T-bones Best Friends

I introduced T-bone the Terrorist the other day and now I thought I might introduce the more sedate members of the family. The leader of the pack and the boss is Paradigm. We inherited him from a friend of my husband. They were a 5 cat family but every time my husband would go to visit this one would always try to follow him out the door. Finally they told him to take the cat home with him. He is the friendliest and most gregarious cat I have ever met. He never met a dog he didn’t like.

The next member of the family is the old lady of the group. Her previous owner had terminal cancer and when her daughter moved in to care for her the dog had to go. I will not comment further on this. My husband who is more or less housebound was looking for a companion and she was perfect. She is probably the smartest and best trained dog we have owned since the 1st dog we owned. I also think she is a mindreader as well as being the disciplinarian with the puppy. I believe if I stayed out of the picture she would train him for me.

Bug Off Buddy or Today I Smell Like Lemon

Tomorrow is the Farmer’s Market and I just noticed I only had 2 bottles of Bug Off. So another day goes by without getting my etsy widget up here. I don’t mind doing this though. This is one of my favorite things I make because my house smells so good when I make it. I like it so much I even made candles from the essential oil blend. They work great outdoors to keep the skeeters and gnats away, but I burn them inside also because I like the fragrance. I don’t sell the candle though because there is to much potential liability.



What is Bug Off?

There is no DEET (diethyl-meta-toluamide) here to endanger your health or the health of your children.

Our Bug Off is made from 100% organic or natural ingredients and is a fantastic alternative to chemical laden commercial products.
This is an essential oil blend formulated to repel flies, mosquitoes, nasty chiggers and other biting insects. This repellent has an herbal infused organic aloe base and contains Lemon Eucalyptus Essential Oil which was recently approved by the CDC (Center for Diseased Control) as an effective repellent. It also contains Catnip Essential Oil, Lemongrass Essential Oil, Peppermint Essential Oil and several other Essential Oils in the blend to make it a very effective as well as a fragrant repellent. This all natural bug repellent is a quick fix against black flies, mosquitoes and other biting insects.
The base of this blend is aloe vera gel made from the unique aloe vera plant. Its gel is a natural medicine for helping to cure almost any skin ailment from burns, rashes, wounds, acne, stings, cold sores, insect bites and even as an anti-ageing cream. The aloe vera gel according to scientists is comprised of more than seventy-five compounds, including polysaccharides (complex carbohydrates), steroids, organic acids, enzymes, antibiotic agents, amino acids, and minerals.
Not only have we used a fantastic organic aloe vera gel base, this one is infused with Organic Horsetail, Organic Gotu Kola, Organic Comfrey and Organic Dandelion. While you are repelling mosquitoes and other insects you are giving your skin a spa treatment at no extra cost!
Bug Off is an all natural insect repellent, safe for families and pets. It repels black flies, deer flies, mosquitoes, ticks, fleas and chiggers also.
Our customers come back time after time for this product!

Check us out at our etsy shop at http://bjrussell.etsy.com/

Handcrafted Soaps

Over the last fifty years thousands of chemicals have been discovered and are being used in our agriculture, skin care, and our environment. Since the skin is our body’s largest organ and up to 60% of what we put on our skin ends up in our bloodstream, it is no surprise in that same 50 years that the rates of eczema, psoriasis and cancers have all increased. We may not be able to avoid all these chemicals, but we believe it makes sense to avoid as many as possible when we can. We have found as the years go by that we discover many more people that have developed sensitivities to many of the chemicals present in many modern toiletries.

As mankind moved into modern times we found substitutes for many of the natural oils and elements of nature that had served us so well in the past. We replaced Nature with chemical creations. Year after year we are hearing of more and more of our friends and neighbors becoming sensitive or allergic to many of the products that end up on our grocery and drugstore shelves.

Plants have been used for healing long before recorded history. Ancient Chinese and Egyptian papyrus writings describe medicinal plant uses. Indigenous cultures (e.g., African and Native American) used herbs in their healing rituals, while others developed traditional medical systems such as the Chinese. Scientists found that people in different parts of the world systematically use the same or similar plants for the same purposes.

As you walk down the aisles of your local pharmacy seeing the variety of brightly colored bottles and jars whose contents are designed to treat an almost endless variety of beauty deficits, could you ever imagine them as flowers once growing on a forest floor or as a bark cut from one of its trees? Almost every label has a natural element listed boldly across the front. Tea Tree, Chamomile, grapeseed, oatmeal, jojoba oil: ingredients from every continent are represented on every type of skin care product represented.

A Scentsible World offers fine handcrafted soaps and toiletries created with the finest natural oils and butters available. All of our soaps are crafted in small batches with loving care. Quality is not a forgotten word in our vocabulary. Our soaps are made by Cold Process soapmaking in three to five pound batches. We use all natural vegetable oils in all of our soaps with coconut, palm, olive, rice bran oil, babassu oil, castor oil, soy oil, avocado oil, canola oil, shea butter and cocoa butter with their wonderful conditioning properties as our main basic ingredients. Each oil and butter contributes to the overall end product making it the gentlest and most moisturizing bar available.

I now have a new personal favorite bar of soap! I have been sniffing this fragrance from Scent Works almost every day since it was delivered and drooling over the bars of soap on the rack since I made them. It is finally ready and I took it off of the rack this evening and almost ran to the tub. Did I mention that I twisted my husband's arm and had him make me 2 candles from this fragrance? I have been saving the 2nd candle for this occasion. I made this fragrance into an Herbal Bath Oil also.Since the children are now grown I don't have to lock the door when I bathe, but I was tempted to lock it tonight. Between the water scented with the Satsuma Guava, the bar of soap and the wonderful fragrance of the candle it was like a mini vacation in the tropics. This is a luxury that you can afford. Take it from me, you will love this fragrance and your skin will love you.

Herbal Bath Oil

No procastinating today! I turned off CNN and am concentrating on making more Herbal Bath Oils. It seems like todays news is the same as yesterday's news. What on earth will they have on the news after the election? A new war? Another stockmarket bust? An assasination? With all the whipping up of emotions, I would not be surprized.

On to better things! Right now I am straining my infused oils for Herbal Bath Oil . This batch is infused with Calendula, Chamomile, Shavegrass, Lemon Balm and Nettle Leaf, all fantastic for the skin benefits they give. Straining is a pain in the neck. First I strain with a kitchen strainer, then I strain with muslin. There are always teeny, tiny flecks in the oil even after both of these steps. Finally, I strain the oil through a coffee filter. It always seems that I lose about 1/4 to 1/3 of the oil by this final step, but the results (clear oil) are worth the work.

Now you can enjoy a luxurious and fragrant bath that soothes and relaxes as it nourishes and moisturizes your skin. Indulge yourself in a unique blend of luxurious oils infused with skin loving herbs. No oily ring, no slippery bath tub. With the addition of Polysorbate 80 a fantastic emulsifier you have no nasty bath tub ring or slippery tub. Just step into aromatic bliss after a hard day of work or play. Pamper your skin with our exclusive dispersing bath oils.These http://www.etsy.com/listing/15120652/blooming-herbal-natural-bath-oil moisturising bath oils leave the skin feeling silky soft and well cared for. Each Herbal Bath Oil is blended by hand in small batches to ensure freshness.

Today I am creating an Herbal Bath Oil with the super fragrance of Satsuma Guava, one of my all time best selling fragrance. This is one of my best sellers at our Farmer's Market and most of my craft shows.

You can also order this Herbal Bath Oil in any fragrance we have on hand. Check out our list of fragrances on this listing in Etsy, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16130839.