RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN! YOU CAN'T CATCH ME, I'M THE GINGERBREAD MAN!

I'll have some gingerbread men available for purchase at the Winter Market in Northfield November 18th. These little soaps smell amazing, like freshly baked gingerbread cookies. Yummy! They are always a hit with our customers and sell out fast.

Read More

UPCOMING CRAFT MARKETS, HERE WE COME!

We will be at the winter market in Nortfield Minnesota every other weekend starting November 18th.  Here are a few of the soaps we'll have on hand.

I'm doing a set of videos for TikTok showing the soaps I've made inspired by some of my favorite Christmas movies. This one is inspired by the movie Jack Frost with Michael Keaton where he dies and comes back to life as a snowman. It's a very cute movie with lots of laughs and will make you cry too. 

Read More

SOME NEW GOODIES IN THE SHOP

 I finally have the website back up and running. Phew! I've uploaded the new soaps that are for sale. Here are the latest.

Lemonade Stand

Smell the Rainbow

Pumpkin Souffle

Spearmint

Read More

I MADE A CAKE!

I am so proud of myself. I am a terrible cook and even worse at baking but I actually whipped up something on my own (sort of) and my family loved it! 

Nearly 30 years ago a friend of mine had made this really delicious cake for her daughter's birthday. The frosting was so yummy. I liked it so much I asked her to make it for me again when I had a staff meeting to go to. Of course it was a hit. Everyone wanted to know what the delicious frosting was made of. When I asked my friend what the secret recipe was she laughed and said "it's just cool whip and pudding." I couldn't believe it. 

I was thinking about that cake the other day, trying to remember how she made it, and decided to give it a try. I knew she used a box cake mix but wasn't sure which kind. She also used some type of lemon filling but I wasn't sure if it was lemon curd or lemon pie filling so I just got lemon curd. Her cake was two layers and she spread the lemon filling in between the layers. So I bought a lemon cake mix but instead of making two layers I just made one layer and used an injection tool to inject the lemon curd throughout the cake. I found the closest cool whip frosting recipe I could on All Recipes and used that to cover the cake and then topped with lemon zest. The family is obsessed. Gobbled up the entire thing and now want me to make it again. I wish I could eat it!!!!! 

Read More

THERAPY COWS?

After nearly 5 years of struggling to find someone to help me with my medical issues I finally have a doctor that I really like and I believe wants to help me. One of the things that makes her even more amazing and unique is her clinic location. She built a clinic on her property in Wisconsin and it's such a wonderful place. The drive there is so beautiful and relaxing and then being there feels like being at a bed and breakfast or a spa retreat. The cows roaming the property are a bonus. I think all clinics should be in serene locations. It makes a world of difference for patients. I could probably commune with the cows and make a complete recovery just from that. 💜

Read More

LUFFA, LOOFAH, LUFA, LOFA, LUFA

Is there really a right way to spell luffa? 😂

Several years ago I tried growing luffas so I could use them in my soaps. I'd been buying and using luffas for a while but figured it would be even better if I grew them myself. Well... it didn't work out so well because Minnesota has such a short growing season. This year I saw a luffa at the Farmer's Market and decided to buy it so I could dry it myself and use it with an upcoming batch of soap. Since it was green I knew the skin would be next to impossible to peel off without ruining the luffa so I followed the advice of a YouTuber on drying it in the oven. It worked out well, the skin came right off, but half of the luffa deflated. I'm also not sure it is suppose to be so green after washing it. I washed it as well as I could but it still looks a little funky. I decided this luffa is best saved for the trial run I just put it through. I'll return to the Farmer's market for another one and see if I can make it come out even better. This January I'll start seeds inside so that I give the luffa enough time to grow so I can let it dry on the vine by end of summer. 

Exceptionally long luffa 🤣👀

I cut it up as instructed by YouTuber

 The two luffas on the left are no good. Completely deflated and mushy. The ones on the right look pretty good. I'll update once they are dry. 

