More Local Soaps from Southern Arizona

Last Saturday, I went to 4th Avenue Fair in Tucson mainly to get soap which I became addicted to since last year.  Since I knew that the temperature would rise to 90's in the afternoon, I decided to be there when the street fair opened at 10am.  By the time I got to the Network Navigator LLC's booth, it was pretty hot and display soaps were getting soft.  Luckily, soaps for sale were stored in much cooler shaded area.  I bought 8 bars all in different scent.

Just like SoAP's soap, these soaps don't have overpowering fragrance and they smell very natural.  I do miss SoAP's coarser soap for hand washing, but the texture of these soaps are great for bath or hand washing.  The price is reasonable: 4 bars for $10.  I'm looking forward to use a lavender soap as soon as a sage soap I'm using right now is all gone.

Bees!

I'll be posting bee pictures on my picture blog site for a week or so to personally celebrate and thank what bees provide us.  Also, Animal Planet in Canada is showing a documentary film The Last Beekeeper on April 18 (8pm EST) and April 19 (12am EST).  This is a shocking film for many of us.  I wish Animal Planet in the US had the same schedule as Canadian AP but they only show shows like The Haunted and I Shouldn't be Alive over and over.  Anyway, here's a trailer:

As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite things to do in Southern Arizona is to go to farmers markets.  Local honey is sold at most of the farmers markets in area and it comes in variety of flavors depending on what flower the honey came from.  Honey is the most obvious product we'll miss without bees, but there are so many other crops we'll lose if bees are not there to pollinate.

Wine Glass Charms

When I made wine glass charms for my sister-in-law, I totally forgot to take pictures before dropping them off at her house.  That's why I'm posting these pictures 2 months later.  I used mostly odd beads I can't really use with other beads for jewelry.  These beads are perfect for wine charms since their unique appearances are easier to remember than 'just pretty' beads.  I also used stone and glass beads I purchased long time ago and had no other use for.  I think I missed a few but the charms with my handmade beads were all photographed. 

The charms are now displayed on a wire tree along with other wine accessories.  She got this tree (with round ornaments to hang) from her friend for Christmas but she liked it so much that she decided to hang wine glass charms year-round.  What a great idea! 

What did I get in return?  Free room and board (including daily litter scooping!) for my kitties in her guest room while we were on vacation.  Guess who got the better end of this deal?

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Bread

My husband took me to a restaurant for my birthday last year where each table gets a whole head of roasted garlic to spread on bread.  I've always liked garlic, but the experience at this restaurant got me hooked on roasted garlic...now I use roasted garlic for almost everything!

When we were having our friends over for dinner, I wanted to serve bread that compliments my homemade Italian-inspired food.  One of the breads everyone in my extended family loves is rosemary bread made with fresh rosemary from my yard.  Why not combine rosemary and roasted garlic?

It was a hit and everyone at the table devoured them---I only got one piece!  The combination of fresh bread and roasted garlic dipping oil was hard to beat. 

This bread is easy to make.  First, roast a head of garlic.  Mash about half of the roasted garlic cloves and mix with 1/4 cup of your favorite olive oil.  Add chopped fresh rosemary to your favorite pizza dough or plain Italian bread recipe when you mix in flour.  After rising, place a baking stone in lower 1/3 in oven and set the temperature at 450F.  When the oven is preheated and ready to go, divide the dough in halves and flatten each dough---thick disk if you like doughy bread, thinner if you prefer crispier bread.  Stab the dough with a fork about 20 times.  Place the dough on pizza peeler.  Spread roasted garlic-olive oil to the top and sprinkle with sea salt.  Bake until the bread turns golden brown. 

 

This bread is great for sandwiches, too!  The sandwich in a picture above is a spicy hummus and sunflower sprout sandwich.  

Necklaces with Little Lampwork Beads

My preteen niece asked me to make 14 necklaces to hand out to her friends on her birthday.  I agreed to make only simple beads since I had less than a week to work on them.  I'm grad that she didn't ask me to make 14 amigurumi! (which I would have said NO).

Her mom offered to pay me for these necklaces so I asked her to go to Red Cross website and make a contribution to Japan tunami relief fund.  It's not a large amount, but small grains of sand can accumulate to form a huge desert, right?

Hedgehog Amigurumi

It's been already a year since I started crocheting amigurumi.  I made this hedgehog about 2 months ago and forgot to introduce him. 

