Just in time for Mother's Day!

These candles were quite a while in the making.  They had to be done in stages, first the planning and mixing, and the first pour.  Then a day later, the second pour.  Then cleaned up and the swirled outer color.  Theoretically, they could have been done in three days, but we had a lot going on.

We did, however, get them done in time for Mother's Day, since they'd make a wonderful gift.  Solid cream-colored candles with a gorgeous purple swirl to them, these Afternoon Tea candles are scented with French vanilla and blackberry tea.  I really wish you could smell them through the computer because they are heavenly!

Personally, I'd like to keep them all for myself, but mom taught me to share.  And we are keeping a few 'cause we really can't resist, so I suppose I'm placated and can let you have the rest.

We've got these in a 9" round pillar, a 4.5" square pillar, a 3" round pillar, and votives.  Enjoy!

Shared with:

Poultry in Motion

Did I mention I've been in a show?  Poultry in Motion is a fun take-off on the Chicken Little Story, and I'm playing Henny Penny!  We've been having a ton of fun, and today are our last two performances.

Yes, two.  Children's shows are under an hour, and so we have two performances each day.

At any rate, immediately following our final performance and the subsequent strike of our set will be the cast party.  Waaaaaaaaaay back during rehearsals, I "called" cupcakes.  Glad I did, too, since someone else asked to be the cupcake-bringer a day or two ago.  But see, I'd seen these, and just knew they were too perfect.  Chicks for Chicken Little, right?!

So... my rendition.

I didn't burnish the edges to make them all smooth, but I think they're adorable.  It would've been tough, because underneath the fondant "cracked shell," I used vanilla buttercream instead of a fondant disc on my chocolate cupcakes.

I measured and cut my fondant circles with a wine glass that was just about the right size, and cut the "cracks" in advance of placing them on the cupcakes.  It made them a little more difficult to transfer to the cakes, but if I'd cut them on the buttercream, they'd have stuck.

Then it was just a matter of making yellow and orange fondant, forming the body and head balls, making those tiny cone beaks, and doing the combs.  The hardest part?  The combs.  The fondant wanted to stick to the knife and drag.

And then, since I don't have a black food marker, just the "bright" colors, I gave them all nice blue eyes.

Adorable, right?  Adorable.

Shared with:

Lots of work, lots of payoff... and oh yeah, happy belated Memorial Day!

Eric and I had a heck of a weekend.  On Saturday we went to a wine and blues festival with a friend.  On Sunday we spent the afternoon with Eric's brother and nephew, mostly shopping, mostly for Eric's brother... with a quick stop at AC Moore for me.

Sigh.  Always a dangerous store, that AC Moore.  A stencil, a dozen skeins of yarn, several packets of beads, some vegetable seed packets, and one Bakerella Cake Pops book later, we checked out.  And then I got obsessed with the idea of cake pops.  They're the hot thing, and I've been seeing them everywhere.  They're so cute!  And they looked so easy.  Ha.

So at 10 p.m. on Sunday, Eric and I were at the supermarket so I could buy cake stuff.  We came home, and I baked a white cake in a 9x13" pan.

And then, per Bakerella's instructions, I let it cool overnight.

Meanwhile, I'd gotten these rainbow star sprinkles to decorate the pops.  The supermarket was completely out of anything in blue besides this; they were overrun with red and green.  In case we want to make Christmas cakes ahead, maybe?  Well, my nutty husband and I sat and split up all the stars so I could use the blue and white ones on my pops.  Yes, we're insane.

On Monday, Memorial Day, Eric and I went to lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in way too long.  From there, we went to Home Depot for a bunch of 2x6" 8' wood and some 2x4" stakes... and then came home, and Eric built this, after clearing away all the weeds from the area.

While he was doing that, I was making my very first ever cake pops.  Deceptive, terribly deceptive.  They looked so simple.  So cute and easy.  Those suckers are seriously labor intensive!  And that's not even including doing crazy sprinkle-separating.

First, you crumble the cake into fine crumbs.

Then you mix in icing (I used vanilla), 'til it's all mixed through, roll it into balls (I made mine bigger than the recommended 1.5" diameter, and was kind of glad I did... fewer to fight with.  So far it was still pretty easy, though I'm not a fan of playing mudpies, really.

And then they need to fridge. While they were fridging, I melted some dark chocolate I had.

Good stuff.  And you know, I have a double boiler.  But I thought rather than digging it out, I'd do it the "easy" way and melt the chocolate by microwaving it.  Only I forgot I've never been really good at microwave-melting chocolate, and much prefer a double boiler.  Well, the first bowl of chocolate turned useless when I overheated it and it just kept getting stiffer instead of more liquid.  So... second bowl.  More chocolate.  This time it worked better, though it was still finicky to work with and I really should've just dug out the double boiler.  Next time.

