So.. as you know i am picking up my new ride today.. YAY!!! About time too.. so.. I thought I would post a picture for you all to enjoy.. Here she is..

Course if they would move that darned Escalade, you could see her better.. LOL

Okay.. seriously.. I am going to pick up my new car today. I have this thing for not being willing to spend all that money for a "brand newoff the lot" vehicle.. I just think it is a waste of money.. You drive it off the lot and immediately lose $3000.00 on its value.. I think it is just plain dumb.. Anyway.. I finally decided... I am signing the papers on a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan STX at 10 am.. It is going to be great to be driving my own vehicle again.. The kids car is just to damn small...

I will take some pictures and post them after i pick it up..

OMG!! I have to share what I ordered for the kids for Christmas... You are just going to die.... LOL My eldest wanted a sock monkey for so long.. I could have made them, but why when I found this wonderful seller on ETSY... Yep.. You cannot get any better than these..

Pictures are copyrighted to puncezilla (please do not use them as your own)

So.. The top one with the blue hair is for Brittni.. The one with the lightest hair (middle 2nd photo) is for Katie since she is blonde.. Coutrney is getting red/orange haired one(first in second photo) since she is my Earthy girl.. and Macky is getting the bright one with the red hair( last one in second photo). That one just suits her.. LOL So there you have it.. You have got to order one of these.. I bought the first one and then thought to ask if she did customs.. Yep.. she was incredible about making the other 3 for me and her shipping was sooo freaking fast.. Holy crap... They were here weeks before I expected them...

Here is her link... http://puncezilla.etsy.com

i am in the final phase of my wax and wick testing. I have it perfect now.. LOL YAY!!! I plan to have some up in my Etsy store (link on sidebar) this weekend. I made a ton on them. Some are left overs from a custom order I did. Guess I measured a bit off.. LOL

For candles coming up I have Patchouli, Sandalwood, Blueberry muffin, strawberry, storm watch, dragons blood, vanilla sugar cookie, orange enlighten, enlighten, orange creamsickle, spiced apple, butter creme, and cranberry.. They all smell so yummy..

I did a custom for 10 each of strawberry, cranberry, butter creme, spiced apple, blueberry muffin, vanilla sugar cookie, and orange enlighten. $420.00 total, so I probably made about $325.00 after supplies but before the time it took to make and label them. I was pleased.. LOL

I did get my Peach Passion and Papaya Waterlily with safflower soaps listed today. The papaya waterlily smells so heavenly.. I cannot compliment it enough.. Safflower is supposed to be good for fevers and menstrual cramps.. Hmm.. I will have to try it out. LOL

The peach passion is much lighter than I intended, but still smells great. Just lighter than I normally scent them. This will be good for those who do not like strong fragrances.

Keep watching for new products. I have some of my solid lotion sticks, lip balms, lip tints, and solid perfume coming up soon.. i am also working on getting some room sprays and body sprays up. Gota get moving with christmas coming up so fast.. LOL

Update.. No new car yet. I am being told that I am to picky, but.. I just want the right vehicle.. Wish I had the money to by a hybrid, but htat just isn't in the cards with our other plans..

New soaps almost ready for selling... I have been sniffing them all night. LOL All of them should be ready by next week. The Peach Passion will be ready Friday, but prolly won't list it until this weekend. I am hoping to get some others made up this weekend. I only have a few weeks left before Christmas and I have 22 gift baskets to make up for family and friends. Just plain not enough time..

Dragons Fire, Milk Chocolate, Wild Honeysuckle, Lemon Lime, Peach Passion and Papaya Waterlily with safflower petals are the ones that are close to being ready..

I have Patchouli, Nag Champa, Sandalwood, and a few others that will be ready the following week. I am trying to get so that I have 5 or 6 soaps ready each week. If anyone has a request, just give a shout. I would be happy to make some for ya..

Okay.. I am off to bed. Lots of stuff on my plate for tomorrow. I gotta get on the ball and get a vehicle by next weekend. Driving the kids car is making me crazy. It is a nice car, but so inconvenient having to "share".

Okay.. so I am now back from test driving a couple more cars.. Here are the results.

