to try your hand at? I guess one of the blessings in being forced to sit (or lie) down is the opportunity to tackle some of those things that bring me a little joy.

Blessings,

Re-Purposing Vintage Suitcases

April 7, 2012 Leave a Comment

My husband brought these two small personal travel cases into our household twenty years ago, not because of the cases themselves, but because they kept all of the old telephone wire and other odds and ends he might need *someday*. Suffice it to say, after two decades they were still just hanging out in the basement. I eyed them earlier last week….sayyyyyy……

So he dumped all of the contents and gave me the cases. One belonged to his mother, and the other to his grandmother. Each had their own initials on them. I loved them already!

The first thing I did was clean up the outside with some everyday spray cleaner.

One of the cases had a liner in the lid that I didn’t think was worth salvaging. The fabric was torn and furthermore, the foam behind it looked like old mildew had gotten to it. I gently tore it completely out and threw it away.

To put in its place I cut and measured a thick piece of cardboard, and then had a grand time finding the right background paper to adhere to it. I used rick-rack to cross over it, bulletin board style, and then trimmed the edge with some lace I pulled off an old skirt I had been saving for *something*. Across the bottom I laid some batting and then attached some fresh fabric, leaving the side pockets still in use. It sure cleaned up nice.

I decided to use the case for all of the odds and ends that I like to use when creating and decorating my own stationery for snail mailing with my friends and pen pals. A sweet friend of mine made me, for my birthday, a collection of embellishments I could use for that very purpose, so I put those in there too. I used a small tin to hold tiny buttons and other decorative pieces too.

This is what the case inside ended up looking like. I put in stickers, ribbons, twine, fabric scraps, the little tin, magazine cut-outs, other handmade embellishments and a small pair of scissors and glue. I love it! Everything’s in one place, and even with it closed, I find it to just be delightful.

The other case was in much better shape. Isn’t it lovely? I cannot believe I just let it lie fallow all these years.

Even the inside looked good. I used a hot glue gun to tack down some of the liner but that was all it really needed. I laid in some colorful pieces of fabric into the plastic tray and it really brightened it up a lot.

And here’s the finished case. I am using it to store all of my sewing and felting notions and it just sits happily next to my Singer featherweight. Best of all, everything’s within reach but nothing’s out in the open tempting little fingers or gathering dust.

I wish I still had my grandparents around. I think I would have loved to snoop around their houses and taken home things to repurpose.

Blessings,

One Way to Do a Bible Word Study

January 21, 2012 2 Comments

I’m not unaware that my “free time” is going to be very limited later this spring once baby arrives and I will then have, by God’s grace, seven (SEVEN!) children to love and train up. Right now I am like a ravenous Bible woman, reading as much as I can and trying to store up the manna for the leaner non-sleep fog I’m heading for.

I thought I’d share one way to dig deeper into the Word if you have a good 20 or 30 minutes in the evening to chip away at it.

For many reasons, the word coming to me in the last years has been “Fear not.” I decided to podcast on that topic, and you can hear it here if you haven’t already. To help me prepare, I did a word study on that phrase, “Fear not”. The first thing I did was plug in those words and then print out every single passage that it was commanded. I used (and use) the very simple KJV Bible search; it’s nothing fancy. That’s why I like it (no bunny trails, no man’s interpretation of “Greek”, and no opinions!).

Then I cut apart all of the strips of verses. I know I could have inquired on other phrases, such as, say, “do not fear”, but I decided to simply focus on the phrase I had been meditating on. I always use the King James Bible; I have confidence none of the verses will be missing.

Then, I read and pondered them all. This usually takes a while, especially if I’m really paying attention (which I ought to be!). It has never failed me: common threads became clear and I started to really see God’s consistent Holy character. Different themes offered themselves, and I began to put together verses that said basically the same things but in different ways. I noticed that the command “Fear not” was usually followed by a reason….and I was able to pile those reasons together in similtude.

Of course, just depending on verses taken out of context is no good. So, once they were in their various groups, I read them in the Word, taking into account the purpose, the people, the time and events. Doing that made those groupings even more clear.

I started writing down what each grouping of verses was basically teaching me. It was pretty hard not to feel like a little kid whose Father was delighting in! He was revealing His Word to me in ways that made me SO excited; it was like putting puzzle pieces together, or having ponderings answered, or talking with Him back and forth and Him hearing me laughing say, “You are AWESOME, God!” or finding me contrite and asking for forgiveness at times. Always, He was (and is) teaching me. But doing this was one way for me to actually pay Him some greater attention, and for Him to tune my ears.

Once I started writing the main points out, it was easy to confirm it all with the Scripture I’d been reading. I thought about posting all of the verses along with my podcast blog post, but, seriously, it was about three pages long! I figured that if anyone listening did not like the sound of what I said, they would seek out the Truth as they ought on their own, anyway.

I am but a frail woman still longing to see God and to know Him face to face (someday!). But when opportunity affords, I delight in taking the time to dig in His Word. I pray that through the trials, I will somehow remember what He taught me, that His Word won’t return void, that I will have good cause in all things to “Fear Not”.

