October updates

I know it's been awhile since I've posted much, but it's been a little off-kilter over here.

My cat went missing a couple of weeks ago.  We were playing in the sunshine on the patio in the afternoon, and I had to head down to the studio to get a little work done.  An hour later when I came back, she wasn't around.  But a few hours later, and still no Dora?  We got worried.  When we called for hours and she didn't come home all night, we were in high panic, never slept a wink.  Days followed.  Searching and combing the neighborhood for miles every evening and morning.  We did the fliers, the neighborhood lists, the calling of vets and shelters.  Hired a pet psychic.  It was 11 days and our life was a mess.  We hadn't hardly slept, eaten, cleaned, done anything normal.  Suddenly she's home.

I have no earthly idea why the most loved, most pampered, little home-body, super bonded and attached kitty would just "poof" and take so long to find her way back.  But we are breathing again.  It is definitely the roughest, scariest time I've gone through that I can ever remember.

In the meantime, I had a colonoscopy.  Gross.  One of those "maintenance" things they make you do in the name of health or something.  I'm normal and healthy by the way.  But again, gross.

I also had Salmon Days during that time.  Trying to prepare for one of my bigger shows during all that crisis was a nightmare.  And then being out all day trying to smile and sell soap was not easy.  But with the perfect weather and ginormous crowds, it was a record breaker for sales.  I'm wiped out.  In just about every way.

So you might have noticed that the Pumpkin and Cranberry soaps are off the site.  I've got batches that just came out, so there's about a 2-week wait until they will be back up.  I'm pretty low in inventory in just about everything else, between Puyallup, the fall newsletter and now Salmon Days all in a month's time, it's been more than I can keep up with.  Which is nerve-wracking because I'm just heading into my 2 busiest months.  I'm cranking out the soap as fast as I can.  And we'll keep fingers crossed that I can hold it all together.

I did have to cancel being in the Starving Housewives show this week.  I would be setting up today, and I have got just about nothing left from the weekend, and no time to prepare.  I just need a week to get back up to speed and ready for Vasa Park next week.  So sorry if you are looking for me there.  I hate having to cancel, truly, but there is only so much I can do here.

I think that covers the latest news bits.   I'm back in the studio working full-time with great focus, so if you need anything, just holler.

Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil poked his head out of his hole this morning at Gobbler's Knob (love that name!), and declared 6 more weeks of winter.

I know my little groundhogs don't mind hibernating in the blankies for a little longer.

And in reality, I know we've got another 6 weeks or more of cold weather, rain, and winter weather. But it's getting lighter and brighter each day. There was still daylight yesterday at 5pm! The sun is making brief appearances and it just feels lighter already.

I guess it's time to get the spring newsletter out then. It will be in mailboxes next week.

It's not really gardening -

it's more like hacking through a jungle with a machete. In fact, I'm using an axe, my wood saw and only rarely, the clippers.

I got pretty inspired by the garden show in Gig Harbor last weekend. Everyone's garden was so very lovely. And tamed. And weed-free. Oh, I know - they've worked on them like crazy people for weeks. With probably a team of helpers too. It's not like they look like that all the time. It's just for a weekend, to show off for the garden tour.

But in my fantasy world I should have a garden that looks like all those magazine spreads of fabulous cottage gardens, kitchen gardens, beach view decks with fire pit, and a huge patio with the built in kitchen, pizza oven and fireplace all spread out. Maybe a tiki bar in the corner too. In my dream house I have all of it. It's a beach-front farm with gourmet kitchen patio. Oh, I almost forgot the pool. There's one of those too. With a cabana, outdoor shower and guest house. Why limit your dreams?

Instead I have a tiny little postage stamp patio. And a teeny weeny little patch of grass with a few plants in the borders. A crunch of too many tomato plants in a corner near the back door. And then everything else at the moment is weeds higher than the fence. Or ivy slowly creeping in and covering what I thought was the front yard.

