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Administrator on January 24th, 2008
Posted in candle making | 1 Comment »
If you’ve read the previous two posts here about making gel candles, you should have a basic grasp of the general principals involved. One thing that you should always remember though, is that the gel wax is not a true solid like paraffin or soy wax and therefore needs to be handled a little differently. Gel candles must always be stored upright and level — otherwise the gel will"creep" and you’re likely to end up with lopsided candles with buried wicks.
It is possible to layer different colors of gel wax in a candle; however, unless you separate the layers with fine mica, the layers will bleed into each other over time. Your lovely green and red striped Christmas candle will become a rather uninspiring yucky brown!
You can make some very pretty gel candles by simply pouring a layer of colored gel into a glass baking pan and letting it cool. Once cool, cut it into smallish cubes with a pair of scissors. Secure a wick in your candle container and pile the gel cubes around it, making sure that plenty of the cubes are in contact with the wick. Voila! You have a candle. Please note though that due to the above mentioned properties of gel wax, if this candle should sit around for a long time, the gel cubes will eventually fuse back together again and the candle will lose its unique look. Some candles, like our Martini candles will leave a large amount of unburned gel wax around the rim of the glass. This can be cut up and placed back in the glass around a new piece of wick to extend the life of the candle.
Should you decide to offer your candles for sale, make sure that you include a warning label or tag. You can buy these pre-made from many of the candle supply vendors or print up your own. We would also advise you to cover the candles with plastic wrap or shrink wrap to keep out dust, bugs, and, believe it or not, fingers! When we first started selling our candles at craft fairs, it seemed that every child who came by (and even some supposed adults) just had to try poking the gel wax.
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Administrator on December 6th, 2007
Posted in about gifts and giving | No Comments »
Wouldn’t it be great if we all had both the time and the money we needed to get ready for the holidays? Generally I find that I’m short on one or both.
Here’s a quick, easy, and very inexpensive item that you can make either to give as a gift or for yourself. Purchase some plain clear glass (or even plastic) ball ornaments with a removable top. Pick some seed pods from milkweed plants. Let the pods dry out naturally. (You will probably want to keep them somewhat enclosed as I doubt that you’d like to find milkweed seeds floating all over your house one day, but make sure that they are ventilated to prevent mold.) Take the top, hanger part of the ornament off and drop some of the milkweed seeds inside. Replace top of ornament. Voila! You now have a lovely ornament that will last for years. It is especially nice for those who enjoy a natural theme in their Christmas decorations.
My apologies to those of you who, like me, live in "the frozen North", as I realize that you’re not likely to be able to find any milkweed pods at this late date. On the other hand, the closer we get to the holidays, the more likely you are to find some of the plain ornaments available at sale prices. After all, there’s always next year!
I’ve been thinking of expanding on this theme as well and trying out some glittery artificial foliage inside of these, but somehow haven’t found the time. If you also don’t have the extra time but have a little money, you might want to take a look at the inexpensive Christmas gift ideas shown on one of my websites.
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Administrator on November 11th, 2007
Posted in free recipes | No Comments »
I believe that this recipe was given to my mother by one of my aunts, who actually is Swedish, so it may really be ethnic. If anyone out there is also Swedish and can confirm or deny the authenticity of the "Swedish" label, I’d like to satisfy my curiosity! At any rate, I can tell you that this is a time-saving, but still delicious, substitute for classic apple pie. It might come in handy during the holiday season when you’re pressed for time or when you find yourself throwing dinner together for unexpected company.
SWEDISH APPLE PIE
Fill a 9 inch pie plate with peeled, sliced apples and sprinkle with 2 tsp. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon (I usually mix these together first for more even distribution of the spice). In a small bowl, combine 3/4 cup melted butter, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, and a pinch of salt (make sure that the butter is sufficiently cooled so that you don’t start cooking the egg!) Pour this mixture over the apples and bake at 350ยบ F for 45 minutes or until top is golden brown.
Enjoy!
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Administrator on September 18th, 2007
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
We took a trip to Boston this weekend to attend a trade show and noticed on the way that the leaves are starting to turn colors. It seems a little early this year, but that may be a result of the very dry weather we had last month.
If you live in an area that does not present such a Fall spectacle, I urge you to visit New England in the Autumn at least once in your lifetime! Towards the end of Summer, I find myself not only wishing for the Fall season as a means to escaping the heat and humidity, but also anticipating the look, feel, and even the smell of the season. Many years ago part of the scent of Autumn in these parts was the smoke from the burning pile of leaves in most people’s back yards. I enjoy the scent of the fallen leaves themselves instead (and besides, as an organic gardener, I’d hate to see such a valuable resource go up in smoke!)
Nature’s gift to New England doesn’t stop with the gorgeously colored leaves either. It’s also apple season (and that means good old fashioned apple cider too, if you’re lucky enough to find a place that still makes their own cider.)
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Administrator on August 16th, 2007
Posted in Organic Gardening | No Comments »
Here’s an organic gardening tip for anyone interested in pest management. As I mentioned in my post just previous to this one, without even knowing it, I had planted a "trap crop" for Japanese beetles. The mystery plant did indeed turn out to be Evening Primrose and the beetles seem to absolutely LOVE it! They have been dining on not only the leaves, but also the flower buds as they are just about to blossom. I checked on the garden this morning and found the flower spikes on these poor plants just covered in beetles, the good part of this being that they are leaving most everything else in the garden almost untouched.