Ford Escape. Uncomfortable leather seats and my cheeks were frozen within minutes. It will take forever for them to heat up.. Driver compartment very narrow. I felt a bit trapped. Back seat not spacious enough, but better than the Jeep Liberty. No go on this one..

Jeep Liberty.. Nice.. Very nice.. Roomy front, but the backseat was compacted. The gadgets are fantastic.. Pleasant dash gadgets. Driver seat super comfy, but passenger and backseats were like sitting on plywood.. Wonderful get up and go and the stereo system rocks! Overall.. Much better than the Escape but still not spacious enough.. No go on this one..

Dodge Nitro.. Ahh.. I am not even sure how to describe this one.. I thought I liked how it looked but the more I looked, the less I liked. It was uncomfortable and boxy.. It didn't have great get up and go, but not horrible either. It was just plain to alien looking for me. It was just not what I had hoped. No go on this one..

Buick Rendezvous.. YUCK!! Just plain YUCK.. It looks good, but.. I just can't even come up with one thing I liked about it. No go on this one..

So.. I have a few more up for tomorrow.. Will update you all then.. I am off to get supper started. Talk about a late dinner.. LOL

Okay.. So it is official.. My insurance adjuster has been and gone. Totaled out my van. :( But it is not so bad. Good news is that I get a new vehicle, bad news is I have no idea what to buy. I would love to by a Ford Escape Hybrid, but wow.. those are so expensive. I really didn't want to have another full payment. I just wanted to pay my van off and live a couple years debt free. ya know.. Extra cash each month would have been great.

My second choice is a 2005 Jeep Liberty.. Very nice. Not great gas mileage, but not horrible either.

Third choice.. another Chrysler Town & Country.. the 2005 model is nice.

Both the second and the third aren't to bad in price. My payments would stay the same as they are now, but would be another 2 years worth.

What to do is driving me up a wall.. Not to mention after all is said and done, I am not getting crap for my van..

$5075.00
minus
$500.00 deductible
equals
$4575.00
minus
$2567.00 owed on my loan
equals
$2008.00
minus
$900.00 to buy back my van (to be fixed using another van that has rear end damage)
equals
$1108.00 left for a down payment on another vehicle..

Not cool at all...

Paul wants to fix my van eventually and use it as a parts runner. Course.. I could make him fix it for me and I would have my car back, but... then I don't have the excuse to get a new one.. LOL

So.. I am hoping that you all had a great Thanksgiving.. Mine was fantastic for the most part. No family drama, good food and lots of love.. However, on my way home, I had a bit of a mishap.. Well.. more like a freaking crash! I was about 15 minutes away from my Grandpas and a deer.. more like a 150 pound 6 point buck decided to run in front of my van (loaded with all 4 girls) I might add. ARG!! It was so freaking scary.. I was just like... "oh shit!!" What the heck do you do.. Not a darn thing. You don't swerve and hit it head on.. thankfully everyone was okay. Well.. not everyone.. The buck died, but he was so messed up. I figured he flew about 30 feet, but the officer measured and says it was more like 50 feet. This is based on the location of all my debris and where the deer was. I hit the poor thing at 55-60 mph. Officer also says it was closer to 60 based on the distance of my skid marks, but we settled for 55. Which is probably pretty close. I figure I may have been speeding prior to seeing them, but slowed down at first sighting..

I had to go in to work today for a while to get things taken care of. I called my insurance agent only to discover he had the day off and will not be in until Monday.. So.. I called the main office and they told me they would have someone there on Tuesday to take assessment. Okay.. so how about my rental car.. Guess what.. I do not have rental car on my policy.. I have full freaking coverage, but no rental car benefit?? WTF!! It is an add on?? That would have been handy to know.. Jerks.. So.. I go to rent a car with the company credit card only to be told that they cannot use it because my name is not on the card.. again I say.. WTF!! So.. I hand her my debit card and she says oh.. well you know.. if you use this card, we will put a hold on $500.00 and then when you return the car, we will also charge the full amount to it. But dn't worry.. you will get hte original $500.00 refunded 4 days after you bring the car back.. AGRG!!! Are you freaking kidding me??? So.. I left super pissed off.. I don't have a car.. Well.. I have my daughters car, but then she has no car.. It will take a good 2 weeks for all the body repair.. Not to mention the possible tranny damage.. Just fricking great right.. Tis the stinking season..

