Phoenix in August and Other Unseasonable Trips

Our family took a vacation this past summer. A real, actual vacation; not a day trip or an overnight trip, or a business trip or a trip out of necessity. We chose to take a vacation. Not extravagant; we didn't go over our budget which meant we spent overnight most of the time at friends and family. We had a great time.

Our first stop was sunny southern California with all that it has to offer. Great beaches, amusement parks, great weather. It really is a great vacation spot. I was born and raised in So. Cal and always enjoy going back to visit, even if it is to see how much things have changed since I was growing up there. When I was a kid, Disneyland was just becoming a budding giant surrounded by a few backwater towns, orange groves, dairy farms and low land crops. There are STILL some low land crops grown in the area, but you really have to look hard for them.

 

Next, we chose to drive over to Arizona...yep; in August no less. My friends there said it was "monsoon season" there but I'll be dog-goned if I could find anything that remotely related to a monsoon while there. In fact, they had 113 degree heat and hardly a drop of rain during the week we were there.

I love hot weather, by the way and enjoy the dry heat that Arizona offers, even in the summer. We started off in northern AZ, driving to a friend's house north of Prescott, then continued onward toward the Grand Canyon. Spent the night near Flagstaff, then drove south to Scottsdale, which is next door to Phoenix. On our way down, we stopped at a variety of places, including Montezuma well and Montezuma Castle (which you see in the picture above). This area is located up in the hills just north of Phoenix and was quite hot the day we visited, but I enjoyed it all. In Scottsdale, my hubby found a casino and hang out in while I visited a dear friend of mine. The kids hung out in the pool and the local mall, which is pretty much what kids enjoy doing anywhere. Our time was pretty limited and we didn't really stop at too many touristy spots in Scottsdale/Phoenix area.

On our way back home, we stopped along Tuzigoot Indian ruins, pictured below.

As we made our way back to the Prescott area to drop off our other friend who had spent the last several days with us, we went up the side of a mountain and drove through a cool old mining town, touted to be "haunted", has lots of artsy/craftsy type things there. Gorgeous views, and RAIN!!! Yeah, we ran into some rain on our way up the mountain. It was a nice relief from the heat, even though I like the heat, change is always nice. After dropping him off in Chino Valley, we headed out toward Las Vegas and ended up staying overnight there.

We spent the night on the strip of course and checked out the Luxor the next day. Las Vegas is truly a place for fantasy. Pick your fantasy, you can find it there.

The next day we drove through the desert in California and passed through the Barstow area. Just west of Barstow, we saw a huge cloud of smoke going over the desert. We realized it was the smoke from the fires near Los Angeles. It was pretty impressive.

Over all, we had a nice relaxing vacation and lots of pics to remember our time with family and friends. That's what it is all about, isn't it?

Pink Champagne Soap

Yes, it's made with real California pink champagne. The fragrance is berry champagne with swirls of pink and a sprinkling of sparkly "pinky dust" on top.

This soap is 3oz of luscious oils that include products that California is known for, such as avocado and almond oils.

OK, OK, I admit, I'm a California native and love the state's diversity of product and creativity. I wanted to create a soap that celebrates my roots.

Delightful, fun and great for you skin too!

I made this soap earlier this summer, but didn't list it on etsy. Instead, I listed it on my sites on silkfair.com and 1000 Markets. Also it went with me to several farmer's markets and a festival.

Now, it's on etsy too!

Now, here's a deal for you! The first person to order this soap from ANY of my shops, receives a second soap of their choice for FREE! Make your order, then comment me here on my blog site and let me know which site you ordered from.

I'm going to make real easy for you and list my sites where this soap is listed, OK?

SoapyBlessings.etsy.com

SoapyBlessings.silkfair.com

1000markets.com/soapyblessings

Please click on the links listed on my blog to get to my shop sites!

Happy shopping!

Wine Soap

Soaps can be made from a variety of ingredients besides coconut oil. Water is also a main ingredient, but often in place of water, folk add other liquids. Some include milk, coffee, tea, beer...and wine.

Wine contains lots of fun ingredients that give you some benefits of using it...I won't go into great details at this time. Another post will suffice for that. Only to introduce you the idea of wine in your soap. I chose to use wine in one of my latest trial batches of soaps, just to see how it works. Very different from my usual batches, there were definitely some added precautions I needed to take due to wine's sugar content, which heated up my mixture greatly. But, that's soap talk. Unless you make soap, you will be scratching your head over the ins and outs of what happened.

Just for fun, I tried a lovely California Pink Champagne for my first test batch. Because I have to let my champagne go flat before I can use it in soap, it was extremely important for me to take a wine taste test before allowing a good champagne to flatten. It was good! I gave it 48 hrs to flatten up, then dropped it in my soap mixture.

Because of its different reaction than what I'm used to, I learned some important details about making soap using wine, which I will improve upon in my next batch.

The next batch will also include pink champagne from California. In fact, it will also include some other California type ingredients...avocado oil and almond oil. It seemed fitting if I'm using a California wine, right? P.S. I'm a California native, but haven't actually lived there for over 30 years. I visit often though. You can take the girl out of California, but can't take California out of the girl, I'm afraid.

Blackberry Kumquat?

What is life without creativity? If I weren't constantly thinking about creating something, I'd go stark raving insane I think. It is a blessing....I think. There are moments when it can be quite bothersome too. Like, when I am supposed to be thinking about my job (yes, I work outside the home too). Sometimes, I have difficulty staying focused on my job because my mind is too busy creating some new thought or project. Frustrating at times.

But, beyond that, I love what I do and I really love my latest creative project. It is a heavenly scented soap called "Blackberry Kumquat". An odd mix? I thought so too at first. I spend hours and sometimes days comparing fragrance combinations to come up with the right thing. When I discovered this combo, I thought, "No way!" I tested it, having others take a whiff and give me their response. It was a unanimous "WOW! I want some of that!"

So, I took the fragrance and added it to my latest cold process soap formula, combining colors and fragrances until I came up with what I have sitting on my table where I make my soap, curing for the next several weeks. My family can even smell this from another room. My daughter said, "Mom, save a bar for me. I want to smell like the house smells right now. It smells sooooo good!"

Blackberries are quite common where I live. The berries are amazingly sweet but you have to get past the thorns to get to them. Kumquats are not native to where I live but I am very familiar with them. When I was a kid I lived in California and one of my friends had kumquats in their yard. She invited me over to her house one day to eat kumquats. I didn't know what a kumquat was but decided that she wouldn't lead me astray. A very interesting fruit, the kumquat. It is quite small, maybe the size of a key lime, but very orangy citrusy. Has a tangy/sour fruit center, but the skin is actually sweet...yes, you eat the skin too. Quite an odd little fruit, but the fragrance is sooo good.

When I found a fragrance oil that had kumquat, I had to give it a try.

The colors are a bit odd too....just like the soap. Swirled purple and marigold. I added calendula blossoms to the soap as well, so there is a sprinkling of calendula through and a calendula blossom topping. It matches with the marigold color and contrasts nicely with the purple.

Just in case you aren't familiar with calendula, it is another name for marigold. Marigold has wonderful healthful properties that has been used in folk medicine for....well, a really long time.

I will be taking pictures shortly. The soap should be ready just in time for Easter. Check out my pics by then. I wish I could let you take a whiff of this stuff. Ahhhh, but for now, it is for me to enjoy and for you to imagine!