My next door neighbor is an empty lot of green things that will continue to live and take over the earth, even if we have a nuclear or global warming disaster that takes us all out. Ivy. Blackberries. Creeping morning glory or chokeweed junk. Holly trees. You can't kill them. I've tried - repeatedly. Nothing works. But the hacking is necessary, because if I don't make a tiny little dent over here on my side by the fence, then by next summer, you won't even know my house is here. The jungle will grow right over the fence, over the house and continue on.

The back yard neighbor is a rental house with kids who only stay there for 6 months or a year at a time, and nobody owns a lawn mower or any other garden type tool. They don't even go outside. So it might as well be a jungle too. In between renters, somebody comes by and hacks down the chin-tall weed-grass. But at this time of year, it's so contrained by one single yard, that it's bursting through all the little fence cracks trying to break free.

So I'm out there the last day or so trying to tame the jungle. I can't really call it "gardening." The cat's don't care.

And if you're curious about what my little casa/home studio actually looks like - here's a picture of the front today. It's a work in progress and clearly I need to do a little hacking in the front yard too.

Streeeeeeetch

Cats are the bendiest, stretchiest things ever.

Today's fun fact: the average person’s total skin covering would weigh about 6 pounds if collected in one mass.

I can't believe today is already October. September went by in one big blur. I've been buried in orders and the Puyallup Fair. Which was down quite a bit this year. Not just for me, but the whole fair. The economy hasn't gotten better, but they raised the ticket prices and the parking fees. Plus the weather was so wet and cool for most of the time, especially the weekends, so attendance was down overall quite a lot. Anyway, it was still a successful endeavor. And I'm so glad it's over.

Moving on to this weekend. It's Salmon Days. And we're supposed to have dry weather! What a change, eh? It's usually beautiful in September for the Fair and raining and storming for Salmon Days. Sunshine on Saturday? Unheard of!

Details: It's the whole downtown area of Issaquah, with the main streets closed off. Saturday and Sunday, October 2 and 3. Hours are 10-6 both days. I'll be in my usual spot, which is Sunset Way, right at the corner of the driveway into the fish ladder and salmon hatchery.

I will not have the mini-soap sets. I sold out of everything I had made at the fair. I've got more curing right now, but they are a couple of weeks away. I will have everything else - all the fall soaps and bath salts and lip balms. Plus a few scrap bags on sale - not a lot, but some so come early for those.

Next week I'll be back at Group Health for my little mini shop. And the following week is Vasa Park. I'll post details about those later. It's going to be a busy holiday season . . .

Boo

Yesterday I posted a picture of Louie, so it's only fair that I post a picture of my other beautiful girl, Dora. I usually call her Boo. Or Skinny Butt. or Chick Pea. She's got a hundred names.

I know. Pictures of your cat on a blog are stoooopid. I obviously don't have kid pictures to post. But some of you out there have heard so many stories about them, that maybe you want to see what they look like lately. Still super cute. Maybe the cutest cats in the world. I'm not biased :)

Zzzzzz

This is what I usually feel like on a Monday after a long show. Not so bad yesterday - it was a busy day around here. But this little gal had a rough night and needed a serious snooze.

Just wanted to post a little extra cuteness.

U District This Weekend

Here's the scoop for this weekend - and the weather is supposed to be dry and sorta kinda partly sunny. Or something like that. At least it's not supposed to rain. And if it would just warm up from this cold breezy stuff we've had this week, I'd be happy. I was insane, or maybe just a little tipsy on sunshine when I over-zealously planted planted basil and peppers a couple of weeks ago in that hot first weekend of May. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either. I've lived here long enough to know better. They are freezing and sad, and probably replaced in June.

I digress. Back to this weekend. It's U District Street Fair weekend. This is the kick-off event for the festival season in Seattle -- the first arts and crafts fair of Spring. It's an exciting celebration of arts and crafts, community, music and food attracting over 50,000 people and showcasing over 400 artists.

