Productivity!

Calendula flowers this fall from the herb garden

Irons are in the fire today, boy.  Amazing how having to drop everything for a paper seems to energize me only after the paper is turned in!  The house is tidied, the entire collection of our dishes and cookware has been washed and put away (after occupying most horizontal surfaces in the kitchen for the last five days--yuck), and I have bread cooling and dinner in the crockpot. Virtuous!  Honestly, my to-do list is a symphony of horizontal lines.  It's very satisfying.

Infusing calendula petals in the olive oil

I am happy to report that I tried a new lotion recipe today, and it worked really well for a change.  (SO much better than my last sad attempt, which kept separating back into water and oil.)  I infused olive oil with dried calendula petals--skin says:  thank you--and then added coconut oil and beeswax.  This I combined with aloe, glycerin, water, grapefruit seed extract, and essential oils by beating with a hand mixer until creamy.  The fragrance is faint and earthy--a mix of cedarwood, bergamot, and lavender--next time I will try using more, but it is nice as is.  It is thick at first, but my skin seemed to really soak it up; I am interested to see what Jason-of-the-temperamental-skin thinks after using it for a bit.

One for Jason, one to give away

Elsewhere around the ol' homestead...we have a full two dozen eggs right now in the fridge.  Ta da, girls!  I am getting three eggs most days, all brown and slightly different in shade and shape.  Roxie, the bluish-green egg-layer, has only laid a few here and there, but she is lively & happy and I am unconcerned--spring is coming, and I'm sure she will catch up as it gets into egg season.

In case you are wondering, there is usually a refrigerated shelf-life of around two months for eggs that you buy in the store; by the time that they reach you they are typically already a month old.  If you store your eggs in cartons and then a plastic bag over all, they will keep even longer. I anticipate giving carton calling-cards where ere we go this summer, but for now I am enjoying eggy things in the kitchen....  I made egg salad for the first time the other night (I know, I'm not sure either.  Has anyone else not made egg salad for 33 years?), and it was ridiculous.  As in, ridiculously good.  Not to mention that the little multi-colored hard boiled eggs were just plain cute. 

Sorry, needed better light to capture the color!

And, finally to catch up just a little on all of the knitted gorgeousness that happened re: Christmas....  I admit to having a crazy last week of striving mightily to finish everything on time, and one of the resultant casualties  in the "important blog-details" department was getting pictures of everything.  Sad, I know.  If you happen to be a recipient with a digital camera, send me a shot & I will post it, but in the meantime, poor long-suffering Jason opened up four packages of sock yarn, and I am now working on pair #1!!  Such a good gifter, I am! (Although it is worth thoughtfully weighing how much post-Christmas-yet-still-Christmas knitting one wants to enslave oneself to.  Just saying.  Jason may get the blue pair a tad bit closer to his birthday.  In June.  There are only so many socks that I am able to knit in a row!)   :) 

Over half way...over half way (I get tired of socks on #2)