Homemade Vanilla Bean Soap

Handcrafted Vanilla Soap

'Tropical Vanilla Bean'

It's the next best thing to being there - in the tropics, that is. You will love the fragrance of this handcrafted bar of vanilla bean soap. Made with quality base oils, a fantastic fragrance oil, and real vanilla beans from the Tropics! Yes, from Indonesia. And, they are handshucked (for the cult followers of the movie What About Bob? - you know who you are!). You'll love the silky smooth and generous lather of Tropical Vanilla Bean Handcrafted Soap. Make sure to have these lovely bars available for your guests, and get extra bars for those upcoming birthdays and other special days.

Each bar of homemade Tropical Vanilla Bean soap comes wrapped in its own special label and is sealed in a clear cello bag to keep fragrances separate. Every bar is a special gift for someone - including you!


Ingredients: Olive Oil, Cocoa Butter, Coconut Oil, Canola Oil, Castor Oil, quality fragrance oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Distilled Water,  Java Vanilla Beans.

Note: Each hand cut soap is approximately 4 oz., usually more.

Price per bar: $4.50  (Don't miss the Buy-Five-Get-One-Free offer)

Shipping within the U.S. only. 

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

Homemade Soap'n'Such

This post is linked to some or all of the following: Mop it Up Mondays and Skip to My Lou and Bedazzle Me Monday and  What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Made By You Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and Tip Me Tuesday and  Made from Scratch Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Two Maids a Baking and Overflowing With Creativity and What's Cookin' Wednesday and Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Link it Up Thursday and  Threading Your Way and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Creative Bloggers and  Serenity Saturday and  Home and Family Friday

Barns of England

Near Castle Bolton

It's been a few years since I've seen these barns, but there they were, just as we turned onto the road to Bolton Castle in North Yorkshire. There was something about the weathered wood and stone - and so near a real castle, that I found charming.

 Northeast of York

Much less charming, but possessing the redeeming factor of those darling sheep, was this barn near Sutton on the Forest. March has its perks: lambing season being the best.

 West of Leyburn

This just said, 'All Creatures Great and Small.' I expected the veterinarian 'James Herriot' to come walking out of that old stone byre any minute! This is one of my favorite pictures from North Yorkshire.

 In 'downtown' Hawes

I found it so odd that right in the middle of this town, just a short walk from the (Wallace and Gromit) Wensleydale Creamery, to find a barn and a horse pen - with a real horse and a border collie to boot!

Can you find the horse? 

...and here's the ever-watchful border collie

 West of Leyburn

Looking stark against the landscape, this barn caught my attention, along with that beautiful, lichen-covered drystone wall.

Near Dorstone

And then there are the barns that I'm not sure whether they have been standing for a couple hundred years or if they were built in 1990 and made to look old! These days, it's often hard for the casual observer to tell.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

...and more! Check out all my soaps at

Soap'n'Such

1913 Home Comfort Wood Range

I don't know why this looked pretty to me. Maybe because it's January and any amount of color is thrilling. And maybe because I really am attached to our old 1913 Home Comfort wood range. We only cook on it when we have sub-zero temps outdoors and want to use the wood range for auxiliary heat. And even then, only when I want to feel especially pioneerish. If that urge does hit me, it's usually when winter is new, not when it has worn out its welcome.

The license plate is a 1926 Wisconsin plate that Kevin found somewhere.

The tools on the stove are for (r) shaking down the grates and for (l) lifting the burner lids.

The cute red and black S&P shakers are from Ian and Becky who know that I love all things British, and especially phone boxes and post boxes!

It's smelling particularly like rosemary and mint in the kitchen. An upcoming soap post, perhaps?

I have leftover chicken stirfry in the refrigerator that will be dinner tonight. Love that stuff!

I'm hoping I can stick to carrots and a few almonds (that's always the trick - a FEW) later in the evening.

