I received a comment recently on the Creation Square of the Sacred Woman Quilt I created in 2005.  In response, I am posting a picture of my entire quilt.  Also, a picture of the other women in my class with their quilts.  We had a ceremony at the end of nine months to display our quilts.  They were in various stages of completion.  In fact, I still think about adding more to my quilt.
 
At the ceremony, we were asked to explain all of the symbolism and what we learned while creating the quilt.  I loved this whole experience.  As a token of respect, the first one to present was the eldest  "sacred sisters".  It was another lesson for me......... Marilyn got up, no quilt in sight and said:  "I never got the pieces completed.  My quilt is at home in a basket and it is perfectly happy there."

Seriously?  How great is that?  She came to all the gatherings, heard the lessons, participated in exactly what she wanted to do......and was prfectly comfortable without feeling pressured into completing or doing something she didn't feel like doing.  No quilt but she taught me a valuable lesson.  Thanks, Marilyn.

I explained earlier, that the personal lesson I learned came as I was assembling the quilt.  I was glancing over the completed squares thinking of how I could have done this, done that, should have put this here, etc.  All of a sudden I heard a little voice say, "“You did the best you could, the best you knew how at the time."  Yes, an old quote from Oprah Winfrey!  A quote I always had a little doubt about.  Surely those people knew better than to do some of the things they did!  But, now I understood. 

This is  a KOOS OF COURSE Long, Open Front Silk Knit Cardigan with Mandarin Collar and Oriental Applique Trim.  I purchased it for $1 at the local Goodwill Store. I see there are several of these sweaters available on Ebay.

I love looking through the racks and seeing items from the past.  Of course, Target donates a lot of their unsold items to Goodwill and you can find brand new clothing among the oldies.  So, a pastime of mine is junking - clothes and flea markets.  One of my favorite Goodwill stores is located in Rushville.  When I have time to kill locally, I drop in the Anderson Trader Baker store.  There is a lady located there who brings items in from L.A.  I don't think I would ever be able to make booth rent let alone cover flights to L.A.  for merchandise.

I have seen people who earn income selling old wool sweaters for recycling.  Others who have a whole site dedicated to selling mugs.  The amazing thing about the mug site is postage for safely mailing a mug is currently around $8. 

Plumbing 101

Well, still no word back about a buyer for Aurora property. Meanwhile, back at the farm......

I got to practice my plumbing skills. I noticed a leak under the kitchen sink at the apartment. I tightened and tightened the drain pipes only to find out there was a small problem with one of the pies......a hole! So, I figured since this job was turning into a little more plumbing than I had anticipated, I would just replace the bad sink baskets, too.

When I finally realized those suckers were NOT coming out....even solicited the opinion of a neighbor....my next step was a new sink. Fortunately the same neighbor who concurred the old one was not letting go of those sink baskets, also volunteered to give me an old sink he had at his place. One sliced thumb and three trips to Mennard's leaves me with a repaired sink and new sink baskets. I'm calling it quits here even though I noticed there are NO shutoffs under this sink! Too bad! I am done plumbing!

Stop Resisting.........MOVE ON!

I say it is time to call the realtor and lower my asking price one more time. I don't think this old body can take another summer of loading and unloading mowers.....mowing two yards, etc. Besides, I have barns to paint and how can I do that if I am on the road mowing? So, I'll be making that call before I leave Aurora today and stop "stubbornly holding on to things".

My Destiny Card for Today is the 9 of clubs:

The Nine of Clubs literally means 'completion of plans or ideas'. When this card appears it will signal a time when some ideas, ways of thinking or communicating, or some personal plans of yours are ready to end. If you choose to resist this ending, you will experience great disappointment, stubbornly holding on to things, ideas or plans that are no longer useful or helpful to you. If it seems that things are going against you when this card is present, it is probably because you are resisting letting go of something, that in reality, is no longer doing you any good.

On the positive side, you are ready to awaken to a new and higher way of thinking that will be better than you have imagined. The Nine of Clubs has been known to signal a time when powerful spiritual experiences may occur, such as universal consciousness, and also indicates the success of any endeavors that involve spreading higher truths to the world.

Number Sequences, 10/16/11

The first thing I saw this morning was 555, then I made my way down to the kitchen - and, although I thought I had tarried a bit before making the decent to start my morning coffee - there it was again on the stove clock, 555.

The significance of this number sequence according to Doreen Virtue who believes number sequences are one of the ways angels have of communicating with us, says this about 555 — Buckle your seatbelts. A major life change is upon you. This change should not be viewed as being “positive” or “negative” since all change is but a natural part of life’s flow. Perhaps this change is an answer to your prayers, so continue seeing and feeling yourself to be at peace.

The fairy above resides in a neighbor's yard.  I wish she would fly on over to my place.  That would be a nice change.

My friends and I got together to make hair feather extensions.  Would you believe we spent hours sorting through the feathers and creating our "beauties".

Homemade Soap

I made two batches of homemade soap on 9/19/11. I used recipes from Delores Boone's book, Handcrafted Soap, The first batch Down Home & Broke Soap uses readily available ingredients:

32 oz lard or tallow, 24 oz canola, corn, sunflower, safflower or any combination of these four vegetable oils (I used canola), 21 oz distilled water, 7.2 oz lye.

I added quite a bit of fragrance oil....and the large block of soap was taking forever to harden. I had some individual bars that did air dry to a suitable hardness. After 1 week (I know I should have been patient and I have one mushy bar left to see if it will eventually harden) I rebatched the soap in the microwave. I put a couple bars at a time in the microwave for 5 minute  intervals, at 30% power, stirring when it volcanoed. When it looked all gel and rather transparent, I glopped into individual molds. It hardened within hours.

The second recipe, from the same book: Green Tea Soap, hardened upon cooling. This bar is a carmel brown color because of the green tea water used in the recipe. In this recipe, I substituted the 8 oz almond oil and 8 oz avocado oil with 16 oz of canola oil. :

Green Tea Soap: 8 oz almond oil, 8 oz avocado oil, 12 oz coconut oil, 24 oz olive oil, 16 oz cold green tea brewed with distilled water, 7.2 oz lye, Optional: 1 tsp green color, 2.5 oz green tea fragrance oil.

So, I am not sure what happened to the first batch.  Did the essential and fragrance oils (about 2 oz liquid) make it unstable?  Did it need to cook and be stirred longer?  Not sure.  I still am not happy with the fragrance (too weak) of these soaps.  I thought the hot process, which makes them useable within 6-8 hours, would solve the escaping fragrance problem.  I read somewhere that you could put the soap in a closed container with oils and it will absorb it.  That just doesn't seem like the solution to me.  I want the fragrance IN the soap.  Maybe I am not using the right oils.