Because of Jesus,

Money Book

January 31, 2011 4 Comments

So. Due to crazy circumstances, tomorrow’s the day I take over our finances. I haven’t done them in a while, and I admit it was kind of nice not worrying about it. I suppose it is my season to do them again for a while, and because my use of the computer is very limited (my husband uses it for his work and hobbies), I can’t do budgeting online. Which actually suits me just fine, really. I prefer doing a lot of things (other than laundry) the “old fashioned” way.

But can I just say that a decent accounting book is hard to find? I looked, I really did. And finally with the month looming I just broke down and bought this super ugly money book from WalMart. The saving grace was that it was only three bucks. So already I think I’m doing really well, financially speaking. But…wow…a depressingly ugly book with the gold print “CASH” on the cover (as in…”I hope we’ll have some at the end of the month“???).

Anyhow, the last week put me in a funk so I decided to close up in a room alone and pretty up this thing. I used the same technique as my Bible cover, and used scraps I already had on hand. And then…uh oh…the book didn’t fit! I totally thought the cover fabric was too large and snipped it down in size, eyeballing it (lesson: follow directions!). I wasn’t about to be thwarted though and figured, hey, the thing was only three dollars so…I ripped the cover right off the pages. It was actually sort of cathartic.

I trimmed down the first pages on both sides, and white-glued it to cut, square pieces of (smaller) cardboard. Like, who’s gonna see it? No one! Well, except all of the tens of tens of my blog readers 😉

And I put on a ribbon, not because it needed it, but because it was pretty. And pretty was the point here.

It only took about an hour to do it. And now the job is a little more palatable to me, because even if the numbers look measly, at least my bookkeeping won’t be so ugly. Just because the chore stinks doesn’t mean I can’t try to pretty it up.

Blessings,

Fall Finished Projects

December 21, 2010 3 Comments

I love the first day of the new season, whatever the season. It gives me a chance to look back and put challenges of the old season away, and to look forward to new projects and plans for the upcoming season. I thought I’d share some handwork projects I finished this fall; it seems so much more satisfying than just focusing on the multitude of works in progress everywhere!

I just finished this cotton washcloth today! It’s so soft, I loved working with the yarn. I wrapped up a bar of lemon-poppyseed soap I made with it for a gift and tied a pretty silver ribbon around it. I’m going to share the pattern with my fellow knitters, because it is easy-peasy:

Use size 8 needles (and honestly, I have no idea what size I used 🙂
Cast on 4 st. K one row. K3, YO, K to end of row. Repeat until you have 43 st.
K2, K2 tog, YO, K2 tog, K to end of row. Repeat until 4 st remain.
K one row.
Cast off.

I’m fairly new at knitting and I’ve been learning to crochet, too. These wrist warmers also were finished very quickly, using romney wool that one of my friends spun and dyed a beautiful cranberry color. I love how the ruffles just peek out from my jacket sleeves.

I got the pattern for the wrist warmers here:

And this is my miracle project. I say miracle, because it’s a *miracle* I actually finished it. I was SO frustrated using four (four!) double pointed needles, and I could never get the gap to close between needles as I was going around (and around…). My very gracious and patient friend (kiss kiss!) fixed my mistakes and put me back on track I don’t know how many times. And oy, the amount of times I had to rip out! But I was persistant and stubborn; I wanted to wear this amazing soft wool and silk blend that I myself had spun. And yes, I’m addicted to spinning now.

And the beautiful thing? It FIT!!

Here’s where I got the pattern (that I had to fix because it missed a step!):

I finished a basket and I wish I had a photo ready of how lovely it looks stained with walnut. I like how deep and roomy it is, and I’ve been using it as my “purse” for a couple of months now. I have another basket pattern I want to play with, but it may have to wait until we get into the next house. Whenever that is.

I got the pattern from here:

Lastly (I think), I finished a quilt that I thought looked very autumnal with its dark greens and golden yellows. It’s hard to tell in the photo but I had it quilted with a leaf pattern; it looks so neat! I love just snuggling up in my papasan chair underneath it with my iPod on and my hands busy with knitting needles. I didn’t use a pattern for this quilt; I just used whatever scraps I had on hand and made them all rectangles.

So now winter is here and new projects are calling my name! I plan to finish knitting my second pair of socks, applique a bed cover, sew a couple of dolls, and embroider a gingham apron. We’ll have to see just how well that goes in between getting the house ready to list for sale again and packing up boxes of our lives to put into storage. It sure would be nice if the Lord would reveal where we were to be moving to, but I suppose that is another blog for another time.

Happy winter handworking!

Stained Glass Christmas Cards

December 13, 2010 1 Comment

Spending a lot of time crafting sure does put some things into perspective. Like…why is crafting, handwork, cleaning, baking, fort-making, and just plain running around through mud puddles get the short end of the stick on the list of “what my kids have to accomplish to be ready to compete in the world”? And is “competing” what we’re to be about teaching them to do anyway? Another thing that puts stuff like that into perspective is reading through Ecclesiastes. I’m pondering. I’ll share. But first…do you need or want another Christmas craft? Not that the internet isn’t swimming with mommies sharing craft ideas. But I can pull this blog off in 15 minutes. Thinking takes longer.

First draw onto dark paper with light colored pencils the design you want. You can also use stencils or even cookie cutters.

Then carefully cut out the middle with a paper cutter, carefully leaving “roads” as I called it criss-crossing the center.

After popping out the cut pieces, glue pieces of colored tissue paper to the back where the lines were drawn. That way, the front looks clean, no lines showing.

