What to do at -35? Saponify.

Getting used to this weather. -35 only freezes my eyebrows, now. I'm down to my last gallon of frozen goat's milk and decided it would be a great day to make some more soap. Timing is everything when I do this and I'm not too great at it. Anyways, I did get 8 lbs. of soap made this morning. I made a 4 lb batch of lavender. I had run out of lavender flowers and ground up some lavender leaves that I had in the still room. Still smelled as sweet. Also did a batch with aloe vera and vitamin E. Thought this would be a great moisturizing bar. I had a bit of lavender soap left over and filled a few "novelty" molds.

My bar molds all tucked in for an overnight nap.

The hard part is waiting another six weeks for the soaps to cure before I can use them.

This is a picture of my kitchen after my honey has been working on it over Christmas. His present to me-to finally get the kitchen finished. Still have a ways to go, but it's so much nicer already. Note the cement countertop he made me. What a guy. P.S. Can anyone tell me how to put paragraph breaks in my blog? Hitting enter doesn't work anymore and my blogs just kinda run together without any paragraphs. Thanks.

Kitchen Cabinets

Slow but sure, that's how our four year old addition to the house is coming along.  We tore down the old kitchen and put up the new one four years ago this month.  We still need to finish the sheetrock, but at least it's all up, put in floors, the tongue and groove ceiling, and cabinets.  Meanwhile, I figured I'd do what I could for the cabinetry.  I have a wonderful hoosier that I've been using for a couple of years and was blessed to pick this up for $2 at a rummage sale a year ago-

Now that shabby chic is all the rage, refinishing this beast was a lot easier.  :)  A bit of sanding, a couple coats of paint and viola!

It's missing a drawer pull and I haven't be able to find one to match, but I'm still looking.  I painted it to match my hoosier-

I'm excited about having more space.  Now I'm looking for even more old cupboards.  I may just do the whole kitchen in them. 
Anyone have ideas for this gem?  My honey picked it up for my birthday.

It's a bookcase without the shelves.  I think it used to be part of a room divider between dining room and livingroom.  It stands four feet tall.  I love it, I just don't know what to do with it.