Monday, February 21, 2011

Valentine's Cold Process Soap

This soap used a blend of olive oil (55%), coconut oil (31%) and cocoa butter (14%). I added rhassoul clay (about 1 tablespoon per pound of oil) and a blend of lemon, peppermint and lavender essential oils and a bit of rosemary oleoresin. I used a heart-shaped silicone mold. It smells very nice, but it will need to cure for a few weeks before I can test it out. This is my first batch of soap since moving to California so I'm feeling a bit rusty. I'm looking forward to trying it!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Meet Huntington

On Christmas Eve 2010 Tom and I adopted a kitten from our local vet, TLC in South Pasadena. They sometimes have kittens available that staff members have fostered or when shelters have an overflow. We met each of the five kittens they had at the time, and decided to adopt a 6-month old cream tabby male. Because his fur is the color of sand on a California beach, we decided to name him Huntington, largely after Huntington Beach (where all the surfers hang out) but also because when we first met him he was on Huntington Drive. We often shorten his name to Hunter.

As you can see he made himself quite at home.

Because we already had a nearly 5-year-old cat, Rusty, at home, we did a very slow introduction over the course of several weeks. Rusty had been getting lonely as the only cat in the house (up until a few months before Hunter's adoption, we were a three-cat household). Although he doesn't always appreciate Hunter's energy level, Rusty's mood has generally improved since getting another feline companion. Here are a few photos of the two of them together.




Monday, February 14, 2011

Daffodils in February




These lovely daffodils actually started blooming in our Los Angeles yard in January, but I just got around to taking photos the other day. As a native Midwesterner, it is hard for me to grasp daffodils blooming this early in the year!