it looks like were moving.

not just because of that but in part, i am getting rid of as much stuff as possible. today's load to the used book store was five orange boxes (not boxes orange in color but boxes that used to hold oranges from the grocery store.) four cloth shopping bags, and one plastic shopping basket i accidentally liberated from target.
Yesterdays stuff was three huge garbage bags of clothing and other miscellaneous wearable items like purse and stuff.

today we go see the house were looking at, i already drove past it and looked at the outside. its darling. today we get to look at the inside. the realtor were working with says it need work like painting and incidentals. nothing like the amount our current very well loved house needs.

i am amazed at how much i can to in a day. and equally amazed at how overwhelmed (her words not mine) and unable to do anything my mom is. now look i know what its like. i am overwhelmed too. but ive been dealing with her "someday the revolution will come and we will need________" obviously fill in the blank. lemme tell you we wont need 100 phillips screw drivers. ever.

nor will we need 37 toaster, 2000 books on aircraft history, building, fliers etc. two clothes washers. ever. ever ever. ever.

so its all leaving. to find good homes.

at least the airplane body that was in the backyard found a new home several years ago.

this new house is going to one of those houses that only has the necessities, things the people who live there love and use.

court was yesterday and i managed to completely and throughly so confuse the judge that he just sat there shaking his head and saying "i've never seen

this before...".
because ian's dad and i didn't argue the traditional ex partners way. the man/non-custodial parent saying its my money! and the woman custodial parent saying i need more child support!

instead i asked for ian's dad child support obligation to be reduced, its in my benefit, his drivers lic. restored and for the arrears to be eliminated.

it worked. we confused the family "justice" system thoroughly. and walked away better friends and happier people. it was worth every penny.

i also opened my hyena shop
it was a metric ton of work for write the code for that. esp. since i have less the no knowledge about how computers work or how to write code (that's what they call it, ya know writing code. don't i sound like a pro-freshion-al?)
i found a test site for hyena carts and a site for the codes for colors and an open source software thingy for making thumbnails of photos. i feel so successful!

i did something i never thought i could do. and it saved me 70.00 or so dollars to have someone else do it for me. yeah me! i test stocked one item, but over the weekend i plan on stocking tons of stuff. like soap, flower remedies, i have a couple of ideas for stuff too. i think it'll work out really well.

on an etsy note the ***big spring fling*** raffle is coming along nicely. the loverly ad that goes into mothering message board soon is really nice. the woman who did it is really talented. i cant wait for the sale to start. just a few more days.

i volunteer at the coop tomorrow, i am working up the nerve to ask helen, the woman who runs it, to put my items for sale. well see how it goes. although i dont understand the tax sitch with something like that. it might be more work then its worth...
tonight we go out to cy and rachels for a pot luck dinner, our contribution is brownies. hmmmmm... brownies. i think it'll be fun. i cant wait for out csa share from their farm to start. hmmmmm... csa.

i think that's about it for now. more later.

treasure mapping and decluttering

one of the reasons i love spring so much is that i can open the doors and have the smell of clean air and ozone coming in. okay so i live in the northland so its more like current rain and future blizzard but you get the idea. i was looking for the reasons we all declutter besides spring time. i mean why not january 1st?
so in doing this i have found treasure mapping. based on astrology, you declutter for a week, something i was in dire need of doing anyway, and then build your self a map of the coming year here is a blog that explains it all. www.tracyastrosalon.blogspot.com
so even if i didn't buy into astrology lets face it. the decluttering part? so me. in doing so i gave away 5 large garbage bags of clothing, a dinosaur of a computer, and boxes of tchotckes. it feels soo good. oh yeah! 8 grocery bags of books which earned me 50.00 dollars in credit at the local bookstore and created a huge gift for
the womens prison book project. a great organization that, i bet yhou can tell by the name, gives books to women prisoners.

along with the decluttering ive been working tons on my shop. tons. adding several new flower essences and been making up a stock pile of soap. lemme tell you when the revolutions comes i will be set up in the soap departemnt. they really are beautiful soaps. rescue me with 5 classic flower remedies. spicy chai tea with ginger, chai tea and cornmeal and essential oils. i also created a shampoo bar recipe i think will knock the socks off anyone who uses it. sage nettles and rosemary with olive, canola, coconut, castor, sweet almond, jojoba oils with lavender and rosemary essential oils. hmmmmm... i cannot wait.


well last nights lack of sleep is getting to me. ill have to spell check and edit tomorrow.
night.

my basement flooded but it isnt a noah style flood just a spring in minnesota style flood

Picture aromatherapy play clay for the ***BIG GIVEAWAY***
Originally uploaded by mayamadeherbals

but some of the wood working stuff got wet. but not my herb and aromatherapy stuff thank goddess. i am leaving the door open today and watching the water just float away in the air. it coulda been soooo much worse.

yesterday was the last day of spring break. we were one minute late to school, tons of the other kids were super late. it was kinda funny to watch this line of kids waiting to the late slips. you can see the surfer kid, in a place 1000 miles from any water you could surf in. the urban stylie kids, the nerds, the kids with flakey parents, the religious kids, my kid goes to a school in which a large population are very very religous, very scarey (do not click on that link if you are easily scared.)and then a buncha atheists. its a very odd combonation.

so today i am working on soap. gardeners soap and hand cream as a set. the gardeners soap is a olive oil and canola oil base with calendula infusion and cornmeal. the cream i'm not too sure about yet. i havent worked out the formula yet. we shall see what it contains. yesterday i worked on aromatherapy playclay. man alive it turned out good. if i do say so myself. cinnamon, spearmint, sweet orange, lemon and lavender in matching colors. it smells so delish and plays well too. now i just haveta get the stuff i have for etsy up in the cart instead of in the holding area.

