Soap

I've decided to try my hand at cold process soap making. Daddy and I are going to make a 1lb mold I drew up out of scrap 1 x 6 pieces of wood. I just bought the oils that I need for the actual soap, I have a recipe in my head that I worked out on the lye calculator on MMS and I think it'll work. The last thing I need to get is the lye, but I don't want to do that yet as I don't want that sitting around. My recipe is a blend of green tea and peppermint, I hope it turns out well. If it does I'll have four bars of home made soap and I'll bring a couple out to Croatia, I'll post the reciep if it works, if it doesn't I'll try rebatching it with some tweeking.

I've been editing Granny's manuscript and I'm more that half way through. As I re-format it gets shorter and shorter, it started out as over twohundred pages and it's now around onhundred and fifteen. I hope it isn't too short, but I should have the rough draft done by the end of the month, then I need to actually read through it and have someone else read it, I might e-mail it to one or two of my teachers from hs to see what they think. I hope I can get it published, I'm sure someone would be interested in publishing, I just don't know if I can afford to have it published, I'm sure my parents would help. Until next time, happy reading.

Saddle Rock

I spent all of the morning and a little of the afternoon at one of my favorite places: Saddle Rock Ranch. They run an equine therapy program for people with mental and physical disabilities on the weekends and Tuesday afternoons. Every Saturday I go in at eight for morning grooming and tack and stay until around one. I help with the horse care and the lessons; leading horses and side-walking for the less independent riders. It is very rewarding to see children who are painfully shy get on a horse and sit up tall and be happy that they can do something on their own. Even the people who aren't as capable shine when they get on a horse. It's a healing experience, and a workout when the rider is capable enough to trot but still needs a person on the lead line, especially because the top ring is on a steep slope. It's a way for me to be around horses even though I can't ride at the moment. You can meet a lot of great people when you give your time and service to a good cause.

I got home around half past two and took a four hour nap. It's amazing how tired you get after five hours in the sun. I have pointy sunburn on my shoulders because I tied my t-shirt sleeves up with a couple pieces of string and my face is bright red, but it is most definitely worth tomorrow's discomfort after seeing how happy horses can make people. Next week my hands (and most likely legs) will be stained purply-blue because I'm bringing in Blue Kote to help with the horses' thrush, it gets everywhere and takes a while to get out, it's a spray so it mists all over places you wouldn't think it could.

I spent a good part of yesterday after noon starting on the monumental task of cleaning my room (shock, gasp), it was getting cleaner and actually staying clean until school ended and my locker exploded onto my floor and dresser and whatever space was left on my desk... so tomorrow will be spent trying to find my floor and maybe even some of my desk. I can't believe high school is over, but I'm happy I'm finally in college. I haven't had time to work on Granny's manuscript but I don't have a deadline and I don't want to rush through it. Until next time, happy reading.

Why the .... am I awake?

Let's hear it for 2AM posts. I woke up about forty minutes ago and couldn't go back to sleep, so I snuck down here to post about nothing. I have Granny's manuscript in an almost readable condition (the first four chapters, ten over all) and I am very excited to actually read through the whole thing and edit. I need to start saving up to get it published, I don't want anything flashy, that wasn't really Granny's style, just a nice mid-range package. I think it would be cheaper to only release it on paperback, maybe have a few hard cover for the family and limited release. I know hardcover is more expensive.

My cat is having a wonderful time playing chase the toe under the table. She rarely plays like this so it's nice when she does. I got her for Christmas two years ago, I wanted a kitten but the shelter didn't have any and it would be a while before the ones they did have got out of quarantine. We had seen her in one of the window cages with her brother, but when we went back her brother was gone and I didn't want to leave her on her own. She was about a year old when we got her and we think she was abused. She won't sit on people's laps and get nervous when she realises that she is kneading into some one's leg. She's terrified of strangers and especially doesn't like men. And she only lets me pick her up for around a minute. Even though she is a moronic, neurotic mess, she's our moronic, neurotic mess and we love her. Her name changes a lot though. She is usually Squeaker because her meow is so high that all she really does is squeak, but for a few weeks she was Sniffles because she had a cold and was sneezing a lot (there were many snot bubble jokes), poor thing.

I'm rather bored most of the day because my best friend, Jess, is a year younger and still has school. She also works a lot on the week ends so we don't see each other as much as we usually do. It was fine while I was still in school because we had classes together, but since I've graduated I haven't seen each other at all. We still text and stuff, but I really miss her and our four am swims in my frigged pool. Of course I have things to do, but it isn't the same when I can't hang out with her or just talk with her and our friends in Creative Writing and Study Hall.

I keep thinking I hear voices, but it's just the leaky flush valve in the downstairs toilet. I think I'm just freaking my self out because it's late(or early, depends on how you look at it) and the only things awake are the cat, me and the talking toilet, though I'm not sure if that counts as a sentient being, do toilets have a conscious mind that can sleep and awaken... that's getting a little too deep, definite sign of too little sleep.

I need to do thank you letters for graduation presents, and call guidance because I missed senior night and never got a yearbook, or the senior gift because I definitely didn't go to senior mass. It isn't that I'm against going to mass, just that I've had religion stuffed down my throat for the thirteen years I've been in catholic school and I just don't think the Catholic faith is for me and didn't want to sit through yet another school mass. So that's what goes through my sleep deprived mind at what is now three in the morning, though hap it classifies as morning when it's still pitch black outside is beyond me.
Until next time, happy reading.

Ice Queen

For my Contemporary Fiction class the first semester of my senior year we had to write a review of an Alice Hoffman book. Originally I had planned on reading Local Girls, it was short and about Long Island, easy peasy what's not to like? Not so easy; I couldn't read it. I would read a few pages and promptly forget all of it. So I dug through the back of the school library and polished off Ice Queen in about a week of lunch periods. And now I'm going to see if the cut you can use on LJ works here. For those who want to read my review, clicky the linky, otherwise skip over and keep reading. It didn't work and the only way to make it work is all long and complicated so I'm putting it on my Creative Writing page under writing anomalies.
sorry if that didn't work, I'm still figuring out the formatting on here.
On a cleaner and less dreary note, I just got the mixed bag of soap (mainly black raspberry vanilla) that I ordered from Gassner Custom Soaps, a link is on the side. I love them all, especially the Pumpkin Spice soapsicle they put in and lots of lavender is always nice in the hotter weather. I'm also using a little peppermint essential oil instead of perfume as I've just started getting a mild reacting to any of the commercial body sprays with lots of alcohol in them. Which is not so great, I love my pear blossom spray from Bath & Bodyworks, as inorganic as it is, it's so light and summery.
I have a new musical obsession with Escala. An electronic string quartet that competed on Britain's Got Talent. They didn't win, but I think that they are absolutely amazing. I also have a (not so new) obsession with Legend of the Seeker TV show. Love it! Very SiFi/Historical Fantasy, not sure yet if I want to to read the Sword of Truth book series that it is based off of.
That's all for now. Until next time, happy reading.

Creative Writing

One thing that I feel I do very well is write. After four years of forced, on the spot writing in high school, it comes fairly easily to me. My dad had me reading as soon as I was mentally capable; he's a reading teacher.This probably helped with my writing skills, after reading a lot of good books and some not so good ones I find it easier to critique my work, especially when I read it out loud. I could live in Barnes and Nobles, it has everything I could need: food and books and fairly clean public bathrooms. I'll post a page with some of my stories and links to the poems I already have on FictionPress.Com and make referances to it when I update. Untill then, happy reading.