Ears That Feed You?

As someone who grew up on long road trips between Texas and Canada, I am quite familiar with books on tape. (Thanks, Cracker Barrel!) Now that I reside in the great and very spread apart state of Wyoming, I've realized what a great companion audio books can be on a long car ride.

On that note.... I would like to introduce LibriVox, providing free audiobooks for download.

Although you can search by a number of variables, a quick browse of completed works in English provided the following list of (personal) gems among many, many others:

• Louisa May Alcott: Eight Cousins, Jo's Boys, Little Men, Little Women, etc.
• Jane Austen: Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abby, Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility
• Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights
  
• Lewis Carrol: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
• Willa Cather: My Antonia, O Pioneers
• Jack London: Call of the Wild, White Fang
• L.M. Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne's House of Dreams, Chronicles of Avonlea, Further Chronicles of Avonlea, etc.
• John Muir
• Carl Sandburg
• Henry David Thoreau: Walden, etc.
• Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass, etc.
  

Can we talk about how EXCITED I am about the L.M. Montgomery works?!!! You can bet that I will start there first!

Happy Listening....

Quote of the Day

“Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am—a reluctant enthusiast, a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure.”

Edward Abbey

The Cleanest Mess

The best thing about the mess you make when crafting soaps?



...you tend to forget that the mess is made entirely out of soap!

Cleaning up never smelled so good.

Inspired

As I'm sure is the case with other bloggers, ideas for projects can certainly build up quickly! I have been keeping tabs on various crafts, recipes, and notions and thought that I should share!



Keep an eye out for these in the upcoming months (in no particular order)....

Make Your Own Vanilla Extract

Homemade Marshmallows & Graham Crackers

Chocolate Chai Tea Truffles

Dog Treats

Button Pendants

Ice & Berry Wreaths

Bath & Body Recipes

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

Hummus Adventures

Exploring Trail Foods & Dehydration

A Yummy Sort of Clean

FINALLY - my order has shipped with supplies for making goats milk soaps and should be here Thursday!

Although I do have a few things to pick up (fingers crossed that the only store in town has what I need), I hope to have a little soap soiree Friday night!

Here is what is on the bubbly menu:

Lavender, Apples & Oak Soap with Chamomile Flowers
Tart Lemon Soap with Poppy Seeds
Desert Sage Soap with Sage Leaves
Oatmeal, Milk & Honey Soap with Raw Oatmeal

I do have a few upcoming post ideas concerning soap making (and yes, I realize that I am tardy with the Dandelion Syrup post! Sincere apologies!) and will hopefully have some photos to post once the soapmaking commences in the cabin.

I can almost FEEL the eye-rolling that is going to ensue when the Hubby gets home.

Bee Careful, It's Hot

So on a scale of 1 to 10, how evil am I for the following:

I am baking chocolate chip cookies for a cookout tonight with friends. As I open and then start to close the oven door in the cabin kitchen, a HUGE bee flies into the oven, despite my curses, and doesn't fly back out as the door snaps shut!

When I open the oven door, the bee is no longer going anywhere ever again. He had been caught in the oven door at 375 degrees.

I mean, honestly, BEE careful.

A friendly, and sad, reminder to bake safe out there.

Market Day!

Hooray and thanks for another successful, mostly sunny, and fun Market Day in Pinedale!

Today was the first day of Dandelion Syrup sales and I sold out - guess everyone was as interested in the taste as I was! The next post (either tonight or tomorrow) will explore the steps for making it at home, with photos of my first foray into the concoction.

Today was also a home run day for the baby slippers and shoes-- all but 3 pairs remain of the original 20 or so. Time to get sewing! Luckily (kind of) the Husband is heading out of town until Thursday night so that I can plan a few dates with needles and fabric.

If all goes well, I'll have a new batch of shoes for next Sunday and also introduce homemade soaps and maybe, maybe, maybe some hummus! I have that jar of tahini, after all....

Thank you again to supporters and PFM shoppers! Until next time...

Make It Four... or Five

OK, I can't help myself. These are also a nice alternative and solution to the "big foot" problem!

I'm also looking into a source for leather or suede soles that can be sewed by hand... stay tuned...

Three Things

The Sunday Market was fun, busy, and most of all -- inspiring! I was proud to have sold at least one (and in the case of shoes, 5) of everything I had at The Feet That Feed You booth, especially since I am not able to sell kitchen goodies until July.

Among one of the most common questions I got about the shoes was: "Do you sell bigger sizes?" I have struggled with this because one of the biggest obstacles to making shoes for bigger folks is that fact that they need a non-slip sole! Babies, as crawlers, don't particularly have that problem. And so, I bring you my 3 favorite finds of today:

Jiffy Grip - made for the bottoms of slippers & children's PJs


An adorable pattern for adults from Joggles.com! Heellloooo Christmas presents!


And this fabulous website - for all your shoe & slipper making needs.

Sewing... Sometimes it all just comes together.