I am so thankful for the change of seasons, and the knowledge that we will eventually have springtime once again.  In the meantime, I'll attend my ladies' Bible study, knit, make soap, cook, clean (well, a little), read, take photos, and blog.

Because of the LORD's great love

we are not consumed,

for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning.

Great is Your faithfulness!

-Lamentations 3:22-23

I think about those first two lines a lot, for God could squish us like a bug if He wanted to. With hearts that seek to worship anything, almost EVERYthing other than the only Rescuer and Hope that we have, the Lord Jesus Christ, we deserve to be consumed! I am thankful that we have a merciful Savior. I am one who needs mercy.

With random thoughts from the kitchen,

Gluten-Free Chicken Pasta Casserole

 Easy, Quick Chicken Pasta

Kid-friendly

Mother-approved

First of all, pleeeeeease imagine some pimento in here. It would really brighten it up, wouldn't it! Next time...

And don't let the words 'gluten-free' scare you. If you hadn't been told, you would never know that this pasta is gluten free, except that your tummy won't hurt nor will your skin feel super-sensitive after eating it! I realize that many of you don't experience this when you eat wheat, so go ahead and use regular pasta if you want.

A while ago, I put together the following recipe that even the grandsons liked! (Well, make that one grandson. But he liked it well enough for both of them. I always figure it's a good sign if the grandkids like it.)

I would normally bake this in a 350 degree oven for a half hour before serving, but when everyone's gathered around the kitchen and looking like they're going to die from starvation any minute, it can be served right out of the skillet as soon as it's put together and thoroughly heated.


Gluten-Free, Quick and Easy Chicken Pasta Casserole Recipe:

3 c. Tinkyada Penne Pasta, cooked according to package directions and drained. Be careful not to overcook the pasta.
3 c. cooked chicken, cut into pieces (or 1 large can chicken breast, drained)
3 ribs celery, sliced thin on the diagonal
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T. olive oil
2 T. REAL Wisconsin butter
8 oz. plain yogurt
1/3 to 1/2 c. Kalamata olives, sliced
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. pimento (I did not add it this time, but definitely will next time!)
1/2 c. crushed Stax potato chips

Saute celery, onion, and garlic in olive oil. Add drained Tinkyada pasta and remaining ingredients except for the potato chips. Stir. Place in baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Top with the crushed potato chips and spray the top with a cooking spray (makes the chips glisten, rather than looking dull) and set in a 350 degree oven. Bake for 30 minutes.

Kid approved: 100%
(We don't count the little brother's opinion, for he only likes candy canes. :-)

...and more! Check out all my soaps at

Soap'n'Such

This post is linked to some or all of the following: Amaze Me Monday and Skip to My Lou and Bedazzle Me Monday and  What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Made By You Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and Tip Me Tuesday and  Made from Scratch Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Two Maids a Baking and Overflowing With Creativity and What's Cookin' Wednesday and Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Threading Your Way and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Creative Bloggers and  Serenity Saturday and  Home and Family Friday

 

Kitchen Makeover

When we traveled to Texas in late November to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter and our son-in-law, they had completed an amazing kitchen transformation.  Above is the 'House Beautiful' shot of her kitchen. I loved it!! Okay, it wasn't actually in House Beautiful, but it should have been!

 Same shot, but BEFORE all the hard work

 First Step: Painting the Kitchen Cabinets White

a great improvement!

 Looking through the kitchen to the dining room

(with a big surprise waiting in the next dining room shot)

 Same shot, after upper cabinets over the stove have been removed

and a new streamlined stove hood installed.
Isn't it gorgeous!

Did you notice the grand piano in what was formerly the dining room? Who wouldn't trade in a dining table for a grand piano! And now, the den is where the dining table is located. Great choice!

 Another BEFORE shot, this one looking toward the eating nook

 Annnnnnnnd......AFTER - Same perspective

What a huge change!
Love those tangerine-color accents.

