Weekly Roundup 12/8/19
Hey you guys! How are you? How was your week? Mine wasn't as busy. I've actually had some time to slow down, take stock, and relax. I'll tell you all about that in a minute. But first...snow! We had our first big snowfall of the season last Sunday into Monday. Sunday was all freezing rain and then overnight it turned to snow. And it snowed all day Monday. It was so pretty. Anna and I took a walk up the hill as far as we (or rather, I) could go. She, of course, could have run all day and not been bothered by it. Anyway, it snowed. It was pretty. And quiet. And we stayed inside enjoying it all (except for that one little walk to take pictures).
We've got some good things going on here at the homestead. First, I restocked my shop for the rest of 2019. I'm working on adding gift certificates, but if you want one to give to as a Christmas gift, just let me know and I can speed the process up. I also restocked my lip balms. I have two sizes (here and here) and about 3 or 4 different flavors. They're fun. Funny story. I've made lip balms off and on for years. I used to use lip balm tubes exclusively but when I started Chicken Librarian, I moved over to the 1-ounce tins. They're easier to deal with. Not as much mess. You really have to have a steady hand when pouring into the tubes. Then I saw where people were using pipettes to pipe the balm into the tubes. And I thought "DUH!"...I have pipettes. So easy peasy, right? Then I thought, well I'll pipe the essential oil into the tubes first, then the balm and let them meld together. Easy, right? Well....I piped about 20 tubes and started looking at them and thought why do I have to keep adding more balm to the tubes? Because the essential oil was running out the bottom! Yikes! Needless to say, I wasted all that product. So back the drawing board, so-to-speak. Another round of balm and this time I piped in balm, then EO, then balm. That worked much better! So...lip balms have been restocked. LOL.
We've also been working on seafood stock this week. Did I ever share the pic above with you? It's from an event we hosted at the fishing lodge this past September. I'll give you more deets on it in another post once I submit the photos to the host. I know, that's really bad to not have them done yet....I took probably 400 pictures. Then I have to edit them. Thankfully the host is our dear friend, but still. I'm getting them done. Soon! Anyway... we had a lot of leftover crab legs and lobster parts. So we put them in the freezer and just pulled them out to make seafood stock. We boiled everything in our water bath canner because we had so much seafood to boil down. I added bay leaves, carrots, onions, and celery. I didn't add any salt or pepper because I thought the seafood would have enough spice to it. So we boiled and boiled and got all that good juice from the seafood. Then it reduced down and we ended up with 11 pint jars of yummy goodness.
I think I told you guys we are growing our own mushrooms from these kits. I bought the white button mushroom kit and the portabella kit. Another funny story. I set everything up, got the mushrooms tucked into a nice warm spot in the back room (craft room/office). I checked the mushrooms and harvested the white buttons. I checked the portabellas and thought they could use another couple of days. When I went back to check on them...I found 4 huge mushrooms! The Mister and I were surprised! And delighted. But umm...we ordered baby bellas. So I was writing this post and I was going to be all cute and clever and say something like: what happens when you don't pick baby bellas? They become adult bellas! Then I was linking to the website where I purchased the kits and realized that I'm pretty sure I ordered the portabella kit rather than the baby bellas that we like so much. But that's okay. A mushrooms a mushroom as far as we're concerned.
The next pie along will be tomorrow. I have a few surprises for you on that one. So tune back in tomorrow. And I have a really funny...well, wasn't funny at the time, story for you about last month's pie!
We're hosting our friends gathering tomorrow night too (the one that was canceled because of all that aforementioned snow!). It should be lots and lots of fun. I need a night of fun and laughter. Not because things are down, but because I've been working on the business non-stop. The other night the Mister and I laughed because it was literally 9PM and I told him I got sucked down the rabbit hole while updating the webshop.
