The World Health Organization formulated a recipe blended in the correct proportions to create an effective homemade hand sanitizer if you can believe what you hear (we suggest finding out for yourself if this is true).

But if you want the recipe, here it is:

1 C (240 ml) Isopropyl Alcohol (Minimum 70% but preferably 99%)
1/2  Tablespoon (7 ml )Vegetable Glycerin
3 T (15 ml) Hydrogen Peroxide
4-5 drops essential such as Tea Tree, Lavender, etc. (optional)
Mix all well in a blender for 30 seconds.  Remove and place in a squeeze bottle.  Place about 1/4 teaspoon onto hands and rub hands together vigorously until hands are dry.  This recipe does not have any thickeners added to it, so it will not be thick like the ones you can purchase from stores.

**NOTE**  This is for use when you do not have access to water.  It should never take the place of good hand washing practices when you have that available.

It never ceases to amaze me at how people can go crazy with all the media blitz over the current "disease" that is panicking people world wide.  It seems that common sense has gone out the window every time there is some bug out there.  There are some generally healthy habits that everyone should have as a part of their daily habits.  One of those is washing your hands.  That is the best way to keep bugs from spreading.  Hoarding things like toilet paper, alcohol, and such will not help, that just drives the cost up for others.  For this month, we decided to post our favorite recipe for Fire Cider.  If you don't know what Fire Cider is, then you probably don't know about how common herbs and foods can help to boost your immune system.  Fire cider is a hot, spicy sweet concoction that is good  for colds and helping to keep your immune system at its best.  You can take it every day or if you feel a cold coming in.  This is a picture of our fire cider that we are brewing.  Here is our favorite recipe:
​Fire Cider
1 part Fresh Horseradish Root Grated
1 part Fresh Garlic Chopped up fine
1/2 part Fresh Ginger Grated
1 part Onion Fresh Onion Chopped
1/4 t Cayenne Pepper (40,00 hu) or fresh cayenne pepper
Optional:  Turmeric, Echinacea, Cinnamon or other such herbs
Place all of the ingredients in a half-gallon canning jar and cover with enough raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar to cover the herbs by at least 3-4 inches.  Cover tightly with a tight fitting lid.  (If you use a metal lid, make sure to put a layer of plastic wrap between the lid and the bottle so the lid won't rust).  Place the jar in a warm dark area and shake every day for at least 4 weeks to allow the herbs to macerate in the vinegar.  After at least 4 weeks, strain the herbs and keep the liquid.  Add desired amount of honey (just to add a bit of sweetness).  Be certain to heat the honey first so that it will combine better.  Bottle in amber glass bottles and label appropriately.  It will keep in a cool place for a few months, but if you don't have a cool place, keep it refrigerated so that you can use it as needed.  Taking 15-30 ml daily is good as a tonic.  If you feel a cold coming on, take 1 tablespoon every 2-4 hours to help keep a cold at bay.

This was our attempt for the lines collaborator challenge.  The mica lines don't show up very well, but they are there.  Love the colors and they turned out great.  

We are so thrilled.  We won the best use of color in the February 2020 Soap Challenge Club.  This was a collaborator's challenge.  We had to teach someone to make soap for this month's challenge.  My friend Lisa made this.  Congratulations Lisa!

As a new year begins, it is always a good idea to set some goals for yourself to try and attain.  I am not talking about making new year's resolutions; ones that you are surely to forget and break, but to concentrate on goals that you can work on a day at a time and if you don't measure up 100%, just jump back on and continue to do your best.

One of my goals is to concentrate on things that are more important in an eternal perspective; i.e. being more kind, serving, treating others with kindness and to be the kind of person that I would want to be around; and of course - FAMILY!  There is nothing more important that family.

I am also trying to focus more on healthier nutrition, such as getting back into making green smoothies.  

So make your own goals.  Make them ones that are personal only for you.  If you struggle, just keep doing the best that you can do.  No one is perfect.  But we can all aspire to be the best that we can be.  Here's to a year of growth and happiness!

At this special time of year, it gives us reason to pause and think back on what is truly important in life, and that is the blessing of family. 

We were privileged to go to Salt Lake City and visit Temple square and ride the rail system with some of my family.  I took some soaps and some freeze dried treats and my grandson and his mom had some candies and while we were riding the train, he presented everyone on board with a bar of soap and some candy. 

It was a sheer delight to see his face beam as the people thanked him for this simple gesture.  Some people even gave him money in return which he will use to help someone else out.  We met some wonderful people who shared gifts as well with us and although it was raining and a bit chilly, we were warmed by the touch of the simple gifts of giving. 

My grandson said that he was sad when all of the gifts were gone, because he wanted to give to more people.  Surely there is nothing so delightful as serving and watching service through the eyes of a child!  

May you all take time to remember what Christmas is all about and enjoy the spirit of this season today and throughout the rest of the year.  Merry Christmas and may you all be blessed with what you need in the coming year.