That’s all there’s too it. They sure look pretty on a windowsill, with light coming through. The one on the far left was drawn with a stencil by my 6yo (I cut it out for her). The middle one was done by an 8yo and the far right by a 10yo. You can see the different complexities in the cutting out!

Easy and fun!

Blessings on your day!

Homemade Beauty Products: Face Cream

November 9, 2010 2 Comments

I made some homemade skin moisturizer not too long ago. Mostly because (a) I can’t afford $50+ department skin products, and (b) I wouldn’t want them anyway with all the names of things I can’t pronounce in their neat little jars. I happen to really like the cream that comes out of my kitchen, so I thought I’d share it with you. My skin is considered “normal” except a little drier in the wintertime.

I wanted to have enough left over to share, so you may want to halve the recipe if you don’t want quite as much.

I measured 2 cups of oil. I used mostly infused calendula grapeseed oil. I’ve used almond oil and coconut oil in the past as well; but I was just trying something new. To infuse a herb, just cover it with oil for a couple of weeks, shaking it up every day, and then strain. Calendula is wonderful for healing, but chamomile would also be lovely. Or just use the oil straight. I added a bit of azulene oil I had leftover from a waxing kit (owie). It’s a lovely blue, from chamomile, which isn’t blue…so isn’t that odd?

Then I measured 2oz of beeswax on my kitchen scale. One cup of oil to one ounce of beeswax makes a really easy to remember base for salves, too….which is basically what this is until we add water, later.

And water doesn’t have to be….just…water. I pondered which one I wanted to use here, and decided on the rose. Both smell yummy! You could also use a tea instead of plain ol‘ water, and do a little poking around the net or in books to see what herbs would be good for your skin type, or skin problems, etc. I measured about 3/4cup of rosewater and then plopped in about 2TB aloe vera gel. I’ve been learning a lot about aloe vera, and it is an amazing plant! I’m even taking aloe internally now, too (but not the gel! Ew!). In any case, do NOT use chlorinated, fluoridated, whatever-else-they-do-ated water. Buy distilled or use use a floral water.

Into my water mixture, I added about 20 drops of lavender essential oil, 50,000IU of vitamin A, and 4800IU of vitamin E. I simply cut open a bunch of capsules and added it. Both A & E are great for your skin, and will help keep the cream fresh, too.

Prep your containers, and then some. Because, trust me, it’s a bummer to be pouring out cream and run out of containers to put it into.

Ready? Gently melt your beeswax and oil together. After doing this, I remembered that I should have grated my beeswax fine, because it took so long to melt. I hope I didn’t lose any of my oil benefits from heating too long!

Now it’s time to be a little quick and purposeful. Put the melted oil mix into your blender. It will start to cool and thicken so keep going!

Pour in the water mixture while the blender is going. If you’ve ever made salad dressings or mayonnaise, the concept is the same. You’re blending oil and water together. You may not even use every drop of water; just watch to see it get to a thickness you like. If you accidentally add too much water, no worries…you made lotion instead!

As SOON as you see and like your cream, get it out of your blender! Use a spatula as necessary.

The beeswax will harden your cream to a lovely consistency within the half hour. Keep the tops off until it’s cooled. Don’t they look nice? And they smell good! I use this cream on my face every night before bed.

Don’t forget that it’s not what you put on your face that makes you beautiful. It’s your smile!

And P.S. cleaning everything is not for the faint of heart; it’s all creamy! I have success in cleaning when I use vinegar to cut it all. I add water, vinegar and a touch of dishsoap and run my blender as its very own mini dishwasher.

A Soap Making Craze

November 2, 2010 1 Comment

Maybe if I stay busy enough I won’t spend time wondering if I’m sad enough. Isn’t that weird? You all are so kind to me; thank you thank you thank you. I haven’t even deleted any emails yet; rereading your words and hymns is a great comfort. So, I’ve been on a soap making craze, and for the you-know-who’s in my life who want PICTURES and DIRECTIONS, here they are 🙂 Well, sort of. You have to get your own recipe.

Making soap is a little like making spaghetti. Every woman has her “own way” of “how it’s supposed to be done”. This is just how I’ve done it, and believe me, I’m no expert. But I am, however, a woman with lots of soap curing in my basement! There are a lot of soap recipes to choose from, but the basics are relatively the same. I’m going to show you the basics, and you can use whatever recipe you want.

The first thing I do is prepare my mold because then I won’t forget about doing it and panic when I have a pot of hot caustic soap to pour and nothing ready. My husband and son made wooden soap molds for me in 1lb, 2lb, and 4lb sizes. I like using wood because it absorbs the heat, but you can use glass or stainless steel containers or even clean milk cartons. Don’t use aluminum, though, because it can react to the lye. I like to line my molds with freezer paper (shiny side is soap side), but you could just use some sort of grease or whatnot. I like the paper because it gives me something to grab to pull my soap out with. Don’t use foil, though (aluminum…). I try to smooth the paper out so there aren’t a lot of creases, but I’m not too finicky. Does this sound complicated already? I hope not!

If I’m going to put in any textures like ground oatmeal or scents like lavender or colorants, I set those things up and have them at the ready to pour right where I’ll be mixing everything. That way I don’t have to stop to take off a lid at the point when everything’s moving quickly.

