Yay!!!  Holiday Soap Sets have arrived at our Etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/listing/60355650/candy-cane-mini-loaf-set.  After years of making my own soap, I'm gonna share a bit of the love thru Etsy!  Lookee, here's some of what I've been up to the last week:

Candy Cane Mini Soap Loaf

Eucalyptus Mint Rounds

Breakfast at Grandma's Soap Set

I took pictures as I went, and will be posting them in just a lil bit...best part was the look on The Teenager's face when the PVC pipe was being cut down for a mold.  He was skeered!!

Dear TicketMaster...

...it's 4AM, and I'm really trying hard to score some tickets for my oh-so-musically-picky teenager.  Why, oh why do you make me try to read the weird squiggly words-that-aren't-really-words-just-to-make-sure-I'm-not-some-computer-or-alien over and over again?!?!  I can't confirm the word.  I'm not even sure it IS a word.

And no, an audio clip will NOT help me.  Cause it's not a word.  And that's not a recognizable font.

I'm a reasonable person.  I don't mind being sent back to the beginning over and over again just cause I'm looking for tickets with a view of something more than the Men's Room, but still need to be able to afford to send a kid to college in a few years.  You don't take my supermarket coupon key card.  I get it.

But I can't pass your human test.  It makes me sad.  I am human.  I really am!  I know, because I keep failing yer darn test!

Please be nice to me.  Isn't The Teenager enough of a trial?!?

Love, Melissa

A long but fruitful day...

It's 12:29AM here, and I'm kinda exhausted!  It's been a long, but fruitful day!!

I've been working on lovelies to put in our online shop, http://www.etsy.com/shop/Whythe, driving The Teenager to and fro, feeding people and kitties, making soap, begging my favorite Etsy neighbor (http://www.etsy.com/shop/baahurrahfarm) for some of her yummy Babka (on sale now in the Shop - go quick, before it's all gone!!), and beginning to add HWK's original digital art paintings to our shop.  HWK is an architectural designer by trade, but his first twin loves will always be music and art.  I'm so glad he makes time to do both, even when things get higgly-piggly around here!

I'm off to sleep for four or five hours, and will dive back in tomorrow.  Very exciting, I tell you, very exciting!  Oh, and I have to remember to write to the Christmas Faerie!  There's a Brother es400 Embroidery/Sewing machine that I am coveting!!

Hope you're all having a fun week!

Soap...and bacon...and Slim Jims (gross advisory in effect)

I've decided to try hot process soap making.  Not wholesale, mind you.  Just a little.  I usually make melt and pour soap for home use, but hot process soap (made in a slow cooker) is supposed to be very "rustic" looking, and from what I've seen so far, it is kind of neat-o.  Now, I'm not going to start a big soap business or anything crazy.  I think I'll make some for us, friends and family, and maybe throw a couple of bars up on Etsy if I have any left.

Mostly I am trying it because of the concept of bacon soap.  I was buying fragrance oil online, and when I told The Teenager they had "bacon", he got very excited.  I'm kind of grossed out, myself...but hey, I can always market it as a guy-magnet, right?  Maybe I can make a duo of bacon soap and beer soap?  In my experience, there is little that will make a man happier than a cold beer and bacon (hopefully not together - excessive!).  I will draw a hard line, though, at Slim Jim Scent.  Blech.

(Skeery story from my/The Teenager's childhood(s) warning)

When The Teenager was a wee lad, he loved Slim Jims.  Seriously.  Loved.  Slim Jims.

Now, I grew up in Maine.  As HWK so eloquently puts it, "I can skin #@&."
I've seen animals slaughtered.  I've even had to hand crank a sausage maker.  And if you don't know what that means, I will not explain - I will save you a couple years of therapy, instead.

VERY little makes me squeemish.  That gross orange greasy yucky stuff in Slim Jims?  It grosses me out so bad that the sight of a Slim Jim package, let alone the smell (gag), stops me in my tracks.  And The Teenager REALLY loved them.  You know how people say they would do anything for the children in their lives?  Lay down in traffic, give up a liver?  Well, I bought Slim Jims.  And did not vomit as he chomped them down.

And yes, I realize I just seriously went off on a tangent.  But now you know what I'm talking about, right??

Anyhow, I'm just going to let my new little creations rest a bit, and then maybe I'll round  up a singleton friend, gift a Bacon Bar, and see what happens!

P.S. -->  Now that he's The Teenager, I make him buy his own Slim Jims.  I've done my time, man!

Yummies!!

Fall is my favorite time to cook.  After a summer of running hither and dither, Fall is my time to start feathering the nest and bunkering down against a cold Northeastern Winter.  The air is getting nippy here now, and The Teenager and HWK are always ready to carb it up after running around all day.  As for me, I never met a carb I didn't like, and love the looks on HWK and The Teenager's faces when they first walk into the kitchen, noses lifted appreciatively toward whatever is wafting their way.

Earlier this week I made baked pork chops with potato, apple and onion hash, cider gravy and smashed sweet potatoes.  Carb ecstacy!  The Teenager tucked in like I hadn't fed him in a week!

This afternoon, though, I crossed over.  You know.  The Bad Place.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread 

Yeah, I said it.  I even baked it.  And here's the proof:

That's what I'm talkin' about.  Looks pretty yummy to me.  Wait - no drool?  How 'bout this, then??

Yeah...come on, now.  The Teenager is eyeing it in a way that makes me think I may not get any.  And that isn't necessarily a bad thing!   

I don't always make the time to make such yummies, but today I'm glad I did!!

Our newest addition -- Whythe Home and Hearth

As you may remember, I have a (slight)...(moderate)...oh, really a completely out of control addiction to Etsy.  I've been known to surf in the middle of the night, looking for nothing in particular, but boy I always seem to find plenty!!