Read More

APPLE PICKING TIME

Every year at this time our family heads out for some apple picking because the girls love picking and I love making applesauce. My favorite apples to use are sweet tango. They have the perfect balance of sweet and sour so they can be used in applesauce recipes that contain sugar or no sugar. For myself I always make it without sugar and for the girls I make it with brown sugar. 

Here are two of my favorite recipes:

With Sugar

Without Sugar

Read More

ONE MAGICAL MOMENT TURNED INTO MULTIPLE

 My husband has been after me for a while now to feed the hummingbirds but I refused. We use to feed them in years past but I'd often forget to clean and change out their sugar water every 3 days which can be unhealthy for them so I just gave up. A few days ago I was sitting on the deck watching a single hummingbird investigate the flowers and not finding what they wanted. Suddenly the hummingbird came to within 2 inches of my head and stood there for what felt like a couple minutes just fluttering to keep itself stationary while he looked at me and then he flew off. It was such a magical moment to be that close. I took it at a sign I needed to put feeders out again. I rushed inside and made some sugar water and put out two feeders, one on the deck and one in the garden, and within seconds half a dozen hummingbirds appeared. We've never had so many at once. It's difficult to capture them in motion without the photo being blurry but I was able to snap a couple shots of two birds.

Read More

SOAPY CUPCAKES FOR THE KIDS ARE ON THE WAY

 In June I brought mini soapy cupcakes to sell at the Riverwalk Market in Northfield and they were a huge hit. Little kids love little soaps, especially when they are in the shape of yummy foods like cupcakes and donuts. For me they are really fun to make, though I do need some work on my piping skills. 🤣 

Here are the soapy cupcakes I made for September. They are scented with Berry Bliss fragrance oil. So delicious! Not really... don't eat them 😜

Read More

NEW SOAPS FOR THE AUTUMN SEASON

Fall is just around the corner. In our home we follow meteorological fall which is September 1st so everything orange, yellow, red and pumpkin starts on that date. Halloween decorations go up, bonfires get lit, pumpkin scented candles start to burn... and Fall soaps go on the website to be sold. 

Here are a few I've made for the upcoming season. I'll have these on the website and for sale at the Northfield Riverwalk Market on September 2nd, September 16th, and October 14th. If you are in town please come out to visit our booth and take a whiff of the lovely new scents we have. 🍁

Autumn Fig

Rosehip Jasmine

Apple Sage

Read More

PUMPKINS DO GROW IN POTS

For the last couple years without success I've been trying to grow pumpkins on my deck. I first attempted to grow them in the garden but some wild critter always got to the plants before they'd fruit so I started experimenting with pots and although the plants would flower they'd never fruit until this year. I did some research and found I was using too small of a pot so I went bigger and lo and behold I got two pumpkins. I sadly planted them way too early so now I have to figure out how to make them last until Halloween because the whole point was to grow carving pumpkins. Next year I'll go bigger. I'll use a 10 gallon pot and see if I get bigger or more pumpkins. 

Read More

BIRDS! BIRDS! BIRDS! I LOVE BIRDS

When I first got sick in 2018 one of the things that helped me get through the mental challenge of my illness were the birds. I've always enjoyed birds but there was a point where I couldn't even walk so I would sit out on the deck and just listen and watch them flitter around the yard. I was content in those moments. They got me through some very difficult times. The following are some photos I took of my wild bird neighbors visiting recently. 

Read More

PLANT FOR THE GARDEN - PRICKLY ASH

Once a month I plan on posting about a native medicinal plant for the garden. I'm in Minnesota so my shares will be specifically related to Minnesota so make sure to check if the plants I write about can grow in your area and aren't invasive if you live outside the state. 

To start off I'll talk about Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum americium). The first time I tried prickly ash was quite the experience. My daughter nibbled on a berry first and said her lips tingled, her tongue was a little numb and she couldn't stop drooling. She handed me a berry and I nibbled and nothing happened so I nibbled on a second and again, nothing happened. I told her to give me a third so I nibbled on a third. Suddenly it hit!! I was drooling like a Basset Hound, my whole mouth was tingling, and then my lips and tip of tongue were numb for 30 minutes. 

Prickly Ash is not related to the ash species of trees, it's actually part of the olive family. It's great for wildlife since butterflies are attracted to the flowers and birds use the tree for shelter. Native Americans would use the tree for medicinal purposes. They'd chew on the fruit and bark because it produces a numbing effect so it helped relieve tooth pain. Modern herbalists use prickly ash to treat arthritis and digestive issues. I love it because the crushed leaves and berries smell like a lemon and nibbling on the berries produces a fun sensory experience. I haven't tried it in any recipes yet but I know others have and love it. I may try it with tea sometime. 

Read More

MY DAYS OF SHOPPING ON ETSY ARE OVER!!

I remember the days when Etsy was just a small online e-commerce site founded by three guys out of their apartment. They created the perfect platform for people to sell handmade and vintage items until they took the business public. Little by little it has deteriorated to the point of sellers jumping a cliff like lemmings. Knowing all that was happening I continued to shop there and not question anything until my first bad experience a few years back. I purchased a product I thought was American made and it turned out it was from China. The next time I went to shop I was careful to use the search filter, setting it for U.S. sellers only, and somehow still ended up buying something from China. I quickly discovered that the filter only remained set for the page I was on but as soon as I scrolled to the next page it defaulted to all locations. Ugh! After that I scrutinized things more and still ended up buying from someone whose profile said they were in California but then the item I got shipped from China!!!! Frustrated doesn't adequately describe how I felt.  

Today I went to see if I could find a potting bench on Etsy, careful to look everything over to make sure it is a product made in and shipped from the United States. This is what I came across. 

^ this is the first potting bench I came across. I like it because of the little sink. I checked the description and noticed there wasn't anything noted about assembly. Usually sellers will tell you if it comes assembled or if you have to put it together. I looked to see where the seller was from and the info is blank. 

Then I checked to see where they ship from

I noted they list this item as a handmade product.

So I decided to look elsewhere on Etsy for another potting table and I came across the exact same one but this time by a different seller.

I clicked on the sellers name to see where they were from

Then I looked to see where they were shipping the potting table from

I read the description of their table and it was 100% identical to the potting table being sold by HAPPYSHOPBY.  No variation at all. 

Then I looked at the description and this person describes it as vintage AND handmade. Claiming it was made before the year 2000.

Here's the deal. 

1. That potting table doesn't even look vintage. Does it look 23 years old to you? Even if it were never used, wood deteriorates. 

2. Handmade is totally misleading. Sure, it could be something handmade by someone else and you are selling it for them, but is that what people think when they are shopping on Etsy? No! They think YOU made that item. 

I decided to Google potting benches and sure enough, this particular potting bench is sold everywhere which makes it NOT handmade and NOT vintage. Home Depot, Target, Walmart and many other places sell it. 

Out of all of those selling this potting table, the first one on Etsy - account HAPPYSHOPBY - was by far the most expensive. 

If you are reading this and wonder "how can I be sure what I'm getting is American handmade" here's how:

1. Look at the business name, is it actually a name and not something like HAPPYSHOPBY? 

This one below is called Infinite Cedar. A real name. (name is on right below the price)

2. Look at the price. The price needs to make sense for the product. Handmade woodwork is on the more expensive side. $279 makes sense for the above table.

3. Look at the highlights. This item says it's handmade and lists the materials used. When something is handmade the materials used should also be filled in. If they made it then they know what it's made of!!

4. The description should make sense. It shouldn't read like an ad for Home Depot, it should read like the craftsman wrote it and for the above item it does.

5. The seller and shipping information should be the same. If this person made the item then it will ship from their location. 

It's really sad that customers have to jump hoops to find actually handmade or vintage items on a site that built a reputation on selling handmade and vintage items. 

Look at how they describe themselves.

Creativity lives in the heart of the scammers on Etsy selling mass produced products from other places and shipping it to your doorstep. Sadly, the ones that will pay the price for this are the true artists and craftsmen. 

Read More