It's a Party - Sept 3!

Lori's throwing an awesome 8th anniversary party for her studio, the Nova Studio.  I'll be hosting a FREE "make & take" project of AromaArt® Air Fresheners, sponsored by Oak Court Creations. You can choose scents and colors to customize an air freshener for use in your car, home, locker, closet, etc.  There will be other demos and make and take projects as well.  This is a fun celebration, and the goody bags for the first 50 people are amazing!  There's also a good chance to win raffle prizes from great bath and body product suppliers.  Hope to see you there!  The party is this Saturday, Sept 3 from 1 pm to 4 pm.

Today's Project...

Welcome to Bebe Buttons!  She's a cute and fluffy malti-poo who has been with us since 3 pm today.  We're testing her out for a week, and hope to be her forever home.  We're trying to get her comfortable, and she's been keeping me company while I make some soap for a swap this Saturday. 

Hikers Iced Tea

Here's an iced tea recipe from the Mountain Rose Herb Blog. 

This delicious iced tea is the perfect treat to quench your thirst and restore electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals during a long hike in the forest or after a hot day digging in the garden. I like to take a cold quart with me when heading out for an adventure in the mountains seeking blooms, berries, and birds, but this nutritive tea really is wonderful whenever thirst strikes.

Hiker’s Iced Tea

Ingredients:

• 1 part Nettle Leaf
• 1 part Red Clover Blossoms
• 1 part Alfalfa Leaf
• 2 parts Hibiscus High Tea
• 1/8 tsp per brewed quart Himalayan Pink Salt

Directions:
Blend all of the herbs together and store in an airtight container. Steep 1 cup of the herbal blend per quart of boiling water overnight and add 1/8 tsp of mineral rich Himalayan Pink Salt to the tea as it cools. Refrigerate or pour over ice for a replenishing drink.

Sawyer Camp Trail, one of my go-to hiking spots

What's for lunch?

I went to Myra's house for dinner tonight.  I came straight from work so i happened to have my lunch box with me.  She let me bring home the leftovers, and i supplemented it with some home-grown squash (not my home), and a cute egg shaped like a fish.  it was my first time trying the egg thing and...well i will save that for another post, but I did manage to get one decent hard boiled egg and molded it.

Double decker box: rice, broccoli, salmon, seaweed salad, egg, squash, cherries

The picture on the left is the mold that I used and the one on the right is how the egg turned out.  The picture is fuzzy - I need to work on my photography skills!

Did you feel the Earthquake?  This post interrupted by 3.9 magnitude earthquake at 11:36 pm - epicenter San Leandro. 

Going Shopping...

I found a gift certificate that I received as a door prize at last year's Nova Studio party.  From Nature with Love donated the certificate, and I am lucky that they are having a 50% sale right now on select oils.  I really like From Nature with Love because they have a great selection of organic oils, and really hard to find and exotic oils like murumuru butter, pequi oil, black currant seed oil, tamanu, etc.  These can be hard for crafters to get in small sizes but they have a great selection.  Looks like I will be getting argan oil, lime essential oil, pink grapefruit essential oil, and peach kernel oil.  The Neem oil, pumpkin oil and pomogranate seed oil also look interesting.  If you have any suggestions on what else I should get, let me know! 

Lori and the pre-party line from last year's party

Colorful Cupcake

I received this lovely red velvet cupcake from Kathy who has made unique one of a kind cakes for sports teams, and local celebrities and personalities.  She teaches a cupcake decorating class that I may be taking soon.  She is so skilled that she makes cupcake decoration look easy!  Everything is so artfully placed and colorful.  I do want to learn to decorate cupcakes as I can use those skills to decorate cupcake soaps BUT I'm scared to be in close vicinity with so many cupcakes (if you know what I mean!).  This cupcake was delicious - the cake itself was not too sweet. I will confess that I scraped most of the frosting off as I customarily do - it makes eating cupcakes seem a little less detrimental.

Marshmallow Soap!

I had fun yesterday making some yummy marshmallow soap.  They look good enough to eat and lather nicely.  The photo above is the finished project and are miniature marshmallows.  The photo below is a "kitchen" or "in process shot"  I may be making these for an upcoming swap so I wanted to practice.

Flowering Tea

My friend Myra gave me some flowering tea - I don't know what kind it was but it was delicious!  it had hints of jasmine...she received it as a gift from China.  Unfortunately, neither of us could read the box to identify what kind of tea it was.  it comes as a little ball, and when you drop it in the water it expands to this: