Saturday Saunter ~ Bet Y'all Were Curirous

Just in case y'all caught my post yesterday, I thought I'd show you the results of our Friday Fun.

Adventures in soap making...

No this isn't chocolate cake mix

Once the soap came to a thick trace, we scooped it into the muffin pans. If I had to do it over again, I'd go with a light trace for more time, but with five hands it went quick. We scooped out sixteen "cupcakes."

Wait a minute, Jo. Five hands? Jenn's two, my grandson Grant's two, and my one equals five hands. It was his time with grandma day after school. His brother was too busy with Angry Birds and only seven years old...too young for strong active lye in the soap making process. Although he thought the Playtex gloves and protective eye wear were kinda cool.

Next we piped on the white, vanilla whipped cream "frosting." Neat trick one handed but nothing a rubber band and a big chip clip couldn't handle. See I gave a lot of thought prior to starting on the mechanics. I actually practiced a couple of days before with real cupcakes much to my husband's enjoyment. He's still a kid at heart and loves to lick the frosting bowl and beaters. :)

Then Jenn, my fabulous in house pastry chef, put the final touches to prettify them. Now mind you, soap at this stage is almost 100 degrees and hardening fast unlike regular frosting that warms and thins with the heat of your hand. She also took a toothpick and made cracks in the cupcake like real cupcakes.
The end results...

TA-DA!

Then the "cherries," Grant rolled the red colored soap into little balls. I do mean little. They are 1/4 inch balls. For the mini "cupcakes" the were the size of Red Hots. A bit og vegetable glycerine adds the shine. Jenn brain stormed with left over chocolate soap, we had to reheat it. The sprinkles are regular confectionery sprinkles. They'll melt in hot water.

I can picture them in cellophane bags with curling ribbon and a label. What would be on the label besides the required info? "Your skin needs to eat too. Nourish it. The soap contains Olive, Coca Butter, and Jojoba oils, milk, whipped cream, Vitamin E, and superfatted with Shea Butter. All the essential oils and nutrient rich  elements your skin needs to replenish it. Decadent as chocolate is for the soul. What's not to love?

Like I commented to Shannon, the Warrior Muse, yesterday, good enough to eat. The house is filled with a heavenly chocolate/vanilla scent even this morning. Now the hard part...waiting the four weeks for the soap to cure before we try them out.

What do you think?

Friday Fun ~ Searching to Allievate Boredom

Since my stroke, I've been severely limited in things I can do for personal enjoyment. I can read. Watch T.V. or movies, or putter around in my garden. I garden before 10AM and after 7PM. The heat just saps too much of my strength.  For most that would be enough, but not for me. So I'm searching for ways to alleviate my boredom.

I cannot knit, crochet, or quilt yet until I get some semblance of fine motor skills in my left arm.  I tried drawing and painting last week and it was taxing at best with no joy in it. I'm not giving up just lowering my expectations quite a bit. So meanwhile I'm playing with silly putty with my left hand to build more finer movements. My left hand is not paralyzed. I can only do that so much before I get bored, usually after an hour.

Sure I've got my computer games but I find myself nodding off after an hour or my brain gets tired. Before I wasn't lacking in things to do and try. Yes, I'm cooking more which I love to do, but we can only eat so much and my neighbors are stocked up with goodies too. I'm BORED! I've never been bored in my life so this is an alien feeling for me.

I even had a go of making my own laundry detergent and dish soap a couple of weeks ago. As a result, I have enough laundry and dish soap to last us a year doing laundry three times a week and dishes twice a day. (ten gallons of liquid laundry soap and three gallons of dish soap) I've already got enough liquid body and bar soap to bathe us and our grandchildren for a year.  When it costs pennies to make versus buying it for a buck, I'll take the pennies.

The chickens and rabbits only take minimal care now. I've held off breeding them for the time being. I'll wait until September when the temperature drops slightly below 90 degrees. Although I do miss my chicks hatching and bunnies being born. But I also realize that the butchering will take more energy than I have in this heat.

I guess I could felt my bag of dryer lint into flat sheets or potholder batting. Or spin the Angora hair I've collected over the past year into yarn, but since I can't do needlework right now that's a mute point. Neither option holds my interest at this time. I need the challenge of doing something new. For me that's what's fun.

Have any ideas? What do y'all do for fun?

Enough poor, pitiful mes. Time for a chuckle...

If you've read my blog you know I had a handi-capable demolition and reconstruction project going on for the past two months. My youngest daughter, Jenn, and my oldest granddaughter, Sabrina (12) were packing up my old office to turn it into a family room. My granddaughter ran across our collection of record albums.

 Sabrina said, "Aunt Jenn, what do we do with these books?"
Jenn chuckle and told her they were music albums.
Sabrina pulled out one of the records and her jaw dropped. "That must be a mighty big CD player."
Jenn almost was rolling on the floor with laughter and then showed Sabrina to the turntable.
"You mean they drove around with one of these in their car?"

What a difference a couple of decades make. The same conversation ensues with my cassette tapes and 8-tracks. After that Sabrina just called it "this stuff" and showed Jenn.

Have a great fun Friday. If you have a suggestion for me, let me have it.