I'm not sure if it would look better if I stitch a little brown nose on this guy...

There is no pattern to share at this moment...I didn't write down exactly how many stitches I crocheted for his body.  That's what happens when I crochet in a car.

Earring Rack and Earrings

The necklace stand is still intact and helping me stay organized.  My earrings were next things on my "things to organize" list.  I found a simple photo frame with a slot for two sheets of glass in the middle at TJMaxx.  The generous depth of this frame allowed me to run three lines on one side and two sets on the other side to accommodate earrings with various lengths.

After attaching eyelets, I realized that I didn't have suitable wire for this project.  I could have ran to the hardware store nearby...but sometimes it's fun to experiment and try to use what I have at home.

After trying everything in my toolbox and supply box, I decided to go with hemp string and polymer clay beads I made about the time I bought the hemp string years ago.  The Gorilla glue was used to keep strings and beads in place.
 

 This baby blue-red pair was the first pair of earrings I ever made with my own glass beads.

 The multi-colored cube beads came from a craft supply store. 

These polymer clay beads were coated with away too much shiny coating.  I learned that I prefer polymer clay's natural look.

I've had these beads (top and bottom) for a long time.  Right after purchasing these beads, I found out that some people make their own beads(!!!) and jumped right into the wonderful world of lampwork beads. 

Coffee Soap

My coffee supplier brought his new and improved version of coffee soap to the farmers market last December.  This soap is huge, it's about 4x2x1 3/4 inches!  It contains coffee grinds and brewed coffee from his popular Cowboy Joe's blend and was manufactured by local soapmaker Back 2 Botanicals. 

 

This soap is much darker than the soap I bought from him last summer (pictured below on top of rocks) and it almost looks like a huge chocolate bar!  It foams nicely and has irresistible smell for a coffee addict like me.  The coffee guy said it was designed to be a bath soap but I love using my coffee soap in the kitchen sink.

Just in case anyone wonder why my soap rests on a bed of rocks, the river rocks are not just decorative.  The rocks keep the soap from getting slimy.  It works great on a flat soap dish like this one in the picture. 
I hate slimy soaps!

Glass Plates

A week before moving to Arizona last year, I took a plate making class at Wired Designs Studios in San Antonio, TX.  I needed a way to relieve stress associated with moving and selling a house.  Making things and exercising are definitely my favorite stress relievers.  When I was looking for a large plate to serve tart bites, I saw the plates I made last year and realized that I haven't blogged about them. 

The small plate is 5x5 inches and the large plate is about 9x9 inches.  I nicknamed them red avocado or devil's avocado plates.  I'm still not so sure what kind of food will look appetizing on funky plates like these.

Itty Bitty Nutty Treats

About three hours before a hobby-related meeting both my husband and I had to attend, I found out that everyone was bringing a snack to share.  My husband forwarded me all emails except the one with important details about the meeting.  It figures.  I looked in my fridge and freezer and came up with an idea: little citrus-mixed nuts tarts.  The short dough I had in the freezer and stewed grapefruit zest saved my day!

The same short dough I used for apple-cranberry tarts were used again.  What I love about this sweet short dough is that it tells when it's ready---it's done when the edge turns golden brown.  For the stewed grapefruit zest, I scraped off the zest of 5 grapefruits using a julienne peeler (not a zester) and cooked the zest with sliced flesh from one grapefruit, water, sugar and honey until the zest is softened a little.  I confess, I didn't measure any ingredients.  The only reason I made this zest stew is to save the grapefruit zest for later use when I made grapefruit sorbet.  I hate wasting anything!

I blended about 1 1/2 cups mixed nuts (mostly almonds and some brazil nuts, cashews and pecans) with 1/4 cup sugar and approximately 1/3 cup sweetened zest in food processor at fine-chopping (mincing) setting.  I tasted zest-nut paste to make sure it doesn't need more sugar or zest.  After lining a mini-muffin pan with short dough, I added one scoop of the filling in each well using a small melon ball scoop.  The tarts were baked at 350F for 25 minutes. 

These little tarts are dangerous for someone like me who loves citrus and nuts.  I had to ask my husband to take the leftovers to work.  Otherwise, we'll end up on Biggest Loser!

