Beach House

This a fabulous old beach house along the shoreline of Lake Michigan here in Kenosha.

It was a popular gathering place in bygone days. If you put your imagination to work, I'm sure you can see the fashionable folks promenading along the walkways. I still can't quite imagine anyone swimming in this icy lake. Rarely is the temp warm enough.

Today, much of the building is in disrepair and no longer open to the public. I do understand that there is one room that can be rented out for private parties.

Bloggers Challenge

Recently I joined a blogging group with some of my favorite list mates.

We have been challenged to make an everyday type of entry that affects our lives.

This photo is of the Lake Michigan Shoreline. Now, we do have beautiful sandy beaches in addition to breakwaters.

The lake has been low for several years now, but during the high water time, many places along the shore have had to place rip rap to prevent erosion.

The changing lake levels has always been cyclical. As you know, much of the US has been in a drought state. Here in Wisconsin, we have had very light snows in the winter. Oh you wouldn't think so when we are shoveling out after a blizzard. Yet I have memories of my childhood where snow by Thanksgiving was a given and it stuck around until April.

Now you might ask dear reader, why I bring this up as a daily affect in our lives. There is a saying here, "Cooler by the lake". Yes, Lake Michigan does have a moderating effect on our daily climate.

This past Saturday I had a show at a local high school. One of my customers came in and had been looking for me at the lake front where I am a regular vendor at out local market. She said it was so cold down there that she had to go back to her car for a jacket. In contrast, we were sweltering in 90 plus degrees just two miles west.

Our heat wave is now over and more fall like temps are here. That makes me sad but it is easier to sleep now.

Soap Making

I come from a frugal family. We were disinclined to treat our environment as disposable and used what we had.

The local butcher would wrap our meat and tie it with string which was always saved. Pieces of tin foil was washed and flattened for other uses. Food scraps went back into the garden.

Mom always saved her bacon grease to make the most tasty potatoes and chicken ever fried.

At some point in time, Mom decided to save other oils left over from cooking and made soap out of it.

This picture show Pam and Mom making soap the old fashioned way.

The oils were cleaned, rendered and then added to the pot in the amount that her original recipe called for along with a can of lye. She always said that the most difficult part was to find some type of fragrance that would hold so I'm sure she used some of the vanilla extract that was used for cooking along with small amounts of perfumes and colognes that were off duty. I wish I could find the formula right now but it isn't at hand.

Sometimes the soap that my Mom and my sister-in-law would make was terrific and other times it was on the harsh side and best for laundry. It sure was nice most of the time.

Soapmaking has advanced quite a bit. We now have calculators that tell us how much sodium hydroxide to add for each oil which has a specific number for saponification. We now use digital scales to weigh each ingredient and this is often done in grams. Best of all is knowing the properties that each oil add to make a well balanced conditioning soap with a lather that creates big fluffy bubbles and small creamy bubbles that cleans yet leaves your skin moisturized.

We also have access to some very fine skin-safe fragrances that are manufactured just for soaps and lotions. Many herbs and clays make fine natural colorants. We also have oxides that have been processed for some fun colors.

The one big difference in a handmade soap and commercial bars is naturally occurring glycerin. The handicrafter leaves the glycerin in the soap while the big boys take it out and use it for other products. Our skin loves glycerin. This is a product that commands a high price in the marketplace and I'm sure that the big manufactures actually make glycerin and soap is the by-product.

Most commercial soaps are made using beef tallow, coconut, and fragrance. If you look at the ingredients on a bar of soap you will see the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) name of sodium tallowate and sodium cocoate. Perhaps you will see other long complicated names in soaps like Dove. Dove isn't a soap. It is made with syndets or synthetic detergents. While there is nothing wrong with these oils and I certainly use coconut for lather, there are much nicer oils that condition and clean the skin.

Olive oil is always my base oil in any formula and it is known for it's gentleness and balanced ph for fine skin care. I also use hemp and emu oils known to help eczema and acne problems.

Colorado Summer '06

Now I should be working at a gazillion other things but I'm still hanging around the computer doing my lessons and posting to this blog.

I've been telling my family and friends about all that I have been learning with the paint shop pro classes. These two photos are further examples of the artistic expressions available to us with good software.

This trip started with a trip to Minnesota to celebrate my dear friend Cindy's 50th birthday.

My niece Heather lives there also. Mary and Cindy have adopted her into their extended families and have been watching and aiding this beautiful young woman grow her career.

The trip progressed to Colorado for more fun with Brigid and Angel.

We came across this little town with a portion of the old West preserved. The town itself was not accessible unless you paid an admission price. We had a white water rafting destination so did little more than look around and snap a few pictures.

I find it fascinating that people lived with so few of the modern conveniences that we take for granted now.

This last photo is an artistic colored pencil rendition of the first.

Summer Monsoons

It has been said that if you don't like the weather in Wisconsin, stick around and it will change.

That is exactly what has been going on here in Kenosha county. One day you have the heat on, the next, the a/c.

We have had several big storms in this part of the state. This one came up rather abruptly in early evening after a very hot and humid day.

It had been fairly still but suddenly the winds started to howl, the sky went very dark with a green hue and torrential rains fell. Thoughts of tornados and hail were very much on our mind at this point. It did get rather scary. Time to round up the candles and flashlights.

We were lucky. Our patio furniture and a couple of large plants were scattered but overall damage was minimal. Many parts of this town did not fare as well with downed trees and power outages. We have to do some pruning for the plants that did sustain some damage. That will be the weekend project. Nature starts what we have to finish.

If you look closely on the right side of the picture, you will see our 10 year old spike plant with nearly horizontal fronds. Yes, those are those little $1.29 accent spikes that we have nurtured over the years and are now small palm trees. Yes it can be done. We have one that is a good five feet tall.

I took this photo from our opened patio door. The spots are raindrops on the lens. Other than bump up the contrast and brighten the shadows a bit, this picture is as it was taken by my little Canon A530. That is a rather low tech camera but it works well.

Welcome and Congrats!

Best Sisters!

It is wonderful to be blessed with family and friends who are supportive of our endeavors.

Our sister Angel was there every inch of the way. She manned the refreshment stands along the way. She also was on the phone to us to let us know where Brigid was on this extraordinary marathon.

Who could possibly ask for more. Oh, and she snuck in a little of the old Irish refreshment to make the painful body parts all feel just a bit better. You have to love a woman like that!

That is a V for Victory I'm told. Silly rabbit!

May you all stay strong and healthy.

Finish Line!

It took Brig and her friends 11 hours to complete the first 26 miles. One of her fellow walkers had very sore feet and had to stop frequently for some TLC. No one was about to be left behind in that heat so the group stuck together. These are some amazing women!