Well… to be fair, I didn’t make the soap, as in, working with lye and oils.  I’d really like to try that someday, but I don’t really have the appropriate space in our apartment to do so yet.

What I did was work with some melt-and-pur soaps, essential oils, dye, and soap molds.

These are going to be gifts.  They’re round soaps with pieces of loofah embedded in them.  The loofah made me think of citrus fruits so I went for a citrus scent.  (I think I may have got it a bit too subtle because I was afraid of it being overpowering — oh well.)

Now I’m hooked.  I’ve been browsing Bramble Berry and Sweet Cakes considering what I’d like to try next!

One thing I love is their little $1 “Season’s Best” cook book that comes out twice a year.  I got the Fall/Winter 2008 edition and it has lots of good stuff in it.  (And for a whole dollar, it’s more than worth it!)

I tried out one of the recipes from the cookbook last night — Creamy One Pot Pasta – and it turned out absolutely fantastic.

I assume (?) the recipe is copyrighted or something, so I probably shouldn’t post it online (but *hint* you might be able to find it if you do a Google search).  You can buy the entire cookbook on the Pampered Chef site or I’m sure you can find a friend who sells their products.  

If you try the recipe, I recommend adding a little more cream cheese than it calls for.  Mine didn’t seem creamy enough till I added a bit extra.  Also, in the future I plan to add a little extra broccoli to mine because I really enjoy it.

The grocery trip leading up to this particular meal was pretty interesting — I’d never gone looking for a jar of sun-dried tomatoes before.  I think I spent 20 minutes searching.  Here’s a hint: our grocery store keeps them in the fresh produce section, on a little tiny rack next to the fresh tomatoes.  

This was also (*gasp*) the first time I’ve bothered to cook fresh broccoli.  Typically I just buy frozen.  Wow what a difference.  I’ve really been missing out!  I know that probably sounds ridiculous to most people that I’d just have figured this out, but you have to understand that I’ve only really started eating vegetables (aside from corn and sweet peas) within the last three years.  So every time I find something I enjoy, I’m pleasently surprised.

While I was at the store, I also got some goodies to do some more cupcake “experiments”: tonight I’m hoping to make some choco-coffee cupcakes.  I’ll let you all know how that goes.  I also got a couple of the Wilton mini-muffin pans, so I’m thinking of making these particular cupcakes into bite-size treats.  But more on that once I see if it’s successful!

Here are the cupcakes I made over the weekend to share with my friends at the knit shop:

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

For the cake (makes 24 cupcakes):

• 1 Duncan Hines Orange Supreme cake mix
• 1 packet Jello vanilla pudding (not the instant kind)
• 3 large eggs, oil, and water

Prepare cake mix as directed on the back of the box, adding in the Jello pudding mix powder.

Topping:

Wilton’s buttercream (dyed pastel yellow).  Decorated with orange sugar-sprinkles, gummy orange slice candies.

I signed up and received my penpal assignment earlier this week.  I was delighted to find out that my penpal is from the U.K.!  I’ve already written a letter and it’s sitting here on my desk at work till I have a chance to run down to the post office and mail it.  I’m really looking forward to having a penpal to correspond with.

When I was in grade school, I had a penpal named Katie who lived in England.  She was the granddauther of a family friend.  She and I used to write to eachother all the time.  I loved reading her letters and once we even exchanged tapes we recorded with a mix of talking and our favorite songs.  Over time though, we grew up and lost touch.  And our friend Betty, who was her grandmother and our dear friend, has since passed away.  So I’ve really lost touch with her.  I’d love to track her down again someday though, and see if she remembers her childhood penpal in America, as much as I remember her.

When I got this penpal, I went to the Hallmark card store in search of some pretty stationary.  They had two options: plain white or plain cream.  Wow, how times have changed!  I remember when I was a little girl and wrote to Katie, I had a 101 Dalmatians stationary set and a Lisa Frank-designed unicorn stationary set.  I probably had others too, but those stand out in my memory.  I remember the stores always had all sorts of pretty sets of writing stationary — with sayings on the bottom and pretty pictures and borders.  Now it’s a real challenge to find stuff like that.  Several people suggested to me to try dollar stores, so I’m going to check there.  But I guess it’s a commentary on our lives today: no one hand-writes letters anymore.  At best, we sometimes type a letter, print it, and mail it.  But more often, we just type an e-mail and shoot it off instantaneously across the world.  And while that ability to communicate in milliseconds is absolutely wonderful, I think there’s still something to be said for old-fashioned hand-written cards and letters.  I know it means a lot to me when I get a card in the mail where someone took the time to write a paragraph or two, rather than just doing a mail-merge and stamping out form letters.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned that way, though…

Behold my attempt at gardening…

• 1 lavender plant
• 1 sweet basil plant
• 1 little planter with seeds for basil, parsley, and chives

A bit pathetic, eh?  But I’m trying.