Have you tried any of our freeze dried treats?  These are purely delightful!  We are adding various types all of the time. We currently have skittles, milk duds, caramel, taffy, and are constantly looking for others.  These make a great gift for stocking stuffers, or any gift for someone who likes a little treat.  They come in several sizes.  Check out our store for more information.  

This was our entry for the October 2019 Diagonal Layers Soap Challenge.  This one was truly a challenge!  This took quite a long time to create and it was very difficult to get the layers even and look nice.  It is scented with Spiced Plum fragrance Oil.  It is a pretty bar!

This decadent soap is one of our best sellers.  It has lots of skin loving ingredients in it, including Colloidal Oatmeal and Kaolin Clay.  If you love the smell of lavender, you will love this bar!  

Before cutting this soap, the different shapes looked like a bird in the middle and hearts flying around.  It was fun to make and the batter was a dream to work with.

These were a few of the bars that I made for the August 2019 Soap Challenge.  This is a technique called Brush embroidery.  You pipe on the lines and then brush it like you do for frosting on cookies & cakes.  It is a fun technique but a great deal of work!  

There was only enough time to try one batch, and it turned out pretty good.  This was a fun challenge.  Scented with All Good Things fragrance oil from Nurture Soap and colored with Pow Pow Purple, Blue Tide, Tangerine Dream, and Tennis Ball Breaker Micas from Mad Micas.

Our re-formulated Skin & Bones Ointment.  This is a wonderful ointment that can be used for a variety of reasons.  It is excellent when combine with our Cayenne Deep Heating Balm.  

We recently sold out of our Cayenne Deep Heating Balm, so it was time to make up another batch.  This is quite a labor intensive balm, but oh so wonderful when combined with our BF&C balm for those places that are sore and need some help.  This makes the production area smell so good.  Now the fun begins to label for selling.

Spring is definitely the time to declutter your life.  We have several items that we are going to sell, as we no longer use them and would love to have someone else gain some use out of them.  Everything that we are selling is in excellent condition.  Please check our destash list or look on our store under destash.  Contact us if you have any questions.  Thank you!

I can't begin to say how many comments that I see on Faceboook groups about people who have concerns about their freeze drying attempts.  Good grief, people; the freeze dryer is truly a set it and forget it piece of equipment!  Stop worrying over how much time has or hasn't elapsed.  Your machine knows what it is doing.  It will sense what it needs and plan accordingly.  I have been enjoying my Freeze Drying Adventures for over 3 years now and still going strong.  Pictured are some Gala apples that taste wonderful!  If you have questions about Freeze Drying, feel free to contact us and we will be glad to answer any questions you may have. 

There is nothing that touches the inner soul such as the majesty of nature and the beauty of the earth.  This is Cave Falls in Wyoming (Yellowstone National Park).  It is another one of the places we love to visit.  

Soap carving can be so much fun.  I was going to do this as an inlaid design, but I think that just the simple outline looks better.  

How I love Yellowstone!  This month I entered a soap challenge of inlaid soap design.  Though the designs look childish, it was fun to learn a new technique and have it themed around a place that touches my soul.  

Packaging can make or break a lovely bar of soap.  Sometimes you really have to look at what you are trying to show off.  Do you want to have the soap show, or do you want to cover it up and protect the bar?  Do you want it to look elegant or rustic?   There are so many things to consider when packaging soaps.  We'd love to hear your comments about what you do and don't like.  

Somewhere in a galaxy far - far away...  This is another glycerin Rivers Soap attempt.  Adding extra water does not seem to work for me.  This one doesn't look as good as I would have hoped, but it does smell nice - clean scent. 

This is some coconut crusted tofu.  It is a very healthy dish.  I am going to freeze-dry it and see how it comes out.  I am hopeful that it will turn out crunchy so that I can make a savory dip for it.  Good nutrition does not have to be boring!

I am not one to make new year's resolutions that I won't keep, so I just try to do the best I can with what I am given in life.  But I have not been eating very well for the past few months and it has showed.  I did an inner scolding - "you know better than this!  You know how to eat to live!"  So I decided to take the bull by the horns and eat healthy again. 

I am already feeling better and I started to eat better a week ago.  I have lost 9 pounds so far and while that is extremely fast, I know that it will now slow down a great deal, as I always lose fast at first.  But now that my body has had a chance to get used to this new routine, it will come off slowly.  I put the weight on slowly.  It has to come off slowly to be reasonable and a more healthy way. 

I don't eat sweets or processed foods.  I am back to my green smoothies and mostly salads, but I find that I feel so much better eating a healthy diet.  I eat very little meat, usually chicken or fish but perhaps some lean beef once in a while.  

I want 2019 to be the year that I have become the person that I want to be.  I may not always be successful, but as along as the path is doing well overall, it will be a great year.  

Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope that the reason for the season will permeate your whole body and you can embrace the joy of living and giving.  

We have had so many requests for this!  It is finally back in stock.  This little tin sports a silly name, but what is inside is a wonderful balm that can be used for lips, scrapes, cuts, bug bites or any number of minor skin conditions.   We love to keep a tin with us at all times as you never know when it might come in handy.  And if you want to present this as a gift to someone with attitude,  then it's so much fun as well.