Next, I weigh my fats and oils. I love my digital scale! It’s so accurate and easy to use. Whatever fats and oils your recipe calls for, use. DON’T substitute until you are ready to come up with new recipes (using things like lye calculators), because different fats act and react differently. So find a recipe that uses ingredients you either have on hand or are willing to buy…some of which is cheap and some of which is definitely not. Different fats/oils have different lathering and moisturizing qualities, so you’ll just have to experiment to find what you like.

After weighing my fats and oils, I melt them gently over the stove top. You could use a microwave (carefully), but I wouldn’t want to use a microwave for at least a dozen reasons, including not being able to watch my melting. As soon as everything’s melted together, I turn off the heat and let it cool to about 100 degrees. I use a meat thermometer to gauge the temperature.

Now it’s time to mix the second batch: the liquid and the lye. A stainless steel pot (never aluminum…which you shouldn’t be using in your kitchen anyway, IMHO) cools down pretty quick so that is what I use. In this picture I used coffee because I was making a coffee soap for the kitchen. Always use distilled water as your base, whether you’re using it plain, or making a tea (or coffee!) for soap. Do NOT substitute dairy milk for your liquid; making milk soap entails specially preparing the milk (not horribly hard, but another step.) Again, weigh your water and then weigh your lye separately. When you are ready to add your lye to water (NEVER the other way around), PUT ON YOUR GOGGLES AND GLOVES. Once lye mixes with water it heats up very fast (like to 200 degrees!). Keep a window open (it will be gassy) and keep the children A-W-A-Y. As soon as the lye dissolves into your liquid (stir), put the pot into an ice bath to get it cooling. You want to bring the solution down to a range close to your fats temperature, 100 degrees. And don’t stress about using lye. Yes, it’s dangerous but so is bleach and gasoline and poopy diapers. Be smart about your movements (that is, pay attention) and wear those gloves and goggles.

Once the temperature has hit about 100 degrees, it’s time to mix the two batches together. Carefully pour the liquid/lye mix into the fats pot. And please make sure your immersion blender is IMMERSED before starting it up. Keep the thermometer in the pot and blend blend blend until it begins to thicken and the temperature goes up a couple of degrees. It can take like five or more minutes, but don’t be discouraged! In this picture it was just about ready; you can even see the “trace” which is the track the blender leaves as it moves in the pot. I like to blend on the floor because it gives me greater control.

After it’s ready (that is, the mix has moved up a couple of degrees in temperature), then is when I add my pretties: textures bits, scents, colors. I prefer a more natural product (that’s no surprise, huh?!) so I don’t use soap colorants, and I do use essential oils. For a one pound batch of soap, I use about 1/4 oz of essential oil (that’s like half a bottle!). For textures, I just sort of eye it and add about 1/3 cup or more until I like what I see. I blend the goodies in just until it’s mixed, really a few seconds. Don’t take too long because it will just be that much harder to get it all out.

It’s time to pour! I use a plastic spatula to get it all out. And yes, I use my regular kitchen ware for everything. I figure that’s what dishwashers are for, and I’ve never had a problem washing everything well. My friend used a baking dish, lined with freezer paper. Put your poured soap in a safe place where little hands (and bigger husbands) can’t bump into them.

After pouring it’s time to wash. And yes, keep those gloves and goggles on!!! You do not want lye-anything to splatter anywhere (it will burn but just rinse with water if you get some on your skin). After everything’s cleaned up, you are done for the day!

Find something else to do…

The next day, it’s time to cut soap! Put those gloves back on! Here is a handy-dandy cutter the men in my life made for me. I just pulled out my soap from the mold and then set it in the cutter, and used my bread scraper to cut.

Psssst. You don’t need a special cutter. You could even use a knife. In this picture you can see the soap is still a bit soft; I think it’s because of the coffee, but I don’t know. It still worked though. And you can smooth out the edges a bit with your gloved fingers at this time, too, if you have pokey edges.

Find a safe place to cure your soap (away from little hands…). You could use cookie cooling racks but whatever you use won’t be available for about a month. I use old trays and paper sacks as a liner, recording the kind and date. I flip my soap every few days or so. You can see how it’s drying already. The longer you cure your soap, the harder it will get. You can buy ph strips to see if your soap is “for sure” ready (that is, the lye is completely finished and won’t burn)…but I usually wait at least a month and go with it. I’ve never had a problem (not that there’s never a first…).

So here is all of my soap! Top left is 4lbs of rosemary shampoo bars, and underneath that is a pound of kelp/bay/peppermint/tea tree. Top right is a pound of oatmeal/calendula/chamomile/beeswax/honey. Right middle is a pound of coffee/cocoa (with coffee grounds, too!), and on the bottom right is lemon/lemongrass/lemon peel/poppyseed. And no, I’m not that creative. I just looked around websites that were selling soap and thought, “hey! That sounds like a good flavor! I’ll do that!” I don’t like using colorants, but you can see that just the additives alone colored the soaps nicely.

That’s it! If you’re new (or even not) to soap making, I recommend my very favorite soap making book ever; totally easy to understand and use:

Understand though, that making soap is a bit like making spaghetti…and you will find your own personal style and way of making it work. I, however, am done with soap for a while. Which is a good thing, because now I’m in the mood to make beauty products as my homemade moisturizer is almost out. Calendula is currently steeping in almond oil…and I am keeping busy.