Dates: May 16 and 17
Hours: Saturday 10am-7pm and Sunday 10am-6pm
Location: University Avenue in the U district
Booth Location: Booth #315. A large corner spot on University Way, between 42nd and 43rd streets, but pretty close to the corner of 42nd. Higher up the street than I've been the last 2 years. Which is good. No great. Away from that crazy "Spin the Wheel" game, but probably smack dab in front of the hollering retaurant wars for $1 food on a stick. Oh well, it's all good.

For more information: U District Street Fair

I'm hoping to have it all - spring stuff, summer stuff, the new shea butter balm, oodles of vintage tin flower pots and watering cans for gift sets, pretty bags, the antique style berry baskets, all the accessories, etc.

That means I have to make a million or more lip balms tomorrow.

BTW, thanks to all of you who rushed in orders already, like the day after the mailing went out. It's lovely that you're so excited about the new stuff. Really lovely. And it's been a very tight spring, so every order is especially appreciated.

Here's a couple shots of my girls helping me garden. They too are cold and sad now. Huddling back in their blankies instead of basking in the hot sun on the patio.

Swine Flew

It's time to write the summer newsletter, and I'm having a hard time with this one. I'm just out of practice with the writing thing or something. Writer's block. It's not coming together the last day or two. So I work a little bit, set it aside and think, "maybe it will flow better later."

Now it's later. And I'm searching for images of flying pigs on the google. Procrastinating. Wouldn't it have been nice to marry a billionaire over the weekend in Venice like Salma Hayak did? Yes indeed. I dug out weeds instead.

It's cat stare-down day. The neighbors have decided to "transition" their indoor cat to the great outdoors. It's a male and still trying to figure it all out. My two girlie kitties are having a hard time, because they thought they owned both yards, and now they are bravely trying to hold ground on just our own little patch of grass. In fact, the boy cat just headed into our kitchen this evening, to much howling, hissing and posturing by all. I'm sure it will all work itself out over time, but the gals are shook up and nervous.

There's so much coming up in May. I need to really get focused. But I'm swimming - little spurts of effort in between big doses of distractions and lethargy. Is it Spring Fever? Swine Flu?

Snow!

Whee - a snow day! We got a few little inches of snow overnight. Man, it's cold. And it's going to stick around for a few days too.

It's a little bit unnerving for the cats, but exciting too. They've been in and out and in and out all morning. Out just long enough to get cold ears and toes. In just long enough for a quick warm up and a snack. Then back out to hop around some more, each time going a little farther away from the house. Lots of fun to watch.

No business today. None at all. It's a day off, and a snow day to boot! Peppermint white chocolate scones. Best recipe ever. I've never been great at baking, mostly because I like to improvise, and hate to measure stuff. But I make the effort sometimes and this was worth it. Of course I improvised from what the actual recipe said, but not too much.



Since I changed a couple ingredients and did the whole thing a bit differently, I guess I can print my own version of the recipe that I found in a magazine a couple years back. Here's mine:

Peppermint White Chocolate Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold butter, cubes
1 cup white chocolate peppermint mint candies, chopped into bits
1 cup heavy cream
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease baking sheet.
In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt - just a few times until well mixed. Add the butter and pulse again until very well blended. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the cream, egg yolk and vanilla. Add the dry mixture to the cream mixture and stir together to form a wet dough. Gather it into a large ball. Dust your surface with a bit of flour and knead the dough ball a few times til it holds together well, but don't over work it. Flatten it out into a large circle and cut into 12 pizza slices. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush tops with a bit more of the cream and sprinkle with a pinch of sugar. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

They are cakey, crumbly and soft, just the way I like them. I'm not a hard scone fan. And the candies? The original recipe talked about white chocolate chips and peppermint baking chips. I've never seen peppermint baking chips. But I used the seasonal flavored peppermint white chocolate thin mints that the Andes brand had at Safeway. You can improvise with whatever you find. Or do candy cane bits with white chocolate chips. That would be good too. Just make it a cup's worth of the add-ins.

