The Cookie Monster Came for Christmas!

Here he is the cookie monster himself! My nephew Justin had so much fun this year. Here he is eating the cookie he snagged out of my hands. He was playing with one of his Christmas presents, so I had to check it out, he seen I had a cookie in my hand, grabbed it and chomped right in. He then told me, I seen the cookies, I took the Cookie and I ate the Cookie! lol Little stinker

Here is Justin and Melanie starting to build a snow man. It has been 20 years since our area has seen a white christmas! I know this because it way my oldest 1st christmas when it was last white!

Took them a while to build it, but it stands 10 snowballs high! Melanie had to get a ladder to put the final snowballs on the snowman! Hopefully it is still standing in daylight so I can get a better picture!

The buck is back!

Some time ago I had posted about the momma deer with her twins check it out here. As the twins got older the Buck went out on his own. We haven't seen him in a while. Today he was on the other side of the road looking at the apple trees he use to eat off of. I went outside to get the picture, he watched me the whole way. I said hello to him, his response was he lifted his tail and waved it. To cute!

The picture isn't that great, I had to zoom in on him and for some reason my flash went off outside. None the less here is his, no longer a baby.

My one and Only Show this year.

Each year I usually do 4 to 5 christmas shows, due to my lack of planning , shift in positions at work and what ever else life has thrown at me this year, I was only able to do one show. WHAT A GREAT SHOW IT WAS TO!!!!!!!!!!!! I wasn't wanting to tell other vendors who had seen decreases in sales that I had actually had an increase in sales. Though the way my first day was I wasn't thinking I was gonna see an sales!

My usual way of setting my booth did not pan out the first day. I usually have it set up where the shopper can walk in and look, smell, touch etc. I noticed on friday that people were walking up to the end of the booth, sniff and walk away. I was like "NO! Wait! There is more to sniff!!" So saturday morning I changed my game plan. Great thing with a corner booth you can do this! With the help of a couple other vendors I moved my booth! Turned the table to it was almost in the isle way and WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sales took off from there! Of course I ended up boxing myself in, but I was behind all the product able to talk about the goods! Sundays which are usually slow was my best sunday ever!

Lip balms and body sprays on display

My soap table. I accented my table with elephants this year. Next year I need to make some stuffy elephants to sell! Everyone wanted to by my elephants

The isle side of the booth. Candles and lotions were a hot item for me this year, years past they weren't

The lotions. You can see the sampler has gotten some use! That was just after the first day. I ended up getting special orders for lotions to this year.

Along with the bath and body products I also had aprons, purses and scarfs for sell. Usually it is hard to move the scarfs, but not this year. I sold more of my spendy ones than ever before.

I was so pleased with this show! Next year I have to make sure I have more of my creatively" named soaps. These each year have been a huge hit and customers are starting to come back for them!

The Hair that got all the Attention

This is the hair that got all the attention at the mall last month. These pictures she took of herself, she has to get the right myspace photos! lol.

Random Acts of Oddness

Today my youngest went with a friend to the mall. While walking around a small group of girls (about 6 or so) approached my daughter telling her that her hair looked really soft and wanted to know if they could touch it! lol. Her comment was ?OK!?!. About 3 of them then proceeded to "pet" her hair and tell her it was really soft and then walked away!

My daughter then walked into Hot Topic where one of the people behind the counter informed her she had awesome hair. She looked at her friend and asked what is up with all of this Randomness. The Friends response was "Only in Portland" lol.

Not every day you get asked if someone can touch your hair, even less often to have a group of people want to "pet" your hair.

I WON!!!! I WON!!!!

Heather over at Twin Birch has a give away every friday and I got to be the lucky winner of this wonderful gift set! She also sells these items in her etsy shop. Check out her shop here.

My winnings include a lovely soap, fun body puff, Perfect Pumpkin Shower gel and Lotion in a wonderful little bag. She has more wonderful items in her shop.

THANK YOU HEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ever just want to scream?