May the Lord bless you,

Simple Window Treatments

May 10, 2010 Leave a Comment

We’re blessed to live in the woods, where there are no neighbors within sight of any of our windows. It’s not that they aren’t there. It’s just that they are, well, through a multitude of trees. Most of our windows have nothing but a nice view, but I thought I’d share how we decorated some of them.

My girls made and put tissue paper flowers on the rods of their curtains (and lots of other places in the room). The kids have curtains in their rooms because it sure does help come naptime to darken a room. They need to be wacked now and then to dust.

This little window treatment came from a bag of crocheted things given to me from my mother. I really didn’t know what to do with any of it, but half a dozen or so clips later, this is now in my kitchen table area.

This piece was actually a petticoat that I bought from an antique store. I always thought I’d fix it up for one of my girls, but three years later, it was still in my “project to-do pile”. So I snipped a side, sewed up a very lazy stitch for the rod, and now it hangs in our craft and sewing room. Isn’t it cute?

I really like this little guy. He is hanging in the bathroom area. I don’t want curtains in this bathroom; it would need cleaning every other week and my life is full enough.

Lastly, this is something I picked up from a garden store. I like how the light comes through the little pieces. It’s hanging in my kitchen, so I enjoy it while I’m cooking or cleaning there.

As you can see, curtains are not the only things that can treat a window. Actually, the best window treatment I know of is just a simple cleaning. Here is a recipe for a window cleaner we got from a gentleman (truly) friend who came to clean my windows with the children:

Window Cleaner

To make 1 quart, mix together:
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp. liquid soap or detergent

4 cups of water

Use a squigee and always leave your windows dry for a streak free view. Let the light in!

Quilted Bible Book Cover

April 20, 2010 Leave a Comment

I have two Bibles that I use. One is a larger, standard size that I use to study with and take notes in. The other is a small one I keep on hand to take with me to church or anywhere else. The little one is definitely showing its wear, and the cover is falling apart. And no, it’s not necessarily because I study from it ten hours a day 😉

Money is really tight around here these days (know the feeling?). I was feeling rather mopey about not being able to buy a new Bible (now, wasn’t that rather holy of me?).

I poked around the internet for a Bible book cover pattern and I found one here! Because my Bible is smaller, I decided I didn’t need carrying handles or a place to put a pen. Then I searched through my fabric stash and found some leftovers from my pillow project. Two hours later, this is what my old Bible looked like!

I’m as pleased as pie! (Is there such a thing?!) I love the inner lining:

It came out so great, I’m going to make more! I think my bigger Bible needs one. I think my friends need one. Do you need one? 🙂

Silhouette Quilt

April 6, 2010 Leave a Comment

I finished a small wall hanging of my children’s silhouettes. It wasn’t hard to do at all. A friend of mine took each child’s photo, side view, against a sunny window. Then she played with photoshop to produce an image that was simply a dark gray silhouette. I have no idea how to play with photoshop, so if I had to do this on my own, I think I would have just *winged it* with the color image.

Anyhow, then I traced the image onto freezer paper, ironed it onto black fabric, and then cut the silhouette out. I ironed the black fabric (now shaped like my child) onto the background. Some borders were added and then the whole thing was quilted and bound.

I love looking at it. They won’t be this little for long, so I’m glad to have this time captured. My husband, however, looks at it and it bugs him. He’s a chiropractor and says, “Hmm…so-n-so really needs an adjustment.” Funny guy. I’m used to that sort of thing, however, because he picks out the same such when he sees people walking.

Another option is to put a child’s silhouette into a picture frame. There are a lot of different things you could do, but don’t wait. Those chubby cheeks thin out before you’re ready.

Marshmallows

March 17, 2010 Leave a Comment

The more time I spend in the kitchen, the more I figure out that a lot of the foods I buy at the market are overpriced, tasteless, and full of stuff I don’t want in my body. I couldn’t believe it the first time I figured out how to bake bread. The loaves coming out of my oven were warm and heavenly dripping with butter. The loaves I still brought home from the store….began to taste like metal. And then I figured out that buying *real* bread from the market (fresh, made with wholesome ingredients) was going to cost me $6 a loaf .

I slowly began realizing that just about everything I could buy from the market, I could make at home. Except I could skip all the pharmaceutical acronyms and anything else I didn’t want in my food. I’m not saying I don’t ever buy the processed product. I’m just saying….I don’t have to.

So I made marshmallows recently. And no, I didn’t go dig up my marshmallow roots and extract the sap (but don’t put that past me). In fact, I didn’t even use a substitute for corn syrup (*gasp!*). The great thing about making this sort of thing from scratch is….I don’t make it from scratch often enough to worry about it. I figure it’s like fast food. As long as it’s not a daily diet, I’m probably going to live through it.

I’ve made marshmallows before, and this recipe was definitely easier. And yes, I printed out and read all 58 pages. There are a lot of variations, including different sweeteners and so forth. I would love to try using rosewater for a sweet pink and flavor someday. This time, I just went “basic”.

After preparing a 9×13 inch pan with powdered sugar, I put 1/2 cup water and 3 TB unflavored gelatin into the bowl of my mixer. Do NOT use beef gelatin! Unless you want your marshmallows to taste like beef. Which my first batch did. Y-U-C-K!!!

