I Thought I'd Posted This ...

Goodness, I'm way behind! Remember I mentioned those warming pouches? Here's the one I've had about five years.

The outer cover comes off for washing, which is an excellent feature.

I took mine apart and turned the cover inside-out so I could measure and see how it's made. The pillow-looking thing is the bag with the flax seed inside.

I made four flax seed-filled bags just like that, with cotton fabric.

I sewed that end quite securely.

I chose these three fabrics ("fat quarters," they're called) at WalMart.

I made the elephant one first -- so cute! It sold at the market today, I think only because it is elephants.

I made four. I'm excited about this new item. My own has been such a good thing, I can market them enthusiastically.

My shampoo bars are cut and curing.

I've struggled with packaging my round soaps, and checked on Pinterest for ideas, of which there are many. I tried the large cupcake liners, but that was a failure.

I've been wrapping them entirely in scrapbooking paper and securing it with tape and a round label. Looks nice, but you can't really see/feel/smell the soap.

So I did a mock-up of a pouch-type package with white paper, and I think I like it.
Then I tried it with the scrapbooking paper.

I'll finish the design later, but generally I like the idea -- customers have access to the soap, but the pouch allows for easy handling.

Why shampoo bars, you ask? When I looked at the ingredient list on my Prell bottle, I found a few ingredients I'd rather do without.

Especially those Lauryl Sulfates and Laureth Sulfates. Lots of words I can't pronounce -- that's how I know I have a product that's probably not good for my body, but is great for color/scent/consistency/shelf-life/traveling across the country and sitting in a warehouse for 6 months.

Adam made the scrummiest dinner yesterday! Taquitos with delicious moist/crispy chicken inside, rice with creamy baked avocado. It was wonderful.

Beau says hello from his perch on the back of the couch.

The only-lonely new chick also says hello. He/she is waiting for his/her siblings to be hatched out, but it seems to be taking a long time.

That's because these eggs were laid and added to the clutch over the course of about a week, so they will hatch out accordingly. And some of them were not fertilized, and will turn into nothing.

That's it from the farm! We finished off our week today (Saturday) by having a most delightful couple from church over for dinner, true fun conversationalists with so many stories to tell of their adventures over the course of many decades. We had such fun talking with them -- once, the husband had to leave his beautiful, handmade-by-him wooden sailboat out in the ocean and abandon ship with his crew, somewhere near Bermuda. What a story! For many years, he hoped to hear news of her washing ashore somewhere. Each Saturday evening we're trying to have two or three church folks over for dinner, just to encourage hospitality among us, and to foster friendship and community that goes beyond Sunday morning.

Thanks for dropping in, friends!