 The Finished Project

I wonder how ambitious she is going to feel when she comes for her August visit this year. Hmmmm. I'm sitting here looking at my natural oak kitchen cabinets. Wouldn't they look great with a white makeover! Kevin is already shaking his head 'NO.' What a spoiled sport! ;-)

The Homeowners
Awww...aren't they cute!

Thanks for letting me post about your kitchen, Honey!♥

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

Soap'n'Such

This post is linked to some or all of the following: Amaze Me Monday and Skip to My Lou and Bedazzle Me Monday and  What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Made By You Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and Tip Me Tuesday and  Made from Scratch Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Two Maids a Baking and Overflowing With Creativity and What's Cookin' Wednesday and Craft Whatever and Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Threading Your Way and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Creative Bloggers and  Serenity Saturday and  Home and Family Friday

 

The Inconvenient Truth

Trust me: Each one of these people has been extremely inconvenient at times.

But where would this world be without them.

Psalm 139:16  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 1:5   Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.

And without our old people, we'd never have moments like these...

Psalm 71:18  Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, til I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.

January 22, 2012

National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

Have a blessed Lord's Day.

Change of Menu

When 'peanut butter on a Nylabone' just doesn't cut it

There are times that a dog's just gotta be a dog.

There once was a bunny named Peter

Who thought that life couldn't be sweeter.

So carefree he hopped,

'Til suddenly stopped

By Bridger, the great Peter eater!

Hope you got to enjoy your favorite dinner this week!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

Soap'n'Such

Hay-on-Wye, Sedbergh, Book Towns

It was a cold, bleak, and windy day in Hay-on-Wye

View Larger Map 
I don't know if you can see the border between England and Wales on the map, but Hay-in-Wye lies just inside the Welsh border in the county of Powys (rhymes with Lois), Wales. Hay-on-Wye is world famous for its many bookstores. A person could spend days there and not exhaust its great supply of books. It seems that everyplace is a bookstore, including even the castle??

It was mid-March, so the bookstore was not stocked.

Photo Credit: Ian Haskins
The photo above must have been taken in high season. Look at the books! 
A castle AND a bookstore? What could be better! 

Photo Credit: VisitBritain.com
Trust between the Welsh and English has evidently improved since the 14th c.

In Sedbergh, Cumbria - another Book Town

From www.sedbergh.org.uk:

What is a Book Town?

Well, it's a town, usually small and usually rural, which has brought together a number of bookshops and other businesses based on writing, reading, publishing and so on. In practice many of the shops will concentrate on selling second-hand books. There are thousands of book enthusiasts whose great joy is to find an out-of-print volume to add to their collections; for them a Book Town is a treasure chest just waiting to be opened. Book Towns have spread around the world from the first one, which was founded by Hay-on-Wye bookdealer Richard Booth in 1961. There are now over twenty towns throughout the World describing themselves as Book Towns or Book Villages. 

The Sedbergh booktown project was started after the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in order to encourage an increase in the number of visitors, whose enjoyment of the beautiful countryside around Sedbergh supports the functioning of vital town centre amenities. The company, Sedbergh Book Town, was set up in 2003 to develop a community of businesses involved in selling, writing, publishing and designing books and other publications. Sedbergh started with an excellent base to build upon as a Booktown, with a printer's finisher (book maker), writers and several book selling businesses already based in the town. Since then more bookshops have opened and, in May 2006, Sedbergh was officially recognised as England's Booktown when it was elected into the International Organisation of Book Towns. There are now three official Booktowns in the United Kingdom, Hay-on-Wye (where it all started) in Wales, Wigtown in Scotland and Sedbergh in England. 

And to think that when we were in Hawes, North Yorkshire, we were only 15 measly miles from Sedbergh and didn't even know about it. Oh well, there's always next time?

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

Soap'n'Such

The Shadowlands

There are lots of reasons, good reasons, to feel like one is living in what C.S. Lewis called 'the shadowlands.'

We live in a fallen world. Unhappiness, sorrow, betrayal, anger, disease, dying, January...
As I was pondering this yesterday, actually while taking a shower, the following words came into my head.