In a pot, I put 2 cups sugar, 2/3 cup corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water. I heated and stirred the mixture until it hit 250 degrees on my thermometer.

Then I ran the mixture on low speed while I drizzled in the hot mixture from the pot. I added 1/4 tsp salt and turned the mixer on as high as I could (at an 8) without splattering boiling liquid around. The plastic wrap helped keep the splats contained while the mixture began to increase in volume.

It’s neat watching it start to fluff up! This whole process is quicker than a trip to the store!

I knew it was done once it all looked like marshmallow cream. At the end, I added 1 TB vanilla (ok, the vanilla was homemade, so that’s good, right?). I think the whole mixing process took about 7 minutes or so.

Then I poured the mixture into my prepared pan and let it sit overnight.

Do you think I’d put this spoon into the sink without licking it all off first?

The next morning I cut the slab into strips with my scissor-knife, and then into cubes. Powdered sugar helped it not be too sticky, but it took a little bit of patience.

I dredged the cubes in powdered sugar. No more sticky marshmallows! And ready for s’mores, eating out of hand, or putting into gift bags with a ribbon for whatever friend *happens* to drop by.

Yeah, they were delicious. And they didn’t last long enough to go stale, either. I bet if we did the hard work and learned to create all sorts of goodies from scratch instead of easily and carelessly piling them into our grocery carts, we certainly wouldn’t overeat any of them! I guess I better figure out how to make chocolate next (kidding! I think…)

Beaded bookmarks

March 10, 2010 Leave a Comment

So I’m liking the new “Instead” theme I have going on. Now that I’ve decluttered my online life a bit, I’m finding a lot of things to do “instead”. Currently, I’m beading a hundred-and-so bookmarks for gifts at a ladies retreat, ala Above Rubies. I cannot wait to go and be surrounded by a hundred (and so) women who respect their husbands, keep their homes and love love love their children….or so they try! No eyeball rolling, muffin-topping, man-hating for two full days. Staying up so late that laughter mixes with tears only because I’m too stinkin‘ tired to even get the joke but it is SO hilarious. Reminding myself that enjoying the beauty of Biblical womanhood and motherhood is a true blessing. Worshipping God through song and hearing the testimonies of many, many who-would’ve-thought ladies. Bliss.

I’ve been making bookmarks for these ladies for a few years now. This year I decided to go with beads. Oy my eyes. I like the stainless steel butterflies, new creature and all.

Here is what a finished one looks like. The top has a washer attached that a woman can pound out a word or verse reference on with my ABC punch set. I think that’s totally cool. I used embroidery floss, separated into three threads per strand.

I like how it looks hanging from my Bible. It’s mixed in here along with another threaded and beaded bookmark.

The best part of this “instead” is spending time with the real young lady right in front of my eyes. And the best part of the upcoming retreat is taking her, her 8 year old sister, and Ruby with me. I’m thankful.

Blessings,

Herbes de Provence

January 27, 2010 Leave a Comment

I was following a crockpot recipe from a cookbook written by a fellow blogger when I came across an ingredient I didn’t have on hand: herbes de provence. I used to have available to me every spice and seasoning available (or so it seemed), but over the years I’ve weeded out the ones I hardly use. Like herbes de provence.

So I checked online and found a recipe. I was pretty excited as I went down the list because I had every one of the seasonings from my last summer’s garden ready and dried! So after I did my little snoopy dance, I measured and put together my own herbes de provence mix:

2 1/2 TB oregano
2 1/2 TB thyme
2 TB savory
2 TB lavender
1 tsp basil
1 tsp sage
1 tsp rosemary

It’s beautiful. It smells incredible. Now I just need to find more recipes that use this mix. And more seeds to grow twice as many plants this year so that I will have plenty leftover to share.

More Homemade Seasonings

December 15, 2009 Leave a Comment

After my stint of garlic powder making, I was totally hooked on making our own seasonings. Never mind that most of our garlic powder now comes from China (and this writer makes some interesting observations about that); the color, smell and flavor of freshly made seasonings is out of this world. This only matters if (a) you like to eat good tasting food and (b) you’re concerned about what’s in the food you’re eating…and I happen to care about both.

So I decided to make onion powder in the same manner.

These are the onions from my garden that I started out with. And no, that’s not just the photo making them look small. My hens got into my garden last summer and scratched them all up! I supplemented them for this project with some organic yellow onions from the market, which I bought for 98 cents a pound. I know I could have save two dimes a pound by not buying organic, but seriously, what is the point of that? I figure I can find that much change in the parking lot if I looked for it. I can’t remember exactly, but I probably used around five other large onions.

It took a while to peel these itty bitty things, but I did not want them to go to waste! I just picked at it whenever I was in the kitchen, 10 minutes here and there. Sometimes, that’s just how things get done.

I wasn’t about to chop them all by hand, however, and just pulsed them a bit in the food processor.

It took around 16 hours to dehydrate them at 145 degrees. And yes, everyone in the vicinity of the dehydrator for the first few hours got very, very weepy! Soon the whole house smelled like onions. I didn’t care. I figured it was all good cleansing for the respiratory system (ha).

After the pieces were brittle, I put them into the processor again and ran it until it was powdered. I had to watch for the cloud of dust that needed to settle before popping the lid off. Then, I put the whole batch through a sieve.

