It's looking like fall!

This is my market booth last Saturday. I had a little help, Autumn, from the next booth. Her and her little sister and mom came out to the farm several months ago. She calls me Farmer Kris. I love it! She likes to hang out with me in my booth. So I let her set out my little needle felted critters. She loved it.

Here is my Basil and Peaches-n-Cream soaps I made last week. They really turned out pretty. The basil smells amazing. And I love the peach soap.

Yesterday, I went over to the studio and made a bunch of dryer balls. I made a lot of plain white one and 12 of these cuter ones. I really have fun making these. I never know how they'll turn out. Wool kind of has a mind of it's own.

Here they are, all wrapped into the hose and ready to be dunked in the hot water in the washer. Then they get tossed into the dryer for awhile til they are felted really good. Then into a cute basket and taken to market to sell. Don't know if I already mentioned this, but last week a sweet lady came by my booth and just fell in love with all my woolie things. She ended up buying most all of my decorated wool balls and several felted pumpkins and the cute ewe and lamb that I had made the week before. And she was not going to use the dryer balls in the dryer. She said they were just too pretty to be hidden in the dark dryer. That made me feel so good.

This is the Peaches-n-Cream soap a few days later. I took it outside and am very pleased with how these turned out. I love the sunbeams in this one.

And this one has the old milk room in the back ground. And all the leaves.

And this is the raw milk yogurt with clay soap I made the same day as the other day. It was just a little 2 pound recipe, so not many bars.

And here's my poor momma. She fell Saturday, right on her left side. She's a mess. Broke her left thumb pretty good. Her knee is a whole lot better. Her eye is really a cool color now. She really is so fortunate to only have broken her thumb. She will be looking better in a few weeks. She would have been pretty scary for Halloween, don't ya think? She's so sweet.

And we're hoping my sister will be able to just get the front of her house redone. Still talking to insurance people. Just takes a long time to get anything started. But she will be fine. And have a new house soon.

I'm going to have produce to take to market tomorrow! I have really nice looking baby kale and radishes. Plus dandelion greens and maybe some apples. Seems like there's something else I'm not remembering. I had to borrow another table from mom so I'll have a place to put all that. Plus some eggs too. I need to make more money to pay for my spinning class in November.

What a weekend!

Well, actually started Friday. I have all day on Friday with Mrs. T. who is 97 now. And can hardly walk. I let her go to the bathroom by herself and stayed on the couch, knitting. The bathroom is only around the corner from her chair in the little tv room. I can hear everything from the couch. But it sometimes takes her 10 minutes to get there. I was on the 2nd half of my hat I'm knitting and was on the 4th or 5th cast off on the knit section, when I heard a kerplunk coming from the bedroom.  Got up and looked around the corner and saw feet and legs. Yep, Mrs. T had fallen going into the bathroom. She was right outside the bathroom door, up against the wall, sitting on the grate with both legs straight out. She was ok, thank the Lord. But a little shaken up. Got her up and in the bathroom. And she was in the wheel chair the rest of the day if she needed to go anywhere. I was not taking any chances. I felt horrible for not going with her. I will from now on. And all the other caretakers will too. She cannot be left alone for a minute anymore.

Then Saturday, I went to the farmer's market. Had a great time. Had a missed call from my niece. Then my mom called. My sister Heidi had burned her house down earlier that morning. Heating up some coffee on the stove. Left the kitchen and forgot about it. Went back in and the stove is on fire. She grabs a towel and starts trying to put it out and gets burned. Her daughter calls 911 and they get out with the dogs but she's burned and having trouble breathing. So ambulance comes and takes her to the hospital. Her arm is burned real bad and her hair. But she'll be fine. I think it's mainly the kitchen and dining room. Plus all her brand new windows busted out and everything has smoke damage, so a loss of everything. Meeting with insurance people today and will find out more later. Please pray for her.

Then, on the way home through Ft. O where mom lives, mom calls and said she needed help, she'd just fallen.  So I was at her house in a few minutes. Oh my good Lord! She had the biggest knot on her left eyebrow I had ever seen. Her left thumb was totally bent backwards. Her knee was 3 times as big as it should have been. She was standing at the door when I got there. In nice clean clothes like she was ready to go somewhere. And she had just been mowing the back yard. She was taking some trash out the back door and had the leash n the dog. The leash got stuck in the corner of the door, the dog kept going and mom tripped right over that darn leash. Right on her face. Her deck is wooden so thankful it wasn't the concrete walk. 

