Happy birthday, Aeryn!

I need to get myself out the door to put gas in the car and get enough groceries to get through the week. I may make that roasted broccoli soup tomorrow. I have some squash soup in the freezer. What are some other favorite hearty winter soups?

Leek and potato! Borscht! Chicken!

We got a few inches of snow last night. So glad I don't have to leave the house until tomorrow.

I keep forgetting I have squash I need to cook and eat. But first, broccoli soup. And chicken soup. How do I have so much cooking to do?

Happy Aeryn Day!

At this point I don't plan to leave the house until Thursday.

Oh right, dog.

Happy birthday, Aeryn!

Hey, has anyone touched base with ita! lately? I'd like to be reassured she's doing okay...

Judging by ita's Flickr feed, she just recently got back from Jamaica.

So, Love It or List It has follow-up videos online of some of the people, and unsurprisingly, most of them are still in their houses, regardless of which they said at the end of the show.

Baked potato soup with cheddar, bacon and green onions on top; broccoli cheese soup. Chili. Chicken soup. Beef and barley soup.

If anybody talks--or posts--with ita, let her know we've been thinking about her.

Happy Birthday, Aeryn!

For moisturizing, I have used my own concoction of table sugar with enough olive oil to make a paste, with a few drops of orange extract (not essential oil) as desired for scent. Or almond, or vanilla, whatever rocks your olfactory receptors. It makes a fantastic scrub, it melts and doesn't clog the drain, leaves you smooth and silky. You rinse and pat dry, and it doesn't even stain the towel.

My skin is so reactive to so many things, I use small-batch locally-made olive oil or goats milk based soaps. I used Jason's shea butter from Whole Foods, quite happily, but they've stopped selling it now. A body butter I loved, and which didn't trigger any sensitivities was the lacklusterly-named Got-2-B Almond and Honey Body Butta, but alas, it has also been discontinued.

Historically, Burts Bees stuff was off limits, as most of it contained lanolin, which is a really good moisturizer for human skin. Unhappily, I'm very reactive to lanolin. I did find Burt's Baby Bee multipurpose ointment, recently. I think it was marketed as a diaper cream, but frankly, I love the hell out of it, and its mild honey-vanilla scent. I started with it on feet, ankles, knees, elbows, and moved on to hands, legs and arms, back, front, with so far no bad reaction, which is awesome. I'm almost ready to try it on my face, as I'm not regularly using any product on my face, except for an occasional pat of olive oil. Most products made for the face contain sunscreen, which usually breaks me out. I just wear picture hats and practice being a mole to avoid the sun, in lieu of sunscreen.