Floral Friday - Succulent paradise

I recently went to chicweed, an outdoor garden store in Solano Beach.  The space is pretty tiny but they sure pack a lot of creative cactus displays in their small space.  I really liked the patio table with the built-in cactus centerpiece - how pretty!  I hope to visit again the next time I am in the neighborhood!

Some of the displays/cacti for sale in the outdoor shop

Table with embedded living succulent centerpiece - wow!

Sparkling Lavender Lemonade Recipe

Lavender and Lemons are two of my favorites so when I came across this recipe i had to share!  I love to make a lavender-lemon soap and now here's a unique twist to classic lemonade.  This recipe and photo is from Kori who blogs at Mountain Rose herbs' blog.  She has other lemonade recipes besides this one.

Lavender Lemonade

Make the lavender syrup…

4 cups water

2 cups sugar

3 Tablespoons organic lavender flowers (I used dried, but you could use fresh lavender)

Bring to a boil over medium high heat until sugar is dissolved.  The consistency will be like a lightly thickened syrup.  Cool. At this point, you can cover and refrigerate and use as needed or for the rest of this recipe.

Make the lemonade base…

Juice 6-8 organic lemons to make 1 ½ cups of juice

Grate 2-3 Tablespoons of lemon zest/rind

1 ½ cup water

1 ½ cup of organic sugar

Heat water and sugar to boil and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add lemon juice and rind.  Cool. At this point, you can cover and refrigerate and use as needed for individual glasses of lemonade (add more water, ice, etc.)

NOW…mix the lavender syrup and lemonade base in a large punch bowl or beverage dispenser.  Add 1 gallon of cold water and 1 bottle of champagne (or you could add club soda or non-alcoholic sparkling cider, or even a little vodka if you’d like).  Stir and add about 4 cups of ice.

Soapy Cupcakes

Last month I had the pleasure of helping Ruth out in her Soap cupcake class at the Nova Studio.  This class uses some advanced techniques so some soaping experience is suggested.  Ruth previously taught this technique at the soapmakers conference earlier this year; I didn't attend so I was glad to see this class offered at the studio.  She brought more than 20 samples of yummy soap cupcakes and shared a variety of packaging options.  As a bonus, she also showed us how to make dainty soap meringues!  Below are photos from the class, including the 2 soap cupcakes that I made:-).  The soaps have cured now and are ready for use.  I gifted both already so I will definitely be soaping up a batch of cupcakes soon.  They make great hostess gifts, and are fun non-caloric treats.  This process does take a little more time and effort than the traditional rectangular bars of soap so if you plan to sell these, you may have to adjust your prices accordingly and also include a sign that says that they are not edible!  Both of the persons I gave the soaps too wanted to take a bite out of them!

Ruth in action!

More than 20 colorful soapy cupcakes 

 I heart big frosting tops!

Floral Fridays - Lunch at the Solbar

Lovely succulent accent 

Recently we took a trip to Napa since it had been a while since we ventured in that direction.  The Solbar cafe was highly recommended so we thought we'd give it a try.  The food was something to write home about (so I'm writing about it on my blog!) and I also really loved the simple succulent floral accent at every table.  Yes that is the Floral Friday tie-in!  I was inspired to create my own simple succulent arrangement (photo to come in a future post).

Petrale sole fish tacos

Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaning Powder

Natural cleaning products help reduce the amount of toxins around your house.  A while back, I was in a green cleaning products swap and one of the swap cotributions was a toilet bowl cleaner.  I liked it a lot and learned the recipe was from Sandy Maine's clean naturally book.  After putting all the ingredients together, I scented it with eucalyptus, tea tree and lemon essential oils - this combination is not only antibacterial and disinfecting but also smells divine!   I get a bit of aromatherapy while I am cleaning the bathroom and I actually look forward to doing this chore!  I didn't use the coloring recommended by the book but I think I will the next time I make this - without it, the bowl water doesn't look very good
 :-( but it is very clean after.  I was able to recycle the plastic container from the original toilet bowl cleaner I got and one of the scoops from my protein powder and it is very handy in measuring the cleaner.

Floral Fridays - Jen's Terrarium

I've decided to have a new feature called Floral Fridays which will include posts about cactus, succulents, bulbs or other garden type things.  I kick off this series with Jen's terrarium.  Jen recently moved back to Chicago and has taken a whole host of classes (such as terrarium making, hawaian luau recipes, making quiches, etc).  She shared a photo of her lovely terrarium - I will have to ask her for tips next time she is in town!  Hers looks very professional and filled in!  I like the variety of cacti in her little glass garden.

photo courtesy of Jen T.

Soap Swap

The Nova Studio 10th anniversary soap swap was fun!  I contributed a soap made with primarily certified organic oils and scented with lemon essential oil called lemon dream bar.  I didn't add any colorants because I was trying to keep it as natural as possible.  It's kind of a homely looking bar but the ingredients are solid:-) and the cigar bands dress it up.  I was wowed by the tree soap from little haven soap (top right in photo) as well as soapeez soap pie slice (middle left in photo)! Both are labor intensive and took several days to make!  I also liked seeing the variety in packaging; I am going to try to wrap this year's gift soaps in paper the way Ruth did (bottom row in middle). The group had 8 participants and we not only traded bars of soap but also our recipes.  Now the big decision is which soap to try first!

Wonderful soaps from the 10th anniversary swap

Lemon Dream Soap - they aren't all uniform; I need to work on that!