Etsy Featured Seller

I'm the feature seller on Etsy. You can find my shop here. And my interview here.

A Little Letterpress

I simply love letterpress. I have a small press of my own that I play around with occasionally. I recently purchased some lovely note cards from the charming Etsy shop, Orsis. The shop belongs to two of my friends, sisters Ona and Rhea, who I know from my home in California. Both creative, talented, gentle and kind ladies. I'm honored to have some of their beautiful pieces. It may be hard for me to part with these note cards though, I'm tempted to hoard them, frame them and treat them as pieces of art, which truly they are. Seriously. Do you see those lined envelopes?? How am I supposed to part with those? Indeed, it will be difficult.

Perfume Oils

Hello, friends. Just popping in today to let you know I've added perfume oils to my shop. I've been working on this formula for quite a while, and now feel comfortable to have them available in my shop. They are a mixture of essential oil blends and a base carrier oil. The base carrier is a mixture of 8 fruit and vegetable oils, including Rosemary oil, Apricot oil, Jojoba oil, and Avocado oil. It's moisturizing, lightweight and gentle. I combine the base oil in a 50/50 ration with my essential oils blends, making them very fragrant and concentrated*.

The perfume oils are available in small 1 ml sample vials and larger 10.35 ml roll on bottles. They are available in all of my 10 essential oil blends.

*My essential oil blends contain no synthetic fragrances. Only pure herb, flower, plant oils, resins and extracts. They may be irritating to sensitive skin.

Season of Peace

I have a new essential oil blend, one I've been working on for quite a while. I wanted to create something that reminded me of this time of year and the coming winter months. The season of harvest, the season of Autumn, and giving thanks, and celebrating peace and joy and the birth of Christ. The season of snow and fires and rain and cinnamon. My new Peace blend encompasses all of these feelings for me. Really, I can best describe the blend as a cup of Chai, spiked with tangerine and vanilla.

My Peace blend is a combination of 20 essential oils; from cinnamon, to cardamom, to clove and orange. I do hope you enjoy this aroma, I now have it available in my shop in soaps, soy wax candles, and soy beeswax candles. Today is first day of Autumn, my friends. Peace to you all.

More From the Garden

You just can't find veggies like this in the markets. So fresh, organic, slightly imperfect looking, but so very delicious! When Burl tells me he's hungry, there's so much satisfaction I feel holding his chubby little hand while we walk to the garden to pick a snack. It's so much fun for all of us to be living off the our land as much as we can, even if it is just in small ways.

And really, how delicious are carrots that have a flavor of dirt to them? So delicious, I tell you!

Seven Years

In many, many ways, I've always felt like Alex is the yang to my yin. He's so very different than I am, in just the right ways. We balance each other. Help each other. Guide one another towards becoming better human beings. Where one is weak, the other is strong. When one is vulnerable, the other protects.

Today we celebrate our seventh year of marriage. Our marriage is happy, secure, safe, comfortable, and stable, for many reasons. Because of our differences. Because of our similarities. Because of the love and respect we have for each other. Because of our Spiritual beliefs. But mainly because of the sacred commitments we have made with one another, that we both treasure so very deeply. Happy Anniversary, my love.

Cous Cous Salad

One of our favorite meals around here is a couscous salad I've come up with. Burl absolute loves it and would eat it nearly every night if he could.

It goes a little something like this:

Several cups of prepared couscous
2 cups garbanzo beans
1 red bell pepper
1 carrot
1 tomato
1 jalapeno
1/2 cup cilantro
1 cup raw slivered almonds
1/2 cup green onions
2 lemons, the zest and juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin
salt

Of course you can make is as spicy as you like, and add or omit ingredients to your liking.

Enjoy!

Our Peach Tree

When we bought our home nearly 6 years ago, it came with a small peach tree planted in the front yard. I know very little about peach tree maintenance, only that each peach should have it's own 6 inches to grow and stretch. This means plucking the smaller peaches to give room for the healthier ones. I haven't done anything to maintain the health of that little tree, yet it still continues to grow and produce fruit each year. We've been enjoying our peaches fresh off the tree, with a little raw honey drizzled on top. I picked the very last two peaches just this morning, and we enjoyed them for lunch.
Till next year!

Zucchini Bread

Does anyone have a good zucchini bread recipe? We recently made this recipe. I chose it because it called for vegetable oil instead of butter, and I was able to use a substitute for the eggs. It was edible, but not what I was hoping for. I'm wanting to recreate the zucchini walnut bread from Jamba Juice, it's so, so good and much better than the loaves I made.

Enjoy your weekends, my friends!

Potato Harvest

We've had an abundant potato harvest this year, for which we are very grateful.

What are some of you favorite ways for preparing and preserving potatoes?

Baby Carriers

(7-7-2008)


(7-25-2008)

(8-29-2008)

(7-29-2009)

(yesterday, 8-31-2010)

Enjoy some pictures of me and Burl in our baby carriers over the past couple of years. We've tried several carriers, and the Ergo has been our favorite. We also love our Gypsy Mama wraps.