listening to marfa public radio station. rockabilly central. very good

hmmmm... i had a whole thought. but then younger child work up and now its gone. oh yeah. i remember, we went to
loring pasta bar today for lunch. it was lovely, really.
a group of fabulous ladies, okay they aren't ladies really more like super wild women ready rock.


and drink. it was kinda funny. have you seen a buncha fairly to almost drunk 50+ women? very humorous. very. i drove my mom home.

the kid and i had therapy. is it a wonder we need it? it went well. when i say we had therapy i feel like one of those new yorkers that pays someone 200.00 dollars an hour to listen to them but this isn't that. its an entirely different thing. and it goes well. i generally don't like therapy or social workers but for this one i'll make an exception.

were still working on the ***BIG GIVWAWAY!*** for the mdc etsy team check out the blog here http://mdcmoms.blogspot.com/
make a comment here with your contact info, make a purchase for any of the members or a comment on the etsy mothering blog again with your contact info and you'll get a chance to win! of course it doesn't quiet start yet. believe me i'll let you know when it does.

i am excited to start school. lemme tell you it cannot start soon enough. remind me that i said the above when i am immersed in homework and totally overwhelmed kay?

well that about it for tonight. as soon as i can figure out how i'll post pictures of the loring thing. it was a good time.

oh yeah. does any one out there make white lightening? I NEED SOME for medicinal purposes only of course.

yesterday was my moms birthday

and it went wonderfully. really.
we haven't had her party yet, that happens tomorrow night. and bean is spending the night with bff at the farm. hmmmm... farm.
i got my mom great gifties though. a clear green glass vase, a hand blown glass multi colored vase both second hand, some of the rose body cream i mentioned in an earlier post. and i washed her car and vacuumed the interior. which i must say it was in dire need of. the water from the rio grande isn't the cleanest water. not even close. and after a while it kinda started to stink. for anyone who doesn't know we rescued some tourists from the american side of the river (that sounds so weird, american side. as if the river knows which side of an imaginary border you live on or what language you speak.) then of course, we got trapped after dropping off the tourista's. we waited it out in teralingua.

View Larger Map, which is even a more desolate empty "town" then marathon. which no electricity and no phone. and a pre teen boys a teen boy, me and an old lady. but it was fun. we just wandered around. the boys ran around, and my mom and i sat on a restaurant in the dark and had a beer. eventually it stopped raining enough so we could drive through the dark flooded desert towards home base.

and because murphy's law finds humor where i wouldn't necessarily find it. we got stopped by the border guards and after no kidding a 100 questions, the only legal one was if we were american citizens, let us go, soaking wet in rio grande water, cold, hungry and very very late.

well worth it though. well worth it.

my dad who lives near the border has a fabulous youtube video up you all should watch. try to ignore the chickens and roosters crowing in the background.

in anticipation of spring i am show casing a spring line up of etsy items.

while i am still trudging through the snow i am ever hopeful for spring. and in my spring filled heart there are loverly shops that help the arrival of warmer weather. i know some people live in area's of the world where spring is months away (like me) and perhaps the endless drone of the weather forecaster is beginning to wear on your nerves too. well, to help with this i present to you SPRING! etsy style!

spring colors layer it now and wear it with a flowery skirt later.
spring wear i want one of these in a grown up size. look at the fabulous bike! i love bikes, even pictures of bikes. they are the coolest.
spring wear scarf imagine riding your bike wearing this. fluttering in the wind.
bring spring to school or on a picnic with you friends with this cutie little set.
spring style with jewelry i love acorns. i love they way they grow. and smell. now i don't have to let the acorn turn into a oak tree. i can have an acorn forever.
spring animals these are the most darling critters. i want them. especially since i don't have to feed them. i think if i got any more animals we would have to move to the country. hey wait a minute. now there's an idea.
spring playthings hmmmm. i love wood toys. they feel so good in your hand.
spring bag i love purses. i don't own more then one or two but this one might cause me to fall off the wagon.
hmmmm spring skin soothers i think this would be wonderful on hands after a day in the yard.
now spring reminds everyone of new babies. so here are some baby items you might need, gifts for yourself or
a friend
and some older babes too. i especially love this doll. it remind me of the dolls my gramma used to make me.

woooohoooo!

the etsy team i am part of made it into a treasury!
thanks sooo much to brightonwoman generously gave the treasury she was offered to our street team!

we all are so excited! so here is the
link


this is a big deal. as always you can visit any one of our shops at our
blog or you can search etsy for items with the tags "mdc moms" or "mdc"
and i told you all that i would post pictures of the body cream i made yesterday so
so here they are.

i also wanted to give an update on bud, the rescue donkey. he is doing really well. bud has gained 20 pounds or so and is really loving his new herd. the other donkeys piper, linda, lightening and chiptle treat him really well. lightening is ancient for donkey years over fifty, and has really taken a shine to bud showing him the ropes and teaching him all sorts of stuff. important donkey stuff. like how to work the lock on the gate when the humans leave, what plants are the tastiest and how to recognize zacks trcuk sounds so everyone can hear them baying i mean calling to be fed.

there are photos up of how good bud is looking too. wonderful little guy...

wonderful rose skin cream

i was struggling with what to make my mom for her birthday next week. go
pisces ! and while studing at my usual place i came across a fabulous video for making body cream. with video and everything! so i am making her rose body cream. rose is one of her favorite flowers, essential oil and hydrosol. i also made her some rose flower water for her room, bedding, air, skin where ever she wants to spray it.

very exciting. and very useful infomation on that video. the original recipe is from rosemary gladstar and you can look it up on amazon, get it from your library, borrow it from a friend or purchase the book and find it. rosemary is a well known and highly respected herbalist.

when the cream is done i shall post picture but SHHH dont tell my mom. she doesnt have any idea.