So off to the ER we go. Which is just a few blocks away. Mom volunteers there a few days a week. They took her right back in and a doctor came right in. Looked her over. Gave her several shots in her thumb and put it back in place. Took her back for x-rays of hand and knee and CT scan of her face. Came back later and said there was no internal bleeding in head or knee. No breaks or fractures there. But the thumb was broken. Doctor said someone needed to stay with her a few days just in case. 

So I stayed the night. She did great. She's a strong healthy woman. I did some things Sunday to make it a little safer. Did some house cleaning. There will be no more leashes on the dog if in the back yard. Ever again! It's just too dangerous. That was only for training purposes anyway. 

Yesterday, her eye kept getting redder and redder, til now her whole eye, all around it, is red. I told her she needs to color the other eye to look the same now. It would have looked great for Halloween. Her knee is much better and swelling is down. Some blue color but not too bad. It's her thumb that is really hurting now. And she's really sore. Kind of like a car wreck I guess. The few days after is the worse. She hit the deck pretty darn hard.

So, not the weekend I had planned. Chattanooga and Walker Co hosted an Ironman Triathlon and the race went right past my house. I kinda sorta wanted to see it. But missed the whole thing. My husband stood out by the road for about 30 minutes, waving at the bikers as they raced past. They all waved and thanked him for coming out to support them. It was really cool. They had to swim first, in the Tn. River in Chatt. Someone found a dead body. Then later, right before out house, someone had poured out about 50 gallons of motor oil and tacks on the Southbound side of the road, where the bikers would be. About 30 bikers had flat tires before they got it all cleaned up. Some people are just sick. 

So all the excitement out this way is over for awhile now. We had the fair, then the race. Hope that's all. Now back to normal?

I sure hope your weekend was less eventful. 

Hello....

my name is Kris and I am a soap-a-holoic. Yep. I am. I went to the studio this morning to work on wool. I need more dryer balls. More pumpkins. More little needle felted sheep and other critters.

But no. I made soap. Yeah, 3 more batches of soap. I cannot help myself. I lay in bed at night, thinking of soaps I can make. Different combinations. Different things to use instead of water in the lye. Ways to use more natural scents and colors. I have a problem.

But look what I made! Isn't this pretty? It's basil soap. I used fresh basil from a friend and my garden that I ground in the grinder, then added to the oils. I also used dried parsley that I made into powder by grinding it. Also had some basil EO I added at trace. I love this scent. I just wish it would stay this pretty color.

Then I made this. Peaches 'n Cream. With 1 1/2 fresh peaches, skin on, cut up and grated. And some raw cow milk yogurt from my friend Sarah's Jersey cows. No scent. I kept a little out and added some Wilton Cream Peach Icing gel to that and put it on top. Then swirled it a little. You can see on the sides the color before I added the dye. I wish this would stay this color. But I peaked and the dye color is almost red. It and the green soap has to stay in the molds for 48 hours.

Then this is a soap I saw on a soap video. She gave the ingredients and amounts too. It's European clay with yogurt. Just a 2 pound batch. This will be a facial soap. No scent in this either.
 

I did go back over after dinner to work on wool. But when I walked out the door, there were hundreds of dragonflies, flying all around the house. It was amazing. I have never seen so many of them together before. Wonder if they were migrating? Or getting ready to? I have no idea. Sure was cool. And the sunset was beautiful tonight.

Just a beautiful day here. I was home all day. I love being home. I am so thankful I am able to be doing what I'm doing.

And, when I went into the milk room to get some burger out of the little freezer for dinner,  I found the package of nettle seeds I had lost! I am so happy! I had prayed about this and just asked God to lead me to where He knew they were. And He did! ( It only took a week) I don't know how many times I had been right there to get feed for the chickens every night. The seeds were right above the barrel of sunflower seeds on the shelf. Right there this whole time. I don't know what made me even see the little white envelope this time. But I had to look twice. And when I realized it was the nettle seeds, I almost shouted! God is good! So I will go plant them Sunday. We are supposed to get rain that afternoon. I am so glad I found them. Now we will have our own patch of nettles next year. And I hear they make  soap a pretty green color too!