Tripod Thursday-New Finds

Today's photographs are just a few odds and ends in my business collection. While I have to take product pictures, I truly enjoy finding and taking pictures of "different" things. I love hide and seek, and those small, but great finds in out-of- the-way places. So here are some of each. 

Don't you love this cast iron soap holder? I recently found this in the bottom of a sales bin, and was extremely pleased with the find, not to mention the price!

While most of my soaps are too large to fit into the regular boxes, I do make a few that are just right! 

I've had far too many requests for this product lately. I think everyone needs to relax a bit more and quit working so hard! Vacation!

Many of my customers just LOVE the whipped shea. Me? I love the ylang ylang scent. Ylang ylang means "flower of flowers", and its scent lives up to its name! I especially enjoy the lavender and ylang ylang blend, and since I can barely keep in stock, evidently I'm not the only one! 

Besides the cute guy in the background (definitely Nana's favorite!), check out these beautiful perfume bottles. Another great find, these were found at the back of a sales shelf. Since they are getting harder and harder to find at all, much less for a descent price, I was quite pleased to come across these! Yes, I am like a magpie, attracted to pretty, shiny things! Lol  

Tripod Thursday- Scenery

I really had intended to show these photos a while back, but I guess its better to be late than never show them! So here are some shots from a few weeks back. Now it is completely green, with many of the Spring flowering bushes and trees having already lost their pretty blooms. In deed, most of the trees are already full of opened leaves. Next week I will try and get shots of the area now, so that you can compare. This year has been a very strange weather year for sure!

Tripod Thursday-products

Here are a few things that I have ready for next weeks' show. The facial oil is a new formula, one that I am very excited about! While I loved it before, I just couldn't help myself, I had to add some more great oils!

Tripod Thursday- Sky and Water

Well, I just realized that my post for yesterday was never posted. Unfortunately I left it for someone else to do for me and, they either thought they did it but did it improperly, or they forgot to do it. Whichever the case may be, I had it ready so here it is, even if it is a day late! 


Water and Sky, the two most calming, frightening, gorgeous and scary views, in my humble opinion, of course!

Tripod Thursday-Windmills of Indiana

This past Summer, while traveling from Ohio to Minnesota and back, we came across fields of windmills. Since it was raining on the way and I was thoroughly fascinated by them, we made a point to allow some extra time on the return trip for photography. Once home, I did some investigating of  these wind turbines and found that I am still fascinated! If you missed that post you can catch up here. I hope you enjoy the blue skies and unique wind mills!

Tripod Thursday-Woods

Unfortunately I was ill during the best two weeks of the Fall color change, but I did manage to snap a few interesting pictures on my way back from the Christmas at the Cabin earlier this week. I hope that you enjoy!

Tripod Thursdays-Autumn Soaps, Fall Scents

I know we are in the midst of summer heat, but schools will be starting in just two weeks, and soon thereafter the leaves will begin to change, and the cool, crisp weather of Fall will begin. 
Since soap takes a good six weeks to two months to cure I am always a season ahead in planning,  and since I am just one person, and tend to be getting slower in my old age, lol, I really have to begin making the next season's products while they are far from most people's thoughts. 
Every August I begin by making melting snowmen, snowman face bulbs with hats, and sparkling, crystal Christmas ornaments, because about eight weeks before Christmas, I will be delivering at least four dozen ornaments to Christmas at the Cabin, as well as other craft items.
But, before the winter snow flies and Christmas comes, Autumn and the Wine festival will be here. So I have been busily creating fragrances appropriate for Autumn and in the spirit of the  wine festival. So today's Tripod Tuesday covers most of the soaps that I consider to be the Fall line. I still have an "Aged Oak Apple" that I am making this week, with Fosters Lager. It's a nice beer soap, with a scent that just speaks Fall to me! After this one, I will begin the more wintry and holiday blends. 
I hope you enjoy this soapy preview!
   

