Getting Ready For Fall

Yup, it's heading toward that time of year again: Hunting Season!

I have been elbow deep in terra cotta clay the past two weeks, desperately trying to fill a few boxes of Hunter's Helpers before I get slammed with orders. I don't want to be caught off guard when the kids are back in school because it was really not fun last year. So I'm taking the initiative and getting a great deal of work done during the summer. So far so good. I've got one box full!

Now ask me how I've managed to keep my cat away from the skein of sisal twine while getting the orders together. hehehe...  Bribery! Yes, it's true. Straight out bribery. He gets one long length to run around the house like an idiot with and I get to work in relative peace for a little while. 

Here's the little brat himself. Totally incorrigible. An unrepentant comedian.

 

This Treasury was a real treat to trip across a while back. It contained one of my terra cotta diffusers(in the red box). It was called Freshly Southwestern. Cute, eh? What a wide variety of objects! You've got everything from jewelry to cookware and photography, all the way down to stone carving, soap, and photography.

Featured in Treasury!

I discovered today that a Celtic inspired design of mine made its way into a Treasury! 

In Red highlighting, there is my Celtic brown and tan terra cotta diffuser. Surrounded by plaid and terriers.... that diffuser seems right at home, don't you think? 

New Nature Photography

Top to bottom, here are some new items available in TerraScents: October Sunset, Broken Spine, and Floral Mandala. The third photograph is offered in either color or black-and-white.

New Additions To The Shop

It's been quite a number of months since my last update here. I've been holding off and crossing my fingers, praying desperately for certain things to change in the economy. Alas, it's only gotten worse. This is one of those Good News/Bad News sort of updates.

Some craziness going on in Africa and I'm guessing Italy as well has led to a complete lack of olive butter here in the USA. (Let me clarify that-- REPUTABLE olive butter. Not the cheap watered down stuff that I refuse to use.) What does that mean for TerraScents fans? I can't make Boo-Boo Cream OR my Anti-Frizz Hair Balm!! Nada. Zero. Zilch. No more can be produced. 

The last jar of Boo-Boo Cream is in my own refrigerator and is already half empty. I shipped out the last jar of Anti-Frizz Hair Balm to a loyal customer a while back and all these months of crossing my fingers and holding my breath have resulted in failure. I've searched high and low for another reputable butter dealer and none have surfaced yet.

It's not just a matter of my dealer not being able to get it anymore--they also went out of business! I'm so frustrated I could scream. I can't find anyone with comparable quality that has reasonable prices.

The only natural oil based product I can make right now is my Coconut Cookie Scrub. The oils and other ingredients contained in it are able to be obtained locally without compromising the quality in any way.

My Neemzuki and Amla Clay face & body products are also pulled from the cyber-shelves due to such drastic inflation on the price of natural grains and clays. Or the grains I use in my formulations just simply aren't able to be obtained easily anymore! There's some real supply issues going on lately in the USA with natural bath and body ingredients. This has led to the more economical "pre-made" formulations you see out there now in which a person simply has to add a scent to and then sell. But if you're looking for something withOUT all those cheap fillers and you want the real deal..... that's going to be more expensive now. And I just plain don't have the cash to do it. And I don't think I could keep a good customer base with the products, unfortunately. There are too many cheap imitations out now and so quality goes by the wayside. If I'm going to put my name on something then I want to be able to say that 100% of the finished product was inspired by and created by my own hands.

OK, so now that I'm done with the Bad News let's get to the Good stuff already and see the New Additions the title of this post implies are in the shop. 

There are three ballet themed photos currently in TerraScents: Balance, Crossed Pointes, and One Pointe, all shown below.

These photos were all shot in the summer of 2007 before I had to quit dancing due to illness. I'm quite fond of black and white photography and also the 'near black and white' style of selectively adding and subtracting color for a certain feel. 

