Lip Balm? My favorite...

Lip balm might be just a small thing, but let me tell you about my absolutely favorite lip balm!! Not only is it MY favorite, but my entire family loves it.



This lipbalm, by Naturemaiden (here's the website: http://www.naturemaiden.com/ is absolutely delightful. It feels great on the lips, not waxy or heavy at all...and tastes delicious too (haha, but it really does!!)



Concerned about ingredients? From the website, the lip balm is made of coconut oil, beeswax, stevia, flavoring and food grade colors.

She also makes soaps, body sprays, natural pine cone fire starters, and soy candles.

What a great idea for yourself or for gift-giving! Zip right over to her website and make some purchases! I have ALWAYS been happy with naturemaiden products. Check them out! Buy some!

This was a totally unsolicited post :) I just love her products and wanted to share about them with you all! http://www.naturemaiden.com/lip-balm

Fatal Frost by Nancy Mehl

Fatal Frost, book one in the Defenders of Justice series by Nancy Mehl, is a book which combines traitors and heros.

Mercy Brennan, a US Marshal, has just lost her father and now is in trouble (as in, her life may be threatened). Her co-workers and friends want to protect her without her knowing, so they set up a fake mission for her ... however there are traitors in the office who are working to eliminate her. She, a co-worker, and a policeman friend set out to supposedly help another guy, but then they fall into treacherous circumstances.

There are many groups involved in this story, the US Marshal service, the police, a drug cartel, and local gangs. There is loyalty and betrayal. Courage, fear, and everything in-between. Even a little nearly heart-warming moment of hope, which is smashed.

I don't want to tell much more of the plot, because, quite frankly, there is not too much of a plot and if I divulge more I may give the whole story away. I did think that the evil plans of the drug cartel were very well thought out and scarily possible.

Did I like this book? It was okay. It wasn't really my taste in books. To me the plot was kind of limited and the character development occurred at spurts. I appreciated the Christianity added into the storyline. The author seemed very well-versed in police/marshal procedures. Just not my favorite.

I received this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review. I was not required to write a positive review.

Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky

50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World -- this subtitle would grab most people's attention, doesn't it yours? And it's a book about WOMEN! :) Women in Science! My favorite!!

This book, Women in Science, written and illustrated by Rachel Ignotofsky is a very pretty book, well, pretty doesn't quite catch the feel, attractive, eye-catching, enjoyable to look at!

Each set of facing pages is a different woman scientist. The author has illustrated each scientist with a stylized drawing of the scientist with a collage of pictures and phrases describing her on the left side. The right side of each set of pages gives a mini biography of each scientist, with little illustrations/high points framing the text.





It's a fun book to read! The little snippets of information are fairly thorough of high points of each one's story, and they are in a layout that is easy to read without getting bogged down in too many statistics. These scientists run the range of time from 350 AD to scientists who are still living today! Their fields of specialty run a wide range, including such titles as botanist, astronomer, microbiologist, meterologist, chemist/xray crystallographer, inventor/film actress, cytogeneticist, behaviorist, geologist, paleontologist, and many more.

This is a great book for any girls to read (or for you to read to/with young girls!) It's inspiring and eye-opening for both boys and girls. I also think it would be a fun book for a college student or for a female scientist (or pretty much anyone!)

I enjoyed this book as did my daughters. I would definitely recommend this book -- it would also make a great gift!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review.

It's that time of year... craft sale time!

Being a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, I don't have tons of opportunities to make money. Every year about this time I start getting ready for my one big opportunity :) -- craft fairs (well, maybe not that BIG, but a little extra income this time of year is good!) My product is felted wool mittens lined with fleece. During the summer I look for wool sweaters at yard sales/rummage sales/etc. and then shrink them ("felt them") right away in the washer/dryer with my regular wash. I pop them into a box in the basement, always with grand ambitions to start on the mittens in the summer (yeah, right!) Despite my grand intentions here I am again, a few weeks from the first craft sale, with a lot of mittens to make!

Here's some of the progress thus far:

Homeschooling 2 high schoolers and one jr. higher...leaves me not much time for extra stuff like this :) SOOOO...here I am at 11:00 p.m. cutting out mittens :) Yes indeed, it's that time of year! :)

This is my 6th year doing this. I started making these mittens as a response to a **mistake** of washing/drying a cute wool sweater--I didn't want to get rid of it so I looked for ideas of what to do with it...and love them!!

So--how are they made? I take shrunken wool sweaters and I buy fleece at the fabric store when it's on crazy sales (I used to recycle fleece, but find that I like the new fleece better to work with and I think it feels better). I found a pattern online made of 3 pieces (I think maybe this was my first pattern (THIS) ) The difference is that I add a cuff which I cut off of the wrist or waist of the sweaters.

It's a pretty easy project, but they do well at craft fairs! I guess I'd better get sewing!

(((Here's the other idea I used last year, not sure if I'll make them again this year, but I DO like them! :) )))