Pink Sugar Floating Blocks Soap

My first attempt at suspension soap. It was a lot of fun.

iPhone pic

I had some avocado cucumber melt and pour base and some olive oil soap base. I made two small thin batches of avocado cucumber soap. It was cloudy. I made them pink and blue. Cut them up into little squares. I then made enough olive oil soap to cover the bottom of my container/mold. I tinted it light purple and made it smell like pink sugar. I poked a few of the blocks in it. I would then do a few layers of more olive oil soap and put a few more blocks in it.

The most important part of layering I learned is to spray alcohol. Once you pour the soap, spray alcohol to pop the bubbles. Before you can add another layer, you need to spray with alcohol again. I read that if you don't have alcohol sprayed, that the layers won't stick and they may come apart.

Potatoes and Tomatoes Update

My little garden is doing pretty well. I have pulled all of my first crop of radishes out of the ground. I have replanted them as I was pulling them. I hope to get another cycle of radishes.

Some of my Potatoes

I added another bag of soil trying to hill up these potatoes. I bet I have to keep adding because they are tall.

4 Tomato Plants (Better Boy)

Believe this or not, but this is 4 tomato plants that have sprawled out and aren't staked or caged. I am not sure if I will have to stake them anytime soon. They have made one giant bush. Ha! They are starting to get little tomatoes all over them. I have hilled them and pulled off the lower branches. I am constantly pulling off the tomato suckers. I was going to cage them, but I waited too late. There is no way to force these into cages at this point.

I currently have this growing (not shown): radishes, crookneck squash, swiss chard, cucumber, bell pepper, some kind of pepper, jalapeno, spinach, onion, garlic, lettuce, purple beans, spaghetti squash, mint, cilantro, dill, rosemary, pineapple sage, and strawberry. Plus, 11 potato plants and 4 tomato plants.

I want to note that I do not have any of this planted in the ground. Our yard does not have topsoil so we have found other ways to grow.

Itsukushima Shrine, Japan

I ran the 5K in Itsukushima Shrine in Japan on my iFit Live yesterday.  This is on the Miyajima island. This place is so beautiful. Unfortunately, I could only run the terrain and could not see any sort of pictures or video. Beautiful!

I did it on an elliptical with iFit Live. The course mimics the inclined terrain of this beautiful place. Most of the time, the incline was on 20 and the resistance was from 11-15. That is pretty much about topped out. I am not a runner and have only started working out more about 6 months ago. I am trying to shed those baby pounds.

The winner of the race completed it in 57 minutes. Wow! I was much slower. 99 minutes. 1582 calories burned. Bam!!! I didn't really compete to win. I just wanted to finish. I was so excited that I didn't quit or fall off of the elliptical. Ha!

Here is a quick peaceful video of the Shrine that also shows the Otorii, the grand gate in the water.

Harvesting More Radishes

I have been able to get a few good radishes here and there, but this was probably my biggest harvest. I have a small area designated for radishes. I ended up using more space on potatoes than I wanted to. These radishes are not near as long as the first ones. The first ones were around an inch thick and 5 inches long.

I took my dad's advice and planted new radish seeds where I pulled them out. I also have another rotation of radishes growing in an old broke down swimming pool. Not sure if it will be deep enough for them to get so long. This time, I planted the small red round radishes. I think they were called Sparklers.

My dad said that my grandmother used to eat the green tops from radishes. They are known to have more vitamin C than the actual radish. I also heard you can juice it.

If you are interested in learning how to grow radishes, you can read about it on Mother Earth News.

Crafty Catchups

Over the last week, I have been so busy that I hadn't had a chance to catchup. So, here is some of the latest.

I tried my hand at some colorful bath bombs. They were fun.

I also made some more melt and pour soaps. I added some good stuff in these. One had chamomile and honey added and the other had some rose buds and green tea. I am getting up the nerve to try the lye soap making.

A week or two ago, I decided to try planting in some bags of soil. Can it be? No digging up my clay. This is what it looked like when I planted. I already have stuff coming up. I will get updated pics soon. I will have to show you a pic of the broke down baby pool I planted salad stuff in. Recycling at its best - redneck style!

My radishes have started getting big enough to eat for sure. The taste is great! I am going to attempt to cook some of these. I read that they are like an onion and will caramelize. You can grill them in some foil. Look it up.

Last weekend, I decided to get something on my baby's windows. We only had window blinds. I wanted to do something that looked like a toddler and less infant. I got 6 yards of a robot fabric, and I am on a mission to add it to everything in his room. I started with adding material trim to some valances. The sheers on the window really helped. I plan on making a comforter, and some pillows or throw animals. I should have enough material to go awhile.

Baby Haircut and Pleco

Baby D got his first full haircut. I was hesitant because I was afraid that all of his curls would get cut off. He still has small curls!!! He did really well getting his haircut. He didn't cry. He liked the cape and loved Laura. She gave him a certificate, too. This happened because some man at church called him a girl.

Blurry but oh well!

I snapped this picture of my huge Plecostomus. We have had him for a few years. We have to feed him 2 algae wafers a day. He looks like a dragon swimming in the water. To be so big, he is quick and agile.

Organic is Bigger

This is not trick photography. This lemon came in my biweekly organic shipment. It was grown in California. Compared to the shriveled small lemons we get from our stores, this lemon looks Huge to me. The cucumber that came in the shipment was at least a foot long.

I have to give credit for the awesome produce to Papa's Organic.