So.. all that aside.. I must have stiffened up at impact and slilpped a disc in my neck. I can't lift my right arm higher than my chest without having sharp pains down my side.. John.. Gotta love John.. Dear friend is a Chiropractor. He stopped by today and checked me over.. Adjusted my neck and shoulders. He has me on an ice routine. But.. It still hurts like heck. Now my lower back is starting to ache. John told me that by tomorrow afternoon I will likely be down for the count. As my body completely relaxes (takes a few days after a traumatic incident apparently), I will feel more pain and aches.. Great fun.. Shot the hell out of my black Friday shopping.. Darnit!! I love having that excuse to spend the day shopping.. But.. I dont' think I would have been able to do it anyway. Someone would have bumped me and I would have probably passed out fromt he pain.. LOL

Okay.. So I am off to bed and I am going to leave you all some pictures to browse..
As always.. Hugs and love..

Have I ever told you all that I really have no life outside of work and my family.. LOL I have the whole Saturday night to myself and what do I do? I stay home and make soap. How sad is that.. LOL

Tonight I made 5 batches.. I am testing some new scents and I just love them.

batch 1.. Dragons fire.. It's so multi faceted you will find layers of musks, ambers, a touch of patchouli, nag champa, cedars to warm and enhance this exotic fragrance, and much more.

Batch 2.. Milk Chocolate.. oh how yummy this smells!!

Batch 3.. Wild honeysuckle.. Man.. I really love honeysuckle, but his wild scent is to die for.. I am not big on florals, but this one is right on the money..

Batch 4.. lemon lime. Makes me want to put it "in the coconut and twist it all up".. LOL.. LOL

Batch 5.. Papaya Waterlily.. I added safflower petals to this one.. It is by far my favorite of the night. What a fantastically clean fruity scent.. I just love it. I will be saving a few of these bars for myself..

Now that it is 1:30 in the morning, I need to get to bed. I have to get up early and get some patches sewn on Soldier Nicks class A's..

Night all.. Hope you all had a great night.

I have been super busy all weekend making soap and firestarters. I have uploaded a bunch of them into my etsy store. I have vanilla coffee scrub soap, juniper breeze with poppy seeds, melon shea butter soap, fruit blast soap, herbal peppermint lavener soap.. Just all kinds.. I even have one that smells exactly like a Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie.. YUM!! http://www.brikeney.etsy.com

I added some pictures below of my firestarters. The reddish ones are a mulberry blend that smells like the holidays.. LOL The whiter ones are white tea. What a nice delicate scent. Sood thin I like it cause I have 12-8 ounce bottles of it to use up.



Nothing much happened this weekend. The older kids were both at friends houses for basically the whole weekend. Brittni is out at a buck Cherry concert tonight. Shoudl be a great concert. Macky and Katie spent the day getting all sugared up with Pops.. He has a way of winding them up and sending them home. One day I will have paybacks.. LOL

Okay. So enough rambling. Go check out my store and I am off to bed. Hugs

I couldn't stand it. I went to the office and got my camera. I wanted to share the pictures of my labels so you could see how they turned out. Even the imperfections are cool. A couple of them ripped and I thought they were ruined. But.. It just added character to each one. Enjoy

I had a stupendously long night last night. I made potion labels in 3 different sizes, gave both dogs a bath, did the dreaded dishes and laundry.. sigh... But.. I got confirmation that LJ received the shawl I crocheted for her. It is lovely and sooo stinking soft.. I loved making it.It was made with 3 different colored alpaca yarns. Anyone who has worked with alpaca yarn knows its a bit fibery and likes to shed, but it is sooooo worth it. I am glad she liked it..