Life has it's ups and downs and can even hit you with an old rumor from the past (as it has done recently) In trying to deal with this, I am reminded of this passage from the Bible. The passage is from Ephesians 4:17-32 and Ephesians 5:1-20

Instructions for a Chrisitan Living
17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26"In your anger do not sin"[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you

Ephesians 5:1-20
1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[a] 6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7Therefore do not be partners with them.
8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10and find out what pleases the Lord. 11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My personal struggle is to remember that God has a plan for me and at times the past will be brought up to deal with even if they are old ugly rumors. There are times that in order for me to move forward in my walk with God I need to address areas in my life, wether the issue was true or not. I am aware that as I testify to the truth there are ones out there that it will not believe or choose to believe what they want to believe. Praise the Lord that I do know of several that know the truth and are supportive.

Youth Beach Retreat

For the life of me I can't remember the name of this ship wreck, but it is near Fort Stephens on the Coast of Oregon. The day rained off and on, but really some beautiful pictures came out of the mix!

A rainbow over Fort Stephens. The youth kids played a game at the old fort. I do believe this youth retreat had about 75 people, youth and adults combined. I have some great pictures of the kids in games, but to save some from embarassment I won't post them here. :)

Another Great View at Fort Stephens. This one was taken by a fellow youth leader who had climbed on top of an old cannon.

November Sunset on the Oregon Coast. Just beautiful!

ALL GONE!!!!

Here we are all free of the lovely beaver dam! The kids and I got out there more today (Sunday) and got the rest of it out. Only to find out that up stream more they have built 2 more dams, thank goodness though those dams will not affect the back yard near the house like the one we just removed would.

A Busy Beaver had fun in my backyard

This little beaver dam is causing quite a little problem! It has raised the creek in our back yard about 2 feet! Since it is such a nice weekend, we decided that it was time to remove the dam before the real NW weather hits.

Here is Melanie getting a small break in the dam, this let out so much water, within half an hour the creek was down a foot!

Here is my lab watching the water flow down stream, he is sad, the beavers created a swimming hole just for him! lol. Though when we got started tearing out the dam he was removing sticks to, it was so cute, I missed the picture of that.

Here is Melanie standing on the dam, she got right in there and worked the hardest out of everyone.

Here is Jesse and Melanie working. My oldest picked up sticks and cheered them on! lol.

One of Melanie's good friends even joined in on the fun, though she didn't want to get to close to the dam, she was afraid the beaver may jump out and bit her! lol.

We still have more clean up to do to get all the sticks and yuck out of the creek. I am sure the beaver will be back to rebuild and we will have to clean it up again. It has been years since we have a beaver do this, one year the creek flooded so much that it reached the corner of the house, we want to prevent that from happening again!

Bath Salts and Lipstick kind of day!

I just realized that I hadn't posted in almost 2 weeks! WOW! Where did the time go! I did change over postitions at work transfering me to a different store, which is closer to home! YEAH! The postition change also puts me monday thru friday 5 am to 1:30pm shifts, I am home now in the evenings and weekends instead of having my work week bouncing all over the place.

With this weekend being at home i am creating again! I have been itching to make some bath salts, I hadn't made them in to long, so I dug out all my ingredients and made the below lovelys!

Pink is Pink Sugar kisses, Green (middle) is Cucumber Melon and last in Blue is
Hey! Hey! Cute Cabana Boy


Now on to lip stick, I reformualted, and still wasn't happy, well I was, but not completely. So I took half the batch and remelted it adding again more Mica and Olive oil. I am happy to say I now have LIPSTICK!!!!!!!!!!! The color shows on the lips. I have approx 13 colored lip balms and about 12 lipsticks. Both feel good on, just one will leave color.

Soaps In Molds

Ok so I said the next day I would post the pics, some reason that didn't happen, could be kids, could the change in my work schedule, who knows I am sure I could come up with a million excuses. Point is HERE THEY ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This picture doesn't do the soap justice! I will have to take some pics of the soap out of the mold soon. I colored the soap above with a Tropical Sunset Pink and Neon Purple. The purple actually faded and the pink stands out. Scented this one with my new blend Girl Lavender, A scent I made up a year ago, my first batch sold like hot cakes last year! I Sold out at my one big show I do, I was amazed! I really didn't think that it would have been that popular. It is a combo of Black Raspberry and Vanilla with Lavender. It's a fun scent.

