At 9:30 at night

There is a major sweet tooth in my household. Cookies are usually gone with in a day or two, especially if they are homemade...yummy. I am always looking for new recipes to try, so last night after a desperate search through the cupboards, I decided it was necessary...at 9:30 at night no less...to make brownies. It is not like they are hard to make, they just take a little time to mix and a lot of time to bake.

Of course, I can never just make a resipe, I always have to alter it in one way or another. I wanted raspberry brownies. OOOOOHHHHH......AAAAHHHHHH!

So I took a plain brownie recipe and mixed in aswirl of raspberry jam before I baked them....o.k. I'll say it again. OOOOOOHHHHHH.....AAAAHHHHH......mmmmmm. They smelled so fabulous, and oooey gooey goodness when they were cut into.

I'll be altering this recipe again, maybe I'll try orange marmalade, apple butter, or plain old strawberry next time.

Porn to brighten your day.

Inspiration is all around, everywhere that I look these days. I think that the summer wild flowers blooming has a lot to do with it. So I thought I would show some soap porn that makes me think of summer.

Poppy Party Soaps by Naturally Lela

Bailee Berry Exfoliating by Mountian Mama Chic

Sweetgrass Sun Soaps by Luxury Falls
What could be more summer than this!?!

Spell Bound by Sherri's Scents and Soys

Words for your Brain

Be careful what you think...

Your thoughts become your words,

Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,

Your habits become your character.

Character is everything.

Not sure where this comes from, saw it on a crafters sign at a farmers market years ago, it has stuck with me ever since.

Words worth thinking about.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

I am always up to try something new, especially when it comes to the old standby chocolate chip cookie recipe. I found this recipe on a fabulous foodie blog. So I whipped this one up last night and baked a few this morning. OOOOOhhhhhh mmyyyyy.....

I think I have eaten too many already!
You can find the recipe here for your own devouring session.

Orangalicious, Finally!

Love to get ready to make soap, whether it is a new batch or not it is always an experience. It is like a science experiment and you not quite sure what the end product will look like. So I was elated when this batch turned out the way it did.

Here are just a few of the ingredients plus, a few that I had lying around. "The Gathering" of ingredients, as I like to call them.

The colors I used are micas, copper on top(love this) and apricot blush(love this even more) on the bottom. I love my colors intense and they both embody the fragrance I put into the soap.

MMMMmmmmm....love how pretty the colors swirl ont he top of the mold. This is the first test of a new mold I made, trying to get the dimensions just right for the size and shape I was going for. The shape was right but the length was not quite there and it did not fit the whole batch of soap, so I improvised and used a plastic container that worked well. You can see it in the back kind of hiding.

I had read about soap growing and cracking, this was my first experince with it. Duh, I forgot to insulate the top well so it grew and cracked. Boo hoo :( The picture does not show how much it really did grow but I did manage to stop it.

Beautiful! I am delighted with how it turned out and the aroma is fabulous. i wish I could have smell -o-web or something so you could smell it through your screen! Orange rounded out with a little grapefruit, so energizing!

Summer is finally here!!

I live at a high altitude, so winter seems to last forever. When the temperature turned cold and snow fell in October, I danced out of bed to watch it fall. When it snowed in the end of May I almost cried.

When summer finally hits here (picture me jumping up and down for joy) it's like the return of a long lost love, stars returning to your eyes and a day-dreamy like haze flows over you. The sun warms your soul as the wind caresses your skin and your mind can think of nothing else but being in it's warm embrace.

So, needless to say when summer hit the valley last week, I did not hesitate to get out and get a tan, hike, run, and work on the garden. So much for unpacking and organizing but it is getting there (slowly). Winter can still overtake the warm weather so we get out and enjoy it whenever we can (especailly since it snowed yesterday).

Funky soap.

It is funny how life can get shoved into fast foreward in the blink of an eye. It seems just yesterday I was posting about my giddy-ness over getting my shipment of soap stuff, I was so excited and impatient(ooooh, making soap!)

So, when I got my package I was laughing and smiling like a little kid in a candy store. Plans for soap making had been in the works for a week or better and they stayed there until last Saturday when I finally had a chance to make a batch with my new toys.

And was I disappointed? Yep, I was. I was tinkering with a new recipe and a new ingrediant that traced soooo fast. It was like custard in no time and and no time means weird sloppy batch of soap. Smells fabulous, feels wonderful, oh, and bubbles...lucious bubbles....looks... not so hot. Kind of bland for my taste but should work fine.

My colors are usually more vibrant, those were going to be green and dark purple along with that beautiful black. Oh, well, geuss I'll just have to make more!