I’ve never had very good luck with plants.  Outdoors, I tend to forget to water them and they wind up baking in the hot sun.  Or I get lazy about weeding and they get choked out.  Indoors, I manage to put plants who need partial sun in direct sunlight, and those that need direct sunlight inside closets.  Not to mention, I recently discovered that my cat has a love for shredding houseplants apart as well.

But I’m giving it all another go.  Thanks to MyFolia, I’m learning about what type of lighting and watering-schedule different types of plants need to thrive.  I’m doing my best to keep to a consistant schedule and keep my plants healthy.  And so far?  It’s working!

Just look at those happy little sprouts!

Now I’m really wishing that my husband and I lived in a house where I could plant more things — zucchinis, squash, pumpkins and tomatoes — but unfortunately, living in an apartment really limits you for outdoor space.  So I’m container-gardening.  There’s a group on MyFolia specifically devoted to container gardening, and a few people there pointed me in the direction of McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container, which is apparently the guide to container gardening.  It’s on my Amazon wishlist now, so hopefully I can order it soon!  (And hopefully it’s not too late in the season to plant a few more things…

At first I mistook them for black raspberries, but upon further research, I determined they’re in fact blackberries.  I’ve never had blackberries before!  I’m so excited and I’ve been planning all the things I can do with them…

I was able to pick just over a cup of berries yesterday.  The bushes are absolutely loaded with berries, but most of them aren’t ripe quite yet.

I went out last night and bought the supplies I needed to make blackberry freezer-jam.  My mother has made strawberry and black raspberry freezer jam, and I’m thinking that blackberry should be every bit as good.  I’m also considering attempting mixed-berry jam with blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries.

Here is the recipe I’m planning to use.

Blackberry Freezer Jam

3 c. blackberries, crushed
5 1/4 c. sugar
1 box Sure-Jell fruit pectin

Measure berries into large bowl; thoroughly stir in sugar and let stand 10 minutes. Mix 3/4 cup water and Sure-Jell in small saucepan. Bring to a full boil and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. At once, stir into fruit and continue stirring 3 minutes. Immediately put into prepared containers (freezer jars or cartons that have been scalded), leaving 1/2 inch space at top.

With a damp cloth, wipe any spills from containers. Cover at once with lids. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Store jam in freezer until ready for use.

I’m also looking for other recipes to try with my blackberries — pies, muffins, etc.  So please feel free to share!

I asked myself the same question when Miss V. started talking about it on Plurk.  (And subsequently began the Plurkette Hencricle, which I’m proudly a member of!)

Well, taken straight from the farmgirl’s mouth:

A farmgirl believes in the strong arms of friendship, community and the just plain fun of being together. A farmgirl takes joy in the quiet satisfaction of making things with her own hands. She exudes kindness, grace, humility, gentleness, patience and generosity, and loves the simple pleasures in life. A farmgirl is loyal and caring, especially when it comes to her family, friends and community. She gives generously of her time and talents. Farmgirls love to get together to share their ideas. She can be with or without fields and stock. Farmgirl is a condition of the heart.

This struck a chord with me.

I can’t say that I’m a true “farmgirl” in the sense that I was not raised on a farm.  My mother lived part of her life on a farm, and I loved to hear her stories about it when I was younger (actually, I still do), and I’ve always dreamed of living on a farm someday myself.  It’s still my dream to buy an old farmhouse and have a “hobby farm”.  But that’s in the future…

Though I wasn’t raised on a farm, I was raised in a family that did lots things that we always termed “old fashioned”.  It was always kind of a joke among the women in my family, that we were a few generations behind the rest of the world — but I never thought it was a bad thing.  Together with all our female family and friends, we bake, canned fruits and vegetables, made jellies, planted gardens, sewed, quilted, crocheted, and knit.

Like most teenagers and twenty-somethings, I lost interest in these activities for quite a few years.  But now, at the age of 26, I find myself drawn back to it.  I’ve taken up knitting avidly.  I sew.  I cook and bake.  I want to go back and have my mother teach me to do canning and things that I helped with as a child, but never really learned to do myself.

I suppose it’s because now my husband and I are planning our own family and I realize just how much all these things meant to me, and how they were so important in shaping the person I’ve become.  I want that same experience for my children: the simple life, far from the “rat race”, where a person can appreciate the pleasures of all things handmade and home-grown and hopefully live a life of peace, love, happiness, and health.