Some New Products and Saving Moolah

I'm a woman who clips coupons and I'm not afraid to use 'em! Every Sunday I get out the scissors and get all the 40% off coupons for JoAnne's, Michaels and ACMoore's. It's amazing how much money you can save that way. I used to make fun of my mom when she'd clip coupons. I'm sure she's laughing, somewhere, about my coupon-cutting now. Sorry Moms. Your were onto something. :D

There's some new stuff in my shop. I'm the proudest of my Halloween Gift Baskets, I made the fabric basket covers myself, and the baskets are filled with lots of bath and body goodies. My Lavender Amber Sonnet soap finally cured and made its debut too. It's got a little dusting of copper mica on it that makes it look so pretty. And last but not least, I finished lining the Flower Child Crocheted Purse, big and slouchy, with room for everything.

Ginger Peach

I added a couple of new things to my shop in the last several days. One is Ginger Peach Lip Balm, nice and sweet and mostly peachy with just a touch of ginger. It's yummy! And I added my Caribbean Dreams soap too. I think it's the prettiest soap I've ever made, I just love that seafoam green color with pearly white mica on top, it looks like a gentle surf to me. :D

Yesterday I found the cutest round wooden buckets at Target, very inexpensive. I want to make some Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets of B&B products for the holidays, so I'll be covering them with fabric. Wally-World had the most adorable Halloween print fabric for $2 a yard, I just had to get some for these baskets. I so much want to stop buying stuff there because of the trade imbalance and safety issues with Chinese products, but dang, it's hard to resist really cute material for two bucks a yard.

Today I am going to work on several healing balms made with some very pricey oils and butters I've ordered. I've made calendula-infused oil, and just received some amazing Meadowfoam Oil, as well as new mango and shea butters. I have in mind a Baby Butt Balm, a mango butter face cream and a tattoo healing balm. I'm just waiting on delivery of the 2 oz. tins for these.

We had visitors the other day, one of whom lives in the mountains of North Georgia and has her own studio in an outbuilding on her property. When she described it, I was green with envy. I long to have a workshop apart from the house. I'd love to have one of those big sheds that you could practically live in, but since I'm way down in South Florida, it would need to be air conditioned and de-humidified. One of these days...

Coconut Lemongrass

I love how the photos of my new Coconut Lemongrass soap turned out. I made this with real coconut milk, it makes the most insanely creamy, rich lather, kind of like goatsmilk soap but I think it smells better. :)

How about that artsy tie of lemongrass? I have a huge plant that's been growing in my front yard for 17 years now. It's incredible when I make Thai food.

I'm going to hunt on TV now to see if the Tampa Bucs game is being shown by any of the bazillion stations we get on cable. I would love to see my daughter dance at halftime.

I Love Swaps

In a soaping forum I frequent, I've participated in several swaps. The one I'm doing now is a Medieval Stillroom swap. I gave this a lot of thought and decided to make my dream pillows for this swap, so I had to make a dozen of them. Then I got carried away with the packaging, like I always do, and used a magickal render I did a couple years ago to explain the dream pillow. Here's the front (with the illustration) and the back, which just shows the fabric I used. I love the way these turned out. :D

My daughter left in the wee hours of the morning with her band for Disney. The kids are performing at the Disney parade at 1:00, then they have the rest of the day to play. Tomorrow they go to Tampa to perform at the Tampa Bay Buc's halftime show. So she's gone all weekend, which is hard to bear. I miss my girl when she's not here.

Granny Squares

I never get tired of the basic, good old crocheted granny square. I'm making a purse right now with a pale, dusty pink double flower in the middle of the square. I was looking for a lining fabric that would pick up all the colors, but couldn't find anything with that same pink, ivory and green, so I got a pretty close match in a shades of green print. Here's what it looks like so far, lining fabric up top.

Our daughter is going to be appearing with her band in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers halftime show on Sunday. This is the second year that Gulf Coast High School has been asked to perform at the halftime show. Usually high school bands don't get the chance to perform at pro games, so it's a big deal for the kids. Last year we didn't get to see them, no local stations carried the game. I've heard a rumor that Fox TV might show the game on Sunday, so we might get to actually see her dance this time.

Tag, I'm It!

I was tagged by Summersea, so I had to figure out what it means to be tagged. I'm going to tell you 6 peculiar things about myself and tag 6 other people. :)

(1) I actually like getting up early and being the first person awake in the morning.

(2) I always keep fussing with things I'm making, even when I know I should stop, I can't leave well enough alone.

(3) I've been addicted to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese since childhood. In fact, my picture should be on the box. Hard to square that with efforts to live a healthy lifestyle, but there you go.

(4) I dream about problems I'm having with my 3D characters or a soaping dilemma and usually come up with solutions. I do some of my best problem-solving in my sleep.

(5) I can't stand to have other people serve me food on my plate. I always want to do everything myself. Possibly a control issue. :D

(6) I get motion sickness so easy it's not even funny, even just driving on winding mountain roads makes me ill. I am not much fun at the Youth Fair.

Now I'm going to tag some other bloggers!

Girlinga
Jennifer
Pearl's Grace
Diane
Shirley
Toni

Today is our daughter's 18th birthday. It hardly seems possible. She leaves for school so early, we're doing the presents and cake after school. We're going to take her out to dinner later. I just hope she doesn't do something crazy like get a tattoo (her heart's dear desire) just because she can, now that she's 18. But if she does get one, I hope it's beautiful, small, discreet and well done!

Rosemary Mint Heel Butter

I've added an eye-opening Rosemary Mint Heel Butter to my shop, richer than my Lotion Bars, for really dry and cracked heels. But it's also great for elbows, knees, cuticles and anywhere else that needs a little extra TLC.

I had an experience today that restored my faith in fast food restaurants. I had just cashed a check because my wallet was totally empty. Then I stopped at Chik-Fill-A for a sandwich, then on to Joanne's Craft Store. While paying for my stuff I noticed that I didn't have the right amount of money in my wallet, and realized that the restaurant had shorted me $10 in my change.

It was really hot and I just wanted to go home, but I kept thinking "Hey, $10 is a lot of money!" So I went back to Chick-Fill-A, found a manager and explained what happened. He was really, really nice! He counted out the drawer of the guy who'd waited on me, and sure enough, it was $10 over. So he gave me back my $10, plus two free coupons for breakfast. That's what I call customer service!