I learned some other things too.  It's really not easy to keep those balls on the lollipop sticks while swishing them through the chocolate.  It's also not easy to cover them in "one swipe," as recommended by Bakerella, and so it's not easy to get a nice thin, even coat of chocolate.  I also learned that drawing icing is not as easy as it looks.  As Eric put it, when I try something brand new like this, my artistic flair sometimes exceeds my skill level.

Practice should fix that, right?  Right?

Meanwhile, this time around, I ended up pretty much with melted chocolate everywhere.  I ate so much chocolate, I made myself nauseous.

Anyway, I did a whole bunch of 'em, Memorial Day themed, and then set up 6 in tiny flower pots to wrap as a gift.

And I wrapped 'em up.  I wanted to bring them over to our neighbors who shoveled the snow off our walk several times this winter.  It was really the least I could do.

OK, that really looked cute.

Of course, Eric and I had to taste test a couple, just to make sure.  Wow!  I'd never had a cake pop before, and they taste like, as Eric put it, chocolate-covered cupcakes.  Yum!

Before I could bring them over, though, Eric had finished that garden box... and then, Eric being Eric, he was on a roll.  He needed soil.  Lots of soil.  Over half a ton of soil.  Thirty 40-lb bags of soil.  And a bag of rocks.

We came back, gave the neighbors their gift, and made them happy.  Then headed into our own yard, to fill the box with soil... or almost fill it with soil, since it could still use a few more bags.

It's really going to be nice.  The rocks are going to be along the front, to make a border where the dirt hits the driveway.  And he's forming a brick walkway around the left and back of the box for us to use in gardening.

Then all it'll need will be the plants!

Shared with:

Meet Lavender Crème

It was time.  Probably overdue, even.

We've gone so long with only one salt scrub, the Heaven Scent, that it really hasn't been fair to you.  Silly, really. Well... meet our new Lavender Crème salt scrub.

Just as good as Heaven Scent, with premium Dead Sea and Epsom salts and skin-loving olive oil, this one's scented with real Vanilla essential oil, and a dab of Lavender for good measure.

It's amazing!

So what made me think of it?  A Secret Santa exchange, actually.  My recipient said she loved vanilla bath products, especially French vanilla.  Well, as a business that uses only essential oils and no fragrance oils, we're a little restricted when it comes to that sort of thing.  We've got Vanilla essential oil, but alone it doesn't smell quite right to me.  A touch of Lavender mixed in, though, and it's just unbelievable.

Have I mentioned how much I love making up new custom scents?  I do!

They're Here!

It's been a while since I told you about them, I know. Told you about what? The bath salts!

So much has happened in that time, and they simply fell by the wayside.  Not anymore!  We've got eight varieties up on the site and all of them are included in the sale, which continues for the next two days.

Don't forget, 15% off anything on the site through October 5!

Yes, but what about those varieties?


Ah, yes.  We've got Unscented bath salts, of course, in case you really want all of the benefits of our awesome mix of salts but aren't into scented baths.

As for the others, they're all scented with essential oils.  Of course, we've also got Lavender bath salts.  It's such a popular fragrance, you pretty much can't have a bath product that doesn't come in lavender.

We also did a Eucalyptus bath salt, which is great for clearing your nose when you're stuffy or if you just like the energizing scent of Eucalyptus.  Eric loves this one.

We wanted a floral, so we did a Neroli bath salt.  It's a great floral, spicy and sweet with a hint of citrus.

And then there are the Reef Botanicals signature scents:

Citrus Blast is scented with lemon, lime, sweet orange and bergamot.  It's terrific!
Vanilla Latte is scented with coffee and a touch of vanilla.
Home for the Holidays has fir, peppermint, and cinnamon, reminiscent of the winter holidays - trees, candy canes, and baking cookies!
Last but not least, my personal favorite is Creamsicle, scented with sweet orange and vanilla... it smells exactly like its namesake!

Each and every bath salt is an incredible blend that we designed ourselves.  Each one is comprised of incredible Dead Sea salt, pretty and pure unrefined and mineral-rich Pink Himalayan salt, quality Grey sea salt, healing Epsom salt, and scent-retaining Dendritic salt.

No official photos yet, but they debuted today at the Glen Rock Street Fair.

Each salt comes in a pretty glass jar, complete with a wooden scoop.  Try 'em!

This post was submitted to: