blizzard-y delicious-ness and a sweet sweater set

I found this Clayeux set, consisting of a gorgeous baby's 3/4 length sweater with beautiful wooden buttons and a matching hat, at Frenchy's the other day. It's too small and girly for Phillip, but I love it so much I think I'll put in away in the future-babies pile. Maybe I'll just look at it now and then. It's beautiful.

It's yet another snow day; it's really yucky out with snow changing to freezing rain throughout the day. So after shovelling the step for the mailman and filling the woodbox, I lit a fire and we're cozied up snug as bugs here. MIL is going to look after P while I do whatever I want. Eeeek! That's so exciting.

Annie and Ingrid came over on Monday evening for some knitting and visiting, and Ingrid brought the most beautiful cake I think I've ever seen in person. You can see it here. (It was delectable, too. Even though I'm not usually a chocolate fan, I loved it. The textures of whipping cream, the cake, and the ganache combined made it better than perfect, and the raspberry tanginess with the whipped cream creaminess - divine.) Annie made some rosemary mint soap for Ingrid which is also lovely, and although you can't smell it, you can see it here. (Ingrid asked me to make it awhile ago, but Annie was much quicker on the draw.) It's very lovely, and while making it, she accidentally came up with a new soapmaking process which I'm eager to try. More details to come. Thanks for being so nifty, and for sharing your ideas, Annie!

How much do I LOVE this cake mold? Ooodles and oodles. We're not really big cake people around here, but I would be if all of my cakes could be giant cupcakes! Or I could make a GIANT cupcake soap. If you want to buy one of these molds for me or someone else, they're $29.95 here. Speaking of cupcake soap, check out these beauties!

iced tea with lemon bath soap

I listed this Iced Tea with Lemon Bath Soap in my Etsy shop this morning. For my fellow Canucks, you'll be pleased to know that it's made with brewed Red Rose tea ("Only in Canada, you say? Pity." Along with lemon juice and lemon essential oil, it has a mild lemon scent, and vitamin e oil makes it especially kind to your skin.

I updated my shipping information in the shop as well; it's difficult to have standard pricing when they charge me different amounts every time I'm sending soap. So I'm asking people to wait until I e-mail them a payment invoice with the actual shipping cost before making their payment. I'm also now charging an additional dollar for my cute little bags; the price of the material has gone up, and along with the time needed to make them, I think that's reasonable.

I'm going to list another delightful soap later on today, and I'm hoping to make two batches this afternoon. I'm going back to cold process for Peppermint Poppyseed (it's so much prettier) and I'm getting low on Chocolate Peppermint. I can't think of a better way to spend a snow day!

antique sale finds

First things first - it's a snow day! P's Nanny is here for the week, and I have lots of time to catch up on a million things, including making soap, updating my Etsy shop, and taking some pictures of things I found over the weekend. Ingrid, Annie and I went to an antique sale first thing on Saturday morning. You can see the treasure Ingrid found here. I found a few things I love, including this beautiful platter:

An oval enamel basin (I'm picturing hand towels and soaps and other bath-y things in it,
And these sweet little infant undershirts. I'm picturing these on a wall, maybe of a baby girl's room someday.

selected by Mr P himself

Our random drawing this morning was conducted by Phillip with the help of his Nanny who is here for the week. He reached to the left, he reached to the right, and he finally chose local yokel Connie as the winner! I'll drop your bar of Peppermint Vanilla soap off next time I'm at your school, Connie!

a whole new world has opened up...

Look what Phillip did completely independently this evening after his bath! He was really excited and laughed in a slightly maniacal way. I spent part of the evening reconfiguring his crib so the mattress is now at its lowest. Yay, P!

sunrise and soaps

We were blessed enough to wake up to this view from Phillip's window earlier this week.

I have some splendid soaps to add to my Etsy shop this weekend; I just completed the finishing touches on two hot process batches - Iced Tea with Lemon (which is made with real Red Rose tea and lemon juice) and Cleaning Day - the batch which I had to modify mid-creating and I now love. The scent has mellowed beautifully and it smells just like a clean house. A very mild, clean smell with a hint of lemon. Pina Colada (which I think will be a favourite, especially since it's made with real coconut milk) is looking like one of my best soaps ever, and I can't wait for it to finish curing. That pineapple coconut combo is so tropical - exactly what many of us are wishing for while we shovel!

boggles 2

crazy hair

Adam practiced his hair styling skills after Phillip's bath a few nights ago.

hot fudge pudding cake (aka Charlie Cake)

This is the easy-peasiest, most delicious dessert, especially if you like chocolate and add some whipped cream. (Really, have you ever gone wrong by adding whipped cream to anything?) This was also a part of supper last night with the amazing rice. It's made with very basic ingredients, and takes no time to whip up. The cake does this magical thing where a fudge sauce is created on the bottom of the baking dish... mmm. You can find the recipe here.

fool-proof brown rice (no, really!)

My supervisor is here for a few days, and we had her over for supper last night. I love brown rice when it's done perfectly, and it is difficult to get it just right. And of course, I wanted to get it just right. I found this recipe, tried it, and it really is foolproof! And delicious! No gooey rice glops here! It does take a bit of effort, but it is emphatically, definitely worth it! I got the recipe, as follows, from here. I used a blend of red and brown rice, mmmm!

COOK's ILLUSTRATED's
FOOLPROOF OVEN-BAKED BROWN RICE
Hands-on time: 10 minutes
Time to table: 80 minutes
Makes 4 cups

To minimize any loss of water through evaporation, cover the saucepan and use the water as soon as it reaches a boil. An 8-inch ceramic baking dish with a lid may be used instead of the baking dish and foil. To double the recipe, use a 13 by 9-inch baking dish; the baking time need not be increased.

1 1/2 cups long-, medium- or short-grain brown rice
2 1/3 cups water
2 teaspoons unsalted butter or vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Adjust the oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread rice in 8-inch square baking dish.
2. Bring water and butter or oil to boil, covered, in medium saucepan over high heat; once boiling, immediately stir in salt and pour water over rice. Cover baking dish tightly with doubled layer of foil. Bake rice 1 hour, until tender.
3. Remove baking dish from oven and uncover. Fluff rice with dinner fork, then cover dish with clean kitchen towel; let rice stand 5 minutes. Uncover and let rice stand 5 minutes longer; serve immediately.

Let me know how it turns out for you!

snow day the second

We woke up to this, and it's still falling!

red dots and green tidbits

I mentioned quickly in passing the other day that you can sign up with the Red Dot Campaign to have Canada Post stop delivering unaddressed mail to your mailbox. That's about all I said - I think it deserves a bit of further explanation. It's been mentioned on CBC on a few different shows lately, and I think it's great. Here's why:

Flyers are made from trees, require fossil fuels for production, ink, shipping, and delivery, are outdated in a very short period of time and end up in the recycling bin, requiring more energy to recycle. And here's the thing: they're available for free, online at store websites! So, as a former flyer fanatic, I'm signing up with the Red Dot Campaign and checking out weekly deals on store websites from now on.

BUT

This will only stop the flyers and unaddressed mail which Canada Post delivers from appearing in your mailbox. In these here parts, independent carriers deliver the larger bundles of other flyers. So here's what I'm going to do as well as signing up for the Red Dot Campaign: put a cute little sign on our mailbox with the polite request: "No Flyers Please", which will hopefully prevent those ones from appearing as well.

Other green goings on for the Grahams and other local folks to write in your calendars:

Saturday March 29 at 8pm: Earth Hour party at our house (it also happens to be the day before my birthday!) Should be a good time.

Tuesday April 22: Earth Day Potluck at our house! More details forthcoming.

And check out www.worldchanging.com for some inspiration and gobs of thought-provoking, quality green information (I'm particularly interested in 'Shopping Our Way to Safety' (left sidebar) and am on my way to request it from the library right now!)

Lastly - another contest! (To reward those of you who either read the whole post or at least scrolled to the bottom.) One bar of Peppermint Vanilla soap to someone randomly drawn on Monday, February 11, who comments with a promise to sign up for the Red Dot Campaign (I'll keep asking you about it, too!)

are you ready?

I saw this on YouTube - what a sweet baby, even if he's not mine. You will laugh until you cry. Almost guaranteed, unless you're heartless.

napping

This is what I felt like doing today. I had a very busy day at work where I didn't feel like I did a whole lot, but I did tons of things. A thousand little niggling things - phone calls, a student meeting, e-mails, scheduling and rescheduling and planning. So the day went by quickly, but I wanted a nap every time I paused.

