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Frankenmonkey and Other Exciting Craftyness
Frankenmonkey!
I got a sewing machine for Christmas. Because I am going to sew things. Super awesome things.
My previous experience with a sewing machine is this: one time when I was like 8, I sewed together two pieces of fabric and made a little cat shaped pillow (which I still have, thankyouverymuch). After I attempted to thread the sewing machine for an hour, using the instruction booklet (complete with illustrations) and several choice curse words, I gave up and called my mom. She came over and helped me figure out what the smack I was doing, and then there was no stopping this craft train baby.
The very first thing I planned to make was a sock monkey of sheer spectacularness.
Aaaand I made this. He’s made from a pair of outgrown little kid socks, so he’s a mini-monkey…. and yeah, he’s sort of creepy looking, especially with that square Frankenmonkey head he’s got goin’ on. But I made him, and he’s awesome.
Pinterest Strikes Again
I too have succumbed to the time sucking, internet distraction, shiny thing that is Pinterest. I freely admit it, it is interesting to see what people can scrounge up on the web, what they share, what they repin, and who out there likes what oddities I find. I’m starting out slow, with a measly 6 boards, 78 pins, and 45 likes. If you have yet to check it out, I urge you to do so, so you too can experience hours flying by while you look at cool stuff online.
It commands almost as much weird time-warpiness as the Cheezburger network… “haha, just one more picture of a lol cat, and then its back to work…” uh-huh. Sure.
So, check me out on Pinterest, or see the neato widget to your right that displays my recent pins.
A Space of My Own
I Need a Soap House
I need a soaping house. A production shed. A woman-cave. And that’s all there is to it.
Farmers Apothecary is outgrowing the dining room of my tiny house, and I’m sure my family would love to be able to eat supper at a table that isn’t covered in curing soap and bits of wax. My ingredients, packaging, shipping materials, and experiments are already taking up every square inch of my dining room (and yes, sometimes part of the kitchen too). I’ve reached the clutter point of – turn sideways here, hold your left arm at a right angle, and swing your left leg clockwise over that box and then you can probably reach the shea butter…. if you stretch.
I have decided on a 16′ x 30′ building, with a portion for retail sales and display, and the rest going to production and storage.
Now that I’ve got my dream firmly in place, I just have to come up with the funds to make it a reality. My first hurdle is the concrete pad. Mr. BlueCherryDoughnut estimates around $800 right off the bat. So I’ll start saving towards it. Once that’s in place (crossing my fingers for May of this year depending on if I can manage to save up that $800 by then or not), we hope to have enough reclaimed/recycled material around here to frame it up and install windows and doors.
I really do not want to lose steam with my blooming business just because I don’t have enough room to expand and keep up with demand.
Any thoughts? Suggestions? Have you built your own hobby/business space?
New Labels!
New Lotion Labels
I’ve redesigned the labels for my 4oz lotion bottles. I much prefer them to the previous design. I also added a few new fragrances to my lotion line up.
A couple other new products I’ve added so far this year: Spa Salts, Stress Less Herbal Blend, and Scented Sachets, are all just wonderful (in my slightly biased opinion anyway).
And, at the moment, I’ve got about 100 bars of soap curing on my crowded dining room table.
2012 is going to be a great year for Farmers Apothecary, I can feel it!
Do You Play?
Play Bingo Online?
Bingo! Everyone has heard of the game of bingo, most commonly known is the version involving a paper grid and randomly drawn numbers or symbols (did you know bingo can also be a card game? Yeah, me neither.). I enjoy playing online games here and there, but always thought bingo was a game that little old ladies played on Friday nights in drafty armories. It turns out online bingo is actually insanely popular all over the world, and there are sites all over the net that let you experience the light hearted fun of tempting the odds.
According to Wikipedia, the game of bingo can be traced all the way back to a lottery game called “Il Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia” played in Italy in c.1530. Hugh J. Ward standardized the modern game at carnivals in the early 1920′s. He went on to copyright “Bingo” and author the rule book on it in 1933. The paper version is even used today to help people learn English as a second language, or help school aged kids with all sorts of things from math, to reading, to science. How cool is that?
So, even if you’ve never given online bingo a try at the end of a long day, just consider how far the original game has come from its humble origins in 16th century Italy to become one of the most popular online games both on and off the internet today.
What about you? Have you ever played online bingo? If so, what were your experiences?
(Always remember to play any online game responsibly!)
