A Little Tea & Company
Wow. The internet can be a really depressing place. Especially FB. It brings to the fore all of the super depressing crap on the 'net into one space. It's all there, the dumbing down of Americans, the greed, hypocrisy, sexism, hate. It's like a bazaar or swap meet of 'hey, don't get your hopes up'. It's not all bad, I suppose. There are the silly memes and links to studies that say drinking champagne can make you smarter, but for the most part, the ugh outweighs the yay. I'm sure I'm feeling this way because I've been spending a lot of time on FB and other social media the past week, being sick and all, there's not much to do but fall into a pit of Netflix and Candycrush and FB 'n' Twitter because reading isn't even an option. Mindlessness ruled this past week and thinking too hard actually hurt. Or at least made me dizzy. So I'm currently detoxing from FB -- fewer minutes there and more minutes with paper books in my hand will cure me. I'm accumulating quite a few of those paper books lately, some on perfumery, others on spirituality and history. The mindless reading, the romance and time travel and long lost love books are Nook'd for $1.99. This guarantees at least a couple of hours of half-brained engagement. Escape stuff, because everybody needs a few fluffy stuffed bunnies thrown into the reading bin every now and again. Reading encourages writing, and writing encourages inspiration, or at least I hope it does.
I dropped off two of the tea soaps at the shop yesterday, and what I thought were half hearted attempts turned out to be something fabulously beautiful to the tea shop folks. They loved them. I'm planning to batch up some of the Kyoto Cherry Rose formulation later today and I'm taking some of it to create a perfume for the Apothecary. I also remembered what the other tea shop soap was -- Lavender Cream Earl Grey! How could I forget? So the three left to complete are the Russian Caravan, Cinnamon Fig, and Lavender Cream Earl Grey. Oh, and I might have a new studio site to contemplate now. I'll have to think about it, though. It's not optimal in terms of access to water and whatnot, but it's worth ruminating.
I just noticed yesterday that while I was laid up in bed, the honeysuckle in back bloomed. Later this week, the wee one and I will be making an enfleurage of honeysuckle. She has the touch, that wee one. And she loves doing this kind of thing. For her it's like doing her art (painting and drawing) and cooking -- this is what she told me -- at the same time. Speaking of art, I have to go to the craft store later today to pick up more paints and brushes for her. I'll take her along to pick out the colors she wants. Maybe I'll grab her better paper too since she's been doing art on copy paper lately.
I recently ordered (yep, me with the ordering stuff I have no space for) sawdust from a woodworker -- I have coming ash, balsamo, camphor, cedar, kauri, oak, rosewood, and yew sawdusts. The camphor wood is a boon as it is one of the ingredients listed in the original Kyphi formulation. I've used mostly camphor leaf and camphor crystals to replace the wood. And before you ask, balsamo is tolu. That lovely, sweet, warm, vanilla and cinnamon scented balsam of tolu. Have you ever seen anyone so excited for sawdust? It reminds me of when I began making sawdust (pine) based incense about 20 or so years ago and how women on the Yahoo group forums used to laugh at me behind their hands about it. Why? I'm not sure. Because sawdust is considered inferior and nobody but hippies make sawdust based incense? Well, except for everyone who uses woods in their incense, which is just about everybody who makes incense. Woods are the building blocks of incense. And my old sawdust-based hippy incense was good, if I do say so myself. I'm being too defensive, aren't I? Once I receive the sawdusts, I'll report back here and let you know more about them. I find the subject fascinating.
I'm am now inspired to dig up my antique balsam of tolu resin and make soap of it. Wouldn't that be marvelous? Balsamo soap.
I dropped off two of the tea soaps at the shop yesterday, and what I thought were half hearted attempts turned out to be something fabulously beautiful to the tea shop folks. They loved them. I'm planning to batch up some of the Kyoto Cherry Rose formulation later today and I'm taking some of it to create a perfume for the Apothecary. I also remembered what the other tea shop soap was -- Lavender Cream Earl Grey! How could I forget? So the three left to complete are the Russian Caravan, Cinnamon Fig, and Lavender Cream Earl Grey. Oh, and I might have a new studio site to contemplate now. I'll have to think about it, though. It's not optimal in terms of access to water and whatnot, but it's worth ruminating.
I just noticed yesterday that while I was laid up in bed, the honeysuckle in back bloomed. Later this week, the wee one and I will be making an enfleurage of honeysuckle. She has the touch, that wee one. And she loves doing this kind of thing. For her it's like doing her art (painting and drawing) and cooking -- this is what she told me -- at the same time. Speaking of art, I have to go to the craft store later today to pick up more paints and brushes for her. I'll take her along to pick out the colors she wants. Maybe I'll grab her better paper too since she's been doing art on copy paper lately.
I recently ordered (yep, me with the ordering stuff I have no space for) sawdust from a woodworker -- I have coming ash, balsamo, camphor, cedar, kauri, oak, rosewood, and yew sawdusts. The camphor wood is a boon as it is one of the ingredients listed in the original Kyphi formulation. I've used mostly camphor leaf and camphor crystals to replace the wood. And before you ask, balsamo is tolu. That lovely, sweet, warm, vanilla and cinnamon scented balsam of tolu. Have you ever seen anyone so excited for sawdust? It reminds me of when I began making sawdust (pine) based incense about 20 or so years ago and how women on the Yahoo group forums used to laugh at me behind their hands about it. Why? I'm not sure. Because sawdust is considered inferior and nobody but hippies make sawdust based incense? Well, except for everyone who uses woods in their incense, which is just about everybody who makes incense. Woods are the building blocks of incense. And my old sawdust-based hippy incense was good, if I do say so myself. I'm being too defensive, aren't I? Once I receive the sawdusts, I'll report back here and let you know more about them. I find the subject fascinating.
I'm am now inspired to dig up my antique balsam of tolu resin and make soap of it. Wouldn't that be marvelous? Balsamo soap.
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