See all of those larger pieces of onion left in the sieve? That’s what you call “MINCED onion.” (oooooo….don’t you love it when you *get* what food really is outside of the packaged store stuff?) I ended up with a full jar of onion powder and about a third of minced onion. It looks and smells outstanding! The powder from the store looks awfully sorry next to it.

My pantry now has fresh dried herbs of all sorts, mostly from the garden: oregano, thyme, savory, tarragon, lemon thyme, sage, garlic, red pepper and now onion. I had so much of it all that I decided it would be fun to make my own Italian seasoning mix. I didn’t have any dried basil or parsley on hand (next summer, Lord willing), so I bought some organic basil and parsley from the market and dehydrated it all.

Take a look at this parsley. I sure wish the photo was better:

On the left is my freshly dried parsley (not grown in China). It is a brilliant dark green, smells intense, and is still curly. The store bought on the right is a faded light green and brown, and is in these weird flat square pieces.

Anyhow, I got a recipe for Italian Seasoning online and mixed it all up. Other than the pepper, everything else was dehydrated in the kitchen. In case you’re wondering, I use an Excalibur Dehydrator. I love it! If you know someone who has one collecting dust in their garage, I bet you could very nicely ask them if they’d take $20 for it. They are also a find in garage sales.

This is my Italian Seasoning mix. It looks beautiful, and if I could make a scratch and smell onto your computer, I would. I’ve really had fun with this.

More Winter Projects

December 3, 2009 Leave a Comment

The cold weather has set in and between chores and schooling, the projects have earnestly multiplied around here. Advent brings with it art projects such as ornaments and Christmas cards, but winter itself seems to invite creative crafting. Just a little blog hopping reveals a great variety in different projects; it’s interesting to see all of the mommy-talent expressing itself between dishes and diapers.

One project that is making rounds is the “Family Rules” chart. All of the other (mostly still unfinished) endeavors were put on hold so that I could make up my own chart. Now, I will tell you that I really don’t like Mod Podge. It always bubbles no matter what I do. So of course, I dealt with the same issue, but I think it came out well because even though I globbed it on (I wanted this project done pronto!), I was diligent about scraping it flat as it dried. It also helps that I’m SO not a perfectionist in this sort of thing, so a little buckling here and there didn’t turn more of my hair gray. I got the whole thing done in one evening, and added an extra layer of the glue the next couple of days.

You can find the original directions here. I was very tempted to do this with fabric, but seeing as how I am just as much as a pretty-paper conniseour, I used that medium. I also didn’t go out and buy a canvas. I just found a board in my basement that my husband didn’t need, and he cut it to the size I wanted. I cut and pasted down my paper strips before I lettered on them, and despite my finding neat font styles, I ended up just freehanding the words on my own with a copper paint pen. The darker, patterned paper didn’t read too well (and, I know, I was warned about that, but I had to have the paper you see), so I outlined the lettering with a thin black pen afterwards, which helped to pop it out.

Here are the rules I used for our family:

Love the Lord your God
Tell the truth
In everything give thanks
Mommy, honor Dad
Guard your heart
Speak softly
Prefer one another
Work with quietness
Forgive
No whining
Daddy, love Mom
Do not create work for others
Obey
Comfort the sad, cheer with the happy
Everything in its place
Go to the ant
As unto the Lord

Yesterday I also picked up some crazy nice yarn to try (again) my hand at knitting. OY! I love the look of knitting, the feel of yarn, the wonderful products….but this I am not good at! It is a whole new language! Thankfully I have friends who love it and are willing to (re)teach me and fix my mess ups. I have a few books that are helping me:

I tell you what…if I am understanding this book, then any newbie can understand this book. It just makes sense.

Also, I am having a great time with this book:

These ladies make me laugh! The projects look totally fun, and I am starting on the beginner “warshrag”. Again, I am thankful for friends that help me to figure out things like *purl*. Like I said…..this is new stuff for me to learn!

Lastly, I couldn’t resist picking up this one:

I just love the feel of wool and I am looking forward to felting! How fun! I plan to applique one of the very cool designs from this book onto it when I’m finished:

I hope you’re enjoying your own projects, also!

Making Soap

November 17, 2009 1 Comment

I’m really not opposed to buying soap from the store, but I get satisfaction in understanding the process of how to make it and also in doing it “my way”. Also, I get an amazing amount of soap from a short stint in the kitchen! I like just following directions and recipes rather than trying to figure out proportions on my own, so I used this book in this project:

Here I am just mixing up the lye into the raw milk that I prepared (by heating, then freezing, then thawing). I had to keep it stirred and even in the ice bath, the temperature never fell below 93 degrees. Amazing how that lye works! I did not even attempt this with my 3 or 5 year old around; it’s too dangerous for “oopsies“.

Once all the lye was stirred in (and it took 15 minutes of slooooowly adding it, so as not to scorch the milk), I put the pot onto the floor and added my melted fats/oils. The book gives directions for two separate blends in a standing blender using small batches. No way! First of all, I was working alone. Second of all, I have a handy-dandy hand-blender. And perhaps more importantly, toddler naptime just isn’t long enough for that!

