Odds and Ends

There have been a few items of interest that I haven't remembered to put into a post so that's what will be in today's post. When we first arrived in Breckenridge and were driving the back streets, working with our advertisers, we found an interesting cemetery. I know we've led a sheltered life and had never seen a cattle guard until we came to the west (still wondering why I've never seen them back east though) but  I've never seen a cemetery placed in the middle of the forest. It is a really large cemetery but think of the effort it takes to work around the root systems of all these trees. It was so interesting to see a haphazard placement when typically a cemetery is so methodical in how the rows are laid out an maintained in such a pristine manner. It would seem fitting that if you were to find this type of cemetery anywhere, it would be in Breckenridge. A "Live and Let Live" type of town....breaking the norm.

 

Linda and I eat some type of fruit each morning for breakfast and most days it's two kinds, along with our eggs. It's usually bananas, oranges, blueberries or strawberries. Lately it's been oranges and we've been saving the orange rinds because I love the smell of fresh oranges. So we've been amassing this large bag that has taken up space in the freezer and making less room for other things (like real edible food). The other day I searched on the internet for uses for the orange rind that we have. All of this coincided with my find at the thrift store, the other day, of this jar set. We got these three cobalt blue jars, of varying sizes, for $3. They have a tight seal with a snap ring. So my first project was making citrus salt scrub and that went in the middle size one.

It's sea salt, olive oil and zest of the orange. For the large container, I'm going to make body butter. My skin gets so dry (especially here where the humidity is so low) and I'm not a fan of all the chemicals and scents that are in many of the lotions that you buy in the store. I've ordered the items I need (shea butter and almond oil) so that will be my project next week. Earlier in the week, we started another "orange" item.....household cleaner. It's just white vinegar and orange rinds. The orange smell eventually saturates the vinegar and we'll have a fresh smelling cleaner.

 

 

 

 

I also have essential oil of orange started.

 

 

 

 

 

Today's project is making vanilla. I bought some Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla beans, from Amazon, to make some home-made vanilla. I didn't realize how easy it is to make till I read about it on-line. It's just vanilla beans, soaked in vodka for a minimum of 8 weeks. We've got all the ingredients here so as soon as I finish working on this post, that's my next task. As our friend Bobbie pointed out, the vanilla beans will displace some of the vodka so some of the vodka will have to be removed to make room for the beans. Hmmm....what to do with that excess vodka ? Pray tell, I do have some orange juice in the frig. Haha.. What projects do you have on your "to do" list ?