In the same category of black and white but backing away from athletic sports, there is a certain feline who is making his debut this weekend: my tuxedo cat who is appropriately named Killer Kitty. He loves to hunt three things: naps, my raggedy smelly pointe shoes, and deer. Thankfully, he is now domesticated and the local deer are no longer in danger. The first two on that list, however, are always in danger. He tries to cram his face into my pointes as far as he can and then fall asleep. He's a royal terror when it comes to satin ribbon, too. 

With Killer's photo I wanted to offer something a bit different to my customers: customization!

 

 

Here's the original look of his eyes in the pure black and white version of the photo. And then here he is again with Gold, Blue, or Green eyes! 

I am currently hard at work on getting test samples printed on dozens of other artistic photos taken over the past few years. When I am satisfied with them then they'll be listed. Just check directly in the shop at www.terrascents.etsy.com or you can glance back here and look to your right----> to see a random selection of the goodies available. 

TerraScents terra cotta diffusers and Hunters Helpers are still in stock and ready to ship! Hunting Season is creeping up again and I think I'd better get my hands dirty with some clay sometime real soon to increase my stock of the Hunter's Helpers.... I remember being quite overwhelmed with orders last year right before Christmas and staying up a few nights until well after midnight.

I hope everyone is having a lovely summer so far. Stay hydrated and stay safe!

Seed Bombs!

RecycledIdeas is a green-thumb friendly place to hang out. I've favorited more than a few of her items over the past year and even tried them out. Fantastic gifts!! All my friends and family have raved over them.

I am in love with the thought of infusing such a small but powerful thing as seeds in something as simple as paper. Call me a minimalist, but I adore functional art which makes a statement without wasting too many syllables. 

Browsing around today I stumbled upon a wonderful new addition to RecycledIdeas' collection of handmade seed papers: guerrilla seed bombs! (What a great way for her to use those left over scraggly pieces after she's done cutting out shapes. Waste not- want not, right? Very smart.)

For Valentine's Day she's offering a collection of pinks and reds: 

Makes me wish Spring was here already.

Saving A Lot Of Money On Laundry Soap- a recipe

If you are trying to find ways to save money (blog author raises hand to add herself to this crowd) then I have one way you may want to investigate. Talking to a few folks and doing some research has led me to an awesome solution for saving money on laundry detergent and I'd like to share it with you. Print this article out and pass it around to all your friends! Everyone likes saving money, right?

The section on the breakdown of how much $$$ you'd save is below the two recipes. The savings are substantial so this is worth your time to really investigate the math on what you're paying now versus what you could be.

To start, let's make sure some terminology is understood. When I speak of "one batch" I mean a full quart-sized ZipLock baggie. This is the amount which is easiest to whip up at one time and is equal to a five-gallon bucket of wet soap. So one quart-sized baggie of dry = a five gallon bucket of wet. You have a choice of using it either wet or dry but the process is different for the wet version. Both recipes are below.

A total of 4 cups dry volume of ingredients equals 64 tablespoons of product. If you regularly use 2 tablespoons of product because you always do large loads of laundry at a time then you're looking at 32 loads of laundry per batch of soap made.

Here's the recipe that I have been happily using for a few weeks. It's quite concentrated and works very well.

1.5 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda(NOT baking soda!)($2.19 for 3lbs 7oz)
1.5 cups Mule Team Borax ($2.98 for 4lbs 12oz)
1 bar of Fels Naptha Bar Soap($.99 per bar)

I prefer the dry soap, myself. It really saves space in my tiny apartment. If you'd rather make the wet soap then you can purchase a five gallon bucket+lid set at any hardware store for around $2.50.

Dry recipe:

Use a cheese grater to shred the whole bar of Fels Naptha soap, as shown below.


Next, use a food processor to finely chop the soap as small as possible. In my own food processor I found that I had to take a sharp steak knife to dig around under the blades from time to time. Do it in a few small batches if you have to. It's pretty quick. It will end up looking a bit like cous cous.