'When darkness seems to hide His face,

I rest on His unchanging grace.

Dressed in His righteousness alone,

faultless to stand before the throne.'

Even in this miserable world, we can stand here and be assured, even joyous, that God is just, and all will turn out right in the end. Also, that our relationship with God does not depend upon us 'being good all the time,' making sure we don't mess up. We're not fooling God. He knows our hearts. God knows our frame, that we are but dust. (In other words, we don't need to worry about living up to His expectations. He has no high expectations of us.) We may not want to admit it, but God knows that we are simply helpless sinners in need of a Savior. I don't know about you, but that's a real comfort to me, for it tells me that God's love for me is the same always.  He doesn't withhold His love while waiting for me to 'snap out of it.' Even a cranky me can go to God and rest in Him.

Our standing before God depends not upon us, but on His grace, on Christ's righteousness, not our own. There's nothing like the freedom that comes from knowing God's grace, knowing Jesus IS our righteousness, and putting all our trust in Him alone. That makes all the difference. Even in the shadowlands.

'On Christ the Solid Rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand

All other ground is sinking sand.'

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.- Philippians 3:8-9


God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.- II Corinthians 5:21

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.- Romans 8:28


rhyming lines from The Solid Rock, hymn by Edward Mote.

Best Chili Con Carne Recipe

Chili, simmering on the stove

I suppose, for modesty's sake, I should have named this post, 'My Favorite Chili Recipe.' But, in my opinion, it IS the best. There's nothing in it that gives me a headache or makes my skin feel super-sensitive for the next few days. It's just plain ingredients...and delicious!

I actually made a double batch of the following recipe, which fits nicely in my Martha Stewart 10 Qt. stainless steel pot. I'm not lavish with my praise for Martha, but I'll have to say, that particular pot is the best I've ever seen. It heats evenly and things don't scorch in it! (unless you're really trying.)

Judy's Chili Con Carne Recipe:

In a large pot, brown the following in a couple T. olive oil:

2# fairly-lean ground beef

1 1/2 onion, chopt

4 ribs celery, diced

1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

some poblano pepper, seeded and diced (optional, but I had some in the freezer from my garden so I used it)

1 red bell pepper or 1 Carmen pepper, seeded and chopt

After the veggies are tender and the beef is thoroughly browned, add the following:

2 1/2 qt. canned tomatoes, slightly drained (that is about 2 1/2# after partially draining)

3 c. cooked red and black beans*, after draining 

2 T. chili powder

1 T. brown sugar

1 1/2 t. salt (or to taste)

a healthy sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Mix this and let it simmer for a few hours. It is actually best if it is then refrigerated for a day or two before serving.

P.S. When I made this a few weeks ago, I decided to add an extra quart of tomatoes to stretch it - at the last minute. NOT a good idea. It definitely needed to be the original recipe, or if I needed to increase it, to increase everything. There was a reason that I first wrote down the recipe. I have now learned not to alter it.

*About the beans:

I purchase dried beans, both red and black beans. Then, the night before I want to make the chili, I place a cup (or so) of each (red and black) into a large pot of water and let them soak overnight. In the morning, I drain the water off, add 6+ c. of clean water to the pot, and cook the beans for a couple hours BEFORE [rinsing and draining them] and adding them to the chili. Of course you can use canned black and red beans, but you'd be surprised how much cheaper these are and how little effort it takes to prepare them.

Another day, another bowl of chili!

Hope you enjoy this chili recipe. Be sure to let me know if you make it! :-)

This post is linked to some or all of the following: Amaze Me Monday and Skip to My Lou and Bedazzle Me Monday and  What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Made By You Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and Tip Me Tuesday and  Made from Scratch Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Two Maids a Baking and Overflowing With Creativity and What's Cookin' Wednesday and Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Threading Your Way and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Creative Bloggers and  Serenity Saturday and Get Schooled Saturday and   Home and Family Friday

...and more! Check out all my soaps at

Soap'n'Such