In agriculture on a larger scale a trap crop is used not only to keep pests away from the more valuable plants, but to concentrate the pests in one area where they may more easily by sprayed with insecticide. As I am committed to organic gardening, I’d really prefer to use no pesticides at all, but am considering using a pyrethrin based organic pesticide on the beetles. Even though they are not bothering much except the primroses, I’m beginning to wonder just how many of them will be around next year if I just let them be. One major stumbling block is that now that the plants are trying to flower, spraying them might also take its toll on the bee population. Since many areas of the country have been experiencing unexplained loss of the native bee population, that’s about the last thing I want to do! Guess I’ll just have to save my pennies and make sure to get some parasitic nematodes next Spring to take care of the beetle larvae without doing any harm to the beneficial bugs.
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Administrator on July 27th, 2007
Posted in Organic Gardening | No Comments »
For the past few years I’ve been tossing a bunch of wildflower seeds at the back of my veggie garden at the end of Winter and seeing what comes up. This year I had several plants that I think may be Rudbeckia. The bronze shaded one is particularly nice. Since the soil back there is chock full of big rocks and roots, I can’t really use it for vegetables and it’s nice to have some flowers to cut for the house too.
An extra bonus this year is a plant that I thought was Evening Primrose. There are several back there and many of them have grown extremely tall. So far they have not blossomed at all, but I plan to leave them there even if they never flower as they are performing another unexpected service. We have unfortunately been visited this year by quite a few Japanese Beetles and Oriental Beetles. I’m not saying that they haven’t done any damage at all to the rest of my plants, but they do actually seem to prefer these weeds/flowers/whatever-they-ares to the rest of the garden and that’s just fine by me!
I have used parasitic nematodes for a number of years, but just couldn’t afford them this year and have seen a definite increase in the "bad bug" population. Guess I was just lucky in that this plant just happened to sprout this year as well to help keep the damage in check.
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Administrator on July 15th, 2007
Posted in free recipes | No Comments »
Okay, this morning I decided to make something that my family used to have when I was a kid. I have no idea where the recipe came from or if anyone else ever cooks this. It’s called "Shredded Wheat Omelet" , but is actually more like a frittata. My husband shudders at the very thought, so he has never tried it. (Of course, some of the food combinations that he likes are enough to make me leave the room in a hurry!)
Lightly beat two eggs with a little milk and salt and pepper to taste. Add one crumbled shredded wheat biscuit (the large type — not the "mini-wheats") and mix well. Pour into buttered skillet and cook over medium low heat until set and bottom is browned. Turn over and cook until middle is cooked through. Butter the top, add more salt and pepper, if desired, and serve.
I would really like to hear from others as I’m curious to know whether or not anyone else’s family ever served this. If you try it, I’d love to know whether or not you liked it!
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Administrator on June 23rd, 2007
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
I swore I’d never, ever do it again, but here I am, moving my business again! We have been using every square inch of the area that I’ve been renting for over ten years and there’s just not a speck more of space to be found. Our gift basket inventory has us bursting at the seams, so when a place opened up just down the street with a nice back room that will be perfect for building our gift baskets and a selling floor that’s set up much better than what we have to deal with now, I just had to take it. It almost seemed destined to be.
Of course now, in the midst of the madness of packing whatever we can move while still remaining open, arranging for all the services (telephone, electricity, alarm system, etc.) to be shut down or relocated, getting the new store ready, trying to assure that we will have enough help on hand to move the showcases, shelving units, etc., I almost wish I’d never seen that “For Rent” sign! On top of everything else, I’ve developed a severe case of “sticker shock”. It is astounding what people charge to move a few door switches and an alarm panel or to take a sign down from one building and put it up on another. One of these companies wants to charge $145.00 just to have one of its employees walk into the town hall and pick up a permit (and that doesn’t even include the price of the permit itself)!
Hopefully we’ll be out of crisis mode in a couple of weeks and life will return to some semblance of normality. In the meantime, the veggie garden is being neglected and the insects are having themselves a feast at our expense.
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Administrator on June 5th, 2007
Posted in Organic Gardening | No Comments »
Finally had a chance last week to get most of my seedlings and seeds into the ground. Unfortunately, sometime during the process I managed to pick up two hitch-hikers —- deer ticks, to be exact. I felt something on my back and grabbed one that was still roaming around. When I asked my husband to check my back, he found another that was already dug in and yanked it out for me. It would have been nice if that had been the end of the story, but within a day the whole area around the bite was red and swollen and it hurt quite a bit. The red area kept enlarging and eventually started to show a faint tell-tale “bull’s eye”.
As of this morning I’m to take two heavy-duty antibiotics every day for a month! Well, that’s a lot better than ending up with full-fledged Lyme disease anyway. If you or someone you care about should be bitten, you might want to check out this site Lyme Disease Association for useful information about tick borne disease. (The content of this page itself is mostly about the association, but the links to the left will provide both text and photos.) Even if you don’t generally work in your yard or walk in the woods, you can get these little devils from your pets.
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Administrator on May 4th, 2007
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Now this is downright embarrassing! I have some great ideas for Mothers’ Day gifts for other people’s moms, but I’m tearing my hair out, trying to come up with a good one for my own Mom!
Since she’ll soon be turning eighty-one, it is getting more and more difficult to find something that she would like that she doesn’t already have a dozen of.
She likes to travel, but refuses to go by herself (even though she usually ends up going on one of those package tours with lots of other elderly people). I wish we could buy her a travel companion, but I haven’t seen any of those up for sale lately.
If anyone out there has a brilliant suggestion, I’d really love to hear it!