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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Rantings of An Allergy Head

Today I was miserable.  I am still miserable, but somewhat more bearable.  Jace will probably not agree with that.  I have taken my medicine and Rowan is fast asleep dreaming of karate chopping ninjas while being Princess Aurora on her My Little Pony.

I worked today and was asked to stop by the Super Grocery Store on my way home.  You know the store I'm talking bout.  The one who's entire parking lot plus store is bigger than some towns in Texas.  You (I) debate whether you (I) have enough water for the journey from the car to the store.  Can you (I) make it across the vast wasteland? 

Once in the store I find my items easily.  People stare at me and give me a wide birth.   Doesn't everyone look like this after being woken up at midnight because their (my) nose was swelling shut and my eyes were soon to follow.  Rescue tactics taken and I was back in bed till 4.  Beep beep.  Beep beep.  Yes, Satan's sunrise.  I am up making coffee to throw in my eyes.  I can make it through work.  It's only 12 hours. 

Back at the store.  I was buying things from the organic/healthfood aisle.  I was probably not the healthful picture perfect spokesmodel for said products.  My hideousness probably chose someone's lifelong path down the road to drivethru's. 

I decided to take the scenic route home.  It gives me time to ramble in my head about what I would like to put in a post.  So here's my rambles:

* Tomorrow is the day before school starts.  I am giddy with delight.  More than Rowan.  As a parent you know what this means.  The real vacation is starting for the next week.  Those delightful hours when the cherubs are nagging someone else.  The twilight time before all the intense school activities begin.  This week is golden. 

* I'm hoping to get the bedroom trim and doors painted.  Rowan scribbled on them and they are not art nor do they have any resemblance to Jesus or other miracle figures. 

* My one friend, that I have told you is a pirate, made her first paddling journey today.  Training for a pirate ship?  I've decided my other friend is an assassin.  Details coming...

*  When I got home I found out about the dog's bad deeds for the day.  Do not be surprised if my bedroom has no carpet by this time next week. 

*  I have 14 granny squares done.

*  I can't do anymore with Flylady till my allergies are better.  I may have to go see the ENT...my favorite doctor ever!  She will put me on steroids.  Steroids make me happy and sing "The Hills are alive with the sound of music."  Then I will clean house...and plot laundry room takeover plans. 

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Sticker Season


I know it's a pretty bad picture.  I am probably one of the last people on earth who doesn't own one of the fancier, newest, latest, and greatest cameras.  I always use my phone and hence some blurry pics.  I think you can see the little spikes on this teeny tiny ball of fun, though.

Every July and August we look forward to this great event we call Sticker Season.  It causes all kinds of whoops and yelps of pain.  If you ever want to see a person walking normally and then suddenly stop, fall, or hop around while yelling "ow!", then you should C'mon Down to Texas! 

Since we are lucky enough to own property in the country it gives us a VERY BIG yard.  The problem with VERY BIG yards in the country is the upkeep.  There's lots of mowing..and rocks...and the heat.  The Stickers have figured us out.  By this time of the summer we are sick of mowing.  It's too hot.  We're busy.  We don't care.  The "grass" is dying anyway.  It's not even really grass.  Then the Stickers appear.

They are tiny, hard, and barbed.  They attach themselves to everything.  They jump onto you like little hitch hikers.  They anxiously await to jump off of you onto your carpet or your brand new bathroom rugs that took you 5 years to get a new one.  Ahem..  They are the main reason you are taking out all the carpet in your house.  Not that the carpet is nicknamed Flea Bag Rag.  It's to keep out the little ambushers.  They mock your vacuum cleaner.  That weak thing!  They will only be forcefully evicted having to use fingers, tweezers, and scissors.

I also do something terrible because of the Stickers.  I eat them.  No I don't.  I just thought that would shock you.  I park my car on the lawn very close to the front door.  This way I don't have to walk far.  I just don't like the way it looks.  Not many people in the country see your car in your yard anyway.  Unless it's a yard ornament.

Speaking of yard ornaments, I have a neighbor way down at the other end who has a hedgerow of cactus.  That's not unusual, I have my own cactus.  However, he takes the time to make smiley faces in the big "leaves."  So when I drive to town and pass his house there's all these smiling cactus looking at me.  He's an artist.  We call him Mr. T.  He looks like Mr. T.  His dog look likes Mr. T., too.  He's a nice guy.

Today I'm going to see another plant, maybe.  Feeling a little lazy.  I might hop over to the Lavender Festival.  I'm betting they don't have stickers.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

A Day In the Life of a Mad Scientist

Today I'm updating you on what a "typical" day is around here.  Since I started this other business I've learned that if your (my) business is successful you (me) will have tons of work to do.  I've also learned a lot about the packaging supply business, publicity, and working with other business owners.  So right now I spend a lot of time working on recipes and converting recipes using that thing called Math that I swore I would never need and didn't know why I needed to learn it in school.  In college I graduated with a 4.0 in that math junk, which means I can do math in my head and I don't need all my fingers and toes.

   I'm getting better with the hats.  I'm making some more difficult ones and stockpiling some for a craft show. 

At the market these are my two minions assistants.  They work cheap, but then again they run off and play and don't do a whole lot of work.  Just in case, yes she is missing a tooth.  And no, it's not from eating candy and snocones. 

School will be starting soon.  The Cuteness wanted these shoes.  She loves her some bling and if it's pink...I can just see her walking into school with the Saturday Night Fever theme playing.

In the garden, things are pretty much done.  The summer heat is beating everything down.  I did want to show you the variety in tomatos I have.  The one on the left is a Black Krim and the one on the right is some kind of Zebra Stripe (I don't really know because when my friend told me I wasn't really listening and it sounded all blah blah blah to me) 

These were some surprise carrots.  We didn't think they had grown but here they are.

Finally, while everyone else's tomatos are long gone, here's a pic from my garden today.  All the green dots are new tomatos.  I'm hoping they all make it but unless it rains it's not too promising.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Then there were tomatos...and soap

Now that tomato season has essentially passed around here, my tomatos are coming in. And in and in and in. Here a pic of one days harvest. The bottom ones are the Black Krim variety. The Roma tomato plant is still acting wild and is now starting to "walk" across the ground...dragging tomatos with it along the way. It's kind of interesting.


A few weeks ago I signed up to help with some free goodies for a craft fair. This was also my lesson in learning to make soap from Jace. I wanted to wear a haz mat suit but it's not really needed.
I took lots of very detailed notes with pictures. We poured out the soap in our make shift soap molds. We don't have real ones because if you look them up on ebay you'll see they cost about $60 for 3 pieces of wood.

After the soap had dried for a few days we took it out of the molds and cut it. I used a pastry tool I found at the store for $3 instead of a "soap cutter," which looks the same at twice the price. Cut easy and smoothe.


I took the soap and wrapped it in wax paper to help protect it for the rest of its' journey to the craft fair.

I secured it with jute twine and included a business card and a paper with a list of ingredients.


And then I did it to a few more bars.....


Till hours later I had all 50 bars done. Tomorrow I'll drop off these bars of natural heaven and I can get back to my laundry umbrella hole of doom...