Thursday, February 3, 2011

50 books in one year, take 3

I'm gonna try again this year!

Goal 50
So far 4

January:
1 Gone-Away Lake - Elizabeth Enright
2 Return to Gone-Away Lake - Elizabeth Enright
3 The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey - Trenton Lee Stewart
4 The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoners Dilemma - Trenton Lee Stewart

Currently Reading: nothing :c

Queue: Kiln People - David Brin, The Postman - David Brin

Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away Lake are old favorites I like to re-read every couple of years. There's actually a picture in Return to Gone-Away Lake that I want to have a tattoo of some day. These were fast reads, but very creative. I was in love with these books before I realized she wrote other (more popular) books, but these are still my faves of hers.

The Mysterious Benedict Society books are #2 & #3 in the series. This was my first time through them and I truely love them already. I'm just sad I have to return them to my mom. I'll probably end up buying the whole series.

Next up is either Kiln People or The Postman... I'm leaning towards The Postman since it's a shorter book. I already almost drowned with The Mysterious Benedict Society since those books are so long. I need to remember to read both long and short books this year. Too many long books will take too long (since I still need time to knit and clean and stuff). Too many short books will make me think I'm cheating.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

How Portlandia! (or I've been told)

So I found a recipe for homemade lotion while I was browsing my blog reader. I wasn't looking for one, but it jumped out to me on another knitting blog (go figure, right?).

I hate buying lotion, it seems so wasteful and expensive, especially since we have slather Sabrina with Cetaphil every night (it goes on coupon at Costco this month, fyi). I haven't been buying my own lotion for awhile. Last Christmas we got Bath & Bodyworks baskets from work and I had to return everything since their stuff gives me migranes. yuck! They do have 2 unscented lotions, but they're expensive and I'm almost out of the two bottles I got from my return (I returned a whole basket of stuff and was only able to get 2 bottles of unscented. Why is unscented so much more than their regular stuff?)

Okay, I'm off my rant about B&BW. Back to the lotion. The recipe is here at the ReadyMade Blog. I haven't poked around too much more than the lotion, but I hope the rest of the site is just as good.

This lotion was fast to make! And free for me! I didn't have any beeswax, so I asked a coworker who makes candles where I could get some. She pointed me to Ruhl Bee Supply in Gladstone, but I wasn't going to be able to get there soon, so she gave me a chunk from her stash. AWESOME coworker of the month award!

My lotion is semi-local because Ruhl sells only local beeswax. The second local ingredient is good ol' Portland tap water. The recipe calls for filtered water, but I would have had to open a new filter cartridge and find the Brita pitcher (for those of you who don't live in Portland, we have some of the best tap water in the country, serious! We don't need to filter our water!).

The only ingredient that's not local is the olive oil.... Yes, only 3 ingredients!

Friday night I really wanted to make the lotion, so I scoured Home Goods and Ross for a cheap, small grater for the beeswax. I didn't find what I was looking for at Home Goods (really? no small grater?). I did find one at Ross for $3, score! I also found a jump rope and a cute new dress for Sabrina, all under my $15 limit.

Back to the lotion (again. sorry). From what I had read about this lotion, some people weren't having any luck and I didn't have high hopes for my first try. After the blending step I still had some water and it just wasn't blending. I ended up draining some off before I jarred it.

For my jars, I found a lonely jelly canning jar and an old baby food jar (that was housing some pumpkin seeds for next year). You're suppose to wait for the lotion to cool down before putting the lids on, but my lotion was already pretty cool. I waited anyways... but we didn't wait to try it!

I love this stuff. Sometimes it smells more like beeswax and sometimes like olive oil. Other people have said it smells "natural." I've used some on Sabrina a couple of times and she hasn't had any reactions to it yet, so YAY!

I don't have any pictures :( I tried to take on with my camera phone, but it just looks funny.