Tripod Thursdays- Fout Legged Friends

Animals are a part of my life, and have been since I was born, Today I have two dogs and two cats. The cats adopted me, one when she was dumped as a tiny baby, and sick as could be, and the other, when she was pregnant, and as sick as could be. Today they are both happy and healthy and definitely the queens of this house! With college done, and my Son married, Lucky went off to live with his real Daddy, and I was demoted from Mommy to Grandma. So now I am left with Dallas and his speckled tongue, an eleven or twelve year old rescued chow mix, and Gizmo, my 3 lb Yorkie. What Gizmo lacks in size, he more than makes up for it in moxie, and HE RUNS the ENTIRE HOUSE, or at least Dallas let's him think he does!

Enjoy these pictures of my extended family!

Tripod Thursdays-Spring Beauty for a Dreary Winter's day

Since we were taunted by Mother nature last weekend, and given a few days in the 60's, it was even more upsetting than usual when we went back to the cold, dreary, blustery winter weather, and the sleet came and the snow spit! So here is my response to this abysmal, extended winter.......I hope that you will enjoy the beauty of  Springs past, and maybe, just maybe these will help to bring some Spring Beauty into your dreary winter day!

Tripod Thursdays-Soaps

In keeping with what was happening on Wednesday, I have uploaded pictures of the soap that I made today (actually late last night by my standards, and early this morning by yours, LOL), as well as some others that I have had in my shop during the past several months. The turmeric colored soap that I spoke of yesterday, is gelling and should be ready to cut and set to cure later today or tomorrow. Although it will be weeks before the verdict is in on it, the one I just made is smelling up the house in a wonderful way, and everything went well with its pouring, so I am looking forward to some great soap there! Now I will just have to come up with a name for its scent....hmm, maybe that will call for a contest!

  

The Goo soap is a great childs soap, it's a lot like slime, without the trademarked name! Orange is orange, green is pearberry, and I also have an oatmeal, milk and honey one.

The dog bone soap is a "bug be gone" blend of EO's for the pooch.

The white soapboxes were hand stamped and painted by me.

The green wedge is a sage-lemongrass soap w/ oatmeal.

The soap wrapped in cloth is my "bug begone" blend of EO's for humans.

The bottles are a liquid soap, in a variety of scents.

Tripod Thursdays- Covered Bridge

Ohio has a large number of covered bridges, a good many of them still in use. I think that they are so beautiful and interesting! In Millersport, where I lived before moving to my current location, we had one moved to a permanent home in the Lion's park where the Sweetcorn Festival is held each year. We had another on the canal. by the fish hatchery, which you could see, but the road had been re-routed so no traffic went across it now days. Another was about 20 minutes away, in Lancaster, now in a field, instead of on the road. yet another was about 40 minutes away near Rock Bridge, Ohio. So many bridges, so little pictures. I lived in that area for twelve years and took the bridges for granted! I am told that Ohio has the largest amount of covered bridges, and that central Ohio, where I lived, has the largest concentration. When I moved to my current house, I was surprised to see a covered bridge on my way to Cincinnati. Determined to not miss another opportunity for pictures of these historical bridges, I grabbed the camera and headed down the road! Here they are, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Peaceful Sunday

I am now back in the Fall weather of southern Ohio, but it seems as though I brought some Florida back with us, because today is a lovely 60, sunny degrees! What we in this area call an "Indian Summer", although I do not know why that term is used. At any rate, most of the gorgeous colored leaves are gone now, with lots of sparse limbs sprouting out from the tree trunks, but it is still beautiful in the sun, none the less!

Wherever YOU are today, I hope that you can take some time to appreciate the beauty of the nature that is around you, and allow yourself to bask in the wonder of it all!

For more pictures see http://flickr.com/uniquegarden To make it a bit easier for yourself (as I have over 2000 pictures), click on the set (on the right side) of "Friends and Good Times", then open the Englewood, Florida set OR click on "House, Yard and Scenery" and open the Fall pictures or the Sunset and Moonlight ones!