Etsy Cuteness!

Dylan and I started taking pottery classes together last year and it has turned me into a total pottery addict.  I can spend hours on Etsy looking through all the great pottery and dreaming of making things as nice. Well I just had to share my recent find on Etsy as it is just so great.  I can't stop looking and smiling at those cute flower pot faces! 

Hairy Babes Plant Pot

 

Pick up one of these cuties at www.namnamceramics.etsy.com.

In the oven: Lemon Poppyseed Shea Soap

I have slightly revamped my Lemon Poppyseed Shea Soap. In the past, I used both lemon and vanilla fragrance to make the soap smell like a lemon poppyseed cake, but the vanilla turned the soap a brown color and did not fit with how I imagined the soap to look. I then tried this soap with just a lemon fragrance and infused calendula petals in the warm lye to try and get a slight yellow color. While the soap smelled ideal, the yellow did not last.  So, this time I modified again and used a mix of lemon fragrance and litsea cubeba essential oil and yellow oxide for a hint of yellow. The soap is still setting up and will be ready to cut tomorrow.

Lemon Poppyseed Shea Soap

It smells very nice so far.  Since I ran out of my lemon fragrance oil, I might just use only the litsea cubeba next time. You can order this soap now at either www.LadybugSoapworks.com or www.LadybugSoapworks.etsy.com.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Now that Thanksgiving has past and the days are getting colder, I have started think about the month of holiday parties I have ahead of me.  I like to bring a treat to the parties, so I have started making a list of deserts to make. This year Christmas will be hard for me. If I don't find a new job soon, come Jan. 1 I will be officially unemployed. While that in itself is sad and very scary to me, it is forcing me to be creative for Christmas. I plan to make a lot of my gifts and bake even more! So here is the first item on my list:

  

Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars

I found the recipe on www.annies-eats.com. Go check it out! The bars look beautiful and extremely yummy!  I can't wait to make some this weekend.  I will let you know how they turn out!