New Soap and The Tudors Season 3

I've added the most beautifully fragranced, peachy-pink soap to my shop, Fata Morgana, named for the rose-gold sorceress of Arthurian legend, Morgan le Fay. It's also available in my Etsy shop too.

Today I made a vast quantity of lip balm base, from scratch. I have to do that periodically, then I use it up as I get orders. I'm really proud of this lip balm because it's taken me over a year to perfect the recipe and it's full of truly luxurious oils and butters, like extra virgin coconut, mango butter, calendula-infused oil, avocado and cocoa butter, to name but a few.

I have to set aside a big block of time when I make a batch of lip balm. I use a natural sweetener that's derived from licorice, to make the lip balm flavors really pop. It's a little expensive, but I love it and don't have to use a nasty bitter sugar substitute. But it takes forever (OK, about an hour) to constantly whisk this sweetener until it's incorporated and the balm is cool and firmed up. Lots and lots of stirring.

I like a slightly sweetened lip balm and get a little annoyed with PC sobersides who contend it just makes you lick your lips and dry them out. Maybe they don't want to take the extra time and expense to add a sweetener. And maybe some people don't like to have those decisions made for them. I think buyers should have a choice. To me, unsweetened lip balm is like unscented soap -- What's the point?

I've been waiting sooooo long for Season 3 of The Tudors. I finally got to see it online this afternoon. It's available here and here too. Oh my, that Henry is a very naughty man. And Cromwell is on his way to getting a good dose of karma.

I've been playing in Poser a little bit the last few days. I did so much character creation and skin texturing for so many years, I totally burned out on it. But lately I've been thinking about how much fun it was just to make pretty pictures, instead of trying to earn money from it. If I buy anymore cute characters, it's probably going to be this adorable little Bettine.

This weekend we traded in Geoff's truck, his big bad black Tundra, for a new Altima. He is a very, very happy boy. The mileage is easily better than 2X what he got on the truck. It's very sleek and beautiful too. We got a new Corolla for Vicky too, trading in her old Scion, which was a bitch to maintain, especially the way she drives. We got outstanding trade-ins for both cars that made buying new ones possible. So yeah, we went through all that sphincter-tightening experience of car buying twice in 4 days. I don't recommend it, however.

I'm going to keep driving my 2005 Sienna til it drops.