Happy snow day!

Still alive

Hiya! Just popping in to say that I'm still here. I'm still alive. Haven't keeled over. Yet.

[Beware: stream of consciousness rambling ahead.]

The fair is super busy. Seems like sales are a bit down this year - what else is new. But it's not going too bad either. Big crowds and lots of activity. I'm running back and forth for my work shifts, spending all my free time (what? what's "free" time?!) getting more inventory ready to bring back over.

In the meantime, whatever spare moments (again, what the heck is a spare moment?!) I can find are spent catching up with orders and trying to squeeze in "real life." Like the one cat who can't seem to kick the fleas even though she's getting treated regularly. So we had to do an extra dose of de-worming, de-flea-ing and the whole full-on cleaning of the house and a million loads of laundry to wash every single item that exists under our roof. And the other cat spent a very scary night away from home last night and gave us a heart attack.

I ate my first Elephant Ear at the fair. Those things are good. Too good. Because you know it's nothing but fried dough with more grease than a basket of fries, and then they slather on a half a pound of butter, and then a cup of cinnamon sugar. I shared it with someone, but I think I still ate a week's worth of calories and fat in that one piece of scrumptiousness.

I got home from working, super long day, and raced to the bathroom after the endless car ride home. The toilet flusher snapped when I pushed the handle. Argh. Who needs a late night race to the hardware store to sneak through the door two minutes before closing, purchase extraneous toilet plumbing pieces and then wade in elbow deep to repair a stupid flusher? I suppose there is never a good time for that kind of stuff to break. But dang. Now the shower faucet has started dripping. Head smack.

My tomato plants, once they started to ripen, have gone berserk. Maybe they took lessons from the zucchini. I'm eating tomatoes for every meal, giving away bags of the things, have bowls upon bowls in the fridge from yesterday and the day before. And still, there were a million news ones practically falling off the vine again today. I love them. I do. But I'm going to turn into a cherry tomato. I swear I will.

We've been having a pretty darn nice September. We usually do up here. It's sort of an extra month of summer. Except it's only warm for a chunk of the day, instead of day and night. Evenings and mornings are cool, and the dew is getting thick overnight. It's all good. The sunny afternoons have been extra gorgeous. I get to squint at the sky for a bit in between my fits of panic while I pet the cats frolicking in the sun spots out there. Or while I'm picking another bowl of tomatoes.

Everything feels really anxious-y lately. Like I'm right on the edge. I think it has a lot to do with the intensity of all the politicking in the final countdown to the election. All that lying and posturing, it makes me insane. The culture wars and the contentiousness of it all has us split into rabid teams (go, team, go) that inspires the absolute worst instincts in humanity. We aren't people any more, we are all stereotypes. Each hating the other side more each day that it goes on. I hate it. I can't wait for it to be over. Except that I'm scared to pieces about how it will turn out. So I'm alternating between hate, fear, disgust, terror, and plain insanity. I used to be hopeful. But that went out the window a while back. Now it's a constant loop of all the bad stuff, because that's what makes the highlight reels each day.

What are you doing for serenity?

eta: just a few corrections - because grammar still counts for something, even if telling the truth doesn't matter any more

Cats in the summer

Oh, to be a cat. Any box will do, but a planter box in the sunshine is pretty darn nice.



And only in the summer can you lose yourself in the tall grass and play jungle cat games.



Laundry days are special. There is always a new blankie cave to explore and crash out for a quick nap.



But evenings on the porch, watching the parade of dog walkers go by, hand in hand with your best friend? That's the best of all.

The Girl Gang

These are my two girls, Dora and Emmy Lou. And I don't really mean to brag, but they are the cutest cats in the whole world. Practically inseparable in their travels, bestest friends.






So that's all I've got today. They make me supremely happy.