I have soap plans percolating... Adam's parents are going to be visiting next week, so I just might take some time and try some new batches (carrot complexion sounds divine, sweet almond exfoliating bar, and tomato facial soap... mmmm) and re-stock a couple of old standbys (chocolate peppermint and peppermint poppyseed).

But for now, I'm going to enjoy a bit of time with a new magazine (The Herb Companion, a Christmas gift) while P is sleeping and Adam's plugging away at W&P. Yup, War and Peace. All 1386 pages.

fascinating food

I came across this at happy foody's blog, and thought it was pretty neat. Here it is, in case you haven't seen it yet. I couldn't find the originator, but it's still worth a gander.

“You are what you eat, so eat well. A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today’s investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called “The Doctrine of Signatures” (an ancient European philosophy that held that plants bearing parts that resembled human body parts, animals, or other objects, had useful relevancy to those parts, animals or objects) was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater.”

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye…and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? …. It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcom e male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Grapefruit s, Oranges, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like body cells. Today’s research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

more amaryllis, 'cause I just can't help myself

The sheen of flower petals always gets me. Did you notice the crazy double bloom? I'm definitely blessed with an abundance of amaryllis this winter! Oh, here's another shot of the stripey one.

rhubarb banana crisp

If you're one of those people who like recipes with specific amounts, this post isn't for you. I cleaned the fridge, freezer, and pantry a few days ago, and had frozen bananas (3) and rhubarb (maybe 3 cups or so diced) which needed to be used up. I thought that mixing them together in a crisp might be good, since bananas are sweet and would temper the rhubarb's tang. I didn't want to put too much sugar in, which was another reason I plopped the bananas in, rather than doing a straight rhubarb crisp. It turned out pretty well - it tastes like rhubarb and bananas with crispy bits on top (imagine that!). Here's what I did:
Mixed rhubarb and bananas in 9x13 pan, kind of mashing them around a little bit.
Made a crisp topping with oats (2 cups-ish), brown sugar (1/4 cup?), whole wheat flour (1/4 cup?), and maybe 1/3 cup butter.
Mixed up the topping, distributed it evenly over the mush, baked for about 30 minutes. Mmm! I might give a speck of rhubarb to Phillip to taste tomorrow. That should be a cute face!

more amaryllis success

This beauty opened up today.

crawling is improving by the minute

Check out the progress Mr P is making! Holy cannoli, I sound nasal in this clip. Feel free to turn the sound down!

soap goal

I don't think I've shared with you all what my first soap-related goal is - well, here it is! A Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. It's been the desire of my heart since high school (which is longer ago than I like to think). Since I killed my other stand mixer (which worked well and was lovely for its time with us) and Kitchen Aids are un peu $$, I couldn't justify just buying one. I'm well on my way with soap profits (thank you for all of your orders)! I saw a woman on the Martha show a few months ago whose family had been using the same Kitchen Aid stand mixer for over 40 years. 40 years! One of those things that's worth the investment.

I'd also like to mention that if you're a local yokel and would like to buy soap but not pay shipping, that is absolutely no problem - send me an e-mail and we can arrange something. I've had a couple people do that this week, so I thought I would make sure you were all aware of the possibility!

This weekend will be full of soapmaking and other fun things, and since it's the weekend, I'm sure there will be lots of posts. Have a good weekend, and happy February! (Which means it's almost Spring, really!)

stopping junk mail, desktop wallpapers, etc.

Here's the lovely neckwarmer Ingrid made for me, being worn properly this time.
And I laughed out loud at this picture Adam took - I was talking. What a dork I am!
If you would like Canada Post to stop delivering un-addressed mail to your box (certain flyers, and other junk mail) go here for details.

Terrific desktop wallpapers (no, really, they're great) are here.

Happy Thursday evening!

winner du jour

Phillip and I put the names in a jar...
I reached in...
And the winner is...
Hi, I'm terri! Well hi, I'm Sherrie, and if you send me an email (grahamsherrie at yahoo dot ca) with your name and address, I'll send you your hard-won soaps!

Thank you again for all of your sweet comments - I'm still beaming.

Only a few more hours...

If you haven't commented yet on my 500th post contest, you only have a few hours left! The cutoff is tonight at midnight, and I'll randomly draw a winner tomorrow afternoon when I get home from work! The post to comment on is here.