Mix the finely processed soap flakes with the Borax and the Washing Soda in a bowl and stir with a spoon. Here is what the finished product looks like:

Voila. Simple. It's done. Then you simply scoop the dry soap mix into a container and make sure you keep a tablespoon handy for use. One tablespoon for a small load 2 for a medium large load and 3 for a super large load. Even on my kids' nastiest stuff I've only had to use 2 tablespoons and everything comes out very clean.

This soap doesn't create a lot of suds but that has no bearing on how effective it is. Commercial laundry soaps are full of synthetic surfactants which make it "prettier" for the customer. Quit paying an arm and a leg for pretty and make something that works just as well with your own two hands!

Wet Version:

1. You're going to need a larger pot for this. Dump the shredded bar soap(you don't have to run this through the food processor) into the pot and turn on medium heat. Mix in 12 cups of plain tap water.
2. Stir frequently as soap melts down and keep stirring until soap is completely dissolved.
3. Add the Borax and Washing Soda to this soap soup.
4. Dump 8 cups of water into your 5 gallon bucket.
5. Add your soap soup from the pot to your 5 gallon bucket.
6. Mix well.
7. Add 2 gallons + 12 cups(water) to your 5 gallon bucket. Mix well.
8. Allow mixture to sit 24 hours in bucket. Then mix one last time. It's not going to be a clear liquid. You will see some random slimy soap flakes floating throughout. That's normal.
   

Some people use a drill with a paint mixing attachment to mix the solution in the bucket. If your wrists and hands hurt then this would be an excellent option. If not, then a nice long paint stirring stick works just as well.

You can fill old laundry soap containers(the pourable kind- not the button mashing kind) and use as needed.

1 cup of liquid soap per large load and 2 cups if you've got rolling-in-the-mud/small child type laundry to contend with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where do you find these three ingredients? I was able to purchase the Fels Naptha bar soap and Washing Soda at Publix while the Borax was cheaper at Walmart. Borax and Washing Soda are fairly easy to find in the detergent isle of most grocery stores while Fels Naptha soap can be a bit trickier to find depending on which locations will carry them. In my city there is only ONE store that carries the Fels Naptha bar soap. Go figure. Even when we have 2 Publix stores, 2 Super Walmarts, and several other smaller chains in the city. All three of these recipe ingredients can be found online, however. Just make sure you check out the laundry isle in all of your city's supermarkets before going this route. Nine times out of ten purchasing these items online is way more expensive from what I've seen because of the shipping costs.

Helpful details/Stuff I learned the hard way:

Do not EVER put the clothes in the washer and then dump this laundry soap on top. You'll be sorry. It gets clogged up in the folds of cloth and then you're scraping it out. Instead, turn on your washer and put the laundry soap in the bottom of the machine then put the clothes on top. Sounds terribly stupid to point out this minor detail if you already do this but... hey. I thought I was doing a good thing at the time when I put a little extra soap on top. Wound up making me feel pretty damn dumb in the end as I spent several minutes scraping the soap off with a spoon and then rinsing my jeans out by hand. If you put the soap in the bottom of the washer then you will have no issues like this.

The math and how much you'd save

There are three different weights and densities with these three ingredients. Using the simplest method to see exactly how much of an investment a person would be making I measured how much product was in each box and then worked out how many batches each box would make.

• One box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda is 3lbs 7oz (55oz total) and costs $2.19 at Publix.
• One box of 20 Muleteam Borax is 4lbs 12oz (76oz total) and costs $2.98 at Walmart
• One bar of Fels Naptha Soap 5.5oz and costs $.99 at Publix
  

Note: I shopped around at Walmart and Publix and there was a whole $1.01 difference between the stores when it came to the Borax. It PAYS to compare! Every little bit helps.

You need one full bar of Fels Naptha Soap for each batch but each box of Washing Soda and Borax holds many more times the quantity for one batch. Each box of Washing Soda holds 6 cups and each box of Borax holds 10.5 cups. (And yes, I actually sat down at my kitchen table with a measuring cup to verify this.)

