Home Again

Two days of work, good to see my teacher-friends and realize that even though they baffle and frustrate the heck out of me at times I enjoy their company and need their friendship. The psychologist on staff did a terrific workshop with us on stress and identifying our feelings and how to deal with various situations. This guy is amazing and I wish he would do more with us. They paid a lot of money for a guy to come in last year and do a song and dance with us, but our own psych person is so much more talented I believe. Working with our student population can be incredibly frustrating and we need a lot of support to keep our heads on straight. Home today doing this and that. I got the soap made for Lisa's wedding favors...they wanted little unscented hearts that they will wrap in gauze. What a lovely favor to take home...but unscented??? Never makes sense to me. With my lifestyle where odors, good and bad, are everywhere I love to have scented things around. Occasionally someone will stand still in front of my booth, cover their nose and mouth, and run away. The wall of scents wafting out from my soap table is devastating to people with perfume allergies, etc. Fortunately most people tend to follow the scent to the source. I will be taking the hearts to Lisa's wedding shower next weekend, along with candles Mia, the Maid of Honor, hired me to make for the shower attendees. We had photo labels made with pictures of the happy couple to put on top of the jam (candle) jars, and on the party bags. Too cute! Everybody is getting soy candles in salsa jars from me for Christmas. Typical of a child of Depression Era parents, I can't throw away a jar. They made great candle jars, and soy wax is cheap. Thick cotton parcel string makes a fine wick. My friend, Laticia of Soap Nuts fame traded me some lovely candle scents for wool. Oh, does my apt. smell good! She also sent me a set of soap molds, but truth be told, I can't get used to them. I wanted molds for so long but couldn't afford them, and felt quite sorry for myself that I was making my famous soap and pouring it into wax paper milk cartons. You know what? I was SO happy to go back to my milk cartons after fooling around with all those panels and screws (which have to be taken apart and washed after each use)! I will offer them back to Laticia, who is much better at manipulating all those parts. KEEP IT SIMPLE is my Motus Opperandi. Warm, windy, gorgeous day today. Better go check the drying rack outside. I didn't put the chicken wire over the wool and I might be sorry when I find red locks scattered over the barnyard. I am skirting a gigantic Rambouillet fleece that came with the rescued Rambos. Too bad, it looks like it was ground into a sawdust barn floor. I am teasing most of the dirt out and hoping that a hot, soapy soak and a couple of rinses will get most of it out. I want to get a couple of pounds of Rambo wool processed to see how it spins. The wool is just like Merino, with all the liabilities...and the sheep are definitely not as hardy as my Bluefaced Leicesters. I think the Merinos and Rambos need grain and better hay than I've been giving them all year round. It's really adapt or die here on Maggie's Farm - people included!