Let it snow!

The weather outside is frightful.... It actually is not bad. Especially when we are properly dressed for it. Christmas Day we received a wonderful gift of snow. Today another gift of snow. I have a feeling we will be unwrapping the gift of snow until at least March. I've been in TN for the past 6 years and enjoyed the very light snow. Yet I grew up & attended college in Michigan so I know snow & ice. Yes Let it snow, let it snow!!!

A wonderful snowy 1st Christmas in Maine

Wow! This is probably the first time I did not hope for snow and it came anyway. Oh how beautiful it is. It truly made our 1st Christmas here in Maine special. My hubby showered the whole family with special gifts including a meaty bone for our furry friend. We prepared tasty dishes from the Food Network's Christmas issue. We sat down by candle light and Christmas music to feast. The children finished the evening gaming and texting. My hubby and I played a game of cribbage on his new board. Since he is such a awesome teacher, I won the 1st match. Merry Christmas babe! Thankyou Lord for your son's Amazing birth and because of Him everyday is a gift to celebrate!

My 1st scented soap bar!!!!

Today I prepared my 4th batch of soap using the Hot Process method and a basic recipe of olive oil, coconut oil, and castor oil. I also added lavender essential oil & lavender buds for texture. The soap actually traced. It looked exactly like vanilla pudding. I enjoyed the whole process but I took special delight in pouring my lovely batch into my perfect soap mold that my husband handmade for me. I had another A-Maine-zing day!

My 1st wooden mold

I am to excited. My precious husband spent all Saturday working on my 1st wooden soap mold. He did a A-Maine- zing job. Thanks babe!

Discovered the masters of wood

I cant explain it but living in Maine inspires you to create. Every town has art galleries, craft shows, theater, musems and other venues that pull you in to discover your creative side. This is what has happen to my husband and I. My current art medium is soap. I spend most of my day reading and watching videos on the subject and I enjoy each moment. My husband is embraceing the art of woodworking. His current interest is woodframing. We were shopping for some tools and a cashier at a craftstore reccommended we stop in to Rockler. We did and we were blown away. The service awesome and the products premier. Molly was are sales clerk. She had such passion and knowledge well beyond her years. She also showed us a picture of a rocking chair she made. It was stunning. We stayed a while browsing asking question and getting instruction. When we returned home I took my soap out of the Pringles mold.

My 1st round soap!!

3rd batch of soap

I am excited about soap making. Today was my 1st attempt at Hot process soap making using a crock pot. It did not go as plan. I did not cook the soap long enough and I stirred the soap to soon. I salvaged the results and used a Pringles can for the mold. I will unveil tomorrow.

Exploring Maine

Today was another day of discovery in Maine. I have really taken on to learning the craft of soap making and needed to find some supplies. I figured this should be easy but it was not. I tried several stores and came up with nothing. I know there are many online resources but I wanted to search in the area I live in. One of the merchants did not have the supplies I was looking for but told me about the Long Branch School & General Store. I looked them up immediately when I returned home. I was nicely surprised to see what they are doing. The school teaches traditional skills that are almost loss in this century from blacksmith to soap making. I know that Maine is big and there are more places to search but I found much more then supplies today.