That means that a $2.19 box of Washing Soda will make 4 batches of laundry soap while the $2.98 box of Borax will make 7 batches!!! Can you see the savings adding up now?

1 1/3 cup grated soap + 1.5 cup Washing Soda + 1.5 cups Borax settled down to equaling just over 4 cups of product after the soap was run through the food processor for the dry method. Each competed batch of dry laundry soap is 1lb 12 ounces.

So how much does it cost per batch to make?

$2.19 box of Washing Soda divided by 4 equals $.55 per batch
$2.98 box of Borax divided by 7 equals $.43 per batch
+ One full Fels Naptha Bar of soap at $.99 per batch

The grand total is $1.97 for one batch equaling 1 quart bag dry or a 5 gallon bucket wet.

Using this average example of Tide soap ($13.99 for 24 loads) you're looking at paying $.58 per load. Whereas with homemade laundry soap it's $1.97 for 65 loads(using one tablespoon) or 33 loads if you double up and use 2 tablespoons per load. That's $.05 per load of laundry soap if you use two tablespoons and under $.03 if you use one.

Happy Soap Making!

Plantain Hoecake Recipe

I am a Southern woman born and bred. There are few things I love more than salty pork chops and tomato gravy rice. However, one must deviate from those tried and true recipes sometimes for... something a bit different.

Figures that I'd latch onto yet another Southern tradition to fall in love with. My two children as well.

The recipe I'm about to share with you is not only Southern it has it's roots in the Caribbean island slaves' kitchens. And with the price of plantains(ugly/green bananas) right now ($.38 per!!) I'd be an idiot not to enjoy these with my family while we can.

Plantain Hoecakes/Johnny-cakes

Serves 4

You need:

• Two plantains, the uglier the better. If you buy them while they're still pretty and unbruised then let them sit out on your kitchen counter for a few days until they're good and ugly. They'll be a bit soft to the touch usually, when they're ripe.
• 1 cup of cornmeal.
• Vegetable oil.
  
• 1 large round skillet for the stove top + 1 glass pan for the oven.

1. Cut the tips off the plantains. Then, take the pointy tip of a knife and make several long but shallow cuts down the length of the plantain, all the way around it. Peel the strips of skin off. This is the only easy way to do so.
2. Slice plantains into quarter inch rounds and place them in the glass pan after it has been coated with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
3. Bake in oven on 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and poke with a fork. The slices should be softer and have a brownish swirly pattern to them.
5. After the plantain slices have cooled for about five minutes dump them into a bowl and using a fork, mash them up very fine. It takes some work but by cooking them in the oven your job is made much easier.
   
6. Once your plantains are thoroughly mashed begin adding the cornmeal to it about an eighth of a cup at a time. Make sure you are mixing well. The more you add the thicker in consistency the mash becomes. The goal is to create a mash which you can form with your fingers into a patty. One cup of cornmeal generally does the trick for two plantains. Don't add too much more than that otherwise it'll make the cake crumble apart in the pan.
7. Warm up your skillet just below medium heat. Add a quarter inch of vegetable oil to the pan.
8. When oil is hot then you can start forming your cakes. One heaping tablespoon equals one cake. Scoop up some mash on your spoon and then roll it into a ball. Mash it flat and put it into pan oil. Make each cake between a quarter inch and a half an inch thick.
9. The easiest way I've found to turn them over is with a spoon and a fork. The fork grabs and the spoon cradles it so it doesn't fall apart. Fill your pan up with little cakes and then begin turning them over. Generally it's about four minutes before the first side is done. Cook until both sides are golden brown.
10. Gently transfer your golden brown hoecakes onto a plate which has been lined with paper towels to sop up the oil. Lightly salt the hoecakes before the oil dries.
11. Let cool for five minutes and then... enjoy!

I think plantain hoecakes are a wonderful marriage of salty and sweet flavors. My two kids adore them and instead of considering them a side dish to the entree of the evening they really think they're dessert. Sometimes they like to put a drizzle of honey on them. It satisfies their sweet tooth and still gives them some healthy fiber. Plantains have a much lower sugar content than your average yellow bananas and yet when they are cooked they have a taste very similar to them.