So I decided to get a bit creative tonight. I am crafting for a future Harry Potter Craft Swap. I decided to make some labels for my bottles and figured i would share them all with you. I do not have pictures of the finished project since I left my camera at the office, but here is what I did..
1. print out your labels on white or cream paper. I just used regular printer paper.
2. Brew some really strong black tea. You can use coffee too if you want.
3. Crinkle up your paper and then flatten it out again.
4. lay your paper on a cookie sheet and pour your brewed coffee or tea onto the paper and let it soak a few minutes.
5. Take your paper out of the cookie sheet and let it dry. Air drying takes to long, so I use the fan or a hair dryer.. LOL
6. If it isn't dark enough for you, redo the process until it is.
CAUTION: DO NOT RUB THE PAPER AT ALL. THE INK WILL SMEAR!
7. Get some clear acrylic sealer in the craft department. I use the stuff that is made to preserve maps and spray it on your dried paper. I like to use 3 coats, but use your own judgment. The sealer comes in matte or gloss finish. I got the matte finish and will test it out. I may get some gloss too just to see what I like better.
8. Let dry completely and cut out. Use a glue stick to adhere it to your bottles or jars.
Okay.. Now that is said.. Here are the labels. You are welcome to print them out, alter them or whatever you want to do. But.. Please do not sell them. These are created for free and I would like to keep them that way.

So I am completely late on posting pitures of Halloween this year, but here are a few. My darlings were smashing.. Macky and Katie had a blast. We went to Trick or treat Street. The businesses in the city put it on every year. Long lines and not real fun, but the kids like it.. LOL Here are pictures of the waiting and primping in line.. LOL




We stopped at Kevins house. Kevin is a long time aquaintance turned friend. He also is one of our tow truck drivers.. Anyway.. He turned his deceased neighbors house into a haunted house. It was stinkin' great! Scared the crap out of me with his nephew. This nephew is taking after his father and uncle.. I swear they live for scaring hte wits out of me.. LOL Great fun!! So.. Now that the holidays are over, it is time for me to finally get going on Christmas.. I really gotta get moving or I am going to be one of those Christmas Eve shoppers. I really hate it too.. I am generally finished by now.. I have barely started.. Have a great day to all.. I am off to work.

Here is the soap I made yesterday all cut and ready for curing. The ones in the back are the hot process, so they will be ready to go in a couple days. I ran out of olive oil, so I went and picked some up today. Might make me a couple batches tonight, but not sure. Kinda tired.. LOL

So.. WE had a great day. Busy, but great. Brittni had her Senior year powder puff football game today for Homecoming. Seniors kicked Butt... LOL They won 58 to 14. Yay Seniors.. Here are a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure.. LOL Brittni is #34 wearing red pants..
Here is the whole senior team that showed up.. We call these two "B squared" LOL Both are Brittnis (different spellings though) and if you want them both to turn around you have to holler B-squared or you are likely not to get either of them to turn.. My Brittni is holding Delilah the cutest BB Puppy..



Now after a busy day of football, and transporting kids, what better way to celebrate than to make soap right... So....

Here is my first batch of the day. Pumpkin Pie.. Oh how I love that scent.. I just dream of the scent, but can you believe that I cannot eaat a pumpkin pie to save my soul. I don't think I have ever really liked it either. But it sure does smell good..
Here it is after about 2 hours in the mold. I added a touch of cinnamon to the top just to give it some edge.. LOL Looks good doesn't it?.?.?.
Okay.. So this is a really yummy Apple Spice soap that was cold process until that darn rice-ing problem happened.. So.. I hot processed it and it still smells heavenly.. It is the 1st rice-ing in a while. Talk about piss a person off...ARG!!! I decided to put wax paper over it to smooth it sown and it stuck to it. Frack!! So I left it on until it was cooler and pulled the paper off. Not bad. It didn't turn out as smooth as I would have liked, but better t han nothing I guess..


Here is a yummy smelling double broiler hot process soap that is higly scented in Hot Apple Pie. YUM YUM YUM... It did not start out to be hot process, however, the fragrance caused it to rice, so I figured to heck with it.. Lets just cook it.. 2nd one of the day that did that. I am wondering if it is the apple fragrances or what???Did I mention I really hate hot process.. LOL
In the pot...
in the mold...
And here is the last batch for tonight.. Honeydew. Beautifully colored in green. It will be darker when it cures, but I wish it would stay this color. Stunning and it smells GREAT!! And the best part.. It didn't rice on me.. YAY!!!
And here it is in the gel stage...