This one is also a popular fragrance Black Raspberry and Vanilla. I find Suz at Oregon Trails to be the best in this scent. I have tried others, but she has just the right blend in her fo. One of my Best Friends wears the lotion I make in the scent, she will get stopped and told she smells wonderful. I think this scent smells better than the Bath and Body Works scent in the same name.

Oh yeah I rebatched the lipstick, the color to me still isn't strong enough when put on, but now it glides on nicely, not feeling like it will tear your lips off! I added Babassu and Hemp oils to the lipstick. Feels great on, I guess this would be more of a colored lip balm that is unflavored.

If anyone is interested in trying a lip balm/lipstick let me know I have a few I can send out!

Ever put lipstick on your soap??!?!?!?! LOL

What a headline! LOL!! What a Saturday, I got to be creative, didn't realize that I hadn't made soap since July!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness what have I been doing? I know I have been playing with mineral make up but NO SOAP!?!?!?!??! Got 3 batches made of soap, 2 for replenishment of ones I am getting low on and one is for a December swap, I will post pics of the soaps tomorrow, except for the swap one, that will be a surprise for those that are participating. As long as it turns out! :)


My first attempt at lipstick, now lets just say I may be reformulating the recipe to get the "slip" I like, but over all I do love the color, now out of 15 containers only 2 look this good, the others, well lets just say they aren't that pretty. OK so 3 batches of soaps, lip stick and now on to the final creation several candles!

Here they are all 13 of them! I did Brambleberry's Fresh baked bread for 2 (had a sample that I just had to try) and also made 4 candles of Lychee Red Tea, which I have to say I love! The other 7 were Scents from Daystar, 3 were Black Raspberry & Vanilla scent, the other 4 were scented Buttercream Frosting. I opted not to color any of these, just let them be the natural color of the wax. I love the smells that are in the kitchen right now! It smell like I baked homemade bread and cake while sipping on tea and eating berries and cream! lol.

Next post will have the 2 batches of soaps. I promise! I have to share, I just do! I used some new colors(well to me anyway) and I have got to share! One batch is made with the neon colors, same colors that are on my daughters eyes in a previous post!

Carole Crew Team!

Here is the Carole Crew Team! On left is my cousin Candy, next to her with the white cap on is my uncle Bud (who is 83 years young!) In front of him in the orange vest is my daughter Melanie, then Me, Brittany and last my Aunt Audrey. We did this to Honor my Aunt Carole who has Breast Cancer, she was diagnosed with it a little over a year ago.

We wished we had a larger team, but we had so much fun! My 83 year old Uncle could have out walked us all! He was high fiving people as we walked past them, encouraging others along the way. His upbeat personality is an inspiration to us all!

We plan on doing the walk again next year, of course we will be recruiting others to join us!

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart recently did a segment about blogging . Of course, it makes perfect sense that Martha is also a fellow blogger! What better way to share the ups and downs of everyday life?She has offered a chance to get "blogged about" on her blog, by posting a comment and linking on your blog. What a fun way to get notice on her blog!

Join in on the fun!

Youth Group Adventures

Our first youth group session after school is in full swing, we had a small, but nice size group of teens attend. Here they are feeding each other pudding. I will would show the lovely photos of their faces, but I will spare them the embarrassment :)

My oldest Brittany in the red t-shirt is the official game/get to know you coordinator of the youth group. Here they are doing a fun game of egg/chicken/raptor with rock paper scissors. Laughs were had by all!

Now on to the serious side. We do like to have fun, but we want the kids to have time to reflect and grow spiritually. So we took them up in the hills above Colton to a small hike and meditation session. Nothing like quiet, beautiful views and nature to get close to God.