Speaking of getting organized, updating the webshop, and other updates, I think the time has come to slow down on social media. I started the blog because I really, really wanted to blog. I love it. I mean, it's hard and time consuming, but I do love it. I've come to realize that it's an extension of me teaching. And I do the social media as a kind of extension of the blog. And I've met some really wonderful people through social media. But I'd like to start focusing mostly on the blog and have the interaction be here. Not everyone will join me so I'll still check in on social media a few times per week, but I almost feel like I have to be on social media 24/7 because of their algorithms. Then they have a nifty little habit of telling you you're spending too much time on social media! So which is? Either I have to be on there posting, posting, posting, interacting, interacting, interacting, but wait a minute...you're spending too much time on here. It's not good for you. And honestly, I've spent some time away from it lately and it felt good. I spent all that extra time putting it into my business behind the scenes. Maybe one day when chicken librarian really takes off I can hire someone just to do social media for me! But in the meantime, I'mma just gonna focus on this little blog. I've read blogs such as Posie Gets Cozy and Small Things for years and they focus on their blogs and have a smaller presence on social media. I'm going to try that model for a few weeks and see how that goes. Of course, they have both been blogging for years...way before social media was a thing but they're making it work. Can you tell I feel a little guilty for walking away from social for a while?
I'd also like to start providing more content here. I know I talked about my blog and where it was going and was I doing what I should be doing in this post. And I've been thinking a lot about it. Because I started my business this year I spent a lot of time working on it and blogging and homesteading really took a back seat. So now I want to get back to that teaching aspect of the blog and provide that content more. The past few months have seemed like: Wordless Wednesday, Weekly RoundUp, and then one other post hastily thrown together. So I'm going to start branching out more. I also feel guilty if I post too much during the week. Like I should keep it to 3, maybe 4 posts per week. Is that a rule? Can I share more throughout the week if I have something to say? I'd like to. I don't want to necessarily stick to a blogging schedule. If I have something to post, I want to post it. I like the quick Wordless Wednesday, but maybe I have something else to say too that day. I'll figure it out. And hopefully won't annoy you, my lovely blog friends.
Okay. Moving on. Let me know what you think about the blogging. I have my last class of 2019 on Tuesday. We're doing another Beeswax Food Covers class at Kutik's. I just finished my last class in Middletown. We did lip balms and it was such a great class! Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I had some repeat customers and then made some new friends as well...just what I was hoping would happen...see old friends and meet some new ones! I updated my class a little. We made two different kinds of lip balms. One lip balm was Peppermint-Rose. I soaked dried rose petals in sunflower oil for a few days (you can see it in one of the pics above), then strained it through cheesecloth. It was so yummy. I have some leftover so I might add some to my next round of lip balm updates. I sent the participants home with 6 recipes so they can try them out if they'd like. I used to hand out a powerpoint presentation but to simplify things a little more, I laminated the carrier oils and essential oils options. I printed out the 2 recipes and laminated those. I set the room up a little different so they were walking around and hands on more. It was good. I'll make a couple of small tweaks for next time, but I liked this layout much better.
I'm gearing up for our next book for the Chicken Librarian Reads Book Group. So far I'm the only partaking so I'm not sure if it's the subject that isn't drawing people in. Anyway, I have Mastering Pasta by Marc Vetri. I think we'll tackle that one next. Part of the reason I started the book group was because I have all these books on my shelf that I've never read. So I thought it would be fun to read and then talk about it with other people who want to learn some of these things!
And I know I'm a couple of days late and I haven't joined in the past couple of weeks, but I think we're long overdue for a Friday Favs roundup style. I even updated the cover photo with a winter scene.
1. In an effort to get even more removed from plastic and because I like most things old-school, I put these ice cube trays on my Amazon wishlist.
2. I also added this apron to my wishlist. Isn't it cute? I would totally wear it as a top over with leggings and a shirt!! I can just see me at my 2020 summer markets wearing it! How fun.
3. When I saw Kutik's was offering a free class with every purchase of a nuc (or beehive) before December 25th, I told Santa that I was a very good girl and that is what I wanted for Christmas.
I’m linking up with the co-hostesses of Friday Favorites. Click the links below to see what they’ve been up to this past week!
A Little Bit of Everything / Momfessionals / Grace and Love
Well...that was quite the roundup for someone who said they didn't do a lot this week! HA! I can't help myself I guess. 'Til next time friends! Have a great week!
xoxo
-k