January's End

So January has come to a close so I it seems appropriate to look back on all I accomplished, or didn't as the case may be! I started the month off by updating the blog platform and incorporated my online shop into the blog platform. I, of course, had help because I wouldn't have been able to do it on my own! If I'm missing a feature you like, please let me know and we'll see about incorporating it into the blog.

I made lots of pies, some I included in my posts here, others I just took a pic of for my records. We started a coffee and pie chat and made a yummy Maple Orange Walnut pie for January. I'm working on the recipe for February and if everything works out, it's going to be really exciting! I won't say more until I test the pie recipe for accuracy.

I have been knitting. And knitting. And knitting. Mostly for the shop but I did make a lot of Christmas presents. I've also been working on a new product--healing salves. They're mostly for the shop as well. I haven't made as much in January. I think I needed to slow down for a couple of weeks. I enjoyed the break but I'm certainly ready to get back to making.

Speaking of making, I mentioned in a couple of other posts that I wanted to start taking some classes when I found things I was interested in. So I went to a 'pallet paint and sip' and made the sunflower painting above. I had a good time, but I now know that painting--more specifically free hand drawing--isn't really my thing. But I think the painting looks good enough to keep. I'll find an out-of-the-way spot on the wall to hang it.

I also attended a essential oils make and take. We made bath salts (which I turned into a foot scrub), a diffuser bracelet, and an EO immunity roller. I also won the give away so I got a bottle of orange essential oil and a mini diffuser. I've been using the diffuser to diffuse lavender EO at bedtime. This led me to start exploring more healthy alternatives for make up, shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant. What do you use for these items? Oh! I made an activated charcoal face wash that I'm loving right now. I found the recipe here.

I made pasta for the first time. I loved it. Then my pasta machine broke, which I've written about here. I'll keep making pasta. I'm so interested in the different things you can add to pasta dough, like beet juice, spinach, herbs, etc. If you have a good recipe, please do share!

I spent a lot of time outside this month, until the polar vortex settled in for a few days. The weather is nice again--as in the temps have been holding steady above zero--so I'll start getting outside more. You can see even before the polar vortex set in, I was bundled up on our snow shoeing adventures!

Oh! When I logged into the blog this AM, it told me I had made 100 posts over the past year. That's pretty impressive since I don't think I blog all that often. I wonder what I've written about over these past few months?

I think January was a good month. I started back to work for the Spring semester but missed some time due to the weather. Classes were canceled and campus closed for the worst part of the polar vortex. The other days it snowed. We got another 6 or 7 inches on top of the foot and a half that we already had. But if history is any indicator, we should start to see things warm up and snow melt. We'll still get some snow, and will probably see another major snow storm, but it won't last as long. Maple tapping season is almost here. Thank goodness. I'm very low on syrup.