Farm Fresh Soap Sale!

 Organic Calendula Mint

Just in time for Christmas giving, my Farm Fresh soap sale!

 Organic Lavender

Lots of new fragrances this time around, but my Organic Lavender is a permanent fixture!

New Soap Packaging

Spent hours looking for a unique wrap for my soap...

And to be honest with you, I can't remember if I saw this somewhere, or I thought of it myself!

 Lemongrass Verbena

I can only say just so much on my little label, but this is indeed, Lemongrass Verbena...

All my soaps are handmade in small batches here in my kitchen.

The base ingredients are: olive oil, coconut oil, canola oil, and lye.

Whenever possible I use organic ingredients.

The new line of fragrances include:

Organic Lavender

 Spiced Chestnut

Chamomile & Honey

Cuppa Joe

Orange Calendula

Tipsy Vanilla (Bourbon)

Cinnamint

Corner Barbershop (men's favorite!....Bay Rum)

Mulled Cider

Lemongrass Verbena

Polenta Mint (as featured on Anderson Cooper's new show!)

Scarborough Fair (parsley/sage/rosemary/thyme in a lemongrass base)

Organic Calendula Mint

PURE (plain ol' soap)

The Polenta Mint, Cuppa Joe, and Scarborough Fair make good kitchen soaps as they have a bit of texture to them, helping to get rid of garlic/onion smells that permeate your hands.

Organic Lavender Landry soap

$8.00 quart

New offering this time...

Each bag is 1 quart and will wash approximately 28 loads, using just 2 TBL.

Made from my own organic lavender bar soap, washing soda, baking soda, and borax, this soap will leave your clothes fresh and clean without any additional chemicals.

This laundry soap does not produce a lot of suds, which makes it a good choice for front loading machines.

After the 1st of the year, my soap prices will likely have to increase as the cost of my raw materials has substantially increased.

Using all natural ingredients straight from the grocers has it's benefits as well as it's drawbacks.

As the cost of food escalates, unfortunately so do my prices.

For now, I am keeping it at 5 bars for $20.00, and that includes shipping and handling!

Shipping on the Organic Lavender Laundry soap will depend on whether or not there are other purchases...

I do not add additional shipping costs to any of my products...

I try to ship Priority mail in pre-paid boxes and keep my shipping costs to exactly what I am charged.

If you are interested in ordering, e-mail me at:

farmgirlcyn@gmail.com

In Christ alone,

Cindy

I AM THE LORD'S

I AM THE LORD'S

"One will say, I am the Lord's; and another will call himself by the name of Jacob; and another will write {even brand or tattoo} upon his hand "I AM THE LORD'S"..." Isaiah 44:5


A few years ago I read  something concerning our hands and how differently we might act if every time we reached for something or touched someone, we saw "The Lord's" written across our palm.
It got me to thinkin'.
So on Thanksgiving morning that year, after putting the bird in the oven, I wrote a note to myself across my right palm.
A gentle (or not) reminder of who I belong to.
And who I represent.
I had to choose how my hand was going to be used.
To bless or to curse.
To caress or to clench in anger.
The words in red were not only a reminder of how I use my hands.
It was a reminder of how I use my tongue.
Every time I saw those words in red, I stopped to think before I spoke.
To "speak the truth in love", or to hold my thoughts to myself.
To gossip, or to edify.

I won't always have "The Lord's" written across my palm.
A load of dishes and it is all but faded away.
But I WILL remember forever, the day "THE LORD'S", written in red, played a significant part of Thanksgiving, 2007.

Forward to November 2011.....
This post is as appropriate today as it was the 1st time I posted it, if not more so.

Have a most blessed Thanksgiving, my friends, as we remember Him who is worthy of ALL our praise and thanksgiving.
All glory and honor to Jesus.

In Christ alone,

Cindy

Forlorn...

Empty....

 It's been cold and very windy here so not much line-dryin' going on...

 Little Soldier Pins

Garden Angel

Starting to look all bare here at the farmette.

The frost has pretty much taken out all the flowers except for one lone calendula plant in a clay pot.

I am thinking I will harvest it this weekend and use the petals for another batch of Calendula soap.

We are making the barest minimal of plans for Thanksgiving.

Our oldest daughter and her family will not be here at all for any of the holidays this season as she is due with her 2nd baby the end of January. This is a huge blessing for us as she has miscarried time and again after her 1st baby, our granddaughter Trena, was born nearly 3 years ago.

We are sad they cannot be with us, but happy because the circumstances are awesome!

Still lots going on here, in spite of the windy cool weather.

I am gearing up for my big soap sale, coming up next week....

I hope!

Still wrapping and labeling, so I will see how much I can get done over the weekend.

In Christ alone,

Cindy

The good, the bad, and the furry...

 The Good

Sourdough recipe....perfect

Perfect color, crumb, texture

Delicious

 The Bad

Same sourdough recipe

Not perfect

But delicious, nonetheless

 Sophia Loren

Black eye-liner eyes

Doofus Beau

Dopey eyes

In Christ alone,

Cindy

Frost, Fog, & French Bread

Frostbite on Polyantha "The Fairy"

A few mornings ago we had a hard frost.

Threw some clothes on and quick grabbed my camera.

THIS is my favorite of all the ones I took....

You can actually see the bits of frostbite on the rose.

"Jens Munk" frozen leaves

My Rugosa rose bush is magnificent.

It is only supposed to get 4-5 feet tall, but it has far surpassed that.

The first thing to bloom in the gardens, and there are still roses on it come the first frost.

 

 Frosty "Knockout"

Who doesn't love a hardy "Knockout" rose?

They take a beating and still bloom all.summer.long.

Seems like just yesterday I was ooing and aahing over the first blossoms of spring:(

Shaping french bread

I have a new sourdough starter, Ischia, from a food swap I was involved in a few weeks ago.

I have been messing around with several new recipes and have been experimenting with some authentic french sourdoughs.

One nice thing about authentic french bread is there are only 4 ingredients...

flour, yeast (or sourdough starter), salt, and water.

The other nice thing about french bread....

it tastes good!

Nothing fancy, just good bread.

Final step before rising

Using sourdough starter is a bit tricky, as the rise time all depends on the strength of your starter as well as the temperature of the house.

After rising

Nearly ready to pop into the oven....

Straight from the oven

I have to invest in a bread slasher, for sure.

Here I used a sharp knife, but obviously did not go down far enough into the dough.

Nothin' says lovin' like something from the oven....

This was really tasty, but needs some improvement.

Thankfully, flour is cheap, cheap, cheap!

I don't have a recipe for you, but there are hundreds of variations on the net.

Pick one...

Try it...

I think you'll like it!

In Christ alone,

Cindy