Good morning!! Well.. almost afternoon.. LOL So.. I have unmolded my soaps and have them cut and ready to cure. This will take about 5 weeks of drying time. They smell heavenly. I will have to up my recipe size. They are still not the size i need them to be, but heck.. that is what testing is all about. LOL

I will probably use these as sample packs. You know.. 3 or 4 smallers bars wrapped together so sample the different recipes.. Anyway. Please disregard the jars of Salsa I canned.. And also disregard the Smirnoff Ice bottles in the background.. LOL Those were not mine.. Honest.. I am going to use them with a corked top to store my Kombucha tea.. LOL Seriously.. I am really not joking.. LOL

Okay. so it is a late night tonight. I made up 3 batches of soap and I promised to take pictures this time.. LOL

So.. My first batch seized up on me. Darned if I was so po'ed.. I frigging hate it. It was going so well. Then I added a new fragrance oil and wouldn't you know... So.......I rebatched it and made it into hot process. I am not so fond of hot process. The bars just never seem to get completely solid. I mean they are solid, but never super hard like my cold process bars are.. Anyway.. Here is a picture..It smells like wine and is so fragrant...


Okay.. So next up was sandalwood honeysuckle.. It went perfectly. Didn't fill my new mold as I had hoped. I miscalculated how much it would hold, but... Still a nice soap. picture is one right after the pour and covered with saran wrap to minimize the ash.. The second picture is in the gel stage. Notice the creamy edges. Almost a full gel at this point. YAY!!! It also smell heavenly.



Now for my favorite.. This one is scented with coconut fragrance and has a ton of calendula petals in it. WOW!!! Doesn't it look great in the mold. It is going to be sooo wonderful. I didn't use any color in the sandalwood or the coconut.. Those will be naturally a yellowish due to the fragrances..



So.. I will make another 4 or 5 batches tomorrow. I want to get some Neroli made up. To many requests to pass on it this time.. LOL And please disregard the priority mail tape.. LOL I couldn't find the stupid masking tape anywhere. Darn kids took it.. I know they did.. LOL

I also took a picture of some of the veggies and such I have been canning.. Plugging away to get ready for winter. I will get the pumpkin butter done sometime next weekend. Ignore the soap molds on top of them and the mess around them.. LOL I have been trying to get so much done and I really gotta learn to put stuff away as I go..


Now. Here is my Kombucha tea brewing. I couldn't remember if i posted pictures of it, so here it is just in case.. Yummy stuff... Notice the babies growing on top while the mommys are below them..

Okay.. so I am a bog slacker.. LOL.. Sorry.. But.. The girls and I went to a really great concert Saturday night. It was Log Jam 2008 at the LaCrosse Loggers Stadium. We really had a great time. Here are the girls waiting for the concert to start.. LOL









First band was The Ditch Lillies. They were good. Not great, but good. I am not overly fond of those who take other peoples songs and poems and turn them into songs. Drives me nuts, but these ladies were really good. The bass player even had dreads.. LOL



Next up was Renowned Bluegrass singer Dale Ann Bradley. Now this gal can really sing.. WOW!!

Dale Ann has once again been nominated for the Female Vocalist of the Year award. The 2008 IBMA awards show will be held on Thursday, October 2, 2008, at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN.



So.. Last but not least. Michael Martin Murphey.. Yep.. You got it. Carolina in the pines was the final song and my absolute favorite next to Wildfire of course.. LOL He sang both and Macky was thrilled.. My pictures didn't turn out very well for his part becasue it was sark and Pauls camera stinks for taking night pictures.. LOL But here is what I got..





After the concert, we went to say hi to Murph. He was thrilled that we made it. He called at the beginning of the week to ask if we could make it to the concert. Of course after finding out about it, there was no way Macky was going to let me skip it.. LOL So.. Here are Macky (redhead), Katie and Murph..





All in all it was a great night. Even though the gnats were horrible and we got soaked in the rain.. LOL We still had a great time.