God's Country and a Birthday!

When, oh when, will Spring ever arrive?? Technically it comes on March 20, a Friday this year. And am I ever ready for it! Daffodils and violets, among others, are popping up everywhere. My son's 10th birthday is on St. Patty's Day, which is why I can remember when Spring is supposed to arrive 3 days later. For the past 4 years, we have made his birthday a community event, inviting his school mates, (all 14 of them this year, because we give invitations to every kid), teachers, school staff, and church friends this year; that's not including the various, sundry people we invite on a whim.

We rent the local hall, Scott Bar Community Hall, for the event. This building has been around for around a 140 years or so (I'll have to check the date on it next Wed), and is used for all kinds of community events-Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners are held here, for and by the community, Bingo, Bible Study, ballet lessons and recitals; the list can go on and on, but needless to say, a lot of activities go on here. It's our piece of living history. It was one of the local schools until the 50's or 60's, which means it was in operation for 100 years as such, and has the school bell still attached and working. There are several pictures on the walls that show its history.

This year is going to be extra special-after all, how many times does a kid reach a decade?, as he so proudly points out! Recently we received a notice to terminate tenancy (a kick out notice), and it has been pretty wonderful to see our community helping us out by looking for a new home for us. We have lived here for only 5 years, but it became home to us very quickly; we didn't realize how deep our roots had become entrenched in this area until we got that notice. So, this year, we are inviting many more people than usual, because we have so many good friends and neighbors that we want to include. We are deeply grateful for the support that has been shown to us in the past 2 weeks, praise the Lord. This is certainly God's country.

Spring is coming!

Spring is coming, and that means making some new soaps with some of our new Spring scents. What does that mean for you? Well, if you are like me, you love the spicy, wintry scents that remind you of a warm house, goodies baking in the oven, and family around. Also that means we will be putting into our clearance section the winter scent soaps, like the hot apple pie.

Keep an eye out for new things, new scents, and savings on winter scented products!

As I Sit

here at my computer, daydreaming out the window, pondering the great mysteries of life, I notice a huge snowflake fall. Then another. And another. OMG!! It's snowing! And I really, really dislike snow. It's cold. It's wet. It's painful when you fall down, and you don't have any padding on the part you fall on. But the part I dislike most about snow in our part of the world is what it does to our driveway. It's steep, and shaped like a fish hook, and at the top, where it curves, doesn't get any sun during the winter. Also it seems that it has it's own ecosystem-it snows here before anywhere else in our area. It's that fish hook part that messes with us year after year; there are days my son can't get to school because we can't drive down (don't even ask about coming back home, up the hill!) to the bus stop. We plan our doctor's appointments around weather.com, in the hopes that the forecast is remotely close to accurate. Our life revolves around that part of the driveway in the winter.

But, next month an exciting thing happens-the first day of Spring!! And believe you me, I'll be ready for it. During these short days of cold snowy winter, I have been busy making soap, making our lotion base from scratch (it's so easy, my son can do it!) and making plenty of lip potions. Because, my friend, the first day of Spring I'm planning on doing a big celebration, the sale of sales. Out with the old winter scents and in with new floral, springy scents. Instead of using the thicker homemade lotion, we'll be making a fresh start with a new recipe for a homemade, made from scratch, lotion, one that's lighter, yet just as moisturizing. And lip potions are just plain good any time of year!

Keep an eye out-before you know it, there will be the first shoots of jonquils and violets peeping out of the ground, the wind won't be quite as bone-chilling, and you can dance your way over to our store to check our new stuff.

Facebook

Just added alot of my soap pics to my Facebook. I didn't realize I had so few-I'd better get hopping to get more pictures taken of my soaps!

Of all the soaps I do, I enjoy doing the cameo soaps the most. They are so much fun to do, and so elegant. I've posted some of our pics over on Facebook-

Facebook me!