UPS Man Makes Me Sooo Happy

I love it when the UPS guy arrives -- that means new fragrances to soap! Yesterday I got two big boxes of stuff and spent a while happily opening and sniffing bottles. One that really has me jacked up is a duplicate of "Lolita Lemicka." It is an exact dupe and smells absolutely wonderful. I might soap it, but I might also keep it to make perfume for myself or a private stash. It's amazing.

I've been playing with the Poser program again lately, after taking a break from it for a while. I got some new morphs for the Victoria/Aiko 4 character. You can see all of my 3D characters at DAZ3D here. I made this little render today using my Niko texture. I'm a sucker for faeries and big ears. :D

Portrait of a Sea Sprite

I did this portrait render of my little sea sprite this morning. When I'm not making soap, I'm making 3D characters for a program called "Poser." It's a great program that lets you move your characters in 3D and render or "take pictures" of them from any view. Loads of fun but a very expensive way to make pretty pictures. :D

Be sure to click to see it full size, it looks way better that way.

New Soap and FN Obsession

New today in my shop, Tibetan Tea -- Mysterious and warm and exotic, like a blend of incense and Chai tea! And back in stock, my Sanibel Sunset and Plumeria soaps! Sometimes it's really hard to wait a month for the soap to cure. I have got to start making bigger batches!

I can't believe how much time I've been spending watching FN lately. I was so happy to see the return of Daisy Martinez on Saturday morning. Now that I've got a food processor, I made my own sofrito to cook her Arroz con Pollo for dinner last night. The recipe has a mistake in it though, it should be 2 cups of rice, not 5. Unbelievably delicious!

And I'm really enjoying "The Next Food Network Star," which is kind of like "Survivor," only with food. It's down to 4 finalists now and to be honest, I like all of them. I have to admit to a soft spot for Melissa, the amazing SAHM who cooks like a chef. I like Jeffrey's laid back style too. Debbie makes great food, but is looking more and more like a self-centered diva. I keep rooting for Jamika to not shoot herself in the foot because I'd love to see a Caribbean-themed cooking show from her.

They are all such talented cooks! I'd like to see more opportunities for them to cook their own stuff instead of being on teams. I remember teams, with no great fondness, from school. They reveal more about personality than ability, and if one strong personality takes over everyone suffers. One person ends up doing all the work and everyone else coasts.

I did nothing productive all weekend and don't feel particularly guilty about it either. But today I have to get cracking on catching up with soapmaking. I'm starting to run out of stuff.

Lazy Sunday

I'm having a lazy day. Up for breakfast, coffee and reading the paper. Back to bed cuddling with Taffy, the Welsh Terrier, for a snooze. Up again and reading forums. I know I need to make some Caribbean Dreams soap, but I am having trouble marshalling my energy.

I went to a forum today where about the millionth (is that a word?) person started a thread asking how Etsy compares to ArtFire. And I'm thinking, "FFS, another thread about this topic?" Does anyone ever do a search before starting a new thread? It is really tedious to see the same post over and over, ad infinitum. Apparently my thoughts on this issue are not popular with other posters who want to re-invent this wheel daily.

Etsy Front Page 2X in One Day!

I was wondering what happened today when I got a bunch of sales, after a slow-ish kind of week. One of my favorite Etsy people (thanks Liz!) took a screen shot for me of my Macapuno Sorbet soap on the front page of Etsy. And someone else just told me that my Mango Tango was on the front page this morning. Wow, talk about feast or famine....Yay!

Backyard Bromeliads

These were just so vivid and colorful this morning, I had to take some photos of them. We have bromeliads planted all over the back yard. They grow in shady spots and the inflorescences last for weeks. They are a welcome spot of color in all the shadiness. I took one closeup of the pink so you can see the awesome dusty color; it's part of a cluster of 3. :)

I spent the morning in the pleasant, mindless task of beveling cured soap that's ready to go into storage boxes. It takes less than 30 seconds to do each bar, but it adds up when you're doing a lot of them at a time. Still, I like taking the sharp edges off the soap that it feels more comfortable in your hands and it doesn't lacerate you the first time you take a shower. I get into a rhythm that's almost mesmerizing and very relaxing. I've recently bought some larger storage boxes so that I can make bigger batches of soap and have a place to keep them pristine and organized.

Happy Birthday...

to me! It's my big day. The kids baked me a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles, and we're doing takeout from Carrabba's. I got a new food processor from Lowell, pretty kitchen stuff from Vicky and an Amazon.com gift card from Geoff. Another great birthday present: Today I reached 1,700 sales on Etsy! Yay!

We went to the onocologist today and it sounds like all my DH will need is careful monitoring of his CEA blood levels without aggressive chemo intervention. There is one more consult with a radiologist to get through to make sure he thinks this course is fine, and then, hopefully, we can all take a deep breath and relax.