To bad there has been some fires around Oregon, the smoke is filtering through the valley making it hard to get the view you can normally have on a clear day. Thank goodness the fires are no where near us. Colton is part of the foothills to the Cascade Mountain Range, usually from where we are at we can see the Coastal Mountain Range.

The youth had a good session, one even shared how a bee came up and sat on a flower next to them while they were praying.

Mineral Make up ~ Neon Glow!

I decieded about a week ago to start looking into making my own make up, low and behold I had all the ingredients! Imagin that! lol. I knew I had most of the ingredients from making soaps, lotions and what ever else I make. So I started playing around. Well my youngest Pictured in the next 2 pics took an interest in my neon colors, I think the pictures will speak for them selves!
Hot Tropical pink accented with black eyeliner

Purple Neon extreme, this one actually looks good on her eyes.

Here is one of Melanies buddies, she is wearing Hot Tropical Pink with Screaming Blue Cornflower.

So far the only feedback from parents is laughter at their daughters. Melanie is already getting request for makeup if she starts to sell them. More like if I start to sell them and use her as my representative and model.

I can't believe she is 20!!!!!!!!!!!!

My oldest just had her 20th birthday on the 8th of this month! WoW! We took her out to eat at the resturant of her choice, She chose an New York style Deli, the food is pretty good! The new york cheesecake was to die for! Oh my goodness, it was a huge slice topped with tons of fresh strawberries. When I go there again I think I will just have desert! lol

Stonehenge on Washington State ~ war memorial

On our way home from Boardman in August the girls and I took a detour over the Columbia River to view this neat memorial, for Talyn and myself this was the first time seeing it, for my youngest daughter it was her 2nd or 3rd time, needless to say it was a neat experience.

A full size replica of the original stonehenge can be found in Washington State! It is a war memorial built in the early 1900's by a gentleman named Sam Hill. The find out more about the monument click here to be directed to the site.

A beautiful view of the Columbia River

The center of the memorial.

Melanie (my daughter, the blond one) and her friend Talyn looking at the memorial plaque.

The dedication plaque on this American Stonehenge reads:
"In memory of the soldiers of Klickitat County who gave their lives in defense of their country. This monument is erected in the hope that others inspired by the example of their valor and their heroism may share in that love of liberty and burn with that fire of patriotism which death can alone quench."

Look what was under our apple tree

Momma with her 2 baby fawns! They still have some spots on them. They are so cute!
The 3 of them really were not affected by us being out side looking at them


Here they are under one of the apple trees eating some apples off the ground. The one on the left stood there just looking at us, while the other 2 kept eating

Poundcake Blackberrry Cobbler OH MY!!!!

Here is a piece of my yummy yummy for your tummy pound cake blackberry cobbler.

To make the cobbler you need just these few ingredients:
1lb of butter

2 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

2 cups sugar

2 cups milk

2 cups blackberries

9x13 baking dish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, place your baking dish in the oven, cut your butter into chunks , place into the baking dish and let completely melt while the over is heating up

Put all your dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, baking powder) slowly pour in the milk.

Mix until your get all the lumps out, your mixture should look like pancake batter

When all the butter is melted, and your batter is completely mixed. Pour the batter into the melted butter.

Once batter is completely poured sprinkle in the blackberries. I have found 2 cups is almost to much on the berries, a little less than 2 cups is just great.

Now bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until top is golden brown and is pulling away from the edges of the baking dish.

Here is what mine looks like when I pull it out of the oven. This is awesome with vanilla bean ice cream!

I have been making this for over 20 years now, my family doesn't wait for it to completely cool down, they start into it several minutes after it is out of the oven. If I could find the cookbook this recipe originally came out of I would give proper credit, but I miss placed that cookbook about 12+ years ago. I made it do much that the recipe is now all in my head.

Try some different variations to the recipe. I have done a wheat flour accented with some cinnimon, then used plums, apples & various berries as the filling. Turned out AWESOME!!!!!!

I would love to hear your feedback on the recipe!