After a minute of blending, I also added ground oatmeal, dried orange, and neroli essential oil. I think I need to add a lot more essential oil next time as the heat evaporated some of it. The mixture “traced” pretty quickly, easily within two minutes. That means the mix left a thickened trail, as you can see here:

I carefully poured the mix into my soap boxes. Notice that I had no freezer paper on hand (to line the boxes with) and so just put the mix in without it. BIG mistake. It meant that 24 hours later, when it was time to remove the bars and cut it, I had to sacrifice a bit of it to get the rest out. Ah well. I was too lazy to remelt my sacrifice bars and just threw it away.

Still, it didn’t come out too badly. I got two full trays of cut bars out of a single recipe, and as you can see, that is a lot of great soap! They are all down in the basement curing now for six weeks, after which they will be ready to use. How much do you think “all natural milk bars with oatmeal and orange” go for? Our store sells bars like this for at about $4 each. So guess how much I saved…

As you can see, making soap isn’t so scary. It’s actually kind of fun!

Blessings,

Homegrown Seasonings

August 11, 2009 Leave a Comment

Photobucket After last year’s mini garlic harvest, I set apart two entire raised beds to plant garlic for the current year. In one bed I planted softneck garlic, which keeps well and is currently stored in a mesh bag in the basement. In the other, I planted hardneck garlic. They grew so beautifully through the winter snow, reaching their curly scapes upward in the spring.

I thought I’d share how I powdered my garlic for keeping. I got the directions from this great little book, which apparently is almost out of print, so buy it quick!

After I cut off the scapes (and chopped and sauteed them in butter YUM), I waited until most of the outer leaves were drying up. Then, I carefully dug up the bulbs; I counted 43. I kept them hung in the the barn for a good month to cure.

This is what I ended up with after cutting off the leaves and trimming the roots: nice, clean bulbs.

Then, I separated the cloves. This took some time, but I sort of just picked at it a bit at a time over the course of several days. That is how I do most projects; here 20 minutes, there 15. It works.

Photobucket Taking the wrappers off of the cloves took the longest. I cut the tip of the top and bottom off each clove, and then my 7yo helped me peel all of them. They looked so great!

This next part was easy! I just sliced them all up in the food processor!

Into the dehydrator they went! I dried them for about 30 hours at 115 degrees. I knew they were done when they weren’t so “bendy” but more brittle.

Photobucket

This part was also easy: I blended them in small batches in the blender. I had to wait a moment after blending before opening the top, though, because it made a good garlic dust cloud. Photobucket

Sifting was next. Photobucket Instead of throwing the large particles back into the blender, I left it alone. Minced garlic, anyone?

So there you have it. One quart of powdered garlic, one quart of garlic chips ready to be powdered, and a small jar of minced. We put garlic onto just about everything, even plain ole cheese pizza (mmm…and with a dusting of fresh dried oregano, too!). Sometimes I will mix a little bit of powder with raw honey and put it on a wound with gauze and tape on top. It works great!

Now, if my chickens hadn’t dug up my onions, I would have done the same with them. Instead, I’ll probably *cheat* and buy some at the farmers market and give it a go. I really enjoy growing and using my own herbs and seasonings for my family.

Photobucket

Drying Herbs: Fresh Garlic Powder

July 30, 2009 Leave a Comment

Garlic from the garden The heat has been stifling around here, topping at 103. Our home isn’t equipped with air conditioning (so I guess that makes us “green friendly”). Between spritzing rabbit ears with water and showing up at the doorsteps of friends to enjoy their AC, we are all just holding on until the weather changes. Tonight cool salty sea air is wafting through the windows and it is such a mercy.

One blessing the heat has given is in the rapid drying of the herbs I had hung in the barn. I had tried drying some herbs in the dehydrator, but in comparing the two methods, hang drying definitely maintained a more rich color, even though the dehydrator was on at a low temperature.

Last night I crumbled three quarters a gallon of oregano (Italian, anyone?), and today put away ample amounts of lemon thyme and sage. I’m almost miffed that I once thought spending $4 for a teeny jar of dried seasonings was reasonable. And, I’m feeling good about the lack of pesticides, lead, and bugs that are not getting ground up into my spice jars by impersonal machinery. And there’s just something about sitting barefoot on the porch steps, hands deep into dried chamomile blossoms, that makes the heat a bit more bearable. I saved all of the leafless dried twiggy stems for my friend to use in her woodstove this winter. Won’t that smell so good?

My first harvest of softneck garlic was already harvested about 6 weeks ago, and is now hanging in a mesh bag in the basement. The photo here is of hardneck garlic, that beautiful plant that puts out a single curly flower (called a scape) that, if you want large bulbs, must be cut off early and (if you like the unusual) be cut up and sauteed in butter. In any case, my plan for the good 7 1/2 pounds I got from my garden is to turn it all into garlic powder.

Fresh garlic powder is AMAZING. I made it for the first time last year. At an herb class I was teaching, I shared what I knew about garlic. First I opened up a store bought jar of powder, which was very pleasant as we passed it around. Then I opened up my own jar and WOW, everyone could smell it from across the room! We loved it on everything, and even used it on our wounds (mixing with a bit of raw honey, and covering with gauze and tape).

This is a great book if you are interested in trying this on your own. Also, the Internet is full of resources to help you grow, harvest and use your own fresh and dried herbs. This year, don’t let the thyme (or basil or sage…) get buried under snowfall; pick and dry it now and let it remind you of hot summer days when the soup’s on.