Since HWK is an architectural designer, and I have a craft addiction, we decided to try combining our addictions and opened an Etsy store today.  HWK created a lovely banner out from a picture of our livingroom shelf, and we're up and running.

HWK says it's a good way to counteract the money going to Etsy -- try getting some to come back in!

Anywho, we're going to sell handmade jewelry, some hand knit and crochet, some of HWK's amazing art, and whatever else strikes our fancy.

Come check us out -- I hope you'll find fun new things to enjoy.  And come back anytime - we'll be adding whatever craft or art project that keeps us occupied and off the streets!  You can find us at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Whythe .

Have a fantabulous week!

The Kitty Cat Condos

It looks like at least some of our feral cat colony members will be here through the winter.  We decided to make them some shelters and a feeding station this afternoon  (and HWK and The Teenager got to destroy my dining/livingroom).  SO...here's our afternoon:

18 gallon tote

snipping out door

drilling condo door

rough cut

smoothing edges

rasping edges

sand, sand, sand

measuring carpet for insulation - walls

a boy and his drill

adding doors

slitting carpet for entry

adding floor

adding paver to anchor & add another level

nice soft straw beds

finished - front

finished - back door

small pavers - condos up off the concrete patio

Mickey couldn't wait!

East Tower - Executive Suites

East Tower - Side View

West Tower - Young & Wild Suites - adjacent to Kitty Cat Bar & Grill

Kitty Cat Bar & Grill - apps served on the patio/entrees and bar inside

Kitty Cat Bar & Grill/West Tower

Now let's hope the kitties like them!!

Etsy gone wild and 5 hour energy drinks

It's 2:30AM here and I have a serious case of insomnia.  I know!  I'll feed my Etsy addiction by typing in random search parameters:

"bacon candles" = 21 hits...including "beef jerky fragrance oil"...finally!  A foolproof new perfume to snag a man!

"serial killer" = 126 hits...hmmmm...have to check the shipping on those

"insomnia" = 282 hits...mostly loaded with lavender, which I abhor!

"spa day" = 260 hits...now we're talkin'!

"maid" - 5, 698 hits!!  Wow!!  You really can find everything on Etsy!!


Maid...that reminds me of my weekly "to-do" list.  The one that seems to never quite get finished.  And THAT reminds me of something that makes me growl: some 5 hour energy drink is on TV hawking their wares by showing a "Mom" who heard about the 5 hour drink from her husband, who sometimes gets tired at work (thank goodness the little woman has him to enlighten her!).  She brags to us that she is now able to run her errands, pick up her kids, and still get dinner on the table, all because of this wonderful new drink.

Now I could be wrong, but aren't drinking and "medicine" in the 50s and 60s supposed to have Stepford-ized housewives?  And did anyone in this Company's marketing department think about just how condescending and obnoxious it is to tell a cook/doctor/chauffeur/therapist/coach/laundress/housekeeper/sex goddess that all they need is a five hour energy drink??  Did their volunteer mall focus group all have hastily pulled back ponytails and not a scrid of make-up on?  Had they potty trained a toddler?  Cleaned up cat puke?  Cause if they had, they probably wouldn't have time to fill out that focus group survey, now would they??

How about this -- how about people, men and women, who are managing a household and child(ren) while still attempting to maintain adult relationships continue to do the best that they can, and feel proud of themselves.  How about we all say "thank you" to the people who are bringing up the next generation of our species?  How about you hawk your 5 hour energy drink to someone else?  In fact, how about you ship some down to Marketing.  Because unless they run all over town doing errands, dropped off and picked up kids, paid the bills, taken care of the pets, cooked, cleaned, and done laundry (often all of this before noon), they may want to take a moment before suggesting a "hip new drink" to help lighten Mama's load.

Good luck, Mommy Kitty...

I grew up around cats.  Of course, I also grew up in the wilds of Maine, where kitties go in and outside at will, catching mice in barns and fields, or lounging on their human families' couches, depending on their mood.  I am always surprised to see little groups of kitties huddled in alleys and behind dumpsters when I go into the City, and sometimes here, in the suburbs where I now live.  People bustle by, not looking twice, seemingly oblivious to the small, huddled masses of fur, kitties with scared big eyes and muscles tensed to dart away.

I have been working with a local cat adoption agency to find homes for a colony of feral/abandoned cats in our community.  At the risk of sounding like a "Cat Lady", I just can't watch them skitter past my porch, or ignore their "mews" through our patio screen anytime I'm cooking.  Anyway, the good news is that Mommy Kitty, the friendliest of the bunch, leaves tomorrow with 5 kittens to be adopted.  Mommy Kitty has taken amazing care of her fluffy, fat little kittens, keeping them safe and bringing them out to "meet the humans", all of them purring and coming to be patted.  I am thrilled they will have new homes and human families, but am sad to know I will not see them again.  (Our Kitty, Toffee, is not pleased with the feral kitties coming to our porch to eat, and certainly would not tolerate another Kitty inside.)  That's probably for the best, since they melt my heart.

The Teenager and I will be making some shelters for the remaining kitties in the next couple of weeks, in readiness of the cold, harsh Northeastern Winter.  All of the groups in our area have been inundated this year, and are unable to take in more than one at a time.  And the no-kill shelters in the area will not take in any but very small "more adoptable" kittens.  Mommy Kitty and her kittens are lucky to all be scheduled for vet/adoption together tomorrow.  I hope to have the rest of the colony (9 kitties left after tomorrow night!) fixed/adopted or fixed/released, if they are too wild for adoption, before next Spring, so that we do not have a resurgence of kittens again.

I hope Mommy Kitty and her little ones are adopted by human families that love them.  I know that they will at least be fixed, so if they ever do find themselves outside again they will not add to the number of kitties who need homes.