Grapefruit Sorbet Recipes

Last Sunday, my bro-in-law gave me 15 huge grapefruits off his tree.  Although my original plan was to juice them and keep it in freezer for later use, I had to (yes I HAD to) experiment with some grapefruit (that's what I do when have a lot of ingredients to play with).  When it's possible, I try to make something my husband can eat using ingredients he wouldn't normally go near.  This time, I decided to make grapefruit sorbet.

Those grapefruits were juicier than I expected!  It only took 4 of them to get 3 1/2 cups of grapefruit juice.  I used both sugar and stevia to cut down on sugar while sustaining the desirable consistency.
Result? My husband loved it!

 

I was satisfied with the way sorbet turned out, but I wanted to make another grapefruit sorbet recipe with a little twist.  How about a 'pink' grapefruit sorbet without artificial food coloring? 

Click on "Read more" for recipes.

Necklace Display Stand

I was storing my necklaces in a drawer but it was getting difficult to keep them organized.  The best way to organize necklaces or anything with a string is to hang them on a display stand or a wall unit with hooks.  When I need something is usually the right time to make something.  I drove over to an antique mall in town and started looking for what ever I can use as a base for a stand or a wall decor to add some hooks on.  The reason I didn't go to my usual destination when I have a project---DIY stores---is that I wanted to create something rustic.  Materials from hardware stores would look too new and shiny.  Besides, it's more fun to dig up old stuff at an antique mall.  I never know what I can find.

After walking through entire building, I had to decide between a pair of wooden squares with paint chipping off and an old wooden tool I had no idea what it was used for (I assume it was used to press or pound something).  I couldn't decide right away and I ended up getting both. 

The mystery tool seemed like a better match for decorative handmade nails from Mexico I picked up from an import store.  Sora wanted to show off his pole dance moves but I was ready to hang my necklaces (Sorry, Sora!)

Yay! No more tangling strands!  The next thing on my list is an earring rack/organizer. I'll get to it when I have an idea for it.

Update 1/30/11
I was just told that this is a mallet used for woodcarving.  I can sleep better tonight.

Handspun Yarn Scarf

The brown-peach 2-ply yarn I spun in December now has a new life.  I knitted a skinny scarf with the yarn and crocheted the ends with brighter peach single-ply yarn.  It's a very simple scarf--- cast on16 and repeat k1 p1 until the scarf is long enough.  I had just enough yarn to make this scarf!

As soon as I finished my scarf, however, daytime temperatures here rose to 65-78F and it's been too warn to wear it.  Of course, I'm not complaining.  Stories about massive snow storms and deep freeze many northeastern and midwestern states are experiencing this winter sound like news from other parts of the world.  I remember how much I hated falling on my butt when I was walking to elementary school in winter.  No more icy roads for me! 

Handspun Thick-and-Thin and Supercoil Yarns

Every time I visit Kathy's ranch shop, I learn something new.  Last time, I enjoyed watching her spin super-coiled funky yarns and beautiful thick-and-thin yarns from batts she made with leftover fibers in multiple colors.  Although I only use a hand spindle, I wanted to try these techniques.  I randomly added some thick-and-thin and supercoil in two of my latest yarns.

The bright purple string is not part of this yarn---I use short  pieces of yarns from crocheting projects to tie hand spun yarn for washing and drying.  I don't like wasting anything!

The hand spun yarn in purple-gray base was spun with navy-blue cotton thread.  The dark cotton thread tones down some crazy bright color patches in the yarn.  

I used a bright leafy green colored cotton thread for the olive-gray-brown yarn.  Because of its darker, fall-to-winter colors, I don't think I'll be using this yarn for a while, unless I decide to make something for next winter.  It's been nice and warm in the desert in daytime, I'm ready for some bright colors!

Japanese Bookmarks

As a result of downsizing, we're still going through boxes and sorting the stuff to keep, donate, or discard.  I found a handful of used Japanese stamps and beautiful chopstick bags in one of the boxes and a sheet of laminating film from another.  It was a case I made something out of necessity.  I was reading a book and I didn't own a bookmark (bookmarks magically disappear for some reason), and I needed something to replace a receipt I was using as a bookmark.

I don't remember where these chopstick bags came from---probably a restaurant or a hot spring resort in Japan.  These are handmade with real dried flowers.  I added chiyogami (an origami paper) on the back.

Used Japanese stamps also got a makeover.  I had just enough laminating film to make 4 bookmarks. 

 These bookmarks will make reading books even more enjoyable.  Happy reading!