Shea Butter & Eczema

Summeresque wrote, "I left feedback but I just wanted to personally thank you for such an amazing product. I have never seen anything work so well(Boo-Boo Cream) on my sons eczema. I am so glad I decided to search etsy for something better than big corporations were putting out. I have tried so many things and nothing truly helped the itch or helped him heal. This cream does both! Amazing! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!"

****************

Admittedly, I do get a lot of rave reviews for my Boo-Boo Cream. And I certainly don't mind talking about how the ingredients work- but I'm going to do you one better. I'm going to talk a bit about how to stop eczema rashes in their tracks. This is a preventative measure.

Summeresque, I know exactly what you mean by 'nothing really helped the itch or helped it to heal' all too well. That stuff made by pharmaceutical companies is full of steroids or synthetic "moisturizers" and quite honestly, the skin knows what's fake and what's natural. Our body craves natural ingredients. The steroid creams are the worst, in my experience. You might as well be coating the skin with Vaseline with a little colony of ants mixed in. Once you stop using the cream your skin freaks out and then you've got a problem that's become worse than it was before. And it doesn't ever really HEAL the skin to begin with, and that's the biggest problem with eczema. If you've still got those cracks and fissures you're never going to be able to stop the itch.

Ever tried Lachydren(can't remember exactly how to spell it. It's Lack-Hye-Dren) on your boy? Don't. Stuff's $45 a bottle, smells like butt, you can only get it from a dermatologist(usually), and it makes the skin feel like it's been slathered with so many vitamins it's about to start growing things. Fake pharmaceutical moisturizers. That was the last product I tried before I screamed ENOUGH.

Here's a helpful tip to keep your boy's skin super supple and to help stop eczema flares. He may balk at it, being a boy, but if he becomes accustomed to just doing it every day it will save him from having to use the Boo-Boo Cream so much. Over time it gradually reduces flares and then... the skin is a peace. It's amazing, really. And so simple I wanted to bang my head against my desk when I discovered it.

Shea butter. That's it. I'm not kidding. PURE shea butter. I have a little Pyrex bowl with a rubber lid of the stuff in my bathroom. After I shower I smear a bit of the shea butter into my hands, rub until it's warmed and turns into an oil, then pat it all over the body parts that flare the worst(my legs). Shea warms to the touch so it's especially nice in the winter. Less than a 1/4 of a teaspoon is enough to do one adult sized leg. Very cost effective. A small smear is all it takes.

Here's my recipe:

1 cup pure shea butter.

In a glass bowl, heat the shea butter until it's melted. Make sure your bowl is big enough to contain any possible bubbles. Leave out in the open for about an hour to naturally cool. After an hour or two it will be safe to add a 5-10 drops of scent if you want to and stir with a butter knife. Pour liquid shea into an air tight container and let cool for two days in the refrigerator.

The result is something which looks like alien cauliflower. Don't let that scare you away from it. Shea butter has a naturally lumpy appearance. It's a pure complex fat and therefore it ain't too pretty. Cocoa butter is pretty. Shea isn't. Cocoa butter is a 10 on the butter/oil hardness scale and shea is around a 6 or 7 depending on the location of the trees where it's harvested. I do use a lot of shea butter in Boo-Boo Cream but I'm quite sure you don't want him to run around reeking of neem and tea tree oil all the time.

Well, keep in touch and let me know how it goes! And thanks again for the rave feedback on the Cream. Mother Nature loves us.


All the best,

Angel

Demure

Meet Demure. She is a super sexy shade of neutral green with a subdued silver/gray sheen. Paired up with Black Steele as a wet eye liner she rocks!!

Thanks, Doree! The first eye shadow for my PinkQuartzMinerals six month subscription is fantastic!!

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

lolcats would like to go trick-or-treating at your house... Be scared. Be very scared.